DweezelJazz Art Blog

Jasmine's Story

2009-02-17T08:55:00.015Z

Jasmine is an african grey parrot. She lived with us for 18 months. We met her in the pet section of a garden center, where she had been for over 6 months. My husband was looking for pots for his cacti. We ended up going to the garden center several times over a time period of about a month. While Tony was looking for pots I wandered into the pet section and saw Jazzy. Every time we went to the center I went to say hello to her and we ended up friends. She loved having her head scratched and whistled after me if I walked away from her cage. It didn’t take long before I couldn’t stop thinking about her, and of course the inevitable happened: we invited her to live with us.

She was scared of almost everything when she first came to live with us. She scratched all the time behind her neck and her feathers were very sparse in that region. She didn’t want any hand contact and absolutely didn’t want to come out of her cage. Gradually over the next weeks, by giving her loads of attention and treating her with a lot of respect, she relaxed. She turned out to be a very brave, incredibly sweet and extremely adventurous, outgoing character with tremendous intelligence.

Living with Jasmine was a real privilege. She taught us much more the meaning of respect and the art of communication. But most of all she showed us how to live each moment for itself, enjoying life to the full (and banana) and how to give a great deal of love. You can read about her antics and adventures in the posts shown below.

Jazzy continued to scratch behind her neck, but she improved greatly during the first 6 months or so that she lived with us. She gained weight, her feathers turned glossy, she became well-muscled from flying around the house, the pink colors in her tummy feathers became brighter and the red in her tail became brilliant.

We lived in an apartment and circumstances around us changed over time. Laundry detergents and fabric softeners have become increasingly perfumed, more antibacterial products are being used everywhere and in higher concentrations. Our apartment shared airflow with at least 8-15 other apartments, and these cleaning products became mixed creating even further toxic substances. Birds are much more sensitive to perfumes, cleaning agents and pollution.

Jazzy was already very compromised when we got her from the garden center, where they admitted using very strong chemicals to clean the other animal’s living quarters. She was placed close to very strong insecticides that were displayed for sale and many of the visitors to the center wear strong perfumes.

When the air quality in our apartment noticeably became worse, Jasmine started to scratch much more frequently. We bought 5 large air filters and a smaller more portable one that could be lifted off the ground. Jasmine improved dramatically when we got these.

During the summer, the problem became even worse as fumes came out of other people’s apartment windows and directly into our apartment. The shared hallway stairs were cleaned three times a week with highly concentrated perfumed antibacterial detergent; the stairwell had no proper ventilation because the windows were kept closed. We wanted to move, but were financially committed to staying where we were at the time.

Jazzy and I spent the entire summer up in the Jura foothills. She had a backpack cage and we walked miles and miles last summer so that she would get fresh air as much as possible. As the summer progressed, Jazzy grew worse and worse with scratching, until finally she started to pull out feathers and then eventually create sores on her skin with scratching.

We did all sorts of things to try to help Jasmine. She was taking medication during the last part of summer to help with the irritation. She had a full check-up and blood work and the results showed her to be a very healthy, fit young girl. The vet was quite clear that she was allergic to perfumes and cleaning agents.

We finally managed to find a place that would provide a better environment and we moved in during the last few days of September 2008. By this time it was practically impossible to distract from her scratching and picking, and the only relief we could give her was in the shower. Her skin was raw and extremely sore. She was in a lot of pain and her misery during the last couple of days she was alive prevented her from enjoying life.

It’s a very long rehabilitation for a bird who has picked its feathers and skin to that extent. The standard practice is to give the bird medicine and put a neck collar on so that the bird can’t pick. This is like putting a human in a straight jacket. And if the skin still itches, the torment would remain, even if the bird couldn’t reach those places to scratch. This discomfort would be reasonable in order to get past the feather picking, but unless the source of the problem could also be removed the scratching and feather pulling would simply resume.

Our new residence is a huge improvement in air quality from where we were, but we still connect to other living spaces in a converted farmhouse. There is a laundry room in the basement with washing machines and a dryer. The dryer releases incredibly strong fumes of fabric softener and perfumes from the laundry detergent; unfortunately these come up through our shared vents and our front door opens into a set of outdoor stairs that lead down to the laundry room. As it turns out we couldn’t have provided Jazzy with a safe living space even here.

We considered giving her to someone else, but we don’t know anyone who doesn’t use perfumes and standard cleaning agents. We tried to arrange for her to go to the United States to a friend who we knew would take care of her, but she didn’t have the correct CITES papers, and the U.S. is not accepting birds from our area of France because of the implications of bird flu. Even if we could have arranged a room in isolation with a good environment for Jazzy with someone else - well, Jazzy was all about interaction, that was life to her. She loved people and she loved being with them. To isolate her would have been cruel.

Enjoying life was what Jazzy was all about, and we couldn’t bear to watch her suffer. When she deteriorated so much that it was clear she was suffering more than she was enjoying, we decided to let her go free. It hurt, and still hurts, more than anything else in life has ever hurt, but now she flies free.

She’s still a very important part of our lives; we talk about her every day, she’s part of our banter, we’re always including snippets of things the way she said them. She still makes us laugh and smile.

I tell her story here so that those who have parrots can perhaps be more aware of possible causes if their parrot displays scratching, feather picking or even loud irritable behavior. Birds are smaller, and therefore much more sensitive than we are to these things, but we too are affected by them, and it’s worth assessing what products are routinely used in the home and the effects they may have on ourselves and those we love.

Jasmine would have been three years old in November. She passed away on October 3rd, 2008. Her life was packed with fun and joy, though she should have lived to be somewhere between 60 to a 100 years old.

She spread a lot of joy to those she met, and she met loads of people during her short life. I hope that her story can be told as much as possible so that it may spread more goodness in a world that really needs it.

Jasmine was, and still is, mascot to DweezelJazz Art.

All the articles about Jazzy and her fun times are accessible by scrolling down this page. The article titles are also shown in the list below, so if you want to look at one of them in particular, click on the article name to go right to it.

If you prefer to see all of the above posts on the same page, click the following link. The articles appear on the page in reverse time order, as is usual for blogs:

All of Jasmine's Adventures (ie. all of the above posts displayed on one page in reverse order)

Snow and Deer in the Jura

2009-02-12T15:38:00.008Z

A couple of evenings ago I noticed a few deer running down from the hills. This is a real event here because the deer are totally wild and wary of any human encounters - they are hunted here during the hunting season, unlike those around Shannon's town. You can see lots about deer in Shannon's blog "Chipper's Alley". I grabbed the camera and ran to the upstairs window.
There were three deer. Two of them were circling one another and playing in the snow, dashing here and there. The third hung back.

After jumping and generally horsing, or maybe I should say deering, around the two playful deer stopped and looked at one another. They moved closer.

Then, it seemed it was time to move on again, and all three made their way into the next set of trees and out of sight.

Yesterday afternoon the sun came out and we went for a quick walk up the hill.

We saw lots of tracks, some clearly made by dogs, other that seemed to be made by deer and then this set, which we see very often. We're guessing they're made by a fox (we have seen a fox a few times near our place). Do you know what kind of tracks they are? I didn't think to add something for reference of scale, but they're a fairly small size.

We were the first ones to take the path up the hill, and it was so satisfying to trundle through pristine untrodden snow.

I was wearing ski pants, leaving me at total liberty to lie down and roll in it! I always wanted to lay in a cloud... this is the next best thing. We had five inches of snow this morning and afterwards the sun came out even more gloriously than yesterday. The snow is so powdery and light that when we tried to make a snowman it wouldn't adhere and we ended up with a very crumbly stalactite (oops, I actually mean) stalagmite.

We're having loads of fun in the snow and the views are beautiful!

Unexpected Development

2009-02-05T16:57:00.011Z

One thing led to another and I'm finding myself in completely new creative territory. It started when I realized I wanted more life, more spark, in my paintings.

I decided I needed to do loads of sketches, learn about perspective in depth, and find a fluency with drawing rapidly, to capture those values that hide in the subconscious so I could successfully accentuate and emphasize what I find important in an image. I've learned that too much premeditation or too great an accuracy in portraying many details can dampen the spirit of a drawing, painting, or whatever form of creative expression it is.

I've been doing sketches with pencil on paper. A week or so ago, just before I created the sketches in the last blog post, "A Couple of Sketches In A New Vein", I decided to try drawing in Adobe Photoshop. I drew a simple doodle cartoon, and it was such a pleasant experience I decided to try painting and sketching in Photoshop. The Jura mountains with snow on them, in the last post, was my first result. And I enjoyed doing it more than anything I'd done so far, and I have enjoyed my artwork before that too!

So I decided I'd do my sketching using Photoshop. What was most freeing about it was the fact that I wasn't using valuable paper or paint (which can be quite costly and I hate using valuable earth resources when there is an alternative). This allowed me to start whatever I wanted, not caring what would happen if it failed or wasn't useful as a result. This was extremely liberating. It seemed a great way to experiment and learn the fluency in drawing and styles of painting that I'm looking for.

My second sketch in Photoshop was the portrait of Virginia Woolfe. It's just like working with pencil and paper, except that the paper is replaced with a smooth Wacom tablet. I'm enjoying it so very much that I've decided to continue working in Photoshop to do my painting. I have tonnes to learn of course.

I've learned that tracing an image and then painting it in makes the resulting painting lifeless; painting really does require emphasis of elements that the artist finds interesting and charming. So, even though the computer does provide a perfect medium for producing quick art through tracing and manipulating, I prefer to continue to learn and develop the fundamentals of producing art the 'traditional' way, but to apply these in digital painting using the computer as my medium.

This is my third exploration in digital painting. For reference I used a photo that we took on a walk with Jasmine, our beautiful african grey parrot, one evening up in the mountains. If you'd like to see photos of that walk: see previous post, "An Evening Walk At La Col De La Faucille, Jura, France".

Tony and I have called this painting "Jazzy Jura Sunset". You can click on it to see it larger.

The real advantage to using Photoshop is that I can explore all sorts of ways of painting. I have asthma and so I experience difficulties breathing if I use many of the art mediums traditionally available. But I love brilliant colors and soft colors, and well, just colors. I chose egg tempera because it was brighter than watercolor and didn't cause any breathing difficulties when I used it. All of those considerations vanish with digital painting because it's so versatile.

I'm very much a beginner, but experimenting further with it this, here is the next one I painted.

The photo I used for reference was taken on one of our trips to the market on a Saturday (yes, of course, Jasmine was with us). This little jaunt is described in the post "Sugar Cube Cartoon".

This is one area of experimentation I'm involved in right now and there are a number of other areas I'm branching out in at the same time. I'll talk about those in other posts. My hope is to put them all together and make something of them. I have no idea if I'll succeed in that, and it sure is scary even discussing it here, in case I don't... but then, when life presents the possiblity of chasing a dream it's a very precious opportunity... so here goes.

Hopefully everyone gets a chance at some point to follow their magic. I hope you do too. I'd love to hear about the things that bring the beauty of life to you.

A Couple Of Sketches In A New Vein

2009-01-27T17:35:00.011Z

'Thank you' are the words that keep coming from my mind and heart today: thank you to my dear friends who visit this blog and do me the honor of reading it, and thank you for your encouragement and love. You have made this a very special moment in my life.

I mentioned that I've been doing a lot of thinking and rethinking about how it's possible to look at things and how to illustrate feeling. I looked at the artwork I'd done so far, and it just didn't capture the movement, joy and magic that I find special in life. So... thanks mainly to a fantastic book, called "The Illusion of Life" by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, I have come to understand that the flow and movement in a piece of art can be effectively conveyed when the lines aren't too precise and detail is not the prime objective.

In fact, detail can in some cases even remove the magic that we're accustomed to putting in ourselves. Our eye-brain connection does a lot, that we may not be consciously aware of, which apparently gives us pleasure as we fill in details we don't necessarily see with our eyes. If that opportunity is taken away by providing excessive detail in a painting it can eliminate some of the charm we experience and make the scene appear more static.

Anyway, I'm not explaining it very well, but my previous awareness of what I thought was important in art has been turned upside down by that great book (which my loving Mum-in-law gave me for Christmas!). I've never been so excited with a prezzie since I was a kid.

Here are a couple of sketches I did in the last couple of days - totally different from anything I've ever done before and a whole great deal more fun too! The one above is a view of the Jura mountains. And below is a sketch based on a photo of Virgina Woolf I found in a biology book. I had heard of Virginia Woolf's excellent writing (though I haven't read any, having had a less than stellar introduction to early 20th century writers in high school), but I had no idea how pretty she was.

These are the latest in the beginning of a new adventure. I have some ideas what I might like to do with the art, but it seems best for now to take each day as it comes and see what evolves.

New Beginnings

2009-01-23T13:35:00.008Z

I haven't posted much lately. Sometimes it seems necessary to absorb and process events, and these last months have been like that for me. Our new home is surrounded by amazing beauty and tranquility, with nature abounding everywhere in full view of our windows.

This is the little mountain (the one in the foreground of the picture above), which we call 'Mt. Woofy', where Jazzy and I spent last summer together. Our loss of Jazzy, in spite of all our efforts, in spite that I promised her I'd protect her - well, it shows just how little we truly are. We can't promise anyone anything except our love and our very best effort, the rest is the whim of life. It's a hard, bitter lesson to know that ultimately we're constrained, either by our own shortcomings, our ignorance, or just simply by circumstances and sometimes silly, unnecessary things, that could in theory be changed so easily but are not.

No matter how hard we try, how perfect we might strive to become, there will always be the mystery and unknown of the future. This mystery can bring sorrow, but it can also bring surprise and depths of interest and intrigue we probably couldn't invent.

Taking advantage of the excitement of the unknown, I've been exploring new ways to create art. I've been experimenting with new ideas and ways of looking at things, delving into what it is I really want in an image; turning my old values upside down and inside out to discover new ways to express and to draw and paint. It's exciting, and daunting. I haven't found my way with the art yet, there's a lot to learn, but I'm moving closer.

I love stories, movement and above all a sweetness, that includes beauty, nobility, respect, and the innocence of goodness. These are the things that Jazzy brought into our lives. I'm experimenting with writing stories and I want my art to include elements of stories. I don't yet know how much. I think I also want them to include a character or personality of some kind to give expression to sheer joy, fun and mischief. In order to have more freedom of expression with my drawing and painting I need to learn a whole lot more, and that's what I'm working on now.

I want to communicate through my art the magic and wonder of sharing being alive, with love, vibrant and frivolous with the expectation of fun and joy. That's what was important to Jazzy (along with apple and banana!) and that's why everyone who came near her loved being around her.

No matter how much I deliberate on it, I come back to the conclusion that what I think is important in life is living with wonder, joy, and fun, even in the face of fear and the unknown. This is my best conclusion, but I'm always interested in new ideas, new ways of looking at things. Do you have a different take on life and what's important to you? I'd love to hear your views.

Merry Christmas and A Good New Year

2008-12-12T14:52:00.006Z

Wishing all of you a very happy Christmas and a New Year bringing many good things to you. Thank you for coming to DweezelJazz blog and for sharing your thoughts and cheer this past year.
We keep a large photo of Jazzy in front of the tv until, of course, we want to watch a movie. I put up our rather unique Christmas display without thinking about it very much and then when I took this photo I saw that Jazzy ended up right in the middle of the festive decorations. Yes, well that's definitely Jazzy's way - to be right in the center of all the action!

And one new thing that has happened recently is that Tony, aka 'Snoopers', has started a blog called "Song For Jasmine". He's making it available in both English and French - by clicking the corresponding flag on the page the whole blog turns into the appropriate language. Cool or what? There are a few posts there already. Tony described his blog as being inspired by Jazzy and the fact that she was harmed by the chemical products used in our society, resulting in her losing her life before she reached the age of three. He says he wants to share beautiful things he's seen in nature, science and life, and to explore ways in which we can, as individuals, help to preserve the world around us and the precious beings in it. To read more, click this link to "Song For Jasmine".

best wishes for the holiday season,
DweezelJazz

Song for Jasmine

2008-10-19T15:39:00.008+01:00

On Friday October 3rd at 16:40 CEST, our little Jasmine left her suffering behind. Although her body has gone, she has not left our lives, so I will not speak of her in the past tense.

Jasmine is our African Grey, 'Psittacus Erithacus' to give her latin name. Jasmine doesn't speak latin, she speaks French and English. Her names, to her, are Jasmine, Jazzy-roo, and Jazzy-rooster-roo. Somehow her name just kept getting longer when we called to her, but she knows them all.

Shannon, of Chippers Alley, has already penned a beautiful tribute to Jasmine. Thank you Shannon, we couldn't have put it better. Jasmine loves Shannon as much as she loves us, and always looked forward to her visits. Between visits, Jasmine enjoys talking to Shannon on the phone, and calls to her by name.

Jasmine calls 'Snuggles' (a.k.a. Dweezeljazz) by name too, often just for the fun of laughing when she gets her reply. The only other person she calls by name is me, but she thinks my name is 'hell-OOO-ooo!'. It can be difficult to get my attention when I'm engrossed in something, you often need to shout. Jasmine also knows that when Dweezeljazz calls for 'Snoopers!', the correct response is 'uh-huh?'. Oh well, that about sums me up.

Shannon and Nat both have a lot of experience at handling birds, so Jasmine enjoys playing 'gotchas' and receiving headrubs from them. She also loves having her tummy tickled, as you can see.

I haven't got the hang of that, but I have learned to sing to her. I have lots of little songs for all occasions. They're all silly and stupid, and the words change from time to time because I forget them, but for all my off-key efforts, Jasmine loves them.

I have a little song for the morning, to let her know that it's time to wake up, so she won't be startled when I lift the covers from her night-cage.

I have a song for when we play 'flicksies' in the shower, when I flick water over her while she leans down from the shower-curtain rail to catch the drops.

Then there's the 'hupsy-daisy' song for the end of the shower, when she hops over the shower-curtain rings as I draw it back to step out. She has to hop over the rings before I finish the song, and she always wins.

Another special song is 'birdie-birdie bed-time', when we tuck her in to sleep at night. She always gives us a good-night kiss after that one.

The liveliest of all, however, has to be 'it's the wEEkend!'. She often dances to that one, and always gets very excited.

At other times, any excuse will do to make up a song. In her cage, on her playstation, on my knee, or in a cafe in town, she's a willing listener. Provided it isn't too long, vaguely rhymes, and has her names in it somewhere, she loves it. With that many names to choose from, it's not difficult to come up with something.

I'm still singing to her now, and I always will. She put those songs in my heart and that's where they belong. Thank you, Jazzy-roo.

Our Sweet Jasmine

2008-10-10T10:50:00.010+01:00

It has been one week now. Our little Jasmine was beginning to suffer too much and we had to let her go. My friend Shannon knew Jasmine well and she has written a beautiful tribute to Jasmine in a way that I cannot find words to do. If you have time please read Shannon's tribute: Fly Free, Jazzy!.

We were unable to provide a clean enough air environment - it was filled with home cleaning products entering our air space from neighboring apartments. She was a healthy, robust girl - but she couldn't breathe the contaminated air we're making around us. I'm angry, I'm sad, I could rant about how stupid we human beings are. But at the same time, I feel sorry for all the pain and sorrow that will come to us from our lack of awareness. Most of all, it's the hollow of grief left from the loss of a very loving being who is no longer physically in our midst - and for a very pointless reason.

Jasmine was a vibrant, fun-loving little girl. She had her own mind and knew what she liked and she went at life wholeheartedly, enjoying every moment of it. She spread joy and love to just about everyone she met, and meeting people was the absolute highlight of her life (along with banana, of course).

We went to the market last Saturday and she was missed. A little boy in the cafe came running up looking to say hello to her; her friends at the roast chicken stall always enjoyed seeing her each week...

She would always listen and look up adoringly as Tony spoke to her, absorbing each word he said.

She joined in on any activity...
and helped things along in whatever way she thought would be fun...
and she loved to play.
She asked to go out: for a walk or to go shopping. Every time we would go to the bio store for our weekly shopping, if we occasionally had to leave Jazzy at home, everyone would ask where she was. We haven't gone this week...we'd rather make do with the food we have left this week than face feeling the pain of not having her with us there.

She loved loafing around on her playstation, being silly, having fun, playing......watching to see what new toy configurations we would think up for her to play with next.She loved being mischievous to get our attention, that's what she wanted most, our attention to play and have fun.
She always had loads of fun when we were out, and so did we. And she was ever eager to try new things.

She made us laugh so easily, and so often - she spread her joy, that was what she did best.

Enthusiasm is also a good word to describe Jazzy. Zest for life.

And of course, beauty.
Jasmine would have turned three at the beginning of this November, in just a couple of weeks' time. She already had a huge vocabulary. I've been writing down all the things she said. She made up her own sentences and they made sense. She spoke her own mind, she didn't just copy or imitate, though she did enjoy doing that too, in its place. She had a personality plus.

We miss her, always there, always full of cheer. And when we think of her now, we try to hold that cheer and love and joy that she gave us. Hopefully time will help us with our feelings of loss.

As she said herself: "Beautiful Jasmine!"

Restaurant Warmth

2008-09-19T10:43:00.001+01:00

Occasionally we stop at a restaurant, called the Piatto d'Oro, in Geneva, Switzerland that's very close to the airport. It has a large outdoor terrace which is nice in summer - although you can almost touch the planes as they go overhead to land.

I love warm bright restaurant and cafe scenes; I'm thinking to paint this one day since it's so heart-warming.

We went some time ago and it was too cold to sit on the terrace. The inside is very nicely decorated. Here's a photo showing a small part of it that I think is really neat.

Next door to the restaurant is a house with a pretty garden full of flowers. Along the curb where cars park for the restaurant were these.

The Charm of Wisteria

2008-09-11T06:04:00.007+01:00

Wisteria seems to grow well in the Geneva area and surrounds. It adorns many homes, providing color, beauty and shade.

Wisteria in the Parc des Bastions in Geneva, Switzerland, makes this wall even more interesting.

The way the vines spread out enhances the flowing shape and accessibility of the flowers.

The purple flowers hang like bunches of sparkling grapes.

In Annecy, France, there is a magnificent white wisteria vine on one of the buildings along the canal.

Looking at it from the other side you can see that it has grown up three balcony levels.

It's massive with flowers covering the wall almost entirely.

It gives the same fairy-like quality that Art Nouveau can give. I love the way the reflections of the water from the canal play with the white flowers.
The trunk almost gives the impression of having a living being hidden within it, perhaps a fairy that emerges when we're not looking. Whatever, it certainly has character and seems to speak of something old.

The vines knot together, making it appear to be one whole trunk.

Looking up through the blossoms gives the ultimate view of its delicate finery.

The Way In Which We're Changing Our World

2008-09-01T14:12:00.016+01:00

I spend a lot of time thinking about how our world is changing and what we, as the human race and dominant animal on our planet, are doing to our environment and ourselves. My mind goes round and round wondering how it is that we can continue in behavior that clearly does us harm. There are all sorts of examples of this, both obvious ones and not so obvious ones. We can become addicted to all sorts of behavior, substances and even emotional circumstances. The question is why?

Most people are well-meaning, considerate and wouldn't intentionally hurt others. But it seems the truth is, we're not being alerted to certain conditions quickly enough to trigger a healthy response to ensure ourselves a better future. Today someone sent me a video entitled: "Why haven’t we rallied our collective power to solve global warming?", and it happens to cover this very question and seems to provide an answer to this query.

I don't usually link to videos because they can often take more time than a person might want to give. Here is the choice of listening to the well-prepared talk by Dan Gilbert in video format, or a shorter summary in print. (The print version includes a reference in the title which I would not personally use as an example in today's world as something offensive to the general public's morality and I don't wish to offend anyone by linking to this. But if taken as simply an illustration that can be replaced by something that is offensive to the reader, then the point being made remains apparent.) I do recommend watching the video talk if you can spare the time - it's about 14 minutes long.

If I understood it correctly, Dan Gilbert, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, is saying that because our brains aren't wired to pick up gradual, impersonal changes we don't vividly compute such changes as an immediate threat even though they may be tremendously dangerous to us in the future.

I've always thought that if every breath I take didn't hurt (it doesn't hurt when I'm in pristine country air) I too would completely forget about global warming, pollution, the overuse of chemicals, cleaning products, laundry products, fabric softeners and perfumes. But each breath racks the lungs with burning pain and the brain with the continual question: why?

I remember how vibrantly blue the sky looked against a beautifully crisp green tree when I looked up as a teenager. I remember specifically telling myself to always remember that snapshot view because it was so fantastic. And today these truly brilliant colors of nature around us can still be seen, but only rarely and on especially clear days. And I wonder how we can forget what our world was not so very long ago and how we can tolerate it...and I'm not that old!

And then when I watch a beautiful bird, an African Grey, scratch and fleece herself of her feathers in very specific spots and become lethargic and dull, as a result of being poisoned in that same chemically poisonous atmosphere, my cry of anguish and the question "why?" becomes even more excruciating. Previous post "Jasmine and Her Continuing Tousle With Air Quality" gives the background to this, if you're not familiar with Jasmine.

Somehow I feel better with the understanding that Dan Gilbert's talk gives. I knew it wasn't malice on our part as human beings, but it seemed so inexplicable and has been perplexing me for some time. Hopefully soon we can show our intelligence on a large scale, to save the beauty of our planet, ourselves and the other living beings we share it with, both microscopically tiny and large. I hope it answers something for you too. Cheers.

Living Mountains, Jura, France

2008-09-01T09:08:00.003+01:00

Mountains are made up of a myriad of living entities. It's only reasonable that as a conglomerate they would appear to be living, almost breathing beings themselves. Every time you look at them, they appear slightly different.

Sometimes the moon adorns their hillsides in the morning hours.

Clouds appear to play with the trees, dipping down to touch them.

They lay down gently covering them like a blanket.

And in the evening, the cloud can look like it's bubbling over the edge of the peaks......like a chemistry experiment with froth slipping over the edge of a beaker.

Or maybe it's like a duvet, covering all the mountain and its inhabitants softly and safely for the night.

Portrait of a Horse In Egg Tempera

2008-08-22T14:08:00.024+01:00

On our many walks this summer Jasmine (our African Grey parrot) and I met a very nice horse. At the beginning of summer she was out in a field close to the road and that's when we met. I took a photo and it resulted in this 12 x 16 " portrait egg tempera painting.
During the heat of the summer the horse literally had a house all to herself so far as I could tell. In this photo she's standing in the doorway, but could retreat inside to stay cool and away from the flies. Jazzy and I would call and whistle from the road just to say hello as we walked by.A couple of weeks ago, when it got cooler, our friend was back out in the field near the road. She rushed over to say hello and be petted. It was so nice finally to be able to say hello properly. And of course, another photo session was in order.
Even Jazzy liked her and was saying hello and chatting. When the horse turned away for a moment Jazzy did her hawk call imperso- nation (for the first time outdoors). Hearing this, the horse jerked up her head and looked round, not suspecting that it could be that little prankster Jasmine.

She's absolutely beautiful, and huge!
But even though the horse towers over me, she's extremely gentle and very sweet. This delicacy and sweetness is so striking that I think of her as 'Daisy'.

Summer Clouds in the Geneva Valley

2008-08-18T15:55:00.004+01:00

The cloud scenery in the Geneva valley is totally spectacular and ever-changing. Sometimes it looks like the clouds have exploded.

On the way into Geneva I took this photograph from inside the bus.About an hour or two later I returned to find the cloud like this.Clouds like these can be seen bubbling on hot summer afternoons. They either develop into dramatic thunder and lightning rainstorms or evaporate in a quiet puff.

The clouds seem to come over the Jura mountains in waves.

Sometimes the cloud wave is big and seems completely continuous; it feels like it's going to keep flowing until it has engulfed everything below it.

At other times the clouds appear in discontinuous strips, popping over the mountains one by one.

The most impressive funneling effect I've seen was looking out the window one evening recently to see this.

Jasmine Chomping Vegies In The Kitchen

2008-08-15T09:00:00.008+01:00

The weekend before last Jasmine decided to help herself to the cucumber that was sitting on the counter. She often gets cucumber in her 'vegie bowl' in her cage and she likes it very much. But she decided she'd like to chomp right into the whole thing.
So then we gave her a large piece of fennel to chew on. She likes fennel very much too and so this was great fun for her.

I took a number of shots to show Jazzy holding the fennel in her hand, but every time I took the photo she had put it down again.

The photos that came out look almost like Jazzy's having a yoga stretching session or something.

Here she is holding the fennel up.

And now she looks like she's waiting for a bus, just leaning over, but as you can see she has fennel in her beak.
Jazzy also loves carrot, she especially likes cooked carrot that's still slightly crisp to the bite. This however, is raw carrot, which she also gets regularly in her vegie bowl.
And now, well, who knows what she was up to... perhaps she was thinking: 'Anyone fancy some chips?' (This is a famous line in our family. It's from the movie "Calendar Girls" - one of the girls during an exercising stretching session says this in perfect timing and everyone immediately abandons the stretching to go get some chips. If you haven't seen this movie I thoroughly recommend it for a really good laugh and good time - based on a true story.)
Oh yes, Jazzy does watch movies and she has seen this one!

Amazing Geneva Flowerbeds, Switzerland

2008-08-14T11:45:00.003+01:00

The flowerbeds in Geneva are incredible displays.

You can see row after row of flowers walking down the promenade along the Lac Leman.

There are many colors: yellow...

...red...

and even purple.

Looking closer at the flowers shows the detail in arrangement is carefully considered.

Each individual flower gives an even greater sense of wonder.

At first sight just an overall stream of the primary color in the flowerbed is seen. But in fact there are many other colors dotted around in them.

The insides of flowers also offer an amazing variety of colors and patterns.

It's like looking at a flower arrangement you might see on a magnificent, luxurious dinner table - well, maybe that'd be more convincing if you can imagine these in a vase.The texture and color variations seen in the flowers close up is exquisite. On perhaps a more practical note: it's very striking that there aren't any insects to be seen on these flowers. In the mountains I've been fascinated to see hordes of insects everywhere and it's almost impossible to take a photo of a flower without at least finding one insect, if not many.
This flower looks like it's made out of crepe paper. The minute details in every flower shows how much wonder there is to be found in even a small object.

In the background is the promenade and in the distance can be seen moored yachts and the Geneva town-front.

Mixed in with the taller flowers are arrays of small and yet very beautiful flowers.

Landscape artists must have so much to think about when they arrange their plants - height, color, patterns, variation. And then I guess they have to consider how it will change with time of its own accord.

Looking out over the tops of the flowerbeds...

...there is the expanse of the lake.
Looking back towards the street hotels and apartments can be seen.

The flowers stand proudly against a backdrop of the town...
...drawing the eye along the lines of their beauty.

Walking in the Pays de Gex, France

2008-08-12T09:03:00.002+01:00

The Pays de Gex is an extraordinarily beautiful place. Walking, almost anywhere you care to choose will lead you to something exciting to see. Even when walking the same places repeatedly there is always something new and breathtaking. On clear days it's possible to look across the valley to see the majesty of Mont Blanc.There are quaint villages nestled in the hills, visible across picturesque fields.

Large numbers of hawks have come down from the mountains to hunt among the harvested fields.

I love to hear their high pitched cries as they circle above. Jazzy (our African Grey parrot) has learned how to imitate these cries perfectly and she does them at home.

Very often their presence causes consternation among the smaller birds, who take it in turns to circle their nests in an attempt to ward off these predators.

Sometimes they circle the same area in pairs and they perform all sorts of mutual manouevres, but it's not clear to me whether they are friendly or in competition.

The public county flowerbeds are very colorful and often elaborate arrangements. Here's one out on a country road.

There are so many critters to meet out along the road - all sorts of characters. This horse has been named "Woofy" by our family, and we call the road he lives on "Woofy Way".
There are loads of pretty flowers too. Here are a pair of so-called weeds, but they sure are lovely.

The cows almost always stare and sometimes glare as you pass by. They're always accompanied by the tinkling sound of the bells hanging round their necks.

This fella, or gal, looks so cute and fuzzy.
There are so many insects - too many to count. And many of them are surprisingly beautiful and even colorful. Some aren't to my liking at all - I'm not big on being close and personal with buglife, even though I know they're vitally important to have around.Here's a bee going about his business. It's great to see bees out and about.

A horse lives in this house. We met while he was in a field close to the road when it was cooler back in the Spring. I'm actually currently working on painting his portrait. But now he's staying cool in his house as far away from the flies as he can get.
Here are some geese that were hanging out under this tractor. Just after I took this photo a couple of them went and stuck their heads in the bucket you can see on the right, splashing water everywhere and making a great honking racket.
There are huge fields of sunflowers all around the Pays de Gex, and so here and there are stray sunflowers brightening the landscape even more. This is one I found in a cleared lot - a place where very likely soon will be built a new house.

Everywhere there are amazing scenes and things to look at.

Whispering Corn Fields In Mourex, Ain, France

2008-08-08T07:57:00.001+01:00

We went somewhere different for a picnic on Saturday; we sat amongst the corn fields. Everywhere the corn is growing tall and it's very pretty to see.

We can almost measure the passing of the summer days by their height. It's interesting to see how the corn that's planted in more shady spots grows much more slowly than those that are in direct sunlight for most of the day.

It was a beautiful day, as you can see from the sillouette of the corn against the sky.

The greens are fantastic especially in contrast with the touches of red.

Plants are fascinating - it always seems to me that if they could walk around (I guess I read "Day of the Triffids" at an impressionable age!) they would be even more spectacular.
As it is, I find them somewhat intimidating - they may not walk, but they do move. And sometimes they move a considerable distance either by growing or when they follow the movement of the sun. They do so much right before our eyes and yet we don't usually perceive them to be moving at all. And if they can do that, it makes me wonder what they do when we're not looking at all.We had a nice picnic, listening to the breeze rustling among the corn stalks - or was that the plants really whispering to one another?

Drinking Butterfly

2008-08-04T11:40:00.005+01:00

There are many varieties of butterfly in the Jura mountains - all manner of colors, patterns and sizes. I spent a while recently with one butterfly as it went from one flower to another.
He (or she) moved purposefully dipping his proboscis to drink the nectar from the flowers.
The wings moved constantly,...
...alternately folding and opening afterwards to display their full glory.

This butterfly must have had a tousle because part of the wing was actually missing as you can see in this photo.
All the same, he's still amazingly beautiful.

A Sunset Painting In Egg Tempera

2008-07-31T16:11:00.008+01:00

I completed the latest egg tempera painting today: it's called "Sunset In The French Alps".

This painting is 8.5 x 24 inches and it's based on a reference photo taken by my best friend while she was visiting with us here in France. There's a bit of a fun story behind the reference photo. We had gone to Annecy for the day and had eaten our customary special banana and chocolate crepe there of course.

We were returning by car to the Geneva valley when we saw a fantastic sunset to our left. Looking across the meadows, it looks almost like you'd expect of a desert scene. But what was rather funny was that my best friend was sitting in the front seat taking pot shots out of the windows, pointing the camera here and there. I declared that the sunset was a must catch. We all agreed.

It was clear from her comments that things were not going well at all on the photo-taking front. The car was moving, the light was changing and so far no appropriate photo had been captured. And so we started making frantic, all too enthusiastic suggestions about where to point the camera and how - well, isn't this the kind of treatment best friends expect?

We had a great time, with all the commotion in the car over this photo session. And the result was a fantastic series of photographs, one of which inspired this painting, which reminds me of the generosity and loveliness of my best friend.

Jasmine and Her Continuing Tousle With Air Quality

2008-07-21T11:16:00.018+01:00

I'm spending much of many of my days up our local mountains carrying Jasmine, our African Grey parrot, in her backpack travel cage. As the temperature increases here during the summer, the air quality in the local environment of our apartment and its surrounds continues to worsen.When we got Jazzy at the local pet store she already frequently scratched herself around her neck, resulting in patches where feathers were removed by her scratching. She improved enormously when she first came to live with us. Since then we moved to another apartment and our environment has become increasingly filled with strongly perfumed cleaning agents, laundry detergents, fabric softeners, aerosol spray products, insecticides, cosmetics and perfumes that are universally used. We're unable to keep these out of our apartment and even the apartment block grounds smell strongly of a mixture of the many products emanating from people's apartments.

When at home: my eyes sting, skin itches, it's hard to breathe, and many other things too boring to list here. I watch myself losing a battle to keep ahead of these symptoms. I watch my husband developing increasing 'allergy' symptoms when he's around strongly scented products. Almost everyone we meet claims they have, or someone in their family has, allergies, asthma, headaches, rashes. But most heart-wrenching of all, I watch our little Jasmine, scratching, and since some weeks now, actually pulling out her feathers.

When we got Jasmine I had no idea that we would encounter such problems with her, especially since, due to chemical injury as a child, I'm unable to use strong chemical agents and so we have none used or directly present in our home. It turns out that she has become the 'canary' in our apartment 'coal mine'.
She still sings, chats, laughs, plays and is happy, but her skin is irritated. When I take her out to the fresh air in the mountains all this scratching and fussing stops. But if we meet someone who smells of fabric softener in their clothes, or who is wearing perfume, or uses strongly scented cosmetics, she immediately starts scratching furiously.

We're unable to move from where we live right now. We've bought more large, powerful air filters designed to remove chemicals from the air. They certainly help, and without them Jasmine cries, screeches in discomfort, and becomes worse with the scratching and even becomes lethargic. Around the apartment, where Jasmine goes, there go the filters with her. In March we added a second air filter and we have both filters running continuously in whatever room Jasmine is in. Last week we added two more and this week we'll be receiving another one.

These air filters are helping but unfortunately they're not able to deal with the concentrations that are coming into our living space. It seems that with each passing month stronger concentrations and larger amounts are being used. Floor polish is used on the apartment block hallway floors two to three times a week. There is no ventilation in the stairwells and so this brings fumes from the polish into our home for many hours. The concentration of fabric softeners and scent used in laundry products makes the laundry drying on people's balconies incredibly strong. These two factors alone have a big effect on Jasmine.

If I knew someone who could take care of Jasmine in a relatively toxin-free environment I would gladly give her to them in order to keep her well and safe. I've discovered that the papers we were given when we bought her do not correspond to her identity given on her leg band, so we don't have her papers of origin. We're currently looking into this, but without papers of origin it's not possible to take an African Grey out of the country, which means I can't send her to someone I know who could take care of her in a good environment.

Even when Jazzy is uncomfortable she sings and gives kisses and lots of love and is a very good sport. When she complains by being noisy, if I can change something to improve the air conditions she invariably stops making noise and resumes playing normally very soon after.

Birds always try instinctively to show a good face even if they don't feel well because a flock will shun a bird that is unwell. This is why a bird can appear well and then seemingly all of a sudden become very unwell and even die.

It's devastating to witness the havoc we're creating on our planet. My own suffering or that of other humans is so much easier to accept: we're creating it after all, and what we get to some extent, just by being a part of society, we are a part of reaping in some way. But innocent creatures such as birds, frogs, bees, fish, turtles,.... They suffer more than we do (at least so far), without having contributed to this destruction.

Living, watching this incredibly beautiful, vital and brave creature who lives with us, pull out one feather after another in irritated distress, slipping slowly, but gradually each day, as a result of our ignorant actions is enough to break a heart.

So I continue to take Jazzy to spend as much of our days in fresh air as I can manage until we're able to move somewhere more independent of others' personal use of the myriad products available today.

This means that I have much less energy and time available to write blog posts and to paint. There are still many beautiful sights and lovely days and moments in our lives. But I sure hope that we all in society can find a way to live that allows human kind and the earth to thrive into the future.

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this blog. It's very rewarding and is a fun experience thanks to you. Please forgive the more emotional nature of this post; I've tried hard in the past to present data uncluttered by personal emotion in previous posts about toxic chemicals in our society. But the heartache of watching a beloved and innocent parrot suffer, pushes me to plead with anyone who can relate to what we're doing to ourselves and our loved ones.
We're playing with a very dangerous path into the future, and if individuals do not educate themselves and wake up to these dangers soon, we will be driven by a consumer capitalist economy to destruction, taking all that we value down with us. It's a huge problem, one bigger than I can possibly understand and one which I know that I'm equally a part of the problem.

But one thing is for sure: if we could each, as individuals, stop buying these products that are creating these toxic effects it would slow down their use and their production and this would at least be a start to helping improve our and our planet's future.

An Evening Walk At Le Col De La Faucille, Jura, France

2008-06-30T11:22:00.011+01:00

It has been very hot this last week so we drove up the Jura mountains yesterday evening and went for a walk at Le Col De La Faucille. It was amazingly fresh and cool. There was a pleasant breeze.

The trees are tall here and smell strongly of pine resin.

Looking out over the valleys toward the West huge stretches of sky can be seen. (As usual, click on photos to enlarge.)

At the edge of the path is an incredibly steep drop all the way to the bottom of the first valley.

We saw a very odd tree stump...

...that looked like something had melted it into some sort of wax figure or piece of coral.

There were flowers everywhere, even the dandelions had only just gone to seed up here.

There were lots of wild roses.

There were yellow, white, and lots of purple flowers.

Among the vegetation there is often a huge boulder or two here and there.

The rock formations on the Jura are very interesting.

The rock looks squished together from lots of smaller rocks and there are fissures all throughout. The color is exquisite, mixing blues and greys with reds and rusts.

We walked further along the mountain for nearly an hour when we realized it was getting rather late and we did have to walk back! The sunset was gorgeous.

The light reflecting from the tree trunks glowed pink red.

As we walked back at a quick pace to avoid being eaten by all the insects that were gathering. I guess we looked like a great feast, and whenever we stopped we were instantly surrounded.Yes, Jazzy did come along, though she was most surprised at our late departure from home for such an outing. She's usually in bed at about this time. Here she is, with one of the flaps on her backpack cage down to keep her protected from the breeze as the sun receded.

The sky grew luminous after the sun had set.

The light reflected off a long expanse of cloud further north up the same valley.

Looking North towards the Geneva valley side of the Jura there was a huge set of clouds building up to storm proportions. During the drive back down we saw lightning flashes from this foaming mass.

As we came to the end of our walk and arrived back at our starting point, Jazzy was sleepy. You might be able to detect her phasing in and out here, it even showed up on the camera!One last glimpse back before driving back down to the other side of the Jura. We arrived home, refreshed, contented and well exercised.

Starfish Egg Tempera Painting

2008-06-14T15:43:00.006+01:00

This week I finished an egg tempera painting of a starfish. I used a photo taken by Tony in the Maldives as reference. The painting is 7 x 9.5 inches.

Probably due to my lack of expertise in photography and setting up the correct lighting I'm never able to reproduce the full vibrancy of the colors when I photograph the paintings. Try as I might I have failed with every single photo I've taken to show the paintings on the site. Below is a photo taken with a different camera; this one is a lot darker, but it shows some of the richness of the reds and greens that occur in the original painting.

Unfortunately I'm never able to combine the richness of the colors with the brightness of the painting - one is always sacrificed for the other. Here are the two photos side by side, if you can extrapolate between the two, then, combined, they convey the overall impression.

Do you have any suggestions on how to manage both aspects in one photograph?

Jasmine Asks To Go For A Walk And To Take A Shower

2008-06-11T13:25:00.014+01:00

Yesterday afternoon I came home to a bird, Jasmine of course, who asked to go for a walk. Jazzy said: "We're going for a walk", and she repeated this insistently. I had intended to take her for a walk that morning, but unexpectedly I had to go into town instead. It was rather late in the day, and laziness almost got the better of me, especially since it looked like it was going to rain. But Jazzy kept saying, "Do you want to go for a walk?", "We're going for a walk", "I'm going to go for a walk" until finally I knew we had to go or Jazzy would bust.

As soon as I went out of the room and came back into the living room with her travel cage and I said to her, "Ok, we'll go for a walk" Jazzy immediately replied: "Thank you!" Well! What could I say? Sometimes she blows me away with her appropriate conversation, so I said, "You're welcome." She was so excited and happy once I'd agreed.

As soon as we got outside it did start to rain. But we were going for a walk no matter what; and we kept going. Jazzy was happily saying, "We're going for a walk." While we were out we even had lightning and thunder, but this didn't phase Jazzy at all. We sat on a rock under a tree while Jazzy contentedly munched on banana and apple. She had also mentioned "some apple" before we went out - so it was clear what that meant!

When we got back home, Jasmine then said: "Do you want to go for a shower?" "I'm going to take a shower." It might be hard to believe, but she was actually asking to have a shower. She always takes a shower in the morning - this has been routine for quite some time. But recently Tony has been taking a shower when he gets back from work in the evening, and Jazzy has been accompanying him. This has evolved into her wanting to take another shower in the evening, and now, very often in the late afternoon as she waits for him to come home, she says she's going to take a shower.

So, yes, she did get to go for a shower. There would have been little peace in the house otherwise - she would have kept saying it quite emphatically. And who can resist such an amazing little being when you know she really does want to do something. Whenever possible and appropriate I try to respond if she clearly wants something and it's not bad for her.

In the morning, just after she gets up she jumps into her shower routine. Often this involves standing in the hallway for a few minutes while clothes and towels are being gathered. We have two shower curtain poles stretching across the hallway and Jazzy stands on these.

In the bathroom she stands on the shower curtain rail. While I'm taking my shower she chats and runs through much of her vocabulary. It's a time to be totally silly, sing, dance and say whatever comes to mind, whether it makes any sense or not. There is also a plastic hanger arranged in different ways for her amusement. She works it free and then tosses it either into the bath or onto the floor.

When I'm done showering Jazzy takes hers. These few photos are taken with flash. I don't like to do that at all because I read in a camera manual that it can hurt pets eyes to use the flash on them. You'll see me in some of the shots almost involuntarily putting my hand in front of her face to shield her from the light.

I tell her it's her turn to take a shower and ask her to turn around on the pole and then tell her to 'up up' onto my hand. Before I put her under the water I say: "ok, are you ready, here we go", so that she knows when to expect to get wet. She really prefers that bit of notice.

After she gets her feet wet, I say: "Roll over" and she leans over knowing that I'll have my hand under her supporting her weight. She holds onto my hand with her feet, but that's a bit slippery. Then she gets a good soaking on her tummy and sides and tail.

I tell her when we're going back upright and she gets her back done more thoroughly. She allows me to move her wings very very gently and I tell her each thing I'm going to do before I do it so she knows exactly what to expect. Then she stays as long as she's happy there, getting her back soaked and the top of her head. Then when she makes moves wanting to leave, I put her back up on the railing.

Then we have a conversation about that was a "good shower" and that "Jazzy's a good girl" and such like.

After all the showering is done she goes into her living room cage to dry off a bit and to get some veggies and pellets before we all have breakfast together.

Rain Rain Rain and More Rain in the Pays de Gex, France

2008-06-06T12:42:00.016+01:00

We've had a tremendous amount of rain these last weeks. It rains almost every day and the sun shines infrequently. This is great for air quality, but we're beginning to wonder if we'll all evolve into fish soon! The land is green, very green.

The skies are often a dull grey, floating by in an amorphous mass. But sometimes the clouds transform into masses of shapes and shades.
Every once in a while it looks as though it'll clear up and let some light comes through.

Occasionally the sky is filled with brilliant hues of pinks, purples and blues. I had never seen a sky quite like this one with such a variation in greys along with this vibrant, almost cornflower blue.

This orange-hued sky is totally dramatic, looking like a dust storm is whirling its way forward at high speed.

This morning Jasmine and I went for a walk. Well, Jazzy was in her travel cage scrambling around the bars while I did the actual walking.

She announced every few minutes: "I'm going for a walk" a phrase she invented as I've never said to her "I'm" going for a walk, because "walks" are something we always do together. So she's always heard me say "We're going for a walk."

We have code names for different activities so Jazzy gains an awareness of how long we'll be away and if she's joining us or not. And I've often said "I'm going out" or "I'm going jogging" (which really means I'm going for a walk on my own for about an hour or so) and other things. She must have decided that saying "I'm going for a walk." was a good thing to say. And she's right!

While we were out it was sprinkling gently and the air was clean and fresh, even a bit chilly. The clouds were covering the mountains and creeping down the foothills.

Jazzy entertained herself by trying to remove the press stud on the cage backpack window flap that I'd put down in order to protect her from the breeze and getting cold.

The countryside looks a bit tropical, or at least that's what pops into my imagination.

Here and there are flower buds waiting for a bit of sun to shine before they burst out.

These cows looked perfectly posed for a group shot.

The dashing apparel of this Iris can't be subdued by the rain.
And even the puddles have interesting features and colors in them.
Jazzy also had a great time on her 'walk', and to enhance her trip she ate some of her favorite food: banana. So, while we long for some sunshine brightness, there's still a lot to enjoy when going out and about.