Diwali Mauritius

This last Thursday was Diwali here. I was unsure of what to expect. We were told to put out lights in front of the house and to break and old dish and buy a new one. People go from house to house giving "cakes" which looked like different shaped doughnut holes and giving thanks. As we drove to dinner that night we say "chistmas lights" on houses and one cars and temples. The picture above (and sorry for the half image there- that's the window of the truck as we drove by)is of a temple on the way to Grand Baie. We had a meal at a South African joint- with a great view of the bay. Later that night there were fireworks and when we got home we say the best ones from people in the neighborhood firing them off. It's a happy, festive holiday- I love any holiday where people give thanks to each other and I like the lights.  

Other than the Infamous Dodo Bird, What do you Know About Mauritius?

The Huffington Post has this write up and series of videos about the island: here .

The True Size of Africa

I spent some time this summer at home (California) before heading back to our new place of residence- Mauritius, which  is part of Africa. Before leaving friends kept saying " be careful!"- referring to the ebola outbreaks in Africa. It is over 1,600 miles from here to mainland Africa and here is a relative scale map of Africa. Here on Mauritius, you are not allowed into the country if have been to one of the effected countries within the last 60 days- even Mauritian citizens are kept out- everyone is, until you have cleared the 60 days. The U.S., Europe- no place I know has such stringent rules. 

Waking Brain Cells Review of STAR STUFF: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos

Here is the link the the review- which I am grateful for. :).Thank you Waking Brain Cells!

The Balance of Things

I'm packing up the house this week -back into the 10 suitcases we moved in with- and then some...Tristam seems to have accumulated the most stuff- lots of found objects, toys and artwork he made. The kitchen came in second with a big coffee maker (which Fred has named Giselle) and additional pots and pans etc. 

Last night as I was closing the windows I said "hello" to the gecko residing in each room and wondered if we could take them with too- especially the one in the bedroom. That one is small and I actually leave the window open a bit longer at night in that room to make sure it has enough bugs to eat. I know that the minute we move that poisons will be set out for them and that will be that. When we moved in we had a pretty bad pest problem- the house was crawling with bugs. One day we noticed the gecko poisons removed all of them. Since that day, the bugs have been minimal to nonexistent. People here can't understand why we don't allow the previous poison spraying and poison traps to be in in our living space, and we cannot understand why you would poison your natural pest control...I imagine that we will go through the same process at the new house, but I'm hoping not as bad because we will be away from the sugar cane fields (YAY!!). 

I'm still considering how to capture at least the bedroom gecko to take with us. 

Early Book Art

Road Trip to the East, Lunar Eclipse, Birds and an Upcoming Move

Yesterday, Fred I headed out to explore the east of the island a bit. Most weekends, we spending catching up on work- especially right now. Fred is busy with solar projects and I have 3 books in the works- 2 that I am illustrating and 1 that I am both writing and illustrating. So, yesterday, we decided that we would take a rare day off and drive to Blue Bay. We stopped at a favorite restaurant in Belle Mare where we watched birds and enjoyed the warm breeze. Then drove the coastal road to Blue Bay. We were puzzled when we got to Blue Bay- or what the map and signage said was Blue Bay- because it was far from the pristine marine environment we expected. Instead, a crowded garbage covered beach with a trailer blasting techno music . Maybe there is another part of Blue Bay? Anyhow- the drive was beautiful and Mauritius is bigger than what I had imagined before. I'd like to go back to some of the villages and towns we drove through and spend some time. 

Last week we missed the lunar eclipse here, but caught it later via the internet. 

Here is a moor hen that hung out with us in Belle Mar yesterday. Watching birds is one of our favorite things to do and yesterday's feathered visitors did not disappoint 

Great news! This week we bid adieu to Piton. I will not miss it one little bit...maybe the neighbors, but other than that...nope. New digs are closer to the ocean- we are ocean people and I no longer eat sugar :) 

RSA Shorts - The Power of Quiet

Susan Cain: The power of introverts

NEW SLJ News Letter Featuring STAR STUFF: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos

What trip to open up my e-mail and find a newsletter from Kirkus and scrolling down and first seeing an image of Neil Gaiman talking about his graphic novel adaptation of Hansel and Gretel and scroll down more and see my book STAR STUFF: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos! 

Here is the article that featured the STARRED books :))

Thoughts From a Speck in the Indian Ocean

 Something that didn't occur to me until recently- surprisingly- is how much being an introvert shapes my experience of the world. The picture above is of me with in Belgium when we were expats there. We lived in the country near Waterloo and our neighbor had rabbits and pigeons. It was a heaven of sorts for me- a quiet rural existence- not a lot of noise and activity. 

Flash ahead some forty some years and I move to Mauritius with a very different culture- loud, ueber social, constant activity and people  and noise everywhere- a big challenge to an introvert. 

So, I am learning to do things like go to less popular beaches and collect shells or read or do yoga- to schedule time in to do those things.  I hadn't realized how much a part of me this thing of being quiet is. I tried at first when we got here to take on the task of integrating, but it became over load. So, I backed away- I think that's the process - you try on a new thing and see how it fits and if now you try a different way...

You find the things that comfort you. My case- watching birds, sketching, food (ULTRA rare organic strawberries ), finding alone time...connecting with the ocean...

Here I am 15 years ago (when I first me Fred). I worked out ways of connecting with California (which is home in my mind) . I bought a quiver of surfboards and headed out into the waves. It was magical...working on creating a home away from home here on this speck in the Indian Ocean. 

ReaderKidz Interview about STAR STUFF: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos

This Friday Stephanie Greene- the wonderful author of the Princess Posey books  : ) will post an interview on the process of making the book. Here is their announcement about it. 

Here I am with Tristam when we were still remodeling our house taken  about 7 years ago. We would walk to the house in the evenings (we lived in a nearby apartment) and pull out the telescope my parents bought for me years before and search for things in the sky that are very far away and some very long ago. I don't think he really understood, but he memories are pretty great of that time.