Happy New Year and A New Life in El Valle, Panama

HAPPY YEARS EVERYONE

 My Partner Gregg and I have now officially retired and moved to El Valle, Panama.

Never again will we have to endure a Canadian winter. Here in El Valle, Panama we have 2 seasons wet and dry. The average daily temperature is about 27 and the night time temperatures average 22 and it is like this year round. The one thing that is really different is the winds we get here are crazy. Last night they were blowing so hard they were blowing furniture across the patio. The town of EL Valle is in the crater of a dormant volcano. It is the second biggest inhabited crater in the world. Located about 2 1/2 hours from Panama City at an elevation of about 600 meters and with a population of 5,000 this tropical wonder has to be seen to be believed. The town is surrounded by lush green mountains and there is vegetation everywhere you look. Every tree that you look at is covered with orchids, bromeliads and ferns planted by mother nature.

This year my blog will have lots of pictures from here and some tatting here and there.

This is the view that we get to look at each morning as we have our breakfast on one of the covered patio's. Below is a scan of the snowflakes that I made and gave to friends this Christmas. This is a Celtic Snowflake and the pattern is from Ruth Perry. Thank you Ruth these made impressive gifts for my friends and they loved them. 

The Seasons are Changeing

We have a special maple tree in our backyard that is very pretty. It is a Celtic Maple and the leaves are changing colour and are falling off. It is a very rare tree and I have not seen one anywhere else. Here is a picture of the leaves as they fall from the tree.

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On to a completely different topic. With all the talk of acid rain, pollution and global warming I think we are in for some big changes. One thing that is going to change that I do not think people have thought of is that the colour of snowflakes is going to change. As it passes through the sky it is going to pick up pollution and I think it is going to look something like this.

Of course the Celtic part is just wishful thinking and I must thank Ruth Perry for that and the colour inspiration is Marilee's (YarnPlayer) Knitty Gritty size 30. Actually snow might not be so bad if it was this pretty

Celtic Snowflake

Here is another great design by Ruth Perry. This one is for a Celtic Snowflake and it uses the same weaving pattern as the Celtic Maple Leaf.

It is my understanding that Ruth will be posting the directions for the Celtic Snowflake in the next couple of days and I would highly recommend that everyone give it a try. The directions are well explained and pretty easy to follow and what a pretty snowflake you have when you are finished. Happy Tatting.

Celtic Maple Leaf

One of the classes that was offered at the Fringe Element Tat Days last weekend was for a Celtic Maple Leaf designed and taught by Ruth Perry also known as Rozella Linden. The design is not to complicated and was a lot of fun to tat. The Celtic Knot part of the leaf has now been used in a snowflake which you can see here. This Celtic Maple Leaf is made with Sugar Maple Hand Dyed Thread from Marilee (Yarnplayer) size 20