Wandering Wednesday - Remembering Hong Kong

I've been thinking about Hong Kong a whole lot lately, because of the recent events taking place there.

China just decided to change the rules on keeping Hong Kong a separate thing. The whole One Country Two Systems thing that was implemented when the UK gave up their control in 1997 is suddenly over.

The Chinese had promised Hong Kong that they would be autonomous until 2047. And now suddenly they're just...not.

And the people are back in the streets protesting again (with their masks on) and who knows what will happen.

I'm worried for all of them and I have almost no hope that they will prevail.

It seems as there is no entity that can really tell China to cut it out.

 I wish they could all sit down and have a cup of milk tea and work it out.

 But that's not realistic of course.

 There's so much money at stake, it's almost hard to conceive of how much.

 As well as not wanting to be seen as losing, or being soft, China cannot give in now.

 This huge population is suddenly living in such uncertainty.

 I truly hope that something can stop this from proceeding.

I have a feeling that I'm now going to look back on these pictures of street scenes in Hong Kong as The Before.

Wandering Wednesday - Hong Kong

As seen in the Hong Kong Airport last week, an enormous floral display. All photo credit to my husband, Marc who knows how much I love orchids.

All because of the New Year, Happy Year of the Rooster!

 Unclear what the central decoration is there, but it is flanked by two trees decorated with red envelopes, traditional New Year's good luck gifts.

I finally spotted a rooster, in the midst of all the day lilies.

Note From The Management

Big News: I'm moving to China for a year with my husband, and I've set up a blog to capture all the day to day living in another country stuff. If you're interested you can check that out here at Travels With Scissors.  So far it's just pre-trip countdown activity.

I'll still be posting quilting and art related stuff right here. Yes, my sewing machine and related items are traveling with me, I didn't think I'd be able to last a year without them you know? It will interesting to see how and if living in another country influences my work. I can guess at how some things will be affected, but I'm imagining there will be other changes that I won't notice until after I'm back. Blogging has always been about documenting my process and evolution, so that will continue.

(All of the above assumes that I can figure out how to get past the Great Firewall and all that assorted fun stuff.)

Deciding what to bring with me to work on has been a real challenge, and I know that I'll be wishing I had one thing or another. But having to make do and figure out another way to get something done will be a good exercise and hopefully a good learning experience.

Freezing Watercolors

The one and only watercolor I did on our recent trip to China.  This was done as I sat at the landing area for the tramway up the hill to the Mutianyu Great Wall , hanging out under cover because it was snowing.  The boys were running (!?!), no really they were running up the other way on the wall that we hadn't already climbed.  I wasn't up to it, so to kill time while I waited for them to come back I attempted to entertain myself with doing this little sketch and watercolor.  Which went pretty well until it suddenly got much much colder and the water was freezing in my watercolor brush.  And freezing on the paper before it could soak in, which is why the pigment looks kind of strange.  I couldn't get that effect again if I wanted to I bet.

As I was in the waiting/transit area lots of other tourists were passing through and many of them stopped ot look and see what I was doing.  I didn't speak their language, but by the faces they were making they either liked it or thought I was a crazy person for sitting there painting when it was below freezing.  For a long time I was the only person, no one else coming or going, which was maybe the only time I was alone the whole time we were in China, there are really a lot of people there.  So it was noticeable to be by myself.

By the way:  This is my 1,400th post! Wheee!

Frozen Moats and Red Sunsets

Some random picture from The Forbidden City in Beijing.  This was the sun set towards the end of our day there.  Shows the pollution pretty well, the sky reminded me of when we have forest fires in our area.

The moat outside the Forbidden City walls is huge, we were close to the center of one side when I took this picture.  Yes it was completely frozen over, and no, nobody was ice-skating on it.  Alex bought one of the ubiquitous face masks at a 7-11, it worked well for the pollution and the cold.

Another side of the frozen moat.  I really liked this picture of Zach.































One of the corner towers as seen from outside the city walls.  It really reminded me of something made out of Legos until you look closer and see all the curves and intricate designs.

Happy New Year!

 Heya Happy New Year!  Another long absence from blog-landia, whoops!  But there's several good reasons this time!  How about a kind of spur of the moment trip to China for the holidays?  Here's some pictures of our snowy freezing day on the Great Wall (Mutianyu).  The weirdest, steepest, twisty-est stairs I've ever been on, which were also icy and snow-covered.  Fun!

You can see all the funny angles of the brick work, nothing level, I found it disorienting when I was walking, but beautiful and interesting when I was standing still.  Zach, Marc and Alex.

 A picture of Marc and I. Wearing many many layers.  On one of the graffitied corners.

 We didn't get too many super long views because of the clouds, but the wall just goes on and on and then even further.

Another Zach and Alex picture with lots of the wall in the background.  It really is an impressive thing and I'm glad we got the chance to see it ourselves.