Friday, February 9, 2018

A house or a home

The difference between a house and a home in more than one way!

In my last blog I was talking about the winter weather here in southern Spain with high summer-like temperatures. The month of December was extremely warm which was great for tourists, but not so good for the land as it still needs a lot of rain.

I will also start with the weather in this blog, because boy it's nippy here! True winter has finally arrived and although it still hasn't rained nearly enough, we have had quite a few pretty cold, and I mean coats, hats, scarves and for some even gloves and winter boots cold days. Even most tourists have had to give in and leave their flip-flops and shorts at home (apart from a few diehards) as some days the cold wind is just a bit too much. With temperatures somewhere between 7 and 15 degrees Celsius it's quite a shock to the system, but luckily we have a wonderful pellet stove in our home and the lovely live flame is creating a welcoming atmosphere and temperature.

When we renovated the old house just before we got married, three and a half years ago, I insisted in getting a pellet stove. I had previously rented a house with such a stove and I knew what lovely heat they give out and also, once the initial investment has been forgotten, how cheap they are to run and, what I really like, they are Eco-friendly. So I'm a happy bunny as I like to be environmentally aware.

I must admit that I do not understand many Spanish people who don't have any form of heating in their house, like my husbands direct family. Some do have just a tiny fire hazardous stove beneath a round table covered by a table cloth that goes down to the floor, so you end up with burning hot feet whilst your ears and nose are freezing cold. Many just cover themselves in layers or keep busy and when they do sit down, for women the nylon morning gown is the solution, on top of the other layers of clothes of course and the men just seem to wear a winter coat indoors. Oh yes, I've asked them why live without a heating and was told..."Winter isn't that long in southern Spain, so why bother".

I disagree and many expats who've settled here were shocked when they spent their first winter here. The houses are cold as most of them are built to keep the sun out. Many Spanish are so used to keeping the sun out that they even do so during the winter months and instead of letting the sunshine enter their windows, thus heating up the house, they prefer to keep all the shutters closed. It baffles me but, if that's the culture, then I of course respect that. Doesn't mean I have to live that way. It did take some convincing to get my husband to buy a pellet stove when we renovated the house, as he had always survived the winters without a heater, but he reminds me every year how grateful he is and he's totally fallen in love with our stove. It has turned our house into a cosy home.

When you have a nice warm house to get back to, it's a real joy to walk the dog along the sea front in the cold sea breeze. I needed that as well.... as the first week of January was a bit of a tough time for me. I had put so much energy in writing blogs, sorting out my art, creating my Buddha-inspired mono-prints and tweeting about my blogs, spreading information about my art classes and blogs on Facebook and other social media sites that it all became a bit too much. Overwhelmed, somewhat depressed perhaps, I don't know, but I felt crap, disappointed in myself, frustrated, feeling I had not enough time and as if I was always running behind the facts. I needed a break. Now, going on a holiday isn't an option, but no reason to complain about that if you live in a holiday destination seaside village.

So I had to take a few steps back and I can guarantee you that it was very difficult for me. I always do something. Not a day has gone past, literally these past few years, including Sundays, that I didn't work on something from my 'priority list', such as writing a story or a blog post, starting my next book, creating a few more
mandalas, working on my latest series of paintings, increasing my presence on social media to promote my blogs, my books and my art, studying strategies through books and online webinars on how to get my work to be seen by people, how to get my books and art sold. I was working on sorting out my own website, my art on the Saatchi onlinewebsite, my authors page in Amazon, my work in RedBubble, my weekly blog for the Cirkel van Compassie, a Dutch website that promotes holistic living, writing articles and a weekly newsletter for the LaHerradura-Cultural magazine, writing my Spanish adventure blog, organise workshops and art classes ... I bet you get tired just from reading about all these projects! So did I!

But what do you do when you get a bit overwhelmed? Well, relax and in my case, meditate, watching inspiring speakers or a nice documentary or film, walking Miki, our bouncy ball doggy, and some evenings Miguel, my husband, and Fani our bull-mastiff as well. Getting the fresh air in my face and most of all, detaching myself from the outcome. So that's what I've done and I feel a lot better. Oh don't get me wrong. That to-do-list continues to exist but in a far slower pace and without the priority attached to it. I do what I fancy doing and make sure I take care of myself.

And the result. Funny enough it seems as if I have more time than I had before. I feel relaxed and the writing is flowing again. I'm not putting myself under any pressure anymore. Painting is actually good for me as it relaxes me, so that's a plus. I feel happy and let go of my attachment to and hopes for the outcome. Whatever will come my way will be OK.

All this doesn't mean that I've lost my passion and please feel free to read my blogs. My latest art blog is about what art can do for your house. I believe it's literally the difference between a house and a home. So there you go! :-)



If you are interested to find out more about me as a writer and an artist I invite you to visit my website www.renatevannijen.com where you can also read my art blog or my books blog. You can subscribe for free and will receive two chapters of my book 'Cheers', which I'm currently blogging about as it is a book that brings awareness to a worldwide problem and helps people getting out of isolation.

Click the following link for my Art Blog
Click the following link for my Cheers Blog




Wednesday, January 3, 2018

A Spanish adventure update



The new year has started and it's been a really long time since I published my last Spanish adventure blog. Looking back at 2017 it has been a very intense year with ups and downs, but I think that is part of human life.


                

It's January 2018 now and winter in Spain. However, it certainly doesn't feel that way. Last December wasn't much of a winter month either. The weather is unbelievably mild which is both fantastic and terrifying. It surely is very enjoyable when the sun is caressing your face when enjoying a coffee or a drink on the sea front, but it also scares me. Whether you believe in global warming or not, that temperatures are rising is undeniable and when you live in Spain that isn't necessarily a good thing.


But it is funny

The new coat I bought can stay in the wardrobe as a light cardigan will do. I realise that this is always a funny time of the year with the Spanish and all-year-round expats, like me, taking out our cardigans and boots to go for a stroll along the beach. It is very clear that you adjust to temperatures of the country you live in as I definitively feel the cold a lot sooner than when I lived in The Netherlands.

So I also put on my winter boots, even though, quite frankly, the temperatures are a bit too high for that. I still like to cover up as the fresh sea breeze is a bit too chilly to my liking. However, the holiday makers feel it's mid summer as they walk around in flip-flops and vests. Yesterday at 18.00 I saw a couple walking on the beach in their swimming costumes whilst on the pavement the Spanish were dressed in winter coats, boots, hats and scarves.


I enjoy watching that as me and my husband walk our dogs along the sea front. My husband is Spanish and before meeting him I always said... I don't want a Spanish man as they don't have animals in the house. But my Miguel had a lovely, young, female Bullmastiff called Fani (make sure you pronounce that correctly) who slept in the house on her own sofa. 
I had my dog Choppy, rescued in 2005 from a life in the streets. Sadly Choppy died in February 2017 due to heart failure and lung embolism. It was of course a very sad period. We buried him in the
avocado 'cortijo' (small farm) in the mountains and I put some nasturtiums on his grave which I picked with their roots from the river bed. They actually did really well with a sea of flowers at the beginning of last summer.

Last week Miguel and I celebrated Christmas in the cortijo and we visited Choppy's grave with Miki. To my delight his grave is now a beautiful bed of nasturtiums leaves that will soon turn into a sea of orange flowers.


Miki is our new dog, an approximately one year old 'whatever-cross' who was left in the streets of the city of Granada. Beautiful as that city is, for a tiny dog that is no place to live and through the fantastic animal rescue organisation Valle Verde we were able to adopt him last August.

He makes me so happy, he is a smiley doggy who is eager to greet everybody, always jumping around as a tiny bouncing ball. He follows me everywhere, possibly afraid to be left again, but that will not happen. He's here to stay. So when we take Fani and Miki and some plastic bags out for our daily walk we are feeling blessed. The plastic bags are to pick up their 'inner beauty' from the pavement so that no one will step in it. Fani being a big lady she needs a kitchen garbage bag for her 'deposit' and it always puts a smile on my face when I see my husband pick it up with two specially cut pieces of cardboard, from a box from the local supermarket, and putting it into a bright blue garbage bag, whilst Fani calmly waits for him. We then continue our walk in the late afternoon sunshine, just before the most stunning sunset on the horizon, every evening something you can count on.


Sometimes that worry creeps in again. As much as I love those sunsets and the sunshine, there is such a huge need for rain in the region. It amazes me that Spain doesn't have a system in place to fund solar panels so that - among other things - the sea water can be turned into drinking water. I have moments that I feel bad about my own hypocrisy and that of fellow citizens. Enjoying the good life, having a shower every day, using the dishwasher and washing machine whenever it pleases me. I see people watering their plants excessively, surely taking long baths and well, the swimming pool needs to remain topped up doesn't it? Not that I have one, but I certainly would love one.

However, there is a part of me that cannot understand why everybody is not taking more care about this lack of water as rain is something we've hardly seen this 'winter' season. Being in a part of Spain where avocado and mango plantations are an important part of the Spanish economy I'm baffled that there are no signs of projects to make sure this can continue. If you know that an avocado tree needs about 120 litres of water a day in the summer you can understand what I'm talking about. Mel o'Gorman wrote an interesting article about this as well. If you haven't read it yet, feel free to read her story 'Let it Leap'

The truth is I can only do so much, perhaps irritating people a little with my words that might shock them into some awareness of the same hypocrisy that I feel. It doesn't feel good. But, life is what it is and with all the things happening in the world I can only decide to become more aware of my personal water use, but also not to forget to enjoy the moment. Pick the day. Enjoy the sun, the warm weather. Me being miserable doesn't do the world or myself any good.

I do believe in the power of positive thoughts, but more than thoughts I think it is the power of vibrations, so one of my resolutions for 2018 is to feel happy feelings for the first 17 seconds after waking up. This is a technique suggested by Esther Hicks (you can Google that). In short the theory is that thinking positive, although good, won't work if you, deep down in side, subconsciously, don't believe that thought. To get into a more positive frame of mind it is important to regularly feel the vibration of happiness.

Thinking about something that truly makes you happy and really feeling that happiness, whether that is watching a sunset, swimming with dolphins, a sky diving experience or whatever tickles your fancy, and feel that feeling for 17 seconds. It sounds easier than it actually is as the brain will try to distract you with daily to-do-lists. However, for me it works to think about my new, funny, mad happy dog Miki as I love that little monkey to bits. I intent to keep it up for at least 21 days to turn it into a habit (I hope).


But I'm also going to add another 17 seconds and think about the rain in Spain, how wonderful it is to see the water drops clearing away the dust in the streets, the smell of happy trees, grateful for a much needed shower, and the knowledge that flowers and greens will be popping up all around us in the countryside as soon as the sun comes back. Which never takes very long. Since mass meditation has been scientifically proven to work, perhaps mass rain wishes and visualisation will do the trick as well. I will give it a try and I hope you will join me.

2018 will be a year full of new adventures for me. I will continue making mono-prints, something new to me but that I really enjoyed. I also intent to continue blogging about my art and my books (see section below) and I feel a lot of inspiration coming up for another book, and a series of Angel paintings, as the world could do with a few more Angels.


Happy New Year!

If you are interested to find out more about me as a writer and an artist I invite you to visit my website www.renatevannijen.com where you can also read my art blog or my books blog. You can subscribe for free and will receive two chapters of my book 'Cheers', which I'm currently blogging about as it is a book that brings awareness to a worldwide problem and helps people getting out of isolation.

Click the following link for my Art Blog
Click the following link for my Cheers Blog