Toledo, Spain

A few of us from Isla Bonita got offered to go to Toledo for a International arts and performance festival. Toledo is known for their weapons and old medieval times. The town sits up on a hill with a river that flows around it. One way in, one way out. People have to turn sideways or duck into a doorway when a car drives through. The roads were only made just big enough for a horse and carriage to go on and it hasn't been updated. So many cool winding streets that will easily get you lost.
Gabriel and I got accommodations in the main artist guy, Loc's house. LOC rehabilitated his house back from the 13th and 15th century. It's amazing how it turned out. One of the most beautiful places I've seen. His art is displayed all throughout. He even has a torture chamber deal from a movie set. Under his house is a old underground tunnel with 3 rooms. In one room there is a candlestick with a piece of wood behind it. This was left there dating back to the 13th century. If you light the candle, the shadow displayed behind it is a devil figure with horns. In the room next to it, LOC found 10 peoples bones laying in there when Loc first dug out the tunnel. In the day, they would do sacrifices in those rooms. Toledo has a lot of creepy things that happened in the past. Even at night now in Toledo, all you see is black cats with yellow eyes all over.
Gabriel, Francesca, Simon, and I performed in a old church made into a open space that they rent out now. It was beautiful. I was there to display my art in one of the  9x9 inch boxes that was set up all around the room. In the end I helped out in 3 performances and had a blast. We met all kinds of people from around Europe. We performed for 3 days straight nonstop. Saturday night was the reception. There was a catering table was forever long, decorated in red and white colors. From caviar to red wine and deserts. Who knew, I liked caviar. Then we watched our performances on a big screen. I made it into a few papers and was and felt like a Alaskan Princess. I had a blast in Toledo and would definitely go back.

Remodeling

A big remodel that we did was knock a wall out to extend a room by the kitchen, into a indoor living room. Now it's one open room. The living room is to the left, kitchen to the right, free thrift store in it's own room past the kitchen, and across from that is recycling.  In the corner of the living room we're going to put in a Spanish rocket stove for the winter. It does eventually get cooler here at night. Now we can eat indoors or outdoors depending on the weather. We installed windows on both sides of the room that open and close to get the breeze going through. Next, the door was put in the entrance to the room. Windows have been top of the list. The gallery now has windows on both sides. One was particularly hard to put in being it was such a huge space to fill. In the end, shutters worked long ways.We put wine bottles and cement in between on the sides for a filler. Always have to jerry rig pieces of materials to make them work. That's the fun part. Nothing you can do the professional way. It's all about coming up with another way with the few materials you have to work with. A big thing for us to was that our gallery ceiling got painted. That's the room that the fire started in, in the past so it was chared before. Melly painted two paintings on the walls and a guy from Cuba painted the other one. Paintings are being put on display. We still need to paint the shelves and get it going on fully to be finished.
Stand alone structures are always being made by people. Shade spots. Some last and some blow down in the wind. We have a bamboo type of grass that grows around that is being used. The problem is it's not as strong as bamboo so it needs lots of support. We had a couple from Lithuanian build a structure. The secret was, to build it in the wind.It's the perfect hang out spot and big enough for a tent. Shaded all day. Fun to see what people come up with and construct.

Living courters

Over the time we have improved our living situation. In our living courters we have acquired a couch, two 70's style vinyl chairs, a huge rug, and table tops. All donated. In Seth's room we made him a work bench for constructing. In both our rooms, we sleep on bedsprings with a mattress on top and Joe and I with our tent on top of that. Seth is braver than I am to sleep with no bug net. We don't have mosquitoes but flies wake you up in the morning. Not too many spiders either except for a big spider just yesterday that Seth had to smash 3 times with a book. It was giganto.
Joe painted on top of old drawings in our room to brighten them up and to keep the original good art. We did a base coat of paint on the walls too since our room had black on them from a fire in the past. Definitely a more homey feel now. Not that long ago we took down our window in our bedroom to get a breeze going through our place and put up some netting to keep out the lizards n such. Funny thing is we got a huge breeze the next day for we had a storm come in. Our whole place was way too breezy to even hang out in. We put up with a wind tunnel for a few days and now it's so nice having the ocean air sweep through.
Another living area is the French Courters. Named after Vincent and Ulric that stayed with us in the beginning of Isla Bonita. They were from France and always be remembered. Kate and Simon from Russia, a guest named Herta, and Richard all sleep in the French Quarters on beds. Their room looks out onto a beautiful view of the ocean. Also in the middle of the ceiling is a swallow's nest. It looks like a upside down igloo. The swallows chew up piecies of mud and spit it out to form the nest. They have repositioned the nest three times now since the Spring. They fly in and out all day long up high so they are no bother. If anything their fun to watch and the babies are almost ready to fly. Melly is in a room with a shower (like ours) that has two nice windows. Her room is behind the French Quarters. Down the hall is Gabrielle's room that he is sharing with a guest named Francesca from Italy. It has a basement room down below. Next to Gabrielle's room is a old bathroom turned into a indoor nursery. The house is big. Let alone the phycadellic bar, free library, paint room, a storage room, and a art gallery. That's all indoors.
Thought I would write about our living courters since it's one of the most asked questions. How many rooms does the house have? 6 rooms, 2 showers, and the rest fun stuff.
Also I am amazed when I talk to someone and they say they read my blog. I love to see people's comments, or if you have a question, or just to say hello. Fun to see people like this. I do this blog to have a diary of my life in this particular moment in time. I'm so happy to share these moments with everyone.