After arriving in El Valle, as we began our house design process, many people described the strong Northerly winds in the summer time. I wanted to make sure that the house was well positioned on the site to maximize airflow for reasons of passive cooling as well as keeping air flowing through the house to [...]
Living in Panama, especially the quaint little town of El Valle, we are limited in our restaurant choices and even so, the menus are all the same. Chicken and rice, Corvina and rice or french fries if you prefer….etc. etc. So foods we would have normally ‘gone out’ for are something we either do [...]
A lot of people ask me what I do with ALL my time here in Panama. Well besides working on my arts, learning to be a better cook, gardening and so on, I also do the cleaning. With a simple modern house, the idea of the clean lines, well is just that. Clean lines. But [...]
For me a goal as an architect and artist is to be able to make beautiful, artful things without having to spend a lot of money doing it. By this I mean using normal, everyday materials in creative and beautiful ways. I am so impressed with the art by Jen Stark because she is doing [...]
Listening to an Alan Watts lecture the other day, I was reminded of this idea of nothingness. The comment that we are agitated and bothered by ‘nothingness’ is completely true. One of the hardest things to do is to sit with yourself and do nothing. But in those moments of nothingness, something arises. A thought, [...]
Today I went with my neighbor, who is an avid birder, bird watching. She lent me a pair of binoculars and gave me tips on how to see the birds through them. Panama is reported to have 972 species of birds, more than Costa Rica. In just a few minutes outside our door, we [...]
No, its not a little monkey or caged bird but a strange stinky mixture that I have hopes will be a key to success in bread making. I have made three attempts at bread making thus far, and each go I learn a little more of what maybe worked and what did not, never yet [...]
Today I started seedlings for the soon-to-be vegetable garden. One idea in coming to Panama Zone 12, is that we imagined we could grow much of our own food. After seeing movies such as The Future of Food, you can never know just exactly what is in or behind the food today. The only [...]
One evening, after the moon had risen, the crewmen sat around the campfire drinking rum and telling boisterous stories. After a few drinks, Jeronimo bragged that he had the power to transform himself into a jaguar. The men grumbled and whispered to each other, goading him to prove his boasts and become a wild cat [...]
For the past few days there has been a cold front hanging out over Panama. I don’t exactly understand what this means except that I know that it has been extremely windy and rainy for this time of year. The winds at night howl and because there are so many trees around the sound [...]