DAY 5 NO WORK

 This was a full day.  I woke up and did my Friday trip to the USPS post box.  This is the last week I have mail forwarding so next week I should have more mail and less missing mail!  Then I did my whole strip down and take a shower/put my items in the UV zapper.  I had a webinar and then I did my workout on the stationary bike.  I tried a new thing.  I put in a program and it was SO much harder.  It puts in hills and valleys and even though I biked fewer miles, I worked so much harder.  

In the afternoon I had a Mexican art class.  I made an Amate art piece.

What is “Amates”?

Amate paper, from the Nahuatl word ‘amatl’, is a type of bark paper which dates back to pre-Hispanic times in Mexico. It is an indigenous papermaking tradition that survives in the small village of San Pablito in Puebla. During the pre-Hispanic period, amate was used for different purposes such as, ritual offerings, payment of tributes and as a surface for the elaboration of codices. Amate paintings are made in brown and white bark. Brown paper usually features colourful paintings, made with acrylic colours, depicting flowers, birds, deer or rabbits and every day stories from the community such as fishing, hunting and harvesting. The white amate paper is used in more intricate drawings made with pen and ink representing stories of the community life.

It may not look like much but I worked very hard on this.  Of course I did not have a ficus tree that I cut down and dried the bark to make paper so I used a paper bag.  I also used crayons and have no idea how to draw woodland creatures.  I can barely draw a flower!  Here is my version of an Amate art piece.  It was fun to do something different and something out of my comfort zone.

I made something new for dinner Spanish Spinach with Chickpeas.  It was super simple and took 20 minutes. It took longer to sort, clean and cut the spinach than to make the dish. Next time I would use the smoked paprika for a different taste.  It was really tasty as a side dish.  I have plenty left for one or two days.

Until tomorrow...