Rang Decor Readers Creative Spaces: IX

Mishta & Anirudh

Today under Rang Decor Reader's Creative Spaces, I take you to a colourful Goa-inspired home in Bangalore.

Entrance Porch...

Mishta and Anirudh are a 30-something couple, both designers, one a product designer and the other a graphic designer, decided to build over Anirudh’s family home’s existing ground floor bungalow on a 60 x 40 plot in Sadashivnagar, Bangalore.

The design of the house revolves around three courtyards and two trees.

Avocado Tree at the entrance...

Mishta explains,"A courtyard on the second floor at the back of the house is carved out to let a mango tree spread it’s limbs...

...and a main courtyard, also on the second floor, at the front of the house, is designed to pay homage to Geoffrey Bawa’s tropical style with a pond and landscaping."

The over-arching theme of the house has been heavily influenced by the couple’s love for Goa, a destination they run off to, to recharge, every two and half months.

Mishta adds, "The idea was not to recreate a Goan house, but to pick Portuguese influences, through colour and form and combine that with the sense of an open Asian tropical house."

The drawing room...

The dining area...

Balinese Lamp against coloured glass at the stairwell...

The Master bedroom...

Guest bedroom...

Second floor lobby...

Mishta adds, "The main colour scheme for the house is yellow ochre and dark green. The flooring is cool green kota stone with small floral tiles inlayed at intervals.

Common passageways are in black and white checks. Rustic tiles in terracotta and green have been used in the flooring of the courtyards. Ceramic floral tiles were sourced from Spain and fitted into niches in all the courtyards."

Custom-made nameplate tiles from Velha Goa...

Mishta & Anirudh~ Thanks for sharing so generously photos of your vibrant home with readers of Rang Decor.

P.S. If anyone has any queries regarding Mishta and Anirudh's home, feel free to ask in the comments section.

( Images by Mishta Roy)

Pictures of Picture Takers

During the summer of 2010 I had three sets of summer visitors back to back. Unfortunately the weather was far from ideal during much of that time. Below are pictures of some of the things we did.

My friend Jeff came up first and was here in Alaska for Summer Solstice, the best day of the year. The weather was pretty bad most of the time Jeff was here (I think it was the first time ever that it rained here on the solstice), but that was ok, because he used to live here, so he wasn't seeing things for the first time, and we were inebriated most of the time anyway.

 I took Jeff up to Black Lake. A pretty nice hike for a 12 minute drive from home.

From there we headed down to Williwaw Lakes, and took the looonnggg way around the front of O'Malley back to Glen Alps. That trail, by the way, is a stunning example of poor trail design.

 After a lucky break of fantastic weather in Seward, i took Jeff to Exit Glacier, on the edge of Kenai Fjords National Park. In this picture all the forest in the foreground is brand new, advancing towards us as the glacier retreats behind us.

The short excursion to Exit Glacier offered me a very fun new thing to try out. I've been to Exit several times, it's one of the only things most people get to see in the park, and it's a very easy, paved walk up to the glacier. Along the way is a spur trail, that takes you along a very strenuous hike up to the ice fields. You can read my post on the Harding Ice Fields for more information.

At Exit glacier are a million signs warning you not to go any farther. These signs are around for good reason. On the other hand, it always irritates me because Exit Glacier has divided, at the bottom, into two toes. Each toe currently occupies a rough rocky ravine. This has only developed in the last 10 years, as far as i know, you  used to be able to walk up to the toe at ground level, on the gravel benches by the river.

I noticed that at this time most of the river is coming from the far toe, invisible from the official trail. So i decided we should go and see what was over there. I wondered if there would be an ice cave. Through a bit of work we found a way to clamber over the bottom of the glacier and it's cliffs, and do a bit of tricky hopping around to avoid stepping in any water. What we found was worth the effort.

Here you can see the deep narrow gorge and the glacier high above in the distance. This gorge was present even when it and everything else in the picture was under ice, as recently as a decade ago.

The river we walked along emerged violently and suddenly from a roaring gorge. There was no way to enter the gorge, so we had to backtrack and climb up the backside of the cliffs. That in itself was a little sketchy, and as Jeff pointed out quite accurately, it was similar to caving, but without a roof over our heads.  From our perch on the cliff we could see up the gorge to the glacier, still a ways off. We tried to push on but the terrain was too dangerous and seemed to get worse as we went on. I was satisfied.

Lying on my belly, i was able to edge over the side of the sloping cliff for this wide angle straight down view of a violent waterfall in the gorge. It was very loud here.

Jimmy at Portage Glacier.

The day after Jeff left Jimmy arrived. Jimmy was only here for 4 days, so we were pretty busy trying to make the best of it. Except for the first day, Jimmy ended up being pretty lucky with the weather. I was able to get us out away from the clouds into nice areas.

 I have a book showing everthing from here to those cliffs on the right, all under about 200 feet of ice in the 1980's.

 A beautiful day above Whittier. One of those times when it was cloudy in Anchorage all day.
 

 Jimmy at the Matanuska Glacier. His first time on a glacier, first time in crampons, first time with an ice axe.

Some really cool seracs. At least this post has pictures with people for scale.

Every time i go toe the Matanuska Glacier it looks totally different. The last time i visited i was sure the lake at the glacier was almost gone. This time it was bigger than i've ever seen it.

 

 This was as far as we got before we had to turn around due to time limits. Jimmy did not want to turn back.

After Jimmy left my sister, who has never visited me, and her boyfriend Danielle (whom i had never met) came up at the beginning of August. Danielle is an Italian working and going to school in the United States. Neither of them had been anywhere close to Alaska. I can't even remember how long they were here, and i think they got the worst of the weather. Still, we were able to do things and had some good sun now and then.

Mary Beth and Danielle at Gold Cord Lake.

 Fisher came along, got wet, and started shedding in the heat, the room temperature heat.

Fisher got so hot he had to seek solace in the inadequate shade of fireweed.

 Fisher on the way back to the mine. Looks like Fisher is hijacking this blog, so i'm calling it quits for now.

I need a hug

I rediscovered a favourite whilst I was preparing for a talk about emotional intelligence and picturebooks, so I thought I share it with you all.  It's Hug by Jez Alborough.  

Alborough has a wonderful website, with lots of information about his picturebooks, so do click and follow links.  In the picturebook section he actually describes where his inspiration came from, how the story developed and how he made decisions about what to draw and what to write.  The behind the scenes information about Hug is fascinating, and can be read here. And this wonderful description of what it means to be an author and an illustrator, couldn't put it better myself. 

Taken from Jez Alborough's website http://www.jezalborough.com/

What's so very clever about Hug is how Alborough has used so few words, rather like Emily Gravett's Orange Pear Apple Bear, and given each one a different meaning depending on what he shows in the illustration.   So, there's 'Hug', which means 'Hey, that's a hug happening over there!', another which means, 'I want my mummy', another which means, 'Thank you!' ...  oooh and plenty more as well. Reading this picturebook out loud is loads of fun, as you get to dramatise all the different meanings behind one little, three-letter word. 

Our front cover presents us with Bobo the chimp.  Arms wide open, inviting us into the book for  a hug.  There are no endpapers in my paperback edition, but the book opens on a single cameo image of little Bobo, walking happily by himself.   

The copyright and title page are a whole scene, the setting, a Savannah-like wood.  Bobo is happily, chimp chomping along.  He comes across a Mummy and baby elephant, that's where Hug means 'Hey, that's a hug happening over there!'

He comes across several pairs of animals hugging ...

... and his posture clearly shows us how he's feeling.  The next page has no words, but we feel his sadness and we also feel the other animals' sympathy as we look at the illustrations.   Bobo is helped by Mummy elephant and together they begin their quest: a search for a mummy to hug.

They pass a lioness hugging her three spotty cubs, Bobo moans, 'Hug'; two giraffes, their long necks entwined in a hug and eyes closed with pleasure and Bobo moans, 'Hug'; then a baby hippo hugging a hippo parent, both lying in a muddy pool.  Bobo's face is wretched ... 'Hug' he wails, clearly meaning,  'I want my mummy.'

He sits down and cries.  The other animals are all around and you can feel their empathy oozing from the page.  Poor Bobo.  But all is not lost, we turn the page and larger than life, here comes Mummy chimp. She's calling 'BOBO' in a big bold font.  And Mummy and Bobo are reunited.

And they ... HUG.  The other animals unite in breathing a sigh of relief, 'HUG', they all say.  'Thank goodness!', 'Oh, isn't that nice!', 'Yeah, go for it Bobo!' 

Bobo hugs Mummy elephant's trunk - that's 'Thank you!' of course. Then he turns to the other animals and calls for a mass group hug. What a clever chimp he is. 

Lions and gorillas, elephants and snakes, the whole jungle caboodle in one massive jungle hug.  They are delirious with happiness!  And one final page turn sees a cameo of Bobo and Mummy walking towards us, holding hands, happy to be reunited. 

Ahhh... and doesn't that make you want to go and hug the next person you see?  I'll give my husband an extra big hug when he comes in and I'll hug my cats and dogs too.  I'll hug our next door neighbours, and their neighbours, the whole village, and the next one too. I'll hug the world.  Goodness, it's catchy!

In fact that's just what Jez Alborough is after!  If you click on 'Jez says' you'll see that he's very happy for us all to send hundreds of hugs around the world.  Bless! 

You can be sure that after reading this picturebook in class, everyone gets a hug ... well they do in mine! 

This is an excellent example of how picturebooks can help children understand what emotions look like; contribute to developing their ability to understand themselves and others, and to respond appropriately. 

 

I'm in love with ... me!

An inky squiggle by Lucy Cousins from I'm the Best!

And so to continue with the being-in-love theme, but in a quirky sort of way... I'd like to talk about I'm the Best, by Lucy Cousins.  I hope you are following!

Cousins is best known for her Maisy books, which she began creating twenty years ago. If you aren't familiar with her work, here's an interesting interview with her on the Book Trust website. 

I'm the Best is slightly different in style to the Maisy books we are all so familiar with.  When I got my copy a couple of weeks ago, I chuckled to myself as I turned the pages, quite amazed at this style I'd not seen her do before.  The Maisy books, and another of my favourites, Hooray for Fish (which I'll talk about one day), are usually illustrated against colourful backgrounds, with thick painted outlines, and bright primary colours.  But I'm the Best uses white to a maximum, leaving the backgrounds empty of colour washes.  And she uses ink instead of paint.  The inks give a sort of blotchy, wild effect, sort of off handish, making the final product look as though it's a collection of rough sketches, and almost child-like too: her outlines are done with a blasé-style black crayon.  On some of the pages she's let the paper soak up the inks and the result is a chance one.  They are lovely illustrations and children enjoy them too. 

I'm the Best is about dog, who thinks he's the best.  He has four friends who he loves, but that doesn't stop him telling them he can do things better than they can.   It turns out that they teach him a lesson, in a kind way, and he realises that it's important for everyone to have that 'I'm the best' feeling!   

The front cover introduces our main character, Dog, waving his arms and looking downright delighted with life! Endpapers are bright orange paper and provide a nice introduction to the blotchy inks that follow.  The copyright page is dotted with inky blobs, all extending waterlogged tendrils into the paper.  Makes me want to get some inks and have a go (and that is a possible post-picturebook activity). The title page also has our dog protagonist. The font is hand-written by Lucy Cousins - this is one of her trademarks - so it's uneven and irregular and adds to the spontaneous effect she cleverly creates. 

And so Dog is presented amongst flowers introducing himself as "... the best." 

Next spread shows us his friends, "Ladybird, Mole, Goose and Donkey", standing in a line, going from small to big. Dog loves his friends, "... they're brilliant", but he's the best!    It's a well balanced spread: the two sets of animals are facing each other, but the words separate them.  That's important.  

The following spreads show Dog being the best: running faster than Mole, "I won. I'm the best." Digging holes better than Goose, "I won. I'm the best." Being bigger than Ladybird, "I won. I'm the best." Swimming better than Donkey, "I won. I'm the best." What a exuberant expanse of water Cousins' has created. You can almost feel Donkey's splashes!

"I'm the best at everything", say's Dog.    Look at those 'I'm the best' squiggles: delightful! 

Poor Donkey, Goose, Mole and Ladybird.   They do look sad...

... they are sad, until they realise that in fact, Dog has got it wrong. Mole "can dig holes much longer and much deeper"; Goose  "can swim much faster"; Donkey is "much bigger", and of course Ladybird "can fly much better" than Dog.  So in fact his friends are much better than he is. Poor dog, his face gets more wretched, as we see his friends prove their worth.  In this last double spread, can you see the grey sky over Dog's head, in comparison to Ladybird's bright blue one? 

Dog realises he's "... rubbish at everything"; that he's a "... SHOW OFF". And so he apologizes to his friends. Well done Dog!  They hug and reassure him, "Don't worry.  You are the best at being our best friend. And you are the best at having beautiful fluffy ears.  And we love you", (the last line is slightly bigger for emphasis), and the five friends are hugging each other. 

A happy ending... with a twist - if we turn over, Dog is back to his old ways ... "Oh phew! Obviously having beautiful fluffy ears is the most important thing. So I AM the best."

Don't you ever learn Dog? 

A picturebook with a message which can be used with pre-school and primary.  It supports the development of emotional intelligence, providing children with visual evidence of feelings and emotions, helping them understand their own as well as others.  Quite brilliant!

And if you get the chance, do experiment with inks, kids will love the experience!

Zebra Slot Canyon

A few years ago, i was browsing Google Earth, looking at remote areas in the desert that were well away from roads and trails, just to see what was there. I came across some some interesting sand dunes in the Escalante area that i had never heard of. Open fields of dunes are somewhat rare in the American Southwest, and these appeared large enough from space that i was intrigued. The problem was they were miles away from the nearest road, and getting to them would be a cross country trek across very hot terrain.

Since my Blackstone Bay experience i've become more interested in cross country hiking. Last year, revisiting the sand dunes in Earth, a few photos had been added to the area, revealing that the sand dunes were indeed large and interesting. Additionally i found the location of two noteworthy slot canyons very close by. I had heard rumors of, and occasionally seen a photo of Zebra and Tunnel slot canyons, but i never knew where they were. It turns out they are both within a mile of each other and some distance to the south of the big dunes.

 

The normal way to get to Zebra Slot is to hike in from the Hole in the Wall Road, over 3 miles away, and return via the same route. I don't like backtracking, and if i wanted to see Tunnel Slot and the Dunes that would add on miles of backtracking. I thought it would be fun to design a loop hike using sattelite imagery.  I found a less used sand road to the east that would make a great starting point for the loop, incorporating all three destinations and offering a look at bare rock wildlands in between. The total hike would be between 10 and 12 miles, depending on how far along the dunes i wanted to go.

The route that i actually ended up hiking. The black line is one mile long.

A closer view of the "wildlands" that i traversed on the way from the Start to the Dunes and Tunnel.  The beige patches are old sand dunes that are generally stabilized with plants. I tried to stay in the white bare rock areas, which was sometimes not easy because the horizon was often obscured in the sand. The large green plants are Juniper trees. The smaller speckles are mostly Sagebrush.  

When i first got to the rocks i followed a long drainage with larger and larger waterholes. Some were dry, some were wet.

Starting at one of the ends of the Spencer Flats road i made the three mile walk to Tunnel Slot.  I'm still bad about bringing maps with me, so i was using my iphone as a gps from time to time. I highly recommend NOT doing that, as the iphone (at least the iphone3) is a terrible navigational aid. You have to be moving for it pinpoint your position and show your direction. As soon as you stop moving it looses your direction. So if you are walking off trail, through endless small obstacles, you can only glance at the screen for a second or two to get your bearings. It also uses immense amounts of battery power.

It was a cold, windy morning (it had been 25F that night) but I made it to Tunnel Slot without any major problems. In fact, i was hugely surprised that i navigated so accurately across the terrain. I came right up to the back of the Tunnel, which was nice because the front of the Tunnel was flooded, so i didn't have to feel disappointment in not knowing where the tunnel went.

Acres and acres of open bare rock. I love it. In the foreground are what they call Moki Marbles. They are iron rich mineral deposits, some of them perfect spheres. In some areas there were so many of them that you literally had to watch your step.

The beginning of the Tunnel Slot wash is fairly unappealing and somewhat choked with dead willow bushes. If i hadn't just walked back along the top i would never assume this led anywhere of interest.

The canyon opens up briefly and then squeezes shut abruptly. You can see the tomb like entrance to the tunnel up ahead.

The tunnel looked about 60 feet long and was full of water. The water at the entrance looked more than 3 feet deep, and was hard to avoid unless you ran along the wall bouncing back and forth Prince of Persia style.

From the front of Tunnel Slot to the front of Zebra Slot is 1.5 miles. This was the only part of the hike where there was any semblance of a trail. The trail was largely just the sandy riverbed, so there may as well have been no trail at all.

Looking back down the "trail" between Tunnel and Zebra slots.

During this time i came across two pairs of people. The first pair was an older couple with a dog who didn't seem like they had the strength to make it all the way to Tunnel Slot. I am sure they perished. The second pair of people were a couple from Amsterdam, and the guy was a photographer. They unfortunately arrived at Zebra Slot exactly as i was getting ready to enter it. They were very pleasant, and being a photographer, he was patient about waiting while i went up ahead. The slot was far too narrow for more than one or two people to be in it. In fact, there are only a couple of spots where two people might be able to get around each other.

A mile and a half later i was approaching the outlet of Zebra Slot up ahead.

Wait, is that a bit of blue sky?

I  spent about 40 minutes around Zebra Slot, and then continued on to see if i could make it to the dunes. The rock landscape was getting more interesting as i followed the wash north of Zebra Slot, but it also was getting more confusing. I followed the sand for over two miles before i came upon the large dunes. Along the way i passed a fantastic oasis, with two trees growing out of wet sand, and a small pool at the base of a slide.

Zebra Slot Canyon. On the right you can see some of those Moki Marbles embedded in the wall.

The canyon continues for a while and then ends at a dirty pool and dry waterfall.  

Looking up. Zebra Slot gets it's name from the stripes in the walls.

The sun had come out and the wind died down. The temperature on the rocks skyrocketed until i wanted to take off my shirt. Amazing, considering i started out wearing a coat and gloves. The area must be an inferno in the middle of summer. After i got hot i had to do some steep climbing and i ended up dizzy enough that i had to take a break, realizing for sure that i was sick with a cold. I'd been denying it until that point.

 Above the oasis i came upon this landscape of fantastic smooth white rock withe red stripes and pink hues. It the bright sun it was almost to much to bear.

It wasn't much longer before i reached the dunes. I had planned on walking along to their northern end, but i was tired and low on water, so i headed back. I made my way 3 miles across stabilized dunes and patches of bare rock, and i erred on the side of caution, coming back onto the sand road about 1/4 mile from the truck, which was at the end of the road. I didn't want to miss the end of the road.

This was a crucial decision point that i hadn't planned on having to make. Looking at the imagery i knew that i would encounter a pyramid shaped mesa and that i would need to walk to the left of it to get to the sand dunes. I never expected to walk up to TWO pyramid shaped mesas that were a near mirror image of each other! By this point i was getting tired, so choosing the wrong path would probably have used up the rest of my recreational willpower reserves. This was where i had to choose because the watershed divided, forking off toward each distant monument. I chose correctly.

Finally, the Big Dunes! I was too tired to bother climbing up them. Once again i've taken a picture with nothing for scale. The top of the cliffs over there is 300 feet higher than the rock i was on, and i still had at least three miles of walking through sand to get back to the truck.

On the way back i'd only driven about a mile before i came across a compact Chevy sedan, bottomed out and abandoned in the middle of the road. I couldn't believe someone would even attempt take that car all the way out here, so i got out to take pictures of it. While i was taking pictures the driver of the car came walking down the road. He was a German tourist (actually a teacher on a sort of exchange program) and he wanted to know if i could help him.

Of course i helped him. He was about 11 miles from the nearest paved road and it was close to sunset. Although i was impressed with how far he got the car before it became stuck i berated him for being foolish enough to try it. I just walked 10 miles and i was hungry, sick and dirty. I didn't want to do anything but take a shower and get some dinner before the restaurants closed in Escalante.

First i just offered him a ride back to town where he could get a tow or buy a tow line. I told him i'd come back tomorrow with him if he needed me to. He was freaking out because he claimed he had to catch a plane the next afternoon (the next day i doubted this was true because i saw him walking into the Capital Reef visitor center at the same time he said he had to be on the plane).

ATTENTION TOURISTS: NOT THE RIGHT CAR FOR THE JOB.

So we tried to dig his car out for a while, which was hopeless. I told him i'd seen a large camp halfway up the road, and that those guys might have a tow rope. The camp was still there and the guys camping were making dinner. We had arrived at exactly the wrong time, but one of them was generous enough to put aside his dinner, get on his ATV, and follow us back. He had a winch but for some reason he thought the best thing to do was try and tow the car even farther down the road to this turn out area. The sand was deeper down there so i couldn't understand why he thought that was the thing to do. He was being very generous with his time though, so i was patient while he failed.

I finally convinced him to try and tow the car backwards to the point where the surface was more firm. The car was so well beached that the ATV just kept towing itself back to the car, instead of vice versa. So we had to dig it out some more (we found out the wheels weren't really touching the ground), and nearly burned up the engine of the car before we finally got it moving toward safety. All in all it took and hour and a half for me to help that guy with his car. He was certainly excited to be free from his predicament.