I am seeing stripes.....

We took a trip to the zoo to see the Pandas - they were amazing but so to were the zebras. I have never seen one in real life and they just blew me away. It certainly makes you appreciate their creator when you see them.

The Beijing zoo is fascinating, but not very animal friendly. The giraffe spent the whole time licking the walls. Despite signs telling you not to feed the animals everyone did. What concerned me was the fact that they were feeding them anything they could find. Leaves, potato chips, bread and even chocolate. I felt so sorry for these beautiful creatures.

Dirt Market Continues

Anyone for a pearl or a string of jade. I am constantly blown away at how easy it is to buy these things here. And so inexpensive. Maybe I can tempt you with a puppet or two?

I want to thank everyone for their kind comments, I am trying to get to everyone's blogs but I am having access issues. If you use blogger they are seeming to block it. If you use another forum, it is fine. So my apologies.

More Dirt Market

Have I mentioned how much I love this place?

I need to explain, I am not in a funk with photography, I am just so busy with my new job, new country etc, that I have had to stop spending hours editing and actually do the job I get paid for. I feel so lucky to be here having the opportunity to record this country with my camera. Life just sometimes gets in the way.

The Dirt Market

I have been in a funk photo wise. I just have been so busy with work and the kids that I haven't allowed myself anywhere near my photos. My self imposed exile is over.

There is this amazing place called the Dirt Market - it actually isn't on dirt, but I think it used to be. You can buy all sorts of cultural artifacts and a lot of cultural revolution memorabilia. I love this place and often go there just to escape. These are a few that I have edited.

My girls

I love having two girls. I always wanted daughters and i feel so lucky to have my wish come true. These were taken on our holiday in Thailand, hanging by the pool.

Holiday snaps

I am determined to get my summer holiday snaps edited if it kills me. Mind you we had 10 weeks away, so there are a lot. We started our trip in Thailand where we had 2 weeks resting and hanging out by the pool. Most of my shots this week will be from Thailand.

The shots today are from a trip to the market. Claudia wanted to buy bracelets and could not choose from the vast selection - it took her 25 minutes to finally decide. It was the hottest day I think I have ever lived through - hence her red face.

Birds

My Mum lives in the rainforest in Australia and every morning these beautiful birds come down for a breakfast of seeds. They are amazing and so beautiful. Their colours are truly this bright, I have hardly touched the saturation on these shots at all.

The Last of the Summer Palace

These are the last of my Summer Palace shots - I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

I made this story board from the template Molly C shared. Thanks Molly.

Yep, more Summer Palace

I am so lucky to be apart of 2 peas - you are all so kind and your comments and friendly messages are so appreciated.

Well here are more images from the Summer Palace - I am glad you are enjoying them. There are to shots of my girls too - I took them at to the palace.

This one cracks me up - she hates having to pose for shots with strangers (I just didn't have the energy to edit this one too).

More Summer Palace

The Summer Palace is a truly magical place. It is not often I visit somewhere and actually feel like I am in another place an time. The way they make the buildings is mind blowing, the intricate details and the attention to the small things is what makes the difference. But the again that is the Chinese way. Everything is thought about from the pot plants to the music that is played while you are walking around.

Someone asked what we do that makes us travel so much. Well DH and I are teachers in International Schools. I teach elementary Art and DH teaches 2d Grade. We are currently at the Western Academy of Beijing. Before that we were in Korea for 2 years. The best part about teaching internationally is the school holidays - we travel as much as we can. It also helps that for professional development or for conferences we actually have to leave the country. Hence our side trips to Singapore and what not. Due to the Olympics we had 3 months off for summer and spent that in Australia with a two week stopover in Thailand (I haven't edited those shots yet - still to come). DH's family live 2000km from my family so we got to zig zag our way across Australia too. Oh some days I yearn for a house in the suburbs, and never ever being in an airport!

I suppose the most purposeful part of my life is my spirituality (I need to talk more in code now as I am in a communist country). Fellowship and my relationships with my BIG Dad are so important. This has led to some amazing opportunities - hence our trip to Nepal and work with the children's home there. I am currently the Mercy Now representative in China. My work involves sharing and talking to others about the work Mercy Now does. Mercy Now is a mission organisation that works mainly in the South East Asia region. If you want to know more email me or pea mail me.

Sometimes I get sad and miss normal life in Australia. I miss my family and friends, but most days I actually have to pinch myself to make sure I am awake. I really feel I live a blesses life.

The Summer Palace

Thank -you to all those of you who leave comments, I would love to repay the kindness, but the internet police here in China are very random about what websites I get on to and when. Some days I can get onto every site and other days they block them all. The last two days has been blocked ones. Lets hope this ends soon! I may get blocked after this post - oops!

We went to the Summer Palace and I have taken a million images. Be patient, you will be seeing them all week. This place is amazing.