today, dec 5 is King Bhumibol’s ( Rama IX) 81st birthdaythe King is very much loved and respected by thais and the whole town appers to be celebrating.

although the temperature in Hua Hin today was over 30C one of the centerpieces downtown was a ice sculpture of a royal barge, approx 30 ft long and 8 ft high.  there was almost a waterfall coming down the center of the sculpture and the temp was definatly a few degrees lower near it.

i’ve  also included some photos around town so you may get a feel for Hua Hin, some ar a little blurry, sorry they are taken from the back of a bike.

as we headed sown the main street towards the kings palace we meet a parade, the ladies were wearing bueatiful traditional thai silk coustmes, as it was night the colors don’t show up great but it was still bueatiful.

the lady in the wild hat is Mon or Karen. they are an ethnic group that come mainly for the northern maoutain area of thailand and burma. the Mon produce the most bueatful pieced and embrodered textile and are skilled silversmith and woodworker. most Mon now earn their livelyhood selling these handcrafts in the cities and town. as you can shem, this lady made a sale tonight,

hope you enjoy and please join me in wishing the King a happy, healthy year .

Damnern Kasem Rd, which runs down from the railway station, is all decorated, not sure what for? but it looks great. the decorations have light in them so should look really great a night once they get finished. will try to get some night shots.

we arrived back in hua hin 21 and plan to stay until almost the end of april. thankfully we flew in last week as the PAD party has occupied both airports in bangkok and so no flight are getting in or out at the moment.  the weather is wonderful as usual, today a light wind and about 30C.

don found a good table for me to use for cutting out, printing, painting or dying fabric on, 1600TB which is about $45 canadian. it a little low but i’ll try to find some pvc and make risers. i’m excited to get dying, i made up print paste today and have soda soaked fabric drying tonight so i can work on it tommorow. these a 2 pieces i started on last spring before i left for canada, the one i really like so just want add some stencils and maybe some stamps. i left the stamps i cut last year in canada so i’[ll have to cut somemore in the next few days.the 2nd piece i’m not so happy with so am thinkin of over dying , maybe some shibori or painting on dye.  i also cut out a shirt today, need some sleeveless one to wear when i’m at home.

nan icked me up and w ewent up to elephant village and fed the catfish. must be a few hundred fish is a pretty small pond and 1 lonely little turtle. we took about 2kgs of fish food and a loaf of bread, it was a total feeding frenze, we were trying to get the bread to the turtle but he was to slow and the fish got the most of the bread. we also stopped  and feed a baby elephant, some milk and lots of bananas.

We live in a 37ft 5th wheel rv in Gibbons,AB and plan to spend our winters in Hua Hin. Its a real challange finding room to paint, sew, dye (create) in 37ft. Thankfully my husbands use to me mucking about so he puts up with the mess that is created.

Since I returned to canada april 15th I have been very productive. I’ve made half a dozens new dresses for my mom, who is in a wheelchair, finished a quilt for my sisters 50th b-day gift, made my self a couple of outfits and a shirt out of hadwoven thai silk for my husband b-day. I took a 4 day batik workshop and have been doing some dyeing. I also took a 6 week workshop an silkscreening which is something i’ve always wanted to try. The silkscreening will be great for incororating into my cloth.