Deb Soromenho Jewelry: Finding Inspiration

Showing posts with label Finding Inspiration. Show all posts

Thursday, July 12, 2012

A trip to the past.

Just went on an amazing tour of the rock engravings in the Vale do Coa. I had seen photos of the engravings beforehand and so I knew what I'd see, but I wasn't expecting the impact seeing the engravings would have on me. The engravings are really just scratches on random rocks (some of them hard to even decipher) beside the river, but as you look at them and realize that they were carved by people, fairly similar to us, thousands of years (20 to 30 thousand) ago, and you become truly amazed. Amazed that the engravings have lasted all this time, amazed that the ancient people who made them lived in this very valley, stood on the same soil looking at the same hills with no thoughts about people 30 thousand years in the future You also wonder why they made the engravings; was if for religious reasons? out of superstition? territory markings? or were they just bored and filling time with what they had? :) Whatever the reasons, it's incredible to see --it's also amazing because the site was almost destroyed! The engravings were discovered just at the time that a dam was being built (in 1991) that would have flooded the entire area without anyone ever knowing what was lost!

The Douro River running one direction.
The hills around here are filled with wine vineyards!

The Coa River running the other direction.
This is the river valley where all of the engravings are found. About 90 kilometers worth of engravings have been found, all within 300 feet of the rivers edges.

We started at the top of the mountain (where the shots of the rivers was taken) at the Coa Valley Museum. It's an incredible site in itself, the design apparently winning several awards. The outside is awesome and the inside is made to give the feeling of being in caverns and valleys (totally forgot to take photos of the inside :P ) and the exhibits are laid out in a very stark, modern way contrasted with an eery, primitive soundtrack. I LOVED it. :)

A larger shot of the building. (sort of reminds me of the ship that picked up R2D2 and C3PO on Tatooine :)

Some of the artwork on the walls of the museum. They were huge and gorgeous, luminescent, lit up by black light.

All of them represented some of the engravings found in the Valley. These two orange people were my favorites.

And here we are, midway down the mountain in a town called Castelo Melhor (Better Castle, apparently better than the one that was destroyed just before this one was built, lol) in our tour jeep ready for the ride down into the valley.

Our guide pointing out the engravings and talking about the theories on why they were made, etc.

Some of the engravings were very hard to see and they were usually engraved over and over each other spanning about a 10,000 year period. One of the reasons for this is territory markings, another is hunting superstitions.

These you can see fairly well, a horse is the largest and there's also a goat at the top right. There's actually a couple other engravings on this rock, but they are very difficult to see. (photos were hard also as the sun was behind us shining right on the face of the rocks, so no shadows to hilight the engravings)

Another shot where you can actually see some of the engravings.

Here's a couple of sites with more info if you'd like to read more info and see more/better photos.
http://www.arte-coa.pt/index.php?Language=en
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/866/

xoxo

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Octopus, Cherries, and a Beer! - Arrival in Portugal

I'm so excited to finally be here!

Portugal is awesome in the summer! Great beaches! and the boardwalk (called the Pardão) by my in-laws house in Cascais (just outside of Lisbon) is like nothing I've seen in the US: miles of wide cobblestone boardwalk lined with cafés and restaurants (where a beer is cheaper than a coke and the fresh grilled fish is to die for!) bordering mini-castles, cute little beaches, rocky cliffs, ocean water swimming pools, and multi-colored fishing boats. It IS one of the most amazing places I've visited (photos of all these things are definitely coming!) :)

I LOVE exiting the plane on the tarmac, I feel like I've actually "arrived" somewhere! :)

One of the first things we did was hit the boardwalk and head to one of my favorite cafe's.
(it sits just in front of an ocean pool; a walled off area that allows in sea water at
high tide for people to swim in, wave-free)

YES! A cold beer on a warm, beach-y day! LOVE it.
(the "galão" or large coffee with milk and the Pasteis de Nata (custard pastry)
are my husbands, he goes for the sweet stuff :)

Our first dinner, prepared by my Mother in Law & enjoyed by my son: Octopus and delicious Portuguese potatoes! -
The "normal" fare is quite different in Portugal, our second meal was rabbit and we've had duck,
black sausage, and an assortment of shell fish since! Yumm...

Oh, and loads of the most delicious cherries I've ever tasted (and we used to pick them straight from
Washington groves :) --it's cherry season here and I'm in heaven :)

xoxo deb

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Travel Day 1 - New York City

We took the bus into NY to fly out to Portugal from JFK(airline points issues and trying to match up tickets dictated the necessity of leaving from NY) We did have a whole afternoon to hangout before we had to be at the airport though, so we spent the hours at Central Park. It was a perfect day for it, sunny but not too hot and not terribly crowded! ...and I got soma amazing photos :)

I'm always amazed how big Central Park is. We strolled, with only small stops to look at ducks, take photos, etc., for 4 hours and only covered a little corner of the Park!

Central Park and a slice of Manhattan. The red line is what we walked.

I love the contrasts!
The very old 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church against a modern high rise.

Entering Central Park - Lush organic greens against the hard, steel buildings.

An Instagram shot. An adorable gazebo on top of a hill of rocks.
It was much cuter in person than in this photo!

I love that you can take a hike on dirt trails with a cityscape backdrop.

My son being silly! An urban explorer, lol.

Another Instagram shot. The Boat House!
Tons of boaters out in the "very green" water (you don't wanna fall in that, lol!)

The boat house area is gorgeous! All arches, stairwells, and fountains.

A concert al fresco!

An Instagram shot.
I LOVE this shot, it's just gorgeous with the light coming through the arches!

Some gorgeous shapes and textures on the architecture!

Boaters drifting along.

Bridges, Boats, & Buildings :)

Huge planters at the ends of the bridge!

Me and my son! (I love the camera flip function on my iPhone!)

xoxo deb.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Inspirational Hiatus

Hi everyone! I have an exciting announcement!

I'm going on an Inspirational Hiatus (aka vacation/family visit!)

I'm heading out with my husband and son to Portugal for a month (to see family and travel around a bit) with a short visit to Italy in the middle!! :)

I am SO excited, Portugal and Italy are two of my favorite places in the world (that I've visited so far anyway! ;) --I should come back with tons of new design ideas to share!

My shop will be closed during this time (orders can be placed, but not fulfilled until I return) but I'll post updates on FB and share regular blog posts of all the inspirational places I visit.

**Studio closed from June 8 through July 22

xoxo deb.