It seems impossible to believe it has been almost a year since Diana and I traveled to Thailand and China for the panda adoption!! Today I was contacted by Korean Air Lines to feature one of my Chengdu images on the cover of their February inflight magazine (WOOO HOO) so I had to go digging in my archives for the full resolution copy.
While I was rooting around I discovered I had hardly put a dent in getting many of these photos worked on in Photoshop and posted in my albums. This grouping from the Shu Embroidery Factory in Chengdu China were some particular favorites. This is all hand worked with split silk threads and embroidered on BOTH sides of the see through silk!! The panda panel above was massive and stood taller than me
Look at the delicate blending on this cicada and leaf
And the parrot was a sight to behold. Every feather perfect
This is not machine made. We watched the ladies working on the embroideries one stitch at a time from a faded photo by their table
Above a stunning display of lights at the Chengdu Lantern Festival
Can you believe it!!! Ek wrote to me this week from Thailand with some more great puppy news!!!
Angel had a fantastic weekend (the Vincent x Money puppy) again and I want to share Eks news verbatum with you via his email. This grandma (and grandma Diana) are so very proud of our grandchowdren!!
The letter below is from Ekarat with his permission !
It is time to share update news from Thailand again. It was so much fun to have Sandra Millers and her daughter Liz came to visited and spends time for 1 week. She had been seen what I have including my puppies. Dianna had 2 of my puppies and she had named them “Ginger” and “ Honey “. I hope she will have lots of fun with them in the show ring soon. I can not wait to her the result as well.
At the show last weekend here in Thailand, I did have a chance to take “ Angle ” United’s Love Struck back to the show again and she did quiet well. She is 4 /2 months at the moment.
On Saturday , She won Group 2 at the The Mall Lovely Pets Day’s & WDCT Championship Dog Shows , 1st WDCT All Breed Championship Dog Shows under Taiwan Judge : Mr.Chan Sui Kung then in the afternoon show was Group 5 Specialty, Angle won Best Baby In Show Specialty under Indian Judge : Mr.Partha Sekhar Chatterjee.
On Sunday was The Mall Lovely Pets Day’s & WDCT Championship Dog Shows , 2nd WDCT All Breed Championship Dog Shows. She won Best Baby in Show under all a rounder Australian Judge : Mr.Richard Baker. It was very exciting win for us as she had been shown 6 times and won 4 Best Baby in Shows. This Best Baby in Show win was number 403 of all United Chows puppies to update.
I would like to Thank You Sandra and Dianna for giving me an opportunity to used Vincent frozen semen also another Thank you go to my handler Molly Exner who help me working for the breeding.
Angle will be in the USA the end of this month and hope your guys will have a chance to see her if you do please give her a hug for me.
Thank you all your guys who let me share these news.
AND A SIDE NOTE FROM SANDRA: A BIG HUG OF THANKS GOES TO YOU EK, FOR YOUR ADMIRATION AND SUPPORT OF OUR VINCENT FROM THE TIME HE WAS A LITTLE PUPPY. IT WAS OUR ABSOLUTE PLEASURE TO SEE YOU USE VINCENT IN SUCH A RESPECTFUL AND RESPONSIBLE BREEDING. VINNIE IS ONLY ONE HALF OF THE PEDIGREE ON THESE BABIES WITH YOUR MAMA DOG “MONEY” CONTRIBUTING HER WONDERFUL GENES TOO. WE ARE SO EXCITED TO WATCH THESE KIDS MATURE AND DEBUT IN THE SHOW RING
It’s amazing how each event and moment in our lives is so interconnected even though at first glance they seem unrelated. My eye injury was an unfortunate boo boo but then today I got an email from the Elephant Nature Foundation in Chiang Mai Thailand that put my problem into perspective instantly!
They initially wrote to thank me for the photos I took while visiting the park in February
CLICK HERE TO SEE MY IMAGES ON THE ELEPHANT NATURE FOUNDATION WEB GALLERY
While at the website I decided to peruse around as long as my eye could stand it and see how my foster boy MAX was doing. I came upon the story of Jokia again (the blind elephant Diana and I worked with ) and as I read it I realized that as tragic as her story was….. how lucky she is to be saved from such a terrible fate and how my problem is VERY insignificant compared to Jokia’s vision loss. Also I can’t help but think what pain that beautiful girl had to endure at the hands of her “keepers”.
Her story is below taken from the website. The photos above are of Jokia sitting and acting cute for me and Diana on such a HOT HOT day and me bathing her. The photo below is from the ENF website
Needless to say, Jokia has now become the newest foster member of my “herd” along with Max for the next 3 years. Jody who is her wonderful caretaker will be updating me on Jokia’s progress during the years to come!
— Jokia —
Photo from Elephant Nature Foundation website
Jokia was born around 1960 in a Karen village along the border of Thailand and Burma. She was rescued by Lek in 1999, and thanks for funding her rescue go to Amanda De Normanville and friends. Her name is a Rakhine word that means ‘eye from heaven’. Jokia’s story is one of the saddest stories of all the elephants residing at Elephant Nature Park.
During her younger years, Jokia worked in the logging trade to support the Karen family who owned her. However, in 1989 the logging ban in Thailand left Jokia and many other elephants unemployed. The owners were left with no source of income. The expense of owning a large animal with a huge appetite was more than they could afford. Eventually the family sold her to an illegal logging camp. was here that Jokia’s tragedy would unfold.
After a few years working illegal logging, Jokia became pregnant. She was forced to work her entire pregnancy. While pulling a large log uphill, wearing heavy logging chains, she gave birth to her baby. It rolled down the hill behind her. She was not allowed to stop working to tend to her newborn, to see if it was alive or not. By the time they returned to the baby, it was dead. After that, Jokia refused to work. She was depressed and heartbroken. The mahout used physical threats, but still she refused. Finally the mahout used his slingshot and shot rocks at her repeatedly until she was blinded in one eye. Jokia became resentful and dangerous. She worked for a few more weeks until her sadness and anger overcame her again. She hit her owner. The owner, who had no sympathy for Jokia, soon became impatient and decided a completely blind elephant might be more submissive. He shot her remaining eye with a bow and arrow.
Once completely blind she was forced back to work, but the owner’s idea backfired. Jokia became very stubborn. She would swing her trunk at people, and not respond to commands. She didn’t trust anyone and didn’t feel confident with her surroundings.
When Lek first came across Jokia, she was on a Jumbo Express. She heard an elephant, roaring and trumpeting in pain and anger. She followed the noise and saw a man beating Jokia very badly. Her body was covered with infected wounds and scars from past beatings. She had tears running down from her blinded eye and empty socket. Lek couldn’t believe the condition of this blind elephant.
Lek tracked down the owner, who agreed to sell Jokia. When Jokia finally made it to her first home with ENP, Elephant Haven, she seemed to know her life had changed forever. After an adjustment period, Jokia grew accustomed to her new surroundings and finally made friends with Mae Perm. Although Jokia will always be in a dark world, she has a best friend to protect and guide her. Now the two girls are inseparable, often accompanied by the young Hope and sometimes Somboon, both whom Jokia also feels comfortable with.
CLICK ON ANY OF THE IMAGES BELOW TO BRING YOU TO THE ELEPHANT SANCTUARY ALBUMS
The Elephant Nature Park is located outside of Chiang Mai Thailand. I added another 40 plus images today for you all to see!! What a day this was. I am sooooooooo ready to go back as is Diana!!
Also I have a new link just under the photo header of me and the panda on the blog called TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY . I am reorganizing all of my photos from the past 10 years of traveling to go onto this page in chronological order. I have just barely skimmed the surface but you will get the idea when you view the page.
All albums are viewable by 3 methods….by my Flickr albums, by a large beautiful flash slideshow, and by a geotagged Google map!!!! Choose what suits your viewing pleasure then sit back and become an armchair tourist!!! Let me know how you like the new layout. It will be finetuned as I go along but I needed to get this photo album beast under control while I can. I still have dozens of Africa albums I need to do and this will simplify things SO much!
I will also be adding all my fave travel images into my IMAGEKIND gallery available for purchase as fine art prints, on canvas or watercolor paper….and greeting cards!!! All coming very soon!!
Before you all think I’ve just returned from truck driver school with my potty mouth blog title…be sure to read on!!!
This morning my husband Steve left the most DELIGHTFUL video on my screen for me to watch. OMG it actually had me in tears (good tears) and I’m not sure why. Actually I can’t watch it without tears streaming down my face each time and such a feeling of joy I can’t describe it. I think it’s must be the power of dance and laughter that does it!!
Was it the music (stunning music on this video)…was it the joy of all the dorky dancing, I don’t know but all I know is my spirit is certainly uplifted today after all this depressing news we are bludgeoned with on a daily basis
In short, the video is about a guy who was paid to travel all around the world to do this “dance’ of his by a gum company when they heard about a video he made on his own from his earlier travels. The locals at each location enjoy his dance as much as he does it seems!! PURE BLISS is the only way I can describe it!
Watch and enjoy…I am in love with the music. I want to be Matt!!!!!!!
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Be sure to read the ABOUT MATT page to learn more about this world wide trip he took.
Lucky Lucky boy!!!!
Hope this video starts your weekend off of a very uplifting note!
Hugs…Sandra!
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ONE OF THE MOST BLISSFUL FEELINGS I HAVE HAD RECENTLY WAS WHEN VISITING THE CHILDREN IN THE HILLTRIBES OUTSIDE OF CHIANG MAI THAILAND. BOY WOULD I HAVE LOVE TO HAVE DANCED WITH THEM!
