Felicity's Tag

Felicity in Kuwait ( hope to meet you next year!) tagged me for twenty things so I have included the good the bad and the ugly.
And I tag the following five:
Sandy Marcoux
Claire Fenton
Claire Bryant
Rayna Gilman
Lisa Call

So here are my twenty;

1. My mother tongue is Dutch and I have three children; Celeste, Siena, and Ynez and I am married to Collin
2. My father always claimed we were descended from French Huguenots- something we all took with a grain of salt but it turns out to be true, so maybe my mothers claims to Spanish ancestry will one day prove true as well.
3. I studied history and law at university.
4. I practiced law for nearly 10 years and then I travelled for a year with Collin after I quit being a lawyer and spent 6 months in Africa and 6 months in Europe.
5. Travelling in Africa changed my life- I saw the most devastating poverty and realized that the world is not a nice place and that there is no such thing as democracy
6. Africa freed my spirit for whilst I saw the most devastating poverty I also saw the most courageous dignity and the colour of life- I knew my life would never be the same again.
7. I was in Africa the day Nelson Mandela was freed- we knew something special had happened everyone was so happy- and we were in Ireland when he made his first visit to a western country after being freed

8. I love living in the country- as a rule I don’t like cities much unless of course you asked me to spend a year in Siena, Venice or Paris ( someone please ask me???)
9. We have a huge vegetable garden and orchard, and we process much of our own food and make our own wine ( though it usually runs out before the next harvest)
10. I think that the Black Madonna and Demeter myth are related- maybe it’s because of the Eleusinian mysteries
11. I have wanted to be a writer since I learned to read but I was nine before I could read properly- before that I memorized everything.
12. I like to have bare feet and dislike wearing shoes and I like sitting on the floor
13. I am sometimes grumpy and yell too much but I also like laughing so much that your sides hurt.
14. I run a business based around my art, fabric and teaching.
15. I collect ethnic textiles and have some good pieces because I have swapped them for my art and I also collect prints by young printmakers- under 25
16. We recycled a 1940’s wooden house and moved it to our land on a semi trailer- it is still not completely renovated but it is a roof over our heads.
17. I want to add to the world rather than take- even if it means planting trees and adding to the robustness of our environment
18. We all lived in a castle in the Morvan in France for 3 months
19. I have written a book called Tifaifai Renaissance- making my own designs in the tifaifai method, some history and some dyeing instructions.
20. I have a Masters in Visual and Performing Arts with textiles as my exhibition project.