Seoul Part 2

I only had time to see one Palace so I chose the Changdeokgung Palace where I started with a guided tour of the buildings before moving on to the ....Secret Garden. These buildings are rather impressive, although the ground around them always seems to be strangely bare. This is one of many ways they definitely differ from Japanese buildings.

The colour scheme for this Palace was repeated on all the buildings and was said to be partly to ward off insects that would eat the wood and partly for decoration. I felt it went above and beyond pest control.

The beautiful roof tiles were mostly grey except for the King's special building where they were a beautiful dark blue which apparently looks amazing when the sun shines on it.

Sadly it was very overcast when I visited. Not that that stopped me for getting my photo fix.

The Secret Garden was the private one of the King and Queen and only they and their invited guests could use it. Access was via guided tour only and there was a bull dog type guy who stayed at the rear of the group and growled at anyone not keeping up with the Guide. The Autumn Foliage was at peak perfection.

The gardens were huge. The 90 minute tour kept up a good pace and involved many extremely steep hills.

It then ended with a 750 year old Juniper tree.

Fairly impressive when you think about everything that has happened to Seoul while that tree has been growing.

I had spotted another impressive looking place from the taxi window (taxis were amazingly cheap) so I wanted to go and have a nose about. It turned out to be the Jogyesa Buddhist Temple and it was in the midst of some sort of celebration.

The outside was beautifully decorated with paintings and carvings.

I went in, took a cushion, and had a little meditate. It was beautifully decorated.

I have always loved Buddhist lanterns and there were shops nearby full of everything your practising buddhist needs.

Sadly the lanterns do not fold flat - if they had done my suitcase would have been stuffed with them.

I had been to one market but it was discussion of Dongdaemun which had got me started on the idea of visiting Seoul in the first place. Can you guess why?

There are two buildings, each with basements and about another 5 floors on top of that. Each building is huge and each is stuffed with stalls. There may be 50 - maybe more - stalls for the same sort of thing in one area of a floor, be that buttons, yarn, ribbon, fabric or anything else you can think of.

Every knitting stall had its own mini knitting group sat around or within it. 

With my sense of direction I was instantly lost as soon as I made my first left or right. Stalls seemed to go on for miles. It was a tad confusing for me too because we are returning to England so I knew I couldn't really buy anything as I'd just need to pack it - and I already have enough to pack. Yet everything seemed pretty cheap. A conundrum.

My final visit was to the National Museum of Korea, which is kind of like the UK's British Museum and the V&A combined. It was mahoosive.

The collection went from prehistoric flints to current day design and was extremely impressive. A few things stand out in my mind, all Buddhas as it turns out. This one is from the 16th Century. Only the head had survived and the shiny nature of it really creeped me out (I'm so cultural in my descriptions).

This painting is about the height of a three story building and a couple of hundred years old. The condition of it was amazing.

This 10th Century iron Buddha has the casting marks still on it.

The audio guide I had rented (for less than a pound) explained that bronze or copper had been the preferred metal for statues like this but a war had caused a scarcity and so this was one of the early iron ones which had to be cast differently because of the weight of the iron. I find those casting marks mesmerising. My absolute favourite piece was this though.

An early 7th Century bronze "Pensive Bodhisattva" which is apparently what this pose of one crossed leg is referred to as. Isn't he amazing? He was only about 30cm tall but I spent ages looking at him.

I did enjoy my time in Seoul, despite the heavy rain of the final day, but it was overcast by the uncertainty of what Pooch and I will be doing next as we prepare for returning to the UK. I certainly could have done a lot of damage to my wallet at the Dondaemun Market had the situation been different!

Seoul Part 1

I am back and almost not entirely caught up with what I've missed since I left on Wednesday. Who would have thought moving continent with no idea of where you'll be after 14th January would be so time consuming? My inbox resounds with the ping of those wanting to buy our secondhand rice cooker and take away our ironing board and meanwhile I still haven't managed to put SkipNorth on sale. So much to do...

It wasn't really the best time to go away but I had booked it some months ago and I may not be back in this part of the world for some years so I decided to head off. Seoul is quite similar to Tokyo in many ways but, to my eye, not as attractive.

It's also not as high rise, a lot smaller, plus it sits in a kind of valley with lots of impressive mountains in the distance.

On the attractiveness front, one can't really help thinking that it would have been nicer looking had they not been brutally invaded by the Japanese quite recently and invaded/burned/bombed to pieces on a fairly regular basis throughout history. There are still pockets though. Bukchon Hanok Village was about five mins walk from my initial hostel and was my first port of call.

I really liked the roofs and all the textures on the walls.

And some of the door trims were very beautiful.

I had heard about the Markets in Seoul before I left and headed first to Namdaemun which sold...everything?

There were stalls for seemingly everything clothing/footwear/household related and the market was vast. Look for the vanishing point in the photo below. And that is just one street in a vast rambling whole.

It really was massive. And quite seasonal.

The other shopping areas tended to have multiple shops all for the same things. In one instance there were three shops in a row all selling only face masks - seriously - whilst I found myself strolling through camera village.

Then I found what I wanted - a texting Garfield.

This was the sign that the cat cafe was near - yay!

This one just adored the male owner and followed him everywhere when she wasn't sat on his shoulder.

They were all very sweet.

And the place was nice too.

More adventures in Part 2...

Japanese Fauna

Over the Summer, the local birds either migrated or were not in need of additional supplies so I stopped putting food out. About a month ago the very screechy Brown Eared BulBuls returned from their summer fun and made their need for feed known in the loudest possible way. The daily bread and fruit resumed.

The Bulbuls always make me laugh because they often perch on the balcony outside and sit watching me, as if they are people'rs, in the same way that my Dad is a dedicated birder. I have tried them on various different foods but when it is orange, or a mikan/satsuma, the Japanese White Eyes come to visit. These are the beautiful green birds.

They are an even brighter and more iridescent shade of green in the spring. The little brown tree sparrows also visit and look so utterly adorable when they are all fluffed up.

Meanwhile, back at Chez Cat, the colder weather had meant a return to the heating and a number of the cats have been cuddling up together. This is Little Mum and Sonny.

Sonny, now fully grown, has a habit of seeking out his Mum and trying to join her wherever she is sleeping. Even if, as in this case, it means sitting on top of her. She lets him about 50% of the time. The rest of the time he gets a friendly cuff round the ear. Bruiser, of course, shares his bed with no one.

He has started letting me stroke his chin for 2-3 minutes before biting me - a marked improvement. There has also been a lot of resting of heads on bottoms.

This is Sonny's Uncle with Smoky Tula being used as the pillow.

I'll be so sad to leave them all - cats and birds - when we go!

A Few Finishes

Some little projects have been finished this week. First, a few xmas presents for my ickle niece. For her dressing up box...

Instant Rapunzel - as modelled by yours truly. Then a little superhero cape with elastic at the wrists and a velcro neck band.

A metre of satin type stuff in chartreuse green sewn double did for that one. Then for her toy collection, a drawstring bag for her plastic fruit and veg.

Then one of my tops sustained a teriyaki stain and needed another patch.

You can see the first bit at the bottom of the picture. And finally, I completed one of the two kits I bought at the Yokohama Quilt Show.

I sewed it all by hand and am very happy with it! I just don't know if I'll be able to bring myself to stick pins in it...

I also get to share a finish from a month or two ago.

This cross stitch was made for my cousin's birthday and she's sent me a photo of it hanging in situ, where it looks very comfortable! It comes from the same book as this one...

...which I used as a prop for my cross stitch workshop just yesterday.