Oh my how the time does fly.

 

This weekend marks the openings of our 16th Annual ArtWalk. 

This is the 10th year I have been coordinating it and Frank Goodsir has worked with it even longer. Right now, frankly, I am tired.

 Our long cold wet spring has continued and gardening between rain storms has been a challenge. James' potatoes were nearly climbing out of the box but they got planted this week.

I still hope to get the yard knocked in shape for our son's wedding this summer and here are a few pictures of "promise."

The answer is "Yes."

Last month I quoted from  Percy Bysshe Shelley's  "Ode to the West Wind,"   
"O wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind."
Apparently it can be. It snowed all morning on April 2 and it is still on the ground! I don't know if the sun and warmth on Thursday or this snowy nastiness is the "trick"
James has continued labouring long in the shop and has finished his mandolin/mandola/ bazooki - beautiful 8 stringed instrument (4 sets of strings) and it plays beautifully.

This has been James' project to chase away the winter blues. He figures he has about 350 hours in it. 
Earlier this winter James built himself a 16 inch band saw from wood.

He used his band saw to cut parts for his mandolin. The top is made from part of a cedar block a friend brought him from up the Pend O'riele. The wood was very old and the tree was rotted out in the middle. The grain is very fine.
James cut it, hand planed it, and book-ended the pieces.

James "milled" the fret board from a piece of Brazilian Walnut another friend had given him. The back is milled from a the beautiful mahogany of an old door jamb and the sides and neck are from a mystery wood James had.

James carved and stained The Twa Corbies.
 All in all this has been quite a project. Now he is ready to get back to painting for the summer's shows and for a show in December at Center 64 in Kimberly.

O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

Well, when last I wrote I was heralding the onset of spring, blah, blah, blah. A little setback here. We have had snow and really cold weather, and brutal winds, and tonight it has warmed a bit and it is snowing again. Spring will come It must, but we are a ever anxious for its face.
Friday evening we were treated to watching a doe and last summer's twin fawns lapping up the sunflower seeds James has been scattering for the birds. All three look in lovely sleek shape.

The opening of the show at the Temp was a huge success. James' piece sold almost immediately and will find a good home with the couple who bought it. A number of other large pieces sold that evening: a mixed media collage by Brandy Dyer called "My Life" which will hang in the offices of Mental Health here locally, a number of wonderful stone carvings and more smaller works. The show was a great success for the week it lasted. It was classy all the way. The lions share of the show's organization was done by Maggie Leal-Valias with the expert assistance of Sandy Kunze in arranging and hanging it.
I have finished redoing the forms for this year's ArtWalk and we will be stuffing envelopes this weekend.
This week in our Self Employment class we will be studying Quick Books. The young would say "Kill me now." 
I have also signed up for another class at Beadazzled making a bangle bracelet and that will be my reward.

James has just finished this sculpture for the Contemporary Sculpture Show at the Temp Gallery on Canyon St in Creston. The show opens Friday night at 7:00 pm  and will continue from 11 am - 7:00 pm Feb 18 - 24.

  Detail of sculpture by James McDowell. 

The sculpture is 25 in X 25 in X 5 in and is for sale.

I am putting in an arrangement of crocheted flowers and tea cozies in an installation I'm calling it "All the Flowers in my Garden."

Down here in Creston's sunny south (I haven't seen the sun in a few.) spring really is on its way. Most of our snow is well on its way to gone. James has seen red winged black birds, the robins are out, and a friend tells me she smelled the unmistakable odour of skunk the other morning; the sure sign of spring.

With winter waning I'm looking at the yard and thinking of our son and his fiance's wedding this summer. Much to do. Much to do.

My class continues. This is week 6 of 12. It is a huge commitment of time at the time of year when we should be getting ready for this summer's sales but as I hammer away at a business plan things in my mind are clarifying.

I have decided I will not bake for the Farmer's Market this summer.

I love making people happy but it takes 3 hard days of baking - without air conditioning, I might add! - and then another day at the market and then it takes the other 3 to recuperate to start baking again. I would rather make birdhouses, or jewellery, or cards, or tea cozies and when I'm baking I have no energy to do those other things.

We do plan to do the market but will be selling cards and jewellery, birdhouses and tea cozies, and some of James' lovely garden produce. 
Today in the mail I just received 3 wonderful books from www.amazon.ca on jewellery making: Steam punk, Soldering, and Cold Joins. I am more than thrilled. Last week I took an evening's class on wire wrapping and I think I am in love!

I think the summer will be busy enough.

Pine Grosbeaks

This winter we have not been using the regular bird feeder since the bear came by and bent its pole in half last summer. This is not an altogether happy thought: neither the bear, nor the lack of the feeder.
We have been throwing seeds out under the bushes and on the lawn and getting whole flocks of Juncos, lots of chickadees, various finches and today we were blessed by a Pine Grosbeak. I borrowed the picture. He is a bit bigger than the finches and with a heavy grosbeak beak.
We've never seen one here before. I've seen them across the valley in West Creston and my girlfriend about a mile down the road had some earlier this year but here on our hilltop, this is the first we've seen.
Winter progresses. Ours has been milder than many years and open for the most part. Even though we've had it easy we are very ready for spring and planting things. I was SO very tempted to pull the grass off the spot my snow drops grow the other day but fortunately caution prevailed as it has gone back to freezing hard again. Usually the snowdrops are under a big drift of snow off the roof but this year we don't have that.
James has been keeping busy in the shop and studio. He has built himself a 16 inch band saw, mostly of wood, inspired by a YouTube video.
This week he was creating a wooden sculpture for the Contemporary Sculpture Show that will run at the Temp Gallery on Main street  from Feb 18 through the next week as part of our month long Spirit Fest.
I plan to show a grouping of my tea cozies.
My class progresses and I am getting more of a handle on our business but sitting "thinking" from 9:00 - 3:30 5 days a week is a big change after all these years. It takes a different kind of stamina than working with ones hands.
James and I are celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary today by watching the Super Bowl. I like both teams that are playing and it should be a good game.

Waiting for winter to leave

We have actually had a brighter winter than most but I am so ready for it to be over. The week before last we got about 16 inches of snow spread over 2 days and then it rained and turned to ice on the driveway and in the parking lots. We had a pretty treacherous few days. Last night we got about 3 inches and now it is melting again. We noticed in the night a deer had discovered where James threw seeds for the birdies and some wheat for the pheasant. Given the choice, Mr Pheasant seemed to enjoy the more expensive spread.

Here's a picture of our friend Victoria wearing a fun hat I made to compliment her dreads, and here is Mr Pheasant himself.

 

All the flowers from my garden

The new year is galloping by already. I am taking a 12 week class at KES for people over 50 wanting to start their own business. I am hoping to put James and my art work on more of a business-like footing.
I'm also still looking at things to create other than birdhouses. I plan to experiment in jewelry but meantime here are some of the tea cozies I've been knitting. The body is knit on a round loom, and the flowers are crocheted. They are in acrylic and are hand washable: dry flat.

Dusty rose rose on avocado and pale green cozy. Fits 4 - 6 cup pot. $25.00 + shipping and handling. Teapot not included.

Royal blue w variegated blue tea cozy with daffodil. Fits 4 - 6 cup pot. $25.00 + shipping and handling. Teapot not included.

Teal blue w turquoise and a coral rose. Fits 4 - 6 cup pot. $25.00 + shipping and handling. Teapot not included. SOLD

Light green w variegated beige cozy, burnt orange rose. Fits 4 - 6 cup pot. $25.00 + shipping and handling. Teapot not included.

Variegated beige and pale avocado tea cozy with daffodil.  Fits 4 - 6 cup pot. $25.00 + shipping and handling. Teapot not included.

2011 already! Where did 2010 go?

Best wishes for the year ahead. 

So far we've had a fairly open winter with sun and crispness.

Last time I wrote I had a nasty cold type of thing which hung on tightly for 8 weeks and I am still coughing but life continued.

James has had a show hanging at Kingfisher Used Books since early November and it will soon be coming down.

James and I did the regular craft fairs: one in Wynndel and one sponsored by the Creston Arts Council here in town, as well as James having been asked to show his work at the Images Art Show & Sale in Nov.

On the weekends where there were sales and Farmers Markets James and I did the "divide and conquer" and drove ourselves around the bend but we did it!

The poppy painting in the upper left corner is James' and sold as soon as someone saw the invitation.

In mid-Sept the Farmers Market moved from its outside venue at Millennium Park to inside Morris Flowers Garden Center where we continued until Dec 18.

I feel like I have been baking forever, We also sold James cards made from his paintings, mine made from post cards my grand parents exchanged in the early 1900's, my knit hats, Raku fired pendants James made, lathe turned candle holders James made, and tea cozies I have begun making. By the end of the market we took 2 tables. We will surely continue to need as much space as James also plans to plant a market garden for this coming year.

Our son and his fiance plan to marry in August so we won't be lacking things to do. 

 Here are a few of the tea cozies I'm making. The body is knit and the flower is crocheted. These are for a 4 - 6 cup tea pot and sell for $25.00 + Shipping and Handling, tea pot not included.

 

January can be an enjoyably slow month but I have eliminated that opportunity and will be beginning a 12 week course at Kootenay Employment Services for people over 50 who want to start their own business.

I am thinking of new endeavors other than birdhouses and need to get on a better business footing. I also need to learn how people sell on line.

James is relishing the thought of his "12 weeks of solitude." 

He has been keeping himself busy building a 16 inch band saw from wood, a project he saw on You Tube, but rather than order the pattern he has been designing it himself, and it is quite the beauty.

James has an ongoing show of his work at the Coffee Creek Cafe here in Creston. The restaurant has been recently sold but the new owner wishes to continue showing James' work and that is good for us too. The cafe will be reopening this week with a similar menu, keeping the great Borscht we all expect, but the new owner plans to be open in the evening also.

Falling into Fall

I am not good at identifying little brown birds.
Today one smacked into the slider and I went out and provided a hospice for it before it did a little shudder and passed away. My guess is it was some sort of flycatcher but it was small. Poor wee thing but at least the cats didn't get it.

 Not to gross anyone out. There is a beauty. Such a perfect little creature and gone so swiftly. Now I would like to know whose fading life I held in my hands. Please note the underside of the little bird is mostly white but mottled in the upper parts like a young robin. The back and wings are all a lovely reddish brown with no banding on the wings.
Fall is upon us. We have begun to see Praying Mantis and Cedar Bugs and the birds are gathering to go south.
Labour Day Weekend the Wynndel Mudders put on another Rutabaga show at the Mudder's Studio and the Wynndel Hall. They made a big variety of thrown and glazed soup bowls and sold them, with soup and a bun, for $10.00. It was a great success and sold out quite early. I dug out my knit hats for the first time since last winter and will have them for sale at the greenhouse, as well as birdhouses, James' cards, and my baking.
James and Sandy Kunze held a Pallet Show in Ann's garden this week displaying a few years of colourful pallets in the jungle. It was great and folks came for wine and goodies and some nice visiting.
The Farmers Market is moving from the outside lot at Millennium Park to inside Morris Flowers Garden Center this weekend and will continue on until Dec 18.  The hours now change to 10:00 am - 2:00 pm.
I will not make the market this week. I have a nasty cold that seems to be making the rounds.
James and my Fall Paintout will be held on Sunday, Oct 18 this year as we will be doing the markets on Saturday.
James has a show coming up at Kingfisher Used Books and is a guest at the Images show this Nov 27.
It should be a busy fall.

There is a change in the air....

                                                     James McDowell - Pears 
                                                22 x 14 - oil on canvas - $200.00

Another great market day and sold all but one of the 39 loaves and all but a few cookies and muffins which seem to get consumed in between. I thought I had retired from the Farmers Market but we do enjoy the people. It means I am baking 3 days a week and cooler weather will only be a treat.
Fall is in the air. I hate to have to break this bit of news.
The dragon flies are dancing all along the road from our place to Hwy 21 and the starlings, who were split up and raising families earlier are now flocking together.
There were over a dozen swallows swooping along in front of us this evening as we drove home and lining up along the wires.
We need a nice l-o-n-g fall to give things in the garden, stunted by our long cold spring, a chance to mature.
Some unsettling news is that there has been the problem of grizzlies digging big holes into our local dump. The refuse is buried nightly but then the critters were digging caves into it so "they" have fenced the dump - and the airport because the elk were getting on the runway.
Our property buts up against the golf course and across the road from it is the dump so it isn't very far away as the bear ambles.
Earlier this summer we had a bear amble through a couple nights and it bent the pipe my bird feeder was on down at a 45 degree angle. Now "they" have closed all the hiking trails near the Airport and dump because of grizzly bear activity: there is a large sow with her nearly adult sized cubs. This is not happy news.
I would like her to take her young-uns back up in the mountains away from us on the valley floor. Unfortunately, because the dump activity went on for a couple years, these bears are habituated to human food.

Twenty years

Yesterday was Canada Day and we celebrated by going to the annual pancake breakfast in Canyon Park and then James reminded me that it was, to the day, 20 years ago we came "home": I, after 20 years of living in the States, James as an immigrant, and our son Larry, who was 13 at the time, as a Canadian because I am his mother.
A lot has gone on and changed in 20 years. Sometimes it feels like a day and sometimes a very long time. Mostly I am amazed how quickly the years go galloping by.
We came home to Creston because my father died in the fall of 1989 and we wanted my mom to be able to stay on the farm and we wanted to be closer to her. I have never regretted it. 
I have always been so grateful we could move our son to Canada at the young age of 13. I was never comfortable with American right wing politics and I was so thankful Larry could be surrounded with Canadian values, imperfect though they may be.

When James and I first came to this land I was raised on there was only my mother's mobile home on the ridge here and I remember us walking out in the morning to decide where we situate our house.

We chose this present location as it was far enough from my mom's for her to have her privacy and close enough to be in hollering distance. We built closer to the top of the hill but have chosen to leave the very top, where my sister and I played as children, wild.

For many years my dad pastured cattle here. For the past 20 years they have not been on this part of the hill and we see the bushes coming back and the trees: poplars like weeds on the east facing slope and evergreens which were not here when we were children.
In about 1934 a very hot forest fire burned through here so the growth was young when we were children in the 50's. Nature had to even replenish the soil and here, on the top of the hill, there is very little top soil at all. If things like clay we can supply that!

It is in the trees I see the most change in the last twenty years, and in my heart I know the many more subjective changes also.
James and I and Larry are 20 years older. Last fall my mother passed away. By that time she was in town in Swan Valley Lodge, but she had 17 more years in her home on the hill.
The flowering shrubs you see in the distance in this picture are  Mock Orange, but it is past its prime, and most of the shrubs are Ocean Spray which is just coming into full bloom (and "pollination!") 

Where James spent most of his time farming when we first came we now lease out the fields and he paints or does other artistic endeavors. Farming always did afford a winter to spend more time in the studio if it wasn't too snowy and the battle just to keep the road plowed wasn't too great.

I have built birdhouse for 16 years. In recent years I've cut back in production because of hand problems but this year my hands are doing better. 

I used to have birdhouses for sale all over the Kootenays and as far away as Calgary, and Northern Idaho, but now my "speed" is to sell them from our own McDowell's Hilltop Gallery.

My birdhouses sell for $65.00.

I'm also still busy coordinating the Creston Valley & Eastshore ArtWalk.

James sells work from the Gallery and has his work in several venues in town and has a couple shows a year. 

Tomorrow James will give a "live" painting demonstration at Black Bear Books as part of this years ArtWalk. 

And a good time was had by all.

Today James is building an easel sturdy enough to support a large panel when he's painting outside.

Who knows, some of these garden photos by James may be the seed of a new work of art.

 

Last weekend had us jumping

Last weekend really had us jumping with ArtWalk Openings in Creston and Riondel.
Friday night, June 18 was the Creston Opening at Amanda Miller's Coffee Creek Cafe'.

At the same time as our ArtWalk Opening Brandy Dyer's "Bite Me'' show of lovely bright fruits done in pastels was opening at Buffalo Trails just up the street. We had had such a very long spell of wet and cold weather and last Friday evening was lovely and folks had a great time walking back and forth on the street between the two shows.

I made Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cake for both openings and the real, intensely chocolate "scratch cakes" were enjoyed by all.

James had hung new work at Coffee Creek and Peter Bodley entertained us with his wonderful classical guitar.

Sunday, June 20, was the Eastshore Opening at Bob's Bar & Grill in Riondel. The Riondel Art Club is again showing their work at Bob's this summer and we were entertained by East Wind, the wind section of the community band.
Riondel seems such a nice little community and we enjoy seeing the things they accomplish. The opening was well attended mostly by the ladies as the men were occupied with their annual Father's Day Golf Game.

And what would an ArtWalk Opening be without a speech? I call it "Brains on Paper" because my mind goes pretty well completely blank without the paper.

 

The Creston Valley & Eastshore ArtWalk runs from June 18 - Sept 6 and goes from Yahk, BC through the Creston Valley and along Kootenay Lake to Crawford Bay, Kootenay Bay, and Riondel.

Brochures listing venues and with a map of the route are available at the Chamber of Commerce Visitor's Center in Creston and at the many venues along the way.

James and I will need to be staying closer to home as  for regular gallery hours as well as for those who don't read when the hours are and arrive anyway. Today we had a brother and sister arrive and she will be taking one of my birdhouses home with her to Ottawa, Ontario.

That I should be so well traveled....

I think it's summer!

After our ever so long cold and wet spring dare we hope it's summer!

 The world is in bloom, at least ours is here on the Hilltop. The Ocean Spray which can be seen beyond the wagon is about to pop any day now. All the roses are quite pleased with themselves and coming into bloom and we are pleased with them too. These, in the foreground, are Grootendorst, which have a small blossom with frilly edges. The bush is prickly to the point of being vicious but sometimes that is what is needed to outwit the deer.

The Mock Orange grow wild on our hill, as do the Ocean spray, and we have encouraged them to stay where we want them. The Mock Orange bloom about the 20th of June every year which was my folks wedding anniversary and my mom said she had Mock Orange in her bouquet.
The spirea we have had to plant but theyu are a hardy little bush and do well here and I see where some are self seeding themselves which is only a bonus!

This was a sunny/ shady day and I took the picture of the big pink mountain of roses and the gazebo at a shady moment, it would seem. I do not know what this rose is as I came in a box with a quite different picture of a little red splashed with white picotee hybrid tea on it. Obviously this is not that rose! It is gradually taking over the front garden and I love it so much I will just move the things it overshadows. I see my peony peeking out from it's branches. It probably needs to be moved.

 Here is the pink rose from another angle. I still would like to wrest the garden back from the grass to some extent but my grandmother's garden was one of pretty flowers among the grass and I see how that can happen.

This last red rose is a Winnipeg Parks.
The Canadian Department of Agriculture maintained a research station in Morden, MB where they developed the many Hardy Explorer and Parkland roses.
This rose blooms most prolifically in early summer but will rebloom. I try to be sure to leave lots of spent blossoms on as it has such lovely rose hips which we enjoy for the show as they slowly disappear with the deer all winter.
My red Weigela is in full bloom. Usually the Bishops Cape is in bloom at the same time with it's lacy bunches of tiny flowers and variegated leaves but it has been set back by James' filling in the pond. We were just discussing that it is finally dry enough to consider  bringing the tractor up to level things again.