Less than a month until the wedding!

Our son and his fiance are getting married this summer. Last week, on Lisa's birthday, I realized it is less than a month until the wedding. In that it is taking place here on the farm we still have things to whip into shape.

James has been continuing his painting a day and I need to post a few he has finished since my last post:

" Three Garlic " 14"x7" , acrylic on panel $125.00

" Strawberries and Cream," 8"x8", Acrylic on panel ,$125.00

‎"Study in Green," 8 x 8, acrylic on panel, $100.00

"Iris and Poppies," 7"x 8", oil on panel, $125.00

"Chik-a-dee,"  8"x 8", acrylic on panel ,$125.00, SOLD

" One Old Chair,"  5" x 7" , oil on panel , $125.00

We are still ever so busy with not only Saturday's Farmers' Market, but also Wednesday afternoons from 3:30 - 6:30. This week's Wed was kindly cooler. Saturday we had about everything but snow at the market: chilly breezes, rain, heat ...  you name it!

James has begun harvesting his garlic, hence the painting. We've been selling fresh at the market, along with my baking, tea cozies, cards of James' paintings, and on ....

Hope you are enjoying your summer too.

 

 

Blissfully a little cooler

I don't want to be a wimp but I'm so pleased it has cooled down a wee bit.

We had a great market yesterday. Tourists are starting to move around and, after our very slow start this spring, it was nearly like a normal Farmers Market day.

Here are some more of James McDowell's paintings:

"Squash", 6" x 7", oil on canvas. $100.00.
I think it's a Buttercup Squash looking good enough to eat.

This is last summer's squash: this year's are still wee tiny, those that have even blossomed. This is such a slow gardening year.

"Cranbrook Appaloosa," 12 x14, acrylic on canvas, $125.00. SOLD

This little horse was often seen at the first rest area east of Cranbrook, heading to Alberta. James just had to paint him.

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.

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.

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.

Oh my, oh my, how the time does fly!

Sometimes one finds the greatest "junk." This little birdhouse is looking for a bluebird or swallow to set up housekeeping.
The gazebo project continues as well as planning for flower beds. As you see the rafters are up. This is  a challenging project as nothing is as straight as it should be. The cats think it is a jungle gym but may not be as enthused when James puts up screen.
More little tomatoes have found a home in the greenhouse.
I have a flat of petunias and pansies waiting for me to plant them out, and it will happen.
I went to a friend's funeral this morning. I did not know her well but knew her from all the coffee shops and places round where we would see each other.
Her name was Paule Falardeau and cancer caught her at far too young an age - 52. Paule had a hard life but was always cheerful. She came here from Quebec and began work tree planting and then worked at nearly every restaurant in town, but she wanted to work at the grocery store so she went back to school and finished her grade 12 and got the job she really wanted.
When she became ill she went back to Quebec and her family cared for her until the end but her ashes will rest hear by her son who was taken tragically at a very young age. Her family all came for the funeral. To them it was a closure here in this valley she loved but to us it was a closure too to be able to tell them we cared.
The was an Art Quilters meeting this afternoon but after the funeral I was exhausted so have come home and puttered and dug a bit in the yard.

I walked up on the hill yesterday and everything continues to bloom early this year even with the chilly weather we have had. The wild hyacinths are about to open. Usually they would bloom at the other end of May. 
Work on ArtWalk continues.

Where did the springtime go?

Spring seems to have suffered a set back. We had a wicked wind and rain storm blow through yesterday. We were fortunate not to have damage.
I had to run out in the middle of it to turn the bird feeder so the wind didn't tear the lid off.
I see on Facebook a friend was greeted by a downed tree at her gate as she went home last night.
James had actually bolted the rafters to the uprights of the gazebo but they weren't secure and given the weather warning, thankfully he went out and took them down. There will be another day to work on the gazebo. 
We caught Skeeter perched on top of one of the gazebo uprights the other day. She surely is a little monkey.
The second picture is of my cousins and James pretending to have a tea party in the gazebo. Note the parkas and hoods and cups firmly grasped so they don't blow away.
James does not lack things to keep him busy. He is doing finishing touches on the Creston Arts Council's faces project from a couple years back. The 4' x 8' panels have been cut down to a more manageable size and he has been framing each and then "the powers that be" can find them homes. Whew! Finished with that!
I am sincerely wishing for some weather warm enough to go out and knock a little order into the yard.
Preparation for ArtWalk continues.

Birdhouses are us ........

Birdhouse # 1.

These are all sized for bluebirds and swallows
One of our neighbours saw 5 bluebirds on the fence line the other day.

On our property they seem to like to nest further back, by the fields, as they like the open spaces.

Here, near the house (and on the house) we have more luck attracting swallows which are great little bug catchers and lovely to watch swooping and diving.

I think I may have heard a bluebird the other morning. They have a sweet mournful voice.

                                                                   Birdhouse # 2.

                                                                 Birdhouse #3

The birdies in the tree tops

Spring should surely soon be upon us. We have many signs of its coming: tiny wee white Babies' Breath, and teeny blue flowers that bloom in the early spring. The Wild Parsnips are still blooming but with them there is now a similarly shaped blossom with bright yellow blooms and little strappy shaped green leaves.
Yesterday as I was walking I found a wild Morel growing in a bowl of rock which could explain its early appearance.
Today was cold and by late afternoon there appeared to be snow showers scurrying down the mountains. James lit a nice warm fire in the wood stove and I made chili for supper.
This is a painting of an oriole by James McDowell. It is 24" X 32", acrylic on hardboard, and priced at $350.00 plus S&H.

The bushes are now alive with more and more spring birds. We have a number of these lovely little Rufus Sided Towhees about this spring. Hopefully they will keep their wits about themselves and watch out for the cats.
This painting by James McDowell is also 24" X 32", acrylic on hardboard, and priced at $350.00 plus S&H.  .

The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la .... and more of James' recent work

I went wandering up on the hill this afternoon to see what signs of spring I could find and there was the Large Fruited Desert Parsley blooming. It is a short little plant that hugs the ground and is easy to miss among the rocks and lichen.  
Bandy accompanied me and did his best to cast his shadow on the picture and trip me as he wound around my legs. He is such a pretty boy and so mellow we forgive many transgressions.

 These little fellows are blooming in the lawn. They are supposed to spread but aren't doing so very quickly. The thyme is another story, a happy one, but this is not its season.
Here are a few more of James' recent paintings:
 

 This is inspired by a visit to Kuskanook Harbour. The painting is 32 X 24 inches.

Pears on canvas - 13 1/2 in X 21 in.

Plant with alium - 24 in X 32 in.

Machinery with pliers - 32 in X 24 in.

Machinery 2 - 32 X 24 in.

James' work is for sale and available by contacting us by email or phone.

James' show

Signature piece for show - 24 in X 32 in.

Circles and squares 1 - 24 in X 32 in.

Circles and squares 2 - 24 in x 32 in.

More paintings from James' show

Circles and squares 3 - 24 in X 32 in.

Circles and squares 4 - 30 in X 40 in.

Circles and squares 5 - 16 in X 16 in.

New show by James

Well, January and February have fled. Of course February was graced with 2 weeks of Olympics - what joy and what a great excuse to sit and knit! Now on with life.
Here it is March already, my oldest cousin turned 70 today, and James has a new show going in to Kingfisher Used Books on Friday with an opening on Sat. The show will hang until the end of April.
We really must whack the studio/gallery into order out here as he has much more and varied new work to show. This show is to an un-named theme.
Meanwhile there are hints that James will help me by cutting some parts for me and taking apart a drawer pull display that I have had quite the time with. If he can do that I may even get some bird houses done for this spring. We shall see. I've always done all the parts cutting but I'm so short the dust is always in my face and I hate that particular part. I don't intend to have houses all over the Kootenays but some on hand here and a couple local spots would be OK. I always give one to the local Rotary Auction. They do a lot of good both here and away.
Yesterday the sun shone and the snow drops were alive with honey bees, as were the compost piles and, as we get the old coffee grounds from Joe, at Kingfisher Used Books, last night I bet there were a whole bunch of bees on a caffeine high.
Yesterday I bought the most beautiful book I have ever seen.
It is "Landsdowne's Birds of the Forest" with paintings by JF Landsdowne and text by John A Livingston.
I bought it at Kingfisher. I had it set aside while I decided which books of mine to sell to help pay for it. It was $32.00, but new would have been much, much more expensive. While some books are referred to as coffee table books this is a desk or big table book: too big to hold in your lap and look at. It is the combining of Landsdowne's "Eastern Woodland Birds" and "Northern Woodland Birds" and would have been easier read in it's 2 parts but I so love it. For each bird there is a page with preliminary pencil sketches of it, then the next 2 facing pages are the writing and a lovely colour painting. The sketches are more exciting to me from an artistic perspective than the finished illustrations.
James acquainted me with a lovely blog full of inspiration the other night.
It is: http://donnawatsonart.blogspot.com/2010/01/inner-stillness.html#links
Tomorrow I meet with a young fellow at the Creston Public Library to help me see where our web page has fallen off the rails. As it sits tonight no one, including me, can get at it to see the art work and I would also like to change some of its features and "blather."
I am still knitting many, many toques. I had to stop last year when I developed a trigger thumb and had to have surgery but now I am using softer yarns for some things and have taught myself to loom knit left handed - gotta get all those sparks firing in the brain.
I read that the huge Chilean earthquake has actually caused the earth to shift about 3 inches on its axis and shortened the day by a couple nano seconds. I don't really think I need a shorter day.
Mailings are going out for this year's ArtWalk: our 15th. Harry Miller has come on board and will be doing a lot of the foot work. He has coordinated the Christmas Craft Fairs for the Arts Council these last few years and done a very good job and this seems a fit for him. I think I can't retire from it yet as I'm still the "computer person."
This was a grayer day. We will see what kind of spring we get.

Still springing

The little hat with the flower is in gray with periwinkle flower and a variegated periwinkle, gray green yarn knit with the gray.
The flower and leaves are crocheted.
I'm sort of resting my hands which, after just 3 months, are loudly complaining and growing lumps. Oh to have strong hands and wrists!
Anyway, I found a pattern for tendrils, as seen in the picture below, and I'm back to teaching myself real, two needle-type knitting and doing a bit of crochet which I know already.
I've been watching all the World's in figure skating but they are done tonight unless there is a gala. I may have pushed it as far as I can in that we do share the TV and figure skating is not James' thing.
I hope I've enough "grace" saved up to watch Midsomer Murders when it comes on!
This morning as we were dropping off the recycling we saw the first Kill Deer of the season. They are a real sign of spring. Robins may just overwinter somewhere else in the valley but the kill deer actually fly away and then return and it's a joy to see them in their jaunty little formal wear. It's amazing how well they blend with the side of the road when they have such a bright white and black collar.
The swans are also back.
As I drove down Devon Road the other day I saw a large white thing floating down to the flats, and my mind was going "Kite?", "Hang glider?", and then realized I was looking at a swan settling onto a big puddle with about 12 of his buddies. I drove down the little side road to get nearer but the binoculars would have really helped. This time of year they come in and rest at the channel on the south end of Kootenay Lake. A friend from Sirdar watched them flying over for more than 1/2 an hour. They don't stay long and then they are on their way north.
James and Bruce are nearly done the big remodel job for the Wynndel Mudders. After many, many hours of volunteer work I think they are glad to see the end nearing.
I'll try to get some more pictures. They took out walls and post and beamed the roof so it is basically one big room and an added on store room.
James decided he did not want to do the chicken-sitting this summer so we will have both pens to use as fenced, deer proof gardens.
I have just received a first draft of the Barraclough family history. My maternal grandmother was a Barraclough and my second cousin has been assembling this. It should be interesting.

It's a Kootenay Sunrise

I went to Straight from Earth organic store and coffee shop today and found some beautiful locally grown carrots. Yum!
I'm so excited. I've been mourning us not having chickens but today I learned of a friend of a friend who is going away for 4 months and would like someone to take her chickens for that time. There are only 20 and they will go home before James has to lug water and such in the winter. I like them even just to look at. The eggs will be nice too.
Tomorrow is James' show opening at Kingfisher Used Books and I now need to go cut up veggies and make hummus so I'm not snowed under in the morning.

Hope & Determination

Here they are, peeking out from the snow bank.
There are getting to be real signs of spring. Hooray!!!!
A week or so ago we began hearing the red winged black birds. Because black birds nest near water they don't nest right close here but in early spring they come around.
There are now flocks of little birds flying about in little swooping clouds.
The flock of cedar waxwings who have been hanging out in a tree near the elevators in town was greatly diminished today and I wonder if they are beginning to pair up and go off on their own.
James' show at Kingfisher Used Books opens on Saturday and I've been buying crackers and veggies. I need to make some of my sister Eileen's good hummus and maybe a black been dip too.
Very sadly, when I went in to Sharla Truscott's Straight from Earth organic store today I learned that Wayne and Denise Harris' locally produced Kootenay Alpine Cheese is completely sold out until early summer. Boo Hoo!!! I can't eat commercially made cows milk cheese anymore but this is made of unpasteurized milk and hasn't suffered the indignities of the commercial cheeses and I can eat it. Spring's coming and summer will too.
I am still happily knitting many, many hats and thinking of yarn as "paint" - all the wonderful colours!
Today as I was in one of the local shops I was talking to a young woman in the yarn department and she is about to go out of town to a specialist to see if her problems are Fibro Myalgia. I was able to tell her there is hope and one can lead a good life with it.
I have for many years.
And then, having gone to a number of banks and potential ArtWalk venues, distributing entry forms, I was too tired to finish the last few things on my list so they will be seed for tomorrow.
Now, having opened the windows and doors to the fresh spring air it's probably time to close them and stir up the fire again.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving

My mom's brother, David, and his son came to visit my mom for Thanksgiving. We were able to bring her out to our place for a turkey dinner Sat night and then Sunday my uncle and I joined her for turkey dinner at the lodge. We are well turkyed.
Other than seeing my mom this holiday for my uncle's visit was sort of a wash as people are out of town or busy with their own family dinners.

Poor Uncle David, not only are people occupied or out of town this time but he is 88 and hasn't lived here since the early 50's and there are less and less people he remembers from his past still living. I guess that's why we need to live in the present.

So, in that we did the turkey dinner on Saturday, the "not picked clean" carcass is simmering along on it's way to lots of turkey soup.I'm not sure which is the best part of the turkey: the cranberries and stuffing or the soup!We're thankful for both.And many little packages of sliced turkey for sandwiches, with more cranberries.
There's also some left over sweet potato pie, so we can still celebrate on the actual day.
Uncle David and Bruce left on their way home as there wasn't enough excitement and "Dad doesn't like to sit around." Some of us wish we had time to sit around a little more.
James and our friend, Garth Huscroft, made the annual pilgrimage to the back to pick apples off the "secret tree" but this year there was not apple one. It's a bit late so the deer and elk and bears and ravens may have got a few but apples have a good and bad year and last year was very good so we were prepared for less this year. Well, maybe not this much less!