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."

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.

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.

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....

ArtWalk Openings, PaintOuts,memorials, and more

 

Well, it is a mystery why sometimes this program wants to underline everything and then, for some unknown reason it decides to quit.

This has been a very busy month. Next are the ArtWalk Openings.

The Creston Opening is this Friday, June 18 from 7:00 - 9:00 pm at the Coffee Creek Cafe in Creston with light refreshments and with classical guitar by Peter Bodley.

The Eastshore Opening is Sunday, June 20, from 2:00 - 4:00 pm at Bob's Bar & Grill in Riondel, again with refreshments, and with music by the East Winds. 

 

Last Saturday was our annual Spring PaintOut and it was the first truly hot and sunny day we've had. We gave the new gazebo a real work out. At one point there were 13 or 14 of us inside eating lunch with folks spilling out onto the lawn. It was a great time, very well attended with at least 20 people and several of our artist friends have come back the last few mornings to continue on their works.

This poppy painting is James accomplishment from that day and the next.

The gazebo is well on its way to being done. It still needs roofing and some paint and plantings and ...... it doesn't end, but we are sure to enjoy it. Because it has the little cupola the hot air rises and escapes and it stays cool and breezy. 

We're so glad Ann didn't want it any more.

James numbered all the parts and resurrected it here and it has a new roof of 

1 x 5 cedar in a quilty pattern.

 A week ago we held a time of remembrance for my mom in the pavilion and gardens behind Morris Flowers Garden Center. 

Last fall, when she passed on, we were not ready for another service having just lost a close friends mother, father, and aunt so we said "In the spring, when the flowers are blooming."

In between we lost another close friend's mom and a very dear auntie. It is a time of losses and we are becoming the "older generation."

The tea for our mother was just lovely, very informal with lots of folks visiting and our cousin Jean had made my sister and I each a memory book of pictures of our mom's life starting in early childhood and we were able to bring those along for folks to enjoy also.
My sister and her husband and all my mother's grandchildren and her future grand daughter-in-law were able to come.

The last picture here is of my mom as a little girl.

After this weekend I've an art show to put up in the library for ArtWalk and then I can get back to blithering softly in my own garden.

The wonderful news ... there's a wedding next summer!

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.

Great time at the opening and on with life.

James' opening last Saturday was a great success: lots of folks and lots of good eats if I do say so myself.
The show will continue to hang at Kingfisher Used Books until April 30.
Another great show, this of photography by Peter McLennan, is on at our library.Our weather is typical March: sun and wind, rain, and a chill, and snow squalls blowing across the valley but not amounting to anything.
My snow drops are still just awfully pleased with themselves and I have a few crocuses popping into bloom.
Tomorrow I go and meet with a young fellow at the library to see if we can figure why no one can see the art work on our web page nor can I get in there to add anything new or change any of the "blather." I live in hope.

My how the times do fly .......

So, somewhere the last month and a half has flown by. When last I wrote Arts and Culture Week was just on and it seemed very soon after my most recent hand surgery. During that week there was an afternoon workshop and presentation by Don Maybe on Artist Trading Cards and this is a photo of the cards I made that afternoon. They are primarily fabric though there's a bit of detritus from the back lot made its way in too. The glue I used is an excellent heavy bodied glue called "Yes."

This picture was actually taken May 8 just after a lovely heavy shower. The forsythia, which I had threatened to hack down because it had bloomed so poorly for years rewarded my good pruning last year with a wonderful show of blooms this year.
We have a little chestnut tree my sister brought as a seedling and it has "lived" and grown imperceptibly for about 15 years but this year it is putting on new growth and has rewarded us with a blossom. Never give up!
For Arts and Culture Week the show at the Blue Awning was called Forty and on and was honoring this, the 40th year Creston has had a Community Arts Council. On that theme I displayed my knitted touques in groupings of 10, from infant, to child's, to youth, and to adult , with the highest grouping representing all ages and the future.

Taking Winter Away

James had a wonderful opening yesterday; lots of friends, good munchies and wine, classical guitar by Peter Bodley, all in all a very nice afternoon but boy am I tired today. This is another painting from his show. This body of work is a little smaller than some of his other work and more of a return to realism.
Yesterday was a typical March day: blowing snow, sunshine, more snow, more sun, etc., etc. It was a good day for a happy gathering as we are all so done with winter.
Last night I got home, put things away, watched Midsomer Murders, a British murder mystery show that lasts a lovely 2 hours, and knit 2 more little toques.
It is amazing there is still any one left living in Midsomer as they manage to "off" at least 2 or 3 unlucky folks each week!
This morning I bought my mom tulips from the grocery store. They just aren't even "up" here yet! and I "took winter away" from her room. She has a little collection of fuzzy, dancing snowmen my cousins add to every year. We had them in her window at Swan Valley Lodge over Christmas and the New Year, but it was time for them to go!
I love tulips but have pretty much given up on them for myself. The deer have even pulled the bulbs right out of the ground and eaten them! Daffodils are icky to deer so I have (or will have when the snow leaves) lots of them. I have been meditating on where I can plant some spring bulbs where the snow will go early and I'm thinking out by the old, needs to be replaced, pond because the bedrock is very near the surface and I see soil earlier out there. I do need flowers. I have oodles of grape hyacinths and I thought the deer didn't like those, but these deer seem to so I get to see fewer and fewer.
James and I went to the dollar store for St. Paddie's Day cards and bought some very, very cheap flower seeds, but James longs, annually, for "Heavenly Blue" morning glories and that's the colour I like too.
I also bought some Shirley Poppies, and California Poppies, and sweet peas as I dream of sweet peas along the porch rail out to the east of the house.
For years I sent St Patrick's cards that I wrote "pray for the peace of Ireland" in, and then for a while it seemed that prayer was answered, and then yesterday, there they were, killing British soldiers again. More prayer needed there.

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.

Escape to the Outdoors

Well, I left the house today for the first time in 9 days. That must be some kind of record! I am still weak but gradually getting better. Still knitting....
The top hat calls itself a medium. Depending on the yarn they would fit a youth or average adult. If you have a fat head like me you would probably like it made on the large loom.
These are only some of the hats I've been knitting using the Nifty Nitters. The little baby hats are such a hoot. Saturday I'm looking forward to the first of two classes on "real" knitting and today I ventured out for needles and came back with more yarn Shhhh
James has a new show of his paintings coming up at Kingfisher Used Books at the end of the month. The opening will be on Saturday the 7th of March. We're still firming up our entertainment and then I'll be making posters, emailing folks, and the like.
Meanwhile it's time to do forms for this summers ArtWalk so we can mail them out.

I think I will live!

Here are Bandy and James communing. There's something about a nice warm cat in winter.
I finally think I'll live. First James got the nasty cold/flu and then I did and it sure takes its time to shake off.
Skeeter is such a nice round little cat, so very different from when she came to us, all scrawny and emaciated. Mind you, she is spoiled rotten! but such a good little hunter. She has been regularly bringing great big voles up to eat on the deck, or under it. She may be getting them under the chicken houses. She'd like to bring them inside but we draw the line at that!
Yesterday was lovely and sunny and so bright with the frozen snow. On a bright sunny day there actually is a lot of colour to be found. My big rose bush is quite attractive with its red arching vines.

A friend was bemoaning her lack of snowdrops yesterday. Obviously she's on another timetable than winter in the Kootenays. We can hope for them in March, I fear, this year as they are under that heavy frozen berm of snow where James shoveled off the porch roof.
But summer will come and in the next 2 weeks I need to make up and get the forms for ArtWalk printed and then we'll have a big day addressing envelopes to mail out the entries. Time also to mail out funding requests.
There was good news on the morning news! Another coffee study has found non-smoking nurses who drink 4 or more cups of coffee a day have a 43% lower risk of stroke. That's a good enough figure one could take it up, if they weren't already a coffee drinker!
I'm thawing a flat zip lock bag of tomato sauce from last summer's tomatoes. I find the flat bags more space efficient and if you have a large freezer, which we do, freezing tomatoes as they ripen, and then, at your leisure thawing and making them into sauce (to freeze again) is an easy way to go.
This morning on Martha Stewart she and her guests were talking about what one should have in one's pantry. Well, maybe city people live with nothing on hand but I can't imagine not having their list of foods on hand and then some! It was obvious things like pasta and rice and chick peas and canned tomatoes, mustard and olive olive oil and bread crumbs: the kind of things one needs every day if one cooks, but then many people don't cook from "scratch" or at all, so this is the new money saving tip - cook!
I've still been knitting touques on the round loom (more pictures next time) and this weekend and next am taking a class on "real" knitting.

Fall approaches

As you see, James has another show of his new work at the Creston Public Library.
James has 13 new paintings in the meeting room and will have several other pieces of work in the main library.
We had an enjoyable opening Friday night and then all adjourned to the Snoring Sasquatch Hostel and Music Venue for the CD launch of Elena Yeung's CD "The Gravedigger's Daughter." That girl can sing!
Elena has taught herself banjo and the songs on the album are ones she has written herself and are truly great work. She has former Juno nominee, Mark Koenig, accompanying her on guitar, Karl Sommerfeld on fiddle, Gary Snow on standup bass, as well as a number of other very talented musicians. Our neighbour, Peter McLennan, did the cover photography and the photos are of the old house I was raised in.
Earlier, actually in May, our friend Mark Koenig released his CD ," "Livin' this Life," for which James provided the cover (and inside) artwork. James painted a loose portrait of Mark holding a lovely rooster for the cover and Mark used several of James' tractor, and old car pictures inside.
With ArtWalk over for another year this was the day James and I travelled up to Riondel to pick up his paintings from Bob's Bar and Grill. It was a lovely sunny fall day, clear as clear could be. We visited with a couple local artists at Bob's and then thought we'd take a brief detour to Nelson.
No such luck! As we approached the ferry landing the boat was just pulling away. We decided not to wait the hour and a half for the next ferry crossing but to pop into Fairy Treats for a snack (they always have good home style baking) and meander our way back home along the east shore of Kootenay Lake.
Stopping at Lockhart Beach we took our annual end of summer stroll and as it was such a sunny day we wandered longer than many other times. Often this late in the summer there is a cold wind coming down off the mountains across the lake to the west. Not this year. It was just great.
We found 20 or more bright orange little butterflies having a drink in some damp sand and warming their wings. I'm not sure what they are. They are shaped like a Mourning Cloak with dark outer wings but the insides are bright orange and spotted. I will have to look them up.
We also found a number of lovely little miniature villages someone (or ones) had built, some all of tiny stones and one with battlements of tiny 4 or 6 inch driftwood twigs and with rows of "trees" of fir tree cones.
We stopped and talked with several of the folks who were enjoying the sunshine and then continued our way home.
Too soon the nice warm weather will be done.