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.

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.

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.

And then there were two.....

I do think it is spring this time. The chickadees are singing "Spring's coming" from the bushes. There's a large older magnolia tree ( the kind with white blossoms) on the way to the mall that is just coming into bloom and many bushes and trees are just waiting to pop their leaves.

Went driving north toward Sirdar. The banks are covered with dog toothed violets (avalanche lilies) We decided to drive out on the dike: lots of ducks, geese, coots, Black Necked Stilts, a couple swans, a blue heron, swallows, and a mamma black bear with her two last year's cubs!

The Black Necked Stilt is fairly rare here in the Creston Valley. They have wonderful "formal attire" and were quite close to shore so we could stop and see them well.
They have bright orange legs. They are quite showy little birds.
It was one of those days when I again think "Why don't I just put a pair of binoculars in the jeep?"
The binos were at home on the table because that is where the best bird watching starts.
Friday evening we had a pair of vultures soaring and swooping right close to us - so utterly wonderful!
Mamma bear and babies were across the channel from us far enough away that we weren't making her nervous, nor she us.
This week will be Arts and Culture Week across the province. Here in Creston we are again renting "The Blue Awning Gallery" across from the government agent's office on Canyon (main) Street. We have a show opening tonight in the west side and going on for the week with different activities in the east side of the building.
Next Saturday James will be helping Sandy Kunze raky behind Kingfisher Used Books and I will be attending an Artist Trading Card lecture and session at the Painted Turtle Gallery.
James and I are going to the opening of Arts and Culture Week tonight. James is showing the 2 pieces of metal sculpture shown at the top of the post. They are made to hang and are about 4 feet tall.
I have created an installation from some of the many, many toques I knit from Jan through March. The show's theme is Forty Forward, celebrating the 40 years of the existence of the Arts Council here in Creston and looking top the future.
My installation has large picture frames (4 of them) hung vertically and strung with wire like clothes lines and at the bottom I hung, using brightly coloured clothes pins, 10 infant hats for the very years, then, above that, 10 toddler hats, for a bit older, then 10 adolescent hats, and then 10 large adult hats.
In the top frame I have hung many hats of all sizes and colours representing the future.
I'll try to get a picture. James tried but it wasn't until we got home we realized his picture only showed the bottom 3 frames.

Promises of spring

Now that the Wynndel Ats Center is "virtually finished" James has had a chance to do some art himself. This is his metal sculpture from last weekend which he will show in the Art Show celebrating Arts and Culture Week at the "Blue Awning Gallery."
I need to evaluate who we've heard from and who we need to be contacting for this summer's ArtWalk.



Meanwhile, my frantic and joyful round-loom knitting has paid off. I have many, many touques to show as an installation at the Blue Awning and to sell this next fall and have had to have another hand surgery for a very badly triggering thumb. I am swanning about while James does the cooking and dishes. Stitches come out Friday -yea!!!!
Spring progresses slowly without me. The daffodils by the front door are nearly open and the little purple violets are blooming with abandon. These are "better behaved" than some and spreading slowly but my hope is for some more inclined to "take over".


I went up on the hill today to see what new wildflowers are about. These teeny, tiny blue flowers will soon carpet the ground but now they are still few and far between.

This is a slow spring. Down in the Lower Mainland, in the farming communities east and south of Vancouver the strawberry growers say their crops will be later than usual and sparser.
I've suggested to James we plant some of our own strawberries in the chicken pen where the deer can't get them. We had them in a raised bed where the deer ate the berries and James mulched them for one winter so well they composted, poor things.
Yesterday we bought our seed potatoes. At Straight from Earth Natural Food Store in town I see a sign saying they are selling the last of the local carrots and I need to buy some before they are all gone. I'm anxious to see things planted but I am a spectator at this time and it's still pretty cold to expect things to grow.

Swans

Today, as I was driving home from town I saw a large white object floating across the flats and was going "plane?', "kite?" , "Big bird!" and when I saw it land I followed the road and there in a very large puddle were about a dozen swans!
This time of year they come in on Kootenay Lake at the south end, and this morning a friend who lives on Duck Lake, just south of Kootenay, said they were flying over for at least 1/2 an hour - hundreds of them!
This was a true March day we had every kind of weather including sleet and rain. This evening James went out on the porch and heard spring's first little frog.
After all the snow along the mountains and sleet here in the valley today, the sky is clear and starry tonight.
These little crocuses bloom between the walk and the porch. I took the pictures 2 days ago and it's been so gray ever since they've clasped their little petals tight shut.
I've decided I need to put a deer safe bulb garden just to the west of pond where the bedrock is very near the surface and the snow goes off earlier than everywhere else.
Winter is having quite the time letting go this year.
Meanwhile entries are coming in for ArtWalk. The Nelson & District Credit Union, Eastshore Branch is again supporting us with a small add in our brochure, which helps immensely. After March 30th comes the job of calling everyone we haven't heard from and getting their entries (or not.)
I've been "under the weather," "out of commission," etc. for the past couple weeks but am improving so that is good. Before I finally went to the doctor I was to point of going to sleep every time I sat down because I was so run down. One morning James brought me my coffee and fortunately I let it cool a bit before drinking it because I went to sleep drinking it and poured it down the sleeve of my bathrobe. After that I decided maybe this was going a little too far.

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.

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.

Afternoon Excursions

James and I took an excursion today to Nelson - a flying one as James was helping paint the tourist kiosk this morning - so we left at 1:00 and were back by 5:45.

Our friends Lyn and Eric Johnson have a daughter Laura who is about Larry's age. She has opened a chocolate desert restaurant in Nelson called the Cocoa Nut Lounge.

We did indulge! I had a great piece of very cinnamon's apple pie - one where the apples are cut very fine and stacked with not a lot of "goo" between and not a lot of sugar - a "best" choice for a diabetic.

James had bitter chocolate cake with about 3 kinds of chocolate and heavy, very chocolaty icing. He felt as if he overdid it. It would have been better shared.

Laura needs some art work for December so we went to see the venue and agreed to "participate."

We also wanted to check out the Craft Connection where I sold many, many birdhouses over the years. The Craft Connection is the best run artist owned co-op I know of - always well run, very professional, and very high quality crafts. They have bought their own building and it has an art gallery in the basement so it was necessary to scope that out too.

We entertained ourselves by noting all the pieces to the "new wardrobe" we saw along the pass. Some poor menopausal woman must have gone before us as first there was a black, quilted jacket, and then a red sweatshirt, and still further on a pink T-shirt, and at the top of the pass all discretion had gone to the wind and there were TWO (you never see two!) gloves on the road!

We also saw about 8 mountain sheep who were so unconcerned I could have reached out the window and patted them. Fortunately everyone slowed down for the silly creatures.

The little red bushes and Mountain Ashe berries at the top of Kootenay Pass are brilliant! There is still Indian Paintbrush blooming at the summit along with Pearly Everlastings and Asters. A very pretty day.

We got back to town in time to call our friend, Betty, and meet her for dinner at DQ.

After our very rich desert at the Cocoa Nut Lounge simple fare seemed quite attractive.

Wasn't That a Party!!!

Well, we did the Calgary Show in our friends Mark and Lynn's private home and it was a wonderful success and a great time to boot! Mutual friends, Linda and Ed from Creston, travelled up too and of course there were all our hosts' friends and business associates. It was a lovely evening and great hospitality, and then a different group on Saturday morning/early afternoon.

Now we're back in Creston and James is busily painting up another storm for the ArtWalk opening in Creston, on June 13 at 7:00 pm at The Coffee Creek Cafe (formerly Annette's) and in Riondel on Sat June 14 from 2:00 - 4:00 pm at Bob's Bar & Grill. The brochure has been proofed for the last time and is at the printers and we have posters to distribute around town.

On Wed James and I went up the lake putting up posters. Just a moderate number of deer on that trip.

Coming back from Calgary last Sat night there were numbers upon numbers of deer and elk.

Only once did we see the truck, towing a trailer, in front of us have to swerve to miss an elk but we all drove judiciously.

This week we've been trying to untangle the phone company's snafus.

Larry and his girlfriend are here in the mobile home for the summer and the phone company began by disconnecting our phone and connecting his number to our place. Then they disconnected Larry's phone from our place and connected our number to his place.

Are you confused yet?

Then this morning (All of this takes days. It has been going on for a week.) our phone was ringing at Larry's and Larry's phone was ringing at our place.

This was the day we were to see a human. He phoned this morning and I explained everything and he "fixed" it and called me and Larry at our proper numbers and mine does seem to be fixed but Larry's is disconnected again.

Tomorrow is the PaintOut and we are hoping for good weather. It is not what we've been having and it is not what is predicted but we can hope.

The Oriental Poppies are just delighted with themselves and the Irises are in full bloom.

I haven't been back on the hill to see what's blooming there with all the rain and cold.

There was fresh snow on the tops of the mountains this morning. It's an unwelcome sight but not totally unheard of. I took a picture last June with the roses in full bloom and fresh snow way down the Skimmerhorn.

This morning, when opening the old, brittle hummingbird feeder it broke irreparably and I dug around and found the lovely pale green one I bought last year. Last summer they wouldn't even look at it but maybe because I had them well established coming to the red one I broke they are accepting its' replacement. Yippee!

With the success of James' show we plan to bight the bullet and spring for the real pond liner as the tarp has not been successful. I have the flowers for one planter and will get more.

We need a new frost free hydrant as the handles on two of ours have broken. One broke when a tree fell on it during a huge wind storm last summer and one just seized so tight James broke it trying to open it. There is no end of things to spend money on and to fix!

Bunchberries

Another painting by James, this time of bunchberries.
We've had two lovely days. Today the temperature got up to 72 degrees and the wind felt soft and warm. This has been such a winter to break free. A week ago Sunday we woke to 3 inches of snow! in mid-April!!! It is so nearly May and the leaves are just beginning to pop. It's been a long, cold, dry spring and the weather man is saying it may revert to cold again but what we really need is some soaking rain.
BC Arts and Culture week is done and the community art show at the "Blue Awning Gallery", sponsored by the Arts Council finished Sat. It was a great show but a lot of lot of work!
The Sat before we (ArtLink) sponsored a gala evening, "The Big Picture Art Fest" in Crawford Bay with large works of art, great food, Margaret Ross and After Hours playing (and singing) wonderful jazz, and about 9 artists demonstrating their craft in small works we raffled off. It too was a great time but exhausting. We're beginning to long for younger blood to lift the banner.
Now it is nose to the grindstone with ArtWalk lining up artists to venues and getting the brochure ready for the printer.
Sometime I will get to do something creative myself. I am meditating on what will be next as I find building my birdhouses too difficult on my hands.

Hope springs ....

The second really nice sunny day of spring.
Yesterday and Friday night was the Images Art Show, a show begun by a group of watercolourists but it has shifted to include Gunda Stewart, a wonderful potter who does very traditional wood fired - some with salt - pottery in a huge handbuilt kiln, and to have guest artists exhibit with them. This springs guests were Alison Masters who did charcoal and charcoal with water colour pieces, and Maggie Leal -Valais who displayed really great sculptural clay pieces many of which were rakued.
My daffies are beginning to bloom and I was able to take Mommy a bouquet from my garden.
I looked out in the bushes this morning and there was a goldfinch who was really nice and bright yellow again. Goldfinches become drab little brown birds over winter, barely distinguishable from their finchy friends but come spring their wonderful colour returns and they look like bright yellow flowers bouncing in the bushes.
This was the day the library puts on a tea at Morris Flowers and sells cake and garden themed books and magazines. Someone thought it a good idea for some of the local artists to sell work and a portion would go to the library.
James and I brought his cards and my few remaining birdhouses.
People were interested in the coffee and cake but they weren't interested in the art and we artists were clustered by an open door with a bit of shade and a breeze. People were interested in plants. I can't blame them. We've had so little spring.
I would hate to be whiney but it was unbearably hot. Had it been a gray nasty day it would have been more comfortable.According to the weather boys it is going to revert to gray nasty with possible snow flurries starting even by tomorrow so even though it was sooo hot I'll try not to compain. We went to DQ for coffee after and sat with an elderly couple we see as there were no empty seats. We sat inside and watched the cute little blonds outside turn rosy before our eyes.I fear there will be a lot of folks nursing sun burns after today.

Spring will come!

This was taken a few weeks ago and though the snow is mostly gone "they" predict we'll get 4 or so inches tonight and tomorrow. It won't stay and we do wait for springier weather : so do Bandy and Skeeter.

Yesterday, as James went out for firewood, he saw 24 swans winging their way north. A while back there were robins and blackbirds and innumerable joyful lbbs (as in little brown birds), but now the towees are back, bouncing in the bushes. Spring will come. It will wrench itself from the hungry arms of winter and all too soon we'll be sweltering in the summer sun.

Things are moving slowly. There are pussy willows and the snowdrops and species crocuses have been out for a week or so. The farmers must be alert to the cold weather and haven't unwrapped their honey bees yet as we've had very few and normally the crocuses would be alive with them.

I actually saw an earthworm creeping out of the dirt yesterday as we Raku fired pottery at a friend's home. Their yard was full of little mouse holes and trails unearthed by the melting snow. There were many wonderful little plant noses appearing and the bushes were full of Bohemian waxwings and Pine siskins. The waxwings leave the rose hips to the very last but yesterday that was their feast.

We seldom see jays at our place but there in Wynndel the Steller's Jays were riotously happy and Mary said they seem more brilliant than usual. I need more bushes. I can see that!

James and I (mostly James) have been trying to rescue the garden from the grasses and trim back the unruly roses. I think the cats approve. They don't know my plan to shelter a feeder in a particularly thorny bush.

We're moving forward on plans for ArtWalk, and the more imminent Big Picture Show in Crawford Bay. James is making plans for a show in our friends' home in Calgary at the end of May. In mid-May our son and his girlfriend will graduate from the Alberta College of Art And Design (ACAD) so life will continue on busily for a while.

There is a good change in the air

by James McDowell
Spring will come! Spring will come!
What a hard winter this has seemed. We have not had extreme temperatures but it has stayed stubbornly below freezing for very long periods and it has snowed, and snowed, and snowed. Finally about a week ago there was a change. The sun is high enough in the sky to melt a little each day even though it still is freezing at night. The driveway is one long ice rink but we have 4 wheel drive and James likes the challenge of plunging up it in 2 wheel drive.Everything is still covered in hard frozen heaps of snow which the cats can walk on handily, but we live in hope.
Spring will come.
Yesterday morning I stuck my head out the door at 7:00 am and heard the first chickadee singing his spring song. Today my winter bird came. Every January or February a logger head shrike comes and sits on the power line. He's very handsome in his formal attire, but I believe the chickadee. "Springs coming...."
This evening there is a wonderful lunar eclipse and the moon hangs like a ripe peach, suspended over the Skimmerhorn. I keep running out so as not to miss anything, but it is brilliantly clear and just as brilliantly cold; too cold to stay out.

Snow & Roses

When the clouds lifted today this is what greeted us. By tomorrow it is supposed to warm up and of course the snow is vanishing off the mountains even as I type.
This has been a particularly good year for roses. My huge pink rose is a mystery. I bought it in a box but it is not the rose pictured on the box - not even remotely. We have decided it may be some sort of climber. I so love it!
The past 3 years, including this, I have been having a series of hand surgeries so have not been in great gardening form. This rose will not be lost in the tall grass.
The Mock Orange is still blooming and the wild Ocean Spray is about to burst forth. Mock Orange is also a native plant.
Yesterday we drove the 50 miles up Kootenay Lake to Crawford Bay for the ArtWalk opening we sponser there. (Friday had been Creston's opening and Saturday a friend was doing a concert so we had quite the busy weekend.) It was a lovely drive with all the bushes in bloom on the hillsides. The Scotch Broom is also blooming and whereas it makes some people happy it is actually a scourge escaping up the hillsides and choking out native species. It also makes me sneeze!
Coming home in the dusk and dark there were numbers of deer to watch for but we managed not to squish any "Bambies" and James only had to brake hard once.
This is the first day of James' week long class at the college. He is teaching a class on experimental approaches to acrylic painting.

Summer's nearly here, but spring's been iffy

It's a l-o-n-g time since I've been on here!

We've had a long cold spring, then blistering heat, now back to cool, windy, splatters of rain and dashes of sunshine. James has planted most of the garden - that which won't interest the deer too intensely. He's planning to plant squash and beans inside a chicken pen we aren't using this year.

We have planted broad beans out along the pea fence as we've been told the deer don't like them. We will see.

May 26th we had our annual spring "Paint-Out" when we invite our friends to come out and paint on our hill. It was a gorgeous day and "a good time was had by all." The Oriental poppies and irises were in full bloom and it was just lovely. The next day it absolutely poured rain!

This year there are a young doe and buck hanging around. I think the little doe thought she would like to taste my pansies this evening but Bandy, the cat, was on the deck and the little doe did not like him. She kept stamping her feet. Bandy just ignored her until she finally gave up and moved away. The other day the little buck was checking out my irises. Deer don't like irises but this little fellow didn't know that yet. He tasted one petal, kind of made a distasteful face, went to sniff another iris and decided if that was all I had to offer he'd just wander off down the drainfield.

The information for this years ArtWalk brochure is at the printers and we are waiting for a copy to proof. The Creston, BC Opening will be Annette's Bistro and Coffee Bar on June 22 and the Crawford Bay, BC Opening will be the evening of June 24 at Newkeys Place.

I am trying to get planters planted and birdhouses built between now and June 29 when I will have yet another hand surgery.

I think that spring is really here!

Winter has had a hard time letting go this year but finally, if only because the date marches forward anyway, spring appears to be here. The daffodils have bloomed and in that it was a cool spring they last on and on. Last weekend was warm and they are about done.
Here and there a lone tulip has escaped the deer. This year the deer trimmed the foliage on my grape hyacinths but early enough that I do have the flowers. Last year they decimated them.
Up on the hill the Avalanche Lilies have nearly finished flowering. Ours blanket a north facing slope and bloom later than other spots in the valley. The white, flat blossoms of early carrot-related wildflowers are done and their clusters of flat little seeds mark the spot of flowering. The slightly taller, finer yellow blooms of Narrow-Leaved Desert Parsley are about and we wait for the procession of other spring blossoms. The wild Saskatoons are flowering on all the hills around like so many little girls in fluffy white dresses.
I have begun a new line if birdhouses shaped like grain elevators. They are a fundraiser for Creston's Main Street Grain Elevators Society and I am selling them for $75.00, 1/3 of which goes to the Elevator Society. The society seeks to buy and preserve our elevators which have been listed as one of the 10 Canadian historical sites most in need of preservation.
James and I have been kept busy with art shows. James' one man Gone Tribal show continues at Kingfisher Used Books, we took part in the Crow Show, which celebrated crows, giving them some good press for a change. Now, from April 29 to May 20 the Kootenay Regional Arts Show , Eye Piqued, is on in the lower level of the local mall and James is showing one of his works in that show as well as doing a number of artist demonstrations.
The photo at the top is of a round painting by James, the prehistoric crow in clay and wire is mine, the staff was carved by Gary Smith, and the odd clay egg carton is a project from the paper clay workshop held here recently. The picture leaning on the bale of hay is a lovely pen and ink.