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.

Enough, I say!!!

Today is the warmest in a while. It began spitting bits of Styrofoam this morning but it has been dumping heavy wet snow for some time.
We are so ready for spring this year!!! Everyone is longing for spring!
We haven't had a really deeply cold spell, the kind that kills off the overwintering bugs. Maybe we'll get that next week as it is supposed to get colder.
But it has been consistently cold without warmer breaks and everyone we meet bemoans the winter weather.
I think I saw primroses in Overwaitea the other day and I read they were selling daffy and tulip bouquets. I haven't been out a lot as I'm still getting over the cold.
We have friends leaving for a month in Mexico on January 31. Maybe I could stow away.
I am doing my usual January hibernation. Spring will come.

The time between

It is the time between Christmas and New Years, between fall and spring, between daylight and dark.
It is winter. We seem to get a few inches of fresh snow every day and the roads out our way no longer show any pavement. It would be classed as "compact snow and ice." It is not always so snowy but it is this year.

Yesterday and today as we have driven down the driveway on our way to town there have been pheasants at the side of the drive or sitting on a wooden cross piece on the fence. They appear to be in lovely shape for winter and they are colour (!!!!!) in our black and white (blue and white might be closer) world.

Last night we drove our son to the bus and he has returned to the bustle of the city and his final semester before receiving his bachelor of fine arts.

Here there is no bustle, in fact the streets very firmly rolled up by Dec 24 and are only reopening ever so slowly. Finally there are a couple shops where one can find coffee in town again! Some businesses don't plan to re-open until January 2 and some not until the 7th!

Those who can have flown away to Mexico or Cuba or some place warm. Here we stock the fires to keep the cold from creeping in. I managed to send the Naniamo bars away with Larry, but I should have sent the fudge. I have great intentions of moving furniture and rearranging work spaces but I keep finding myself "en-chaired" in front of the television watching sad reports on the assassination of Benezir Bhutto over and over again.

January will come, and will pass, and gradually the light and warmth will return and spring will cheer us on.

Another year is nearly gone

This has been a busy year but we have weathered it.

My mom went into Swan Valley Lodge in February and we are still sorting and compressing. Our house is an amazing maze at the moment and somewhere under the accumulation is a spare bed for our son who will soon be home for a brief Christmas visit.

James is farming less and painting more these days.
In March James held a one man show, "Gone Tribal", at Kingfisher Used Books, Creston's wonderful used book store which also features great coffee, cushy chairs, and good company.
He has an ongoing show in Creston at Annette’s Delicate Essen Coffee House which has 300 feet of wall space, which is very good when one paints big and James has numbers of works in the 4 X 4 ft range.
In June James taught a week long class in Acrylic painting here at the college and they have asked him to give a class again this coming summer.

Last summer my friend Betty Marzke and I coordinated our 40 year high school reunion here in Creston and found it to be great fun and wonderful to contact so many old friends...
I continue to co-ordinate Creston’s ArtWalk/ArtDrive which lasts from mid-June to Labour Day and runs a distance of 80 miles from Yahk to the ferry landing on Kootenay Lake. As well as the ArtWalk we sponsor a number of evenings of art and music throughout the year.
I have been building unique rustic birdhouses for 14 years and selling them all throughout the Kootenays and North Idaho but am having to cut back drastically as I have Dupuytrens Contracture, a condition affecting the ligaments in my hands and I have had and will continue to need multiple hand surgeries. It has left me without much grip, with very tender palms, and seeking new directions. I may be able to have birdhouses on hand here at our studio/gallery but I won't be able to continue suppying the other stores. I am meditating on what I can do next that is not as physically strenuous.

I've been making cards and calendars of photos of James’ paintings and am developing a line of cards made from copies of old post cards my grandparents exchanged in the 8 years they corresponded before their marriage in 1912.
I’m learning the good the bad and the ugly about printers too.
I’ve been using an Epson Inkjet which is VERY expensive to run as they don’t have the cheaper inks available for it and sadly most less expensive (under $600.00) printers only want to print on typing paper weight paper while I am trying to get them to run a heavier paper.

As I write I am looking at my new Xerox 6180 laser printer that says it will print on up to 80 lb card stock!
We shall see. I still have to get all the tape off and set it up. It came in a 3 X 3 X 4 ft box with 2 delivery men and a larger footprint than I had imagined so I’ve been reshuffling desks to get it in my office. That and finding the bed for Larry.

Wishing all a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Going, going, gone.......

James caught this little fellow contemplating his breakfast. He (or she) is a Merlin, quite a small hawk but a bit bigger than a kestrel. "Breakfast" is a native sparrow of some sort, as opposed to an English sparrow which isn't.
Fall is truly upon us now. Last week was warm and on the first official day of autumn it turned cold enough we've been having fires in the wood stove in the morning. Driving home today flocks of little birds wheeled overhead on the wind like the scattering leaves. It's amazing how many leaves can be blowing with the trees still full. The dazzling colours aren't here quite yet but they are coming.
The hornets were so plentiful and aggressive this summer that these cooler days are welcome. Many afternoons we spent on the deck enjoying the shade but armed with two of those electric tennis racket zappers. This was not an easy summer.
Tonight the deck is wet and black with rain. After such a hot dry summer rain is welcome. I'd love a good dousing and then a nice "Indian Summer."
James has been painting sunflowers and pumpkins in honour of the season and on Monday we drove to Sirdar on Duck Lake and, with a couple other local artists, scrambled down the little goat trail of a path to the shore where they painted the row boats tied up at the water's edge.
Duck Lake is part of the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area, a wildlife refuge and jewel of our valley. It is home to many species of nesting birds, water fowl in particular, and a great Bass fishing lake to boot.
This week James has also been starting wine. All summer he got up early to pick the blackberries before the hornets could turn them to mush and before the deer picked them. He picked them a couple cups at a time and stowed them away in the freezer. Now he has a batch of blackberry wine and one of blackcurrant wine on the go. We know more than at his first attempt over 30 years ago. We will be patient.

Time sure flies when you're having fun, or otherwise.....

Oh my, somehow the summer has escaped us!
When last I wrote the ArtWalk was just beginning and now this year's is over and the planning begins.
James' class went very well and he is sure it is something he'd like to repeat in the future. He had a small group, 3 women, but they were keen.
We had my 40 year high school reunion and it is a happy blur. Tomorrow I will mail out the remaining class photos and memory books. We've decided 10 years is too long to wait for the next one and will plan to meet again in 5 years.
I had yet another hand surgery just a week before the reunion so I got out of moving tables and the like! It will be at least another month before I can get back in the shop but there are still things to occupy my time!
We have emptied the living area of my mother's mobile home so we could rent it out to a little family. That was quite the job for James and I and the sorting isn't done yet.
I am hoping to get some sewing done. It is the reward I give myself for finishing things and so little gets finished these days.
The picture is of a fellow artist painting at our mutual friends' garden. In that James was taking the pictures he failed to get one of himself.
Fall is coming. We've had cedar bugs for a while now and the hornets are relentless. I think our little hill is the brownest in all the valley. The leaves on the Ocean Spray turn a wonderful burnt sienna late in summer and their blossoms become panicles of brown tiny star shaped seeds. I understand the native peoples ground them for flour.

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.

Gray Catbird

I held a catbird in my hand today.
It was soft and gray, still warm,
But the heart no longer beat.
The gray cat brought it to me.
A gift.
He meant no harm,
And now it no longer dances in the bushes and flips its tail.
It no longer calls out in its mimic cat voice.
It is still, and gray, and warm, but cooling.
It is smaller than it seemed in life
And with the softest rust coloured patch beneath its tail.
I laid it in the tall grass away from the cats.
The ants and the beetles will have it.
It will go back to the dust.
We all go back to the dust.

Nora McDowell June 16, 2007

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.

Busy, busy, busy.....

It is that time of year.
I haven't done all the tidy-up spring gardening but a little warmth is finally creeping in and the daffodils are starting to bloom. It hasn't snowed since Monday!
I did plant tulips years ago but the deer eat them - bulbs and all.

The little lawn violets are blooming too. The snow drops and crocuses are finished. In town today I saw forsythia beginning to bloom. Mine is always very late and a rather unkept scraggle of a plant but, in that we live on a hill without trees right close to the house, the forsythia is allowed to stay as a perch for the birds.
Last weekend was rather a blur. The local rotary club had its annual wine, cheese, and art evening and both James and I were asked to participate. There were, in total, 11 artists who each were asked to show 3 pieces. James did not show paintings, but 2 carved wooden cats and one of the dulcimers he has been building. I showed 3 different birdhouses, one on a post with a welcome sign. James sold a lovely stylized carving of a calico cat. It was carved from part of a poplar the ants had claimed, so we had it taken down. It had mineral figuring (spalling) in the wood and wonderful pinky orange streaks. I sold a birdhouse. We were pleased that 11 pieces of work by local artists sold.
Saturday was the opening for James' new show "Gone Tribal" at Kingfisher Used Books, a cozy little used book store here in Creston. Actually, not so little, as there are 2 floors of great used books. They sell Oso Negro coffee plus the fancy latte's and the like and there are arborite tables and comfy chairs.
The opening was a great success - probably 50 or 60 people milling about. Joe, the owner, had asked Elenna, a local musician, to play her banjo and she sang some of her original songs and a "good time was had by all." The show will hang until June 20.
Amid all the art shows and openings my sister managed to come from Kelowna for a short visit to see my mom at Swan Valley Lodge. We managed to take my mom out a couple times and eat in with her once and while James and I were hanging shows Eileen managed to visit our mom, and she was able to come to James' opening which isn't always possible, and then she was gone.
Now we are getting ready for the Crow Show which opens Sunday, April 15, and the Eye Piqued Show which is a regional art show and will open Apr 29 but work is due by the 21st.

Not everything new is better!

I recently changed over to the new Blogger option and I am having issues with it! If I try to center a picture over the blog it puts it below the blog.
I spent at least a hour trying to post a new message this evening (this is the 2nd.) and could not get anywhere until I moved over to Mozilla. Grrrrr!!!
Our WEB page reads badly on Mozilla Firefox. The lettering that should be brown is bright blue and the "buttons" are in a different order.
This is a picture james painted before Christmas and a dear friend bought it for his wife.
In April there will be a local art show - called "The Crow Show"- celebrating crows, a very intelligent and much maligned member of the songbird family. We have been creatinf work to show and realising how many crow and raven paintings James has done over the years. Here they are again, and he's done a couple more recently.
I'm g0ing to post a recurring image we're using in the poster. James made a 4 colour screen print of a raven several years back and the ravens head keeps cropping up in his work. For a fundraiser for the show James carved the image into a woodblock that various members of the Wynndel Mudders pressed into clay as a fundraiser.
Well now I tried to center the crow below and it put it above. Oh well, it keeps things challenging.

Spring will come. Spring will come!

Winter's fingers have certainly had to be pried loose this year, but despite getting up to our car doors being frozen shut the other morning, spring is coming. Yesterday, as we drove in from Wynndel, there was a large flock of swallows wheeling in air, and James heard the frogs chirping from the pond for the first time this year.
James has another show opening at Kingfisher Used Books this coming Saturday. He is planning to show some of his recent work which has a definitely tribal feel to it. I spent last evening creating the poster using part of a painting. On that Friday is the Rotary Club's annual wine tasting and they have asked a number (10, I think) of local artists to show work for a silent auction. Both James and I are taking part. Rather than James showing his paintings he is showing 2 hand carved cats one of which is a wonderful calico from the natural colour of the wood and he hopes to show one of his ducimers.
I have one freestanding "Welcome" birdhouse and will have a swallow and a smaller bird bird house - smaller as in chickadee, wren, downy woodpecker.
All the mailings are out for ArtWalk and we are getting back registrations.
We are finally full tilt into working on our (mine, not James) 40th year high school reunion. My friend Betty said, "Who would have thought this would be the hardest year to get the planning done?"
Last week I got back into the shop/studio for the first time since my hand surgery last September. This last surgery took far longer healing than the previpous and I do need to book another appointment with the specialist - in my spare time!
Life is spinning madly by.

The last 3 days James and I have been taking part in an ambitious workshop on using paperclay taught by Graham Hay, an artist from Australia. Check out his site. When I first saw his work it was so large and organic I felt like "This is what I've always wanted to do." That and learning to weld with the Oxyacetaline set James got me for our 30th wedding anniversary. but I digress. Anyway. after 3 days struggling with paper clay I still see great possibilities but I'm not sure it'll be so easy to step into. We will see. Anyway, check out Graham's site. Besides a fabulous representation of his work it has links to many articles and a wealth of information. .http://www.grahamhay.com.au

The girls are back.

Four of these lovelies just wandered through the yard not 100 feet from the slider. I took about 8 pictures but they are amazingly good at stepping behind the bushes.
You can see they are in beautiful shape after our very long winter.
James has finished dulcimer #2 and has been doing other interesting projects like making and replacing a rod in a piano, setting the sound post in a cello, more guitar repair. He is a busy boy.
This afternoon he was off to Sirdar with a friend to look at some diamond willow.
I have finally finished making a list of names for ArtWalk in Access and now am redoing forms for this year. Monday we will stuff envelopes and send out this years "seed" hoping it bears a crop of happy participants in ArtWalk. Then on to the shop!!!! Oh, and a mailing to our fellow grads as we prepare for our 40 year Grad Reunion this summer.
The shop! I haven't worked there since Sept 21 when I had my last hand surgery but I am developing a grip again and now is the time to plung back in.

"As you wish"

James took this photo yesterday of Mt Thompson, shining over the valley.
Mt Thompson is the tallest mountain of those surrounding us and is named after the explorer David Thompson.
Spring came in as a lamb - if not a somewhat chilly lamb - in our little valley. Sadly it was not so "lambish" elsewhere.

Changes

This is not the groundhog but were he so he would have seen his shadow. We have had no sun today but the morning was bright with filtered sun and snowflakes. I am ready for spring.

So life is never without its changes. For the last 17 years, since my husband and I moved home to the farm I was raised on, we have cared for my mother to varying degrees.

When we first came my mother could tramp through the woods with us for miles, and every spring we would walk up on the large hill to the back of our property to see the wildflowers. My mother was 69 when we first returned.

Gradually our expedition changed. I began to drive by the road to the back so it was a shorter hike and I began asking my husband or a friend to accompany us in case something were to "go wrong." It has been some years since she could make the hike at all and we have tried to satisfy that loss with drives past wild flowers.
It has become more difficult to take her on outings as her ability to walk has decreased. She now walks relatively short distances with the aide of a walker.

Some years ago the cooking was too much for her and I began making and freezing meals for her to reheat in the microwave and came the day we realized that even that was not happening and home care workers have come in to microwave those meals and "present" them to her. The mechanics of the washing machine and the television baffle her. She no longer heats water in the microwave.

Her memory has changed gradually over the years. It has given me a somewhat cynicle view of history as she speaks with real clarity of incidents that are not as she used to recall them and I wonder if history isn't just to whoever writes it down first.

I have not felt graceful in her transition. I want my mother to be that strong vibrant woman she was. There is that voice in my mind crying "Think!" as she searches for the words and the answers.
And so we are to embark on another journey. On Monday we will move my mother into a local care facility. It is what she wants ( a great blessing there!) and what we want for her but it is another in a string of losses. She is now nearing 86. We will continue to care for her but in a different capacity. No one will ever say old age is kind.

Next.......

These are pictures of the dulcimer James is currently working on. The top picture shows the sides being attached to the back, and the rough neck piece. The second picture shows the inside of the dulcimer with attachments and bracing and with the top laying beside it. Note the lovely f-holes with tiny valentines. This last photo shows the carved and finished neck attached to the dulcimer.

When bookworms mature: altered book

Tomorrow is the library opening and I have finished the altered book I was working on.

This is my altered book and may be hard to see.In the stepped down middle there is a tree branch with a cocoon hanging on it and there is the little green worm reading the book which says, "And so little bookworm, after a long sleep you will wake up as the most beautiful butterfly...."

I removed pages from the book and ran them through the printer for the flat pages of butterflies. The 3D butterflies were printed, painted with matte medium, painstakingly cut out, painted gold on the back, and glued on with a heavy bodied glue called "yes." The pages are glued together in groups and the left side is glued in a curve so the book will permanently sit open. There are a few butterflies crawling on the cover too.

What happens at the McDowells in the dead of winter?

This has been quite the winter so far. We have been spared the severe storms of the coast and the mid-west, and the east, but we have had cold weather and snow that has just hung on and on. Usually the snow comes, and melts, and then we get more, and then it melts, etc., but this has just hung in there, cold and inconvenient. We are burning more firewood than usual as are many others.

When one lives with 100 acres of woodland there are always more trees falling in the latest big wind and wood heat does seem the only way to go, though on cold mornings the idea of waking to a warm house is pretty tempting.

James began this dulcimer probably 15 or more years ago and got to the point where he needed tuning pegs and it went into "waiting mode." He has now finished it and its song is sweet, and he has begun another. The new dulcimer is more lute shaped or like a tear drop.

We are looking forward to the grand opening of Creston's new library and for it a number of us have been creating altered books. I haven't done this before and I'm not sure I'd do it again but it has been interesting. When I have a picture I'll post it.

It is again time to begin on the this year's Creston and Kootenay Lake Eastshore ArtWalk/ArtDrive and I need to create a good address list from all the "collections." We plan to meet March 1 to fill envelopes and mail out information and entry forms so I need to have that done by then.

I am about to take the plunge back into the shop to clear it out so it is workable and to begin building birhouses again. The hand surgery I had done Sept 21 took longer to heal than the other times but now I am really able to grip things again and shouldn't be a hazzard to myself.

The cats remain themselves. A bit of cabin fever has set in and Skeeter has taken to tearing the leaves off my fiscus and ripping corners off papers with her teeth. She would be most happy spending most of her time outside and even now, snow and all, she is outside a lot. On the other hand, Bandy spends great swaths of his time sleeping and doesn't want to go out and get his feet wet at all!

With the recent story of Goliath, the stray who got himself stuck in a doggy door as he was so big, I saw a sign on the back wall of the SPCA cattery that sums it up pretty well:

"Dogs have Masters.

Cats have Staff."

The staff is still pretty happy 'round here.

Wishing all a blessed Christmas 2006

This is the Skimmerhorn, facing east from our porch.
We wish you all a time of peace and friendship this Christmas season.

Bandy loves Skeeter.

Notice who gets most of the cushion.
Skeeter has gone from being a poor pathetic little waif to being a little round cat. In that we suspect Bandy brought her up to the house he has always been nice to her although at times I've suspected he thought she was a toy. She is still skittish but she does spend some nights in and she is becoming more comfortable.
I am not back in the shop since the hand surgery in Sept but it's getting close. Then the other day when visiting the hospital I bought coffee at the kiosk and managed to scald the same hand, so that's another set back.
I have been making calendars of James' work to sell and have been making cards. Now I'm working on creating cards from postcards sent by my grandmother and friends in the early 1900's. I'm calling them "Cards like Grandma Sent."
James has a show of his work at the Park Studio Gallery here in town until December 16. He is also going in and doing painting demonstrations at the library about once a week and this Sat will be doing a demonstration at Annette's Delicate Essen on Sat.

the gold

The rose displaying many beautiful rose hips is a Winnipeg Parks. It is a somewhat "messy" and floppy rose that will only bloom once a summer and should you dead head the drying blossoms you will not get more blooms and will miss the glorious hips. We begin winter with lots of "colour" and as the winter progresses the deer eat the rose hips so there are very few come spring.
I don't know the name of my wondeful pink rose. It came in a box that said something "picotee" and was supposed to be a small, hardy tea rose. It isn't. It is a huge mound of pink blossoms in late June and reblooms through the summer. We think it may be some sort of climber. Whatever it is, aren't mistakes wonderful?

Late October gold....

The full moon would have been a while ago. Last night was as black as can be.

The fall keeps lingering, lovely, on. Lots of the gold is gone but more remains. I must get a picture of my beautiful rose. The leaves are golden and there are still blossoms, not as many but a more intense pink than in June.

James painted the striped kitty recently.

Skeeter comes in at length now. She has even spent the night on occasion. Little by little we are charming her. Of course she has us completely beneath her spell.

My hand is healing but it is taking longer this time and I am feeling impatient.

Here she is.....

Here's Skeeter looking rather intense. Looking at her little face staight on it is a checker board of orange and black - top lip 1/2 black and 1/2 orange, bottom lip 1/2 orange and 1/2 black. She's a funny little creature.

That's it for this summer!!!

My but time is rushing on!
Our unbearably hot summer ended just as fast as it came and we had a few cold and drizzly days and now we are back into a beautiful Indian summer. A gallery visitor asked if this was warmer than usual for this time of year but, in truth, we have had wonderful falls the last few years.
The leaves have dried and fallen off the little wild Pin Cherries, but the Trembling Aspens aren't turning yet. It will come, and we have wonderful drifts of gold. I love fall. Here in Creson and the Kootenays it is a beautiful time of year. The smoke from forest fires and field burning in Idaho has subsided and the world is fresh.
I have had hand another surgery, this time on my left hand. I have Dupuytren's Contracture, which is a genetic condition which can cause ones fingers to draw down as the facia around the ligaments shrinks. Last year and this spring I had 3 surgeries on my right hand and now this is my left. That means 8 weeks swanning about and "petting the cat." I hope to be back in the studio and building birdhouses by late November. Meanwhile i need to produce a calendar or 2 of James' paintings for the 2007 year.
On the subject of "petting the cat".....
Skeeter is growing a bit and becoming less angular. She is built like a Siamese, so while she is no longer skinny she looks to remain tiny. Now the project is to get her comfotable coming in the house for winter.When we first tried to invite Skeeter in she would only dash in and dash out. She was most distressed if someone closed the door. It would absolutely panic her.Who knows, in her other life she may have been abused for coming in the house. She would like to play with feet but is very nervous of them, and she is a yeowly little creature - more confirmation of my Siamese suspisions. We had a very satisfactory visit last night. Skeeter was in for a good hour and more than 1/2 of that she spent letting me "hold" her. This is not the idylic cat-in-the-lap holding I am used to with Bandy. This is an exercise program all in itself. She is up, she is down, she turns around and flops so completely the "holder" has to catch her from falling on the floor, she turns and lies on ones legs, she gets up to lie on your chest, she turns around another 3 or 4 times. What a tiny wiggle wart, but she is a sweet little thing and bit by bit she is learning to trust us. She is "a keeper."

Summer is drawing to a close.

Summer is drawing to a close. I feel it, and it is a relief. It has been such a hectic summer that a slower season seems a welcome relief. The evenings have less mosquitos, and it is pleasant to sit out after the sun hides itself behind the mountains and just enjoy the evening.
James painted these dragonflies last week, and then, one evening driving to town, the air was alive with them - none of those dainty damsel flies - the big guys with big eyes and big mouthparts - a little intimidating close up, but etherial in the air and do they ever clean up on mosquitoes and flies.
The skies are smokey, hazy, probably mostly from the fires in Washington State, but we too have the drone of little helicopters , and the cedar bugs are back. Cedar bugs are another failed experiment 0n "nature", where they were imported from Sweden, I think, to kill off some native forest bug pest. They didn't kill off the pest and they thrived and multiplied. As far as I know they are harmless, but high on the nuisance value scale. They are rather clumsy in flight, hitting the lights, landing on people, bashing into things. They look a little like a wasp in flight, and if squeezed or squished they let out a pungent stink. This time of year they are looking for cracks and crannies to overwinter in. They like to hide in the firewood and come out and bash about when we bring in wood in the winter.
Tomorrow we make another flying trip to Cranbrook, 100 km or 70 miles away. My hand mixer is dying and before it falls apart in my hands and I have to buy another $35.00 "cheapie" I am going to get a Kitchenaid. I've gone through 3 of the the Proctor Silex, Black and Decker sort you can find anywhere for $35.00 or less in the past 2 1/2 years. Within the year the beaters are falling out or, like the current one, the switch no longer works and I have to press it really hard and sideways to get it to stop. I can imagine it disintegrating in my hands.
When I first started building birdhouses 12 years ago I bought these very nice light weight little hand drills from Black and Decker and the switches went out on them in a month, a week, the last one , a day, so I bought a larger $56.00 or so Skill and it lasted about a year, until James used it building a deck and it died, so I bought an $89.00 or $99.00 Dewalt. That was 10 years ago and I am still using it.
I am imagining that the Kitchenaid handmixer will be like that. It will cost $99.00, but it doesn't take too many 35s to reach 100.
On the "glad to see fall approaching" theme, there are only 2 more Saturday Markets this year and though I really enjoy them I will be glad to see them done - for now.
We have been having more people at the gallery of late and even when we aren't in they are welcome. Today we discovered the doorbell wasn't working. People can come into the gallery but we don't hear them if we are in the house even though the gallery is attached. We also found $45.00 American from where someone bought a small painting when we either weren't home, or weren't aware.

Sweltering in SW British Columbia

I don't think I'll catch up in this lifetime!
I did get birdhouses shipped to Castlegar last week.
I am spending all of 2 days a week baking for the Saturday Market. It pays the bills, but it's exhausting.
My mom spent about a week in hospital as they tried to help her with her dizzy spells. Old age is not fun, at least certain aspects aren't fun for the mother or the daughter. I spend a lot of time worrying.
Yesterday we took a flying trip to Cranbrook for baking supplies, and special glue, and....
We stopped at Goat Mountain Soap in Yahk on the way back as they are part of the ArtWalk. They were run-off-their-feet busy and Mike was being interviewed by a camera crew from Colorado. Marlene said last week it was a crew from Bosnia (or the Balkins?).
Tomorrow we are going to all the ArtWalk venues from Creston to Kootenay Landing. We'll get the really local ones early next week.
Skeeter continues to charm me. Her fur has become soft and healthy and she no longer looks like such a neglected little waif. This morning I managed to pinch my finger badly. James had installed a new handle on the slider and he was showing me that it fit too close to the door frame. I was proving I could still get hold of it, and it pinched and I let out a yelp and Skeeter came skooting around the house to see what was wrong. What a good little cat!
She is still nervous but it is a joy to watch her roll about and play like a happy little cat.

"Family" Pictures

These are our little friends, Bandy and Skeeter.
Bandy, the grey striped tiger cat, is 5 this year, having been born on cenquo de maeo (my phonetic spelling of May 5) in 2001. Bandy has lead a blessed life, always wanted and treasured, cared for by his mother until he was the appropriate age to come to our house and cared for by us ever since. He was "chosen": the only cat we have had the privilege of choosing as all our others were orphans and strays of questionable heritage and unknown pasts. Bandy is a neutered male but this is his territory and he will defend it.
It is hard to get a good picture of Skeeter. When she chose us it was evident she had lead a difficult life and she looked like a little kitten but our vet, Dr Marling, assures us she is probably a year old but very petite. Skeeter weighs less than 5 lbs: Bandy weighs a svelt 15. He is a big, beautiful boy.
Skeeter is getting to know us. She isn't much for being held but she does crave attention and, besides being a very excellent mouser, she will actually eat leftovers! This is a trait not shared by the pickier members of the family. Skeeter has been spayed and had her shots since we took her in so she should be well on her way to a healthier life. I would suspect there is a Siamese somewhere in her ancestry as she has the voice, more's the pity, and her frame looks Siamese - long and angular. We are trying to put a little padding on that frame and we are hoping to tame her to come in the house by winter. She's so tiny I'm not sure how she would fare outside all the time.
Bandy quite likes his little friend and she is rather fond of him as well. This makes welcoming Skeeter into our family easier. We are all for a "Peaceable Kingdom."

As life goes whirling by......

It has been a busy, busy time, balanced by unremitting heat.

Last weekend, (July 22 & 23) was Creston's Garden Festival which was wonderful as always: beautiful gardens, great artisan's market, music at Milleneum Park all Saturday, a play Thurs and Fri, but oh, so very hot this year.

This year's celebrity guest was Des Kennedy. As I am always busy with art shows, artisan markets, or you name it I generally do not get to tour the gardens. I did manage to squeeze in Des Kennedy's rather humorous presentation on "The Ten Commandments of Gardening: Who's breaking them and who's Not." That was Sunday morning, and then I spent the rest of the day sitting in Andrew and Anna Zelinski's lovely shady garden in West Creston telling people how to mount and care for their birdhouses.

Saturday James and I took part in the Artisan Market, which also took in the weekly Saturday Market. Every week I already spend 2 days baking for the Saturday Market and with the heat this year it has been quite a challenge. Normally we are set up on the gravel lot, just north of Milleneum Park, facing North, and are only there 'till 1:00, but for the Garden Festival we were set up on the black top parking lot of the college, facing east, and were there until 4:00 pm. By then we were all pretty much cooked.

Four oclock was when they also held the umbrella auction. The umbrellas were paraded on stage by some of the local "Red Hat" ladies. People were so hot there was not enough participation and no bids were placed. They will regroup and re-examine that activity as they do have some lovely, high quality cotton canvas umbrellas painted by local artists. The auction was to benefit the local Arts Council and the Garden Festival, as well as the artists receiving a portion for their hard work. James did the orangy umbrella and was the only man who painted an umbrella. I wouldn't mind just keeping it, but it is for sale.

Our tiny princess

Here's a head shot of Skeeter. She doesn't pose well, and she may be looking at the baby swallow sitting on his house in this picture...
Whereas I thought she was only 4 or so months old, our vet thinks Skeeter is probably a year. She is a tiny wee thing, although she has really grown in the past month. We still need to get some meat on her bones, and she is trying too. She shows off with 2 and 3 mice a day and if they aren't shrews (which taste bad - to cats!) she eats the whole thing.
This has been a lovely week for wild birds. James and I saw a bobolink as we were coming up the driveway the other day. I remember my mother talking about them when we were little but I don't remember ever seeing one before.
Our baby swallows are flying and one little fellow has been sitting on the birdhouse where James could photograph him.
This afternoon as we sat on the deck watching a magnificent vulture circle overhead a catbird came along and "meowed" at us from the bushes. They are quite the handsome bird. When we were growing up in the old house just down the hill from where James and I built on top of the hill, there used to be a catbird who would seranade us from the thorn bush by the outhouse.
My dad used to work a crazy night shift at the saw mill and when he would get home just after 3:00 in the morning he used to enjoy the cat bird seranading him too.

Roses love Sunshine.....

They must also like long, cool, wet springs. Now, however, the weather is very hot and dry.
I need more hoses to drag to thirsty flowers.
This red rose is a Winnipeg Parks: very hardy, it only blooms once a season but oh the rose hips! Fall begins with many, many rose hips and over the winter the deer nibble them off. Something to go with my hen and chicks which they can find down under 6 inches of snow!
The other morning I was walking down to my mother's and sort of daydreaming about the Blaze Climbing Roses that have grown 15 or more feet off the ground up into her Silver Lace Vine, and suddenly I heard a little yelp - or bleat? A tiny, spotty fawn had nearly run into me. We studied eachother for a few minutes and then I went on to see if I could get my mother to the window to see him, and he went to find his mother and tell her about the monster on the driveway.
I was able to show my mother the doe hiding in the trees but baby was mostly obscured by bushes.
Tomorrow I go to town early to pay the land taxes and then I will go to the vet to gather up little Skeeter who has been there recuperating from being spayed. I hope she won't have found the whole experience too disquieting. When I put her in the cat carrier to take her in she fairly roared her disapproval of being caged, but having had kittens get up in behind the dashboard once, all cats travel in a carrier in my car.

And I even got to cut the cake!

Dena Kubota, our Eastshore Representative for ArtWalk, sent me this picture of me cutting the cake at the Creston opening last Friday night. Actually, Mayor Snopek did the honors, but I got to do the more "domestic" cutting and serving after.
James and I finished delivering the last of the venue posters and brochures this afternoon. Now we need to whipper snip the grass at our own gate and put up our own venue posters.
This afternoon as I walked down to my mom's there was a bald eagle circling just back of her home.
We had such a great time this evening. There are a group of people working in clay every Wed at the Wynndel Hall and right now they are making bugs for a "Go Buggy in the Garden" installation for the Creston Valley Garden Festival this July21 - 23. James and I went and had a really fun evening and toasted summer with a lovely sweet white wine to top it all off. And there were stars! We've seen so few lately with all the rain.

Proof the bird boxes really "work"!!!!

Here's proof the birdhouses "work." Our friend Taryn emailed this picture of a swallow peeking out of one of my houses. Jim and Taryn bought a house for smaller birds and the swallows were so insistent they needed a home they bought another house the right size for them.
We are still having really changeable weather. This morning was lovely and I took my mother for lunch at the Blueberry Patch Country Market - a farm that grows blueberries and hydroponic strawberries, and has a lovely little gift shop and restaurant. On our way home we stopped and watched a whitetailed deer doe and fawn cross a field. Because my mom is 85 she doesn't spot things as fast as earlier in her life, but these two weren't too far away and weren't moving particularly fast so we had a good view.
I had to run back into town for errands but didn't get much done as the skies opened and it just poured rain. It dumped again this evening but now, at 9:15 it isn't bad. This has been a very wet spring!

As spring turns to summer...

What James has been doing

James has been in the studio. He's done some lovely paintings lately , starting early in the morning in that "misty", almost romantic light, and with our very wet spring there has been plenty of mist to paint in!

ArtWalk Opening and Saturday Market

First day of the Saturday Market for the season!!!!
It wasn't pretty, in fact as we left the house about 7:15 it was pouring and having put our tent up in rain before we know it does not deflect water - it leaks!!! so we didn't put the tent up. We backed both vehicles in and opened the backs (Jeep Cherokee with the door forming a roof too low for Danny to stand under, and Ford pickup with a canopy that the door sticks out but not beyond the tail gate.)
Lois and girls were there too but their tent is water proof and she has shower curtains attached around the sides with their curtain rings, so their world didn't disolve into soap bubbles, and I got my feta fix!
I have a squall jacket that knocks about in the back of the car and gets in the way, but it is there "in case." Today it was "in case Lois forgets a jacket" and it looked very nice and tidy on her. Eileen had brought it one time and the back of the car seemed like the appropriate place for such a garment.
The rains would come, and then the sun would shine weakly through the clouds, and then it would be raining again, but we had a steady stream of customers - not a lot, but quite steady - and I pretty much sold out except for a few cookies. I had 2 loaves left which is not a problem and the rhubarb crisp muffins vanished early on. We decided people are just fed up with waiting for good weather and decided to come out anyway.
Last night was the ArtWalk opening for Creston and it was just great! We had a local, and very good jazz band, After Hours, play and they did just play and play without even a break for 3 hours. Their music is danceable for those who do, and really nice to listen to as we all visited and ate Annette's great goodies. (Annette of Annette's Bistro and Coffee House.)
James has a large showing of his work at Annette's.

Nest boxes and wildlife

Here are two recent nest boxes, or bird houses depending on what one wants to call them.
The house on the left is sized for a bluebird or swallow. The house on the right is for a small bird like a chickadee or wren.
We've been having quite the wildlife days. A couple nights ago we drove out to the back field and saw 4 elk in the middle field grazing like cows. We drove around the neighbourhood and as we came back in the driveway there were 3 little groupings of white tailed deer totalling 10 deer in all. No wonder gardening is a challenge!
The day before yesterday I was gazing at the neighbour's field watching a cow elk in the tall grass when she came out with a calf following her. She was none too relaxed crossing the open field with her precious baby.
Skeeter, our little abandoned kitten, is becoming more tame. If I sit in a low chair she comes to be petted, but she's not too sure about being picked up and if you approach her face to pet her from the front she flinches. Someone was not kind to her! But she is putting on a little weight and her coat is improving.
The other night we were sitting in the yard having an outside dinner when she caught a really big vole (field mouse) and she was some proud of herself! She kept running from one side of the yard to the other carrying her prize. She would have to put on a nervous little spurt of speed as she passed us, but she did want us to see what a good cat she is.

Skeeter

This is Skeeter. We are having some success in taming her. She is still a poor nervous little creature but we found that if we set my little kids school chair on the deck and sat down low in it she was not so intimidated by the huge humans and she does want to be petted even though she is scared of sudden moves and not quite sure she won't get hit. Poor little thing. Someone wasn't kind to her.
I have managed to pick her up a couple times ever so briefly. My friend Betty brought over some kitten weaning food that looks for all the world like someone took cat food and pulverized it in the food processor and put a big price on it. You're supposed to mix it half and half with water and she does eat it. She is starting to eat the regular cat food too but I think she may need a little special care. She's rather thin and her hair shows the lack of good eating. When she first came she wouldn't eat and I have found this behavior in stressed kittens before.
One little kitten was depressed and suffering separation anxiety I'm sure. She had decided to never eat again and I coaxed her back to eating by biting vitamin E capsules and putting the oil on her lips.
Look at the size of those feet! She has one orange foot, one black, and two tortoise shell, which I believe is what best describes her colouring.
James is painting wonderful moody garden paintings these days, that and actually gardening when the weather permits.
ArtWalk is nearly up and running. Tomorrow I've an early morning meeting and then the brochure will go to the printer. I have another meeting with KC from Kootenay Employment Services who is helping us (James and I) set up our web page.
Sunday is the ArtWalk opening in Crawford Bay and Friday the 16th is the opening here in Creston.
Sat the 17th the Farmers' Market opens for the season. Busy, busy, busy........

Skeeter, or "the things we do for love...."

I fear we may have another cat.

For a few weeks my husband would see a dark flash down by the chicken house as he came out of our house. We knew there was a little stray about but hoped she’d wander on.

It sounds harsh, but harsh are the people who drop their animals off “in the country” for the coyotes and hawks to kill, and for them to be totally unprepared for life in the wild.

They drop them off in winter when everything is frozen and there isn’t even water!!! Never mind food. They drop them off in the heat of summer too.

We see them in the ditches sometimes and it is no life for a domestic animal, and yet we can’t take in every stray. We have our own animals that we are responsible for. We see them where they’ve been hit by cars too.

Well, a couple days back she moved up to the house and is yeowling. She is pathetic. She is horribly thin, and has a tiny, warped, malnourished little body. She is that very dark brown and orange brindley colour, which is why I think she is “she.” There is no size to her at all. I wonder how young she was when someone discarded her. She has a sad little bent tail that probably was broken in another life not too long ago as I believe she’s still a kitten. She may be in heat, oh joy! We always have our own animals neutered and chose not to acquire more than we can care for. We did not choose her.

But we have put out food and water. We can’t just let her starve.

I wonder if she was someone’s pet. Would a cat that was completely feral crave human companionship? That is what she wants. She won’t let me touch her but she is managing to get closer, and I can tell she wants to be near.

I spent more than an hour today sitting out in the lawn chairs sweet talking her and dangling my fingers down near the ground and she even managed to jump up in the chair by me ever so briefly. I talked to her and talked to her and assured her I wouldn’t hurt her. I think she's been hurt before. She has probably been chased or kicked. Twice she gave my fingers a tentative tap. This is real progress, but I really don’t need, and I really don’t want another cat.

Nora