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

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

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

Where did the springtime go?

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

Further progress

I don't understand this blog. It doesn't let me write where I choose. 
Nevertheless ....
Progress continues on the gazebo between rain showers. There is fresh snow on the mountains but that is better than Calgary's snow.
I met today with Harry Miller who is doing a lot of the work on ArtWalk this year. It always helps to sit down and spread everything out on the table and see where we are. We have some work these next 2 weeks but we'll get it done and off the Brandy at Imagine Ink where she will apply her magic to the brochure.
June 5 my sister and I will host a tea celebrating our mother's life (she passed away last Oct 10) and we are holding it in the pavilion and the gardens behind Morris Flowers Greenhouse. I haven't a clue how many will come but if we keep it simple it will be easy enough and "expandable" for more or less.
May will be a very busy month.

Going off madly in all directions

We have a friend who had a lovely old fashioned gazebo in her too small front yard so James numbered it, dismantled it, brought it home, and piled it in our yard.
Now James gets to put his puzzle back together.
These pictures are from the first day here.
We are putting the gazebo just to the NE of the house where it won't block views from the house. It is a 12 foot octagon so, once screened, it should give us lots of room to enjoy the days without wasps and evenings without mosquitoes.

The day of reckoning

Well, I don't know if this new system is any kind of improvement. 
The day finally came when we had pulled as much old plastic and tarps and water bed liners and old blankets used to cushion things out of the pond as we could.

James took 160 kgs to the dump and that did not include the hay tarp we thought we could repurpose, then came the "tractoring." I don't think James heard any audible sobs as thyme and lovely rocks and you name it went into the hole.
It filled up faster than we'd hoped.






There is a feeling of "lightness" in not having to worry about dogs or small boys in the pond. We will soon have seating and the plants will be restored.
Bandy was not worried at all about the bashing and grundging but I finally tricked him into the house as he was just too very trusting.

It is a long sad story

Once upon a time I had a lovely garden pond and flowers bloomed and little birds took showers in the water dripping down the rocks but then those naughty little deer walked into it and their little pointy hooves made little holes in the liner and it never was the same again.
So now, for numbers of years we have had this unsightly black hole which we have to explain "used to be a pond" but we never seem to come up with the sizable sum it would cost to line it with proper EPDM liner that the deer could not puncture. And we do love our deer.We put water out for the momma who brings her babies to drink and we are thankful to give them a safe place not out in the fields with the harvesting.
We finally decided we are never going to line that ugly hole so today James poked holes in the bottom of the liner so the last of the water could drain away and we rolled the rocks off the edges of the liner and tomorrow James will come with the tractor and yard the liner out and we'll take all the assorted foam we had as cushioning to the dump and fill in the hole.

 This is what remains and once it is gone we will fill in the hole and make a level seating area in the yard so the legs on people's lawn chairs are less likely to buckle and send them rolling down the hill. I am looking forward to having flower beds I can get at from both sides
And another sad story:

The "stemmy" plant in the middle is my Japanese Knot Weed in it's dead late winter phase. It dies to the ground every year and through most of the winter hangs on to it's beautiful dried burnt sienna coloured leaves. Every summer it grows to be a wonderful 6 foot bush with large green leaves and little white flowers.
Now, sadly, "they" are listing it as a noxious weed so it goes too, sniff. I'll have such a nice open space to create in!
And so goes the battle ......

Birdhouses are us ........ 2, which of course will precede #1.

                                                                 Birdhouse #4

                                                             Birdhouse #5

                                                                      Birdhouse #6

Birdhouses are us ........

Birdhouse # 1.

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

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

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

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

                                                                   Birdhouse # 2.

                                                                 Birdhouse #3

The birdies in the tree tops

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

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

It's Seedy Saturday!!!!!

T

This is James' most recent creation made for a friend from her father's old golf clubs. I'm sorry that the table lets off such a glare. It doesn't do the painting justice. Below is a print of the table top - which is a painting.

Busy day, sunshine, James pruning the blackberries......
Coffee in town with the Eckersleys.
This is our monthly ArtQuilters' meeting. I'll have to report I've still been knitting but I got some great ideas from the latest Cloth, Paper, Scissors and I actually have moved my sewing machine out of the corner and onto a desk!
It's Seedy Saturday today. There's a lecture at one (talk?) which I will miss because of the aforementioned Art Quilters' meeting and then the seed exchange from 2:00 - 4:00 at New Life Church just over (east) of the high school. Non-GMO and non-hybridized seeds.

My day has been "fun, fun, fun."
Anyway we quilters met, shared ideas and projects, and then we went for coffee. I went to Seedy Saturday and brought home a bunch of free seeds for James. I only bought one package and that was of a large, very tasty black tomato.
We had friends who grew a deep purple tomato that would be about 1 inch - 1 1/2 inches across last year. They were the yummiest tomatoes I've ever had - utterly sweet and flavourful. I have since seen them called "chocolate tomatoes" and that would be a good description.
I also got some "shelling beans," Rhubarb chard, Italian parsley and parsley root, a couple other kinds of tomato, and several kinds of squash.

I am now home, beat, and ready to watch paralympic sledge hockey.

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

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

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

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

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

Plant with alium - 24 in X 32 in.

Machinery with pliers - 32 in X 24 in.

Machinery 2 - 32 X 24 in.

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

James' show

Signature piece for show - 24 in X 32 in.

Circles and squares 1 - 24 in X 32 in.

Circles and squares 2 - 24 in x 32 in.

More paintings from James' show

Circles and squares 3 - 24 in X 32 in.

Circles and squares 4 - 30 in X 40 in.

Circles and squares 5 - 16 in X 16 in.

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.

New show by James

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

Was this January?

Farewell to January in our very odd winter. We have had so little snow James has not had to plow once. Since the start of the year we had maybe an inch or two one day and a few tiny skiffs but the ground is bare except for some ice on the driveway. Even the ice out through the grass is disappearing. I don't know what this bodes for farming but I hope we get a good kill on the wasps. They have been unreal the last few summers.
The chickadees are singing a new more melodic song: not their "springs coming" song yet but it is coming.
James has been painting in the studio. He has a show opening at Kingfisher Used Books in early March.
I have been knitting on the round looms again, many hats in different combinations of yarns, and I am teaching myself to knit left handed.
This past year I have been seriously transitioning out of building birdhouses. I can't say I'll never make another, but they are taking a back roll and I am doing cleaner things that aren't as hard on my hands. Having knit right handed enough to have to have surgery for a trigger thumb last spring I am realizing that in everything I do I need to watch for repetitive stress or it will bight me!
This Thursday is a memorial service for everyone who has passed away at the Lodge since last October. My sister is coming, she and I and two of our close friends have all lost parents (our last parents) in thiese past few months.

Farewell to 2009

As you can see Skeeter is still hopeful. This was taken Dec 26 I believe. We had more snow earlier and then it melted and "wore away" in the cold. Now we again have an inch or so, not much but enough to cover some of the dry remains of last summer.
James and I had a very quiet Christmas with a wonderful roast lamb for dinner at our friend Betty's. Her daughter-in-law is French and French Canadian and this is a part of her French heritage, her grandfather coming from France with Moroccan heritage. Dinner was delicious.

November

James has been taking pictures through the slider. This little fellow, a Downy Woodpecker, spent some time peeking in all the cracks on the deck looking for lunch.

















We have more birds and more variety of birds at the feeder than in previous years.
















This wee fellow is a chickadee of which we've had lots in the past but this year we are being visited by the various finches, most just stripy browns at this time of year but we also have the rosy headed House Finches and I'm sure I saw a Red Poll yesterday. His whole body was rosy and he had the little red stripes on his head; such a bright little fellow.
Sadly James was not lurking about with the camera when he appeared.
We have decided to discourage the cats at the feeder, after all, it is a bird feeder, not a cat feeder! James caught Skeeter sitting on top the other day. It would be a pretty foolish bird who would fly in to that welcome.
Today James added another 20 inches height to the pipe the feeder is mounted on. Take that cats!