It is that day...

Well, it is "that day." I am off to Trail for the third hand surgery on my right hand in the past year - all Dupuytren's Contracture related. Dupuyetren's is a condition that causes the fingers to draw down - not "handy" for building birdhouses.
The messy scenery picture is of my poor, sad forsythia which has finally decided to bloom. Beyond it, and barely visible, is a wild Saskatoon. Soon the hills will be covered in little girls in white, ruffly party dresses. The poplar leaves are appearing, little, bright green and waxy, and then the leaves will continue to grow to their normal summer size.
In the past week the world has become green. This spring had a hard time wresting itself from the arms of winter, mild though the winter had seemed.
Somehow, I had dreamed of having a bunch of gardening and yardwork done by now, but it is not to be, not this year anyway. I do have a good supply of bird houses on hand, so that is a good thing.

Arts and Culture Week, Creston Style

What a great day Sunday was!

Sunday, late morning, early afternoon we went out to the Wynndel opening of Arts and Culture Week and saw the great installation of Raku fish they had mounted on iron bars all along the creek with little areas where one could read about the various dams on the Kootenay and how they affected the Kokanee Trout in Kootenay Lake, and how that affected the larger Girrard Trout and Dolly Varden. Also, added to the changes from the dams, when Cominco cleaned up some of its practices of releasing fertilizer into the river it lowered the algae growth in the lake to the point where the fish’s survival was threatened and there was a whole program of adding fertilizer to Kootenay Lake in the 90’s to the point that the fish population has rebounded.

At the Wynndel Hall there were also people demonstrating Raku firing, there was ice art, inside there was a fish and chips feed, and a quilt show and sale with some sales going to the Wynndel After School Arts Program and a bunch of wonderful quilted fish wall hangings being sold with the monies going to the Creston Aquatic Society.

Sunday evening was the Creston opening of Arts and Culture Week at the Art garage and it was wonderful. The garage was full to overflowing with local artists and what a happy din. It was really great to see so many people from the different arts related groups co-operating on a common cause.

We went home glowing happily. The Art Garage will be open daily through May 7, with various other activities around town all that time.

Today was a trip to Cranbrook with lots of wildlife along the way. 5 white tailed deer, 3 mule deer, many, many geese, ducks, a heron, etc. I had to run back to town this evening and was just in time to see the 'clean up crew", this time a large hawk, gathering up the remains of a Columbia Ground Squirrel who tried to cross the road just one time too many.

This evening our friends, Jim and Taryn WoodnoteSaberwing, who create beautiful stone and silver or gold jewelry, came out and we did a trade. They now have a swallow birdhouse for the little swallow couple who have been trying to squeeze into the enty hole of the chickadee house, and I have a wonderful pair of rustic woolly mammoth tusk earrings.

What a busy time!

Yesterday one of the volunteers from the Creston Valley Garden Festival (July 22 & 23) was out to interview me about my birdhouses as I will be demonstrating "The Care and Feeding of Your Birdhouse" - in other words, how to mount and care for a birdhouse - in one of the gardens. I am also hoping to get to hear Des Kennedy who is the celebrity speaker this year.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of this year's provincewide Arts & Culture Week which Creston's Arts Council always expands to two weeks to include the schools' annual celebration of the arts, Focus on Youth, which runs from May 1st - 6th.

Wynndel is celebrating with an opening tomorrow late morning - early afternoon with a raku fish release and quilted fish and ice art and a fish and chip lunch all celebrating a live sturgeon release the children from the elementary school will take part in.

Tomorrow evening is Creston's opening at the Art Garage, an old unused garage that the owner has allowed us to transform into gallery space for the two coming weeks. James and I spent a good chunk of Friday helping with our 7 Studios display. James will be doing demonstrations at the Art Garage on Tues and Thurs and a day long workshop sponsored by the Art Club, at the Rotocrest Hall on Wed.

Friday we go to Trail for more hand surgery for me. Hopefully this will cure the seizing up business. I won't be building birdhouses for a few weeks, but then I'll be back at it. Fortunately I have managed to have a good supply of bird houses on hand- never as many as one would like but a fair number for now.

Every day a little springier!

I'll have to put a picture on of the great shelves James built me. I have been industriously trying to get ahead with birdhouses for when I have hand surgery at the end of this month, and consequently the birdhouses were taking over the gallery, all on the floor, and piling up in front of the benches, and.....
Our friends Jim and Taryn gave us some old bifold doors and James used them for my shelves. Now I have four 6 foot shelves in front of the one bank of windows, and I just got all my finished houses up on them when some ladies came up the driveway and bought one!
Yesterday, late afternoon, there was a real gully washer of a rain storm with lashing wild winds and then, just as quickly as it came, it went, and we had sunshine - and a whole flock of Mountain Bluebirds flying about and sitting on the old wagon wheels. James saw them again this morning. I would love to see bluebirds nesting near the house.
Mountain Bluebirds are all blue with some whitish feathers on their breasts and the females are less bright, with a gray hue to them. We also have Western Bluebirds here in the Creston Valley but they are more rare. The Western Bluebird male has a rosy breast and a pink tinge to his shoulders. Female bluebirds are more difficult to tell apart. The song of the bluebird is a soft, sweet, sad call.

More irises

Now that James is done repairing the truck there will be more time for painting. He has been working on a painting of some antique silver, pewter, and copper tea and chocolate pots we have. Actually, he's also very busy getting garden beds ready for planting.
Last night I planted a gazillion rudbeckia inside. This summer and fall we should have a sunset of golden blooms.

Spring is springing

James and I went for a couple little drives today. We drove out to the back of the place and there are some incredible puddles across the road. James won't be cutting firewood for a while: we can see that! Oh but it was green and lovely, and a gorgeous red tailed hawk was wheeling on the breezes overhead.
This evening we went for coffee at DQ and a drive around the valley, taking the long way home. The skunk cabbage are blooming. Somehow I have had a hard time getting going this year and am still in Jan/Feb mode, and had no idea we are so far into spring. Some things are kind of late this year. The bushes are still just on the verge of leafing out. Some of the poplars and birch are festooned in catkins, but others are still waiting for that first really warm day.
Coming up the driveway this evening I looked out to the back and there were 16 elk grazing in the middle field. This sounds idylic but it isn't really the best news for the farmer. It's like having a herd of the neighbours' cows grazing in your field and eating the newly emerging crop, but then that is balanced by their beauty and magnificence and realizing many people would travel hundreds of miles to see what we can see before breakfast.

Birdhouses and quilting

This may be a little hard to see, but we were learning free motion quilting with a "bouncy " foot and rather than just stippling I tried doing a branch with leaves and some very abstract roses, among other things.
Spring is really upon us now. The leaves on the bushes are beginning to pop and the poplars are decorated with fuzzy chains. It is such a great time of year!
Then, feeling totally spoiled by the springy weather, and running about with no jacket yesterday, this afternoon the wind came up and the rains descended and we were treated to the other side of spring.
The river is rising again, and now the water is muddy.
I'm still busily building birdhouses and hope to get some pictures of them and of some of James' recent paintings on here. We got some old bi-fold doors from our friends, Jim and Taryn, and James is going to make me some display shelves as right now the gallery is pretty well brimming over. I need to go in there and rehang some of his work.
Ah...... It never ends.
I had hoped to get so much deep gardening done before I have hand surgery at the end of the month but at this point we're just enjoying the little violets and daffies and wondering what has blighted my myrtle (or periwinkle, depending on who you are talking to.) It looks like it was scalded or sprayed, but we garden organically, so it's a mystery.

The swallows are back!

James painted these boxes of apples the other day. The small box reminds me of a shop project from my dad's generation.
This morning and yesterday there were swallows on the electric wires, all bright and tidy in their "formal attire."
On the internet there is streaming video of an eagles' nest on Hornby Island. It is wonderful!
I got to see the 2 parents change places. There are 2 eggs, laid last week.
Here's the site.
http://www.infotecbusinesssystems.com/wildlife/default.asp

A beautiful time of year

It is a beautiful time of year.
Spring comes more slowly here than some other places but it does really feel like it's coming now.
I have oodles of snowdrops and a few crocuses and there are more green noses popping up in the sadly neglected garden. I have tiny tet a tet daffies, but only because I forced them in the shop - more things to walk around when cutting boards.
I finished the 10 "little bird" houses sized for chickadees and wrens, and now am cutting parts again.
I have a bunch of gray 8 inch boards with 2 inch sides and strips of lath nailed in them. They were used for core samples, but in their new life they will be birdhouses.Where the lath was nailed it leaves them with subtle stripes.They take quite a bit of taking apart but are pretty good wood and they are pine! I keep getting old fir which makes fine houses but it is hard and slivery and likes to bend nails.
James is getting ready to mount a new show at Annette's Delicate Essen in time for this summer's ArtWalk. Actually, he will be changing work around sooner than that as she is changing the layout of her restaurant at Easter.
The last two days James spent lying under his blocked up truck removing the clutch, transfer case, and transmission. I guess the good news is the weather has finally improved enough to do such things.
The other good thing about working outside is that you see wonderful things and can come get your wife to see them too.
This evening we saw a large flock of swans flying north just as the sun was setting. Their wings were awash in the sunset. We also saw geese,but that is not so exciting as the swans.

Morris Flowers Greenhouse

This morning was Morris Flowers Greehouse's annual spring pancake feed. Lloyde and Heather were flipping busily and Heather, who is also the Diabetic Nurse at the hospital, had provided a diabetic pancake syrup for those of us who require it, as promised.

Last year I brought my own, but when she saw it she said she'd have it this year, and I wasn't the only one using it.

Monte Andersen's music students were performing - piano and fiddling, very good. There was one little 9 year old boy who played his own composition: The Waterfall Waltze and you could hear the water tumbling over the rocks. It was really impressive for such a little guy. When Monte asked him what he wanted to play next he played the Theme from the Pink Panther. He was, after all, just a little boy.

James took pictures as reference material for his paintings and took a picture of one of my birdhouses while he was at it. I had planned to come home and work in the shop but I got chilled at the greenhouse, and after delivering Grandma's Applesauce Cake to an elderly couple who I bake it for occasionally, shopping for my mom, and doing errands I was bushed and came home and wrapped up in ablanket and watched figure skating. So much for good intentions.

Next Sat I'm going to the local art quilting group for my first time.

I think they are calling themselves "A Walk on the Wild Side."

Bluebird Houses

I finished these last week. They are sized for bluebirds and swallows. I am now building houses sized for the little guys - chickadees, wrens, downy woodpeckers.

The air is full of birdsong these days and everyone is checking out realestate. Spring really is in the air.

This morning I looked out north of the house and there was a big adult "Mr" pheasant checking out my little "memorial garden" - memorial to our kitties that are no longer with us.

Mr Pheasant was in lovely shape. This was such an open winter I'm sure many of the birds made it through in fine form. Now we see the male pheasants sparring as is their spring ritual, or you'll see two fellows 20 feet apart in a field, unable to move as that might signify weakness.

Yesterday I potted up the last of last fall's daffodill bulbs. I don't know that they'll bloom this year but at least it should keep them "healthy" until I can plant them in the lawn next fall. These are mostly "tet a tet." (I'm sure that's the wrong spelling, but they are a tiny daffie that has multiple blooms.) I have given up on tulips as the only folk who get to enjoy them are the deer. They have decimated my hen and chicks and other sedum.

Improbable Sightings

On my way into town this morning I had to stop for a little family of pheasant chicks. They were fully feathered - not just baby down - but they weren't even as big as a dove. What cute little guys, and in that they are feathered out they'll probably make it, but around here we don't expect to see them before mid-summer!

March 18 - National Quilting Day - I had no idea!

I spent today and yesterday evening working on a sweatshirt jacket which will then be free motion quilted. I have the fabric placed on the front and back - next come the sleeves.
The raven is a screen print James made.

I did have to buy the Oriental print and the fabric that looks like birch bark. The rest I already had. And I had to buy the red sweat shirt. I love red!

Busy, busy, busy.....

I finally finished all the houses I'd cut parts for before I got sick and now am on to a second group.
Those were sized for bluebirds and swallows and these will be for chickadees, downy woodpeckers, and wrens.
I'm taking another quilt class this Fri and Sat making a sweatshirt jacket.
I've pieced a table runner and begun a second quilt but still have to finish sewing the first together and in that the first is still up on the wall, I'll have to finish it before going on the #2.
I also finished mailing out all the entry forms for art walk. Three of us got together and collated and stuffed envelopes one night and that really sped things up. I did labels from a mailing list and there were still a few glitches but I only had to write out 2 by hand and that is very good!

Local trapper bags the big one!
And you thought it was all fun and games in the gallery.
"Something" had been eating (and digging up) the root of one of my columbines, right down into the ground. It had made a hole about a foot deep, eating away at the over an inch wide root.
We decided the hole was just way too big to be a mouse - not even a very large mouse! and the last snow we had we could see his little footprints going from the pond over to the mudroom, so we bought a rat trap and James baited it with a date and covered it so we wouldn't catch a cat. James got him the first night. We suspect "he" was a very pregnant female pack rat, in just beautiful condition.
You may note it does not have a skinny, naked tail like a Norway rat. It actually had little round ears, a fluffy tail, and looks not unlike a chinchilla, and we wish it had just stayed in the woods and lived its happy little life. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and pack rats stink badly, or their "leavings" do, they can chew and destroy things, and they just don't fit in with domestic life.

New houses for our feathered friends.
I spent the afternoon in the shop creating new real estate for the birds - many, many, little birdhouses. These are only partially assembled - next will come door knobs and faucets and various other pieces of used hardware - plus a wood pile, and a key.
These are sized for bluebirds and violet green swallows.
This afternoon I noticed the towees have returned and are hopping about the bushes. Down by the chicken house I saw my "mystery bird" again. Often he comes and sits on the electric wires in Jan or Feb but I haven't been able to identify him. He is a very soft gray with dark "eye makeup" and white feathers along the edges of his tail. He likes to sit on the wires just 'till I get the binoculars and then he is gone.
James has been in the studio working on a commision.

I'm taking some quilt classes to relearn skills I'd learned in 1990, before we moved back to Creston from the Seattle-Tacoma area. With our building our house and me starting my birdhouse business, and sewing being the "reward" for when the work is done - ha!! I never got back to it until now, but now I have several directions I want to try, and I need to reaquaint myself with some of the rules so I can break them.
This is a modified four patch based on "Four Patch Harmony" from the book "Fat Quarter Frenzy" by Daphne Grieg and Susan Purney-Mark. It was supposed to be a throw about 56 X72 and then James said "I hope it will be big enough for the bed" so it has some growing to do.
I learned a slick trick for lay out. We've stapled an elcheapo plastic table cloth with a flannel backing backwards to the wall and it works like a felt board. I am so pleased.

So on Mon the 13th I spent a good part of the day cutting birdhouse parts in the shop, and by that night was coming down with the current crud that is going around. I'm still fighting it off and spending time watching the Olympics and finishing the quilt I started on the 10th and 11th. I didn't make it back to last weekend's classes - didn't want to share the "dread disease," nor have I made it back to the shop.
Massive quantities of dust and a cold don't mix!
Today we met at Annette's Delicate Essen for lunch, and to plan this summer's ArtWalk.
James is still painting more beautiful pictures and has managed to stay relatively "disease free."

Everything is beginning to look like a quilt. Here's another little village James painted.
I spent another day at Quiltview Corner doing the quilty thing.
I have many little pieces in different states of being unfinished but am hoping to have it pieced by Friday, when we start another.
As per Wednesdays blog, I did ship 3 birdhouses to Nelson and getting back in the shop is also on next week's list, and watching the Olympics - 1 gold so far, for Canada, Yea!!!!!

Well, I went to my quilting class today, to try to shake loose some of the rust - like which side of the fabric one cuts from with the rotary cutter so as not to end up needing stiches. I've cut the pieces for an 80 X 80 quilt from "Fat Quarter Frenzy" and have begun sewing. It is all flowers, and like "Candy is chocolate" so, "Flowers are roses," and there are lots of them. The pattern suggested using batiks and the ladies laughed at me when I said I was "saving them."
It is incredibly cold and crisp tonight.