Closing the cabin for the winter
I got out of town this weekend guys.
I jumped in the car and drove the 200km up to my cabin.It's really too bad that I haven't had more time for the cabin this year because I love it so much, but I'm about to make up for that.
The main reason I came up here is to winterise and protect the cabin. Remember this spring's pack rat?Here is the cabin thermometer and what it read when I got here. The right side is the outside temp and the left is the inside temp. Not a lot of difference!
But I soon had a cheery fire going and this new wood stove is so efficient, that the cabin was warm in no time.
Then I went for a walk around the property, checked the lake, and walked out across the meadow to the river.
The moss is so luxurious thia time of the year.
I walked around the lake. What a stellar day! But then, it's semi-arid here and so we have loads of these sunny days.
This land is in a valley next to a river, so the dew just never dries at this time of the year. Soon my boots, jeans and even my socks were soaked.
Here's the Gates River. My cabin property goes steeply up a hill on the other side of this river, so I usually walk back at this point.
I walked across the place to the railroad which borders the other side.That's looking east.
And that's west.
Back inside the cabin, I let my shoes and socks dry at the fire...
...and made myself a little supper.It's amazing how well and how fast bread toasts up on the stove top.
Then I grabbed a large paper pad, some conti crayons, graphites and chalks, and sketched some gathered reeds, grasses and branches.I sketched until it got too dark, and then I sketched by candlelight.
Sunday morning I looked down from the loft at all my sketches. I like them.I'm hoping some might lead to a new series of paintings.
The sun started lighting up the mountains but the sun doesn't really come into the valley in the winter, so I put some more wood in the stove.
Even first thing in the morning the temp inside was much more agreeable than yesterday!
One more cabin walk. This time from east to west along a communal path shared with my three cabin neighbours.
I was surprised that there were hardly any mushrooms in the forest. Maybe it's a little late now.
When ever I get here, one of the first things I do is go out for a walk and gather a bouquet of what ever is growing at the moment. Then the custom is to leave the little bouquet on the table until next cabin visit, but for the winter, anything containing water must be either emptied or filled with antifreeze, and so my bouquet had to go. It was too pretty to throw away, and so I put it in a milk bottle to take home.
I also gathered up my sketches...
...pack my gear, locked up the cabin, and drove back home.
Lately round here
Hi everyone,What a difference a day made. And then a week!This is the sun the day after my last post and smoke rolled into Vancouver from the interior, Washington and Oregon wildfires.
Yikes!This was the state of the world at 10 am.
I'll tell you something though, although the smoke was awful to smell, the red sunlight was magical. Like living on Mars.Look at my pristine city!
It was so strange seeing it enveloped in a smokey haze.I must admit that while it was a little surreal, it was a little romantic as well.But it didn't last long. A few days later, some rain and a good westerly wind and Vancouver felt much fresher.
It's been nice to be back home in Vancouver after three months away.
The summer's been very dry and I've been busy trying to water the gardens.The bees are loving the autumn crocus right now.
My neighbour has sold her house in 10 days for over $2 million to a construction company and that means a new duplex next door.That is the state of real estate round here.I'm not thrilled about that and must admit I now have moments of seriously thinking about moving out of this neighbourhood.It's ridiculous to think I'm going to be the only single detached house in a block of duplexes. The only problem is the minute I sell this house it will be bulldozed over and all this beautiful Craftsman heritage will be lost. There is a company who moves homes though, so I might just investigate that option. Wouldn't it be cool to move one's home onto some lovely plot of land? Hmm.Well, in the meantime...and it will probably take a full year for the company who bought the house to get their permits in order...I've managed to snag all my neighbour's sky blue bearded irises!
Robbie has been helping me with some projects.One thing is he has stained and varnished a shelf we built several years ago for under the window in the family room. It tops off the custom bookshelves.I love the deep rich wood grain which has come out of this piece of inexpensive pine.
The other thing I snagged from my neighbour is her, much better than mine, 3 compost containers, AND the compost! And the cement tiles for underneath.The plastic pot is for collecting plastic bags which I use in the kitchen compost bucket for holding fruit and veg waste till I get it into the bins. Later, I just pick up all the used plastic bags and take them to the recycling depot at once. Yes, I know I shouldn't really be using plastic bags to line the kitchen compost bucket. I'm working on it.But doesn't this little corner of my garden looks great and organised now?I love it.
We've really been hanging close to home lately, and also probably because of jet lag and I turned my ankle again! (Darn skater's ankles!)But we did pop down to the Shipyards night market last night for supper.This is actually only the second night market I managed to get to this year and the season only has two more Fridays to go.
We came down for the sunset.
And the fish and chips.We really felt like having fish and chip.The HMCS Ottawa was in port.
We sat on the pier, watched the city sparkle and took in the people watching and activity around us.
Then we stayed into the night listening to the band and Robbie did some dancing with the crowd.At one point he had the whole dancing crowd dancing back and forth and then he started dancing around them all!
Today, being the last sunny day forecasted, we decided to drive out into the country and have some lunch at Fort Langley.The traffic slowed down on the highway for some emergency vehicles and for a few minutes, we had this beside us! So cute!
I really love being in the country and especially in autumn.
We looked around at our lunch options at the Fort and everything was packed to the max.We finally got a table at Wendel's Bookstore and Cafe and had a lovely lunch.
Then a little mooch around the new stores.My goodness Fort Langley os growing at an alarming rate.Pretty soon the country is going to be the new city!Here are a few things we found:Chloe loved these charming pillows.
I loved this calendar.
And these huge wooden beads.
Well, that's it for now.
Family Day in the country
What a gloriously sunny day today was, and perfect to spend the day out in the country with some of my family on this Family Day.
Chloe and I met Kerstin, Adam, and our friends Warren and Taven in the charming little town of Fort Langley.
There's a wonderful antique emporium there and we loved having a mooch around.
I so could have bought at least 17 beautiful treasures!
Fort Langley is very popular and was incredibly busy and packed on this bank holiday Monday and we were looking at at least an hour wait for any restaurant, so we drove out of the town to the neighbouring town, where we stopped for a late lunch.
Some of us missed lunch altogether. :D
Earlier this morning, I promised Chloe some practice photo time and so after lunch, Kerstie and gang headed back into town, and C and I drove further into the country.
We stopped all over to take photos. Chloe is developing such a wonderful eye. I'm so proud of her.
Would you like to see the scene Clover was photographing?Look:
Isn't it a beautiful little scene?
There were so many beautiful places to photograph.
And so many new friends to meet.
And we were so happy to see spring springing all over the place. :D
We stayed out in the country till late afternoon, and then drove home.
Sunshine till the last possible moment
Chloe and I have been running around all day.When we finally got home in the early afternoon we thought, "let's get out of here!"
Now our beautiful Vancouver weather is about to change to rain...we knew it was too good to last...so we decided to beat the clouds and get on the top of a mountain and stay in the sunshine as long as we could.Oh heaven up here on the top of the world.
I'm looking at this cabin and wondering how I could import my family and we all stay here for Christmas. We'd bring the turkey and Christmas cake and we'd play charades and sleep in till noon, and we wouldn't move till well into the New Year, and when we got bored we'd go outside and throw snowballs and make a fire in the snow and roast marshmallows. All we'd need is each other and some snowshoes and skis.
Here on top of the world, where ravens stretch across the sky on easy wings.
You know, one of the things I love the most are the skeletons of grasses in the winter and dormant willow twigs.I can't count the times I've gathered some and brought them into the studio.
And I couldn't help myself this time either. I gathered a few grasses and seed heads to take home.
They'll sit in the studio, and maybe they'll become linocuts or paintings, but either way they'll stay there reminding me of this glorious hour, when the entire world was mine and I stayed in the sunshine till the last possible moment.
This post completes my Nano Poblano challenge for 30 days hath November. What do you all think guys, should I keep going? :D
Evenings round here
It's beginning to look a lot like high summer round here. Our English summer is the typical on the cool side summer, but at least the blackberries are ripening. I'm worried though that I might miss the majority of our garden plums because they will come ripe just as it's time to leave for Van.Still, at the end of the day, after work, after supper, I love to go for a walk in the meadow. It's become an evening ritual.
I'll tell you why. Not only is the meadow beautiful right now, with pale flowers and downy seed heads which shine in the twilight, but at the end of the meadow is this summer house, which the owner has visited for only about three days in these past two months, and only got permission to build it in the first place if he built in this owl and bat house into the rafters.
AND THIS IS WHY I LOVE IT HERE!Do you see the deer in the tall grass? Do you see the barn owl at the entrance to her house?
I love these guys. I see them almost every evening. There is usually a Roe doe and two fawns, one or two muntjacs trying to eat the blackberries, a few bunnies here and there, and the snowy barn owl. I try to sneak closer and closer each evening for a better photo. They're on to me!
I stay till the last light, and then walk back home. :D
My birthday and RBG Kew
First I wanted to say thank you so much to everyone, over 100 of my friends, for wishing me a Happy Birthday yesterday on my Facebook. I'm absolutely overwhelmed with the outpouring of love. Thank you my friends. I treasure each and every one of you.And second, I'd like to tell you that I had the most fabulous birthday in the world!As usual and traditional for us, Robert took me to RBG Kew for the day.
It was overcast and misty, and, since we usually have hot summer weather at Kew, it was wonderful to walk around in the fresh and cool. We were saying that Paris in April is nothing as romantic as our version of romantic: Kew on a drizzly summer's day. :D
Traditionally we head to the Orangery for tea and lunch, plan our walk...
...and head out to the gardens.
Each year there is a new summer theme at Kew, and this year it was all about spice.Various areas in the garden had self learning booths set up with information about a spice, drawers to open to smell them, and historic examples on display. Did you know that one variety of star anise, a native Japanese variety, is actually highly toxic and often used for incense, and sometimes the spice has been mixed up with culinary star anise resulting in deaths? I never knew that!
We walked around the student gardeners' beds, (good to see that even expert gardeners have weeds, lol)
Love the stick and pot method of keeping the nets up.
We took photos everywhere.
R is very skilled at photobombing! He makes me laugh so much. :D
Then I have to say to him, "Oi, get out of my photos!" And I get the lost little puppy look.
At one point R had a rest in a little pergola while I walked around some more of the garden.
And late into the day, we climbed the 60" up 6 staircases to walk in the Kew treetops.R ran the last couple staricases taking the stairs two by two, and when I got to the top I looked at him and said, "show off! :D " The middle-aged British couple beside us sniggered ever so politely (although they tried not to show it...in that very British way.)
What could have been better for me? I don't know.A day of love, companionship, garden and photos.
Happy day. :D
Round here, and a little gardening
Oh boy, I'm really having to THINK to pick up my camera these days. But I'm trying to get my garden in some sort of order to look lovely and welcoming for the Art in the Garden show at the end of May.
The tulips are on their last hurrah, but haven't they been spectacular this year? I'm so glad for happenstance. Last fall I had to return over 40 blighted red tulips, but all the nursery had in exchange were white ones, so I had them, and planted them all over the garden. They turned out to be so beautiful. I love white flowers and think old Vita definitely was onto a thing or two. Not long ago I read this article where, back in Australia, there was a similar type of show where judges would visit the gardens of various people and score it on several bases. The winner of the show was from Gold Coast and thanked MyLawnCare gardeners Gold Coast in his speech for helping him out by providing their skilled experts who helped him get such a beautiful garden. I wish I could use their services here too.Robert has been sending me photos of the tulips I planted last Sept at our garden at West Cottage, and they look so lovely and colourful. I deliberately chose the brightest colours because R loves big bold and bright flowers. I miss my English garden. I hope your tulips are spectacular where ever you are in the spring-time parts of the old globe.
Chloe has been promoted from art teacher/in charge of social media to art teacher/course writer/social media maven/branding expert/personal assistant/coffer purchaser, and still is pursuing her own interest, like designing a set of graphics for t-shirts for two upcoming music festivals and is pretty busy round the clock. We all miss her company and some of us in the household have taken to sleeping beside her to get in on some C attention.
And I've hit the garden with vengeance. Just like last year, I figure and hour or two per day should get me to show garden status in the next month.
But it's not all work. Our lovely friend Katie came for a visit and a chat. And we spent a lovely couple of hours catching up. Also, I did a little bit of plant buying. The autumn crocuses and spring bulbs, which are in full force just now, will die down in the next month and leave bare patches, so a few annuals are in order. On this year's plant list are lovely things such as calendula, bee balm, pinks, nicotiana, asters and rocket snapdragons. I have also taken the time to read the Ryobi review on https://www.lawnmowery.com/best-lawn-mower-brands/ryobi-review/ and have ordered it as it was time for the old rustic lawnmower to go.
Morgan loves to be in on all the gardening and conversation.
It's evening now and the sun is beginning to fade. Rain is forecast and it's a good thing too, the garden can use it. Chloe is still working and Milo is doing his longest cat in the world impression in a bid to get fed early. My friend Julie asked me about the windows. "How do they stay clean?" she asked. Oh boy, they so don't, and you should see the nose prints!
All is calm and lovely round here, and, as the sun sets, I'm looking forward to a couple of hours of climbing with the Clover tomorrow.
Stalking my heart's desire (warning, this post has gone to the birds)
I found an opportunity today to drive way across town, and end up with a couple hours free in the George C. Reifel Bird Sanctuary. I haven't visited since this last time.
Oh what luck! This is such a wonderful place, where one can get this close to the birds. Close enough to count the drops on the drake's back! :D
And the animals are so tame that one doesn't need a super telephoto lens.
A marshland/delta/ocean view location, ideal for all sorts of wildlife.
Like beautiful wood ducks.
And American wigeon.
And pintails. Er...excuse me?
Ah, there you are. :D
And, of course, the ubiquitous Canada geese.
Who are a bit neurotic and bitchy right now, hissing up a storm.
This is about the safest distance...unless you have bird seed in your pocket. It may be mating and egg time, but everyone is friendly for the bird seed!
And the sanctuary provides loads of nest boxes in all kinds of habitats,
So whether birds like trees, or marsh, or even for the do-it-yourselfers, there's a nest, or materials for a nest really close at hand.
And many are already being occupied, like this one in the middle of a pond has been claimed by a pair of purple house martins.
I climbed up the three story tower to have a good look around.
It's 360% from up here!
And up close and personal down there.
But the real reason I came, the real object of my heart's desire, are those magical sandhill cranes.
A few are resident here. Last year they raised a couple chicks, but sadly the chicks disappeared and never grew to maturity.
I'm hoping for a better outcome this year.
Bye for now.:D OK, now I'm just writing silly lines to justify sticking one more picture into this post. But if only you know how many pictures I want to post and stop myself, you'd be impressed! :D
Hello from Sunday night
City and country, a perfect blend this week.The sun keeps shining, the daffodils are up, some of the cherry trees are in full bloom, the weeping willow in the country has that bright green flush of new leaves...you know the kind that I mean? I brought some branches home for the vase.Just a quick mention that Vibeke's giveaway is still going on, and will continue with a new, wonderful gift to win every day for the whole month, (my turn in on the 10th with three silver stacking rings), and to my snowy friends out East, I do have a guest bedroom. :DBig warm hugs.
Happy anniversary to me!
Gosh!Wordpress sent me a Happy 5th Anniversary notice.Five?How in the world did that happen?
It's hard to believe that five years of my life are chronicled here. (OK, maybe four, because the first year I was so scared of that blank screen that I avoided writing anything...you know...it might not be perfect and someone might criticize me. I have a very strong "anti-critical mother" vibe.) But here it all is; the ups and downs, the whimsy, the silly, the beautiful, the tragic. Life. My life. I'm rather proud of it.But I don't have much of anything monumental to say today.Actually, I was going to write about these clumps of daffodils. Well, I still am.These, (of which there are at least ten clumps round the garden), started life as those cheap dafs one buys at the grocery store for about $4 to make one's house springlike and cheerful. Well, when they've bloomed their little hearts out, I just plop them into the garden where they green up, feed their bulbs and come back next year as cheery and as happy, and even bigger than ever.
In the garden are also lettuce seedlings. In the cold frame for now...as I don't really trust the March weather...but I'm so looking forward to some home-grown veggies. That first salad from the garden is such a treat.
There are some few garden flowers in the house. The hyacinth, same as the dafs, began life as grocery store cheeriness. It's always a good idea to plop the bulbs into the ground and see what happens. After all, I figure since I bought them anyway, I have nothing to lose.In the studio, is a map. I picked this map up at the local thrift for a couple of dollars, but when I took it home I realised what a special map this is. It's a 1959 map of Austria showing the old Czechoslovakia, and, specifically, showing the exit route out of the old Czechoslovakia into Austria that my family took when we escaped as political refugees.
And, after a bit of internal debate...there be Merlins!
Here is the male Merlin,
And here is the female. Still a work in progress, but I'm pretty happy with it so far.
Of course, Morgan couldn't care less...lol.
But for me, five years! It's a small monumental achievement. :DBy the way, my friend Vibeke at A Butterfly in my Hair, is having a month long giveaway. Each day a new artist, craftsperson, amazing woman is offering a something special and unique to win. EACH DAY! My turn will be on the 10th with three sterling stacking rings in beautiful spring-toned stones. Go get yourselves in on something special. :DSharing with Ivy and Elephants