Tracking the wilds
Afternoon walk.The weather has warmed up slightly. It's gone from -20 to -6 or so, so we went for a tracking walk.
We took Duke the Wonderdog and of course Ruby...who just ran on ahead scouting for what she could smell.
We rounded on the road around our friend's ranch...
...and headed into the woods.Ruby was wearing her Cowichan sweater but soon got it caught on a barbed wire fence so off it came.
We followed coyote tracks all the way.At one point we saw moose tracks and possibly bear. Well, we thought it wasn't as big a paw print as a bear should be, but we know the bears are out now and it was a BIG paw print.We also saw a rabbit and deer, but mostly coyote.
After about 20 minutes, we came out of the woods onto the meadow.
And we looked over moose tracks paralleling Whitehorse creek by the ancient cabins.
We let the dogs investigate a coyote party involving yellow snow and apparently delicious scents...
...while we took in the glorious panorama.
On the way back, I found a bit of fur caught up in the barbed wire and thought about what that might be. Coyote? Fox? Too high for a rabbit.
In my eagerness to investigate, I stepped into thigh-high snow.
Duke laughed. Fatty human
June catch-up, in the Okanagan with the littles.
I might just have several random posts hanging in my draft folder from when my great and mighty pc died.By the way, I still don't have that pc (under full warranty and at HP headquarters) back yet, and HP is being very unresponsive (except for the social media rant...they didn't like that at all and stirred their stumps).No more HPs for me. I think I'll stick to custom built Acers like all my past pcs.But I digress. Since there are some random posts hanging about, and since all my family, (as well as me), love to reread the posts and remember the lovely times, I thought I'd get them posted.So here is one from late June.Chloe and I drove to the Okanagan to stay with Kerstie, Adam and the littles.
Late June is a perfect combination of green and hot. Not yet too hot, not yet too dry, but that first taste of warm air and cool water which will be the ideal Okanagan summer.
So, while we worked on Chloe's airstream and helped Kerstie with baby Nate, we also jumped in the lake.
It turns out Ruby is a great swimmer.She was in there solidly for 2 hours and only getting out to have a pee and then jumping right back in.
And so we spent a few days swinging,
and swimming,
and floating,
and beachcombing,
and swimming...
...and generally having fun :)
While baby Nate slept thru it all.
Bluebell heaven
You know, it's pretty rare for me to get here at the turning point of the seasons, but this year I managed just that.Four weeks ago, the trees were bare and the ground covered with frost, and today suddenly it's practically summer!One thing about a warm British spring are bluebell woods.Do you guys know about British bluebells?They're slightly more delicate than the typical Spanish garden variety and must be protected in the woods because the Spanish variety is invasive.Anyway, I asked Robert for a day out wherever there are bluebell woods and he took me to his childhood village Stoke Row.
We set off in my TVR, I drove there and got to Stoke Row just in time for lunch.We found the Cherry Tree pub and parked up.
Pretty car!
Robert was really happy to be back in Stoke Row and I loved that he kept telling me stories of his childhood and of the people who lived there.
After lunch, we parked up the TVR on the village green and got on our walking shoes.
This is R's childhood home, The Oak. He stripped back the paint on the Tudor beams himself and that dark building beside The Oak was his father's surgery.
So we walked past The Oak and into the beech woods.
The beech woods are so amazing. It feels like Robin Hood and his band of merry men could come out from behind any tree.
Or possibly fairies and goblins and elves could be living in any little nook.
Soon we got to a greener part of the forest and I was starting to get more excited about bluebells.
All around us bracken was just starting to unfurl.Bracken is so huge and so beautiful when fully grown.
And then, we came upon the first little clump under a beech tree.
And then a few more.
And then great swathes of them!I've never seen anything like that!The whole forest floor covered in bluebells!
I was in bluebell heaven.
Too soon it was time to go.Actually, R did ask if he should leave me there and head off to our friend's alone...lol.
Alright, alright, I'm coming.We jumped in my TVR and hooned out of Stoke Row, past the bluebell woods and off into the afternoon.
Hello from Sunday night; which turned into Monday night again
Hi everybody,I'm in England.Just got here four days ago from a month away in Kelowna on baby and watch helping Kerstie and Adam with the girls and letting my daughter get a little extra rest.I'm happy to report that my newest little grandbaby, Nate, was born April 5th. We are all so happy.I'm also very happy baby Nate came on the 5th because I really wanted to be back in England with Robbie and for the wedding of our dear friends Nic and Sarah. Their wedding was last Saturday. It was a beautiful celebration, and we partied till far too late.
But I got out for a field walk today with my camera because I wanted to show you my little corner of Oxfordshire.It's bright and alive with spring.
I walked to the corner field and guess what I saw...
The field is being used as a nursery!
Aren't they the cutest things ever?
Back past our house and into the fields.The weather's a little variable right now.One minute it's so warm that all you need is a sweater and the next minute a cold wind blows in making you grab a jacket.
The hedgerows are starting to bloom.The first blossoms are on the sloes but the hawthorns and crabapples are in bud.
At the end of the third field is a stand of poplars and they serve as a rookery for the crows.Boy, they're a noisy bunch.
Here the pollard willow has sprouted new, fresh shoots.
And I found some four-leaf clovers in the fresh growth.
Good luck for me. :D
In one of the fields I found a lot of pigeon feathers all blown about.I wondered if the feathers were the result of the pigeony spring thing or if someone else got lucky...perhaps the fox of hawk.
Around my fields were some signs of winter damage; like this willow.
I expect it's been blown over during the winter and some parts are uprooted...
...but there's enough roots left for it to keep on keeping on.And that's really good because the bees are out and so are the giant bumblebees; which look like fat, black grapes.
I snapped off a little hawthorn branch on my walk and spent a lovely hour at my art table drawing it in ink on some rice paper.
And then I went on-line and ordered a bunch of art supplies.
I can't wait to get busy with art again.How's spring springing along in your corner of the old globe?
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.
Happily ever after at the spa
Hi everyone,I think this might be a pretty boring post!No castles, no cathedrals, just little old me here at the spa being immersed in mud and swimming in thermal pools.
Today I had two of my prescribed therapeutic procedures and a foot massage.First I had an exercise class in a very warm thermal mineral pool in strong jets of bubbles. And then I had a mud wrap, but nothing like you've ever seen!I was asked to strip naked (this is Europe, everyone's naked all over the place and it's very normal) and then about four inches of hot (40-42 degrees) clay mineral mud was slathered on a sheet, then I was sat in it and more mud was slathered, and then I lay in it and then more of the mud was dolloped all over my body from my feet to my stomach to about four inches in depth everywhere. Like a Veronica cake. And then, totally immobile with my hands by my side in this thick, goopy, hot mineral goodness, I was wrapped in blankets to sweat.For 30 minutes!!!! Thank goodness I didn't get an itchy nose.They kept checking in on me and wiped my face with a cool cloth, and then, 30 minutes later, I was unwrapped, some of the mud was scrapped off, and I was helped into a shower. The mud was very slippery.It took ages to shower all the mud off and I still have some under my fingernails. And that's after three showers and two swims in the pool!Well, those procedures took till lunch time and I had a lovely lunch sitting in the dining room catching up on my journal.Each day I try to paint or collage or even just stick in a photograph into my journal this month and a couple days went by so fast that I just stuck ephemera into my journal and moved on. It was great to finally get some pages finished.
Then, after lunch, another swim, massage (the best one I had at Whistler Spa) after and then I hung up my bathing suit on the balcony and walked into town.
This is the view from my balcony. The spa is on a "spa island".Seriously, there are several spas here, but all relatively modern. This is the only one which dates to 1912.It's amazing to see old photographs of sick people being wheeled in here for their health. I hope some of them recovered. I bet they did.
This is the river Vah which this town is built on. There are multiple mineral springs rich in sulfuric mud here and they all feed this river.
Just across the river is the little town of Piestany.It's a very pretty and bucolic place with those beautiful ocher buildings, red roofs and lots of gardens.
And everywhere in town you see reproductions of this sculpture. This has been here since the 1920s. It represents a man who couldn't walk breaking his crutches over his knee once he became cured by the miracle mud of this special place.Well that's all I have for you guys today. There might be two or three more boring for you (heaven for me) days still.But don't worry, there are lots more castle in the future.
A morning stop at Trencin castle on my way to the Piestany spa
Today I crossed into Slovakia.This felt very emotional for me guys, because, although I rarely talk about it, my birth father...who I never knew...was from here.It felt odd and it felt cold and just not right to cross the border and to head straight to the spa, so I decided to have a bit of an explore on the way.I saw a castle on a hill in the distance, Trencin Castle, and thought that might be a good place to start.
There are two types of castles all around these parts. There is the castle translation as zamek, which is a castle inside a town, on the same town level, and castle translated as hrad, which is a castle on a hilltop above the town.This was a hrad, and boy was it up high!
There were hundreds of stairs and little walks straight up the hill and 30 minutes later I was barely above the town roofs.
But finally I reached the first guard turrets.
Look how far below me the town was now!
But the castle was still miles up on the hill!
Finally I reached the inner courtyard. What a maze of towers and courtyards and wind-around passages this place is.
And I walked around the bottom of the tower and had a look.
Amazing! I'll show you in a minute, but first, it was time for my tour to start.
This castle is a typical structure which was built up on itself since god knows when in the prehistoric neolithic time. Once it was the seat of Matthew III Lord of the region, but before that it was a stone age settlement, bronze age settlement, an important, guarded tower for the Roman Empire, and the bedrock for probably the oldest building in the whole Bohemian region.Here are bits of medieval pipes.
Here is bronze age ware.
Here are ancient castle keys and swords.
This is the remains of a Roman Empire tower. Under it were buried some important people of that age complete with jewels and arms.
And this is an ancient Roman stone inscription about the tower and burial site.
Amazing right?Bohemia was built up on its own self.The tour wound down to the freezer...the castle kitchens.Walls 7 ft thick, it took a lot to heat the place up. But then I imagine there were tons and tons of people to cook for and probably several ovens and fires going.
Now the old kitchens serve as a stone museum. These rooms hold some of the larger artifacts found on this site.
And this! This is a secret, 4 ft high passage from the kitchens to the lady of the castle's bed chamber!
Then it was time to go to the tower and the more formal tower rooms.
And then, just because I haven't done enough climbing for one day, I decided to get to the very tippy top of this castle.
And I looked down.
And then I looked up and out to the whole, wide world.
Wow
Then I went back down.
Four hours later! After walking back down from that height, I set off X Slovakia to Piestany to my spa.
Well then, isn't this a beautiful surprise!A beautiful, thermal Art Deco, Old Worlde spa on spa island right beside a river.
Ok, I must admit that it wasn't all a surprise. I did choose this spa knowing a little something about it, but still..
Here is my robe and slippers waiting for me on my bed. There is also a plate full of fruit and three litters of water on the bedside table.There is also a little letter personally welcoming me here sealed with a red sealing wax seal.
I've had my appointment with the spa nurse and doctor, who both declared me fairly healthy (except for a touch of the old osteoarthritis and the old wonky cell business), and prescribed four days of treatment.(this is a beautiful 1952 painting in the clinic area)
And so here I've finally landed for a few days. Here in this Art Deco loveliness.
And apart form my room and the clinic, the only other place I've explored this evening is the dining room.Isn't it just the grandest?
Look at the series of chandeliers in the main part.
This is the area I like, this back little alcove looking out onto the gardens.
So here I am for the evening, back in my room, on the top floor, overlooking the lovely grounds.
And this is the last view I will leave you with.Time for a little rest.
Sunday, finally a calm cabin day.
Sunday morning at the cabin and maybe one half of a degree above zero.I could see my cabin cleansing fire of yesterday still smouldering, so I decided to keep cleaning up some of the dead wood over our five acres of land because in this semi-arid region there is a very limited time I can safely burn things outside.The day started in a much more relaxed way; in the clean living room with a review of my sketchbook...which I had plans for but had no time to work in... some foil baked fingerling potatoes with garlic and onions in a sort of cabin hash brown bake, and my usual tea.
Maybe it's the waiting for the stove to heat up and boil the pot of water and cook the potatoes, but food just ends up tasting so much better up here.
After breakfast I took a long walk over our property and had a good assessment of last winter.Some of our neighbours told me it's been a very long winter. Maybe that's the reason that the pack rat broke in and ate Dusty the bear, (and the sinew from some of the vintage snowshoes). But at least there was no sign of the beaver this winter!I've been trying to grow a weeping willow here in our little lake, (which is really a pond but has been named "lake" for the look of it), for the past 25 years and it seems I only end up growing winter beaver food, but this year the little willow is still there.
The water in the lake is low right now and the undergrowth sparse, which means I can walk all the way around and check out every inch of the bank rather than using the meadow paths.
Last night there was a chorus of frogs who probably live in the little swampy area where the skunk cabbage grows. One of them says the classic "ribbit, ribbit" and that gets the rest of them going.
There are a couple of fallen aspens (thanks to last year's beaver), and I'm trying to decide how to, or if to, drag them out of the lake.
That's me in my OOTD, (which I hear is a popular tag), some unknown brand cabin hat which came from who knows where, 80's Nordic wool sweater and no make-up. Yeah, that's how we do it!
And here is the carpet of periwinkle which my grandmother planted 25 years ago.
This is what's become of Chloe's childhood raft. It's a sort of living island now. Also can't decide what to do with it, but maybe it needs to stay in the lake and evolve.
Here is the remains of last year's tent caterpillar nest. Ordinarily not a good sight, but this land is so big that even the tent caterpillar moths belong and are left alone to make their living.
So I walked on exploring the lake banks and meadow and across the first three acres...
...and came to our river.The Gates river runs thru our land and is a protected salmon spawning stream. The water level is very low because most of the water is still locked up in the snowy mountains.
Here is the morning view from the river, across the meadow, to the lake.
Oh yes, one more beaver killed tree. This time one of the large blue spruces.It's caught up in the other spruce and I suppose I'll need to drive my SUV into the meadow to pull it out.(You can just see the cabin thru the trees.)
Here are some lupines that are just starting on the meadow. I love these faithful little plants. They come back every year, and every year they multiply and get more beautiful.
View of the lake and cabin beyond.
And back across the land to the railroad tracks which border one side.
Back in the cabin I was contemplating what to do with the ghostly imprint of Dusty the bear.
In the end I decided to put a painting there. The painting is one of five which were painted by a patient of my late father's and show various lovely scenes around BC and also England. It's a nice memory to have here at the cabin.
Finally, a lazy Sunday afternoon of reading and relaxing.
And a new, fresh bouquet of seasonal greens. This time pussy willows, fresh elder, red willow branches, and some seed heads.
So with a cheery fire warming the cabin...
...and the sun setting...
we lit the candles...
And had a good night.
Hooray, sun! An afternoon for much needed gardening.
Oh hello sun!I remember you.One of the very few times I saw you lately was St Patrick's day.
Yup, March 17th. That's the day I start my annual sweet peas and garden peas.
Actually, I usually soak the pea seeds a few days earlier so I can plant them on St Patrick's day.So I got out my vintage clay pots and bought some seedling soil and started all my seeds, in the sunshine, in the garage/studio/potting shed.
Started: peas, squash, lettuce, beets, baby's breath, straw flower, shade garden mix, pollinators, and snapdragons.The radishes went straight into the cold garden soil.
And then it rained and rained and rained.And my little seeds began to sprout.
While I felt like Milo.Who wants to go out in the rain? Not us.But I kept thinking that I've got to get out there because in a few short weeks the garden will be on public display for the Art in the Garden show! Yikes!
Suddenly today, SUN!So I got my morning appointments out of the way and hit the garden for three hours.I put away our little girl's toys and got my seedlings out of the garage and out of the cold frame.
Morgan was the usual help.
I planted out the peas and beets, and also some previously bought Swiss chard, kale, and lettuce seedlings.
Then I did a bit of weeding and planted two new climbing roses.
Then, the really big chore. I felt like I wanted to thin the ornamental plum to let more sunlight into the garden. It shoots up suckers like no other tree I know.
There. Now all I have to do is tie these branches together and put them into the green recycling bin to be picked up on Monday.
Unfortunately tomorrow it's back to rain. But for today at least I got my vitamin D and feel good sunshine and a start on the garden.Oh, and one last thing I did on this sunny day is brought in armloads of my camellia; the most beautiful camellia in the world.The blossoms only last a day or two and fall off, but how glorious while it lasts.Source: https://pgflandscaping.com/tips-on-selecting-the-right-grass-for-your-lawn/
Wellness, what to do when you just need quiet
Our lives are so lived out loud, don't you think so?I've been thinking about this lately.
What do I do first thing in the morning when I wake up? I turn on my phone pretending like i want to see what time it is, but then turn on the emails to see who emailed me. There is a daily video or photo from Chloe in Japan. Hey, grab the iPad so the video looks bigger, better, louder...then, grab the computer, must answer those emails...and so my day begins.
It's barely 6am and already the loudness has begun. Not good.
Yesterday I baked up a batch of my gluten free granola listening to a CBC podcast of an episode of The Vinyl Cafe. Usually I love this podcast and laugh along with the story but today it felt too loud. Then off to yoga where the session included music and a singing bowl during savasana, (which is the end pose, the corpse pose, a time to meditate, sink into the ground, let each muscle go), Usually this is lovely, but today it was too loud and I couldn't still my mind. Usually I take savasana to do my grounding meditation, to visualise my hand reaching joyfully up to the universe and pulling the silvery light down thru me and into the Earth, and the Earth sending golden light up thru me into the universe. But nothing came. The studio was not still, my mind was not still. My mind was full of plans and scenarios and to do lists.
That's when I realised that my life has been too loud.So, how to quiet things down?Here are some strategies I'm trying out today:1. Meditate first thing in the morning. Never mind what time it is, the phone can wait. Spend five, six minutes grounding, or focusing on breath. Push all thoughts away. Return to the breath.2. Before opening up the computer, time five more minutes. Five minutes of rest, of staring into the ceiling, out the window, just delay the on-line for five. Do that each time.3. Set an on-line limit. One hour, half hour, only in the morning, twice per day? What ever works, set a limit. Get stuff done in that time frame.4. Create space before a reaction. Stop, think, then speak.
5. Simplify your life. On line, unfriend if it feels right, unsubscribe to anything annoying, loud, repetitive or if it makes you feel guilty or jealous. At home, block calls, turn things off, (media, appliances and lights) you probably don't want to turn off the fridge, but how about the coffee machine which only gets used in the morning, or the microwave which has that brilliantly blue LED light? Declutter. And I should talk, but I'm working on it.
6. Don't watch the news! Just don't do it. It's probably nothing to do with you anyway, and the important information will filter in from everywhere (sidebar on FB, your radio station in the car, people talking at the coffee shop). The noise never stops, so don't add more of it on purpose, and, believe me, if you did miss something, there will be 20 million channels available for you to catch up.7. And finally, reflect. Journal, draw, write morning pages, keep lists, take the noise out of your mind and put it down on paper.There, peace at last.Now lets get on with our calm day. :D