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.

A walk on an impulse just because it's sunny

Can you believe that the sun has come out for the first time in about 2 weeks?I had a lunch hour meeting right here down by the ocean......and after the meeting, instead of being a good girl and going home and getting some work done in the studio, I headed for the mountains.All the way up here to the Baden Powell trail.See down there at the shore? That's where I was 20 minutes ago!And now I'm up here on this beautiful trail.I'm so glad I made the effort to drive up here and go for a walk.The autumn is a photographers paradise, isn't it?And especially for me, because I tend to photograph into the sunlight all the time.I know there are so many conventional rules of not photographing into the sun, but stuff that for a game of soldiers. I can't get enough of it.It's been mild and rainy so the little trickles have turned into crystal streams.And, while there's still a lot of green leaves on the trees, some have begun to turn all sorts of glorious colours.As I walked along taking photos, I couldn't help but collect some of the leaves to bring home to have some fun with.I dumped them all in a pile on my desk......and then I made myself a leaf rainbw.It always surprises me how doing something artistic, no matter how small or simple, lifts my mood up by 100%.(But then, maybe it's the sunshine)

Hello from Sunday night

One last walk before Robert's return to the UK.Miss you Robbie.

Perfect autumn day in the country

Is it your favourite season?MINE TOO!With precious few sunshiny days left before the winter rains set in, we're taking every chance we have to drive out into the country we love.One of our favourite destinations is the quaint little town of Fort Langley.And one of our favourite places for lunch is Wendel's Bookstore and Cafe.It's half bookstore......half locally grown, homemade, organic goodness restaurant.While we waited for our lunch, we had a mooch around some of the books.I found this amazing colouring book of the universe. Talk about intricate! It's a sort of paint by numbers of galaxies and solar systems.Chloe fell in love with the Glamping book now that she owns an Airstream, but the book which really spoke to us was Penguin the Magpie.It's a story of an injured magpie chick who helped a family deal with a tragedy. It's all told in the most stunning photographs imaginable. Just an amazing book.Lunch!After lunch, we walked around the Fort and peeked into the antiques emporium.We really like mooching around in this space, but I honestly cannot believe the prices. I suppose I've been spoiled rotten with my finds at car boot sales and thrift shops.After lunch we went for a drive around.I particularly love this road. It's called Telegraph Trail and is a historic road built to run the first telegraph wires in 1865.We stopped by the side of the road because Chloe spied something.It was a little book hut! We borrowed a 1937 copy of Robbin Hood.No idea! Robert took this photo of me in my reading glasses walking back to the car...LOL.So we carried on down the road till we spied a field of sunflowers with a sign which said: "Aldor Acres open for October".I've driven past this little farm and always managed to miss any opening times, but here we were, so we stopped and went in for a look.Oh my goodness, what a beautiful little farm! We came away with corn, black currant jelly, two peacock feathers......and a huge bunch of sunflowers!

A September roundup

Hi again,I've just been looking thru my photos of the past week and, oh my word, we've done a lot.Also, because we've been so busy, I haven't been keeping up with my posts, so now that we're into October, I thought it was time for a roundup round here.Robbie is still in Vancouver, which is lovely for us,and, with his help, I've been managing to work thru some tough decisions I have to make.One easier decision is guessing the right time to return my indoor plants indoors.I love letting them have an outdoor holiday over the summer, and I think they thrive more when they come back inside for the winter.I'm also trying to gauge the right time to protect some less hardy plants which have to stay outside, like this phormium, a few scented geraniums, and two red bananas.Last Friday was the last Shipyards Market for the season.Not being here for the prime three months of the market season, we only really got a few Fridays in, but they were fun to the max.We came down for supper.We'd walk around all the food trucks and usually pick our favourite fish and chips.Then a little ice cream or a sweet treat for dessert.And then we would stay till closing, watching the city sparkle, listening to the band and having a little dance.There hasn't been much time for art lately, which I know is bad, but my therapy journal workshops have started again and it's so lovely to see all my old friends who love to come journal with me and some new friend who can benefit from my approach.In other news, I prepared several wood panel paintings for a demonstration and practical class for Culture Days at the Arts Council.I love supporting my local arts council, and, face it guys, if you don't support your local arts culture in your town, what will you have?I had a full class with 20 people signed up and several more on the waitlist.I taught them some collage and painting and transfer techniques which they can apply to wood panels and possibly enter the anonymous show at the Arts Council, which will be held at the end of October.If you'd like to enter this show, (and there's plenty of time), then the info is here. My last year's post about this show is here.I supplied some ephemera, prints of my bird sketches, transparent paper and matte medium, and the council supplied the rest.We only had an hour and half together, but everyone did a brilliant job!The other news in our world is that we have been seriously contemplating a move out of North Vancouver into the country, but we're not sure where.Somewhere where there is a bit of land, not too far out of the city, not on a busy road, in the sunshine, with some trees, barns, a pond or stream or waterway......oh, and did I meantion that I want to take the hosue with me?Crazy as it seems, I'm contemplating moving not just us, but the whole house and garden because I know full well that my beautiful Craftsman house will be bulldozed down to make way for a modern duplex on this lot the minute I sell it. Furthermore, all the garden plants, which I've saved from local construction sites in the first place, will be lost to the bulldozer too! I just can't bring myself to allow that.So as crazy at it seems, we might be in for a new adventure.But then, there's nothing new about that with us, is there? :D

Hello from Sunday night and a last for the 1st of October

Hello from Sunday night everyone.Where has our September gone?I just blinked and it's October.The weather's been really lovely, so we decided on one last dip in the ocean.Inspired by a lady swimming about, I was the brave one and walked in...Slowly!One inch at a time!The stomach is always the worst.Then Robert got in.He went for the "just dive in" approach!Next Chloe dipped her toes in.Ata girl!Then, the inevitable happened!What a glorious last day for a swim.After we dried off a little, Chloe and I went beachcombing.Chloe was trying to find the perfect piece of driftwood for her airstream, but every piece she loved was attached to 20ft of log.We stayed on the beach for an hour or so in the very warmth of the day.Now autumn has well and truly rolled in. Time for golden leaves, chrysanthemums and pumpkin spice, but this afternoon was the best way to wrap up our summer. :DHope you've all had a lovely summer and are now getting ready for fall.

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.

Second day back in Vancouver and all hands on deck for an art show!

It sounded like such a fun idea at the time!My lovely friend Camila, of the NV Arts Council, invited me to exhibit my art at the Music in the Park festivalAnd I thought, "jet lag be damned!"So, completely ignoring sleep deprivation at the moment, I put on my best Music Festival dress, hitched my posse into service......and headed out to the festival.This is Capilano River Regional Park and the Vancouver watershed and reservoir. What a glorious park. One of my favourite parks in the Lower Mainland.And here are the artist's and maker's tents.Robert and Chloe were great. They helped me drag everything out of the car and set up and then naffed off back home to have a rest.So paintings on display......sketchbooks open for inspection and fresh flowers, (thanks to the amazing Clove) ......and an interactive painting on offer......I sat back behind my tables and painted some merlins....within a few minutes and festival was open and loads of people started to come by.Music was playing all day and people were invited to dance.There was so much to see and do!I must say that sitting in the pink shade of a red tent is very flattering! I think we should all bring our own pink light with us everywhere we go. :DEveryone seemed to love my little birdies.I got so busy talking to people about my art that soon it was 4pm and the festival was winding down and I hadn't even popped round to meet any of my fellow exhibiting artists and makers.Robert and Chloe came back to help me pack up and I left them in charge while I ran around and visited.Here is some beautiful bead work by Tetiana ZarubaLook at this beautiful dreamy, creamy pottery by John Winkler.I really loved these great birds by Elizabeth Austin.These beautiful plein air paintings by Maria Josenhans took my breath away.Some beautiful stonework by Jocelyne Dodier. She was so busy with tons of children trying their hand at stone carving. We talked about how I still have my children's elementary school soapstone carvings. We thought that probably every parent does...lolHere is some work by Christine Hood of Huges and Co.This is by Cydney Eva from Pattern Nation.Cydney also made this interactive art for the children.Huge clouds of reclaimed material stuffed with balloons. The kids have the best time with them.So the music played on and the people enjoyed it to the last song.And then it was time to pack everything and go home.But before I did, I took a photo of the interactive canvas I had going.This started as a collage of vintage ephemera with a few outlined birds and evolved in this amazing collaborative piece.Birdies everywhere.I really loved being here with all these people in this beautiful park this Labour Day.Now to catch up on my sleep. :D

The night of the advection fog

The strange white light in the meadow past the pine trees. Advection fog?The running like a maniac back to the cottage for my camera and the sprint back out again!The trudging thru the nettles and brambles and thru the pines to get a better look.The magic!It only lasts for a few minutes, but how glorious is it?Back to the cottageThis switching countries thing of mine is here again.I have to leave Oxfordshire for a few months but I will take all my wonderful memories of this summer with me.

The beauty and the beast at Blenheim

Here's something!I learned how to grab a still image from the GoPro movie files!Ha!Prepare to be inundated with more and possibly more interesting photos...lol. (here's a GoPro still)On Monday, Robbie and I jumped into our TVRs and hooned x-Oxfordshire to Blenheim.The drive was glorious and we expected it to take the usual 20 or so minutes, so we had a great time chasing each other (actually, what it looked like was me in my V6, trying to keep up to R's V8 turbo charged engine), but then we got stuck in a 15 minute queue trickling into the palace grounds.By the way, R's car is called Clara, as in Clara Bow, so I have to stop calling it beasty.(Hmm, my car doesn't have a name yet)So we finally got thru the queue and drove the cars straight into the show grounds, instead of into the parking lots. We didn't even ask...lol...and looked around for other TVRs but couldn't see them right away, so we parked up in our car year categories.As soon as I turned the car off, a little steam started escaping from under my hood.More gremlins!This time a bit of a leak somewhere, maybe?I tried to get Robbie's attention, but as soon as he parked up, he had a crowd around him! This always happens.But my pretty car got loads of attention and I saw four people take photos of it within just a few minutes. :DAnd, just parked up for a while, the car cooled off and the temps came down.Then the announcer called all older convertibles and sports cars into the central show.So I said let's do it!Robbie said, "really? No."But I said "please please please", and so he did.Then we went for a little walk and found the TVR club. Now we're not members of any club, but we asked if we could quietly trickle in and join the other TVRs.The club people said, "yes, no problem, the more the merrier". :DI said, "thank you, and, while I'll trickle in, Robert may not be so inconspicuous".So we jumped back into the cars and R blipped the throttle and roared...slowly...into the TVR club area.Yeah, I see you...and so does everyone else...lol.So we parked up the cars and I took the GoPro off the headrest and turned around...And there was another group around Robbie.Half hour later, and the group just got bigger.I was getting pretty hungry, so found a near-by tree, spread out our picnic blanket, took off my shoes and sunhat......walked back to the cars, grabbed our picnic basket and persuaded R to join me.Even with no owner there, Clara attracted a lot of attention.After our lunch, we went for a tour of the show grounds to see the other cars.We started with the TVRs.Here's a beautiful TVR M just like Robert's, but unmodified.That's something. Car club members can sometimes be very purist about their cars and a bit anti modifications, but mostly everyone is friendly and welcoming.Here's a yellow S2 like mine.And here is a classic 1980s wedge.The thing about the wedges; people seem to either love them or hate them.I loved this one in this golden colour.And here is our new friend Barry, who I met thru the TVR S FB group and his lovely S2 Garv.Isn't it stunning? I love the black and white contrast.We toured the rest of the field and I spied my new look!Love the ruby slippers...lol.Also, love the VWsHere is a beautiful mini engine like mine that I'm working on now for my grey mini.And look at this stunning vintage mini with a complete modernisation.Kind of cool.Interesting prismatic paint job.We walked past the bikers who were all called into the show grounds just then.Love that one guy's passenger. :DThen we came across this Batmobile.Oh people know how to have fun!A few more lovely cars......before we went to get icecream.Then we walked back to our cars, said goodbye to our new friends,and raced each other back home.We each got a metal show vehicle plaque for this year, and just before he roared out, a man came running up to Robert and awarded him the TVR car club mug for the best pre 1980s TVR!Well, if you can believe that...lol.