We had a lovely holiday this year, Ariane and Bruno here for the week, lots of good company, food, friends etc. Plus, this year, we are having the weirdest, warmest ‘winter’ ever. Several days have been record setting high temperatures. Since the beginning of December, it is just around freezing. The snow we had has mostly melted, so the poor plants out front are pretty exposed. We may get some more this week. I can’t believe I am saying this, but snow would be good right about now. Just enough for a blanket on the gardens.

This is out the front window this afternoon. Just an old pile of snow from the driveway. My ice stars have melted a lot. Last night I dreamt that the roses and petunias were blooming.

I must say that this is making winter very tolerable! I am sure we will get some yet though, but it can’t last!

Tomorrow begins the real return to routine. Painting group tomorrow and piano on Wednesday. It is only about 3 months until our group show in April. My, but it sounds good to say that. April in less than 3 months! Time is going to fly by.

I have a lot of ideas I want to work on painting-wise, so I really need to get in gear. I plan to do some more with the mixed media/metallics. And I want to do some more of the watercolour from Alvaro’s workshop. I have discovered these new wood panels that one of the local art supply places (Art Placement) carries. They are birch panels, like a deep canvas. Great for the mixed media work. Just gesso and go! You need a solid support for the mixed media. Canvas flexes too much. Putting various media, metal leaf, paper etc, needs something inflexible. These panels then can be hung as is, or framed with a shadow box frame. Nice and simple.

Well, I need to get my stuff ready for painting tomorrow. Print off some reference materials etc. Tonight is the beginning of the second part of  ’Downton Abbey’. Must be ready for that!

So here goes the new year!

Last weekend, we had our Escape Artists’s show here at our place. This was the third one that we have done this way. It was great fun as usual, we had more visitors, the weather cooperated, and we had good sales, which is always the icing on the cake.

We had paintings all over the main floor walls. And on several surfaces as well. We had a good selection of pieces, all different types and styles. That is what always makes the shows so interesting. We now have people who look for our show which is very gratifying.

I am almost done clearing up after, putting everything back, tidying up, rehanging things, rearranging etc. Just have the family photos to put back. I managed to get some baking done, and will do some more this week. With the kids coming home, I want to have lots of goodies on hand! Fatten everyone (except me) up.

We are having one of those weird winters. The snow from the previous post is essentially gone. There is a bit left in the shaded areas. We had a dust last night, but that is it. It has been mild and sunny. It makes winter that much shorter, but I worry about the garden. The plants need snow cover. If it suddenly takes a dive temperature wise, they will be damaged a lot. But Mother Nature has her own plans, so we can simply go along with them. The mild weather has been a real treat and it could just stay this way for the next 4 months.

Just a couple more days until the winter solstice and the days start to get longer. That also is great. The short days start to recede. And then Christmas in a week. All cards and parcels are sent, most shopping done, most cleaning up done. Just a few bits and pieces, so it should be a good week.

Tomorrow is our Field House group lunch. We have been meeting at the FH for 30 years, doing the classes, then coffee afterwards. We are going to the Faculty Club. They have Christmas pudding! We are all looking forward to that – everyone’s favourite.

So a season of family and friends, ones near and far. I am looking forward and enjoying. Oh yes, there is still the tree to put up. That is for tomorrow!

I knew that this autumn was speeding by, but didn’t realize quite how fast until I saw how long it has been since posting here. Good grief! Well, a lot has been going on for sure.

Of course, summer is long past, and we have had our first substantial snowfall. It still hasn’t been excessively cold, which is just fine by me, but the roads are a hazard with all the ice. Almost to December now.

In early October, I went for 5 days out to Vancouver for the watercolour painting workshop with Alvaro Castagnet. There are not many paintings from the workshop, as Alvaro can’t allow photos of the actual instruction because of videos he does (I got the one he did of painting in Paris – excellent). I did take lots of photos though and you can see them here. I hope I can turn some of them into paintings over the winter. I stayed at the Granville Island Hotel which was a great location, quiet, and so great to be right by the market and everything else. Alvaro paints in watercolours, on location, so that is what we did. Painting in downtown Vancouver and around the Granville Island area. You can read more about the workshop on the Redberry Art blog.

Then I came back and a immediately came down with the cold that several of us caught from one of the workshop participants. It took about a month to finally get over all of it. I also took a 2 weekend workshop here with Miranda Jones, using mixed media. Here are some photos of the workshop. Again lots of fun playing with all the colours and blocks and stuff.

All but one of the house jobs were finished, finally. So that is done. I have been doing some painting, much of it practicing from the Vancouver workshop. I still have lots more to do. It is much harder than it looks!

This past weekend, I had some small pieces in the ‘Little Gems’ workshop. I decided at the last minute to participate in that – first time I’ve put anything in. I was very happy to sell one of the paintings. Now, suddenly, it is only two weeks until our Escape Artists’ show.

Our third annual “Art by the Hearth” show is 2 weekends from now. Where did the time go? It will be on Dec 10 and 11 this year, again at our place.

And it is exactly one month today to Christmas. I started baking yesterday because the modem was down for two days, and I decided I’d put my time to getting some baking done ahead of times. I probably should have been painting, but baking seemed more of a priority. I like the smell of Christmas cakes baking.

This weekend is busy again, so much so, that I actually backed out of the piano recital for the first time since I started taking lessons. I wasn’t really ready with the piece I had intended to play (a Beethoven piece I struggled with), and I have 2 things to go to tomorrow, plus there are 4, yes 4 art and craft events to try and catch. So, tonight, just put finishing touches to the cards I made for the painting group lunch, then take it easy.

Hopefully, I won’t take so long to post again. Well, I will want to put up information about the upcoming art show, so I will be back!

Well, here it is, nearly the middle of September already. We had a real summer in the end, and up until Sunday, lots of warmth and sunshine. August was a great month weather wise. We actually just had a week of above 30C, and now we have frost warnings tonight. Ends with a bang. The garden has been good, lots of tomatoes and cucumbers for a change, after two non-summer years.

Almost all of the list of house projects are complete too. Just a couple of finishing things to do. The doors are great, and I just got those painted. I love the counter tops; they really give a new look to the kitchen.  The fence got painted, so that I didn’t have to struggle painting the lattice work. I have painted the upstairs hallway, finally. It has been the same for decades, literally, and I couldn’t face another winter of the dingy paint. I still have a bit of the trim to do, but will finish this week when it warms up a bit more again and can have the windows open to air it out. The deck is fixed, just waiting for the carpeting this weekend likely.

Art wise, not much happened. I found it hard to concentrate with all the comings and goings etc. That is okay though. In another week or so I start with the new art group, the Artists’ Workshop. It is one of the oldest groups in the city. It doesn’t have a website, yet. That is something that I will offer to do for the group. I am missing the Prairie River Group as I won’t be painting with them any more. Changes, changes, it has certainly been a year for that.

I have done quite a bit of photographing in the garden over the summer. Now with fall here, I need to get out and get some fall colours and maybe some landscape ideas. I haven’t really done much in the way of prairie landscape; it just hasn’t caught me. Some of the skies can be pretty dramatic though, so that might be something to consider.

This week is really the beginning of fall, and I really hope to get back to painting. Our Escape Artists group is planning a fall show again, and everyone will be here in December for it (details to come). So a deadline really helps focus the mind.

Well, I had better check out the frames I was thinking about ordering. Two months go by quickly.

Today, the fence painting crew is here. They should finish tomorrow, so that will be another check off the list. The door replacement will be the biggest job and that will probably happen in the next couple of weeks.

The garden has been really nice this year. After all the rain, the heat has made everything grow like crazy. I spend time puttering about, taking photos of various flowers. If I could get my you-know-what in gear, I’d love to get up early and try to do a quick study of the garden as the sun is slanting at a good angle now. The light has changed to late summer now, hazier, more angular.

I haven’t done much in the way of painting and drawing at all the last while. I have got a start on one painting though. A woman who was at our spring show saw a photo I had done and wanted to know if I was going to make a painting of it. I had actually started it, but haven’t made a great deal of progress on it so far. Need to crack the whip or something.

I am going to get some workshopping in this fall, finally, if all goes well, etc etc. I am signed up to take a workshop in Vancouver in October with Alvero Castagnet. It is put on by an outfit called Art Escapes Vancouver. I can’t remember how I came across them – one of the magazines I think. This should be fun, plus it takes place on Granville Island, at the Granville Island Hotel. I love that area, so staying for the better part of a week will be wonderful in its own right.

I noticed that in this fall’s University community arts calendar that Miranda Jones is dong her ‘Off the Grid’ 2-weekend workshop again this year. I had seen it last year but wasn’t able to go because we were away. I am going to sign up for it too.

These dog days will pass, as they always do. It has been good to have some proper summer this year and it never lasts too long in this area. So just go with the flow and enjoy them. So I guess I will go take the dog for a short walk. He can’t go out in the yard as all the gates are open and he will just follow his nose and wander off.

First of all, that is the number of years I have attained to far. Like anyone, I find it amazing that this has happened and that the years have just gone by, seemingly so quickly. At this age, I have outlived both my parents, which also seems odd. I don’t feel old, and I think about the years that they missed out on, with us and the grandchildren they never knew. Of course, looking in the mirror, or worse, seeing photos of oneself brings one back down to earth very  quickly.

64 has another significance, relating to the Beatles, of all things. I must admit to having been a ‘beatlemaniac’ back in the 60s. I was in high school then, the perfect age. They also wrote the song, ‘When I’m 64‘ which was in the movie ‘Yellow Submarine‘. So I can hum that all year long now. This movie came out in 1968 and a gang of us saw it at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver. It is an amazing theatre, and even then was a pretty opulent venue. Now it is a concert hall.

In 1964, the Beatles came to Vancouver for a concert at Empire Stadium (August 22, 1964 to be exact, 47 years ago – wow!). My best friend Judi and I were determined to go to the concert. In those days you had to go to the venue to get the tickets – no internet then. My aunt lived on the hill that overlooked the stadium, so my Dad took us into Vancouver to her house. At about 5 in the morning we got a taxi down to the stadium gates to line up for tickets. We waited for hours and then the mad rush to buy them was on. We got seats on the main field, row P. They were the most expense tickets, $5.25 each.

When the day came we went back to my aunt’s house and then to the concert. The noise was like jet engines taking off – and this was in an open air stadium. CKNW actually has a short clip of the start of the show so you can experience that shriek and the first song, Twist and Shout, just click here and then click on Beatles concert start. Brings back chills!

The warm-up acts were Jackie DeShannon and the Righteous Brothers. Then came the Beatles, who played for about a half hour. It was over so fast, and it was nearly impossible to hear them, but we were part of the event and that was just fine. Below is the programme and ticket stub, which I obviously still have. I also have a copy of the soundtrack of the concert, courtesy of my cousin Rick, who was there too.

In looking around at what is on the net regarding those days, I came across two interesting sites. One lists dates and events of Vancouver History. The year 1964 had several events that I remember besides the Beatles’ concert: the Port Mann Bridge opened; construction of Simon Fraser University began, BCIT had its first students; and US President Lyndon Johnson and Prime Minister Lester Pearson signed the Columbia River Treaty in BC. These two leaders met at the Peace Arch Park and we were bused from our high school to see them.

The other was an article written by Allan Fotheringham about the concert, for Macleans. This site has the article reproduced. It is interesting reading it again after all these years, and how different the experience was from our vantage point. All the action must have been around the edges because we saw nothing of it.

During 1964, I collected lots of Beatles magazines and thanks to my Mum, who kept them, I still have them all. You can see them here in a flickr set. Here is an example, a magazine that I somehow managed to get issues in both English and French (from France). When I was thinking about this, I was surprised that I was able to get all these in a small town, usually from the magazine rack at the drug store. Again, no internet, no reality TV, no email. Magazines were about the only source for the photos and gossip and there were so many different ones. We got some from the UK as well.

When I was out in Vancouver last week, I was talking to my younger brother and he reminded me that I had made a Beatles doll, compete with turquoise jacket and black stovepipe pants. He also reminded me that he and my other brother used it to play tug-of-war with the dog, and I remember them making parachutes out of handkerchiefs and tossing it off the roof and fences etc. It is long gone.

Also in 1964, I received a card from Liverpool. It is signed with the initials GH (George Harrison) but I doubt that they are really his. They were probably done by fan club people. Still, having the card and its envelope is another fond memory. For a 3 pence stamp, the letter came by surface mail in about 3 weeks. Does anyone remember pen pals? Sending a letter to Australia, New Zealand, Africa, the UK, and waiting weeks for a reply.

1964 was the transition year from grade 11 to 12, and the decision to go to university or to BCIT. In the end I went to UBC the next fall, one of only a couple of kids from our grad class. Some stayed for grade 13 and came a year later, but there weren’t a great number that went on in those days. I was thinking back about the plans my friends and I had to all go, and live together, and in the end, it was just me. Over time I lost touch with pretty well all of them, saw them once at the one reunion I went to 20 years later, and then completely lost touch until recently, when Facebook was the source of reconnecting with a couple. Growing up in a small BC resort town in the 50s and 60s, I would never have imagined where the journey would take me. It has been interesting so far.

So, 64 has a lot of resonance. It’s a good number.

We just came back from an extended weekend visit to the coast, to see Ariane, and to meet Bruno. It was a lovely time getting to know Bruno, spending time with the both of them, eating lots of good things, and generally hanging out in my favourite place. One evening we went up to Queen Elizabeth Park, one of those little gems in the city, and it was quite clear. This photo of the Lions came out well, with a bit of downtown poking through the trees. The tall building is the Shangri-La. We even got to Granville Island so I could have my little bit of ocean and ozone. Coconut gelato made it perfect.

We went to the East Van Market on Saturday and got to meet Jean-Pierre, the man who makes all these wonderfully flavoured salts, plus very, emphasize very, lovely balsamic vinegars. I brought home blackberry salt, and a bottle each of fig and white peach balsamic vinegar. His business is called Maison Coté. He is great fun to talk to and gives you good ideas on what to make.

It was pleasant, no mosquitoes, and a needed break. As mentioned in previous posts, this will be the summer of small house tasks, so we decided that this was the time to go. Coming back to heat, humidity, mosquitoes, thunderstorms etc was a shift. But we have had huge numbers of the big blue dragonflies and they have done a good job reducing the nasty biters. It has been too wet to get into the garden, but the heat is supposed to increase the next few days, so mornings will be the time to get some trimming done.

I don’t think I have ever seen the garden this dense; all the water from last winter’s snow and this spring have made everything gigantic. Lots less weeding! I hope that we get some mild, bug-less weather as I’d like to get out and do a painting or two of the garden. I just might have to sit on the porch though, behind the screening if the mosquitoes stay at their current intensity. West Nile virus is always a risk as this is the time the mosquitoes that carry it start to turn up. I’ll just have to see what I can manage. I need to get back to drawing as well now that things are mostly organized. Now, if I could just find a live-in cook!

In fact, out front, the garden looks more like BC than Sask. The hostas are huge and it is not even the end of June. We are lucky that we are on a bit of a slope, so we don’t get water accumulating anywhere. We put lots of sand across the north side of the house, which helps with drainage and even if we get a small pond, it drains away quickly and is away from the house foundation. Also, where we are, there is a small layer of topsoil and B soil, then it is pure sand about 12 – 18 inches below the surface. We are also on the east side of the river which is quite high compared to the west. There is some river flooding in the flood plain, but that is to be expected. The people in the south east of the province are not doing so well, with tons of rain over the past couple of months following on masses of snow. Our river is running very high and fast, but is controlled by a dam further upstream. We are getting Alberta’s rain runoff. We are all interconnected!

Today is hot and sunny, so that will help to dry things up; there are some thunderstorm warnings out though. When there is this much moisture around, then heat, then boom!

House projects are on the agenda at the moment. Picking out new countertop colours has been a challenge, but I think I may have found something I can live with. The old one was wrecked by a leaking tap so has to be replaced. Also front door decisions to make – what kind of window. Summer is always a bit of a whirlwind getting things done. This summer I don’t have any art shows coming up, so I can focus on getting the house things done. I am getting someone to paint the fence – that is a job I did last summer and decided I didn’t want to repeat that. Lattice work is really aggravating to paint/stain. Again, we are lucky that we only have small fixes to do, not a whole basement or house.

Into summer mode now, enjoying the warm days when they come, getting out into the garden, doing some sketching, working on this and that, going visiting, sitting on the deck. Good stuff!

Late spring has turned out pretty well here after a slow start. Now, we have had some mild weather, enough rain, and lots of growing going on. Last fall I had planted some giant allium bulbs. I love them! I’ll have to get some more this fall. This is about the size of a softball.

Summer cold sound like an oxymoron, but the summer cold is what I caught the other day, probably from some one at the piano recital, who passed it to George, who passed it to me. I haven’t had one in years, so it has been a reminder of how awful they make one feel. However, it has been useful just to have to sit back and do nothing much for a few days.

I had planned to do a drawing a day for June, but am 3 behind now. About all I managed to do today was to water the flower beds, and then the energy was done. I hope this weekend I can do some catching up as there is nothing planned. And I’ll still have to take it easy, being prone to getting bronchitis, so it is a good reason to just take it easy. Just have to park on the deck with pencil and paper and draw. I might just have enough energy to manage that!

There is a new magazine/web site to do with painting outdoors – plein air. That is something I’ve been wanting to do, but haven’t felt confident enough to try it. The reason for the drawing challenge was to get more comfortable with drawing quickly. This magazine, called Plein Air is really interesting, and it’s web site, Outdoor Painter (you can preview the magazine here) has good stuff on it as well. The interesting thing about this magazine is that you can get either, or both, a print and a digital copy. I opted to get both to try it out. I still like the paper copy because I don’t have a portable type of computer so I could read the digital copy anywhere other that on my iMac. But the digital copy on iMac is gorgeous, plus it has extra features. If I ever get an iPad or something then I might reconsider, but for now, I like both versions.

Well, time for a cup of tea. It looks like it will be a nice evening for some garden photos – clear and sunny and not too much wind.

I went to one of the garden centres today to get some annuals for planting on the weekend. I love the riot of colour in the greenhouses. In fact, I went a couple of weeks ago just to see some colour. The spring flowers are coming out in the garden and with the warm days, the tulips are out as well as quite a few other spring flowers. Lots of the perennials are coming up nicely too. No great losses like last year, thank goodness.

These are some of the annuals – love the saturated colours. My garden has a variety of ‘zones’ from hot and dry, to shady and a bit damp, so after lots of years of experimentation, I’ve found what grows in most of the areas. I have lots of perennials, but love the colour and showiness of annuals, so I put quite a few around the garden too.

Here is euphorbia with some grape hyacinth. The euphorbia has a great chrome yellow early and looks great with the purple of the hyacinth. The winter was ideal for the perennials, they came through well, and are growing vigourously. I had a few plants that had been really damaged the winter before, and even though they came back a bit, they were really weak, so I replaced them with some new ones. So I will look forward to new Morden blush roses. Surprisingly, the three tea roses I planted last year have come back, two very well, and I am keeping an eye on the third one to see if it is worth keeping. I did nothing to them, but the fall cooling was ideal and with good snow cover and a slow melt, they survived. Even a lavender survived.

So the beds are ready to go, seeds will go in, plants will start to go in after a few days of acclimatizing outside, succulents to put in pots. Lots of work and well worth the result. Just hope for no frost or snow!