Hello from Sunday night
Happy midsummer eve everyone.Isn't it wonderful? I believe most children are out of school now and we're full steam ahead into that tall meadow, firefly evening magic that is summer.
With summer comes summer's bounty, and we made a little trip out to the country to check out some organic farms.I couldn't resist this wonderful bundle of the season's first potatoes and garlic scapes.
We made some new friends out there and fed them grass and clover.
And gave them a scratch behind their ears.
We admired some imaginative planting schemes and bought a few sunflower plants for the garden because I forgot to start some this year.
When I saw this lovely painting it put me in mind of painting a little, slow grisaille work.
Do you know the grisaille technique? Actually, I haven't painted like this for quite some time. It's the way the old masters would paint. Several coats of translucent oils, starting with a greyed layer, building up into eventual colour. The technique makes for a beautiful, ethereal quality to the finished painting.
I'm not so sure I'm any good at it anymore, and besides, I never really play by the rules, but thought I'd have some fun with it, so, while I was teaching Chloe some basic silversmithing techniques (evidence on my Instagram), I painted a couple of day lilies and some cow parsley in burnt umber thinned with a glazing medium and let it dry (left).Today I went back and used more burnt umber, the glazing medium and some white to build up and deepen the shadows and lights.(right).
Tomorrow I'll go in with some colour glazes. Actually, looking at today's work on this photo, I'm not happy with the blending. Not at all. So I'll leave you with these photos of pretty garden flowers in my vases and go back to my easel and work on those lilies a bit longer.
Sharing with Judith and the mosaic bunch. :D
Visiting the bird sanctuary on the last day of spring
As luck would have it, C and I had to drive clear across town to the nearest Apple store so she could buy a replacement charger for her Mac. And, as luck would have it, it was a beautiful, sunny, balmy day, and to celebrate the turning of the season, we kept driving clear out of town to one of our most favourite spots, Ladner, and the Reifel bird sanctuary.We came to see the beautiful resident Sandhill cranes, but stayed for the afternoon and walked the trails.An amazing day out here. We fantasize about living here on this little island with the bird sanctuary and a smattering of organic farms. At the moment there is only one property for sale here and it's a 3.5 million dollar winery. A bit too much, so we'll keep dreaming. :D
Happiness is the Bakelite phone
I've been out and about today. Long drive, crazy rush hour traffic, finally home, sit down, and the phone rings.Do you all get that?Last thing in the world I feel like answering is an 1-800 call asking me some impertinent questions; like who I will support in the upcoming election.On the other hand, it could be Robbie, who's in England at the moment, it could be one of my children, my mother, it could be a friend.
But wait! I'm sitting in the living room beside my Bakelite phone.Now my choices are these:a) answer the Bakelite phoneb) get up, walk to the kitchen, look who's calling, and answer (or not) the remote phone with caller id.Of course, by the time I stir my stumps and run to the kitchen, the voice mail option will have picked up the line.I look down at my Bakelite phone beside me and think, "stuff that for a game of soldiers, I'm not getting up." and I pick it up.It's an automated Air Canada message telling me my number has been selected....blah, blah, blah...I hang up, but guess what!
I'm happy! :DUsually I can see it's a telemarketer, an unknown number, the office of some politician...etc...and it puts me in a defensive, slightly annoyed mood, like how dare they disturb my peace. I want to shout down the receiver, I want to hang up on the robotic entity who's calling and make them feel how much they annoyed me.But right now the big difference is: I can't tell who's calling so my hackles aren't raised before I even say "hello"!And it's rather nice. :D I answer in a friendly way. I hang up mid-way thru the Air Canada message without feeling like I want to slam the phone down. Come to think of it, I can't actually slam a remote phone down like I can slam the Bakelite phone down, but for some reason, right now I really don't want to.I'm all 1940's glamour girl answering, "Roth 1383, can help you?" I'm Lauren Bacall! I'm Holly Golightly. I'm Grace Kelly, elegant and cool under pressure.
And I think it's because I love the anonymity of the phone call. I love the weight and blackness and old fashioned beauty of the phone. I love all these things, and it becomes a pleasure to use this appliance. Much nicer than the poxy remote phone,Just as the phone rings Morgan decides she needs a cuddle and gives me her "I'm the cutest cat in the world in the cute cats of the word competition" look. And, with the size and weight of this phone in my lap, it seems it's one or the other.But as soon as I put the phone down, Morgan jumps down too.Typical...lol.
But I feel good, and think that I really must order adapters for the other two Bakelite phones.
You win some, you lose some
Aw hell! It just wasn't a good day to push myself.I went for a walk to run some errands and walked past some lovely street art.
Both city consigned and not so city consigned, but both equally lovely.
It put me in the mood to do some painting this afternoon, and so I grabbed a canvas and toned it with acrylics (left)...and hated it. So here's where I should have stopped and sanded the whole thing off, but, deciding I could save it, I grabbed my oils and toned it again (right)...and still hated it, because now the acrylic tone was ghosting thru the wet oil. (sigh)
Next mistake: I picked some bluebells to paint...
...and then looked around and saw my roses.
Bluebells...roses...bluebells...roses...ahhhh!
Roses won for the time being, so I squished out some paint and picked up a few paintbrushes and painted in a couple roses...
...and hated it!
So I wiped all the paint of the canvas, put it aside and went to water the garden.
Some days are like that. :(
Harvesting garlic and garden happiness
It's that fine time of the year when my garden is incredibly lush and productive. The patio pots of annuals, encouraged by good soil and a little boost of 20-20-20, are stunning in their old favourites simplicity, the bird bath at the west fence needs constant refreshing because the birds love it so much, and the strawberries and raspberries are ripening daily, with the blueberries not too far behind.In the veggie garden, the red Russian and Mexican garlics have flopped over and began to get that tell tale sign of bottom browned leaves which signals that harvest time is here. In the back of the garden, in her favourite spot on the twirling circle, my gardening companion Morgan is waiting for me to finish lifting the bulbs so she can inspect the harvest. And then, just as I gather my garlic on the little marble table and sit down, she jumps on my lap for a cuddle.And I'm stuck! :DBut what a lovely place to be stuck in. From the back of my garden I see a flicker calling from the peak of the roof of my lovely 1920s Craftsman cottage. The loft windows are open and I can see my grandmother's old Singer. I'm thinking I really should use it more. I look across the veggie garden and realise that now there's room to spread out the leeks, or maybe buy more kale plants, but for now, there's a cat on my lap, the sun is shining thru the saved apple tree and catching the crystal leaves and glass globes, and there's a lovely harvest of organic garlic beside me, which I grew myself. It's happiness to be here.And then, having had too much love, Morgan jumps off my lap leaving long-haired cat detritus behind and rolls in the leaves and sand on the twirling circle.
Sunday at the cabin and coming home
Oh boy, we didn't want to leave!Sunday came around way too soon, but still time for one more lazy morning and one more walk around the cabin, then we cleaned up and shut the cabin down and took our time heading back to the city.We stopped at our nearest lake, Gates, and had one more paddle. This is a small, and warm lake, and the waters are crystal clear for a good depth. It's also a pretty private lake, because the only public dock is off the main road and really only locals know about it. Nice for us.Then we stopped in Pemberton, at North Arm Farm, where we picked a bucket full of organic strawberries. We may have eaten a few while we were picking, but I had a laugh at all the children there with their parents who probably ate as many as went into the bucket. That's the way with strawberries and children and you-pick farms, isn't it. :DNow I'm home in the city looking forward to the next weekend I can spend at the cabin.
Hello from Sunday night
We're back from a glorious weekend at the cabin. I've just downloaded hundreds of photos...typical, lol...and have had time to only go thru Saturday.So here's what our Saturday looked like:We arrived quite late Friday evening and stayed up to see the first star.
Evenings at the cabin are magical. Nights are either black and stars or light and minimal stars. We had a light night. We saw a couple of satellites fly overhead, off to bed we went and slept for a very long time.
Mornings at the cabin, and a pot of water warming on the stove, Chloe wakes up in a place she's known her whole life.
That little teddy bear is Nanny Bear, her first teddy given to her by her great grandmother when she was born. There is a hand painted pillow and an orange "Moshi" pillow, both gifts from her childhood best friends Megan and Becky.
Breakfast at the cabin. I don't know why, but food always tastes better here.
Then, off to a lake for the rest of the day.
Oh my goodness, look what we have here! It's the rainbow city of the Birkenhead Lake fairies.
Late afternoon and time to head back down to the cabin.But first a walk in one of the high meadows.
We came away with a little bouquet of wildflowers and a treasure of wild strawberries.
I don't know what it is about me but I tend to trip over four leaf clovers. I think that maybe in the war I could have made a good code breaker because I see irregularities and patterns very easily. Anyway, I must stop picking them because the pages in the cabin books are pretty full of pressed four leaf clovers. :D
I love to have a puzzle going at the cabin. This lovely 1000 piece puzzle was loads of fun.
There we are Saturday evening and time for bed. Boy this day went by quickly. Were not ready to go home.Sharing with Judith and the mosaic bunch. :D
Drawing challenge: Something from the ocean
I don't know about everyone...and I'd love it if you told me, :D ... but I love starting a canvas not knowing what it is I want to paint, and just waiting for something to evolve out of the mess.This is what I did on Wednesday and Thursday. Well, actually, I knew I wanted to paint something from the ocean as part of this drawing challenge, and I sort of had it in the back of my mind that maybe jellyfish might be fun, and also I knew I wanted to use acrylics and not oils and have some immediate gratification without having to wait for two weeks for the oil to be dry enough, but apart form that this 30" x 40" canvas was an open book.So I toned it with some Tri-Art sludge, (this is a great product in this line of not so great products), and started painting in some watery colours.
Then I used more paint and a spray water bottle to break up, drip and distress the third layer of paint. The jellyfish-like circles were made by tracing around the cat's plastic food bowl...lol. (Hint: A bunched up length of masking tape makes a great handle on the back of the bowl so you can lift it off the canvas without getting fingerprints in the circle or distorting it.)Then I stood back and looked at the painting so far and saw great towers of kelp, and just like that, my jellyfish turned into kelp forests. :D Whatayagonnado?
I walked away from the canvas, came back, grabbed a water soluble marker and drew in more kelp, then painted it in and darkened the lights.
This is how I left it last night, (left), and, when I came back to it this morning, (right), I didn't hate it. Lol - it happens. But I so love the photos I took of the painting in the dappled sunlight of the patio. Wish I could get that effect with paint. Must practice more.
This morning I ran to my local art supply store and bought some Golden glazing medium, fun stuff that, and glazed some light back into the painting, and suggested a school of herring with a bit of blue and glazing medium.
And so here it is. A forest of giant Pacific sea kelp with a school of herring straight out of the rich waters of the beautiful Pacific to my living room. (Wouldn't this painting make a beautiful stained glass window?)
Come stop by and see all the brilliant briny ideas happening with: Patrice, Marian, Ariane, Melodye, Tammie, Eric, Barbara, Joke, Jennifer, and Nadine (who probably will).
Morning, afternoon, evening
I must admit I've been a bit lazy round here these few days, and, apart form having some friends for supper Saturday, haven't achieved much of anything. Guess the art in the garden weekend took a bit more energy than I thought it would.The lovely gang at the Art's Council sent me a gift certificate to a local florist as a thank you for opening up the garden, and, among other things, I bought myself a large bouquet of stargazer lilies, (my absolute favourite), and bought C some vibrant gerbera daisies, (her absolute favourite). Find more information on downtown florists to get freshly cut beautiful flowers delivered on the same day at Houston.
Cleaning up crystal and silverware after the weekend and putting away place settings for 20 people is so much easier with lilies, I can't even begin to tell you. :D
In the garden things are growing by leaps and bounds. I have a new plant! This little begonia on the left. It's a Begonia Rex Escargot! Do you see how the little leaf centres spiral and curl like a snail shell? I can't wait for it to grow bigger and really develop those spirals. I wonder why it's so very difficult to get round here. It's such a beautiful little plant. Actually, I love all begonias. These buttery yellow ones are blooming in my huge bronze coloured pots on the patio.
And these fiery orange ones are there too.
In one part of the vegetable garden the peas and roses are the perfect combination.
And, in another part, the garlic, potatoes and kale are doing just fine, and the two spaghetti squash plants, which were checked by a late hail storm and slugs, have suddenly shot up and are starting to climb the rusty gate. I did water them with a good shot of 20-20-20.
Look what's in the fruit garden! :D
From end to end, the garden is a pleasure to be in.
But I must make an effort to relocate the trees to the cabin really soon.
One more thing in the garden: new to me, a pair of old saw horses. I was thinking that they would make a great support for a table top made from maybe an old wooden door or some long, old barn boards. (I saw some beautiful old furniture in Burford last year, must dig up those photos for reference)
And finally, this evening I sat at the beach for an hour and look what happened!It's a very special fantasy beach castle, because this one belongs to the balancing monks of the beachy fairy world.
If you want to come for a walk in the balancing monk's monastery, then shrink right down and follow me.You must be careful to step only on the stepping stones...
...because the monks grow this special garden of air-pocket kale. Very magical and very very important to the balance of the ocean fairy world, but so very fragile that foot step vibrations might make it lift off the ground and fly away.
It is ready for harvest when the feathers in the special weighing pot weigh more than it does. (the air-pockets make the kale lighter than, well, air) And then the monks harvest the plants and tie them to the special balancing sticks on the other side of the garden, where they flutter and send their fairy magic out with each breeze.
Oh, and what do I see behind the harvest table? Shh, don't scare it, I think it's a balancing monk in its daytime disguise. Be very still and quiet and look really gently and it might change back into the little fairy creature we know it to be. :D
Drawing Challenge announcement: Something from the ocean
Today I was trying to get some work done in the studio. But my heart was at the beach. With each cruise ship whistle and each gull cry, I longed to go down to the beach. I looked at my studio companion and got an absolute, "you must be crazy, I'm staying right here in the sun" yawn, and so left Morgan to sleep away the afternoon...
...and headed down to the beach.
I sat down on the warm, pebbly shore and looked around at the flotsam and jetsam around me. It looked like a wind had kicked up a ton of sea weed up on the shore last high tide. The sea weed looked like beautiful black curtains and so I decided to build a fantasy beach castle for the ocean fairies.
One thing about building fantasy beach castles is that you have to follow the rules. Rule one is find a nice place to sit, and rule two is no getting up till the beach castle is finished. That means you have to chose the right place, a place where you find great building materials within reach.
Oh I love building these so very much. Each one is a reflection of the mood of that particular little corner of the beach.
This one turned into a castle for small, black fairies...maybe crow fairies who talk to the beach crows and have black wings and beach glass necklaces.I want to take it home with me, but rule three clearly states leave nothing but footprints and take nothing but photographs.
So won't you come make a salty memory? I'm calling a new drawing challenge: something from the ocean. Draw me something, write, sculpt, photograph or even carve me something from the sea. :D
Get your sea legs on and say yes. :DAs usual, I'll post the DC post on Friday 12th, and link to everyone who will say yes, (either here or from the FB announcement or email), and then we'll all visit each other over the weekend. <3