brown days...

We have had an immense amount of rain in the last few weeks which has really installed the hibernation mood in me...

Even Griffin is content to hang out in the studio...usually he comes in for a smooch and hello and then he wants to go sit on the porch but I think the weather has him feeling cozy in here as well..
But alas! I still have to venture out to the hen house for eggs and to let the chickens out for a wander around or they get cranky and stop laying such beautiful eggs...On the way from the studio to the barnyard, I have been encountering these little armies of mushrooms...

They are miniscule...about 3 or 4 centimetres at the most and I figured I had better take a few portraits of them before the predicted cold weather comes along...

Out in the garden things are brown and droopy but have a beauty all their own while they die down for a long winter sleep...

I have this giant pine cone which sits in various places of honor depending where I feel it looks good and I took a close up of it today on the studio porch...

So, just looking at things from a different view today through all the raindrops and mist...it all looks good.

site of the day...

Open this door to see more..
My favorite site of the day has become my favorite sites of the weekend and perhaps one of all time...I came across this womans blog via two other blogs and feel I must share with you...she has captured medieval, fantastical, old world, gypsies and everything else that is deep in the moss and woodsy...at first I was reminded of Arthur Rackum but then the further I dwelled I saw a unique style that could only be her own...spend some time in her world and I guaruntee you will be wisked away to another place and time but as she says "...that's also right here and now". Her blog is lovely too and she also has a few shops on etsy to enable you to have some of her world in yours...look through this door...  and here for her blog

Anyway, another favorite thing, I found at the Sally Ann on the weekend...this sweet little book which I couldn't resist to add to my collection...

Such sweet little paintings...a treasure on my shelf..

History lesson

When the weather changes and the days are dark, I poke around in old books, try new ideas in the studio or, like today, go through antique photos of my ancestors. My great grandparents were pioneers here on the coast and in particular Salt Spring Island where they raised chickens and farmed the land.

This is my great great grandfather from Ontario on a visit to Salt Spring...sure looks like he knows how to hoe a row!

I love this picture of him with my great Uncle Bill...the youngin' trying to be  cool like his elder....

These are my great grandparents, May and Jack Cairns...my great grandmother was an American whose father faught in the Civil war and came across to California by wagon train via Philidelphia...they are pictured here with my grandmas sister Agnes...we all call her Aunt San.

Here is my great grandpa Jack with my grandma (Marge) and sister San.Grandpa Jack was a camp cook with the railway and followed the work where it took him...the story goes that he was on a trip to California working with the food icing cars when he saw my great grandma in a cafe and fell in love with her long auburn hair...he brought her back to B.C and they settled on Salt Spring.

This is my mom on my great grandparents farm on SaltSpring when she was just about a year old...I love the fact that you can just catch a glimpse of my great grandma May harvesting something from the garden and smiling all the while...

Grandma Marge and Grandpa Gerry with my mom (Anne).

Here's my Grandpa Gerry looking all Marlin Brando-ish...handsome devil wasn't he?

When I look through these photos, I realize that so much of who you are comes from who you've come from...I am connected to them through my garden and love for rural air...When my hands are plunged into the soil, or holding a shovel, I think of these people often and wonder what they were like as young newlyweds and farmers...wouldn't it be incredible to travel back in time and sit a spell on the porch to listen to their hopes and dreams and stories?

All but a few are gone now but we can still sit back and pause through the pictures and look into the lives of those who brought us to life...

On Clouds...

It is raining hard outside...its dark early and I'm listening to some acoustic Jackson Browne...Something Fine...his voice takes me off to another time and place and I suppose I'm in a bit of a dreamy mood. So I've been looking at a small collection of cloud photos which I keep for future use in a painting I'll do one day...in the meantime I pull them out once in a while and drift away...

So long old boy...

This is Cinnabar. He was a boarder here for a few summers and belonged to my friend Marina down the road. Last week he died of old age and we will miss him...he usually stayed for about 3 months and his profile became part of the landscape...he was the most gentle, sweet horse and was great with kids..

 

The other cool thing about Cinnabar was that one of our goats, Leaf, was in love with him...

He would follow Cinnabar everywhere and do whatever Cinnabar was doing. Leaf could walk under Cinnabar and between his legs and the gentle old boy wouldn't flinch at all...so here's to a lovely old horse, the kind that people dream of...

Portrait of a wood shed...

Here is a photo of some of the wood which will warm us and keep us cozy through the coming winter months. Tom spends hours and hours cutting wood during the spring and summer and many more hours sorting and stacking...I love having a wood stove and there is nothing quite like wood heat. On really cold, wet days, if I'm not in the studio, I will curl up for a while with a good book or a pile of gardening magazines near the stove, sip my tea and eat chocolate and thank goodness for the warmth. There is nothing like coming up the drive in the evening and seeing the long, wispy tail of smoke drifting out of the chimney and knowing how good it will feel to sit in the glow of that stove. I've heard of a festival in Alaska which includes a contest of all the single men and their wood piles and whoever has the biggest and best stacked wood pile wins! I'm not sure what they win but I think it has something to do with a date with a single woman...anyway Tom would be a great contender! He also reminds me of the Bower birds in the tropics who sort and pile all of their special things they've found to attract a mate...

the zen of eggs

Chickens are funny creatures...in many ways, not the brightest bulb, but in other ways very complex and interesting...for one thing they have amazing eyesight and can spot a tiny bug from 10 feet away. The politics of the flock is very precise and orderly...every chicken has its certain place on the roost at night and the que to lay eggs in particular nests is something only they understand...In the summer months, the daily collection of eggs is a pleasure and there is nothing prettier than a basket of freshly laid eggs...

But come the rainy season the chore of egg collecting also turns into the chore of egg washing. Thier feet become wet and muddy which they bring into the henhouse,( I haven't mastered the art of training them to wipe thier feet yet) and subsequently into the nest and all over the eggs. Its one of those chores that no one really likes to take on but once you get going its kind of meditating, like zoning out when doing any mundane job. Before you know it you have a lovely bunch of clean eggs in different shades of beige and brown...

Last year we had an awful situation in the henhouse where some mink got in and killed our whole flock of about 22 hens and a rooster...it was a horrible scene and for the first time in about 7 years we didn't have our own eggs to eat and had to buy some from the store until we could replace our hens. The difference between factory eggs and farm eggs is incredible! Aside from the gorgeous yolk colour, there is the taste and the knowledge that the eggs you're eating come from happy, healthy chickens...Cheers girls!