R & R...

On Thursday, I had the rare opportunity to take a leisurely trip to the city for the day.

I had a few specialty shops to go to for wool and tea but my main purpose

was to go to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

It's been years since I've been, and I was remembering my teenage days

when my friends and I would go quite regularly at lunch hour when 

it was still free to get in...the good old days!

The main modern part of the building is attached to the old Spencer mansion...

Nestled in amongst a lovely old grove of Garry oaks, this is the back of the mansion.

If any of you are familiar with Emily Carr, then you'll know that she is 

one of Victoria's more well known and loved daughters.

 The gallery is proud to have a permanent collection of some of her best works.

This exhibit was my first stop...

She was a very independent and quirky artist who, quite often, would pack up

her caravan, (she called it the elephant) her many dogs and monkey (seen here on her lap) and head

into the woods where she was inspired by the world around her...

Her paintings of the rain forest were full of movement...

She also spent a lot of time with the natives on Haida Gwaii (The Queen Charlotte Islands)

and painted extensively of life there...

When I saw this painting of Beacon Hill Park in Victoria, I thought  immediately of Lucinda over at

Cobalt Violet and her landscapes...

It just so happened that the main exhibit at the gallery right now is called 'Flora'.

A tribute to the garden in art.

How perfectly exciting!

So many beautiful works to see and take in...photos can't do these works justice,
but to give you an idea, here's some of my many favorites...

Each of these pieces I could have easily taken home.

But one piece which really grabbed me was this life size pastel work of 8 panels 

of french doors leading to a garden...it gave me the idea of making one for my own wall...yeah sure...one day!

...incredible pottery pieces...

...intricate lace work from Edwardian times...

Of course there were numerous Dutch painters who did the most pastoral landscapes...

Then there was this 25 foot long panel in the Asian garden section...depicting pond life after a spring rain...

Ink on paper...one piece of paper...

Towards the back of the gallery there are some beautiful examples of Chinese carving in practical pieces such as a giant carved bowl and a rickshaw...

 Anyone tired yet? O.k...let's keep going...only a little bit more...
Through the doors, you enter a beautiful courtyard / Asian garden...

 ...complete with Shinto Shrine...

This took a year to carve by hand...the detail is amazing...

Of course, no Asian garden is complete without bamboo...

...and Japanese maples...

A peaceful, calming place to end the tour...
Sometimes I am in awe of so many beautiful things in the world...
it inspires me not only to create, but to look, listen and absorb it all.

Song for Friday...rock and roll!

Yup.

You're seeing this right.

Dude, looking very ladylike, playing the bagpipe, on stilts.

Saw this guy in the city yesterday and all I could think of was this song...

Have a rocked out weekend all!

Put on yer best get up!

Prettiest thing I saw today...

rain again today....blah.

a bright spot to my day though was this young buck,

laying in the front field.

i heard that they don't like to be in the woods in the rain.

so there he's been, in the tall grass, most of the day.

To the beach...

Norene came over yesterday with a book she got for her birthday...

We had already planned to go down to the beach for some research into 

a project in the near future, (more on that later!) and after

looking through this book, we were truly inspired!

Lucky for us the day was gloriously sunny, so down the long ramp we went...

With the tide out, it was a perfect day to look for treasures...

 I keep finding weathered fishing lures for a wind chime I'm working on...

A few crab boats pulled up on shore...

Some very funky beach art...

"hello!"

Somebody always finds something to make something out of nothing...love it!

Recycling, cleaning up the beach AND letting loose the creator in ones self.

As we walked along, finding bits and pieces, I saw what I thought was 

a piece of round plastic and ALMOST didn't pick it up.

 But, I couldn't help myself...I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was 

indeed porcelain and even more surprised when I flipped it over...

How cute is that?!

And to think that it's been rolling around on these rocky beaches for who knows how long

and it's only lost it's body! Wouldn't it be something to find that one day?

You can't really tell by the photos, but these are not your smooth, sandy shores.

These are rough, jagged, winter storm, whipped beaches.

But I suppose, because they're also tidal mud flats, things can be buried

deep in the silt and slowly uncovered by time.

It got Norene and I to wondering, as we often do, where this came from?

If only this little country boy in the straw hat could talk!

This is the same beach where Norene once found the tiniest of opium bottles,

complete with Chinese writing on it.

A long time ago there was a fish packing plant here and, no doubt, 

there were many Chinese workers here which would explain the bottle.

I suppose opium could remedy all kinds of things, including

a low paying, slave driving, fish gutting job.

Anyway, one more treasure to add to the pile

and one more day to bask in the (these days) rare sunshine.

Movie review...

Last night we watched a great movie that came out for HBO TV several years ago.

Bill Nighy plays a reserved cabinet minister with the British government.

He's about to attend the G8 summit in Iceland to address the issue of mortality due to world poverty.

On one of his tea breaks, he meets Kelly MacDonald in a crowded cafe and so begins a quiet

unassuming relationship.

He impulsively invites her to come to the conference with him, innocently enough.

She knows little about the issue at hand, but quickly learns and makes her opinions

well known in the circles of politicians.

Not to Bill Nighy's liking or his boss.

Anyway I won't give away the end because it's a fantastic film worth seeing.

Damien Rice adds his music to the soundtrack as well as Sigur Ros.

Here's a little taste of what Bill Nighy's character is fighting for...

In the garden...

 With all of this cold, wet weather, the seeds are slow coming up.

We need some warmth around here.

Last year, Tom put in a big veggie garden in the front field, so this year we're 

hoping to get a lot more food from here.

 Right now it looks pretty bare, but hopefully, in a month or so, it'll look lush with life.

We are still having fires in the wood stove in the evening so that goes to show you 

how cool things are...

But things are moving along and the perennials and trees and shrubs are

looking quite lush everywhere. 

In the greenhouse, the seeds are doing well, but only due to

 a heated seed bed for them to sit on...

Sometimes I wish I had one of those!

 When we first moved here, we found this double, cast iron farmhouse sink in the bush.
It took 4 of us to drag it out and it sat behind the woodshed for 10 years.
(I had grandiose dreams of having it in my beautifully renovated kitchen!)
Anyway last year, with the help of my friend Clayton, we built a stand for it...

 and I spent an entire afternoon scrubbing the dickens out of it...

Talk about ELBOW GREASE!!
Now this year, I finally sealed up the drain hole and turned it into
a babbling little water feature...

(that's my friend Irma's lovely cement work on the front)

...complete with adorning broken dishes and beach glass...

Of course the stars of the show at this time of year are the apple trees...

This little orchard was here 12 years ago when we bought the place and although
the trees get ravaged by the bears in the fall,
(we do our best to discourage them, but they always end up getting a bunch)
during the late spring months
it looks simply beautiful...

After a good rain, and a bit of sun, the blossoms come out in all their glory...

Nestled amongst small patches of bluebells, it's one of my favorite places to hang out...

Hopefully it'll be warm enough to provide nectar for the bees.
I've been potting up lots of herbs in containers on the upper deck this year as well.
Although I love walking out to the main garden, glass of wine in hand, late afternoon sun,
to pick lettuce and bits for salad, it's nice to have some right at hand
in the midst of whipping up a culinary extravaganza!

I'm trying my hand at growing rhubarb in a big planter since I read that
it does quite well, given plenty of food and water.

We save all of our 'grey' water from dishes and such to water all the plants in pots around the house.
Being on a well, in the summer, we are very careful with the water we use and
try to use this grey water to our advantage.

So hopefully with the temps rising a bit, things will begin to thrive...

I watch farmlady's blog down in California with envy.
All of that sun and things so much further along than here...
but then I think...soon enough it'll be warm enough to bare the shoulders
and swim in the lake!
Summer's coming!!