Saturday, October 15, 2011

Late News......Beijing

A Banner Year for the Division of the Chinese Underground Railway
that operates a diversified line in the Hillside Garden
in the Similkameen Valley

Circumstances showered blessings on this thriving suburban line
when it was discovered that the Hillside Garden
was not receiving the attention that had previously hindered
operations and that the former deterrent to our
productivity was absent for long stretches at a time
during the summer.

Nevertheless, she came to garner the spoils and to gather  the Brilliant Lanterns
that amass along the line.  It is understood they are
now hanging to dry in her new back yard before joining
a vase of Silver Dollars.



Wednesday, October 12, 2011

October 12th, 2011

Bittersweet October.
The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause
between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.
Carol Bishop Hips


Such a beautiful month, and I can't believe how fast it is flying by.  Our days have been filled with medical visits that take us up and over the Yellow Lake Pass where for the past eight months a friendly flagman has waved to each and every motorist who has waited, frustrated, while the rocky cliffs have been ground away to make a wide safe road the length of Yellow Lake



And some days we still sort and store as we try to accommodate all the precious paraphenalia we brought from the house on the hill.

Today was such a day, but delightful.  Charles went singing, and early in the morning I had an aha moment about where we could put the old oak dining room table and chairs that have been languishing in the garage taking up room that the SUV will soon need when the weather grows cold.  The buffet moved from the kitchen into the dining area.  The high table and chairs took its place in the kitchen, and in a most serendipitous moment our oldest son and youngest grandson turned up to move the heavy oak table, and it all looks quite homey.....

Nice days keep happening.  On Saturday we decorated the church, and on Sunday we expressed our thanksgiving for the great gifts we continue to be blessed with.  A small church, and humble. but dear to our hearts after sixty years of worship and association.


In the afternoon Charles kept a singing date at the historic Grist Mill in Keremeos which dates back one hundred and fifty years (a long time for this young western valley).  At the beginning it was the only mill in this southern part of B.C. and farmers came from as far away as Vernon at the northern end of the Okanagan Valley to have their grain milled into flour.

 I left my camera at home, but a dear DIL had hers, and shared her pictures.


The Singers, - Charles and Steven in the background.
Only a few of them, but all in good voice and well received.







Photoshop and I spent a wonderful evening with these photos.

Out in the front garden where we put the blue iron swing whose top bar serves to hang all the bird feeders there is great fluttering and scattering of seeds.

Our first visitor was a Stellar Jay, but mainly the clientele is made up of finches and chickadees, thrushes and sparrows and robins.

And cleaning up all the scattered seed the quail from the neighbourhood have had the word and gather beneath the bar, lovely and plump and happy that the 6th Avenue cafe has opened.

Complete with spa for bathing......

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

ABC Wednesday
October 11, 2011

We have reached the letter M already, - half way through this entertaining round of ABC Wednesday.

M is for Claude Monet and also for  Edouard Manet, both French Impressionist Painters who became friends when they met in Paris.

Monet  (1840 - 1926) was the founder of French Impressionist Painting, a style of painting which expresses one's perceptions before nature, especially in plein-air landscape painting.


Monet's impressionistic Sunrise

Eduoard Manet  (1832 - 1883) broke new ground in choosing subjects from events and appearances of his own time and stressing "the arrangement of paint areas on a canvas over and above its function as representation" (Encyclopaedia Britannica)  This painting of "Luncheon on the Grass" aroused public hostility because of the perceived scandalous presence of a naked lady in the company of two gentlemen, and the painting was refused exhibit in 1863.  However it made Manet a hero in the eyes of other Impressionistic painters.


I have always admired these two painters, - especially Monet - and I have tried to incorporate his use of roses and blues and lilacs and other pastels in the garden, and even in our first kitchen on the farm where I painted cupboard drawers and doors in Monet colours.


For more interesting takes on the letter M visit here at ABC Wednesday with thanks to Mrs. Nesbit and her mates.