More experimenting with the arbutus tree idea. This one was done from a picture I took looking up. Funny how it ended very similar to the Pine from Underneath. Guess trees are similar from that perspective.



Arbutus #2

I've been collecting pictures of arbutus trees and did my first painting today. I thought I better keep it simple and just do a trunk to see how I would make out getting the colour right. I'm really pleased with this first attempt. This is going to be fun!


First arbutus tree

Update on books I've been reading.

"The Gingerbread Woman" by Jennifer Johnston
I haven't read much of her lately and felt this wasn't too bad , some good moments, but not great. I think "The Christmas Tree" was the best book she's written.

"The Good Soldier" by Ford Madox Ford
An amazing book...some wonderful ironies. Very funny and tragic.

"Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood
I didn't approach this one with a lot of pleasure because I figured it would be a rather grim tale...it is. The usual self-indulgent humour but also intelligent and timely issues. I don't think it really works because you can't summon up any sympathy for any of the characters. She does know how to tell a story...I was motivated to keep reading to the end to see what happened.

"To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf
Oh, yes. Absolutely brilliant. Very interesting to re-read it after all these years. Life experience makes it much more meaningful.

"The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant
Apparently all the rage in women's book clubs. I enjoyed it - quite a realistic interpretation of biblical times, I think.

"Small Wonder" by Barbara Kingsolver (book of essays)

A couple of quotes:

From the essay "Small Wonder"
...but maybe being perfectly happy is not the point, while the truer measure of humanity is the distance we must travel in our lives, time and again, "twist two extremes of passion - joy and grief" as Shakespeare put it.

From the essay "Going to Japan"
"I remember my Japanese friend's insistence of forgiveness as the highest satisfaction, and I understand it really for the first time: What a rich wisdom it would be, and how much more bountiful a harvest, to gain pleasure not from achieving person perfection but from understanding the inevitability of imperfection and pardoning those who also fall short of it."

Here are some other things I've been painting.



This is an old frame Fern gave me plus a canvas board that was her mother's.



I've been meaning to do something with this stool for a long time.



I put my Fantan painting on an old trunk I bought at a local closing out sale.
I've been missing this painting since I gave it to Monique. It is one of the few I've done of local scenes.

Here's the beginning of my "Oak Bay Dump Collection". All items taken from the free exchange area of the Oak Bay Dump. The original items looked pretty tough...I must start taking "before" pictures.

We had a great few days in Seattle. Took the Victoria Clipper. A really great way to go...no ferries, no driving and there in under three hours. We hadn't been in the States for a while but I always seem to come back liking Americans again...even the strange ones! The Montreal Expos just happened to be playing the Mariners in Seattle when we were there so we took in a game. That's always an interesting cultural experience in and of itself. And for even more entertainment value we were beside a woman who must train for hog calling contests. Wow...what a set of lungs! In the final few moments when the crowd goes crazy with noise she went into an unbelievably loud yodel...quite amazing. Really interesting going to the bookstores...the books are completely different from what we have here. Got a really cool book I know my son will love!

Having a great time with this golf. Over the past week or so played The Ridge, Mt. Doug and yesterday Prospect Lake in the heat of what will probably be the hottest day of the year in Victoria...what do they say about only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun...!