Mediterranean blues

Reading "The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers" by Ted Jones and loved this description of winter on the Mediterranean by Lady Margaret Brewster 150 years ago:

"The sea here is certainly at times bluer than the bluest of other seas, but it is not at its loveliest phase, on the contrary, the greatest charm of the Mediterranean seems to me to be the esquisite variety; there is the lilac, the stony grey, the bleu foncé, the pale blue flushed with rose, the milkiness, as if it were the milky way, the sheet of silver, - and that I think is the most beautiful, for the sky then is silvered blue also, and yet the sun so bright, and clear that you can scarcely believe the colour is not the usual sky blue."

Yes...and great for amateur painters who can't mix paint colours very well...almost any colour one chooses will end up being what the Mediterranean looks like some of the time!

Robbie Burn's Dinner

I think it's close to 20 years that we have been celebrating Robbie Burn's birthday with Don and Elaine. We began doing it at each other's houses (even went very unauthentic one year and went out for sushi!). Jim borrowed a kilt and read the address to the Haggis the first time. Since then Bill Thomas (we raised a glass to him last night) fitted him out in the whole regalia and this year Susan knit him some authentic kilt hose! For the last 10 years or so we've been going to the Union Club and really enjoying it. Some pictures from last night.


Jim and his new socks...thanks, Susan!


Every year they have something a little different for the decorations. This year they had these drawings matched with Burn's poems. Jim read them to us in his Scottish brogue.


Most of us can relate to this one!


Jim and me.


Elaine, Laborio, Stella, Jim


Jim, me, Don


Judge Gow bringing in the Haggis


Highland Dancers


The Sailor's Hornpipe...she was terrific!

more children's art

Something to add some sunshine to this rainy day!

West Coast weather wimp

I confess....I am a typical West Coast weather wimp. Enough of this snow and cold already..!!!!! It does look like it's melting...but I took the picture of the snowdrop when I felt it was gone last time.



One of the first snowdrops of the season. Fern gave me a load of these bulbs.



Heather in the snow.

Golf mats

I did these two golf mats for a commission...this design is quite fun to do!


"16th hole at The Ridge (1)"
acrylic on linoleum
22 x 30


"16th hole at The Ridge (2)"
acrylic on linoleum
22 x 30

Snowmen

Well, that worked pretty well but I must remember to do the comments on the last picture I blog from Flickr so the comments will come before the pictures.
Flickr is pretty cool and I think I can create a space where people can view all the photos I upload there.

snowmen

Trying out Flickr via the wireless. This is practice for France. Richard set up this system so I don't have to size my photos after downloading them to the computer. This is quite fiddly to do and why last year I ended up with these huge pictures that are a problem for people to load. Flickr sizes them for me. Hope you enjoy the snowmen...will see how this works!

more children's art

more children's art

Last of the canvas mats

I did one last canvas mat and will do future mats on linoleum because they do stand up better. With the rest of my canvas I'm going to do placemats....and have done one already. The canvas should work just fine for the placemats.


"Swiftsure"
acrylic on canvas mat
22 x 30
Jan/05



"Vancouver Harbour"
acrylic on canvas placemat
12 x 18
Jan/05

Now and soon...!

What we woke up to today....


Looking out from my computer.


Picking up the newspaper.

Where we will soon be....


Port of Carqueiranne

Cold chilly morning

A few pictures I took while picking up the paper.

Christmas Photos

Some pictures John took when he and Carol were here over the holidays. John set up my tripod and used his wide angle lens to get the group one. The other one is of Jim and I unsuccessfully trying to take out own picture...Richard seems much better at this but it was fun to try!

Colours of Provence

When John and Carol brought these wonderful purple tulips when they came for lunch (I made a raclette) last week I didn't immediately think of Provence...but when the yellow daffodils came out the arrangement was absolutely perfect for the colours of Provence...purple lavender, yellow mimosa, lemons, & sunflowers. I think it looks great on my little provencale table (Oak Bay Dump treasure courtesy of Chris). The Pacific West Coast meets the Mediterranean. Tulips are a perfect choice as our little village of Carqueiranne is famous for growing tulips...the village crest even has a tulip on it.


Christmas bouquet of flowers


Painting I did our first year in Carqueiranne inspired by the many tulip fields.

My Christmas stack of books

For the last few Christmasses Jim has had the task of finding me a stack of books that I haven't read and preferably writers I'm not familiar with but would probably like....brave man! It's always tremendous fun to see what he manages to find.
Another successful foray this year....just one I had read (Alice Walker's "Possessing the Secret of Joy" ) and only one other writer I had read (William Trevor) but not this particular book. Bravo!