Willows Beach

Just joggers and walkers at the moment but soon there will be loads of dogs and their owners when they are allowed back Oct 1.

Chestnuts

It must be Fall if the chestnuts are falling. I pass a wonderful chestnut tree on my walk to the beach. I always loved collecting chestnuts as a kid and Richard collected chestnuts from this tree when he was the age to treasure these mahogany beauties. I picked up a pocketful yesterday to keep the spiders at bay. Not sure if it works but worth a try. These west coast monsters (according to some of my golfing buddies from the east, the spiders aren't so huge back there...they were initially quite shocked by the size of ours) will soon be creeping inside escaping the cooler weather when it comes although it seems like this wonderful weather will never end. We had a great lunch basking in the sun at the Blackfish Restaurant in the inner harbour yesterday.








A wonderful old pine tree I pass on my way to the beach as well.

Glorious Dahlias

It's always a pleasure to walk by this wonderful display a fellow has every year...he must have hundreds of them.

CBC News - Viewpoint: Heather Mallick

I really liked this column that Richard pointed to in his blog recently..."Atheists Don't Get It".

CBC News - Viewpoint: Heather Mallick

Itty Bitty Book Review: Small Island

"Small Island" by Andrea Levy

Annette put me on to this writer (British) and I was very impressed with this novel. I see it won the Whitbread Book of the Year and Orange Prize for Fiction when it was published in 2004. Very well deserved and I'll look forward to reading more of her books. It takes place during the forties and revolves around the experience of a Jamaican volunteer soldier for the British during the war and afterwards. He returns to Jamaica then soon immigrates to Britain. Levy accomplishes an amazing feat of making us feel very deeply the hurt of racial prejudice yet entertaining us with laugh out loud humour at the human foibles of everyone. Highly recommended.

My Latest Painting

"Carqueiranne Port"
18 x 24
acrylic on canvas

Canine enrichment

Reading in the Globe and Mail that three of the 10 hot careers for 2007 are related to animals. These are "animal assisted therapists" for dealing with bad behaviours, "animal defence lawyers" for custody cases, veterinary malpractice, etc., and "veterinary physical therapists" who specialize in hydrotherapy, exercise, and massage.

I already know two people who have employed therapists for their dogs. It's a long ways away from the neighbourhood standard when I grew up where the maximum families would spend on a dog was $5.00 and nothing on cats...driven by economics not unkindness.


thedesertsun.com | Cats & dogs and other pets

Children's Art

Itty Bitty Book Review: "Mexican Days"

"Mexican Days: Journeys into the Heart of Mexico" by Tony Cohan

I really enjoyed Cohan's first book on Mexico called "On Mexican Time". This one is relatively interesting but not quite as enjoyable a read.

Congratulations Lindsay and Pedro!

We were in Vancouver this weekend for the wedding of the daughter of a my cousin, Bonnie and her husband, Jack. It was really super to see them all again and also my cousin, Georgia, who now has eight grandchildren. Brock House made a great setting even though the weather didn't completely cooperate and the ceremony had to be in the conservatory rather than by the ocean with the mountains as a backdrop. It was a beautiful ceremony and setting all the same.

Wonderful food, atmosphere, and people..what more can you ask?



These are two of Georgia's grandchildren...aren't they adorable? They loved riding in the stretch limo. As Richard says, the little ones have the best gig...lots of cake and fun, and no speeches or responsibilty. He speaks from experience of having been bestman four times and also a brideman...being ringbearer at 5 years old was the best.



Richard as ringbearer at Katey and David's wedding 23 years ago.




Jack and Bonnie ready to walk Lindsay down the aisle.




Ooo...la...la...!




Lindsay and Pedro making a good job of cutting the cake.




Jack getting a dance with Lindsay.

www.french-word-a-day.com

I'm quite enjoying the book "Words in a French Life" by Kristin Espinasse taken from her blog:

www.french-word-a-day.com

She is an American now living in France with her French husband and children. She takes a word a day (now three times a week on the blog), explains it and writes a little vignette around the word about her life in France.

Regeneration

Jim's been preparing WW I poetry for his online course so we watched the video "Regeneration" which is based on the novel, the first in a WW I Trilogy by Pat Barker. It is based on a true story about a psychiatrist and three of his patients at an asylum treating men for shell shock. Two of the men are famous WW I poets, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. It's very well done and I highly recommend it. Both Owen and Sassoon returned to the front. Owen died two days before the end of the war...his parents received the letter from the War Office as victory bells were pealing. Sassoon survived and lived to be in his 80's.

Dulce et Decorum Est is Wilfred's Owen very famous poem.

Wilfred Owen - Dulce et Decorum Est - best known poem of the First World War

Billie's Calendar - September

Back to School

Have a good back to school everyone who is going back to school. I always felt a certain excitement in the beginning of the school year; however, not having to go into the tunnel of continual work for ten months is even better!

Children's Art

Itty Bitty Book Review: Blue Shoes and Happiness

"Blue Shoes and Happiness" by Alexander McCall Smith

Another one in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency...charming as always. Continuing with my light reading...

Along the Stanley Park Seawall

We were pretty impressed with this guy's work balancing stones he finds on the beach. Seems he does it every year and sells postcards of his creations.






I could almost do a "Twisted Firs" painting from this photo.

The Cannery Restaurant

We had a super lunch at the Cannery Restaurant after our Commercial Drive stroll. A little tricky to get to these days as they have new security measures for the Vancouver waterfront. Wonderful food and a view of the harbour you don't get anywhere else.


The old fishing boat the name of the restaurant was taken from.



View from the restaurant.



View of the container port on our way to the restaurant.

My new mini studio

I've created a mini studio in our kitchen nook (we were just using it for storage as we always eat in the dining room) so I don't have to go down to the basement. I find it particularly uninviting in the winter. The light is pretty good but I also have a special lamp that mimics daylight...and a music system that will play off my iPod.

Happy Birthday, Kate and Matt!

We were awakened 26 years ago this day to the wonderful news of the birth of Matthew Turnell, and then also awakened rather late that day to more wonderful news of the birth of Katie Soles. An exciting day for everyone!


Kate, Matt, and Richard in yesteryear.



Richard, Matt, and Kate today.

Houses around Commercial Drive

There is a real mix of housing in this area.


Somehow the Vancouver Special is fitting into the real estate scene. Better at least than these huge tacky monster homes that completely overwhelm the neighbourhood.



Lots of charming cottage like houses.



And a few mansions.



I loved the colours on this house...no surprise...!



Even the greenhouses around here have a special quality...this one with an old bathtub.

Itty Bitty Book Review: A Deadly Little List

"A Deadly Little List" by Kay Stewart & Chris Bullock

A quite entertaining first mystery which takes place on Saltspring. Fun to have the local connection.

Latest painting

Haven't done a lot of painting this summer...the weather outside is too inviting. I thought I might paint outside this summer but somehow it's a little too much effort to set up although it really needn't be. Perhaps I'll try that yet if we get our usual Indian Summer. As long as the wasps aren't attracted to acrylic paint...

Seems to be appropriate to paint lavender and sunflowers at this time of year.



“Lavender & Sunflowers”
24 x 30 acrylic on linoleum mat
Aug/06

"The Drive"

Commercial Drive is becoming rather trendy but still retains that wonderful ethnic buzz and a certain raffish quality. Given the house prices I hope it doesn't get too gentrified but I think that's inevitable.





You can get real hungry walking around here.



A real old classic neon sign.



You know you're in an international area when you see this kind of window display.



Being a real olive lover (my Dad used to bring me home a small jar of olives on payday instead of a chocolate bar) I couldn't resist this photo.



Funny how Venice is a place we think we know quite well since we see so many pictures but you have to be there to really feel just how wonderful it is.



When we were growing up in Vancouver we never in a million years would have thought people would be pleased to wear a Commercial Drive t-shirt!

The eye of the beholder

Monique was recently visiting her friend, Pierre Henry, who is a Quebec artist and whose work I have admired for years on Monique's walls. Monique got him looking at my art portfolios and I was fascinated by what he chose as interesting to him (Some were in my "possibly throw out" file!). When I asked him for more details he very kindly took the time to make some thoughtful and intriguing comments. Just for fun I've made up a set of bookmarks on the ones he commented on and am going to post them here.

I'm thinking about my six favourites which I will post eventually and if anyone else wants to give me their six favourites and why, I'll make you up a bookmark set.
This could be fun to see what people like and why! (P.S. I notice I haven't got round to posting everything in the portfolios but these are what Pierre looked at.)

Comments by Pierre Henry:

When looking at the work of someone like you (who claims not to have ever imagined being able to do art) it is usually clear that there is a lot of pleasure deriving from the act of drawing, or painting. Usually, the end product is pretty tame... not too many risks are taken. This is not the case with what you do and quite a few of your compositions are completely "out of the box", as the expression goes.

In your 2002 production, I was particularly interested by the way you treated the cyclists and the action in the one entitled French water sports.
In the 2003 production, the beauty and simplicity of Notre-Dame-de-Paris make me believe that you must have copied someone else's work. (Nothing wrong with that... It shows you have recognized the beauty art can achieve when executed with talent). If, by the way, I am wrong in this - that is if YOU made this all by yourself, the only thing I can say is WOW!!!

Another remarkable piece is the Deux Chevaux from 2001: simple, clean, showing good aptitude for line drawing, (Not that common).
In 2004, La Promenade des Anglais and English Bay (2006) are most interesting... Particularly Promenade des Anglais where you re-arranged the perspectives in a most intriguing way, flattening the buildings along the beachfront and succeeding to create a very pleasant composition by using the outline of the canvas surface to place various elements in a somewhat abstract, well-balanced, reconstructed group. This may be accidental... but I think there is more here than an accident.

Don't be too influenced by what I am saying. It is just the opinion of one person!


My response:

Notre Dame is completely original and simple because that’s all I can really do...the tree was to hide my pathetic (compared to the cathedral) design. The "rearranging of perspective" is really just getting mixed up and ignorance about doing perspective. I amazed myself by capturing the action in Watersports..just a fluke! English Bay is a favourite of mine as well.... probably mainly because I included things I love about Vancouver.

English Bay

Deux Chevaux

La Promenades des Anglais, Nice

Notre Dame de Paris

French Cyclists

French Watersports

Images of Vancouver

A few scenes of Vancouver that captured my interest.


Very colourful Indo-Canadian Festival going on in Stanley Park.



Certainly among the best parks in the world...thank you Lord Stanley!



Denman Street restaurant.



For the moment Steveston gets better and better. Hope they don't completely overdevelop.



View from Richard's balcony. What a wonderful oasis in the city.



I'm so proud of our airport and all the wonderful art.