Looks like I can get these pictures up now



Gallery wall one



Gallery wall two



My sign

In my studio I've recently created a couple of "gallery walls" by putting up some picture rails. It's great because now I can display lots of stuff that I don't have room for anywhere else or haven't managed to give away. A friend gave me an old frame that was 12 x 24 inches. I couldn't think of a design to fit so I made a sign. I was really pleased with it because I think it demonstrates where I am coming from with my very simple, naive style art. I seem to be having some problems loading the pictures...will try later.

Took this picture while out at Happy Valley Lavender Farm's recent open house. Quite neat to see this farm but not miles and miles of mature lavender that you get in the south of France. Been trying to paint another lavender picture...so far not very successful.



Lavender at Happy Valley Lavender Farm

I was very saddened to hear of Carol Shield's death. I realize how much pleasure her writing has given me over the years. A friend lent me "The Box Garden" many years ago and I was quite intrigued by her style and subject matter. I didn't think she'd ever write something like "The Stone Diaries", though...wow, what a book!

When I introduced small groups reading various novels in my classes "The Stone Diaries" was just out in paperback and it was a really popular choice with the girls. I was surprised they related so well to it. I realize I no longer have my own copy. I have replaced it a number of times but guess I didn't the last time I loaned it to a student who was an infrequent attender but was turned on by being in the "Diaries" group. The enthusiasm for English class usually didn't last and that was the last I saw of the student and my book. I liked to think perhaps that particular student or perhaps some other young woman read that book and got something out of it. More realistically, it was pawned for a meal. That's ok too.

In one of the stories I read yesterday about Carol Shields a good friend told of how Carol remained able to laugh and feel joy even towards the end. She relates how Carol had the big TV moved to her bedroom so she could be distracted. The friend threatened to bring over a video she received with her new washing machine on how to do the laundry. They both broke out into gales of laughter about the idea of a video for doing the laundry. I liked that anecdote. It shows the kind of things women can laugh about and also how gender roles have changed and perhaps there does need to be a video with your new washing machine....!

This previous post was deleted somehow. I don't like this new version of Blogger. Some strange terminology like "re-edit" & "re-publish" used in what seem to me incorrect context. However....

More things to post from my "Oak Bay Dump Collection" and also did a couple of paintings based on pictures I took of my beloved Notre Dame Cathedral when we were in Paris in March. However, something is wrong with our connection so I can't post images at the moment. Having to use Jim's unfriendly non-Mac at the moment.

Really excited about our trip to England next summer as part of it will be a week in Dorset sharing a delightful sounding cottage with our Yorkshire friends. This is Thomas Hardy country and I've been reading "Under the Greenwood Tree" (the happiest of Hardy's novels) and really enjoying it. It's a quaint pastoral tale of the time when organs were beginning to take over the choirs of singers and instruments that previously played the church music. Lots of interesting old vocabulary and expressions.

Also, recently finished Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" and really enjoyed it as well. Certainly a writer to watch. This one won the Pulitzer prize. Very impressive writing - immigrant story writ large. I liked a comment he made about the importance of death - it gives weight to life. Also, how despair wins out in the end - a necessity - makes saying goodbye to life possible. These comments make it seem dark but the novel is vibrating with life.

Yay...my computer's online again! A few more of my Oak Bay Dump treasures and my Notre Dame paintings.



Box with campaniles



Parosol pines on table



Notre Dame 1



Notre Dame 2

When we were in Seattle I found this really cool book called "American Style: Classic Product Design from Airstream to Zippo". The writer and photographer makes the point that the design of common American items is often taken for granted and we don't appreciate how wonderful these items in terms of design because they are so ubiquitous and the Americans couldn't possibly create things as cool as the Europeans. The book does make you look at things in a different way.

One comparison is the Farberware & Atomic Espresso/Cappuccino Maker:



Commentary:

"Here are two contrasting coffee maker designs of the streamlined modern style: the Farberware percolator and the Atomic Espresso/Cappuccino maker. In an interesting comparison the completely automatic Farberware exemplifies an American tradtion of easy-to-use, neophyte-proof design, wheras the Atomic espresson maker appears as complicated to operate as it really is."

Some items chosen for inclusion...perhaps you'll look at these in a different way!

Campell's Chicken Noodle soup label
Lucky Strike cigarattes
M & M package
Black and Decker Dust Buster
Mason Jar
Krptonite Bike Lock
Duracell Battery
Apple Macintosh
Traditional rural mail box
Stanley steel thermos
Panavision movie camera
Kodak carousel projector
Frisbee flying disc
Slinky toy
Steinberger Bass
Learjet
Life
Time
The New Yorker

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...!

I've started golfing again and really enjoying it. I bought some new clubs and wow this new technology is great. Oversize heads, graphite shafts...how can you miss!



My new great big driver

Yesterday I found this really cool steamer trunk at the exchange table of the Oak Bay dump. I painted the outside black and my special living room red. Amazingly there were two stickers from the White Star Line First Class which I left on and which the red background on the sticker is identical to my red! Then I turned my attention to the inside (very smelly) and ripped out all the cloth and put on my never fail stain blocker primer. Underneath the cloth and cardboard the maker of the trunk had placed comic strips of "Barney Google" by Billy DeBeck from the Philidelphia Inquirer dated 1942. Looking DeBeck up on the Internet I found out he died in 1942. Guess this trunk maker wanted to make a little memorial to him and perhaps hoping someone would find this one day. The comic strip on the lid wasn't in good shape but the one on the bottom was so I've left it there. I'm going to paint an ocean liner on the front using the one I did last year as a model.


Trunk with the outside coat of paint


comic strip

My son www.whypop.net/rich/ refers to an interesting article about how cellphones that take pictures will change a lot. The ability to take pictures and post them to websites so easily does also bring up privacy issues and problems with people becoming unwitting celebrities. I don't think the dogs I took a picture of and posted to my site will mind but perhaps their owner would. Certainly, one needs to be careful about posting pictures of people even in what I feel is a space fairly limited in exposure like this weblog. So today I will stick to plants. These are some pix of "volunteer" poppies in my garden. I just love how they find these spots and proliferate.

Our 35th anniversary today!

The great thing about having this very small digital camera...size and weight similar to a matchbox....is that I always have it on my keychain and can get those pix I wouldn't normally get. I was downtown the other day with friends and we saw these two dogs in the sidecar of a motorcyle. It was fun to be able to get a pix of this.



Dogs on Douglas Street

My son sent me these absolutely beautiful orchids...wow...thanks, Richard!

I just love this sculpture of Louis Armstrong by Nikki de St. Phalle in front of the Hotel Negresco in Nice. I didn't have my camera with me last year when we passed this so I was really pleased to get a picture this year.



Louis Armstrong

This is another painting I did in France. I gave this one to Maureen and Roland and just got the picture I took of it back today.



Cassis

Now playing around with Photoshop....this is tremendous fun!
This is the same photo only with a "patchwork" effect.

Playing around with my digital camera


Camus in Beaconhill Park

When we were waiting for the train back to Carqueiranne from Paris I bought this really cool lightweight (about one ounce) digital camera called an "Espion". It's designed to be a keychain. Richard is over for Easter and got it working for me. It can even do little mini videos. These are some of the first pix he took just fooling around with it in the house. It was pretty cheap....69 Euros so I'm pleased it is taking such good pictures. I wanted something very lightweight to always have with me so I can take pix of things for painting.

What I've been reading over the past two months.

"A Whistling Woman" by A.S. Byatt
Quite good and went back to telling a gripping story like in Possession along with all the usual heavy intellectual musings (the good story made all that easier to take). Seemed like things were going to end very very badly but it just ended somewhat badly and wasn't as dark as it could have been. Hope and salvation came through an 11 yr. old boy who managed to see more clearly than others. Interesting that Byatt had a son who died at age 11 - a very black time in her life as one can imagine.

"The House in Paris" by Elizabeth Bowen
Really quite intriguing, somewhat like Henry James. She set the reader up very cleverly...you really wanted to keep reading. In university I felt Henry James was pretty hard slogging. Perhaps I should give him another try now.

"The Magician's Assistant" by Ann Patchett
A very enjoyable read although the ending left me somewhat dissatisfied. I also felt the same way in Bel Canto.

"House of Splendid Isolation" by Edna O'Brien
Very interesting Irish writer and managed to present both sides of the conflict well. I look forward to reading more of her work.

"The Man in the Queue" & "The Singing Sands"
by Josephine Tey
These light little mysteries were just perfect to pass the time on the plane.

I think I've contacted most people who read this blog but just to let anyone I've missed know that we decided to scrub the Louisiana job. After we arrived home Jim received word he received a SSHRC research grant over the next three years to do the Huxley letters project and couldn't keep it if he went to the US. Too good a deal to refuse and we were having second thoughts about the upheaval moving to Louisiana anyway. I think we've made the right decision. The grant allows for lots of subsidized travel to various research libraries in L.A., New York, Houston, Brussels, and England. I think Alexandria could have been a reasonably nice community but already it's 80 degrees with high humidity, severe thunderstorms, and a dangerous storm warning with possible tornados...I don't think so!

One other painting I did while in France.



Pine tree from below

The second to last painting I did in France. My last one was of Cassis which I gave to Maureen and Roland when they were visiting. I have a picture of it and will post that when I get them developed.



Twisted Pines

What...me worry? Perhaps we'll all have to resort to Absinthe to get through these trying times in the world today. I loved this poster and so glad I took a picture of it as I couldn't manage to buy one.

It is great to be home, even if it is 10 degrees and raining. Great to sleep in our own bed and wake up to the birds singing.

We had a wonderful time with Maureen and Roland the last few days we were in Carqueiranne and showed them our favourite places of Cassis and Sanary. We also introduced them to eating raw sea urchins...a big specialty in that area during the season of Jan - Mar. They didn't quite share our enthusiasm for these creatures ( the "hedgehogs" as Maureen called them!) but they did both agree the white wine of the Cassis area is very special.
Thanks again to Maureen and Roland for coming down to visit with us and bringing your "magic box"....a seemingly bottomless box that continued to produce goodies of food and drink all through the visit!

We spent our final two days in Nice basking in the sun, drinking pastis on the Promenade des Anglais and getting our last fill of fish soup and other Mediterranean specialties. Our flights home were long and tiring but good connections and everything on time. The fire alarm went off when we were in the international area of the Vancouver airport...was rather disconcerting (or perhaps not) as there seemed to be no question of letting people pass through customs and immigration without being checked properly. Caused quite a bit of havoc as the luggage shut down and we wondered if we would make our connecting flight to Victoria. Everything worked out in the end.

Back to reality seeing almost all airport employees wearing rubber gloves and to hear about all the anti Canadian sentiment from the US. One seems to be very away from all that in the south of France. I wasn't even sure what year it was when I went to fill out the customs forms....

We came back to an immaculate house, lawns cut, and with home made spaghetti sauce and bread waiting for us.
We are so lucky to have such fabulous renters...thank you, Lynne and Lloyd!

Thanks to Richard for posting my photos and congratulations on his first paying film gig....way to go!

I can hardly believe our stay here is almost over. It's been great and the last couple of weeks have had some added excitement. Jim was contacted by the University in Louisiana in Alexandria about a job as Chair of an English;, French, and Spanish Dept. He had a telephone interview which went very well and they invited him for an on campus interview Alexandria is about a 2 hr drive to New Orleans and very close to Cajun country and places such as Lafayette and Baton Rouge. So we figured we'd both go down for a week and explore the area. It's a part of the world we've always wanted to visit and living there could be quite an adventure. We've booked for about a week after we get home. We're very excited about it all. Another advantage is Houston is about a 5 hr drive and that is where a lot of Huxley papers are that Jim needs to consult for his research. Oh, and the university has a foreign studies program in Corsica. In the interview he was asked if he would support that. I think you can guess the answer! So; I guess we'll be sipping mint juleps before long....

Had another strange encouter in that area. We excited from the Charles de Galle metro (very large station at the Arc de Triomphe) and had a very bewildered and concerned young Spanish woman approach us because she was expecting the Charles de Gaulle
Airport. She was a long ways from there! These similar names are confusing; Another time taking the TGV from Marseilles to Paris with one stop in Lyon ( a long ways from Paris) I heard some Americans asking a porter if it was the Gare de Lyon. He said yes, which strictly speaking it was since we were in Lyon but the railway station in Paris is also called the Gare de Lyon. Lyon isn't exactly on the tourist route so I ran up while these people were getting off the train and asked them if they were going to Paris....they were.

We had to cut our Paris trip by a day but we did do pretty much everything we wanted. Monday, Jim decided he wanted a break from bread and croissants so we went to Macdonalds on the C-E to ge an egg McMuffin and English newspapers. Luckily we bought the international Herald Tribune and learned there was a rail strike set for Tue when we were leaving. Jim had to be back Wed to give his exam. The tourist bureau was just across the street and we were assured it wouldn't be a problem getting a train today. We were pleasantly surprised to be able to check out early without problem; and even more pleasantly surprised to be able to get a train within 2 hrs and no penalty for changing our half price no changes ticket. Bravo France! Experiences like this do wonders for tourist morale. The wind had gone down, the sun was out, so we basked in the sun drinking beer while we waited for our train. A great ending to a super stay in Paris.

One last thing...they seem to have painted the Eiffel Tower some awful brown colour (sort of like the LV wallets). We hadnt seen it up close in the daytime for a while but didn't it used to be dark grey?

We werre pleased with our hotel in the Champs-Elysees area. It got us walking in different places. We aren't really into the elegance and designer stuff of that area but you can't beat the people watching on the C-E. We were approached by a middle aged Japanese couple who wanted our help. They wanted us to go into Louis Vuitton and buy two wallets for them because they were over the limit. They didn' t care what type as long as they were the brown with gold LV logo. They said they would be 300-400 Euro each and proceeded to roll out 800 E and gave it to us. It was a large store with lots of staff so figured they'd be quick to take 800 E for something we felt was worth about 50 cents...also, I guess we were willing to be helpful. This couple didn't seem the least interested if we went into the store or ran off and went about looking for other potential buyers...guess 800 Euros isn't much to them.

The staff informed us we would have to wait in line...only 3 groups ahead so not deterred. The group ahead of us weere wealthy Arabs complaining about waiting. They were ofered champange and chairs ---we were'nt. We asked about the wait and were told it would be 45 min at least. So much for that! We left and returned the money. Afterwards we thought the whole thing was rather odd...why the limit? why the wait? anyone have any ideas? We passed the store a number of times and even longer lines....

Back in Carqueiranne enjoying the wonderful warmth of the sun on our balcony as I write this. Paris will always be my favourite city in the world but it felt like coming home on the train the other day as soon as we started going through Provence with its palms, pines, vines; olive trees, the mountains, the ocean, tile roofs etc. It is a very special part of the world.

On Sunday we wandered through our old neighbourhood and market area around the Pompidou centre. We really enjoyed this area thelast time we were in Paris and rented an apartment for 2 weeks in '97. All the same sihts and smells...I do enjoy seeing people do their Sun shopping on a Sun morning for a special meal that day.

Pompidou too busy so went to Marais district and the Musee Picasso...always a treat...the gallery and the area.

In the evening we strolled the Rue Mouffetard (Latin Quarter but higher than St Michel aea) and went to the restaurant where we had the most fabulous paella ever. Perhaps a mistake to recapture a balmy summer night in winter but it was a pretty good paella this time and the people were great - offered a sangria before and a pear liquor after -- not the usual tourist treatment.

Had a rather mediocre meal in Ile St Louis the night before and ordered the wine of the month at 18 Euros only to be given some bulk plonk that cost them less than a Euro...wouldn' t be paris if you didn't get ripped off I guess. They also had a fabulous jazz pianist which pretty much made up for it.

Urgent to Don and Elaine....we found the spoons in Paris! Low time:::bye

Pins Parosols at Sunrise over the Presqu'eiles de Glens



Church in Le Castellet



Church in Gordes at Sunset



Mimosas, Palms, and Cypresses

Paris is so wonderful. Just back from seeing Notre Dame again in all its glory. Lit a candle for our friends in Poland who we were so glad to meet in Paris in 1987 after having visited their home in 1976. We attended Mass with them in Notre Dame. Angele is a devout Catholic. And also thinking of Bill Thomas; of course, and our chance meeting of him in Paris in 1976. A devout lover of life! Very moved (to tears really) of the van Gogh in the Orsay yesterday. I hqve seen them before and always impressed by the colour; movement, and intensity of life. This time I was very struck by the anguish and sadness...perhaps one need to reach a certain point in life to relte to that aspect. Great to have these Internet Cafes so available in Paris...this one has a floating rate which is never expensive and often very cheap like right now 1.40 Euros an hour. But...just wanted to get a brief message....back to Paris!

It is great being back in Paris strolling around the Latin quarter and flanning the bouquinistes on the Seine. Picked up 8 CD s from one for very cheap and reall pleased with them. Off to Ste Chapelle today and the Musee dOrsay. There is a good musical concert at Ste C. that we will probably take in this weekend if we can get tickets. Nice to have fewer crowds but does seem a little strange not sweltering in Paris and the streets teeming with people.

Just the most fabulous weather lately. We have been taking advantage of it by eating lunch (loads of fabulous seafood!) in restaurants that they refer to here as "les pieds dans l'eau"...feet in the water; Wonderful day in Cassis yesterday....I think it's our very favourite place in the region. Great animation and charming port as well as the spectacular scenery of the Calanques. We look forward to showing Maureen and Roland from Germany that region. We are really delighted that Jim's cousin and her husband are coming to visit us the end of March. We're really looking forward to seeing them again!

Looking at the ocean and enjoying my 50 daffodils for 4 Euros it is hard to believe all this stuff is going on in the world. I realize we're in an anti war mileau here in France but it is hard to comprehend the justification for war...there doesn't seem to be one. The news is certainly depressing...French journalism doesn't appear to allow ffor lighter moments...all very serious stuff.

Will get some more painting done these next few days as Jim will be very busy with work until we leave for Paris Thursday. Supposed to be great weather all over France this whole week;

Calanques and Sailboats



Calanques and Kayaks



More Sabots. These were supposed to be tied up but it didn't quite work out.



Church at Giens



Les Pins Parasols



These are some shops and a restaurant around the corner from our apartment.



This is our view from our living room window.



Mimosas in vase.



Un petit salamandre dans le vent.

Mar 4

Spring does finally seemed to have arrived....just finished having a drink at the beach in the sun...wonderful! I was speaking to a woman who has lived in this area for 53 years and she was complaining about it being the worst winter ever. Better than Victoria but we were spoiled last year.Done 20 paintings so far plus 12 postcards....they were a lot of fun.

Amazing the warm reception Chirac got in Algeria recently esp given the history of violence after independence. Very much support of Chirac and anti war feeling in France. Of course, don' t have a clue about Canada's position...no news as usual from there here.

We were at the house of a colleague of Jim's the other day and it was most interesting as they have a new traditional provencale house. It's very authentic down to having no gutters (means lots of scrubbing down), shutters that are double wooded ( horizontal on one side and vertical on the other) and of course the roof tiles...the double zay of doing it...I can now spot the fakes! They have chosen some wonderful interior colours that just suit the light here incredibly well. Fabulous yellow green, peachy red etc

Saw Lord of the Dance on the weekend in Toulon...excellent show. Had a wondeful paella before the show in a beach restaurant in the beach area of Toulon.

Feb 28

Just finished reading Eliz Bowen's The House in Paris....quite impressed by it ...must read more of her. Some fantastic waves coming in at the moment in the port. Seems like this year is more for storm watching than lounging on terasses in the sun like last year.