More Canadian Pacfic posters

I do love the simple graphics.

Posters of the Canadian Pacific

I felt really lucky to have come across this book...loads of super posters and excellent commentary.

The Sunday Telegraph

We always enjoy getting a British newspaper to get us over the Labour Day drought of papers. The British newspapers really do reflect the diverse culture of the country with news, gossip, foolishness etc, I think. Unlike the French newspapers which are almost entirely print and consist of long winded debates by the top intellectuals in the country...not a lot of fun to read.

Front page picture is of Peter Mandelson and his gay lover relaxing at a concert in Italy when apparently as EU trade commissioner he should be dealing with the crisis in retail because of the new quotas on imports from China.

Story about the enormous growth in foreign students who come for the quality of education but are shocked by the excess drinking and pub culture.
I rather enjoyed this quote from a British born student:
"If I have nothing to do I get up late--and if I have lots to do I get up later!"

A few other items from section one :

"Dumbed-down GCSEs are a 'scam' to improve league tables, claim critics"
Some of the questions given are laughable...in one question candidates had to identify 'two different family relationships".

"Libyan cadet to train with William at Sandhurst"

"Autistic boy, 7, wins four-year fight to attend special school
Landmark victory offers hope to hundreds of disabled pupils forced into regular education.

"Madonna uses secret nightclub 'focus groups' to pick songs for new album

"What a sauce. Most of us think lasagne is an English dish"

"PM not looking for Barbados home, says Downing Street"

"Euan Blair books work experience with leading US critic of Iraq war intelligence"

"European Meltdown...how Europeans fell out of love with the euro"

Tourists in our own home town...

We chose the Inner Harbour and environs for our walk the other day. People even tried to help us find our way...did we really look that dazed and confused?

Seeing Victoria from this point of view does bring home our rather poorly developed prime waterfront areas. I'm not sure which is worse...the mundane cookie cutter condos of the Songhees or the steel and glass montrosities around Fisherman's Wharf. I took a lot of pictures but I can't really find anything inspiring to paint except the houseboats.



Fern and Carole playing tourist


I'm not sure I'd like to live permanently in a houseboat but an exchange for a while could be fun.


Someone shouted at me while I was taking this picture...good thing I looked like a tourist. I figured I'd start speaking French if he came after me.

How Buildings Learn

This is the title of a rather interesting book by Steward Brand, the creator of The Whole Earth Catalog.
I initially was introduced to this book by a blog that had a post on creative uses of shipping containers as housing and for other types of buildings. While I appreciate the beauty and functionality of high end renovations I am also very attracted to simple solutions to accommodation needs.

The chapter in this book "Nobody Cares What You Do in There: The Low Road" is quite fascinating. A quote:

"Low Road buildings are low-visibility, low-rent, no-style, high-turnover. Most of the world's work is done in Low Road buildings, and even in rich societies, the most inventive creativity, especially youthful creativity, will be found in Low Road buildings taking full advantage of the to try things."

Brand uses examples like the garages of Silicon Valley (Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard) and MIT's legendary Building 20.

I hope for everyone's sake New Orleans isn't just rebuilt for the rich and becomes a theme park with gambling. Let's hope the powers that be try to create innovative housing for the disadvantaged as well so they could return if they want to.

What I've been reading lately...

"Case Histories" by Kate Atkinson
I had enjoyed "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" but couldn't get into "Emotionally Weird"; however, I enjoyed this one a lot--partly because it was rather like reading a mystery novel and she can be incredibly funny especially when describing children who are little horrors.

"Killing Floor" by Lee Child
This was his first novel written in '97 and really a very good thriller/mystery. I see he's written a number since so hope they are engaging as this one...always on the lookout for good plane and travel reading.

"Leaving Home" by Anita Brookner
A short novel and all the usual suspects really in terms of characters but somehow she does retain an interest and freshness.

"With No One As Witness" by Elizabeth George
I think she could have cut to the chase with this one, although if she was trying to give the reader the experience of how tedious and boring a murder investigation really is, she succeeded. I skimmed over some of this and I rarely do that.

"Locked Rooms" by Laurie R. King
I always enjoy the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. This one was much calmer, more precedural, only one amazing coincidence, one rather mundane dressing up as someone else, and almost no impossible "daring do". Although the last one in the series (The Game) was a little over the top, it was tremendous fun reading it and I missed the usual excitement and all of the above in this one. Dashiel Hammett was a character so that was fun.

Since a major part of the story takes place in SF and in flashback to 1906 in SF when there was the big earthquake and fire and the resulting damage, confusion, looting, etc, it felt odd to be reading this story at the same time as hearing about the terrible devastation of Katrina.

Vancouver Harbour Revisited

I did another Vancouver Harbour recently...thought I might try to sell one of them. Not sure which one I like the best.


Vancouver Harbour 2
22 x 28 acrylic on canvas
Painted in Victoria Sept/05



Vancouver Harbour 1
22 x 28 acrylic on canvas
Painted in Victoria Dec/04

Children's art

This art always makes my day!

Sunrise at Nin and Andy's

I did this painting for Nin's move into Carleton House. We were invited for a drink there last night to see it and were very impressed....wow...like entering a luxury hotel! When Nin and Andy moved to St Anne from the Arbutus area I remember Nin saying she missed the sunrises over the Olympics so I thought this painting would capture a little bit of that.

It was really fun last night, Nin, and we wish you many happy years in your new home!


"Sunrise at Nin and Andy's"
Painted in Victoria Sept 2/05
11 x 14 acrylic on canvas

Can you say "podcasting"?

This is a recent technology that I think could motivate me to buy an iPod. My trusty old walkman and cd's are fine for any amount of music I would want to listen to but with this technology I could listen to radio programs from BBC and CBC and also access newspapers in audio form all when I want to and without having to be connected to an Internet connection (except for the initial downloading). This could really work when we're travelling and aren't particularly interested in the local media (i.e. France is sooo boring for TV, radio, and newspapers) and when Internet connection isn't that easy (France takes the cake on that one again).

Another great advantage of having an iPod is being able to download and view my photos without having to lug around the laptop.

I found this site on podcasting to be a good overview.

Walking in Fairfield

Fern and I, and sometimes, Carole, have been taking walks suggested in Rosemary Neering's "The New Victoria Walking Guide".

A few pictures from our walk in Fairfield.


Ross Bay Cemetary...looking for but didn't find Emily Carr's grave. Will take a map next time.


Some lovely houses painted with heritage colours.


I thought this stained glass window of the golfer was great!

Vesuvius Bay Kids' Boat

Someone on Saltspring made this boat for some event and then left it for kids to use in Vesuvius Bay. It's designed so the kids have to keep baling water out. It is equipped with flotation devices so it doesn't sink. One young tar was baling water IN when we were there...not quite got the point! My cousin, John, took the picture.

Twice confirmed landlubber

I've really been enjoying the posts from Mark and Deanna's sailing blog but the today's post about 20' swells makes me glad I'm on terra firma! Six foot swells in the North Sea off Slieve League in Ireland were enough for me. Our guidebook suggested we take a boat to see these cliffs purportedly the highest in Europe because it was less harrowing than the road....I don't think any road could have been as harrowing as that boat trip!

Back to things a little more my speed...photos of the Pender Island Fall Fair (Not quite sure why a "Fall" fair takes place in August...same person who decided the University of Victoria has only a Fall and Spring and not Winter semester perhaps).




What's a parade without a band...wow, a pipeband as well!


Bring in the clowns....


This one is for Richard...how many times did we go on "Pirates of the Caribbean" when you were five and totally into pirates?


True love on Pender...this goat seems to be enjoying les "gros bisous" de Monique.


First prize for vegetables....it was fun to see all the things people submitted in various categories of produce, flowers, artwork, animals, etc.


I loved these "mini" flower arrangements.


Pig and lamb bar-b-q


Seems like another sunset was a good way to end the photos from Pender.

And the livin' is easy...

We're back from four wonderful days on Pender Island....great weather, super dining, and taking advantage of everything Island life has to offer. Thank you so much Monique and Walter and Rosemary!


The view from the house...sooo relaxing.


Monique was the only one with the courage to swim...is that sign language for "Help....I'm frozen!"?


Pender Island wildlife


"It's ALIVE!!!"....one day when the ocean water was quite a good temperture these horrible creatures invaded! They are called "lion's mane" according to the locals.


Best eggs on the Island...Shepherd's Croft Farm. I love the way you put the money in the chimney.


I loved this "bookstore". Didn't buy anything here but got a super biography of Hemingway for 50 cents at the Nu-to-You store.


This is one sunset photo I particularly liked...Rosemary has a super collection of them. The exposure is due West and exactly the same as the place my parents had on Gabriola.

Saltspring Spa

We had a super swim on Saltspring Sunday...thanks Carol and John for a great lunch!


Crofton to Vesuvius Bay ferry


These tandems are a great idea....means the boys can keep up with their fathers and be safer I'm sure.

Books I've been reading

"Internal Affairs" by Jill Tweedie
One of my Christmas books. A very funny novel about the politics of doing good in the third world--many great satiric passages.

"Plato Park" by Carol Rumens
Quite a well known British poet apparently but I believe this is her only novel...too bad! About a British girl and a Russian man who have a brief liaison while she accompanies her father to Russia while he is attending a conference. Later the girl and man defect to each other's countries. What they mainly have in common is "domophobia" -- a restless dissatisfaction with home. An interesting portrait of Russia in the 70's and 80's. Seems like bad choices on both parts.

"Girl from the South" by Joanna Trollope
A really very charming, light and yet thought-provoking book in a quiet way. Captures the tradition bound "old South" and "Swinging London". About contemporary people who have families and don't seem to want them and those who don't eventually wanting them and all sorts of things inbetween. Probably everyone does live "happily ever after" but not in traditional ways they thought they would.

I did love the mess and chaos of Britain contrassted with the "everything in its place" old South. The images of these small British children running loose and banging on the bulletproof glass was wonderful--all the while the parents and workers completely focused on their restoration work and painting.

A quote from Chapter 6:

"...the wife a botanical artist of extraordinary precision appeared oblivious to her house, and, largely, to her children....
the house had exploded out of control like a giant creeper."

"Gillon was expecting a professional place of business....What she found was a converted garage behind a terraced north London house from which serveral small Hopkirk children constantly emerged to stand breathing and shouting against the glass door...The glass itself was smeared with lick and fingerprints up to four feet from the ground. After a few days Gillon grew almost used to the semi-permanent frieze of flattened noses and tongues and palms against the glass. "The seventh circle of Hell, really,' Stephen said comfortably.

Children's art

This art always makes my day!

Are these animals just "Smart"?

From the Daily Telegraph:

"Lions at a safari park have been prowling after Smart cars in the belief the tiny vehicles may be prey, it has emerged.
A Smart spokesman said: "Smarts always stand out wherever they go, but this kind of animal attraction is very unusual."

Surprisingly these little cars haven't caught on in Europe but seem to be making quite a splash in North America. Locally, special small parking places are being created for such cars and some people are trying to get B.C. Ferries to charge them less...that will really make them a hit here!

Sailing Adventure

A colleague of Jim's and her husband are off on a year's sailing at the end of this month. They have created a sailing blog to record their travels and I think it will be fun to follow their progress. There are postings already and I thought their idea not to have a completely mapped out idea of where they're going is a good one....will be fun to see where they end up.

Bon voyage, Mark and Deanna!

This is the closest I'll be getting to offshore sailing....



"Carqueiranne Harbour" painted in Carqueiranne in 2002

Sunday afternoon in Oak Bay

Some scenes from the first "Bowker Creek Brush Up" ...artists painting and demonstrating their work and the 5th "Annual Oak Bay Classic Car Show"...fun events for everyone.

Uplands tree + Vic West house + Susan's garden

= hopefully an interesting painting!

I have been thinking of ideas for doing these wonderful Garry Oaks and the photo of this tree made me think that I could incorporate part of an old heritage house of Vic West and some of Susan's wonderful old English garden in Otley...two other things I've been thinking of painting.

Deer on Dewdney

A few pictures I shot of this poor old three legged deer who seems to be having more and more difficulty walking. She was enjoying our neighbour's flowers, as usual.

Recent paintings

I wanted to do at least one last painting of France so what more perfect than our favourite place...Cassis.


Cassis Harbour
18 x 24 acrylic on canvas

I've been thinking about doing something with arbutus trees for quite a while...I was very pleased with this first attempt.


Olympic view with arbutus trees
18 x 24 acrylic on canvas

Oak Bay Avenue scenes

These are a couple of things that might have potential for paintings.


Ottavio's is certainly one of the best things to happen on the Avenue!


The old Oak Bay Cinema sign that was preserved but desperately needs restoring now. It was great when this was an operating cinema.