Augie's 5th birthday

Yesterday marked the arrival of August Maxwell Hall five years ago. We celebrated Mexican style with mini sombreros, music and a delicious taco dinner.

The unicorn donkey is hiding behind the gang!

A musical quartet of "nose-singing sombreros"!

Uncle Adrian and Augie sing a Mexican duet.

Summer Solstice

It seemed fitting that my Women's Discussion group should gather around a bonfire to celebrate Summer Solstice. Research shows that people around the globe mark this annual event in the same way. 

Solstice celebrations were a highlight of the pre-Christian calendar, and bonfires, maypole dances and courtship rituals linger on in many countries as holdovers from Europe's pagan past.

Our celebration started with a delicious potluck dinner: devilled eggs, maple cranberry sausages, focaccia buns, radishes from the garden, kale chips, broccoli salad, dates, cheese, lentil salad, homemade apple pie, rhubarb crumble...and, of course, a variety of wines.

We decided to modify ancient traditions by adding some new quirks. Solstice is also a time to purge and renew, so we held a gift exchange of items that were collecting dust in our homes...items that would eventually end up in thrift stores.

I selected the largest gift, neatly wrapped in recycled newspaper. To my delight I discovered a pair of inline skates that were almost my size!

With Diana's assistance I managed to squeeze my right foot into one of the rollerblades. It was quickly obvious that circulation to my toes would be cut off within minutes! Fortunately it was her turn to select a gift next and she stole the skates from my clutches! 

After much switching and swapping and stealing (including the "scarf battle")we settled down around the bonfire with apple pie a la mode and chocolate martinis.

It was finally time to purge memories, to make room for new positive remembrances. We each wrote a short story about a past experience that we would like to erase. After sharing with the group the stories were thrown into the fire, rendered to ash and smoke!

It was the longest day of the year. Driving home at 11pm, the sky was still brightly lit to the west.

Mosaic sections completed

Wendy and I spent several hours today working on the sea of blue tile pieces 

that formed the final section of the mosaic wall.

It will be so beautiful!

Accolades to Tracey for her design and dedication.

Also to Eric for his ongoing and unflagging support!

Mosaics continue

The Mosaic Project is ongoing. 

Today I brought Lois to the gallery to help with smashing tiles and fitting pieces.

Yesterday the salmon arrived. 

Sharda, a local glass artist, created several fused glass salmon to be fit into the design.

A master mosaic artist will be arriving in Salmon Arm on Sunday night to begin the installation 

on Monday morning. Hopefully we will have all of the sections finished before then.

Mosaic Project

What fun! I have joined the volunteers who are piecing together a gorgeous mosaic wall at the Ross Street Plaza. Designed by Tracey Kutschker, the project has attracted nimble fingers of all ages from our community.

Maggie and Tegan joined me this morning to piece together this portion of sky, tree and apples. The overall design (approximately 30' x 8') moves across the four Shuswap seasons.

Created in manageable sections, these sections will be positioned in place 

and mortared at the end of the project.

Tiles are smashed into small pieces and volunteers then search 

for the perfect colour and shape to fit the puzzle.

Jane and Tori piece together a tree branch and apples.

It's important to remember where the sun is positioned

in the scene and where the light will reflect 

on the apples and the tree limbs.

So sweet!

So sweet!

Unfortunately she thought that our strawberry plants were sweet!

All of John's careful nurturing disappeared in five minutes!

House seller's limbo...again!

I just checked back through the blog to find my thoughts from the last time that we listed the house for sale in 2011. It is amazingly similar! How could I have thought that our home would sell in 4-5 days this time??? It has been over two months with only six viewings. We have repeatedly dusted, mopped, vacuumed and scoured this place from top to bottom, inside and out. Only those who have been through this process will totally relate to the unsettled feeling that envelops house sellers.

After two months we dropped the price, hoping to attract some attention...and we wait.

Meanwhile, creativity has ground to a halt. There are no paintings being painted, no writings being written and very little imaginative thinking taking place.

That is what led me to apply black gesso to a number of paintings that did not show signs of success. It was a calming and liberating feeling. At least I held a paint brush for a while...and freed several older pieces from the possibility of being trashed. Now I can gift them to other artist friends and give them the opportunity of creation.

Knitting "ROOTS"

Odd Socks knitting group meets at the Art Gallery on Friday afternoons between 1-3pm. We have graduated from knitting colourful socks to meeting a major challenge. One of our members suggested that we combine our skills to knit a "TREE" that will form the centrepiece for an exhibition in September 2015.

For the past three weeks we have been creating colourful "roots" for the tree that will stretch out from the trunk and spread across the gallery floor. Tea and goodies are enjoyed, along with supportive kinship, while we knit crazy, gnarly roots!

Gail Anderson-Dargatz

What a treat!

Gail Anderson-Dargatz participated in our Art Gallery noon hour readings this week. She read from several of her novels (including one unedited piece from her next creation) and shared an interesting discussion on the publishing world of today. One of her novels is being transformed into a future stage production....should be interesting!