I’ve done it. Twice. Fallen prey to the advertising efforts of two family search companies.  Who can blame me? I know almost nothing about my father’s side of the family as my only surviving relatives are my sister and an older cousin. My goal was to build a family tree in order to discover if…

Elephants Watercolour on Arches 300# paper Unframed size: 16×20 Painted with techniques learned in class with Lian Quan Zhen This is the painting I was working on in my last post, while sitting by the pool in California. I hadn’t thought about getting it home, but luckily it fit in my suitcase sandwiched between two…

After our recent family sadness,  Christmas in the desert gave us time for much needed R&R. We made no advance plans allowing each day to unfold. Our first sunrise promised sunshine and warmth. Down time for me, meant plenty of opportunities for artwork. I was able to take in a class with my favourite local award…

A tiny pink knit hat has a place of honour on our tree in memory of baby Sage.  Parents M and KC, our daughter and SIL, lost their little girl at 21 weeks gestation at the beginning of the month. There are so many words to describe this time in our lives,  but I’ll leave…

Not your typical cake story, this one has solid history and there is an effort afoot to preserve its legacy. It has all the elements of a page turner: tragedy, hope, love, survival  and an eye to the future.  This story starts with Alex Buckman, the president of Vancouver Child Survivors of the Holocaust. In…

This past spring, when I had professional prints made of the dog portrait I painted for my sister, there was a free pile outside the photo shop. “Thrifting” is another enjoyable non-lethal hunting behaviour for us right up there with mushrooming and geocaching. C views  everything through his “what can I do with this?” filter,…

Aside from fall’s foliage, it’s been an exceptionally colourful month here. I think I crave colour in preparation for the long Pacific Northwest season of foggy greeny greys. C finished another piece of garden art. Initially I thought it was responsible for this magnificent afternoon rainbow cast upon our rock wall.  In fact, that spectrum…

For me anyway. I got brave and participated in the big fall art show, featuring 60 artists, sponsored by the local guild. It involved a lot of preparation and I was pleased with the results having sold five paintings and lots of 5×7 cards, prints of my paintings.    Now that I know the ropes,…

Should have said fungi, as it sounds far more culinarily acceptable. In our most recent foray into foraging we hit the jackpot. We found six edibles, consuming four of them. The two rejects included one whose flavour is described in the field guide as “insipid” and the other requiring finicky cleaning.   The winners were,…

Last week’s post was absent while we camped on the Oregon and Washington Coast, passing through places whose names conjure up tough times on the foggy, rocky sea: Dismal Nitch, Cape Disappointment, Heartbreak Trail, Deception Pass and a ray of hope at Never Give Up Road. Geocaching at the 1906 wreck of the four masted…