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I love the changing of the seasons, and especially the summer solstice. Today it seems particularly appropriate to be in the first day of summer as the temperature has finally climbed to 23 degrees (Celsius, that is) after the coldest spring ever on record in Vancouver. And I've been here for every day of it--I arrived home from Australia on March 21 and it seems like spring (or was that winter?) went on and on for the last 3 months!

Not to worry, I'm sure we'll soon get enough warmth to melt all that snow on the local mountains so we can get up and start on our elevation training for climbing Mount Kilimanjero next year, about this time. We've tried a couple of times to get some thigh-burning hikes going but have mostly had to confine our efforts to the lower elevations, and work on building our endurance. A cousin from Calgary is going to take us up a higher climb near Field, in the BC Rockies, at the end of July so that's another exciting event to train for. Since he's climbed 5 peaks over 10,000 ft in the Rockies I know he's got the legs for that hike--a good thing since don't you think the guide should be fitter than the rest?

Meanwhile I've been doing lots of painting, mostly of flowers, since they are out in full force in my garden at the moment. My Korean lilac has the most wonderful scent, and is a little later than the typical lilacs, so I'm loving being out on the patio, painting to the smell of it drifting in the air. My iris are almost finished but they had a spot, and the bachelor buttons were the first to really spring out and cry for a bigger audience. Meanwhile I seem to be having technical difficulties with my scanner, and getting photos onto this blog, so I'll leave you with a nice little ink sketch of a massive gum tree.

I've had some company--wonderful cousins of my father's from Bournemouth, UK, and we had a lot of fun exploring the beauty of the area around Vancouver. Whistler/Blackcomb was exciting--the first time for them on a chairlift, and for me on the new Peak 2 Peak gondola. There was so much snow at the top of Blackcomb (6200 ft) that we were all bundled up like eskimos. Lucky too--we saw some pretty cold people in shorts coming back down the chairs looking miserable! We also had a beautiful day on the ferry going to Victoria, on Vancouver Island, and I got some shots of the Empress and the BC Legislature buildings, as well as Craigdarroch "Castle" to try with ink and watercolour. Unfortunately we didn't see any orcas on the ferry like I had the last time I was coming back--they can put on quite a show. The Brits had to make do with some close-up encounters with bears and deer, and interestingly enough on the last afternoon we spotted 3 beavers in the Fraser River near the airport. A great symbol of Canada and surprising--and lovely-- to see them in tidal waters.

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This lovely scene is at Porteau Cove, on the way to Whistler, along Howe Sound.

On the art front, I'm getting ready for my next show, Gallery in the Garden, at Wellbrook Winery in Ladner on Sunday July 10, 2011. That's not far off now! You're invited, and feel free to bring guests--10 am to 4 pm. The address is 4626 88th Street, Delta. It looks like my sole show until November, and it's fun to have my first show in a winery coming up! Maybe a symbol of more to come...I hear Wellbrook does fabulous fruit wines--especially blueberry. You (& I) might have to try some!

Stay tuned for more pix, and the e-vite (if you're on my email list!). Sometimes the most frustrating thing about being an artist is when technology doesn't work for you. Of course, there's always that time when the painting doesn't turn out like you hoped...but I've got a new plan for that. I want to do some collages and so I have some room for little bits of paintings that don't work as a whole, but I can incorporate into a better one! Apparently that's how Toni Onley (the late, well-known West Coast artist) started to get famous in the 1960s--he tore up lots of his paintings he didn't like, threw them on the floor, and then when he looked over got interested in the patterns they created so picked them all up & made collages of them! Bet you didn't know that fact, eh?