Now spring's really arrived

I can't believe that it's been more than six weeks since I posted here. It's the longest gap I've had since I began this blog in 2009. And I don't really have an excuse because "I'm busy" just doesn't cut it when you're retired. I was sick with the flu for a while but that doesn't really cut it either.Nevertheless I've been doing a lot of things and here I am to catch you up on some of them.

Here's a photo of our street taken today while we were out walking Miss Sophie, who is our dear departed Geordie's littermate. We've been taking care of her for a bit while her "people" are visiting Mazatlan.

And here's Sophie up on Knockan Hill enjoying the wildflowers with Harry and my sister. You can't really see her that much. She's the black dot in the background.  The Camas is blooming all over Victoria's Gary Oak meadows and it's just so so beautiful.

Here are a few more flowery photos for your spring enjoyment. The flowering cherries and plums are almost finished. Note the "pink snow" along the edge of the sidewalk.

And here's an amazing arbour supporting Lilac, Clematis and Wisteria. We pass this on our walk to the grocery store. I don't know what the orange flowers are but I think they add to the overall effect.

So what else have we been doing? Well we got rid of our sofa bed in the den and replaced it with a Murphy bed. It makes the room really usable as a dining room, which we totally lacked.  Plus it's a lot nicer for our guests sleeping.  It pulls out from the wall already made up as a double bed. Cool eh?

I've been doing some painting and took part in a show at a local care home. It was an opportunity for me to figure out how to display my work. I found some old bi-fold doors and painted them and stood them up as display racks.  Here's what they looked like:



I made some cards from a few paintings as well. I didn't sell much but it was fun, and a good preparation for the Fernwood Art Stroll, which I'll be doing in June.

Recently I started painting with a friend at her house on Mondays and it's re-energized my work. I was getting kind of bored with the work I'd been doing and have now taken off in a new direction. I've always admired whimsical work so I've launched myself into another approach.

Here are the first two paintings I'm working on. They're somewhat different from the geometric stuff I'd been doing before.






So that's a bit of what I've been doing. Now that spring is really here we're looking forward to some warm summery weather so we can get the deck and garden area in the back ready for some socializing.