Rose in a window

Last night as the sun was setting, the rose in a vase on my kitchen window came to vibrant life with backlighting.  I rushed for my camera to take a photo and through the viewfinder I also saw the rose's beautiful reflection.

Isn't it funny the way we often don't notice reflections--that is unless we're actually looking for them.  If you want to see photographic reflections this weekend, just head over to Newtown Area Photo for the Weekend Reflections posted there.  

Watercolour play

This past winter I did some playing around with water colours while in Mazatlan and I really got to like the medium.  Aside from one little three-hour workshop at a hotel there I'd never really painted with water colour before.  So this week I've been attending a water colour basics workshop with a very experienced Victoria painting teacher, Jim Wispinski.  He's been great at introducing us older beginners to things in a way that allows us to experiement without feeling pressured.  My sister, who is a complete painting beginner, came with me and she's also beginning to feel relaxed about playing with paint. 

It's been so much fun learning about the variety of techniques that can be used with water colour paint.  It's quite a versatile medium.  The thing I like best about it is that the painting can be reworked at any time and it doesn't require a big studio or easel.  I can paint on a little table and leave it and come back to it as many times as I want.  Now I'm going to set up my own space and start playing.  I'll even schedule it into my calendar--as "playtime."

These are just some things you can play around with using water colour paint.  And here I am posing with my table mate Lisa, perhaps the youngest person in the class.  Behind us is Jim in his Hawaiian shirt.  It was such fun spending all day at art class for the entire week.  Now I have to play catch-up with some things but it was totally worth it.

Tile design in dreamtime

As part of an upgrade to our little basement apartment, we're creating a tile backsplash in the kitchen.  We wanted to incorporate some of our Mexican tile collection into it and the bluebird tile was what we chose.  About 20 years ago we bought  three boxes of tiles in Puerto Vallarta and brought them home as excess baggage on the airplane.  Over the years we've used them in kitchens, bathrooms, for tables and trivets and gifts--but we still have some left.

The top photo shows the first cut at the backsplash design that I pulled together in the tile store.  I found some tiles the same size and thickness as the Mexican tile and created a little pattern that would allow me to use the 14 bluebirds.  It looked great in the store and so I bought a supply and brought them home. 

The other day I set the tiles and it quickly became obvious that it was too busy for a backsplash in the tiny kitchen.  The first design element to go was the bluebird.  We set the rest of the tiles and went to bed.  The next day I awoke from an unsettling dream.  In the dream I was showing the backsplash to my friend Patricia who is a real estate agent.  Her response was an immediate shake of the head.  "Too much," is what she said. "It looks like a circus."

All morning I kept trying to make the design OK in my mind but it wasn't working.  The deep red tiles were overpowering the other colours and it was too much like....well, like a circus.  So we pried out all the red tiles and replaced them with the yellow ones.  And this is the result.  We still have to grout the tiles and finish them off but I really like it. It works with the blue counter top and is cheery and warm without being too strong. 

I think it was the dream that allowed me to make the final change of taking out the red tiles. Isn't it interesting how designs evolve?  Sometimes the decisions are conscious and sometimes they come in other ways.  I'm amazed at how often my night time ideas guide my day time activities.

Does this ever happen to you?

Solstice snow

Here we are at the summer solstice and there's fresh snow on the mountains!  These are the mountains on the Olympic Peninsula across the Strait of Juan de Fuca seen from a neighbourhood in Victoria taken on the morning of June 21st.

And we hear that they have actually opened our Vancouver Island ski area for the Fathers' Day weekend.  It's been so cold that there's been very little snow melt and new snow to boot.  What kind of spring is this?  Cold!  That's what.  We still have our heat on here from time to time.

Meanwhile I'm reading about hot weather on blogs from all over the south and the east of both Canada and the USA.  Perhaps it will come to Vancouver Island soon.  In fact, the sun came out last night as we walked the dogs past our neighbour's garden.


And today it's a sunny day with the promise of a little warmth.  Plus--the hummingbirds have returned to the pedestrian feeder.  All's well with the world.  I'm off to a water colour workshop with my sister.  I'll tell you about it soon.

Hummingbird preferences

Wouldn't you think that the dear little hummingbirds would like this feeder better than the ugly generic red plastic one they've been sipping at for the past couple of months?  We thought they would, and we were thrilled to find something pretty to hang in our kitchen window. But it appears that this new feeder doesn't meet the exacting requirements of Pheobe and Rufus (the names we've given to the hummingbird pair that live in our plum tree).

They've been coming dozens of times a day recently and we've so enjoyed watching them, but since we put up the new blown glass feeder with the glass tube inserts they've completely boycotted their feeding station. So after two days we succumbed and replaced the old plastic feeder.  We certainly don't want them going hungry.  But it doesn't say much for hummingbird esthetics.

Perhaps there's something going on here that we don't know about.  Does anyone know if there's some kind of transferring technique for new hummingbird feeders?

Fathers day ramble

We headed out to the woods today with the dogs for a little get-away.  The ferns in this little patch of forest were astounding.

This is a park at Shawnigan Lake with old growth cedars and a shore where the dogs can swim.  They had a great time running around playing with sticks.  And we enjoyed a leisurely lunch in a little out-of-the way restaurant in a converted church nearby. 

On the way back we shopped for another tree for the front yard--a father's day gift that will just keep on giving.  I'm looking for a Cornus Florida Rubra, otherwise known as Pink Dogwood, to fill an empty spot in the front yard.  This little flower was plucked from a lovely specimen in front of Home Depot, however sadly they didn't have any for sale.  Now the search is on.  I do hope that we can find one somewhere to plant this year.  Isn't that the prettiest pink?