Up at the top of Brown Ridge, Saturna Island

This is the view from the front of the cabin at Brown Ridge. 

These are other views throughout the day.

Morning walk with the dog in the field behind the barn. The fox gloves were in full bloom.

Mid-afternoon looking towards Pender Island and a freighter in the channel.

Another mid-afternoon walk with the dog. (Amy was in heaven.)

Below are some photos from an evening walk.

Looking west down the channel.

The cabin sits at about 900 feet above the water.

Fading light on the water below and a final view of the blooming fox gloves.

Saturna, East Point and farm dogs

We spent the past couple of days on Saturna Island with our friends Ry and Kallayanee and their sweet Border Collie pup Amy. This is Kallayanee and me at East Point, one of Saturna's most beautiful spots.  

Ry and Kallayanee got their pup Amy from Saltspring Island last year and shortly after that we discovered that she was fathered by a wonderful dog owned by my cousin Jacques Campbell, who farms sheep on Saturna Island.                                                                              Here are Harry and Kallayanee and I, together  with darling Amy, now just over a year old.

Ry and Kallayanee wanted Amy to meet her father and also her littermate Delta, who is now Jacques' best sheepherding dog. So we took the early morning ferry to Saturna and drove down to the farm to meet the pack.  It was wonderful. All of Jacques' four dogs were welcoming to Amy, but it was magical to see Delta greet Amy (his sister) and initiate play. They ran and played and wrestled together for a good hour. Clearly they recognized each other and interacted like puppies. On the right is Delta, Amy's sister.  He's just as sweet as she is.

I thought you might also like to see this horse, whose name (I think) is Raymond. What a handsome dude.

We spent a couple of lovely days up on the ridge, interspersed with a visit to the beach and lighthouse at East Point.  Amy spent a lot of time chasing sticks into the water and swimming back to shore with them. She really reminded me of my dear departed Maggie.  The same drive and energy especially when swimming.

Here are a couple more photos from East Point. It was a beautiful afternoon--and a peaceful couple of days away.

Purple cauliflower

Found these two images in my photos the other day. I love them so much that I'm considering doing a little watercolour of one or the other.




The Fernwood Art Stroll was a big success.  Lots of people came by to visit, the weather cooperated and I made some sales.  Someone wants to buy one of my larger pieces and I am reluctantly agreeing.

I'm conflicted because this painting has been on my kitchen wall in a vertical orientation for over a year and I recently moved it into the bedroom placed horizontally. Its creation was a breakthrough of sorts for me, evolving into a different style of work. But I am happy that it will be going out into the world.

A bit more France

We've been home more than three weeks now but our trip to France still resonates with us. Just the other day I managed to get some of the photos off of my new camera. It's a Canon G7X and is designed to send the images to a computer via email. I've now discovered that it works only with PCs so I found another way--the good old SD card reader.  Anyway....  here are a few photos taken on our trip that I thought I'd share.

These first ones are from walks we took around Bellegarde, just outside of Albi on a couple of evenings. At that time the bright yellow mustard was in bloom and dominating the landscape.

This exemplifies rural France.  So beautiful.

This next group focuses on the lovely Canal Robine in Narbonne, which we walked along and cycled along while we stayed there.  Such a lovely spot.

These plane trees lined many paths and roadways, always beautiful.