melanoma

Absolutely worth watching and sharing.....please pass it on.

Oh what a beautiful morning....

Oh what a beautiful day! I've got a day off but not really. Just a day away from the market. Tons to do today but the sunshine and birdsong make it all easier. The birds are going crazy with all their chirping and trilling and general chattering. I think they are happy too!

Started the day with a cup of tea out on my deck! Outside!!!! You'd think we've not seen the sun for a month. lol. Anyway, I'd best get on with it. See you later...

The Seaport Farmers Market has a new blog! Pop over and check it out!

eye see you

Isn't this wild and creative? A girl I met at the barbeque last week had the most extraordinary eye make up. She experiments daily with a new look. This one took about 25 minutes . I don't know if you can tell but her lower lashes have green mascara and uppers have blue! I HAD to take a picture and share it with you.

Great way to spend a day

This Monday on Victoria Day, I took my daughter and Daina, to this place.

A trailhead near Prospect. With such amazing stunted and resilient trees

overlooking this

and this...

on our way to to these.....

and these...and planked salmon, pulled pork, hot dogs and hamburgers and salads galore. The traditional Victoria Day barbeque.

Hosted by chef extraordinaire Jenna and look what she made for Daina's birthday! A giant cupcake cake!
We proceeded to have much fun and laughter. There were a lot of people but you would never know from my pictures:)

And we ended the day down by the water. Ahhhh, first campfire of the season

Waiting for sunshine

Spring is desperately trying. It will not be stopped. I was listening to the weather forecaster the other day and she was saying that the amount of rain we have had is typical for May (23 days or so). What has been atypical and what makes it seem like we've had much more is the lack of sun. Ususally 26 days of sun in May. We've had 7 or 6!! I've been taking extra vitamin D for my sunshine. Friday it is supposed to be sunny, keep your fingers crossed:)

Sailing, sailing...

Sunset Sail... 8 x 10 available on eBay. PRINT available here.

More Mahone....

Isn't this a great idea. Saw it in Mahone Bay. No reason for those of you with only balconies not to have fresh salad greens. So last time I left you, we were just about to have lunch. Well, here it is, we had avocado melts! So good.

We had popped in to Mahone Bay to check out Trilogy Gallery, another place I have a few paintings. I noticed that they had an American flag flying outside. How strange I thought, why no Canadian flag too?

I soon noticed other other odd things too. Different newspapers.

A new Dairy Bar sign

And then... some of Haven's finest. Yes, Mahone Bay had been transformed into the spooky and beautiful American town of Haven for the day. So cool to see:) ( you can watch it here)

We carried on our way and had a fun poke about the town. It is such a lovely place to walk around and lots of cool wee shops to visit. These are the three famous churches all side by side. You can just barely see the third one on the right.

So wonderful to see Spring busting out all over.

By the time we came back, look what greeted us! The crew had changed locations and cleared the side street of cars except for one. Can you guess whose car it was and how relieved they were to see us? lol.



PS. Hi Susan!!! Lovely to meet you:) Mlou you too.

Beautiful day

Hooray! The sun was out yesterday and it was wonderful!Perfect day to drive to Lunenburg to drop off some work. Here are some of my paintings on the wall at Witherstone Gallery. Right next to Daina's lovely surf art.

There will be a meet and greet with the artists here next Saturday, May 28 from 1-5. I love the ecelectic mix of goodies in this shop.

And then we went to Mahone Bay for lunch! It was heaven. I'll post about that later:)

Summer Dreams...

I love this new painting.... 11 x 14. Summer Dreams. Headed to the Witherstone Gallery in Lunenburg.

Catch up day

Halifax Public Gardens in May.......at least things are getting green despite no sunlight. Hope to see some on Thursday for the day, fingers crossed:) and then rain again. Thankful we are not getting the flooding like some areas, wild fires raging out of control and tornadoes, so just rain rain is fine. Actually it looks soft and pretty out there with the fog just now.
Home today and facing a neglected house that needs a full frontal atttack and a lovely painting that needs finishing. I really like this painting. Will show you as soon as it is finished:)

Monday~

Here's a real Maritimey scene! Finished this last week. Just a small one 8 x 10. Not sure where the original will sell yet. I'm selling prints of it at the market.

"Holy Soggy Toast Batman!" It is still raining. Remarkable really. I don't think I've ever lived through such a long string of grey and wet days. Feeling bad for the farmers. Grateful that we are not in danger of the terrible flooding some places are experiencing and in others, drought and raging fires. Tumultuous times.

I'm at the Market again today. Should be a really quiet one. The Market has to be open every time a cruise ship arrives as part of it's lease with the Halifax Seaport. I am lucky because I can work away with my paints, almost like a studio away from home. Last week I met some folk from Colorado and South Carolina. The ship docks at 8 and is off by 4 so the passengers only have a few hours to visit the city or go on tours. Most of them dawdle through the building on their way back, just before the boat leaves. Wish it was a nicer day for them, hope they brought their rubber boots.

PS. Happy Birthday to a lovely friend of mine!

cat nap

Monty, sound asleep! Really!! He was lying in front of a heater and my daughter pulled him onto her lap and then slowly laid back. He stayed there. It was so funny! Here is another angle, you can see the contentment on his face. Silly cat!

17 Reasons Why Rain is a Good Thing:)

Perfect day for hanging out in a cafe. Rain, rain, rain......we've had a lot of it lately:)

1. Cleans the dust and grime off your car, saving you a car wash
2. Makes the lawn green
3. Nice and soothing to listen to as you fall asleep
4. Keeps wells from going dry
5. Makes it easier to get things done inside, no lusting for outside time
6. Puts out forest fires
7. You can wear red rubber boots
8. Gives water to wildlife
9. Waters crops
10. Great day to see movies or hang in a cafe or bookstore
11. Cools the air if it is warm
12. Fun to stick out your tongue and catch some drops
13. You get to open your umbrella
14. Less risk of skin cancer
15. Give us puddles to jump in
16. "Singing in the Rain" would not exist.
17. Really makes you appreciate the sunshine when it arrives:)

Do you have any to add?

*Here is a funny addition from a reader:*

Lynda said: "It lets embarass my sons by wearing one of my collection of bright pink raincoats when I pick them up from school!"

Surprise visit

On Friday, after my workshop at the school, the sun was out, the the wind was salty brisk and it was altogether much too gorgeous a day to head back home right away so I decided to pop in and visit Jenna!

Jenna is the mastermind (chef) behind Little Red Kitsch'n. She lives in a sweet 100 year old house that used to be her grandmother's, in a charming wee village called Prospect.

She was hard at work preparing goodies for the Saturday market and I happily had some fun snapping some pics of her kitchen while she worked and we chatted. Aren't these storage containers fun?

She was making gyoza, little Japanese potstickers. Part of a 'mix and match' take home meal she was putting together for the weekend market. I was mesmerized watching these little parcels get folded , over and over...

I'm a sucker for hand written recipes. This was pinned on a little corkboard.

And check THIS out. The dark blue? That is the ocean!!! Right out her kitchen window! What a spot.

I'm actually going to do a proper write up on Jenna soon (She's a Cordon Blue trained chef) and she will be sharing one of her recipes. Should be fun. She also has a facebook page.

Mother's Day

May all mothers today have a peaceful and love filled day and may all of you who are not mums, have a peaceful and love filled day too! We need them. This was what I saw leaving my house for the market yesterday morning! Golden skies.

Painting Workshop

Just as I arrived at tiny Terrence Bay School to lead the workshop, the sun popped out from the clouds! Hooray. This is the classroom before we started, nice and tidy! Didn't last long, lol.

The children were in grades two and three. We were all going to paint seagulls but some wanted to paint cats after seeing some of my work, so that's what we did, cats and seagulls!

First they sketched and then they started to paint on canvas.

I loved all the different skies they decided to paint. Actiually I loved EVERYTHING they painted! This wee chap wanted a sunset.

Most of the class did seagulls. Terrence Bay is a small community surrounded by the ocean, so there are LOTS of gulls. Only a few really wanted cats, so that was just dandy too.

I was very impressed with the patience and diligence these students displayed. Such great little artists!

Tah dah!

Here are two more:) It was terrific fun and I'd be happy to do it again.

It was so lovely to come outside and greet the sun and wind and salty air! We have had a long stretch of rain here and sadly tomorrow I think it is going to start again.