wet weekend

Good Morning on a golden late summer morning. How special to be alive after a dreary wet weekend.

It was Wally's weekend to work mornings. I usually pull together a gourmet vegetarian lunch of two dishes, one of which is usually quinoa tabbouleh with mint and parsley from the garden. The other is often organic lentils and steamed veggies with more herbs from the garden. There's nothing like fresh oregano, almost spicy and so different from dried.  Then there are crudités and a dip, often guacamole and always lemon water for me, lime water for Wally. We nearly always watch a home improvement or decorating show over lunch to elevate and motivate us for the afternoon ahead. This weekend, Wally sealed and painted some more in the new sewing studio while I did the usual clean up, laundry, floors, etc. 

Afterwards we headed out to Wolfville to gather up some bathroom tile samples and do a little cut rate produce shopping. Passing by Joe's, the usual crowd of outdoor diners were hiding from the rain.

I've never been into Muddy's but must try it sometime. It looks so inviting. 

Note the 3 beige bins for recycle and garbage that are typical waste disposal here in Nova Scotia, the land of environmental concern. The red box is for mail. I'm guessing that the one to its left is for real estate advertising.

The Al Whittle Theatre puts on esoteric films and documentaries.

The Harvest Gallery has some lovely local and Canadian art and prints.

The town square is empty today. It was down this street that we had gone to The Home Hardware. Just beyond it is the Bay of Fundy.

So many of my pictures were lost from blur and windshield wipers so only a few more.

Leaving town we come upon several farm markets. This one has stood here for decades but will soon be moving to its new location in that fine red roofed building beyond that we've watched slowly go up. It's rare to see fish featured here in the land of farms even though we're so close to the ocean.

Hennigar's attracts a large crowd, especially tourists. I think this is the one place we stopped for two fresh apples when Wally brought me out here circa 2010.

  Some of the tourists are out of their minds, strung out on ice cream or something, as we almost got wiped out about a month ago by someone driving a late model SUV, full of passengers, who took a long angle run, cutting in front of us into the oncoming traffic. It was only Wally's defensive driving that saved us.  That's something I can't shake now.

Back home, the hydrangea bowed to the ground 

the mist rising in the valley beyond the hayfield

the hayfield beyond Forget-Me-Not Cabin

the mist rising, the cloud cover breaking up

the goldenrod, vetch and lupins bowed with wet, embroidered in distinctly fall colours

This morning Muji joined me in the kitchen

paw poised

for the famous

Muji High Five

"I Beseech Thee" he seems to say.

Then Babu takes his place and begins to violently rub my arm with his head and give me little kitten squeaks. My boys are hungry and so I take a break to give them their breakfast.

my try at art journaling

As you can see, I'm over a week behind in posting this. 

The featured piggy is by Golden Books artist Garth Williams, a favourite illustrator of mine. There are so many of these books still available, this one entitled Baby Farm Animals, that it doesn't hurt my feelings to vandalize it. A mixed media piece done with 3 kinds of washi tape, paint pen, mauve acylic, and India ink Pitt pen.

There is an alarming trend now to throw away books that don't sell in short time. Wally and I have rescued many old volumes that I'm convinced are the last of their kind. But it's a lost cause in this paradigm of the New. Antiques have lost value too. And old traditions and knowledge are valued by a dying breed and relatively few young un's. My sister assures me this devaluing of the past is cyclical and that, as a species, we humans seem destined to repeat, relearn and rediscover, the Renaissance a case in point. I can't help but think of all the lost profundities of all the lost cultures. 

I console myself with this paint chip collage of the 9 Buddhist Virtures

using one of the Tim Holtz cutouts I got earlier this month.

It really is only this moment.