Charcoal Portrait of a Child

Hi again. It is a cool windy day here in the Annapolis Valley, refreshing after last night's rain.
At long last, I am feeling my creative connection to myself.

This drawing, Charcoal Portrait of a Child, (12"x 18") or (168cm x252cm) feels like me.

It's hard to explain how we feel connected to some work  and others feel like a sham, like we're trying too hard. I've been thinking about a lot of elements that appeal to me and how to combine them.  In this portrait, I wanted to pursue my thoughts about soft edges.

Just for fun I tinted this detail in sepia, closer to the spirit I am going for.

Bathtime for Muji after breakfast this morning.

Peace starts at home with friendship with one's self, 

but culminates by releasing the self.

Have a lovely last weekend of August. Good things are around the corner. 

But great things are happening right now.

Stately Wolfville House

On Sunday I was invited to see a beautiful old house in Wolfville, just 20 minutes down the road.
I was encouraged to bring my camera.

This is the view from the side of the house. It's around 4 in the afternoon.

I drove up a long hill of a driveway that you can see leans down to the right.

The bright sun overexposed many of my pictures of the yard.

Here is a beautiful hosta in bloom, loving the shade.

We're in the midst of cherry season here in the Annapolis Valley,

so I don't know what kind of fruit this tree bears.

A wonderful overgrown rose arbour.

We come into the kitchen from a shaded back porch.

such a simple, elegant window treatment

The door to the basement

an early 19th century English sideboard sits in the dining room

with its handcarved detail

Looking from the dining room into the parlour. 

In the hall just beyond you can see the profile of an old clock.

From the hall you can see into the library. This is the full width of the house.

Now we are in the parlour looking back into the dining room.

Now the front door that is probably rarely used .

Here is that clock that stands in the hallway.

It is late 1700's, English in origin.

carved from top to bottom with a handpainted clockface

The top half of the clock's closet bears a carving of the Bible scene,

Jacob and Esau with the Angel

Below another biblical scen

And the ornate base, a wonderful family relic

Around the corner is the library

It is a pleasant room

The old couch is reupholstered in a plum fabric with brocade of ceramic ware

a small Middle Eastern carpet at my feet

The grandmother of my host, a nurse in the British Army

more lovely old family photos

 What a fabulous family photo

 The glamorous woman on the right is Anne who reminds me of the great opera singer Maria Callas

Here's a jolly life of the party

Everybody has an uncle in the family like this, don't they?

Off of the library is an enclosed porch made into an office. 

Note the wonderfully simple mechanism to lift and lower the back of this chair

 on the bottom right.

A drafting table becomes a desk, a deco stool accompanies it.

an antique ceramic figurine made into a lamp with a paper shade

up close we see he holds an axe

Out the window we see the companion porch still open

This is how it looks and what it looks upon

We go upstairs to a very generous hall.

One of the three bathrooms, I think the simplicity of this one is my favourite

a lovely old chair in one of the other bathrooms

and an old captain's chair in one of the bedrooms

Another old carpet outside the master bedroom

my host's grandfather's army trunk at the foot of the bed

A most impressive view of Bomidon from the master bedroom's window.

Oh, I see some of the spectator's for the baseball game across the street.

The little girl's room 

and finally a picture of the little girl who once slept there.

And so closes this tour of a grand old house in Wolfville that is now on the market.

Once an opthamoligist's home, and later a B&B, this is a home with pedigree.

Hopefully someone who buys it will honour it's historical features and care for it in it's old age.

honouring the past

living the present

a Halls Harbour afternoon

A second installment today of some of the pretty sites we saw this past weekend.
Now it is Sunday's trip to Halls Harbour, a lobster town with a tourist trade and some delightful cottages. We had our picnic by the docks and watched the boats slowly raise with the incoming tide.

Looking Across the Bay of Fundy to Cape D'Or and Advocate Bay beyond.

 

Wally and I sat on the rocks above and watched a little girl intent on throwing

 stone after stone in the water

 

And there it goes!

 

Suddenly a bee landed at Wally's feet, heavy, almost drunk, with pollen,

before flying away

 

And here are a few of the lovely little cottages in the village of Halls Harbour:

Just big enough for two

 

Simplicity: an air in blue, green and lemon yellow

 

a fairy tale entrance through the hedge

 

a charming deck with the cliff that forms the harbour as a backdrop

 

some people know how to have fun!

 

But this is what it's all about

 

with just enough chairs for the 4 of us though we didn't dare

 

and off down the North Mountain on a winding trip back home

 

a romantic trailing rose bush and picket fence shadows of the late afternoon

 

this same house, a poem of olden days at the three corners in Centreville

 

a late September cornfield

 

Rolling clouds over a field of hay bales

 

angles going every which way

 

The sky continued to amaze me all the way home

 

Wally says this is the effect of the ocean which surrounds this lovely Nova Scotia

 

Today I tackle my studio in the pale greige of Painters White that I used on the upper cupboards in the kitchen. It's such a versatile colour and I have half a gallon of it left which is an amazing indication of how far it spreads when you consider I did 2 coats on both the interior and exterior of those cupboards.