 My very first Saskatoon jelly - created from our very own berries! The very best, most productive bushes grow on our own lot on Fraser Lake and most of the berries - well, at least half - came from one stellar bush. There is indeed honey around and I've made it a habit to buy some from a Vanderhoof vendor at the Farmer's Market every Friday here. They feature at least 8 different flavours and so far I've purchased regular, orange infused and peppermint. Pure loveliness... 
See those berries? Pretty impressive for a wild shrub. I've been imagining all the produce I could uh...produce... in strategic containers around the lot once we're living on site. Don't want to engage in any full scale agricultural endeavors but any efforts should prove more than worthwhile.  These here are the little gals who make it all happen. Bees upon bees - literally - I actually saw bees landing on their fellow workers. It was an incredibly encouraging sight following months of articles describing the collapse and decimation of hives around the world. Can't help but get a feeling of warmth and security knowing that we have landed in the midst of such teeming life and abundance.
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Onto a fresh chapter- The old life isn't quite gone, there are still tasks to complete from my sojourn in Kitimat but the new is taking hold, though to a degree I'm drifting in limbo, not quite fastened to anything tangible just yet. I've been taking lots of photos and the most interesting subjects so far are dead things. And that's okay. Inanimate creatures are far more accommodating than live ones and the compositions often more interesting. I like this one above, as a tonal study with yellow accents; very spare and graphically appealing...to my sensibilities, anyway. We currently reside right in the town of Fraser Lake, one block from an extensive network of trails around and up Mouse Mountain. It's a mere 100 meters in height so is a paltry substitute for the majestic mile high Mount Elizabeth that presided over every view in Kitimat and that I'm still reproducing for commissions. She's a grand mountain... but Mouse Mountain is close and blocks the morning sun till after 7a.m. so provides relief in addition to being a wee geographic feature. 
What Fraser Lake really has to offer is sky - full of wonderful cloud formation, dramatic light and amazing sunsets. Last summer, when panicked at the thought of abandoning moss, fern, mountain and temperate forest, I spotted a glorious sky: cloud towered against an evening light that sent beams piercing through to fields below, power poles and lines silhouetted in contrast. So - when Kitimat scenes are completed I will have clouds...clouds presiding over the most mundane, even drab or tawdry locations that I can find.
Because that amuses me. |
Author: Eileen Hutson'You need the dark to see the light'. Advice picked up in painting workshops has become a treasured mantra in both life and art. Archives
January 2015
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