To Malahat and back

The last few days have been a mixture of exploring, gardening and tolerating the weather.

The house I am caring for has a large garden that needed a great deal of weeding. So, since I've been here, I've weeded a day here and there and eventually filled up the wheelbarrow about four times. That's a lot of weeds! I even did a day of work in the rain, my anorak, pants, gloves and me covered with mud. The satisfaction of seeing the earth cleared of those lovely in themselves plants is great. I use a weeding session as an incentive reward for going out for a coffee.

The coffee shop I favour right now is called “Serious Coffee” an island wide chain. According to their ad “Tall, dark and have some”, it is only on the island. A locally owned and run chain. Of course there is always Starbucks. They are everywhere and here in BC they have drive-thrus. No, I always go in and sit for a while. Wifi is a big draw. My favourite so far is on on Hampton Bay road, looking in toward a lovely wooded area. A raised wooden alkwy allows a small tour through a forest with these interesting yellow lillies.

I've found areas of town that, had I no car, I would have never seen. This also offered me other opportunities to find beach access only the local residents know about. Like the one with the staircase to the sea. About 200 steps worth, but oh so rewarding to reach.

People live with this view every day! The exclamation marks are the wonder I still have at this amazing landscape that can look so different from one day to the next, depending on the weather.

I've been working on a bunch of drawings in a number of different techniques. This trip was one to help me find more of a “voice” to what I am doing. A style perhaps, maybe hoping for an epiphany as to where this art is going. I brought watercolours, pen and ink and my oil pastels. I remembered a technique I hadn't used for many years, a resist technique that looks like a woodcut when it is done just right. This landscape on the island lends itself to that, with the dramatic lighting, the large shapes and contrasts.

It's been a bit too cold and wet (most of the time) to work plein air, but I have done a few pen and inks while out. I'm hoping that it being mid May might warm up enough to sit on a log or a rock and draw for longer thn 10 minutes before becoming a block of ice.

More coffee!

There, one of each of the techniques!

I met up with a friend from my dog/horse days in a spot called Malahat. Malahat is a peak the highway crosses as it works it's way down to Victoria from Nanaimo. My friend lives west of Victoria and it seemed like an easy to find halfway point to meet for a lunch and a catch-up. A wonderful three hours of chatting. I'm still amazed at how quickly time passes as I realize that it is at least twenty years since we last saw each other. Many horses and dogs since then.

On my way down, I had stopped in Ladysmith. A charming little town. Once a mining town, but now an attractive stop in a tourist's day. A high point in town gave a view of the inlet to the sea and enormous log booms in the water. The logs were a bright yellow orange in the sun.

I was very lucky for this whole day was sunny. A first since I've been here.

The local bakery where I stopped for a snack had line-ups for an assortment of flavours of cinnamon buns that were the size of dinner plates.
Outside the window, there was not only this dog, there were two of them! In one town, not related. It's a relatively rare breed called a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retreiver.

Everyone I've met so far have been very nice, open and friendly. A very relaxed feeling to this whole island. Lovely.

Then I worked my way down to Duncan, a larger town. The whole older part of the downtown is full of totems. One very impressive wall mural. I was starting to run short on time, so I only walked around the main part of the core area and jumped back in the car, not knowing how much longer it would take to reach the Malahat restaurant.

This is the mural in a space betwen two buildings in Duncan.

Architecture from a very particular era. Nuff said!

The distance between Victoria and Nanaimo is about 110 Kms. From Duncan it was maybe another twenty minutes and I was there. Great view, again, from that height, watching and hearing eagles as they flew by.

A closer view, on the patio of the restaurant, was a hummingbird feeder that was very busy for the whole time I was there.

No, I could'nt get any pictures of the hummingbirds, only a seemingly empty feeder.

The heat of the sun on the drive back was very welcome.

The garden beckoned on my return and, because this house is a corner lot and I was working on a garden bed on that corner, I got to meet a great deal of the dog walking neighbours.

All in all, a very satisfying day.