Dec 4 2011-
Well the snow is all gone we actually had two days last week that were over 15 C.... 58 - 60 F... I'll take that in late Nov early Dec! Yesterday I went to the St Andrews craft sale... I go every year to get mince meat and jam from one woman... she wasn't there!... so I came home in disgust without buying anything!...
WHile we were watching "War of the Worlds" on TV last night .. (really bad movie & I think the stupid network cut off the ending!) Gord announced that in 4 weeks we would be sitting down to our 7 course New Years dinner... most people count down to Christmas...
Europa Inn in St Andrew's Since we stay the night we don't have to worry about driving home with the drunks either!... We just walk up stairs to our room!
Nov 25 2011-
Yes I'm still here.... It's one of those catch 22 things.. the longer I procrastinate over updating the harder it becomes to actually do it! Happy belated American Thanksgiving to any Americans who lost their way and ended up here... The weather gods were very mean to us and dumped over 10 inches of snow on us on Wednesday... yes it will melt but winter isn't suppose to start here until early January and should be over by mid feb... I don't do winter in November! So we spent American Thanksgiving shoveling SNOW!
Where have I been for the last 3 months... Well...
Gord & I spent a month in Spain... we were suppose to fly to Barcelona the day after Air Canada was threatening to go on strike so we left two days early and went via Munich... The free coffee in the Munich airport was a nice touch! That's as far as we got in Munich!
The extra two nights were spent in a hideously expensive down town Barcelona hotel....as it was a festival weekend and everything resonably priced was full... Afterthe first two nights we moved to our 'beach-front' Hotel... OK there were no buildings between us and the beach but there were about 20 lanes of traffic!
We never did swim in Barcelona, although we did walk along the beach the day we moved hotels as the weather was less than pleasant and everything was closed as it was some weird Barcelona festival day... hence the really expensive hotels!
We walked miles in Barcelona & checked out lots of outdoor restaurants...
Gord doing what he does best ... when we're traveling!
Barcelona has some great architecture and a wonderful subway system! No pictures... but the subways come every 3 minutes!
Casa Batllo one of Antoni Gaudí's architectural 'wonders'
Sagrada Familia ... this church has been under construction for over 100 years & is still far from finished!
After a week in Barcelona we flew to Menorca... we spent a couple of nights in Mahon prior to boarding our sail boat... we had a bare boat rental for a week... that allows you to circum-navigate Menorca in a very leisurely fashion.
'First Lesson' not sure that's a very inspiring name for a boat!
We actually had to come back to port a day early as 'Tramuntana' blew in ...
An interesting variation on a compass rose... All the nasty winds that you get in the Mediteranean.
The bus system in Menorca was very cheap and since it's a relatively small island we spent our last day on the beach at Cala'n Porter think there was about 200 steps down to the beach from street level!
Advantages to being off season.. you can see the beach!
The harbor in Fornells ...one of the quaint little fishing villages on Menorca
The hardest thing to get used to in Spain was the stores closing from 2 - 5 every day and then restaurants closing from about 3 pm to 8 pm.... I really like eating super before 8 pm.
From Menorca we flew to Mallorca where we stayed in a gorgeous beachfront hotel... The Punta Negra...
My favorite beach... The hotel had two beaches... this one was rocky so most of the people ignored it, even though it was prettier and I think the water was warmer as it was so sheltered!
On the headland between the two beaches...
The hotel has beautiful gardens and yes we did swim there! The capital city Palma was extremely crowded ... So to entertain ourselves we rented a motor bike and spent one day checking out some very narrow twisty little roads on the North Coast in the mountains... much more fun than playing tourist in Palma! We spent our last 3 nights back on the mainland just outside of Barcelona ... we were back near the beach but the weather had cooled off enough that it wasn't really beach weather anymore....
We were only home for 10 days before we flew South to FL, I had signed up for a workshop at Rocio's.... The day after we left here, there was actually a really early season snow storm, but since we missed it, I'm ignoring that it ever occured! Actually I'm not sure there was much snow here, I think all we got was wind!
IN Florida we spent the first couple of nights on Ormand Beach just North of Daytona.... The weather was much too windy to actually go in the water... so we walked miles on the beach....
THen we moved South to Cocoa while I was at the workshop Gord entertained himself by flying kites and watching a conveniently timed air show.... The class was wonderful, Claudia Trimbur-Pagel... but We've been home now for 10 days....
August 21 2011-
Inspite of the incessant fog and rain that we've got recently the gallery has picked up... maybe because it is to crappy to do anything else? I got a notice in the mail this week about a gallery show in Saskatchewan called 'Treasures, from the private Collections of Saskatchewan Fine Art Patrons', I left Saskatchewn 10 years ago and therefore was quite surprised/honored to realize that I was included in the show... I think there is 51 pieces, it was curated by the Saskatchewan Craft Council.
I hope that this link continues to work! My piece is on page 7, the blue black and clear 'untitled' plate.
For excitement this week we went out for dinner in Eastport... I walked on the ferry at 5 pm at Deer Island Point and got there at 4:30 gotta like that! Eastport now was Third Friday artwalk during the summer months so we checked out all the galleries before going out for dinner at the Pickled Herring. Dinner was great however the fog rolled in about the time I left Deer Island so instead of sailing home Firday night we slept on board the Sail Boat Money Pit and I came home on the first ferry Saturday morning. When Gord phoned in to clear customs the woman wanted to know why I didn't sail with him... she couldn't figure out that some people have to work!
August 7 2011-
Yes I'm still here... My brief gallery season is half over and the kids in some of the southern US states are already back in school!
What's my excuse for not posting here...
1 Uploading pictures is a pain!
2 My email associated with this webiste crashed and burned a couple of months ago... so I have no reason to spend the 5 minutes it takes to get through the security to get here
more people are using blogger or similar sites.. I set one up 2 years ago and keeping up 2 blogs is too much like real work.... http://www.islandgirlsinsights.blogspot.com/
enough with the excuses....
The gallery has been really slow... not sure if it's the high Canadian $ (which actually tanked this week...) or the high price of gas which keeps going up and up and up, or the nesting instinct that we are all suppose to be getting....
Exciting things that have happened since the end of June.... We get all our utilty bills by EPOST... Saint John Energy couldn't get their EPOST to work late last month so they decided to have their computer print and mail everyone their bills... BUT the computer didn't send people their current bills they sent out the first bill on everyones account.. so we got a bill for May 2005... You should have heard GOrd muttering.. I'm not paying that etc etc... meanwhile I found that bill and the one showing that we had paid it in a file ... I wonder how many people didn't notice the date and just paid the bills! Actually the 2005 bill was only $54 the EPOST bill we didn't get was $113....
I actually spent parts of both Tuesday and Thursday on the mainland this week... Tuesday I walked on the ferry to Eastport.. It was a cold nasty miserable day and I just about froze.... But, the gallery I sell through in Eastport 'The COmmons' is being featured in a Portland ME magazine in Sept...and the Magazine wanted a picture of all of the artists! Our emails said the picture would be taken between 12:00 and 1:00; well they started setting up the picture at about 12:10 and everytime the poor photographer had everyone in view someone else would walk in.... Finally he took the picture at 12:35 and anyone who walked in after that had their picture taken individually and they were going to be photoshoped ono the edge.... I can just imagine what the picture would look like if I did something like that!
Thursday I went to St Andrew's and this time was totally overdressed as the sun burned through the clouds and the day turned out to be hot and steamy!
Today it can't make up it's mind if it's going to be foggy or sunny!
June 25 2011-
Better... twice in one month! Today is a nasty cool windy day... It's suppose to rain but so far all we've got is 2 mm!
Since my husband decided that my updates are actually RANTS when he set up this website almost 6 years ago... Today you are going to get your rant!
Canada POST needs to be legislated back to work TODAY NOW!!!!!
I don't care about all the stalling tactics that the NDP have available to them!
Small businesses who rely on Canada Post to exist are constituents too... think about us... What percentage of the population are Union employees? Bet it's significantly less than 50% of the people who are eligible to vote! Aren't MP's supposed to represent the people that voted them into power, not waste our tax payer $'s by stalling a bill? Represent us and legislate Canada Post back to work! We need our mail service back, today ... NOW!!
The US mail is an essential service! Why isn't Canada Post an essential Service? Where I live Fed Ex is delivered by Canada Post and UPS is delivered by Purolator... How many of you realize that 91% of Purolator is owned by Canada Post? So they aren't working either!
I decide to go to St Andrew's on Thursday morning... The highway from the border to Saint John is being rebuilt as a 4 lane highway and a major bridge is going in just this side of the St Andrew's turn off. They are using the current highway to move the bridge girders... I got stuck in the line up on the way to SA... Turned off my engine but left the radio playing.... 20 minutes later when the traffic started to move again my car wouldn't start... the guy behind me helped push the car onto the shoulder .... Traffic through the construction zone was still only one lane, so every time it stopped I solicited the lineup for booster cables! Yes I found somebody who boosted my car .. My trip to SA took 110 minutes instead of the normal 60... and I think I may finally have embarrassed myself into buying a new battery! It was bad enough when I left my lights on, on the ferry in April and the ferry crew had to boost me but ... getting stuck on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere... At least it was a nice day! Thank you to all the Good Samaritans who helped!
Thursday was day one for the gallery being open daily this summer.. If your in the area come and visit me on Deer Island... the ferry to the mainland is FREE!
June 8 2011-
I think my website is feeling unloved! Yes I've been away but only for 4 weeks not 2 months.... Where did we/I go during our 31 day 9,600 mile trip... South through the outer banks, then South west to New Orleans, then Galveston Island... ( yea we have a thing about Islands!... however Galveston has a causeway so not really an island anymore!) Then we detoured around San Antonio and Houston, but actually stopped in El Paso and wandered around for a few hours even though it was almost 100 degrees... we were there on a monday.. not a good day to be a tourist in Texas! Then West again to Jerome and Sedona... We did stay at the Grand Hotel in Jerome but didn't take a ghost tour! The weather cooled off big time when we hit Sedona, temps were 20 degrees below normal! Since we had the truck we did the Pink Jeep Tours in a green truck.... Glad we hadn't picked up the boxes of China before we did those roads!.... North through Utah and Montana to Alberta... 5 day break in Edmonton for my parents 65th wedding anniversary... In spite of frost warnings and wind and rain the day of the party was lovely! I spent one days sorting through the storage room in my parents condo finding all the treasures that I'd earmarked for me when I was in Edmonton last October.... Yes I managed to fill the truck.. (no problem!) On Monday May 30th we left Edmonton and dropped my son off in Saskatoon.. then we headed east to Toronto.... very boring trip! One night in Toronto to visit Gord's son and pick up some glass...then HOME to 10 inch grass and weeds! Lucky we had a few nice days when we first go home .... the lawn is very happy at the moment since we've just had 4 days of rain... I will be opening the gallery more than by chance sometime next week... Last year I think I was open over 100 days straight ...
April 7 2011-
The weather man gave most of the East Coast a nasty April Fools gift.. in our case 8 -12 inches of sloppy wet snow... Tuesday April 5 we got a bunch of rain so the snow is mostly gone! G spent last weekend curling in a bonspiel in St Andrews... I was going to go watch Friday night but the weather was so bad that I stayed home... Saturday there was an indoor farmers market which I didn't go to because the weather was so bad.... Sunday I did go watch his last game ... it was the B final.. I'm glad they lost it! The jacket he won loosing was much nicer than the one that the winners of the B event won! The bonspiel was sponsored by MooseHead Beer a NB Beer company...! The winner's jackets advertised Alpine Beer which I think has to be just about the worst Canadian beer that I have ever drunk!
I have a number of theories on why it snowed....
#1 My husband put his summer tires on last Tuesday without checking the weather forecast!
#2 I pronounced to the world last Monday that I was not going to wear shoes and socks again this spring/summer (I lied!)....
My croci didn't suffer from the snow... but the deer ate a clump of my day lilies... have to see if they come back!...& My climbing honeysuckle has leaves
Diner at NBCC was wonderful.. No-one and Nothing was Flambéed ... which is a pity... the flames added to the dining experience... but then I guess I'm rather partial to flames!
Guess what you see in html is not what you get when it comes to FLAMBE!
March 30 2011-
Happy Birthday to my husband Gord! Tonight we are going to NBCC for dinner, the students in the hospitality section of the college do practice dinners on the public every year... the students cook and serve.. we have been going for at least 6 years. It's usually very good, last year we didn't get our FLAMBÉ dessert as one of the students tried to burn up an instructor the week before we were due to go... will see if the flames are back in the dining room tonight!
I bought Gord a Kobo which is our local book-store chains answer to the Kindle... The library system supports Kobo's... they do not support Kindles!
We now have spring... at least our snow is gone... the temps are still way colder than they should be for this time of year, although I do have a couple of little bunches of Croci in my garden! I saw the firs one on March 20 most appropriate!
The robins are back.. I saw an entire flock of them hopping around on the lawn 2 days ago... and EMM my large grey cat has lost his kitty door privileges... 3 mice and one bird in the house in 14 hours was too much uninvited livestock! OK so one of the mice got brought in twice... I forgot we now have a deck outside the kitchen when I dropped the mouse off the 2nd floor deck off the bedroom door at 2:15 am... Emm went outside and the mouse he had just lost was lying there waiting for him...., so it came right back in... At least he didn't deliver it to me in the bedroom this time!
March 6 2011-
After two storms last week... Our snow is beginning to melt...AGAIN... I can see grass in a couple of places...(the same two places I could see it before the last two storms!) granted there is over two feet of snow most places but any grass is nice, I'm beginning to hate white! Today it is also +9 (50 F) and windy, so that should do something!
For anyone who uses the lynne@fireballbeeds.com email.. It no longer works... I have changed all the little mail me boxes on the website so they now go to my gmail email... If you persist in using the lynne@fireballbeeds.com email... it will bounce back!
Don't forget daylight saving time starts next weekend! I personally would rather have the extra hour of daylight in the morning right now...!
The good news is ... the two clocks I never got around to changing will be right for the next 7 months!
February 26 2011-
Not sure what number storm yesterdays was... I've quit counting ... snow is depressing... I don't like white... I like red, green, yellow... white is BORING!
So other than watch the snow come down what have I been doing in the last 29 days? We went to Halifax for ACTS... to buy and pick up stock for the gallery... in spite of all the snow we've had this winter we drove both ways without seeing a snow flake... there was a view from the top of the pass of something other than snow or fog!
The next weekend we went to Rhode Island for 3 nights... Since I couldn't take the 5 day workshop in CT I backed off to a 2 day workshop in RI with the same instructor. Since it was just 2 days Gord drove & spent the time looking at boats, boat parts, boat museums... The workshop was fun... My off mandrel work did improve... I can now get pieces in the kiln in one piece instead of having them explode all over the studio!
As for the St George curling rink... The rink did have insurance but the deductible is $10,000; the provincial government sort of implied that they would help out with the deductibles... YOU know what they are now saying.... the water damage was caused by sewer backups.... Yep there was so much sewage floating around it was pouring in the door and down the stairs... There was at least 7 feet of water in the field beside the curling rink. Hopefully the rink will reopen next year... although between curling mornings in St Andrew's and Monday evenings at Blacks G is curling more than most years!
I've been busy doing chainmaille bracelets...mainly a variation on Byzantine which I'm calling Bow Tie Byzantine, I'm using oval rings and glass bead donuts.
I've also been doing more with seed beads... I decided to enter a tassel challenge... I guess she sold 52 patterns/kits but only 9 of us finished... I just bought the pattern... I actually won second place... my prize is in the mail.... I don't know what I've won! Here's my tassel!
Here's the link to all the entries
When I voted for who I thought should win I actually did vote for the entry that won!
January 28 2011-
< color="black" > Well yesterday was storm number 7 in 8 weeks... 5 hours of near white out conditions then the sky cleared ... sun didn't quite make it out yesterday but it got nice enough out to head to St Andrew's for a Pub Night fund raiser for the curling club! Chili supper and entertainment from a Band called "Epic Bacon"... guess their name was a product of spell checking the names of the two communities that they live in! Bacon is Bocabec not sure what town Epic is!
But that was yesterday in spite of the sun today, I'm sitting here in a total funk.... I signed up for a class at William Holland... it was full, so I signed up for a class in CT end of Feb... same day I got notice that there was a spot in the class at William Holland, Since the class at WH was going to be complicated by our next driving marathon and I had just signed up for a 5 day class in CT... I gave up the spot at WH! Today I get an email from CT saying that the class there has been canceled due to lack of enrollment... the studio in Edmonton where I have been taking classes isn't bringing in any instructors this year.... I can't even go take out my frustrations on the evil weeds that take over my garden in the summer as I can't see my garden... it is currently covered in two feet of snow!
Anyone out there know of any work shops in WARM/HOT places that I would want to take in March or April of this year?
January 23 2011-
Winter storms be gone! No we didn't get nearly as much snow as they forecast yesterday but we still managed to drive home during the worst of it! And it's now turning cold, yes they are forecast temps below -18 C which is below ZERO on the Fahrenheit scale! It doesn't get that cold here (often). I was in Saint John yesterday at a tourism conference... the long and short of it is that all the businesses on DI need to work together if we actually want people to come here and do more that drive from the Butler Point Ferry to the Deer Island Point Ferry... Deer Island has a web site... it was obsolete when I moved here 10 years ago... it's really bad now... but no-one that I have asked seems to know who built it therefore we can't change it! (and I'm not on it!)
What have I done since Jan 1... made beads, hibernated, installed the last 2 panels in Mahogany Manors' dining room Here they are in my family room! Forgot my camera installation day
NOw I am working on a window for a house in Grand Bay... It's suppose to be browns and golds... not my favorite colours... but after spending half an hour going through glass in the dungeon earlier this week.. I did discover that I actually do have a lot of brown textured glass.. and it's textures that I really like... so I might be able to work with this! I've also started making rondels on my torch.... Here's a close up of some rondels that I put in my prototype window.... If you want to see the entire window ...
it's here!
The sun is shinning and my shovel is calling... I need to clean the steps off to the hot tub! Important shoveling!
January 1 2011-
Another year has gone by.....
For a change we did go out last night. We ate dinner at a friends' Restaurant in St Andrews... dinner lasted for slightly over 4 hours it was a bunch of tiny courses with accompanying wines. We were staying in the Hotel there too so sat and continued to drink sparkling wine with the staff after all the other diners went home or off to other parties. Dinner was wonderful. Today is +7 and the snow is all melting again.... Maybe winter is over!