Weeks 10-13

April 30 The rain has stopped and the sun is out. We got three storms in 8 days this winter, hope number 3 Spring storm isn't hanging around off shore ready to pound us next week! I don't think these storms are all that usual for April and May? I know there wasn't any the year we moved here, and the next year there was one, the day my sister and I were going to spend walking on the Beach in St Martin.... we drove home instead and saw an entire forest of pink styrofoam insulation , I'm sure it had been neatly stacked somewhere the day before but it was now hanging out of trees and stuck to fences for almost a mile... We didn't stop to take pictures as the owner was running around trying to gather it up, but of course as soon as he put it down it took off again!

My studio has dried out nicely, although I haven't tried to pry my soggy book of gold leaf apart, if the paper sticks to the leaf maybe I'll get some new raku effect?

My son is back in NB last nights phone call was at 10:35, he was still an hour north of Saint George. I asked him if he was staying at his friends house for the night and was told "No, I'm going to swim home!" Our last ferry leaves the mainland at 10:20.

Now for a stupid joke, A woman walks into the kitchen and sees her husband running around with a fly swatter... She asks him if he's killed any and he replies "Yes, three males and two females". She asks how he knows their sexes.... His reply " because three were on my beer bottle and two were on the phone!"

April 28 Where should I start on the subject of what a wonderful day, the rain started at about 9pm last night, just enough so that you could hear individual drips onto the metal flashing on the window sills, the phone rang at midnight, (not my son, not even one of my relatives....!), the wind started to howl at about 3 am and then at 6 am a ceiling panel fell out in the'bedroom' ceiling because it was so water logged, from the wind driven rain that was coming in where the new second storey of the house meets the original wall..... (While I was attempting to make beads much later in the day it occured to me that if the leak had been in the South corner of the bedroom and not the North all the ice cold icky brown water would have ended up on Gord's head.... He didn't find that thought particularly funny!) Back to beads even the ceiling in my bead shop was leaking, the water was pouring in beside the ventilation fan, more buckets, I did find a use for 8 of my fugglies though, they made really good legs to get the water catchers up off of my steel work bench! I could feel the building shaking in the wind too, no wonder nothing turned out round! So far the power hasn't gone out and the phone lines are still working. Actually Gord just discovered that now that the ceiling tile isn't there to act as a wick that the water is running down inside the wall and we have a waterfall pouring onto my boxes of lead came in the basement, I am so looking forward to 600 pounds of loose lead!

Spent yesterday designing a window to go between the stairwell and a new bathroom. The bathroom doesn't get any natural light so I decided to leave a few holes in the walls and put in leaded glass windows. The first one has a 'bubble' containing a sandblasted sea turtle and some sandblasted Wrack. (Wrack is the most intersting sea weed that I could find! The other two windows will be similar but the sandblasted bubbles will contain other fish etc..., Nemo will probably show up somewhere! I was using Clown Fish 10 years before Finding Nemo came along!

April 24 Monsoon season has hit here, the sun can come back! I have been informed that we picked up a dinghy in St Andrews yesterday not a skiff, (And yes I spelled skiff wrong!) However , the definition of a dinghy is a 'rowboat originally used on the rivers of India' , a skiff is 'any light rowboat', so as I said yesterday we picked up a SKIFF! I have just been informed that local usage rules and we now have a DINGHY sitting in the middle of the driveway!

April 23 Threatening rain today, off to St Andrews later today to deliver stock, and Gord wants to track down the sciff that goes with his boat! I'm sure all I'll see of him this summer is the back end of the boat tacking out of the cove! His current project is trying to figure out how to levitate some of the old engine parts that are littering our intertidal zone, out into the middle of the cove, so that he can use them as a mooring bouy.

Got a phone call at 12:30 this morning from my son, he is back in Saskatoon as a deer hit him near Winnipeg, the car was driveable, so the RCMP told him to go back to Saskatchewan. Not sure how long they will be stuck out there and since the car was an '89 it will likely be written off, he's talking about repairing it. The radiator is cracked, not sure what else is damaged. The 12:30 phone call was in response to an email that I had sent asking where he was, think they had been back in Saskatoon since mid afternoon! The 12:30 am phone call was, no doubt revenge for the 1:30 am call I made last summer when I subtracted 3 hours from local time instead of adding! Japan is easy it's 12 hours different, so doesn't matter what you do,don't have a clue what day it is over there, but I do know the time!

I got a package of CZ in the mail earlier this week and tried them out on Tuesday. My success rate was either 40% or 50% depending on how you looked at it. I started with 6 tiny CZ's, in the process of attempting to glue them to mandrels I lost 2, then I actually got to the point where I got to stick them to the bead, the first one did exactly what it was suppose to do....'Hey this is easy!!!' slow down, number two got smacked against the cord for my exhast fan and flew off into oblivion, (does oblivion still exist or is the 21st century equivalent cyber space even when it has nothing to do with computers?) Somewhat miffed the next one got stuck on off center... so maybe that gives me a 20% success rating? As long as I always photograph the bead from the good side, who will know!

Briefly thought about working in the dungeon yesterday but since it was bright and sunny and 18/68 outside and cold and damp and 10/53 inside, quess what won? I painted a sunrise on my gallery sign. We bought all the signs from a Bed & Breakfast that recently closed, the colour scheme on the two biggest signs is quite suitable so we are just painting out the lettering. Actually I'm using 7 different colours of red, orange and yellow and slathering it onto the sign with a palete knife, unfortunately the driveway, myself, the cat, and anything else that gets in the way is also coming out sunrise orange! I think it worked quite well, Gord gets to do the lettering, while I'm in Japan, that way he will be have done all 8 signs before I tell him what he's done wrong,.... and has to fix?

April 18 Still sunny, my son Stuart should have left on hour ago 6:20 am, to fly back to Saskatoon to pick up his car. He had to take a cab at 4:30 am to the Fredericton Airport, he normally figures noon is a good time to get out of bed! We went to a curling banquet on Saturday night, Gord actually was on a winning team before Christmas and he got a $20.oo gift certificate for the New Brunswick Liquor store, most other prizes were objects that would have just been added to the thousands of pounds of clutter that we already have!

Our grass is turning green, way more green shoots are showing so spring must officially be here, we started digging a walk way to the gallery yesterday, Gord dug out all the 'sod' and then we swept the edge of the highway to reclaim the sand that the highway department throws around all winter to seal the dirt/clay. Will probably put crushed rock on top of that and a flower bed beside, I'm not familiar with most of the New Brunswick weeds so a lot of plants get very well established before I decide that they are really weeds, and not some exotic perenial. I bought a few Dahlia bulbs again this year, this will be my third attemp at growing them here, however since the leaves look a lot like dandylions when they first come up and I have never been here to protect them, the intrepid weeder has always wisked them out off the ground, since dandylions are one of the few weeds that he knows is a WEED!

April 15 Another bright sunny day here not terribly warm, but the sun is nice. We moved here 4 years ago sometime this week, actually we were only here for about three weeks and then left for the summer, but we officially took possesion of the house on April12, the friday was Friday the 13th and it was Good Friday. I remember the weather that spring as being nice, I'm sure it's my selective memory at work though as I do remember a big blizzard, the day we drove home from Saint John! Speaking of snow, a little birdie told me that it snowed in Saskatchewan last night... Hope the weather right accross Canada smartens up as my son is flying back to Saskatoon on Monday morning to pick up his car and drive it back to NB.

Gord hit a lot of snow the year we moved here driving in Ontario the first week of April, he was hauling a very heavy stock trailer that we bought used, it's main contents were a few thousand sheets of flat glass, kilns, lead and other assorted 'junk' that I had accumulated running a stained glass studio for 12 years. The trailer had no brakes so all the semis passed him going up hill and then he went flying past them again on the down hill stretches. He managed to loose the mattress/foamy driving through Quebec, so the first thing we had to buy when we got here was a bed, we managed to choose the worlds most uncomfortable futon, never again! He had so much fun pulling the trailer here in April, that he took it back in the fall and hauled another load out in December. The movers got the other 17,000 lbs of household goods in March of 2002, and of course I can't bear to throw out anything that we paid to move...... The trailer was ultimately sold and used to haul sea urchins for a year or more. We actually bought the trailer in Southern SK and while we were hauling it home I told Gord that we had a flat tire, I was informed in no uncertain terms that road was just very bumpy there! Two minutes later he sees a flashing red light in his rear view mirror, of course the trailer wasn't registered since we'd bought it on a weekend. The RCMP officer came up to his window and told him that he had a flat tire, of course I couldn't resist the 'I told you that 2 minutes ago!' To cut a long storey, we couldn't get the flat tire off of the trailer, who knows how many years of rust and manure were holding it on, and the RCMP officers only comment when I told her we had just bought the trailer after she noticed the out of date plates, was 'I hope you got a good deal!' So the trailer was pushed off the road and abandonned for the night, and retreived with a can of WD40 in hand the next day. Hopefully Stuart and his friend will have no problems , he has to get the muffler fixed before he leaves Sakatoon and he says he needs to get his stereo up to snuff. I think that probably means loud enough to blow the semis off the road?

April 13 Just to maintain tradition of always snowing in April, it snowed yesterday and last night, it was coming down as giant snowballs last night, but never really stuck! The last couple of times that I have tried to take a shower here the water heater has decided to quit, actually it had quit far enough in advance of my attempted shower that their was NO hot water. Yesterday, after I got drenched with cool water, I got Gord to go 'fix' it and was assured that there would be hot water in 15 minutes, so I cleaned beads, dremel tool and elegant black towel. How come towels stay up on other people when they just tuck them over? Mine spent more time on the floor at my feet than it did on me! Take two... still no hot water, so I accompanied Gord to the basement to find out which switches and in what order one had to wiggle them to get hot water! Spent that 20 minute wait fine tuning my income tax, then I went down stairs and made sure that the heater was still on before I had my shower. Mr 'boiler' fix it came today and said there aren't very many water heaters that old still around.... then he started on the furnace his comment on that was 'it's so dirty I'm not sure why it still works!' He was here for 2.5 hours but we got charged for 5.5, the last 3 hours was for driving and ferry time! I hid out making beads while all this was going on, trying to finish off a couple of orders, I always seem to be missing one or two beads to make a complete set, and then can't remeber what it was that I wanted to make until the kiln is full and I'm back in the house!

April 11 Once again the Saint John radio station was totally out to lunch with respect to todays weather, and most of the weekends weather too! It is a gorgeous sunny day, my purple crocuses are really lovely, if you check back later today they should be uploaded onto my home page! We spent Saturday learning about a hobby maple sugar operation.... One of the more interesting facts was average maple sugar production requires 41 gallons of liquid to get 1 gallon of Maple Syrup, the other 40 gallons of liquid is predominantly water, with a few spiders etc thrown in for good measure, the syrup is all double filtered out at the end, so no free protein. High tea followed at 3pm , no sugar pie though, I guess that's only in Quebec!

April 8 Cloudy again, actually rained all night, with our new roofline and no eavestroughs it was a bit like sleeping under a running shower all night, turned into a dripping shower at about 5 am! Drove into Saint John yesterday to pick up my Japanese Yen, on the way home the radio announcer was saying that the British oddsmakers/bookies are taking bets on whether or not aliens will show up at Charles and Camilla's wedding tomorrow, would they notice? They were also talking about the new/next James Bond, I missed who they said it would be!

The price of gas is skyrocketing here, probably is everywhere but here there is a 15% tax added to the cost of the gas and to most of the road taxes etc.... So I'm sure with the thought of gas being double what it is now, the governemnt is giggling all the way to the bank about their unexpected windfall and they didn't even have to do anything to get the money! Did you know that the Canadian government sends you a bill for the road tax you aren't paying, because you aren't buying gasoline, if you drive one of those hybrid electric cars ?

Just got back from Beach Combing, thought something interesting might have washed ashore during the big wind storm last weekend , found lots of beach glass, but no treasures. I wanted a nice piece of driftwood too, but my husband pointed out that any wood on the beach would go out on the next tide. I found a couple of pieces of wood up beside the road where it got caught in the rose bushes. Got one piece that looks a bit like a dragon, will have to see what it really looks like after I've cleaned it up and it drys out!

April 4 Was scrolling through last years pictures, trying to find out when the first spring bulbs burst into bloom last year, the first crocus was April 1 , this year it was April 2nd so, no difference! However I tripped over a whole bunch of snow pictures for April 5, so I will quit complaining about our gale force winds and driving rain, although I can't make a snow man out of the rain! The picture I just posted (Yes there is a picture now , I spelt the name wrong the first time....) on my home page is LAST YEAR!

Tried making a bead charm bracelet last night, while I was watching Dangerous Liasons on TV, discovered part way through the movie that last night was part one, didn't finish the bracelet either... I got the links for the bracelet cut (I hand wrap and saw all my own links) and assembled and put 'charms every third 'large' link, but that is too far apart, will wire wrap some more little beads tonight and keep poking beads in until it's dense enough! (The movie doesn't require careful watching!)

April 2 Forgot to mention that we did go out for supper on the 30th, but I had to pay! There were a bunch of Candian Trivia Game cards on the table... Canada's answer to Trivial Pursuit. Anyway one of the questions was what is the capital of Nunavut, Gord said Yellowknife, I said your wrong, so he said OK so Yellowkinfe is the capital of the 'Restavut'! The correct answer is actually Iqaluit and Yellowknife if still the capital of the now much smaller Northwest Territories. That'll do for today's Canadian geography lesson!

My new foot switch works, it is attached to a peice of wood to keep it flat and off the floor. Spent some time this afternoon in the dungeon in spite of the weather. The dungeon is very much a catch 22 situation as it is too cold all winter, but as soon as it warms up enough to be able to work down there in any sort of comfort, it is nice enough outside, so I don't want to be inside!... However there is black fly season, two - three weeks when I actually prefer to be indoors. This year I have planned to be away during black fly season! We will see if I guessed the right time ... and there better not be black flies in Japan and Hawaii!

April 1 April Fools day..., no I'm not one of those nasty people who switches salt and sugar or other similar nasty things! It is overcast and cool today, actually the fog is thick enough that I can't hear the fog horn..... I was going to update this last night but was told to stay off the phone as someone was expecting a phone call! No-speed dial up internet is so much fun, with 3 people , five modems, a fax machine, and soon to be added to the Caldron, a POS Terminal, and you wondered why I didn't bother putting my phone number anywhere on the site!

Two days ago I had a bit more excitement that I bargained for! (This isn't a joke) I was grinding glass in the dungeon, I have/had a foot switch on my grinder, (once you have a foot switch going back to turning a switch on and off doesn't cut it , believe me!) Anyway said foot pedal obviously sits on the floor of the Alligator pit aka dungeon, and has in the last 4 years since I moved here, spent numerous hours under water and in water.... I guess it finally decided that it wasn't really into water sports! Tuesday afternoon I stepped on it and heard a huge bang, flames and then smoke, so much for my switch! My husband wanted to know if I hovered overhead to watch , like the time I almost stepped on a snake on a beach, he swears I had both feet off the ground and hovered for a full minute until the snake had slithered away! Yesterday we went to Saint John and attempted to replace said foot switch. For $100.00 I could get one that looked very much like the one I blew up, I passed, shelf life on things metal in the dungeon isn't long enough to spend that kind of money! Actually ended up buying a Chinese Christmas tree switch, (the Chinese one had screws, the NOMA ones were plastic press fit) For $15.00, I got my foot switch a power bar and two extension cords, there is 'some assembly required' to make it work..... For once in my life I was actually wearing what might even be considered appropriate foot wear for blowing up switches ! I had on my new 'holy rollers'. Rubber garden clogs full of holes that I bought at Mountain Equipment Co-op last month. (Mine are bright blue) I've had a pair of Birkenstock Garden Clogs forever, but they are hot and heavy, the holy rollers weigh nothing are ventilated and I'm insulated!

My new freebee beads are posted on my site, middle of home page, or click on free beads for a bigger picture, (the little white blob on one of the green beads was a gift from my scanner, it's not on the bead!) I've had some people asking if they are iridescent, they aren't. (The stuff, that is sprayed on hot glass to make it iridescent is really nasty Stannous Chloride, I think, gives off Chlorine gas amongst other things). I would say they are luminescent, the 'glow' is coming from the streaky white core. Might even make a set of Caliente Beads to sell this weekend!

March 29 The monsoon rains seem to have stopped, all of Deer Islands trickling streams are now raging torrents, I have little streams running down my lawn and through my basement. I am not working down in the dungeon today, as there is a waterfall coming out of the wall in one place! New picture on the Home Page. The LNG project that was proposed for the Maine Coast near here lost the vote in round one yesterday, inspite of the million dollar annual bribe that the developer offered the townlast week. Not sure if that is the end of the project for this area or if they can circle back for another try?

March 28 Today is a sort of Holiday in Canada... Canada Post takes it so we don't get mail, some stores are open some aren't..... It started to pour rain here about noon, we just have a heavy rainfall warning but parts of Maine have flood warnings out, because of all of their snow. Hopefully it will rain hard enough to clear all the sand etc off of my flower beads and clean off my inflatable snowman that finally got uncovered enough to inflate today. He's waving at all the cars driving past the house!

My next draw for free beads will be May 1st 'May Day'. So far I haven't decided what the beads will be I guess I have a choice of beads oriented towards a spring festival 'ribbons wrapped around beads'; or beads emphasizing Labour, 'all my beads are Labour intensive', so that's easy'! I'm planning on using my Caliente glass to make the beads, so will have to see if I can do flowers? The colours I have are mostly very pale, so I'll see what I can create!

While we were in Alberta at the beginning of the month, someone suggested to me that I should freeze my cell phone battery, (I have an old Motorola phone) since the phone only worked when it was plugged in. Don't know how long the charge lasts but I have at least 5 hours now after it is fully charged, since I froze it, so if I want to be found when I'm not in the car, you may have a chance now! Managed to overcharge one of my dremel battereis last week too, it got the same treatment, works fine now! There is more than one kind of rechargable battery though, so freezing some batteries probably will just get you a cold battery.

March 27 Easter Sunday, another bright sunny morning, just slightly below freezing so there is a skiff of ice on the cove from the fresh water stream that runs along the edge of our yard. The new picture on the home page is/was a number of very large plastic containerss used for transporting fish , the fish plant itself did not catch fire although the door melted and some of the shingles were scorched, the person in the picture is hosing down the porch with a garden house prior to the fire department arriving. Being the middle of a long weekend, finding a volunteer fire department was a bit of a challenge. I was standing beside the first truck when they got there, and overheard someone say, 'does anyone know how to start the pump on this truck?" Someone must have figured it out. The truck from the mainland was there about 20 minutes after the Deer Island trucks, that is impressive as it's a 20 minute ferry ride and the truck is at least 5 minutes from the ferry!

Back to grass fires, I burned our yard beside the creek the first spring I was here, everything was under complete control until... the wind changed direction and then it took off and went roaring up the bank to the highway, burned a whole lot more than I intended, including singeing the tires on our trailer, however it had the audacity to completely miss the abandonned car that was parked there! (were those flames ever hot!) that was the first, last and only time I will follow the Deer Island Tradition of burning off last years grass!

A freind of mine from Saskatchewan decided he has had enough of SK winters and bought a house in Fairmont BC. Major change of scenery! The problem is that I had him buy me a peice of Art at an auction this winter. (All of the art was posted on a pre auction web page) It was an auction that I donated to for about the last 7 years I lived in Saskatoon. The piece of Art was a 5 foot high wire cactus, SAM, (and no I didn't bother to check the size before I told him to bid on it for me!). SAM has now bonded with a 'debonnaire aspen' outside the window of the room he has taken up roots in and therefore he is unwilling to move! Not to mention that he looks so nice in his current location that no one would want to buy the house without SAM! Further more SAM doesn't want to move to NB as he might get all rusty in the sea air! Stay tuned for what may turn out to be the first custody battle over a wire Cactus!