September 19 2010-
Day Two of the 2 Countries One Bay Art Studio Tour... and the last day that I am open 'daily' THis is the 4th year of the Art Studio TOur... Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day I had 4 sets of 2 people here ... 2 years ago I had over 100 people on the Saturday... I think it's time to change the dates... All the locals have done the tour... how many times do you want to hear how to paint a water colour or see how to make a glass bead... If the dates are not changed to 'Tourism Season' I won't participate again. Not only does this weekend not fall into typical tourist season... It falls on the first weekend AFTER the Eastport Ferry quits for the year and it falls 2 or 3 weeks early for the 'Leaf Watchers' to be out.... Today it is foggy, that's usually a good excuse for everyone to stay home and vegetate!
Maybe I'll go make beads for my own entertainment... fill up the kiln ... a full kiln should get a few visitors that want to see me make beads.....
Last Sunday I actually closed and joined a group of SAYC people for a picnic on one of the uninhabited Islands... It was a actually a lovely day, Gord and I got there first and had a wonderful fire blazing just above the high tide line before everyone else got there... I actually had two hot dogs that I cooked over the fire (blech), but could not force myself to cook or consume a marshmallow..... It was a lovely spot, I'm sure on a hot summer day the bay would be full of power boats!
So I guess I was only open 88 days straight... G babysat the gallery parts of 4 of those days...
September 10 2010-
Today marks the 9th anniversary of my car and I arriving on Deer Island. Nine years ago Sept 10 was a Monday, the weather was much nicer that day than it is today.. but we really do need the rain this year.....
The rotten wall in the kitchen has been replaced with a sliding glass door, the cats like looking in and out it but they are not sure about walking through it when it is open! They aren't used to having a hole there, plus it makes a sort of hissing sound when as it opens... I'm sure they will get used to it! Actually I'm not used to it either, the only other sliding door that I've ever had close encounters with is my parents house in Edmonton, their door has 2 sliding glass doors, I sort of feel like I should be walking through the second door here....
September 7 2010-
Today is the first day of school here. My neighbor across the street has a son going into Kindergarten ... they were out there 20 minutes before the bus came taking pictures of him with his new backpack etc....He is the oldest of 4.. I wonder if they will still be taking pictures when the last one starts school?
We spent Friday cleaning up for Hurricane Earl... and Saturday putting everything back after the non event! Yes we got wind max 40 km / hour (whoopee!) and rain 46 mm just under two inches, but the ground is still dry ... so not sure where it went!
This is the third hurricane in 4 years that we have cleaned off our deck for...
How many more times will we do it before we start ignoring them???
This, however was the first non 'hurricane' that was forecast to hit on a major tourism weekend. The weather office's hype caused most tourists to cancel their bookings at hotels from North Carolina North and stay away from campgrounds. What should have been my busiest weekend of the year... didn't happen... There were no people here at all... NOBODY!
Hotels in St Andrews that were fully booked on Monday last week for the labour day weekend ended up with one guest. Even if we had come close to getting what was forecast I really don't think it would have been a whole lot more significant than a prairie Thunder Storm... THose just happen... The day is bright and sunny then the wind rain and hail blow in ... and trees blow down... NO 5 day hype from the weather office!
If we had had damage from the storm we might have had insurance coverage
But where is our compensation for the loss of revenue from the storm that never happened? Could a hurricane actually come up the Bay of Fundy....?
September 1 2010-
Today is my Sister's Birthday
♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Happy Birthday To You
♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Happy Birthday To You
♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Happy Birthday Dear Anne!!
♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Happy Birthday To You ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪
See don't I sing well in print!
I just got my car back after 2 weeks at the mechanic yesterday... it was suppose to be 24 hours to replace the fuel tank (it leaked) But they kept breaking other pieces associated with the fuel tank.... claimed they were rusty... I did pick up the car after one week and got as far as the ferry landing ... but then it wouldn't start when I tried to board the ferry... So it got abandoned on the lawn beside the 'outhouse' (we have hi tech passenger lounges here... but what should you expect for a free ferry!) Next morning we attempted resuscitation on 'Lizzy' and failed so went and told the mechanic to go and get her and fix it properly this time.... First bill was $800 second one they didn't have the gall to charge me for anything other than the fuel pump, which they admitted they broke... ... Another $150... ( no extra labour this time!)
However, the mechanic also said that "running my car with almost no gas was really hard on the fuel pump,..."
when I left the car there two weeks ago there was an 1/8th of a tank when I picked it up last week it was on the red line... we put 10 liters (2.5 gallons) (>1/4 tank) in at the ferry landing, last Tuesday morning when I got it back yesterday it was once again on the red line... I'd like to know who's vehicle all the gas that was siphoned out of my tank and not put back ended up in!???? Probably the mechanic that told me I shouldn't run my car on empty!
And throughout all of this the 'shop' never phoned me once... I guess customers are suppose to be psychic and know when to pick up their vehicles!
Actually it was my Birthday on Monday... so we went out for dinner at a fairly new restaurant on the highway outside of St Andrew's " Savour, ", on Sunday night. They have a tasting menu ... which means you have no choice in food, however I asked what the meal was and put in an order for no fish for 2 of us... The soup was 'lobster mushroom bisque' All 3 off us read it as ' lobster & mushroom' so Stuart was picking away at it..., I pointed out that it didn't taste in the least bit like lobster so "EAT", the hostess/waitress/owner asked us when we were done if we'd ever had 'lobster mushrooms' before.... No wonder it didn't taste fishy! We had the chefs table which meant we got to sit in the kitchen and watch the chef work.... Was quite fun... and yes we will go back! The dessert was really a work of art, and noone had a camera, not even a camera phone...
Here's some eye candy for you ... I've had the pendant for awhile.. but people wanted matching earrings .. so here they are, hot out of the kiln!
Speaking of hot, it is very hot here now, Absolutely gorgeous weather for the end of August beginning of September!
August 27 2010-
I like it... I just had a new garden 'arbor/gate' shipped to our house in Saint John... it has been delivered and the 'FRONT STEP' signed for it... Isn't my front step smart... wonder what else it can do?
(The reason why it was shipped to Saint John, was because shipping there was $50 shipping to Deer Island was $112!)
My current 'garden gate' is painted steel there are spots were it is so rusty that you can see through it... I think my clematis might be the only thing holding it up! The new one is suppose to be aluminium and has a 10 year warranty.... I am keeping the bill!
We have a new deck outside the kitchen window... which should be a door sometime next week if the door arrives on time... EMM thinks it is neat being able to stand on his back paws and look in the kitchen window while we are eating super... I'm sure he will really like the door... not nearly as far to drag his slaves!
August 22 2010-
Well today is another sunny Sunday... we did have two days of rain and drizzle this week... considering the lack of rain this summer there are way too many mosquitoes around in the evening!
My hanging tomato is starting to get pulled down by the weight of it's tiny tomatoes, which are golf ball size, green and have already started to fall off... the tomatoes planted in the ground have baseball size tomatoes, which are also still green and are not falling off! If the tomato hanger survives will I do it again next summer...? Probably!
My car is currently in residence at a repair shop on the mainland for it's annual inspection... I took it over Tuesday evening... as they wanted to know if they could keep it... I sort of thought they meant for the day ... last Wednesday ... didn't realize that they were keeping it for a week! How long does it take to replace a leaky gas tank!
Hope they're not charging me storage!
August 17 2010-
Another cloudy misty day... not sure if it will burn off or not.
Yesterday was a first for me... I broke something in the gallery... this is my 11 th summer I have never broken anything before... my cats have broken things my husband has .. but I hadn't....
Remember those dominoes that we used to set up so that when you flicked the end one everything fell down in a neat line... well that's sort of what I did last night... I hip checked the side of a display and a plate flipped out of it's stand knocking over a ceramic cat (which didn't break)... the plate then continued over the edge of that shelf and pieces of it landed on the plate sitting on the bottom shelf...that plate split in half .... then the originally plate exploded all over the gallery floor....
I did gather up the pieces and since I love jigsaw puzzles I'm tempted to try and glue it back together... The other plate has already been glued... I have an idea for it....
The real moral of that story is that I really need to make sure that my plate stands are big enough to hold the pieces they are displaying... however up until 10 days ago the platter on the bottom shelf was a huge very expensive xtalline piece... breaking that would have been really upsetting!
Thank you to the customer that bought that and saved it from extinction!
Even though our flowers have been really early they really aren't lasting very long I think I should have way more flowers out at this time of the summer but it's so dry that they bloom and seem to die the same day....
My hydrangea has so many flowers that it's collapsed all over the lawn...
August 8 2010-
Summer is more than half over... The August Long weekend (First Monday in August in Canada is a holiday....) is the Harbinger of back to school..., end of summer, ... fall, ... whatever. However, I'm still waiting for someone to turn on the tourist tap, summer can not be almost over! In spite of our gorgeous weather... there are very few people around... Maybe the weather is too nice and they are all walking on the beach!
G is off on a 10 day sailing trip to Belfast ME.. think there are about 5 boats...
I tried felting a couple of hats in my front load washer last weekend... First one actually worked quite well.. so I thought I'd try another one... I put it back in three times... still isn't felted as much as the first one was... they were the same yarns and pattern the only difference was the colour!
Before
First hat
2nd hat
In future I will go back to attempting to felt using my old washing machine which lives on the driveway and has to be filled with buckets of hot water.... Something I've noticed since I started felting hats... the hotter the summer the more felted hats I sell!
Return