Ink, Yarn & Beer

Gallows Point

Years ago we spent several weeks in Canada, and by far a favorite place was British Columbia. Protection Island is off Nanaimo, and on it is a lighthouse and residence. The lighthouse is called Gallows Point, and as you can imagine, the site of an execution. The history is interesting, and you can read more about it here.

I really did not have much of an idea what to do today – it is cold and foggy and so chilly that the house was 66F. The damp makes it worse. So, bundled up, I went looking for things to do. Some ukulele practice, chores, dog petting, and finally the decision to pull the gouache out of the refrigerator (keeps down the mold) and off I went. I spent a few hours painting and while not an especially beautiful painting, or accurate, it was fun to do a bit of color frenzy with gouache – which I have not done for awhile.

Gouache, 10×12, hot press paper.

Waiting for Rain

The coastal fog rolls in, sometimes doing nothing but bringing cold and damp and chill to summer. Other times of the year, in fall and winter and into spring, the coastal fog is not fog at all, but lowering clouds. Sometimes you just don’t know.

Birds or Squirrels?

We have a few bird feeders hanging up outside the studio window. Tucked under the eaves, small local birds such as finches or wrens congregate to munch out over seed. There have been a few times when the hawks have come looking for lunch, and crows, too, but the squirrels prove to be the funniest. They try to jump from the red bud tree, but fall far short of the feeder. Other times the squirrels sit on the roof, look down and chatter. A couple of times I have seen them hanging by their back feet to reach the feeder – but all in vain.

Now, here is an erstwhile bird watcher who worked to foil the squirrels conquering his “squirrel proof” bird feeders. Watch how he solved his bird feeding problem and worked hard to overcome the threat of predatory squirrels.

I hope you watched to the end!

Mexican Evening Primrose

This is one of my all time favorite flowers, except for one thing: it is invasive! Many of my other favorites have the same characteristics, and are best contained in containers unless you want to be taken over. In hard-to- grow areas, this is an attribute, such as covering hillsides, or in wilder areas with seasons. Bulbs are great for this, but in small gardening areas, invasive species can be very problematic.

The Mexican Evening Primrose – Latin name oenothera speciosa – is a perennial wildflower that lies close to the ground because it is rather a floppy plant even though it can grow rather long in length. What makes the Mexican Evening Primrose a good garden plant, at least for dry areas, is its tolerance of drought and hanging out despite bad growing conditions.

Spread over a hillside or in a small patch, the cheerful pink and yellow center flowers are striking. They are also abundant in bloom, and this is even better in my opinion! The local botanical garden has a number of patches which mix in with other plants.

These flowers are lovely in bouquets, too, as their drooping nature and vining tendencies add a bit of curve to upright flowers along with their beautiful pink.

Fallen Flower

One of the pictures from my walk around the botanical garden here in town. Up at the potting shed, this wooden platform holds containers to be filled with dirt and plants to be nurtured before being planted or sold at the weekly Sunday sales. This is a flower fallen off a nearby tree – don’t ask me what the name of the tree is! – and I thought it was so lovely against the grain of the wood.