Okamino and Beyond

Saturday, June 6, 2015

The Saskatoons are almost ready on the WRT hike. The July/August like heat has turned my brain to afternoons at the beach and in fact, swimming as if it were July and August. It is stunning.

 Peter and his dog Sieben which is a German word. Peter told us the meaning, but I can't remember. Must be the heat.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

After all our Sunday morning calls, it is really too late to hike up this broiling hillside, but we did it anyway. It took a few minutes under the shade to feel like we could go on.

Monday, June 8th, 2015
A Deer Knoll hike today and the view across are the hills I normally climb. This is early in the morning as it promised and delivered very hot weather. 

Tuesday, June 9th, 2015
A heArt Fit morning with Karen demonstrating a method of spontaneous painting which is to apply a dot of paint and blow at it with a straw. I tried, I really tried and ended up finger painting. I guess I just don't have a lot of blow.

 Keith used another tactic which is to use a print from the dollar store or a second hand store and redress it with his own marks. I like what he did, transforming ordinary into extraordinary. It would be a useful lesson for people timid in trying to paint something of their own. Letting go on top of an established structure.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015
I think these are wild gooseberries on my WRT hike.

Okamino and Beyond

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

It stopped raining long enough to run up Knox, though we weren't entirely sure we would avoid the rain, and so the umbrellas came along. It was Vancouver-like, a heavy downpour that is quenching the gardens and forests. You can almost watch things greening up, getting taller. 

Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - Knox again, due to the rain, again. Other hikes would be very wet. Must have been good eats for this deer to be so unfazed by people walking by so closely.

Okamino and Beyond

Saturday, May 30, 2015

A beautiful bike ride today, sunny and moving to hot during the afternoon. Enough to go to the beach and a dip.

What a treat at Maureen and Jim's in the evening in honour of Vreni's birthday. This lady was making fresh ice cream with liquid nitrogen doing the instant freeze. We had a couple of flavours to choose from. Nice to watch.

Sunday, May 31st, 2015
Knox Mountain the long way with native grasses reaching sky high. Must have been the rain that did it.

I many have posted a similar picture of this spot from the top of Knox looking down to the lake. Is it the cluster of trees or the steep side that attracts?  

Along the way back from Paul's Tomb the Mock Oranges fill the air with their fantastic scent. 

Monday, June 1, 2015
Rain threatens all around us again, but I bet it won't deliver much. I think these are Black Eyed Susans.

Tuesday, May 26th, 2015

Realized that I'd missed Tuesday and so dropped it in here.

heArt Fit morning sees Faith's interpretation of a microscopic view of bamboo.  My photo does not do it justice, as the colours are far more vibrant. An interesting composition.

Ed dazzles us by liberally dragging paint like magic across the white canvass. 

 Knox mountain hike later that day. Stunning as always.

Thursday, May 28th, was a fast bike ride. The cottonwood trees are releasing their fluffy flying around seeds by the gazillions.  

Friday, May 29, 2015
WRT hike to mix things up this morning and I'm glad I did as I met some folks I know. It was hot already at 8:00 am this morning and will be sweltering by the afternoon. Another lovely view looking north east.

Signs like this one creep me out. It was on the inside of someone's tool trailer near the top of my hike. The message is clear. This person means business about his/her livelihood.

I found these lying in the sand near a house being built. They are nail heads for an air nailer. Thought I might jig with the image to make art. See for yourself what happened. I rather like the original.

Okamino and Beyond

Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

WRT Hike early this muggy morning and the woods are humid, an unusual smell in the usually dry Okanagan.

Spied this little guy lapping up sunshine. He/she let me get very close to take pictures.

When we were young, we would pick these an pop them against our hands and arms, the bladder behind the flower acting like an exploding balloon.

Okamino and Beyond

Thursday May 21, 2015

The Mission Creek is showing off on my bike ride today. 

I've been absent from my blog, getting ready for a party in honour of my husband's 65th birthday on the 23rd. He doesn't like huge demonstrations and events for himself, and we don't plan them, but that's exactly what we ended up with anyway. Sometimes, the thing we avoid is the very thing that we get.

Friday, May 22, 2015
A hike up Knox is a tension buster. Dalmatian toadflax are everwhere, and people have been pulling them out. It's a fool's game to even attempt it.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Another day up Knox and there is the offending toadflax serving up some nectar to what looks like a giant bee, but is in fact a moth.

The camera on my phone is amazing to be able to get a shot like this without too much trouble, making photographers out of all of us.

Sunday, May 24th, 2015
Sold this piece to a friend for her daughter to give away.  I want to remember the loose style, the building and decorating.

We made it up Knox, just, even after the party the night before. Good on you Don, even in your advanced age. (smile and chuckle)

Monday, May 25th, 2015
A bike ride today around my usual 24 km circuit. Going up High road are these very tame deer in Anne and Gord's yard.

Lovely vine hanging over a cement fence on our hike up to Wilden ponds.

Okamino and Beyond

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

heArt Fit day is always a bit of a blur, a good one though. Keith brought in a self-portrait, albeit when he was a bit younger and had more hair, for Renata. 

Renata didn't see this as a completed work, thinking she might further tear and use it in another work. It says so much.

A visitor from near Portland staying at the Grand didn't want to do the usual shopping/wine tasting and found us. She used to paint before children and has just taken up the craft once more. She chuckled the whole time making this, which is collage and drawing and paint. That is real sand on the bottom. I suggested she call it Holy Mackerel! which she did and left to one of our regular attendees. It looks like the start of a children's book, don't you think?

Wednesday, May 20, 2015
WRT hike this morning and the shadows cast by this Yarrow was intriguing.

 Here's the hill that was, on the way to not being.

Witness the drying up of the Arrow Leaf Balsam Root.  Seed heads form and eventually, the whole plant dries up during the summer.