ha ha .. I actually wrote the “rock and bean show” and corrected that.  Do I have beans on my mind or what!

A few days ago, I trundled our poor ole computer over to have it looked at.  Turns out, at 10 years old, it had outlived it’s lifespan by 5 years so we actually had a good run.  Time for a newer model so I went that route. And blithely forgot what I go through every single time we upgrade and thus spent 2 days working on “where is that **%” program .. where is my music .. etc., etc., I won’t bore you with the details.  After a few visits back and forth, trying to explain what I was missing and where was it .. the experts at Mother Computers had our computer running seamlessly.   Yegads they are patient.   So we love that store!

Anyway, that storm went away so it was time for me to have a fun visit to the “second annual Victoria Gem & Mineral Show” at the Pearkes Arena.  It was so much fun that I actually went for awhile, returned home to play in the garden and went back to the show.  Glad I did as I enjoyed talking with the artists and came home with such good ideas for my creations to try and implement.   That is how creativity happens.  Travelling around doesn’t hurt either, but that isn’t in the picture so I’m glad the show is here.

This is rather artistic and was an accident .. I like it though.  The next photo shows what it was meant to be.

Happy accident .. I think I prefer the one above.  Anyway, lovely garden at the Pearkes Arena.

Sweet little JaneE Kat enjoying the shade on this hot day:

My climbing beans provide shade and a place of mystery and privacy in the yard .. loving this.  

I will never ever have a structured garden .. they will always be changeable and different every year .. and see how I’ve added a variety of structures for the beans to grow up .. a garden with personality.   The best thing for growing climbers is a section of cattle fencing .. perhaps in our next home.  For now this is perfect .. 

 

And now on to the Gem show .. I took so many pictures and want to share what I learned so will continue tomorrow .. for now ..Lovely use of driftwood, very artistic.

Millions of crystals in this one ..

I bought some phantom quartz ..that was the reason for my second visit!  I bought the smaller one at my first visit.  At home, after I read up on the qualities of the phantom quartz,  I had to return to get another one!  And lucky me .. the one I chose was on sale (honest, that is not why I chose this one . .I just liked it).  Mine happened to be grey phantoms.  There are a variety of colours:  http://www.healingwithcrystalshtml.net.au/phantom-crystals.

At another table, I bought these (more photos from this table tomorrow) .. the seller was originally from Russia and lives in Calgary.  He told me that a lot of artifacts are being found due to climate change.  And that China is taking truckloads of these away.

These are some of the items I purchased at Earth Meets Spirit (and she gave me one free, what a sweetie!)  More photos tomorrow .. just wanted to share these now.

I think this is an amethyst .. it sparkled so I had to have it:

The one on the left is Serpentine (I bought this at the Sequim Lavender Faire last year.  I spoke with a sculpture (yegads, you know, the person who sculpted not the actual sculpture)  at the Gem show, who told me that it had been tumbled and would be easy to carve (wow .. I am going to learn about carving) and that it has saponification properties!  The chunk on the right is “slag” .. glass found in our back yard left over from a glass factory that used to be on our property before the house was built. Our house is circa 1941 .. so I guess the factory would have been here 1930’s.  I have lots of this beautiful glass and treasure it.  I was told it could be tumbled.  One artist shone a light through it and it seemed to come alive with brilliance.

And one more photo to end the day. I’m still in awe that my bean plants have so many beans on them .. it seems only a few weeks ago I planted them.  Now, not only do they add interest, shade and privacy in the yard… they are supplying me with food!   This question mark bean was growing around a stake, it was determined and would not give up.  Like me.

So .. it’s been another hot and sunny day here and time for supper …

🙂