Monthly Archives: August 2016
More pics from the Victoria Gem & Mineral Show at the Pearkes Arena
I have always loved beads and anything that sparkles .. .DH has always said that I must have been a crow in a former life .. that might be true!
The show started on Friday and is on till today .. although I would like to go back, I think it best if I don’t …I made some excellent purchases on Friday and have enough (not really, but … ). Anyway, I sure had some interesting discussions with some of the artists and surprised myself with the quantity of photos that I took.
So here are some to share (and there are more for tomorrow!)
This young lady sells a variety of items, which include cabochons, created by her father in Mexico .. I really like her earthy display< and I had purchased a few items from her:
Here is a closer view:
Amazing variety … so many that I just did not know which one I would buy .. so many to choose from. (her Etsy name is in the photo above, if you would like to search for her products).
Aren’t these just so very delightful! This is the “Earth Meets Spirit” table – the artist was so very helpful and she actually weaves these delicate designs out of polymer clay! Incredibly beautiful.
And this sculpture from her table was fantastic!
Here is another view: She made this octopus for her mother .. isn’t it just amazing .. and I hadn’t noticed till now that she incorporated beautiful seashells into the design.
I bought an assortment of pieces of minerals & petrified wood from her and she very kindly gave me an extra piece – so I will enjoy making my purchases into jewellery for myself! I love meeting kind people .. such good energy.
This table was interesting … The vendor explained to me that the seeds have a variety of lines on them .. beginning with just a few .. all the way up to (I think) 20 plus lines. The more lines, the more value or energy, I believe. The couple are from Vancouver and his wife creates the jewellery (if one can call this jewellery, I’m not sure). And when his lovely wife returned to the table I said (can you believe this) so this is the wife then. OMG .. I do not speak like that. Not surprised that she didn’t hang around to chat. Was I channeling someone from back East? Another argh moment in my life.
The vendor artfully arranged everything so I could take a photo .. he was so sweet! http://www.shopinnercircle.ca is their website for more items.
I had a learning visit with this artist .. her card shows a website which has been replaced with “www.outdesigns.rocks” if you care to visit and see more.
See the beautiful rock in the centre, the one with many layers and has a rose tint?
It is a Fireworks obsidion- from looking at the outside, would you have guessed the amazing beauty within? (like people, right!)
We had an interesting discussion about sculpting, how to look at things, ideas. It was very fun. By now my creative mind is twirling with possibilities! Power surge.
Now this vendor, Alex Kuznetson was a real gem! I purchased some fossilized items, he carefully wrote the name down of each type, wrapped them individually and put them all together into a paper shopping bag for me. He treated me like a customer who spent many hundreds of dollars, yet my purchases were meagre. I really liked this interesting and elegant guy … he was so sharing of information to myself and another shopper!
Anyway, I will just list the photos that I took of his tables .. enjoy …
So I still have more photos for tomorrow!
It feels so energizing to blog again …I’ve missed it and the joy it brings to me when I just let my thought go for a flight. Although I’ve loved to write since I was a kid, it’s been like a decadent pleasure that I haven’t always allowed myself to experience.
A friend and I took a writing course years ago, no procrastination, participants had to sit around a big round table and write something. We had 30 minutes. I was scared and excited about the actual writing. Wow, I thought … I’m actually going to write something for real, no putting the activity away for another day.
I have the story with me somewhere in my writing supplies.. it was about a couple of young kids fleeing something at a circus. As I wrote, I was there, it was a captivating experience and I totally loved being there.
The instructor told us that writing bring out the answers to questions we have in our lives. It is all there .. we just have to write, write and write some more. How rich is that! The treasures within.
I have many more things to write about .. my love of music and learning how to properly play the violin, my attempts at art, my love of creating funky jewellery with wire and beads, my soap making ventures. Creating via sewing. So many interests enrich my life.
Anyway, here it is .. a sunny Sunday morning and time to get on with this day.
🙂
Computers, argh. Amazing artists at The second annual Victoria Gem & Mineral Show!
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 …
🙂
Istanbul 70 – Turkish Psycho-Disco
How do I say “wow” in Turkish? Beautiful everything here … I would like to purchase this music and will go to I-Tunes to see if it is available. It would be wonderful to listen to this in my garden!!!
You might have seen this fantastic series selling out quick in your local record store. If, like me, you weren’t quite quick or canny enough to grab one of the limited vinyl copies in person, fear not, a CD has been issued and can be got online at the ever-reliable giant sell-everything stores (not plugging any particular one here!). The picture here is of a record sleeve because, honestly, I love the vinyl and always want it, but the CD features a photo of a van on the front.
These are old Turkish nuggets edited and pushed around with the more leftfield 21stC clubs in mind by a digger nut named Baris K who clearly knows what he is doing. From three 12″s there are a variety of tunes which will appeal in different times and places. Personal favorites of mine, for their sheer trippiness, are Derdiyoklar’s “Yaz Gazeteci” which…
View original post 40 more words
Has it really been a year??? Oh, and the magic is still in the garden. And .. today I went to the Rock & Gem Show at Pearkes Arena, Victoria, BC
Well.. my goodness gracious me. (I’ve always liked that sentence and it seems appropriate to use it today). I think that it is a line that was used many times in the older movies and it has a kind of gracious, civilized, yet .. homey feeling I think.
I just love blogging . .it’s been a very creative outlet for me which I began when I retired and that is about 5 or so years ago. A time in my life when I could begin focusing my energies on things that I like doing.
Gardening is number one of course and in my first year that is what I did. I started a small business “The Dog Walking Gardener” and actually worked for a few people and then I realized that I’d never in my life had this time for me so why am I trying to fill it up with working .. so I stopped that. And worked on transforming our yard into a funky organic place and this has been ongoing and will stop when we move. And then I will start again.
For those who love gardening .. and here I’ll speak for myself on this, cause there are many reasons why people garden. I should really say .. for me .. gardening equals a strong reconnection to the earth, a grounding, as it were. A way of channeling into my most inner, special, creative being. I’m not being spiritual here. I’m just stating the facts.
Today, I worked in my garden in the late afternoon .. it’s been terribly hot here and the sun has been very strong. So when I went outside, with my mug of Yorkshire Tea .. I was just really wanting to get some good energy for moving things around. I started out with our little JaneE Kat .. she’ll be 21 in December! She sits in the stairway that leads to the basement, waiting for me to go outside so I can put treats on the pathway for her! She is reward orientated.
Here is JaneE in our motorhome when we travelled to Hope, BC, to visit the Vancouver Soaring Club .. so beautiful and more about that later. Anyway, she is getting quite comfortable with being in the motorhome, as far as she is concerned ..all that is outside is like a tv!
Then, mug in hand, I moved around the yard, listening to the most beautiful soothing music from my IPod .. and I was watering another section of parched yard at the time. I drifted backwards in time to when I was little … when I started a circular patch of sunflowers from a 5 cent packet of seeds, into our hard packed back yard. I clearly remember the 5 cents and the happy sunflowers on the packet of seed .. and I have no idea where the packet came from .. I just seemed to have it. The seeds grew and were beautiful and cheerful. I was going to do that this year but somehow .. it didn’t happen .. there is always next year.
Here is sweet little JaneE, sleeping away on the outside stairs .. yegads how I love her.
Thanks to the hungry birds at the feeder, though, there are lots of sunflowers sprouting throughout the yard .. so I guess, in reality, they are making my dream come through!
Anyway .. it was a most beautiful chunk of time, watering the plants, listening to the music, drifting back in time and being extremely grateful that I have this bit of paradise that I have created .. that reflects my inner self and a space where I can just revel in beauty and appreciate the energy that comes from the growing plants.
For I have become quite enamored of beans! The climbers that I planted. The tiny seeds that I nurtured, which grow most magically into magnificent plants that twirl above my head .. reaching always for a place to grow. Isn’t it so humbling that a tiny seed contains absolutely everything that is needed to morph into a plant that will give me good food. Everyday I go outside to check on them. The Annie Jackson Pole Beans, Spanish Musica, Cherokee Trail of Tears and my most favourite bean, which I call “my favourite bean”. It’s heritage and special and I forget the name. One day I’ll look on Salt Spring Island Seeds or from Annapolis Seeds at: http://www.annapolisseeds.com as those are the two places where I’ve ordered seeds from. Excellent quality. Crispy long pods that crunch when you bite into them!
This photo is for me to look at in the winter so I can remember how lovely it is to watch the beans growing on my makeshift garden ..
It’s been a busy day … and more about that another time. About computers and the time spent getting new ones to behave, many trips to the shop.
Bees and sunflowers ..
Smiling sunflowers .. same flower one day apart ..
This rose was dying until I gave it some water .. like a little love ..it works miracles.
A lovely bit of fluff on some ornamental grass .. ethereal and so sweet .
Comfrey flowers for the bees ..
Squash growing in some sieved compost ..what to do .. I have tried repotting one of them .. they have grown so I must try to let them grow .. in another area as there is no drainage in this container!
This is a great year for fruit in our city .. and here is an example from one of our trees!
Picked this up at Michaels last week .. excellent!
A seed planted in a pot and lookee here!
Scarlett Red Runner Beans .. this was a surprise plant .. I had looked at it one day and saw it twining upwards, perhaps a forgotten seed from last year and suddenly … beans! They were delicious!
Spanish Musica beans .. very tall pole beans ..
Little Anna in one of the apple trees ..
And I’ve been spending so very much time this year with creative endeavours. Today, this included two trips to the Rock and Bead show at the Pearkes Arena. I spoke with such creative people and took lots of photos, which I will share tomorrow.
Lived in a creative manner .. life is stupendous and amazing and energizing.
🙂
till tomorrow ….
My Lovely Garden … Mon Joli Jardin 