Dialogues Continue

Last year i wrapped the 4 the trees i decided to have a 'dialogue' with. After a few months the unbleached cotton i had wrapped them with showed no signs of the staining i had expected. So I left the trees wrapped and continued the dialogues in other ways.
Yesterday, while i was outside doing fall clean-up in the garden, i checked my wrapped trees and this is what I found.
Staining on the Arbutus wrap...

...and the Douglas-fir (image above), and also on the wraps of the maple and the cedar.
It made me realise i can't rush these dialogues because i am wanting to respond to cycles of time that are different to my own.

I also checked on another dialogue going on out in the garden at the present.
Leaves have started to fall on the table cloth lying out under the maple. The cloth is no longer white but i don't know if there is just dirt from rain and animals walking on it or staining is starting to take place.

I spent today working on sessions for the class i start teaching in November, 'Mark Making With Thread'.
People have been generously donating materials and books for the students to use. I went through the bags and sorted them according to how they could be used in the different sessions i have planned. One lot of fabric is big enough for everyone in the class to have a piece so i planned a session around it.
I also did lots of reading for my dissertation and some brainstorming on a white board to organise my thoughts for the next few chapters. I have done enough reading for now. Tomorrow i get back to the writing.

Spore Patterns

With the warm wet weather we have been having, all sorts of fungi have been sprouting up.
Here are some images of spore patterns made by some of them.

They look like those retina images one now gets when having one's eyes examined.
Or is it mushroom iridology?

Bay of Fundy

Ferry crossing to Deer Island.

Beach combing.

Checking out of Jonah B & B.

Articulation in Bay of Fundy

I continue to sample the seafood chowders when we stop for a meal. I couldn't go past the beet salad so ordered just a cup of chowder (6/10).

Results of beach combing as the sun was setting.

The locals collect other things.

Articulation's Fundy Study

Deborah and Phil, our hosts of the Jonah Place Bed and Breakfast Inn we stayed at while based in Sussex, prepared a delicious evening meal for us one night.

Here is the 2010 group shot in the front room of the 1884 inn.

The low bush blueberry fields were starting to turn red.

A blueberry picking comb ReBecca's grandfather made.
We enjoyed lots of blueberry flavoured food wherever we travelled around the Bay of Fundy.

Fredericton - Bay of Fundy

While exploring the streets of Fredericton, we came across a group of legal graffiti artists decorating the side wall of a skate shop. The 1st 2 are local artists while the far 3 were commissioned from Montreal.

Graffiti art is becoming mainstream.
What will be next?

Fundy Study

Isaac's Way in Saint John has a picturesque display of shellfish and fish on ice.

And I gave his seafood chowder an 8 - no potatoes, it was served on a brown rice/wild rice mix. Delicious.

Icons of the Bay of Fundy found in St Martins.
Fishing boats resting on the sea floor when the tide is out.

Covered bridges, tidal rivers, vernacular architecture.
Saint Martins has it all.

Fundy Study Session

We eat in a Chinese restaurant in Sussex....

... before beginning our AGM.

Saint John is full of interesting architecture. Here is one in the Second Empire style, popular with the French speaking Canadians long after Napoleon was deposed in Europe.

Donna and Leann in 'the oldest common law market in continuous use in Canada' (since 1867). Carpenters with shipbuilding skills made a roof like a ship's hull - very beautiful.

Fundy Study

More local architecture - a Classic Revival/Gothic Revival mix of forms, possibly expanded as the family and fortune grew. With the front door a step from the road I don't think they use that door much.

When we arrived in Sussex a 'Take Back The Night' march was going on down Main Street.

So some of us joined in - a reminder of university days. It was fun but a bit sad that women feel they still need to march 35 years later.

We checked into the Jonah B 'n' B. Leann and I have a room up in the gables of a Victorian house, with a spa bath!

Fundy - Cape D'Or

Our visit to Cape D'Or has been the highlight of our trip so far.

It was so windy it was a challenge to stand steadily enough to take photographs.

Sketching was out of the question.

But what fun!

Bay of Fundy day 2

I am doing a study of the architecture as a story of the history of settlement by Europeans.
This seems to be a classic - an e.g. of the vernacular.

Lunch Stop - the sunny steps of a United Baptist church for a picnic.

According to my reference book, 'Houses of Nova Scotia' by Allen Penny, this is a 2 story in the Neo-Classical style - characteristics: symmetry, some degree of classical proportion, 'often a doorway with some reference to an ancient building' (in this case the Roman pediment in the triangular awning over the front door).

We continued around the Bay of Fundy, stopping in places to watch the tide going out.