Butchart Gardens is a world famous garden which is about 10 minutes from my house. It is visited all year round http://www.butchartgardens.com/the-gardens/. Jenny Butchart collected unusual flowers and the blue poppy was one of her rarest.
The garden is open all year round and a wonderful place to have afternoon tea. http://www.butchartgardens.com/images/stories/PDF/2012drafternoontea.pdf
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I was reminiscing today about my wonderful painting trip to Italy…I had so hoped to do one again next year but time will tell. On this particular trip we stayed at a Monastery in the hills of Tuscany/Umbria. We had a wonderful painting room and we also went out on location. The young priest that took care of all our needs was taking his last vows and he invited us to attend his banquet. What a party! It was just like a wedding with an 8 course dinner – each course had a different wine and it ended with some sort of brandy cake and more brandy 
We were really giggling when the Bishop came and looked down our tops and said “I baptize you”.. hmmmm with a sprinkling of wine. Good memories.
This particular painting was done of a hillside town called Sutri.
I thought I needed to add a touch of spring to the site today. Spring is just around the corner here on Vancouver Island. The daffodils, tulips, etc are well on their way and should be blooming soon. The snowdrops are open now and so dainty.
Now I am pulling out my soap box
I consider myself up to date on health issues but I did not have any symptoms that would have said “heart” to me.
I was out to lunch with a friend as we got up to leave I said hmm something didn`t agree with me…and mentioned I had a dull ache between my shoulder blades. By the time I got to her house I was vomiting. No pain to speak of..dull ache and one little pain in my right arm pit. My friend was on the ball and gave me two baby aspirins and talked me into going to the hospital. I honestly did not feel the need and thought something I ate hadn`t agreed with me.
Once in the emergency I did experience more tightness and vomiting. The blood work showed that I had had an incident and ordered an angiogram for Monday am.
I want you all to reread the symptoms for women as they are nothing like a man.
I have been having angina pain thinking it was heartburn.. Apparently there is absolutely NO difference in the feeling…that is scarey
They were happy with my diet but felt I was tooooo sedontary (meaning rolling over to get out of bed is considered my daily exercise.) My foot surgery will have to wait another year…no biggie but it does keep me from walking alot. I have to figure something out.
Thank God we have a brand new heart hospital in Victoria with excellent doctors and I feel I got the best possible care.
Rhodos are so delicate to capture on paper…this one was painted from a painting I took last summer. Dressed in Summer White
I took my grandson and daughter downtown Victoria to our China Town District. I was hoping to get some good reference photos..
Victoria’s China town is one of the oldest in North America. The Gold Rush years saw an influx of Chinese from San Francisco as well as mainland China.
We had a great time browsing though the shops and bought some good luck candy.
And then we had lunch by the inner harbour with The Empress Hotel in the background. This is a quiet time in Victoria “no tourists”
This was carpeted as a third bedroom which didn’t prove to be practical when I am giving lessons and painting.
It isn’t a big room but I have lots of cupboard space and the light is good. The floor is walnut and very beautiful. Let’s hope it inspires me!
I have a beautiful new floor in my painting room and as a result everything had to be taken out …what a great opportunity to PURGE! and purge I did. I have 3 bags of things I don’t need, have never used and they are going to good homes. I have decided to share the books I have read and just keep on a shelf so they are also going to friends who love to read. My room looks neat and uncluttered..how long can this go on? LOL probably not long.
I got this book for Christmas and since I am an avid reader have finished it and really enjoyed it. I recommend it When she decides to auction her remarkable jewellery collection, Nina Revskaya, once a great star of the Bolshoi ballet, believes she has drawn a curtain on her past. Instead, the aged dancer finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland and of the events — both glorious and heartbreaking — that changed the course of her life half a century before.
It was in Russia that Nina first learned to dance, that she fell in love with a dashing poet, that she and her dearest companions became victims of Stalinist aggression and that a terrible discovery led to a deadly act of betrayal — and to a daring and ingenious escape that eventually brought her to the city of Boston.
Nina has never shared the dark secrets of her heart. But two people — an associate director at the auction house and a Russian professor looking for the key to his own ambiguous history — will not let the past rest, and they find themselves unravelling a literary mystery whose answers will hold life-changing consequences for them all.
Several years ago I came upon this kelp washed up on the beach. I was intrigued by the rhythm of the bull whip kelp. I felt it was too difficult to paint but decided to give it a try. I am not sure about the title yet..but to me it was musical.
