Playing Hooky...

Monday was just too beautiful to spend the whole day painting, so I decided to play hooky and go sailing...  On my way to Cortes Bay I saw this little charmer dancing across the road following mama. I love the way not one of his/her four feet isd touching the ground!


Sailing was wonderful! Gwyneth is in fine shape and the wind was just right. I sailed around Twin Islands with spectacular views of the mountains, clouds, beaches and islands... not to mention the awesome ever moving body of mother ocean!






Back at May's Garden I took a few shots to show the folks in Montreal (where I'm heading next week).

This is the front deck and steps which will "land" on a paved patio.




And this is the latest exterior view. All done except the one gable end that is waiting for the robin chicks to leave the nest. (They are about to hatch).

Pine ceiling finished

Today Mike and I completed the intricate bit of ceiling around the 6ft hole where the spiral staircase will be. Once again Mike showed his ingenuity by inventing a way to scribe the opening onto the ceiling boards. The edge of the opening will eventually get finished with short vertical pieces of the same T&G (tongue and groove for you non-carpenters).

Here is the view through from the dining room to the living room. The only things missing are the spiral staircase and the flooring and the paint and the trim and...  oh forget it!


BTW here's an audio recording of the birds singing near my trailer last night....
http://www.andyvine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/June-19th.mp3
 

Nature notes

This morning as I walked the narrow path through the meadow on my way to work, I noticed, as if for the first time, the exuberant, delicate beauty of the grasses, especially their seed laden heads. As I stood still and looked, it was as if my world opened up to a new and more wonderful reality.

The spotted towhee is an amusing and attractive bird. A pair of them are nesting somewhere under or close to my trailer. They are noisy and cheerful. Sometimes they tap on the windows as if they want to come in. And they love my truck! They perch on the driver side window “ledge” and admire themselves in the rear view mirror. And shit on my door!

Barn swallows are amazing! Their exhilarating flight, their handsome colours and, their tenacious nest building habits… I am learning by observation how they collect beakfulls of mud and deposit it on their chosen nest location. As the mud dries, they add more until they have formed a nest. Last year they chose to build on the main beam across our living room. This year they have picked the wood trim right over our main entrance door! This has been a battle ground for the past few days. Them, pasting bits of mud on the wood trim. Me, knocking it off. Yesterday the pair of them were perched close to the door and I had a serious chat with them about how this location did not work for me. Today, they seem to have decided to find a new location.

An evening walk...

This wise one is the creation of my neighbour Fred who is a keen gardener. Thoise eyes would scare any bird away!










Water lilies. Such profusion. Such perfection.











... with reeds.

One side done, but...

The gable ends on the west side of the house are now all shingled. It took a while... 
Now I'm ready to start on the east side. But there's a snag in the shape of this robin sitting on her nest right on top of the beam notch at the peak of the roof line.




Here she is.... as you know if you've been following my blog for a while, I've "evicted" quite a few robins' nests before or after they had eggs in them. But this situation is new. What to do? I need advice folks... shall I barrel ahead and reduce the world's population of robins by one clutch? Or shall I wait until the birds have flown?

BTW for you Brits, this is the American Robin which is much bigger than the European one and a member of the thrush family.

Still shingling...

This shows my slow progress on shingling the upper walls.  Basically it's taken me three days to do the area around the deck door and the window side of the gable end over the living room.
The problem is there are so many angles that almost every piece has to measured and cut before being installed.
Working on a sloping roof adds to the fun!



Tomorrow I start on the other side which might go a bit quicker because there is no window. I hope so because my hips and lower back are saying "hey, you're not a 20 year old anymore you know..."

No complaints though, it's good work and a great place to practice mindfulness...