A Little of This, That or Not Quite the End

Calendars are all well and good, however, reality is completely different.

Took a morning to go to the valley entrance with the one car bridge,
to paint. Thought I would try my hand, again, using watercolors (bane of my artistic ability) and was rewarded with clumsy results. This just made me mad. Concentrated action was needed.

Returned to some of the photos we took on our 'Canada Day' to see if I could do a better job with watercolors in studio. I had liked some of the results of the work done in route. With those small successes I approached my nemesis - the watercolor monsters.

The first landscape, like the others done on the trip, were composites or impressions of the scenery we passed through.

The flower was done from the bouquet of flowers Andy's neighbor gave after we got here - still impressionistic for the most part.

The last landscape is the result of my battles with watercolors. I'm not displeased and recognize that perhaps this nemesis can become a friend.

Yesterday we went to cliffs for me to work in oils. (I had been wanting to do oils all along; opportunities were difficult to pin down.  It also helped that I shipped all my watercolors, markers, graphic materials back to the States. This way I couldn't fall back on them and their ease of use.)

What started out as maybe a couple of hours of painting ended up as almost five hours of painting. The only reason I stopped was Andy pointing out to me the storm coming in on top of us. As we were returning we saw this 'mad' thunderhead glaring at us.

Weather again being the controlling issue, it will be the middle of the week before I can get out to try my hand in oils. I'm going to try to do the village from the view point a little Southeast of it. We've been all around the village and we agree that this view is nicer than the others.

Hidden Gems

Since we've gotten here to Big Valley, we have been rushing about cutting grass, triming shrubs, trees, doing this, that and the other with only a peripheral noticing of the vistas around us.

This week, since Monday was Canada Day, we've taken some time to "smell the roses."

I've set up a calender so we can plan out specific days in which I can paint. There are other things that have to be done and if we don't plan it out before I return on August 6th I fear the opportunities will be lost to me.

I only hope I can give credit to the blessings Andy has been so fortunate to have found. No longer will I tease him about 'Happy Valley' as these gems are deserving of the respect and awe they inspire.

Memorial

About a month ago, as reported at the beginning of this blog, Andy's friend died. The memorial is June 30th.  This memoral was a small, private ceremony. His brother conducted the prayer of grief. Afterwards stories were shared along with the food and drink.

Andy had to come to Edmonton to pick up a check at the courthouse on Friday so he decided we should spend the weekend there since he didn't want to spend the extra time or money commuting back and forth on fuel.

It's a long weekend because July 1st is Canada Day. That is the equivalent of America's 4th of July. Andy figured that everyone would be out camping this weekend.  He also figured that we could find a motel room for less than $100. This is one of those occasions when Andy was wrong.  We did eventually find a place for two nights, using my AAA discount that didn't make Andy's face get all frowny too much.

Friday evening had a cool sunset which we tried to catch. Saturday we went to Lee Valley Tools which specialize in quality, hard to find tools. I've been looking for an inexpensive set of carving tools to make woodblocks for printing which I found there. I also found a flower press you use in the microwave. Might try them out on the flowers in the yard.

We were going to Edmonton Mall when Andy saw that a Canadian hardware store was going out of business. "Let's go look. They might have some things I can use for the house." Well, two hours later, flatbed and buggy in tow, we're unloading the bikes (we never got around to getting them out) to load 30 flats of laminate flooring, 10 gallons of paint, two sets of blinds for the windows, dead bolts and locks for the doors and the faucet shower assembly for the bath. Poor old van is riding low. We had yo put the bikes on the rack and bring them inside the motel for safe keeping.

Finally we headed to West Edmonton Mall. This mall is eight city blocks with at least 850 stores and everything is inside. Pretty amazing.

Kindness of Strangers

Our arrival at Andy's house made an impression on us since Barbie could not be parked in the driveway. We circled the block determining that Barbie had to be parked in the back yard.

No sooner were we in the process of backing her in between a blue spruce tree and another unknown type of tree, we were approached by a white haired, pony-tailed lady that barely came up to my shoulder. Betty, as she introduced herself to us, came to give Andy the key to the house the previous owner left in her keeping.

Andy explained the issue we were having in backing Barbie into the yard and in no time at all Betty was back with two sizes of buck/bow saws. "You can give them back tomorrow. Goodnight." We just looked at each other.

Next morning Andy met the other neighbor, Larry.  As it turned out, Larry is the village handyman. He immediately offered any help he could. We found a lawn mower in the shed, unknown if it worked. Larry told Andy if it didn't he had an extra mower we could use.  By that afternoon Andy had a new mower - the one Larry offered for us to use.  By that evening Larry and Andy were going through the house discussing what needed to be done with the various ways to get it done. Andy has been overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of his neighbors.

In addition to the kindness of his neighbors, I found the attached flowers growing in his yard. I decided to cut them before Andy mowed them down.

Alberta Canada, specifically Penhold and Big "Happy" Valley

Leaving the ranch, we headed North of Calgary to Penhold, the little town where Andy's children live.

Of course I was very nervous meeting Coreen, Chris, their spouces and his grandchildren. We were greeted with warm hospitality.

Andy's children have young families. Their children range in age with the oldest an 8 year old boy, two 2 year old boys, an 11 month old girl and one due in four weeks, gender unknown.

We left the next afternoon for Big Valley. This community is about 380 people, no traffic lights but plenty of stop signs. Andy says those signs are routinely ignored and viewed as suggestions only.

We put Barbie to her last hard struggle - the hill climbing up to Big Valley has a 9 percent grade. At one point I did offer to get out and give Barbie help by pushing, we were going so slowly, but the old girl got us to the top. From the top of that hill it was 5 miles more (8k) to Big Valley.

Twlight greeted us as we slowly entered the quiet streets to Andy's 1903 house.  The house was easy to pick out due to the hip high grass gracing the yard.

Beyond Yellowstone

Leaving the national parks behind we made our way towards Canada stopping at Grand Falls, Montana. This small town holds an amazing museum devoted to Charlie Russell, the Cowboy Artist. This artist and Remington pretty much define Western art.

I picked up an unusual piece - a gourd dyed the color of the red rocks so typical of the West beaded with semi-precious stones around the neck opening. It's ambiance, to me, is the essence of what I felt as I traveled through the ever changing yet same landscapes.

We headed North, making our way to Sweetwater, the border point that accepts imported vehicles. Once there, anticipating problems due to stories heard, Andy was a bundle of nerves fumbling his cell phone, dropping it and shattering the glass. That was the greatest mishap/problem we encountered.

We headed to Antelope Creek Ranch.  There we met Neal Wilson the manager of the ranch. We spent a lovely evening with he, Shannon and their two boys - Boyd and Reed.  I discovered two type of swallows who were acrobatic in their consumption of mosquitos. There is the Cliff swallow which creates a mud-dabbled nest and the Barn swallow with the sharp forked tail. Next day Neal gave us a tour of the ranch.

Grand Tetons & Yellowstone

Grand Tetons were very impresive. However Andy thought the range was larger than it was.


The winding road to Yellowstone showed the ravages of forest fires with all the new growth of trees. 


Old Faithful was reliable. 
We got to the giser site about 10 minutes before it was to erupt.  After we rode around to the 'paint pots.' 
Because of my allergy to sulfa I could only get so close before my chest began to hurt. 
Andy was able to get up closer. I stayed back enjoying the meadow with the purple flowers. 

The other draw of Yellowstone, which 
I didn't know about, is the 'Grand 
Canyon of Yellowstone.'  

Leaving the park was as thrilling as getting into it. We saw a grizzly bear 
(brown spot in the back) and a small group of elk.