Happy Halloween!

Have a Devilish good time!

Watch this video if you haven't already....

While we're at it if you like a good ventriloquist, here's another:

Before the Flood

This important movie about climate change will be launched on 

Sunday, October 30, 2016
National Geographic Channel and YouTube

Go in the Glow

Ok, this might be a bit spooky, but since it's almost Halloween, I'll share it here.

Student Video

No words needed.

Water Bottle Tossing

Have you heard of the newest kid fad? Water Bottle Flipping. No need to buy expensive toys for your kids - just hand them a water bottle. The noise might drive you to drink (something other than water) though. 

When in Doubt

Road Construction

Cottage season has ended for another year. We are back home and connected to wifi again - Yay! So I thought I'd post these pics of the road our neighbour to the east decided was necessary for his access. It travels mostly on our property and involved quite a few days of large machinery and tree-felling, rock-moving, brush-clearing, grading etc. In other words, it was pretty noisy. 

This was the view looking up from the Journey parking spot.

The digger is sitting in the area where our new (extra) parking spot is since the first one has become part of the new road.

This photo with the tail of my car peeking out is looking toward the cottage just at the point where the single extra parking spot used to be which is now where the new road diverges to the right toward the neighbour. 

Here's another shot angled eastward down the new road.

And here is the new parking spot just up the hill from our regular parking area. See that big rock? - piece of cake for the machinery they had.

 The road construction was finished by the Thursday before Thanksgiving, for which we gave thanks! This large roller was parked in our second extra lot over the weekend. They picked it up first thing Tuesday morning.

In this next photo, I was walking east toward the neighbour's parking area. You can see where the new road joins up with it, heading up the hill. And it's quite a hill! We question whether or not it's a usable incline for vehicles. Time will tell I guess.

I decided to walk up the hill. In this photo it doesn't look all that steep, does it? Trust me - it's very steep! Those ruts you can see were made by the only vehicle that has attempted the climb - a construction worker's heavy-duty AWD pick-up. I noticed that the guys did a great job cleaning up all the fallen wood and brush.

The road is really quite short. At the top of the hill, it curves around, still upward to the original road.

The road crew broke our phone line twice. The first break was quickly patched. The second break was more serious, requiring Bell to string a wire and support cable between the 3 poles between the neighbour to the west and us. The guys in this truck arrived on Wednesday, just as we were thinking we were ready to lock up and head home with all our stuff. 

Thought for the Day

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mandalas

Elspeth McLean is an Australian-born artist now living and working on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, Canada. 

In one way, you could say her art is quite simple: she paints dots. But the colours and patterns she uses bring a level of complexity that is mesmerizing. 

Hence mandalas: cosmic drawings representing our connection to the universe.

The brilliance and depth of colour are achieved with the use of multiple layers of paint. The dots are created with the use of very fine artist brushes and the judicious loading of paint.

McLean often uses those round stones worn smooth by sand and sea to paint her mandalas and they are a popular item in her Etsy shop. 

Other arts that McLean enjoys are acrylic painting, clay sculpting, photography, ink drawing, mural painting, textile painting and felting.

McLean's Etsy shop is well-frequented and usually sold out, so she only opens the shop sporadically and then as fast as she can load the photographs of her mandalas, they are purchased. That fast! She announces the Etsy shop openings ahead of time on this page: www.elspethmclean.com/#!mandala-stones/c3u4. 

Check out this page for other opportunities for finding her work as photographs and on stationery, clothing, textiles, iPhone and iPad cases, mugs and so on.

Budgies

Do you have or have you ever had a budgie as a family pet? Lots of them in Australia. This photo is from the Australian Geographic. 

Some places in Australia have astonishing numbers of the little birds, often forming murmurations overhead.

The Australian Geographic has a really great website with links to all kinds of fascinating stuff. How about this video explaining about wombats and their cubic poops.