As of yesterday Carol is back in Montreal. She has to be exhausted and I am hoping she had a great sleep as now she needs to PAINT! ( I bet she's doing that as I type.) Having a few days start on Carol, I am finishing up my second painting and planning for my third. I find I'm not sleeping well as my mind is busy whirling with ideas for the canvases and what colours to be used. I'm excited to get back into my studio and am in their between 6 and 7 am, hoping to put in a good six or seven hour day. KM 3300 Train Trestle, east of Wawa, Ontario. I had planned on being logical and working from either end of my already completed paintings so I would have a continuous line of work heading in opposite directions, east and west. Hah, that didn't last long! I'm picking my favourites while doing research on others. In some locations it was easy to choose my subject matter but in others, ouch...... I'm searching for inspiration. But, I'm looking forward to starting my next canvas (as well as a trip to my favourite art store.)
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Well, our plans sure took a huge turn, as in an 180˚ turn because of the fires in BC. We went back and forth as to whether we tried for Victoria on the original route or not, checking the fire maps constantly and finally deciding it was too risky. Ever hopeful, we rebooked hotels on an alternative route that would see us end up in Haida Gwaii. Honestly, what artist DOESN'T want to end up in Haida Gwaii! Then, the fires spread northward. In the end, we decided the right thing to do was to leave any open road to the evacuees and emergency vehicles. I have since heard that gasoline is running out, We made the right decision, but it was hard. And our hearts go out to everyone and everything in BC right now. The last two days on the road were busy ones for us. The second last day we went from Swift Current to Calgary, having three shoots along the way. East of Medicine Hat was the first one where I was dive bombed by a Swainson Hawk every time I crouched down to take a photo of a far off train. Researching later, a nest had to have been nearby and the hawk was protecting it. After being swooped three times I ran for the car, calling it a day and left Carol outside to deal with the hawk. She was smarter than I was and stayed by the car. The weather to that point had been spectacular, we drove with the sun beating down onto our shoulders or laps. But that last morning in Calgary, there was rain. I know we thought, "do we just go home now?" But we wanted to try for Banff as we were so CLOSE! Thankfully, we drove out of the rain with the mountains appearing in front of us! Holy cow they are magnificent!
Travel Day ~ From Winnipeg, Manitoba to Swift Current, Saskatchewan
Snow in summer...... what?????? ;-) And the snowmobiler who thinks he's found some snow! And finally, why Saskatchewan is called, "The Land of the Living Sky" P.S. The "snow" is actually the salt flats.
,Well, we are getting better at this. We have figured out what shoulder to use to carry which bag and in what orientation a suitcase needs to be in order for the next thing to fit. We know who is the keeper of the keys and who adjusts the air conditioning.
Midday, the skies turned pretty ominous and we thought we were in for a soaking at our third stop, but the sun came out in all its glory, boy it's hot out there! Finally, we made it into Manitoba.
We found ourselves running across the road at all three stops in order to not miss anything and of course, the grass is always greener on the other side! We found many gorgeous scenes between our determined stops and lamented a few times to each other as to why our 150 marker did not fall another few 100 meters or so! To top off the day, we stopped at the Terry Fox Memorial where we were reminded of his incredible run almost half way across this country. He is certainly someone to be admired and inspired by. Tomorrow, we will make the west side of Winnipeg!
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Carol Loeb
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