MY WILD WEEKEND

Last year, on Easter weekend, my sister Julie and I went on a west coast retreat -- it's great fun to hang out together for an extended period of time, and wherever we go, she paints and I knit. We decided neither of us could really afford the accommodations for a two-day retreat this year, so we did day trips instead. Besides, the wind absolutely howled here for the past three days, so it made for some interesting sight-seeing.

First stop, on Good Friday, Clover Point (of course!):


Julie got started on a painting of that scene while I worked on the cotton lace shawl.

On Saturday we headed up-Island... first to Mill Bay, where we'd heard on the news that the wind had pretty much taken out the Mill Bay marina. It was true, there was a lot of devastation:





Then we stopped at one of the oldest and largest Garry Oak preserves in Canada, just outside of Maple Bay...

I've been playing with the zoom and close-up focus on my camera, and this was one result...

Then we took ourselves to lunch at the 'Brig' pub -- check out the bar in this place:

After lunch we re-located the van to a lower parking lot so we could set up for the afternoon's activities:

I almost finished the blue shawl, while Julie painted the scene you see in this photo:

More tomorrow ... :-)