The Last Page

Some two years ago now I complained to my son Coert that I couldn't find a mention of my work on internet. He suggested I start a web-log and make myself known. Coert got me started and I enjoyed regularly posting my activities for friends and family abroad, picking up a client along the way and, of course, "seeing my picture on the cover".
As time passes I look at all the posts and see I am having much fun doing pretty much the same.... but different. I feel, anyway, that it's not exciting enough to keep posting it here so I'm going to call this "The Last Page" for now.
For those who feel the urge.... you can keep up with me and my work via Facebook.

Peter's 72nd Birthday

Peter's 72nd birthday was a weekend of joy.
It all started friday night with our weekly cocktail party. Everybody was there.
We had cake and sang happy birthday in Dutch and English.
Saturday a Dutch friend we had not seen for seventeen years unexpectedly arrived with her husband and two teenagers. As they arrived late we orderd pizza and we had a nice evening catching up and watching the Olympics on the new t.v. Peter got for his birthday.
Victor, our 14 year old guest from the Netherlands, had installed it. We had tried but could not get a picture.Sunday morning Cornalijn, Paul and kids came to be there when the candles were blown out on the birthday cake. Now there was eleven of us. Our dutch guest Corlijn (12 years) old made a painting of my granddaughterLillian. Daniel helped blow out the birthdaycake. We all went for a walk in the backyard to visit my 'thinking rock' (meditation place). While we were on our walk Peter's cousin Bill and his wife Carol had arrived. It was so festive to have so many people around. We all made dinner and had another long evening with lots of laughing and singing. Our friends from the Netherlands left for the Niagra Falls on Monday afternoon.....but not before having seen a Cardinal, an Oriol, Hummingbirds, snakes, squirrils chipmunks.

Now it's time to get ready and pack my suitcase to go visit my son and his family in the Netherlands. I will be there just in time for his birthday.

Keeping Busy

Besides being very busy in the flower and the vegetable garden. I have been painting.
Here a vase with sunflowers. At 24x36 inches this is a large painting.
The vase they are in is one of my WorcesterWare vases. I made a series of six of these vases in 1990. Most of them were later made into lamps. See the second photo for detail.....

North Bend Garden

Gardening this year started out as quite the challenge.

All the water this spring got me off to a late start.... and the those !@#$%^coyotes that had been taking my chickens have left and been replaced by wild rabbits that ate all of the seedlings as they came up.
Since reinforcing the garden fence with chicken wire and replanting pretty much everything the ball has been rolling in a positive direction.

In this picture you see that I have help from friends..... "crop-sharers"instead of "share-croppers".
In the third picture you can see how fast everything is growing.
Note the sunflowers, they are not blooming yet, but see how tall they are.
We have already harvested several meals of summer-squash, little tomatoes, swiss chard, cucumbers, eggplant and even a pepper. All this besides the regular herbs. The pole beans "Kentucky wonders" are blooming. I like those a lot because of the red flowers. The hummingbird visits them a couple of times a day. ... You can set your watch by it.
Last but not least note the new fence. I am enlarging the garden for next year.

Ice Rings on North Bend Farm

Here are some photos of my "ice rings". They decorate our yard during the winter frost. I had a late start this year because it was not cold enough but now I have about 100 rings hanging. If it stays cold enough I will make "ice hearts" for Valentine's day. I make the rings in coffee ring containers I buy at yardsales. They freeze overnight and then I hang them the next day. The ice rings brighten up the yard, especially when the sun hits them.

Then and Now

In the winter the rockpiles are more visable than in the summer. I enjoy the shadows and shapes the snow makes, they are ever changing. The window in the middle is where the computer is and so I am looking at the rocks every morning checking my e-mail. Not quite visable, on the right is a tall collection of rocks. My son Coert brought those from the Swift River and stacked them on one of his trips here. River rocks are much smoother than our "country rocks". I love stacking rocks and there are many of these "cairns"all around the neighborhood. I'll try and find the egg tempera paintings I made of them.

Getting Winter to Flower in New England

Now that the holidays are over winter has started to get serious. This is the time of year that I start longing for flowers..... however much I enjoy the light, color and shades of winter.
I started my Amaryllis late so that is not yet blooming. The Paperwhites are budding; but the most important, the Hyacinth is blooming.
I miss the smells from outside in the winter. The earth, the sheep, fresh mown grass and the flowers blooming.
It is around this time of the year, that I dig up my paintings of flowers and hang them up all around me. The first one, of the Nasturtiums, was painted last autumn.
The Sunflowers are from last summer.
The Gladioli are from my garden some years ago. The vase they are in is my own Worcesterware.

Logging and Coyotes

The loggers are all done now, the big machines are gone. Below is a photo of them loading the forwarder... Peter is supervising; he is standing well out of the way just to the left of the big maple tree.The logger left us some firewood. It needs to be cut, split and stacked. This will be a project for Coert when he comes next month.
During their time here, the loggers have seen six coyotes at once and seven deer, does with yearlings This morning there were two coyotes in the front yard. I took the pictures out of the window as not to scare them before I had proof of them. They are about as large as my standard poodle, with faces like a cat. When you see them you know for sure that they are NOT dogs.... See for yourself in the photos.

the Chrismas Blog-Break

Since arriving home almost two weeks ago we have been either shoveling snow or preparing for Christmas..... Or even better, shoveling snow so we could get out of the driveway to prepare for Christmas.
I made it up to Princeton for my painting group last week but made no pictures.
Here's a picture of the snow...... geese. Can you find them?

The Long (and Harrowing) Trip Home

My son Coert brought me to Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam last Thursday. It was nice, sunny but cold weather. We stood in line waiting to check-in for some time because those @#$%^computers for the self-serve boarding passes weren't doing their thing. Finally a boarding pass and my one bag checked (travel light and fast is the motto) we said our goodbyes.
After all these years it's still a bit difficult and we both look forward to seeing eachother again in February.Anyway, a long walk to the gate, a long wait at the gate and finally boarding.
Departure Schiphol Amsterdam around 2pm local time.

In-flight I tried to take some pictures but only one is worth showing here.
As we got closer to our destination I saw quite a bit of ice form on the wing-tips. During the decent and landing the snow was so blinding I could only but see the red light flashing on the wingtip. The landing was so bumpy and scary the woman next to me took my hand for comfort.... the people on the plane were silent until we were sure we had stopped.... Then of course there was quite the applause.

Arrival Logan international Boston. 4:55pm local time, the last plane to land before closing down the runway and diverting the all other flights. We had to wait some time for the baggage carosel to start running as those poor baggage handelers were probably working up to their knees in the snow.I called Worcester Airport Limosine and heard that they had cars stuck in traffic all over the place and would come to get me a.s.a.p. Finally a young man showed and drove us through the blinding snow west on route 90, the Massachusetts Turnpike.
To keep this long story short I arrived home later than planned and was luckily not diverted to Detroit or somewhere.
Now, back home, in the snow our priorities are getting to the firewood and to the animals.

North Bend Farm Logging News

Joe the logger (on the right in the photo) is doing a great job thinning our woodlot. The forester, John Clark, of Bay State Forestry Service was just here to check it out. There are no deep ruts, the slash is cut small and flattened out. The path into the back lot will be cleared of any brush by the time they are done. Joe says he will be done by the end of December. He does not work when it is raining. He observed two coyotes, they were not afraid of the forwarder (photo below). I figured it is mating season and we can expect many more soon. We are amazed by efficiency of the logging. One man cuts the trees and "limbs", another man comes and picks the 20 foot long logs up with the forwarder. In the driveway (staging area) he sorts the wood into a pile of saw wood and firewood. See Peter and our grandson Daniel next to the wood stack below. From here the hardwood is picked up by a huge logging truck. Joe says the hardwood goes to a mill in New Hampshire because there are only a few sawmills left here in New England. The firewood is hauled off to Joe's backyard, where he will cut and split it.