Happy Canada Day

Today was perhaps one of the most beautiful Canada Days I've ever
witnessed. Steven and I sat on the back porch and toasted the day
with coffee. The temperature was ideal -- warm without being hot.
A clear blue sky with the odd tiny cloud lifted my spirits. Everything
took on the sparkly glow we associate with summer. Delightful.

I picked more cherries -- a few handfuls then concentrated all day
on painting. I was getting work ready for a show. So here's what I did to one painting -- The Poem, that I worked on all day.

I am finally happy with it, but the two of us struggled. Balancing
staying loose with doing enough to please my eyes is my current obsession. I loved this painting
when it was fresh, and I still like it after I've "fixed it up." But
I may still want to work on it. The top image is the first go,
the bottom my changes.

I hope you had a great Canada Day. If you aren't in Canada,
I hope you just had a great -----------(your country name)
day.

Have a return-to-bliss-day .

Our Wedding Anniversary

This will be short and sweet because it's my wedding anniversary.
We've had a wonderful day - sleeping in, reading, puttering around
the house, then lunch on the waterfront


at the Waterside Bistro,
a great little restaurant behind the tennis club at the end of
Sherbourne Street. http://www.watersidesports.com/bistro.asp
It has the best view of the lake, so we ate
lunch watching the ferries go back and forth and the gulls and ducks flying around. When we had dinner there last year a duck named Freida came begging for fries at all the tables.
Then tonight we ate at a local tapas restaurant on St. Clair called Tapas by Personal Touch,
www.tapas.personalltouch.ca/Contact.html
and that was delicious too. We toasted our long, and happy
marriage, and our great life together, then walked in the clear,
starry night. Perfect.

The pictures are of 1. Our wedding day. 2. The current version.

Have a celebratory night.