Dunlop gallery exhibition

The Dunlop gallery has been open for a couple of weeks. Margaret has been working but we'd not actually gone ourselves to see the work. Realizing that this show is closing today, William and I went. I really liked the idea of web pages on slide projectors. Brilliant. 

Stealing hand sanitizer?

I never would have thought people would treat hand sanitizer dispensers as refill stations. Geremy says that he saw a couple guys at the university doing this. One was the lookout, the other was filling a paper bag with sanitizer. 

Comic page progress

I hung out with William late into the night. We've not been watching as many movies this week as he's trying to make constant progress on his art. 

Art advisors

This afternoon William got a pencil draft of his comic page for his class. Allan came over early to take a look and give a bit of advice. Later in the evening Angie came over for some fire time. Haven't seen her since the end of grade 12 when William had her as an art teacher. We're excited that the new book in the series she writes with David Gane will be out for Christmas. 

Mom visits

Mom came by and visited for a while. She brought some beans. William showed her the drawing he's been doing. Weather is getting hot. 

sun showers on Sunday

William is working hard on his comic page for class but his level of detail is pushing him behind schedule. It's due in a couple of days. Probably be late. I was writing. I've been a week without playing any games on my tablet but sat with William in basement and opened spider solitaire while he drew. It proved a big distraction for him so I just headed to bed. The weather is turning hot after today but it was still quite cool, having had a strangely heavy sun shower in the mid-afternoon. 

Saturday work

Rhythm of the week continues to be strange. Every Friday I think that I need a weekend break, but every Saturday I feel like doing stuff and dive into work. This Saturday I progressed significantly on some work writing I'm doing plus took time away to paint  and watch a movie. 

Gazebo art and rain

William was drawing in the gazebo into the evening. Rain started but it was such a light drizzle that Margaret and I could just sit on the deck under light cover. We went to visit William when suddenly the wind picked up and the rain came down by the bucket full. We got soaked on the way to the house. 

Discovery while writing

I decided to do some writing in the hammock this afternoon and noticed that the tree, which I only ever look at from the hammock, has a pigeon nesting in it. 

Movies in gazebo

Distancing rules were not perfect but effort was made while Allan came over and we watched Birds of Prey in the gazebo with a video projector. The donuts were the perfect compliment to the evening. 

Raspberries

Mosquitoes are finally out. Still managed to pick all these berries. 

Bessai boys visit Regina

Bit of a backyard bash on Sunday afternoon as Carl, Tom, and three of the boys came down from the farm to hang with us in the city. Social distancing gets complicated when five guys haven't seen running water in three days, but we managed. Lots of talk about art and distilling. 

William's photo shoot

William did a photo shoot last night, creating a portrait of artist Brendan Schick in his studio. I helped move stuff as William needed a large puppet/sculpture of his interpretation of the King in Yellow, which he wanted to be looming behind Brendan. This followed the film shoot on the farm earlier. When I got home, I showered and flopped in front of the tv, only to be told two minutes later that a pop up Nuit Blanche event was happening around the corner. I donned a bath robe and sauntered over. Very cool projections on a "cloud" inflatable. 

Farm with Bessai family

Carl, Frank, and Tom Bessai, along with three of their sons, came to the farm for the weekend. I felt good that the cottage was cleaned up for them as they camped outside of it and used the inside as a dry staging area for their stuff. Warmed my heart to see a bbq on the deck. We drove Gertrud and Fred up, leaving the city during a huge storm but to find the world mostly dry north of the valley. I shot a scene for The Gentleman Farmer with Tom's son Lucas as the accordion player. 

Dad's birthday

I went to the university to pick up some props and to help out a faculty member in need of books (master key now). William came along and picked up his drawing from last semester which had been hanging in the hallway since early covid days. This evening Lori hosted a birthday party for dad. Mom did the cooking but Lori has the necessarily large socially distant space in her yard. 

Prepping cottage

Zipped out to the farm late in afternoon to put a bit of spray paint over some spray insulation (as needed) and tag the inside of the cottage to cover some depressing dark paint I did earlier. Margaret's cousins are coming and we wanted this little building to be presentable. 

Working from home

I've been department head for a couple of weeks. Doing it from home is far different. I think that the office with Andrea and other staff nearby, I could be more focused and move forward on an idea quicker. With everyone working at home, I can expect email responses from most people within a couple of hours but there is less substance to many messages, leaving me to ask some of the same questions again in a different way. By mid-afternoon I realize that I've not done anything towards my projects, administrative work in crawling, and I feel like I might as well curl up and go to sleep like my cat. That's living. 

Cat at the fire

Nick hung out with us at the fire pit for quite a while this evening. Allan arrived later. Nick likes the heat. Usually he averts his eyes and we got nothing but fur when I take pictures. 

Staging the king

William continues working on his King in Yellow photo staging. It might be a better studio project, but where is one to get access to a good space these days? 

William working on photos

William and I shopped for yellow cloth the other day. I bought him 4 or 5 meters of his choice, which was fortunately on sale for 8 bucks a meter. He created a face and is building a "King in Yellow". 

painting the cottage

Painted the front and bits of the inside of the cottage today. Also did some long needed cleaning. Thought we'd just roar in for two hours but it ended up being 5. 

visit mom and dad

William and I visited mom and dad for a while, then ran a couple of errands to stores. 

Hot and cold

On Tuesday night the frig went on the blink. We moved all the expensive stuff we could to the deep freeze, but as we just got a meat delivery, that space was limited. Had to binge eat ice cream. This morning we managed to get a repair guy in and fortunately it was just a switch that he fixed. He says most refrigerators don't last more than 10 years anymore. Pretty annoying thing to hear. Also, some of the repairs places couldn't come until Monday. How does someone last five days in the summer without a frig? 

The girls also followed through with a big pile of wood for our fire pit. Some might not be ready, but hopefully we have enough for the summer. 

Goggles Pizano

Playing a game online with Allan. I am a "driver" so I've called him "Goggles" which is after the Flintstones character "Goggles Pizano" but is really in memory of Rob who referred to a daughter who was learning to drive by that name. William drew a picture of the character. 

William in new classes

William is in three classes for the next 6 weeks. He's doing Heather Cline's 2D art class and borrowed my camera for the first assignment around anthropomorphic images. 

Katherine and Kristin visit

The girls are in town for a couple weeks. They are socially distanced (although it might not look that way in this photo) as they've come from Toronto and been on a plane. Staying in the trailer or on the farm mostly so we've only had a couple of short visits so far. Conversations are mostly about university, about the new apartments they are renting (which will ultimately be where they will be for all their classes), and stuff like that.  

Power wash

Having actually completed the "must do in/to yard before summer" list, we've expanded to the basics maintenance sorts of things (some of which we don't get around to in an entire summer) such as cleaning the slots of detritus on the lower deck. Margaret asked if she should power wash it afterwards. I was initially indifferent but when I saw the way the entire colour of the deck changed, I'm totally sold. It will need to dry for at least a couple of days before we put furniture on it, or put a new protective coat on it (don't think we've ever done it in the 15 years we've had it). 

Summer at last

Starting to feel like summer. I was in the hammock for a while. It was warm and dry so we watered the new grapes. Not dead yet. There's hope. 

Busy yard

Busy day around the house. Wayne brought be 9 more cameras. Mark W came over to meet about department stuff. George and the girls brought over a huge load of meat (fortunately our freezer was almost empty). Weather was hot. I bought a board to finish the gate and followed up on notes from Erik on Sock-vile. 

Sawing wood

I dragged the chop saw up and did some cutting of wood in the driveway. Cut some scrap to burn, cut pieces to build into a gate, and helped my sister with some support edges for a painting she'll be doing. Feel good to get some things (nearly) done (didn't buy enough fence boards). 

Canada Day at home

While I've been feeling tired of attending fireworks these past few years, I have to admit that it feels strange not at least having the option to go to them. Instead we stayed home and had a basic covid day. I painted my stereoscopic camera again and my did some work around the house.