Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche moved to an earlier date this year. Covid impacted it of course so they programmed it to mainly be a driving tour to 8 sites in the warehouse area. We got there but he car line was impossibly long so we parked and walked it. Made one direction error and met with Margaret's ire due to her having brought shoes for looks, not for walking. 
 

Cake to Lori

 It was finally cool enough to bake last night. I made the cheesecake that I'd promised William and then we brought half of it to Lori as a bit of an offering on her (significant) birthday. Sean had arrived with the motorcycle he bought (?) from his cousin Chris.  

math problem

William has been taking a lot of math classes, but he still couldn't quite solve how one gets 20% more chunk. 

Science?

 Book on the science of Rick and Morty arrived yesterday - a late birthday present. William says that the author uses the cartoon to launch into whatever he wants to talk about in terms of science, rather than focusing on the events of the show entirely. 

film loaded

 Paining a super-8 camera that Dianne lent me. Notice that it still has a roll of echtachrome loaded in it. 

fumigation begins

 Fred and Gertrud needing some fumigation in their house so are spending a couple nights in a hotel. With all fresh clothes, we've been having them to our house for meals. 

3D printer

 With some time off at the end of the summer term, William is trying to get the 3D printer working. The instructions are not clear and he's having trouble. 

Birthday viists

 Xander and Terry brought William a pistachio cake and a card and hung out this evening, continuing cake week. 

Cake week continues

In the heat, we've still not baked but we did take some really nice bakery cakes to mom and dad's. Later on at home, put 19 candles on one small cake for blowing. I don't think blowing out candles is very covid-friendly. 

 

William turns 19

Busy day but perhaps not as "fun" in the classic sense as other birthdays. That's the way when you are 19 I suppose. William had a big art project due the night before but it wouldn't upload onto google docs like ti was supposed to. Google was having some huge problem and I found that in  the news so he went to bed and I got him up first thing to finish his homework. Not the best start to a birthday. From that point on it was better. I had a few "Rick and Morty" based books for fun, on top of the cashmere/silk jacket we picked up yesterday. It was too hot to bake so went for birthday ice cream then we went to Le Macaron and bought some stuff. We took baking to visit Gertrud and Fred and sat on their deck. It was cooling and shortly after we got home, it finally rained. I mixed William his first martini and we finished Umbrella Academy. 

Dinner with Emma, Martin and Barb

William's last day of summer classes today. After his class ended at 9:15 am he had a quiz then go to work finalizing his essay as well as compiling his final portfolio for his art class. In the middle of this we both went for hair cuts and stopped at the suit shop to pick up his new jacket AND we went to dinner at Martin and Barb's place. 

Sharon's visit continues

Sharon and Quinn came over to our house for the afternoon. Quinn consulted with us about a project. We got to see some of Luna over a Facetime call with Sharon. Looks like she was having a great fun day. Had supper at Lori's (India Palace take out) then cut out to connect with Allen on our deck after dark. Very hot today. 

Super-8 film picked up

 William and I checked out the video show at the Dunlop (if you go, I would suggest that you wear white clothing to maximize the effect). We also picked up film for the One Take event. On the way home we stopped at Colin O'Brian and got William a birthday gift from their annual sale. 

Dianne and kitten

 Dianne saved a kitten and she was kitty-sitting when I came by on Saturday to borrow some cameras. I'm very excited about the variety of kids cameras she has including a brand-name Barbie camera. Gossiped for a couple of hours on her deck. 

Sharon visits

 Sharon is in town visiting. Paul is retiring at the end of August (although doing contract work for another year). Got news about Chris and his motorcycles, but not about wedding plans. Lori is looking at the giant spider above her head. 

Heat lamp

 

Is it to keep us warm, or to control our minds? 

Lori bought me a heat lamp for the gazebo. Got it hooked up but so far it's been too hot to want/.need to use it. 

Gertrud's health

 Gertrud had a fall today. Margaret got paramedics to help her but she didn't want to go to the hospital. She's been very weak lately. Her cough is improving with antibiotics, but has not gone away. She rebounded a bit after eating some lunch as we hung out with her for the rest of the afternoon. George is away on a business trip (didn't think those happened anymore)> 

Printing complete

 William struck an edition of 10, 2 colour prints for his class today. He used sheets of rubber with a photographic images (taken the other day) transferred onto it using gel medium then carved with knives and wood carving tools. Two colours of printer ink, yellow and black, were printed on using simple rolling pin pressure. Yellow as bottom layer, black on top. 

What does working at home look like?

 I moved back and forth between painting in the kitchen and revising my syllabus while lying on my hammock. I don't look impressed with myself. 

William printing project

After trying a few systems, William finally used a gel medium system for transferring his image from a laser printed image. Next step is carving them. 

Windy day

 I wanted to spread out papers and think about game night in the gazebo in the afternoon. The wind was howling and somewhat distracting, but with the screens up I didn't lose anything. However, the wind had been powerful enough to blow down the poorly hung solar panel on the shed and it broke part of Margaret's new ceramic fountain. 

William image for printmaking

William needs to use a photo for the basis of a block print which is his next art project. He staged the final moments of a story when a person at a costume party is talking to the King in Yellow about his costume when the King tells me that he isn't wearing a costume! Big surprise ending. William has been using the King in  Yellow as his motif throughout this course. He was trying to use the remote to take the photo while he was the party-goer and I was the King. The battery on the remote must be getting weak as the shutter wasn't triggering. Suddenly I noticed the Berny was casually watching us, having wandered down the street from his hives. He graciously consented to press the trigger. Margaret also arrived and took some behind the scenes shots. 

Popup screening

My film "Grain" was part of a Nuit Blanche popup screening on an inflatable cloud in the Italian Star Parking lot. I was worried at the start as they were having difficulties inflating and were talking about cancelling, but eventually they got it up. The wind in the open parking lot was giving them trouble. Cool event. 

Apple sauce

Picked most (not all) of the apples early enough that they weren't browning on the branch this year. The fallen limbs have made picking easier and probably helped the tree by letting it focus on just the good branches. Made 12 litres of apple sauce. Very sour stuff so I've added some brown sugar. 

Rob Hillstead visit

Rob Hillstead is in town, mostly to do some music recording. He found me a couple of cameras to paint which is supper considerate. One is a Soviet standard 8, a bit of a rarity, so that's cool. He's been off work but Vancouver film production will be resuming soon.  

Gin party

The storm didn't really hit us so we managed to attend Richard and Gerda's gin tasting party after all. Margaret was the chief consultant on mixing the gins with various tonics and vermouts. Nice time. Caught up with Jo and Norm, which is always great. 

Fireside talks

Allan and Geremy were over, chatting by the fire. Wind was picking up but threat of storm isn't until tomorrow. William got to show off his comic page. It's already handed in but not professionally scanned yet (he submitted the photographed version). Allan made suggestions. 

Rebuilt steps

I started my day by removing some of the rotten wood from the front steps. This was built when we had the sewer dug out in 2000, so it's 20 years old. I discovered that more was rotten than I'd hoped and I decided to replace all the wood. Exhausting day but it's pleasing to get something done. 

Fishy moment on the steps

I'd just put a whole (small) salmon on the bbq and was looking for my phone to call Margaret and figure out where she was when suddenly I heard her calling for help. One of the boards between the steps and the house had rotted away and collapsed beneath her. Bruised but nothing broken (including the new mint gin she was carrying), we had a lovely lunch. 

Later I ran some stuff over to Gertrud's on my way to get supplies for the step and picked a bushel of her purple weeds.