Day 2 of the Studio Tour, and I decided to go easy on myself and not try to do too many. First stop was the blacksmith, Jeff Holtby. He creates metal architectural pieces like gates, hinges, hook, pot racks, etc. Above, he is demonstrating on his huge air hammer, an incredible machine from 1920!

Here you can see the leaf taking shape on the anvil. A lot of very hard work, and an impressive demonstraton.

Next I visited Daniella Woolf, an encaustic and fiber artist. Encaustic is painting with beeswax, usually over an image of some type. It creates an unusual look, and she combines it in many ways with some of her fiber work. I found it really interesting.

Debra Calkins and Cheryl Kamera are both also fiber artists - Debra working with mostly cotton fabric, threads, and found materials to make wall pieces, and Cheryl dyes and creates devore and felts, making scarves and clothing. She also had an incredible garden.

My final stop was Lynn Mizono, who creates wonderful clothing from fleece and silks. Her home was completely open to us, and it was amazing. She used a lot of unusual materials - concrete countertops, acrylic sinks with lights in them, painted plywood tiles on the floors.

This is one of the sinks - it is in the bedroom, and behind it is the shower - no doors, you can just walk into the opening on either side of the sink. There was a japanese tub next to the shower, and a door that leads into the powder room, to share use of the toilet. Lots of great design ideas!

Today and tomorrow are the Whidbey Studio Tour days, and I started my tour with Kathleen Otley, photo above with her willow wall hangings and paintings. I've never been on a tour, so this was a lot of fun. There were over 100 studios to choose from, so it was hard to decide! This was the closest to basketry, so of course I had to start here!

Then I went to Marcy Johnson's studio, which is stunning! It is in her house, recently built, and she designed it so that you enter directly into the studio, where she also teaches weaving classes. She weaves and makes baskets, and owns the Weaving Works store in Seattle.

Next stop was Natalie Olsen, a fiber artist. She is also connected to the Whidbey Weaver's Guild, which I hope to join soon. She weaves, makes silk paper, and does some painting and assemblage. Pretty cool stuff. Her husband, Earl Olsen, is a photographer.

Lunch with Cody.

Then I hit the road again, stopping first at a painter's studio, then woodworker Bruce Launer, who had some incredible pieces. Next was the combined studio of Susanne Newbold and Sandra Whiting. Susanne carves and paints gourds, and Sandra paints on glass, makes monoprints and collages. I had done some design work for them and their friend, so I got to see the completed buildings, too!

Finally I stopped at Susan O'Brien's house, who does a lot of different things. Right now she's buying old wool sweaters, felting them in the washing machine, and re-constructing them into clothing. She also paints in watercolor and oil, and works with glass and metal. She's been a friend since our boys were in grade school together, so it's been very fun to see her progress!

All in all, a great day, and more studios to go to tomorrow!

Went fishing this morning - it's been a couple of weeks since I've been to the beach, and it's getting colder. There was a bit of wind, creating the light chop of surf, and, no fish. Did see a seal lazing about, and that's a pretty good sign the fish are gone. We had a lot of rain overnight, and sometimes that gets the fish moving, but no luck today. Maybe tomorrow. But the moon was still up, just a couple of days off full, and I caught a fun shot of a sea-plane flying north and the gulls flying south.
And, last night's rain brought new snow to the Olympic mountains - one of the first snowfalls of the season! It's always so pretty . . . but, dare I say it? . . . another sign of fall. Sigh.

Thursday Art Day! Carol is holding up her re-worked quilt. Below is how it looked a couple of weeks ago, then she took it apart and added some contrasting pieces - what do you think?

Gretchen, Carol and Audrey busy at the table.

Ahhh, the full moon once again. Next month will be the harvest moon, so-called because it rises early in the evening, so that by the time the sun has set, it is high enough to give out enough light to continue the harvest into the night. But that's for next month - this month looks a bit spooky, with the fir-fingers reaching out to capture the moon!

This is the same eastern sky just after sunset - the palest of pinks tinting the lone cloud drifting by. I love the horizon that I see around our yard with all the tree tops.
Then, as the moon rose from behind the trees, it looked so huge!

Bonnie and I took our friend Audrey out to see an art-quilt show at the gallery. She needs to use a wheelchair, so doesn't get out a lot. Bonnie had her 8-week-old grandson, too, but he was a good baby, and we had a great time. The quilts were wonderful, especially Carol's, and lunch at Whidbey Pies was very good!

Boy, everywhere I look I see more signs of fall! And, the sun set today before 7:30! Aaaghh! Winter will be here before we know it. The geese were very active today - several large flocks flew right over the house. You can hear them coming in plenty of time to get the camera out there. They were right at the tree top level, and almost directly overhead.

If you look close, you can see one of our little Douglas Squirrels preparing for winter. I can't help but think he must be forecasting a severe winter when you see the number of fir cones in that tree! He is busy plucking and dropping them to the ground where he'll later collect and store them. This was just outside my window, which I had open today to take advantage of the first-day-of-fall sunshine. I couldn't figure out what all the noise was, until I finally spotted him.

There goes another one!
The girls decided to do some baking, while the boys sat around and ate cookie dough! Mat, Kim, Shannon, Cody and Joel. They had every surface covered!
Cody, Mat and Joel ham it up for me. I'm beginning to feel it - Cody and Joel will be moving to San Diego this week. Of course, they've been talking about it for several months, but now it's finally time, and I'm not quite ready! Yes, he lived in Florida for several months, and has been in Seattle for a few years, but this seems more permanent. Ah, well . . . .

Suze and Jonathan have gone back to Florida for several months, and while she's gone, Mary Anne and David will be staying in their house. They just pulled in last night, and I went over to drop off keys and pick up some stuff. Barb had picked up the teapot that Suze painted at the ceramic shop, and MA and I couldn't stop oohhhing and aahhhing over it!

This is the other side, and below shows that she even painted inside the pot! Her designs and colors were inspired by her trip to Peru last year. It is just wonderful.

Meanwhile, Cory attended a large employee party last night, and found this inflatible rhino in his car when he went to come home. After this short picture-taking interlude, he continued to chase Heidi around the house with the rhino.

The Scarlet Runner beans are fruiting now - making big beans! These are good to eat, and we're going to leave some to dry on the vine for seeds for next year. Also, you can soak and cook the seeds, too, for soups. These were really fun plants to grow - quick to sprout, fast growing, lovely bright red flowers, and food! Spent some time cleaning out the garden beds - lots of dead-heading and pruning to do this time of year.

Boy, now it's really feeling like fall! I had an early appointment, and it was very foggy. Below is the view through the windshield (this time I pulled off the side of the road) of the droplets on the glass and the cars appearing through the fog.

Looking across the road, this clump of willows glowed through the mist. I have watched this tiny patch of woods for years - the leaves begin turning yellow early in the fall, and look almost painterly.
It will be a real challenge to capture the mood with my camera. Below was an hour or so later, and I stopped on that side of the road and walked a bit closer. There was still fog, as you can see in the fir trees behind the willows. I added a little bit of blur to the photo to add to the etherial look. And, as you may guess, as I walked through the tall grasses, I found plenty of spiders and their webs, glistening with dew drops.

After seven months, we finally had a Thursday with Audrey again! We met at her senior housing apartment, in the Private Dining Room. Very posh! But a nice place to meet, and we could close the door when we got loud.

This is a montage of the faces there today - top: Gretchen, Jamie, center: Audrey, bottom: Carol, Janet.
We brought small projects to work on, and it was good. Normally we eat lunch together, but we didn't today. Next week we will meet in the Activity Room, which has a full kitchen, so we'll be able to bring our pot luck lunches as normal. It was really nice to all be together again, except for Margaret, who passed away suddenly a month ago. She was Jamie's mother, and we all miss her a lot.
Coming home later, the sun was setting, and several flocks of geese were wheeling around Holmes Harbor. It was unusual - I hadn't seen so many geese in that area before. Of course, it's just another sign of autumn coming! This view is to the north, but the clouds were lit from below, just the palest pink, and the water was so smooth and flat.

Ah, that spooky time of year - lots of spider webs, and it seems like the spiders just keep getting bigger and bigger! This one is on my deck railing, so luckily not one I would walk through. But, I did get down in the woods this afternoon, and found plenty of webs that I DID walk through! Gah!! Buzz usually goes first, but he's much lower, and misses those that hit me in the face. ...carry a long stick....

We got a lot of rain the past three days, and the pond is starting to fill up. The mud on the bottom is thick, and it got so dry that it cracked. Now the water is creeping along, filling the cracks as it goes. It will eventually fill up past the tree branches at the far end.

Buzz and I had a nice ramble, but I see that I'll need to start bringing my clippers along to clean up the paths again.

Started out fairly nice today, but by late afternoon we were getting lots of rain, and a little bit of lightening and thunder! So here's my attempt to capture the rain drops at night with the flash. Kind of fun! But, this certainly means that what little summer we had is now over. We may get some sunny days, but they won't be as warm as summer again. Time for leaves and rain to fall....

Suze and Jonathan are leaving to go back to Florida tomorrow, and we finally got together to take David out for his birthday! Only 9 days late... Suze found this wonderful 3-d card of a fisherman rowing his boat - it swings in the opening of the card. David hates having his picture taken, so I didn't catch his fleeting smile.

Cody came too, as he was at Suze's house saying good-bye when they were getting ready to meet us. Afterwards, we went back to Barb's house, where she had made some cooked egg custard - yumm!

Sunday Mid-day

Well, after a beautiful Friday and Saturday, it was sprinkling this morning, so everyone pretty much up and left. Nothing left in the yard (compare to yesterday's photo!) except for the white stands for the tossing game they were playing. They do a nice job of cleaning up and helping out - it makes the whole event really nice. They all had a great time - David made prime rib, salmon and moose roast, along with baked potatoes and corn on the cob. Everyone agreed that they have the best food here!

Saturday Morning,

before the "Initiations".

Then I left for the day!

Jim made David a "Buzzard Bling", which he's proudly wearing around his neck.

Rupert, David and Roger - these are the two fellows that we host in the house - everyone else stays outside or above the shop.
The registration table was set up next to the barbeque - that's also where they sold their t-shirts and badges and other goodies.
Here's the yard with all the guys camping out - it was pretty early in the morning, so not too many out and about yet.
Sitting around the firepit with the bar in the background.
David, ?, and Russ, also known as "Dr. Evil".

Friday Night

ECV Doin's !!!

Doc's 7th Procedure & initiation.

Friday Afternoon

Playing with the 4-wheeler.

Playing with the "poor blind candidates", or those about to be initiated.

Thursday again! Here are some of the results of Carol's dying last week. She used only yellow, blue and red to achieve these fabrics. This one was yellow and blue,

while she used all three colors on this one.
Here are the rest of them - she was hoping for more muted colors, but most of the pieces were pretty bright. They had some wonderful combinations, too.
Instead of doing crafts, Carol and I went to Audrey's house and picked up some art pieces for the walls in her new apartment. It was fun to find Bonnie there waiting for us, and she helped us hang them all. It changed the feel of the room immediately, and I know Audrey is glad to have some of her favorite things around her again.

Carol brought along the art quilt that she's working on to show. Then we had lunch with Audrey - it was a nice day.