Tuesday 31 May 2016

Horses in the Evening


    We took Skye on an evening walk down Horseshoe Lake Road.  The horses were back in the pasture and the sideway light of the sinking sun and the shadows created by the clouds, made an ever changing light show.


Look at my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Monday 30 May 2016

Giant Allium


    Last fall I bought a packet of bulbs at Costco and planted them.  Over the winter I forgot all about them and so it was a surprise this spring when flowers came up unsuspectedly.  Some of the bulbs I planted were Giant Allium, a plant related to onions and garlic, but Giant Allium has a long stem and a big globe-shaped clusters of flowers.   The Alliums I planted are 4 foot (1.2 m) tall.
    The photo above shows the bloom after pollination, as the seeds are forming, but there are still a few flowers left.  Below is a picture showing the flower cluster on their long stems.


Take a look at my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Sunday 29 May 2016

My Lupines


    Lupines are one of my favorite plants.  Many years ago, I planted some lupine at one corner of the edge of my pond.  They thrived outrageously, spreading along the path and even establishing a foothold at the opposite corner of the pond. 
    It is such a treat to walk along the path while the lupines are in bloom.  There are so many color variations in the flowers, mostly magentas, pinks, and blues. 


You can see my paintings, including one of a Lupine at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Saturday 28 May 2016

Robson Valley Farm


    I have always liked the fact that their is a lot of farm and ranch land in the valley bottom around McBride.  Here is a photo of a farm nestled beside the Cariboo Mountains.  They sure have a beautiful horse grazing out in the pasture.

You can look at my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Friday 27 May 2016

Hostas and Rain


    I haven’t ventured very far from the house during all this rain, but I didn’t have to do anything but step out of the house to take these photos of my hostas.  I have always wondered if the shape of the hosta leaves evolved to funnel rain down the stem so that they provide water the roots.


I have painted a lot of pictures of Hostas:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Thursday 26 May 2016

Our Cat's Name is Lucifer


    I have written before about our cat’s mean behavior.  The other evening we got another example.  We had just started on our daily evening walk around the pond when it happened.  You might remember that during the walk each participant has to maintain the correct position in the parade or else it doesn’t work.
    I generally lead the parade, followed by our dog Skye, with Joan following her, and Lucifer bringing up the rear.  Skye is afraid of Lucifer, and if Lucifer gets in front of Skye, she usually likes to stop to show off her power over the dog, and the dog responds by sitting down afraid to move past the cat.  This will go on until the cat finally feels her status has been established and then she begins to move down the path again.
    This situation happened a couple of days ago.  Lucifer got in front of Skye and stopped, and Skye responded in her normal meek way.  Joan, anxious to make things right again, moved beside Lucifer, which offered protection to the dog, and urged Skye to detour around.  Skye timidly did, and then when she felt free from threat, streaked on to me.
    Then Joan again took her place, third in line and the parade began once again.  However, Lucifer felt slighted by Joan’s actions which offered Skye an escape, and so as Joan walked on, Lucifer suddenly darted forward, catching up to Joan, and biting her on both legs.  
    Now you know why our cat is named “Lucifer.”

You can view my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Tuesday 24 May 2016

Small Jewels Beside the Runway


    We often walk our dog up and down the runway at the McBride airfield.  I always have my eyes open for unusual and interesting plants and yesterday I spotted these two.  The white flower above is called Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris) and despite the name is not a grass, but a Saxifrage.  It generally grows in wet seepy places like river flats, so I’m not sure what it is doing beside the tarmac.
    The violet and yellow flower in the photo below is called Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) and it is not a grass either, but does grow atop a grass-like stem.  It is part of the Iris family.  It normally grows in damp sub-alpine meadows, but it seems to be doing well beside the runway.


You can see my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Monday 23 May 2016

Cowbirds


    I have never claimed to be an expert on bird identification, and most of the other male Cowbirds I have seen have had a more distinct and browner head, but birds vary a lot in coloration so I think these are Cowbirds sitting on top of #100.  If they are not actually Cowbirds, they are Cowbird want-a-be’s. 
    Obviously, Cowbirds got their name by hanging around cows.  They eat insects that get fly up when the cows walk around stirring up the grass.  Cowbirds have a bad reputation because they sneak their eggs into the nests of other bird’s, thus causing the other birds to hatch and raise the Cowbird young.
    We saw them yesterday while on our walk on Jeck Rd.  Normally the cattle are at the far end of the field, but yesterday they were right up next to the road, which caused our dog Skye some excitement.

Take a look at my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Sunday 22 May 2016

Where Have All The Wood Ducks Gone?


    One day during the Spring after I built my pond, I counted 42 wood ducks swimming around out in the water.  Wood ducks came every Spring and also in the Autumn.  Some of the females stuck around to nest in the boxes I put up in the trees, and had ducklings.  Over the years the number of these striking water fowl began to decline, but I always saw some.  Last year I saw only a few, and this year I have seen none at all.  
    I recently heard a news report that stated that one third of the bird species in North America are disappearing and have been classified as “Threatened” since 1970.  ( http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/state-of-north-americas-birds-mckenna-1.3587716 )  A lot of the birds we see up here migrate south to the US and Central America during the winter, coming up to Canada to mate and nest during the Spring.  It seems that they suddenly, just no longer arrive at their usual habitat, and we are left to wonder what happened to them.
    Below is a photo I took five or more years ago, showing about 20 wood ducks in my pond.



You can see my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Saturday 21 May 2016

Seeing Spots


    Yesterday we had two friends, Jim Swanson and Matthew Wheeler, over for pizza.  Matthew, local astronomy enthusiast, surprised us by bringing his telescope which he set up in the pasture.  He said it was a good time to look at the sunspots which were growing to a good size.  I have never viewed sunspots before through a telescope so it was quite interesting.
    Through the telescope we could see a cluster of the spots, which at first glance looked like one big one.  Later, after the pizza, and after it began to get dark, we tromped back out to the pasture and viewed Jupiter and 4 of its moons, tiny pinpricks lining up in a plane, spread out on both sides of the planet.  With the telescope we could also see some of the bands across Jupiter’s face.
    It is was all an unexpected, out of this world, experience.

Check out my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Friday 20 May 2016

Two Hosta Photos


    I am a bit rushed for time this morning, but I can offer you two photos I took of my Hostas after a day of rain.


You can see my many paintings of Hostas at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Thursday 19 May 2016

Moving into Fluff Season



    The Robson Valley is moving into the season of fluff, as many of the plants, now pollinated, are freeing their ultralight seeds into the air.  Above is some of the fluff from some type of willow growing along the dam of our pond.  I was surprised to discover that every time one of these tiny seeds and fluff lands on the surface of the pond, it is quickly eaten by small fish.
    Below is a dandelion fluff ball.


You can view my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Wednesday 18 May 2016

Oregon Grape


    Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquaifolium) is a ground hugging plant found locally in the Robson Valley in the drier more open forests and rocky hillsides.   We don’t see much of it around our house, so it caught my eye the other day when we went on our little hike at the Natasha Boyd Conservation Area.  It was in bloom and I hadn’t remembered that it had yellow flowers.  
    The glossy leaves with spike-like edges always remind me of holly trees.  The flowers turn into “grapes,”  blue berries that are small and edible but with large seeds, so aren’t often gathered.  First Nation people did use the plant for everything from making yellow dye from the stems and roots, to medicines, and of course eating.  The berries can be made into a tasty juice and jelly if you can gather enough berries.  Some people use the attractive plant as an ornament in their gardens.
    Oregon Grape has a special meaning to me because I did a painting of one whose leaves were coloring in the autumn.  

You can see my painting, "Oregon Grape" at: www.davidmarchant.ca

Tuesday 17 May 2016

Natasha Boyd Conservation Area


    Before he died, Carl Boyd bought a quarter section of land that included a huge wetland and other wildlife values and arranged to have it protected for wildlife habitat in memory of his wife Natasha.  Yesterday a group of us walked down to the beaver pond to check out a proposed trail location.  It was my first outing of the season and I was happy to discover walk was short and not at all taxing.   The only problem we encountered were the mosquitoes, that gathered whenever we stopped walking, but they should disappear as the season progresses.
    When we got down to the beaver pond we disturbed a small group of Canadian Geese, a mother duck and her ducklings, and a Sandhill Crane, all of which flew off or swam away.  It was gratifying to see that Carl’s dream of protecting a home for wildlife is working.
    The marsh that you see in the photo is the result of ancient beavers building a long dam to block off the water flow which created the pond.  In the foreground sits a beaver lodge.
    

You can see my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Monday 16 May 2016

Grafting Workshop



    If you bite into a really tasty apple and decide to save its seeds so that you can grow your own tree of that particular tasty apple, you have something like a 1 in 20,000 chance of getting that same tasty apple off of your new tree.  Apple seeds don’t reproduce the exact copy of its parent tree, so to get the same kind of apple, you have to graft (attach) a branch of that tree on to rootstock (root) of some kind of apple tree and let it grow.
    Yesterday, I drove out to Dunster, BC to attend a workshop put on by local apple expert, Jeff Corbett.  Jeff gave us a short introduction to the world of grafting, then let us practice cutting and joining together willow branches, with many warnings about being careful not to cut ourselves with the sharp knives. After practicing with the willows, we were supplied with rootstock and “scions” (branches) from northern varieties of apple trees, and we all began grafting our own apple trees.

    It was an enjoyable and productive afternoon, and I came home with two varieties of apple trees which I hope will survive all my bungling.  In the photo below Jeff picks out a suitable rootstock for a student, with the jars of different varieties of scions in the foreground.  


You can view my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Sunday 15 May 2016

Books About Books


    The theme for the McBride Library Book Club last month was “Books about Books”.   Here is a review of the books I read:

    When I first heard that the Book Club theme was "Books About Books" I was less than enthusiastic and didn't find any of the suggested books very appealing, so I went looking on the shelves and found two by the same author, that I really enjoyed reading.    One involved Shakespeare and the other, Jane Austen. 
     The Bookman's Tale" by Charlie Lovett
             Peter Byerly is a bibliophile.  As a child, shy and reclusive, books became his shelter, a love and security that continued through university where he was able to work in the university library's Special Collection Department amongst the rare and valuable books that the university was known for.  It was in the library that he met Amanda, his future wife and most valued companion.
     The novel begins with Peter, an empty shell of a man, back in England, trying to gain his life back after the death of Amanda. He forces himself to do things trying to restart his life, but without success. He makes himself go into a used book store and while leafing through an old volume from Shakespearean times, a small water color portrait of a woman falls to the floor--a woman who looks exactly like Amanda, but the portrait appeared to be at least one hundred years old. 
    Finding the watercolor, done by a painter whose initials were "BB", lit the flame of curiosity and his search for information about the artist, led to the discovery of a book that could be the Holy Grail for bibliophiles and collectors--an old document with marginalia hand-written by Shakespeare, notes used for his play "A Midwinter's Tale."  Shakespeare's identity is still a mystery and the source of immense speculation and curiosity in the literary world.
     "Of his life all we positively know is the period of his death.  We don't know when he was born, nor when or where he was educated. We don't know when or where he was married, nor when he came to London.  We don't know when, where, or in what order his plays were written, or performed, nor when he left London.  He died April 23rd, 1616."
      Of course, anything that could be proven to be an original Shakespeare document now, or in the past, would be extremely valuable, and as such, could be the subject of forgers. This is the mine field Peter must traverse as he tries to prove its provenance.
     A Bookman's Tale is written with chapters alternating between three time periods:  1995 as Peter is in London trying to regain his life after Amanda's death then discovering the watercolor and Shakespeare document,  1980's, as Peter is in university learning about ancient books and meeting Amanda, and the 1500's to recent times, as we learn about the intrigue and changing ownership of the Shakespearean document. 
      While it starts out being a story about the world of book selling and historical literature, this novel turns into a murder mystery.  While I didn't need all the action and suspense, the story kept my interest until the end.   I found the whole world of antiquarian book collecting, something I knew little about, very interesting. 

First impressions by Charlie Lovett
     This book has two story lines that develop in alternating chapters. One follows the want-a-be author, a young woman named Jane Austen, as she meets Mansfield, a soul mate in the form of an eighty year old curate, who like Jane, has an unabashed passion for novels.  Despite their immense age difference, their love of novels soon has them treasuring their time together as Jane reads to Mansfield from the book she is writing called "Elinor  and  Marianne" (later renamed "Sense and Sensibility"), and he gives her support and suggestions for improving her work. 
      The other plot, placed in the present day, features two other lovers of literature, Sophie, a young English lady, a recent graduate with a masters in literature from Oxford, and a brash American taking a year off to visit literary destinations in England and Europe, after two years teaching at Berkeley.  Sophie's initial bad impression of the nervy and arrogant Eric, slowly melts as he turns on his charms and she discovers their mutual love of literature. 
     The only member of Sophie's family that shared her love of books, was her Uncle Bertram, who owned a flat in London with a library full of rare and old books.  Because of their mutual love of books, he told Sophie that upon his death both his flat and much loved books would be hers.  
     When he dies unexpectedly in a suspicious fall, Sophie indeed inherits the flat, but she is horrified to discover that all of his books have been sold "to cover his debts."  She immediately felt something was 'not right' about his sudden death and the removal of his books, and was determined to get her uncle's books back, haunting bookstores, buying what she could, and even stealing what was over priced.
     While alternating chapters tell of Jane Austen's close association with the elderly curate and his suggestions of changing her story Elinor and Marianne from being an epistolary, letters of correspondence back and forth among the characters which tell the story, to the type of narrative we now use, Jane discovers Mansfield himself has written a short book and is about to publish a second edition using the letter/chapter format, telling the story of the Bennet family, a Mr. Darcy, and first impressions.  He encourages Jane to use his plot as a foundation for her next book. 
     Back In the modern day, Sophie gets a job in an antique bookstore owned by a friend of her late uncle, and is mystified when two separate requests suddenly come in for an unknown second edition of book by an obscure 18th century curate named Mansfield, and she starts to realize that this book is somehow related to the death of her uncle. 
      First Impressions is a clever title for this book.  It was the original title for Jane Austen's book that later became Pride and Prejudice.  It is also a reoccurring theme as Sophie continually misjudges people because of her false first impressions. 
     I found First impressions to be a very entertaining read, with some interesting historical facts about Jane Austen and her works, the world of antique books, romance, and mystery.  Like The Bookman's Tale, Charlie Lovett could not resist making an dangerous, action packed, and suspenseful build up toward the ending, which I didn't really need, but still I quite liked both books and found them enjoyable. 
       
Take a look at my photo-realistic paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Saturday 14 May 2016

Lupine Bloom in Frost


    Our nightly frosts continue, but they don’t seem to faze this Lupine who is determined to keep right on developing no matter what.


Visit www.davidmarchant.ca to see my paintings.

Friday 13 May 2016

Frost, Frost, Frost


    Nature has been playing us for a fool.  We had a warm spell about a month early that set all the plants, (and me) up to thinking that spring had arrived.  The fruit trees bloomed, the flowers blossomed, and I got cocky and planted some things in the garden.  Then suddenly, night after night we get frost (-2C, 28F).
    Many of the plants like my peas, and the lupines (below), are tough and can handle it, but other things like my potato plants that were just coming up, got their leaves permanently stung.  I had to cover them last light with a plastic sheet to keep them safe.  I am eager to get some of the more tender things in my garden but I keep having to hold off because of these nightly frosts.


My paintings can be seen at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Thursday 12 May 2016

Foliage Garden


    When most people think of decorative gardens, they think about flowers.  While the little garden between our sidewalk and our house does have flowers, often it is the textures and colors of the leaves that attract me.  I took the photo this morning, after a night of rain.  It shows Hostas, ferns, and Lily of the Valley all fighting for space, creating the chaotic beauty of nature.

You can see my paintings of Hostas at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Wednesday 11 May 2016

8 X 8


    The tiny hamlet of Dunster, that is located 24 miles (38 km) from McBride was having a fundraiser for the school and community.  They asked people to create something on an 8 inch by 8 inch (20cm x20cm) square that could be auctioned off at a silent auction.  What you see above is my contribution to the event.  The items were all supposed to be signed on the back so that bidders wouldn’t know who had made them.
    The event was a big success with 79 entries.  They raised roughly $1,400, which is also pretty amazing.  I was going to take photos of some of the creations but forgot, but there was a wide variety, everything from jewelry draped over an 8 x 8 card to a series 8 x 8 of mirrors that peeked out beneath a wavy wooden border.  
    I don’t know who ended up with my fiddleheads which I painted on plywood.

You can see my other paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Tuesday 10 May 2016

Spoons of Mystery


    Back in March Joan, Skye, and I drove down to Indiana for my mom’s 95th Birthday.  Our cat Lucifer stayed behind to protect our house, and we had Caitlyn, a teenaged neighbor girl, come in and feed her.  Her job included opening cans of cat food and dishing it out.  
    A couple of days after we returned home from our trip, we noticed that we had these two alien spoons amongst our normal set.  We assumed that probably Caitlyn for some reason must have brought them to use while dishing out the cat food.  
    Time passed and although we saw Caitlyn several times since, we always forgot to ask about the spoons.  Finally over the weekend we saw her at the Dunster Yard Sale and asked her if the spoons belonged to her.  We were extremely surprised when she answered “No.”
    Now we are extremely perplexed:  Where did the spoons come from?  How did they get to our house?  Questions that may never be answered.
   Are you missing two spoons?

You can take a look at my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Monday 9 May 2016

Old Clothes



    No one has ever accused me of being a “clothes horse”, and there is a really good reason for that.  I trend toward comfort rather than fashion, and I hate to throw out anything that can still be used.  The result is a wardrobe of clothes that are often decades old.  
    I realized that the other day when I took off the long sleeved T-shirt I sleep in.  That is it in the photo above.  Back in the mid-1980’s, I used to sell T-shirts with logo’s I designed.  This particular shirt is one  I designed from the “Yellowhead Loppet”, a cross country ski race.  As you can see the shirt is on the verge of disintegration, and I guess when all the holes join together and the arms of the shirt tear loose I will discard it.
    This morning when I went out for my walk around the pond with Skye, I wore the green fleece jacket with the broken zipper pull.  It originally belonged to my father, and I inherited it when he died in 1999.  The shirt that I am wearing beneath the jacket is a BC Forest Service shirt that I got in the early 1990’s.    
    As I hung up the fleece I noticed my short denim jacket, which my family always called a “milking jacket”.  It is one that I wore in my hippie-dippy days and is a relic of the early 1970’s.  Note the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club patch I had sewed on it’s pocket.
    Don’t get me wrong, I still do occasionally buy clothes--socks, underwear, jeans, and the odd shirt, but here in the rural interior of BC, there is really no reason to keep up with the latest runway fashions, so I will just keep wearing the old clothes I have, until they wear out.



You can see my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Sunday 8 May 2016

Host Photo


    I like the subtle coloring on this photo of a Hosta amid the Lily of the Valley.  

Check out my many Hosta paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Saturday 7 May 2016

Preparing For Winter


    Winter is such a dominant season around here, that I never really stop thinking about it.  Even though spring has just started getting into gear, yesterday I headed out to get some firewood for the winter.  I always feel like the ant in the Ant and the Grasshopper story--always at work preparing for the future.
    To get firewood, I drive out to a out to a “cutblock” (a logged out area) and look around for trees that were cut down and left behind or that have since blown down.  Yesterday I was fortunate to find a nice birch that had blown down (that’s it in the foreground of the photo).  It was easy cutting, and the only hard part about the operation was carrying the heavy sawn pieces to the truck.
    After all these decades of living in BC, I still can’t visit a cutblock without shaking my head at all the waste that is left behind.  At least I can make use of a tiny bit of it.

To see my paintings, go to:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Friday 6 May 2016

Town Deer


    Yesterday, while driving down Main Street in McBride, we came upon this small group of deer grazing on the dandelions.  It would have been a better photo had I caught them leisurely walking down Main Street, but I didn’t want to stick around.
    The townsite presents quite a banquet of exotic plants and flowers for the deer and any serious resident gardener has to have a fence around his or her plot.  Deer are a common problem in a lot of small BC towns and there is always an uproar if town officials try to do something to alleviate the problem.

You can see my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Thursday 5 May 2016

Little Falls Trail


    We’ve put ourselves into a bind.  Every day at 1:00 our dog Skye insists that we take her for a walk.  This schedule worked out fine during the winter, but now with the days getting hotter, walking the dog in the heat of the day is not a very good idea, but we are not able to communicate that to our insistent dog.  We therefore began to seek out places that might be cooler in the midday sun, and the other day we thought we’d do the walk on the Little Falls Trail that goes along the west side of the Holmes (or Beaver) River.
    All the creeks and rivers in the Robson Valley have two names, a local name (Beaver River) and an official name (Holmes River).  Whatever you call it, the trail starts on the west side of Highway 16 bridge over the Holmes River.  There is a small parking area and the trail is very short and flat (no slopes to climb).  It is about half a kilometer (a quarter of a mile) in length, and takes you through a nice forest with lots of ferns and spruce tree smells, along the rushing river.  Its amazing how quickly it takes you away from the highway and puts into the middle of nature.




You can view my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Wednesday 4 May 2016

False Solomon Seal Flower


    I don’t know what a genuine Solomon Seal looks like, but what you see above is the flower of the False Solomon Seal (Smilacina racemosa).  It is a common plant that grows in the moist forests in our neck of the Robson Valley.  These flowers, once pollinated will eventually develop into red berries, which, while edible, are not very palatable.  Natives of the Interior of BC classified them as “Grizzly Bear food’ and didn’t bother collecting them.
    What always attracts me to this flower is the light green color at the lower end of the cluster that slowly gradates into the brighter yellow green toward the top.

My paintings are on display at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Tuesday 3 May 2016

The Great Gray Owl Returns


    It seems about once a year we get a visit from the neighborhood’s Great Gray Owl.  Actually, it probably returns more than that, but we only ‘see’ it about once.  We can hear it “whoo, whoo, whooing” up on the mountain quite often in the evening during the spring.
    Every time we do see it, we get concerned about our cat Lucifer, although a friend has told us that Great Grays only eat rodents.  I started to wonder about the accuracy of that yesterday, because we have been having a stray cat hang around our place over the last few days, and this owl did seem to be following her from place to place.  The cat, who is afraid of us, took off when we came outside, and the owl stayed close to the cat, flying over and perching on several branches of the cedar above it.
    The owl finally did leave the cat and moved on to other couple of locations, but I remained suspicious about it and the cat.  
    It is really a big bird and at one point swooped low and silently almost like slow motion, over me.  That was a bit intimidating, but I remain happy to see it every time it appears.

Look at my paintings at: www.davidmarchant.ca

Monday 2 May 2016

Dandelion Country


    I’m not sure if there is anywhere on Earth that dandelions don’t like to grow, but I do know that they like it here in the Robson Valley.  Lawns  and pastures are yellow with the things.  The photo shows a healthy crop at Koeneman Park, just outside of McBride.


Take a look at my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Sunday 1 May 2016

McBride Votes "Yes" to Library


    The first building you see upon entering McBride, is this beautiful structure in the photo.  Unfortunately for many years now it has sat empty, with a large “For Sale” sign to greet all who come down Main Street.  For several years now the McBride Library and the Museum Society has been trying to get the building to replace the aging and expensive-to-maintain building they are housed in.  
    Opposition by the previous mayor and council, prevented the library from getting grants, but luckily they were replaced in the last election and a more supportive new mayor and council took their place.  A determined group of locals kept working toward the goal, raising funds through donations, dinners, entertainment events, and even plant sales, but of course in such a small community not enough money could be raised in a timely fashion so a loan was needed.  Yesterday there was a referendum to see if taxpayers would support some extra taxes for the new library and museum building, and this morning we learned that the vote was “Yes”.
    I don’t know the timeline for when the library will move in, a lot of interior redesigning must be done first, but a lot of local people are relieved that we are over this first big hurdle.

You can view my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca