On The Balance Beam

    Yesterday when I was out weeding in the garden, our cat Lucifer decided to test her skill on the board that is part of our deer fence around the garden.  I hadn’t noticed her climb up there, but Joan pointed to her as Lucifer was walking across the board and beginning to wonder how she would get back down.

You can see my paintings:  davidmarchant.ca

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

        Here is another "Obscure Book by a Famous Author" that I reviewed for our McBride Library Book Club.  Because it is no longer under copyright it is a free download on the internet.

Villette by Charlotte Bronte 

        Villette is the little known fourth novel of Charlotte Bronte, who is best known for writing Jane Eyre.  It was a re-writing of her first novel, The Professor which was rejected by publishers. 

       The storyline follows the life of Lucy Snowe, first as an English girl, then as a young woman.  It begins with 14 year old Lucy, living with her godmother because she no longer has family. Also in the home is Graham, the godmother’s son, who is a bit older than Lucy.  The household is then joined by Pauline, a pre-kindergarten-aged girl, who temporarily stays with the godmother because she has lost her mother, and her father must leave her to find work. 

      The young Pauline seems rather traumatized and very unresponsive to Lucy and the godmother, but warms up to Graham, after he teases her and is playful toward her.  I found little Pauline a bit creepy because her dialogues sounded more like the words of an adult, rather than a very young child.  

       The teenaged Lucy, leaves the home of her godmother to work as a companion to an elderly woman.  After a few years of this employment the woman dies and Lucy, without family or direction, strikes out alone, deciding to try her fortune in Belgium.  

        After arriving there, she fortunately secures a job teaching English and looking after the children of Madame Beck, a strong willed woman, who runs a girl’s school in the town of Villette.  Soon Madame Beck, who recognizes Lucy’s value, elevates Lucy to teaching English class in the school, rather than caring for her children. 

        Lucy, whose character is much like Jane Eyre (honest, very plain looking, decent, but lackluster) is a competent teacher and adapts to the school and Belgium. From a distance she watches handsome Dr. John, who is often called to the school to help ailing students.  Lucy discovers he is strongly attracted to Ginevra, a vane, but beautiful young women, one of the older students, but she keeps his secret.   Lucy and Dr. John’s relationship is initially just that of acquaintances. 

       When the school closes down for summer break, everyone except Lucy, leaves for fun or family,.  Her loneliness causes Lucy to fall into a deep depression.  One day in desperation, Lucy starts wandering the streets, getting lost in a storm and collapses. 

       She awakens in an unknown room, which puzzles her because all of the furniture and knick-knacks are familiar.  She is very confused.  Incredibly, the house she is in belongs to her godmother and her son Graham, who surprisingly, also now live in Villette, and more remarkable, it turns out that the man Lucy knew as Dr.John, is actually Graham—what an amazing coincidence.  

        She slowly recovers in the warmth of her godmother’s home.  She relishes being re-connected with the family and enjoys Dr. John’s company, although he continually talks praise of Ginevra, as Lucy tries to cool his fascination by hinting at Genevre’s flaws, but not totally badmouthing her.   A plutonic relationship develops between Lucy and Dr. John, and in time, Lucy’s feeling toward him turns to love.  

Will that relationship ever grow into something more, or will the storyline make a turn in an unexpected direction?  And whatever  happened to Pauline, the young girl from the first chapter, will there be any other amazing coincidences?  I won’t tell, you will have to read the book yourself to find out.

  This was not a novel filled with action, in fact I can’t think of anything that might described as action, except for a fire during a play Lucy and Dr. John attend, which caused people to elbow their way out of the theater, causing an injury that Dr John saw to.  The novel dwells on the non-exciting life of Lucy, who like Jane Erye, is a pretty low-key personality.  A lot of the novel dwells on Lucy’s description of the people around the school and her interpersonal relationships with students and staff at the school, and the incidences that happen there, but all pretty low key stuff.  

Many critics liked Villette more than Bronte’s Jane Eyre. One of the biggest drawbacks of the novel for me was the numerous French phrases in the book, sometimes whole paragraphs, that made me shrug my shoulders and skip ahead to the next English text, because I had no idea what they meant.  I found all the French quite frustrating, but the story, though slow, began to take an unexpected arc that veered it in a direction I hadn’t anticipated, and that kept me reading to the end. 

           

You can see all my paintings at:  davidmarchant.ca

Early Birds

    This time of year I find it hard not to wake up early.  The long days trigger the birds to start tweeting at around 3:45 AM and if the window is open and the train whistle doesn’t wake you, the birds usually do.  That was the inspiration that prompted the above cartoon.

Check out my paintings:  davidmarchant.ca

Trying to Stay on Top of Things

    During our Canadian winters there always seems to be a lot of down time to do a lot of those things that you enjoy.  There is snow to clear after a snowfall, but that is about it, for outside work.

    Canadian summers are a whole lot different.  Our short growing season makes all the plants explode into growth, and it becomes difficult for me to stay on top of all those things that need to be done. 

    The lawn always seems to need mowing, the garden always seems to need weeding, the hay in the pasture needs to be cut and piled, and there is always the firewood that needs to be collected, split, and stacked.   There also seems to be a lot of other things that pop up to make getting around to all those jobs more complicated.

    I took the photo this morning, just after I mowed the lawn.  Normally it doesn’t look so civilized.

Look at my paintings:  davidmarchant.ca

Showery Weather

    The Robson Valley is going through a spell of wet and showery weather.  Yesterday we got rain.  Luckily there was a break midday which allowed Joan, Skye, and I to go for a walk.  That’s when I snapped this photo of the distant showers falling on the Cottonwood/Castle Creek drainage (all the rivers and creeks around here have two names, a local and an official name).  By the time we finished our walk and got back to the car, the raindrops were beginning to fall on us.  This showery weather is supposed to continue through the week.

My paintings are on display at:  davidmarchant.ca

The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne

    The theme for June’s McBride Library Book Club was “Obscure Books by Famous Authors.”  I took the theme as a challenge;  to try an find something written by a well known author that was little known, (and I hoped, a good read).  I immediately when to the internet for a search and luckily, I found exactly what I was looking for:

         The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne

              A.A. Milne is most famously known for writing the children’s book, Winnie the Pooh, and I was quite surprised when I the internet search “obscure books written by famous authors,” and it showed me that he had also written a mystery, and it was considered to be a good one.  I am not a big fan of mysteries, but I was intrigued, and so I downloaded it. I don’t remember if it was free or $.99. 

      I started reading it and was soon I was sucked into the story. At first it seemed like it would be one of those stereotypical mysteries where a crowd of people are in a house, one is murdered and everyone is a suspect, but this novel took a different tact.  

        Antony, the protagonist is staying overnight in a small town outside of London, and realizes that his friend Bill is also in the town staying with an acquaintance who owns the Red House.  Antony decides to find the Red House and drop in on Bill.  

        As luck would have it, just as he approaches the house, a murder occurs, and he enters to find a man frantically pounding on the locked library door where a shot had emanated from, trying to get into the room to see what happened.  Level-headed Antony makes suggestions to the panicky man and together they scramble around the house and are able to climb through the library window to discover a body on the floor. 

       The body is that of the house owner’s hated brother, who had suddenly arrived back after being exiled for 15 years in Australia.  There is no sign of the Red House owner, who seems to have vanished.  

      Antony and his friend Bill (who had been out golfing with other household guests), jokingly take on the roles of Sherlock Holmes and Watson, and try to solve the murder.  Unlike most mysteries, where everyone is a suspect until the final chapter, Antony and Bill quickly figure out who the murderer is, and the storyline is about how they get  proof to nail him and discover, how it was done.  There is a nice twist toward the end of the novel. 

    I just noticed something that confirms the old adage, “You can’t tell a book by it’s cover”.  I see on the cover there is a woman looking out from a balcony, in this novel women, mostly  house staff, play only minor roles.  I guess having a woman on the cover, sells books.

To look at my photo-realistic paintings go to:  davidmarchant.ca

Siberian Iris

    Somewhere down the line, someone gave me a Siberian Iris to plant.  I was unfamiliar with the plant which is taller and more slender than the usual Iris than I was used to.  They like moisture so I planted it on the shore of the pond, where they come up every year.  I am especially attracted to the yellowish, tiger-striped area at the base of the petals, which accents the violet and white color of the rest of the bloom.

Check out my paintings at:  davidmarchant.ca

Mother and Fawns

    Wildlife sightings are always a treat.  Yesterday when we drove up to Prince George, along the way we saw four different black bears grazing along the margins of Highway 16.  Today when we took our walk around the pond, we disturbed a mother deer with two fawns.  They made a quick exit before I could get my camera out, but I did get this shot as they walked through our front yard.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant.ca

Low Flying Aircraft

    Yesterday I was talking with friends and they mentioned the low-flying military jets that had flown over the Robson Valley a few days ago.  That triggered a couple of stories in my mind. 

    Back in the 1970’s-80’s one of the Valley residents was a retired Canadian Air Force officer named Charlie Leake.  In the Air Force, and had gained some prominence and rank while in uniform.  As a result, quite often, when his pilot colleagues were flying their jets through the valley would often dip down and buzz his house, which always caused some excitement with his neighbors.

    The other low flying story I remember was told to me during a coffee break when I worked at the BC Forest Service.  I used to love listening to the stories told during the coffee breaks by the more senior co-workers, who had lived in McBride for a long time.  Here is the story:

    One day, and I don’t remember what the year of the incident was, a plane was seen,  flying low, buzzing McBride’s train station.  It would dip down, fly past, then turn, dip down, and fly past again.  This happened several time.  Witnesses couldn’t figure out what was going on, but later they found out.

    There aren’t many settlements in the Rocky Mountain Trench, and the pilot was lost, and didn’t know where he was.  What he was doing was flying low in an attempt to read the location sign on the train station that told the town name.

You can see my paintings:  davidmarchant.ca

My Lupine Patch

    The Lupine growing around around the pond are presently in full bloom.  I look forward to seeing the magentas, bluish violet, and pinkish blooms every year.  The path we take when we walk around the pond, travels right through the Lupine and as you approach the patch, you can’t help but hear the loud buzzing of the multitude of bees, who are working the blooms.  Lupine seem to be a big favorite of bees.

    It has been very gratifying to see how the Lupine have spread since I first planted some seed many years ago.  I was once out timber cruising with a fellow from New Zealand, when I was working for the BC Forest Service.  He told me that in New Zealand, forestry actually plant Lupine in logged out areas because their roots put nitrogen in the soil that helps the next generation of trees grow.

I did a painting of a Lupine:  davidmarchant.ca

Dandelion Puff Balls

    I realize that a lot of people despise dandelions, but this morning on my walk around the pond, the Sun was backlighting this patch, making the fragile globes of puff, glow among the horsetails.  It looked pretty magical to me.

Check out my paintings at:  davidmarchant.ca

Small Town Favors

    Earlier this year, a neighbor offered me some Lima Beans to plant in my garden.  I like Lima Beans, and didn’t know you could grow them in the Interior of BC, but my neighbor explained that a local Mennonite family has been growing them for years, and had given him some beans for seed.  I happily took the beans and planted them in a row in my garden.

    A few days later, after thinking about it, asked the neighbor, just how high the bean vines grew and he demonstrated with his arm about eight feet high (2.4m).   

    “Yikes,” I thought, “I am going to have to rig up something for the vines to cling to.”  Since they were already planted in a row, a teepee sort of construction would not work, and I considered some kind of wire fencing, but that seemed like more work than I was ready to do, so I started thinking of another solution.

    I decided the easiest thing to do would be to put some metal posts in the ground, then string a light net over them.  I bought the posts and some very thin black plastic netting at the hardware store, and went to work to set it up.  Once, I got it set up I realized that the netting was so invisible, that birds would surely get caught up in it, so I took it down.  

    Joan suggested just tying up each bean plant with a string.  That would work, so I went to the Farm Store to buy some a baling twine, since I also use it for stringing up tomatoes in the greenhouse.  I have never been happy with the twine available for sale at the hardware store.

    When I asked about baling twine at the Farm Store all they had were huge big spools that came in lots of two, that was way more than I needed.   When I explained this, Sarah, the owner, thought for a while then said that she had a spool of really nice twine that she had bought years ago at an auction, and used for wrapping Christmas presents.

    She offered to let me take that home and use what I needed then return it.  I hated to use her “special stash” of twine, but she insisted, so I brought it home, and used it to string up my Lima Beans.  I have already put the spool back in the car so I will remember to return it to her.

    The whole episode made me appreciate the close relationship that people living in a small community have with their local business owners.  This is not the first time they have helped me out, and it’s one of the things I really like, living in a small town.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant.ca

Foliage

    I am not sure why I am so attracted to foliage, I do love different shades of green, and all of the unique shape of leaves, but whatever it is, I am always looking at plants for inspiration in my photos and paintings.  I noticed this collection of shapes and leaves on my walk around the pond. The image features feathery horsetails, star-burst lupine leaves, and the light green foliage of a wild rose plant.

You can view my many foliage paintings at:  davidmarchant.ca

Commode

    I have spent a lot of time in the hospital lately visiting with a close friend.  In the hospital room was the commode that you see in the photo.  I don’t often come across commodes, but every time I do, I flash back to my days working as a conscientious objector in a Goodwill Store during the early 1970’s.

    My main job at the Goodwill was as a “pricer.”  I priced the furniture and electrical items.  I worked with the “senior” pricer, a wise-cracking, one armed, “good-ole-boy” from a small Indiana town.  His name was Dennson.  He was quite a character, with a fowl mouth, full of sexual innuendos with the women, and the kind of person I generally wouldn’t care to be around, but he was very interesting, and took me under his wing, and I enjoyed his company.

    As I mentioned, Dennson had lost his right arm just above the elbow, and I was always fascinated watching how he could use the stump, along with his other hand and hand to do things like tying a string.  I was shocked however at one of his other tricks.  

    Because of the loss of his arm, when he wore a coat, he would tuck the sleeve of his empty coat arm into the coat pocket.  He sometimes would steal things from the Goodwill Store, like an electric shaver, by putting it in his coat pocket and then stuffing the empty sleeve into the pocket to hide it.  He was a rascal.

    Now, back to the commode.

    Periodically, people would donate commodes to the Goodwill, and they would be spruced up and then end up on the pricing floor for us to label and price.  These were the old fashion commodes, made of oak.  On the price tag, we would have to write what the item was and then below it, the price.

    Every time one came on the floor and Dennson had to fill out a pricing ticket, instead of writing “Commode” in the blank for the name, he wrote, “Executive Chair.”  

    I loved him for that, it summed up my feeling about corporate executives exactly, and the term will alway remain in my memory whenever I see a commode.

`

My paintings can be seen at:  davidmarchant.ca

Stupid Rules

    It is pretty common these days to butt up against rules that defy logic.  It happened to me the other day.  I had come across an old slide of Warren Jones, local cowboy and character.  I had taken the photo in the early 1980’s and for decades, Warren has asked me for a copy.  For a long time I couldn’t find the picture, so when I did, I printed it off, and then it sat on my desk for a couple of months.

    Finally I made myself put it in an envelope so I could send it to Warren.

    Here in our little village, we don’t have mail boxes in front of our house, we all have box numbers and have to drive into McBride to pick up our mail.  I didn’t know Warren’s box number, so on the envelope, I just wrote his name and McBride, BC.  and took it in to the post office.  The workers there all have the box numbers of everyone memorized.  

    When I got to the counter, the Post Mistress, noticed that there was no box number on the envelope, and said that I had to have it on the envelope.  I told her I didn’t know it, and she said I had to have it.  When I asked her why, she said that there might be more than one person with that name and the mail might be put in the wrong persons box.  Okay, but in our small village everyone knows Warren, and there is only one person with that name.  There isn't any place that I know of where you can look up a person's box number.  I asked her if she knew his number, and she indicated she did, but she couldn’t tell me--stupid, stupid, stupid.

    It is not her fault, it is a post office rule, created in some faraway distant urban area.  She had been reprimanded previously for helping people out by just putting the mail in their post office box without a visual box number on the envelope, so I don’t blame her, and in the end she did take the envelope and put it in Warren’s box.

    It is frustrating that rules have to be obeyed despite common sense in situations like this when everything would be so much more efficient and easy, just to put the envelope in the post office box of the recipient.  

Look at my paintings:  davidmarchant.ca

Hey, Nice Flowers

    We drove by the new McBride Library last night, and noticed this deer admiring the potted flowers on the sidewalk.  Deer can often be seen walking around in town.

See my paintings at:  davidmarchant.ca

Tete Jaune Lodge Brunch

    Yesterday Joan and I did the 45 minute drive from McBride out to the Tete Jaune Lodge for Sunday Brunch, where we joined friends to celebrate a birthday.  The Tete Jaune Lodge Restaurant is hidden off the highway, tucked right up beside the Fraser River.  Because it is not obvious from Highway 16, a lot of the patrons are locals, and most tourists miss the really wonderful experience, dining beside the flowing Fraser in the cozy rustic eatery.

    There is an outdoor eating area, but it was a miserable and damp day with the coolish temperature of 8C  (46F), so we opted to eat inside.    When we entered the restaurant, we were immediately comforted by the warmth radiating from the crackling stone fireplace. 

    We chose a table with a good view of the Fraser and began our meal.  Shrimp, Eggs Benedict, fruit, sausage, bacon, fried potatoes, chips, salsa, pancakes, cinnamon buns, cream puffs, and more, was laid out for the brunch.  The food was excellent, varied, and abundant and I filled and emptied several plates.  

    Looking out at the river, I couldn’t help but be reminded of overturning the canoe I was in and dumping my camcorder in the river last year.  The embarrassing incident happened just downstream from the restaurant.  

    The brunch was a really nice experience, on many levels, and I suspect we will be going back to do it again sometimes in the near future. 

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant.ca

"Gone With The Wind" Sunset

    Just two days ago I was re-watching “Gone With The Wind” which I had recorded from a movie channel.  I am always very aware of the several scenes in the film, with the characters silhouetted in black, against the dramatic very orange sunset.  As luck would have it, Joan and I experienced such a sunset last night, as we drove home from our weekly visit with some friends.  

    The sunset wasn’t quite as dark, or orange, as it appears on the photo, but because the Sun was so bright, and I was shooting directly at it, the camera automatically darkened the whole scene, which resulted in the photo you see.

    The days are really stretching out in length now, this photo was taken about 9:30 PM.  

    I took the shot when we were in the middle of the Robson Valley.  Our house is on the edge of the mountain slopes and because of the way our house is oriented, the sunsets this time of year are obscured, by the slope and wooded area around our house, so I appreciate being able to see them every now and again when we are out somewhere else in the Valley.

View my paintings:  davidmarchant.ca

Guaranteed Weight Loss

    Not much to write about today, so I thought I would throw you a cartoon.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant.ca

Lupine

    A couple of days ago when I blogged about the waterlilies, I mentioned that the Lupines were also starting to bloom.  Here are some photos I took in my Lupine patch this morning.  Lupines have long been one of my favorite flowers.  They have give a double whammy.  Not only are the spear-pointed blooms colorful, but also their star-burst shaped foliage is very unusual and interesting.  

    After I had my pond built, I collected and spread some Lupine seeds around in one area, and they have nurtured and spread around the perimeter of the pond.  The our native Lupine are a purplish-blue color, but I also have some domesticated ones that are more reddish,  pink, and whitish in color.

You can see my painting of a Lupine at:  davidmarchant.ca

Robin Nestlings

    Weeks ago I noticed a Robin building a nest on a branch just off and below our balcony.  I made a mental note to keep an eye on it, because it was situated so that I could take a good photo of the young Robins when they hatched.  Of course, I forgot about it.

    Then the other day, I saw that the mother Robin was extremely busy pulling earthworms out of the garden, and I remembered the nest.  I went upstairs, onto the balcony, and took a look.  There were four young Robins squeezed together in the nest.  (If you look carefully, you can see all of them, or parts of them in the photo).  

    I was sorry that I didn’t think of checking on them earlier, when they would have all been sitting there, half naked with their mouths up and wide open, but I am happy that I at least got a photo of them at this stage.

You can see my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant.ca

Waterlily

    I get a lot of pleasure watching the succession of plants during the spring.  They all have their individual schedules for growing and flowering.  Right now the lupines and waterlilies are beginning to bloom.  The photo shows one of the waterlilies.  It makes me proud to see, because the whole reason for building my pond was to create habitat for wild things.

    I designed the pond so that a lot of it would be about 4 ft (1.2 m) deep, thinking that that would be a good depth for aquatic plants to grow in.  When my pond first began filling with water, I was eager to establish native plants in it, so I started going to lot of local natural lakes looking for aquatic plants.

      I had noticed some long octopus-arm-looking tubers from native waterlilies floating on Horseshoe Lake in the spring, and I managed to collect some of them and stick them in the mud at the bottom of my pond.  I didn’t really know if they would grow or not, but they have established themselves nicely.

    Every year now, I look forward to seeing their flat, rounded leaves floating on the water and their yellow flowers adding a bit of color to the surface of my pond.

    

I did a painting of a waterlily that you can see at:  davidmarchant.ca

Doggie in the Window

    While Joan and I were out partaking of the Pioneer Days activities in McBride, Skye our dog only got to observe from inside the truck.

    There was a lot going on. Beside the big parade down Main Street, there were horseshoe throwing contests, logger sports, antique cars, a baking contest, face painting, and more.  The local quilting group hung 40 mini-quilts around in various stores in McBride, and invited people to go on a quilt hunt to find them all.

    For me the big event of the weekend was having our music jam play for an hour in the park pavilion.  It is a yearly reminder of why I quit the rock and roll band I was in as a teenager-- having to haul around, set up, check, play, and then dismantle and haul away all of the music equipment.

    The gig itself went okay.  We got positive feedback.  The audience did outnumber the players most of the time.  Some people stayed the whole time to listen, but it was a difficult venue for the audience because there were no chairs in the pavilion for them to sit in, only 3 picnic tables, so it meant standing, which most people can only do for a while.

    Oh well, all the Pioneer Days’ hoopla is now over and we can relax for another year before it happens again.  

View my paintings:  davidmarchant.ca

Green

    I looked out of the kitchen window yesterday and was struck by an overwhelming sense of green.  It seemed that the window showed nothing but the lush green-ness outside.  It always takes a while after winter for the plants to get going, but once they begin, they just explode into green.  Of course, yesterday, when I took the shot, it was cloudy and rainy, and that always seems to amplify the green.

    Below is a photo of my hosta plants, whose jungle-like foliage always attracts me.

You can see some of my hosta paintings at: davidmarchant.ca

Don't Rain on my Parade

    On the first weekend of June, McBride has it’s Pioneer Days celebration.  One of the major events that takes place is a big parade down Main Street.  It seems to me that every year the weather is predictable-- showers.   When we woke up yesterday things looked dire.  Dark clouds were building over the Cariboo Mountains. 

    As Joan and I drove into town the showers began.  It was wet and cold.  The few early onlookers that were starting to take their positions along the sidewalks, huddled under the sheltered porches of the stores.  As you can see from the photo above things didn’t look too promising as the parade started, but the sirens on the fire trucks and emergency vehicles wailed (almost painful to the ears), and the parade began.

    Amazingly, then the clouds cleared and the Sun came out.  Organizations and stores in the parade threw candy to the kids who scrambled to the edge of the street to pick it up, as their parents watched  the procession of old cars, trucks, horses and bicycles stream by.

    I took up my regular spot  on the parade route (where the parade makes a turn) and as the participants got close,r I pulled out my camcorder to take photos, only to discover the battery was totally dead.  Luckily, I had my iPhone, so used that instead.

    Below are photos of my favorite parade entry this year:  a miniature horse pulling a miniature covered wagon.  You can see the kids picking up candy from the street.

Go to davidmarchant.ca to view my paintings.

Hard-Life Aspen

    This old Aspen tree shows signs of having endured a hard life.  Aspens normally have a solid white bark, but this one shows there has been a lot of past damage to it’s bark in the past.  Do you see the whitish leaves?  Those leaves are infested with a small caterpillar called a ‘leaf miner’ that lives and eats tunnels between the top and bottom layers of it’s leaves.  

    Despite all it’s old and current injuries, the Aspen is still alive and enjoying the sunshine.

You can see my painting "Aspen" which shows leaf miner tracks at: davidmarchant.ca

Roadside Chives

    Yesterday was the McBride Library Book Club, and since all I had to take with me was my iPad and a pair of glasses, I decided I should bike into town.  It is after all, it is ‘Bike to Work Week’.  Every time I started pedaling up a slope, my legs complained.  (It was my first ride on the bike this year.)  I did survive the 5 km (3 mile) trip to McBride.

    After the meeting I began biking home.  When you are riding a bike, you sure see, feel, and become more aware of the countryside around you, than you do when you are traveling in a car.  Along Highway 16, right on the edge of the road I glanced down and noticed the purple heads of a plant.  My brain kicked in and said, “Hey, that’s chives.” 

    There was nothing coming down the highway, so I circled back to take a closer look.  Sure enough, it was chives.  I tasted one of them to make sure.  

    All the rest of my trip home, I pondered, “How in the world did that domesticated plant end up growing on the edge of the highway--just another one of life’s unanswered mysteries, I guess.

My paintings are on display at:  davidmarchant.ca