ÿþ<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html lang="EN" dir="ltr" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-16"/> <title>News from the Treetops Studios - 2010</title> <meta name="description" content="Elaine Dendy and John Dendy live and work in their Saanichton home studio, north of Victoria, near Sidney, Brentwood Bay and the Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island. We design and produce unique, exhibition quality, outerwear for women."/> <meta name="keywords" content="Clayoquot, Tin Wis, Tofino, Best Western, hummingbird, CACSP, Madrona Fiber Arts, Arts Council, Tulista Park, Adobe CS5, mobius, Paradon, computer, corel"/> <link rel = "stylesheet" type = "text/css" href = "../home.css"/> </head> <body> <div id = "pagebox"><a name="pagetop"></a> <h2>THE TREETOPS STUDIOS - SAANICHTON</h2> <p id = "navbarup"> &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../index.html">Enter</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../home.html">Home</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../tour/tour.html">Tour the Studios</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../fabart/fabart.html">Fabric Arts</a> <!--&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../visart/visart.html">Visual Arts</a>--> <!--&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../workshop/workshop.html">The Workshop</a>--> <br /> <a href="../study/study.html">The Study</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../gallery/gallery.html">The Gallery</a> <!--&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../commune/commune.html">Our Community</a>--> <!--&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../links/links.html">Links</a>--> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../gglsrch.html">Search</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#Contact">Contact Us</a> </p> <div><p>&nbsp;</p></div> <!-- explicit vspacer --> <h1>WELCOME TO THE TREETOPS STUDIOS</h1> <div id = "textimgbox"> <div><p>&nbsp;</p></div> <!-- explicit vspacer --> <a name="maintable"></a> <div id = "roombox"> <div id = "roomtable"> <table border="1" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="10"> <colgroup align="left"> <col width="125"/> <col align="center"/> </colgroup> <tr><th><strong>Back Issues</strong></th> <td><a href="newsfa03.html">2003</a> - <a href="newsfa04.html">2004</a> - <a href="news05.html">2005</a> - <a href="news06.html">2006</a> - <a href="news07.html">2007</a> - <a href="news08.html">2008</a> - <a href="news09.html">2009</a></td></tr> <tr><th><a href="#11Apr">11 April, 2010</a></th> <td><a href="#11Apr1">Starting Up 2010</a> - <a href="#11Apr2">Dreaming in TechnoGeek</a> - <a href="#11Apr3">A Member of the Board</a> - <a href="#11Apr4">A Foolish April</a></td></tr> <tr><th><a href="#08June">8 June, 2010</a></th> <td><a href="#08June1">Weather &amp; Gardens</a> - <a href="#08June2">Wild Life</a> - <a href="#08June3">Studio Life</a></td></tr> <tr><th><a href="#30Sep">30 September, 2010</a></th> <td><a href="#30Sep1">East &amp; West</a> - <a href="#30Sep2">Back Home</a> - <a href="#30Sep3">A Get-Away Reward</a></td></tr> <tr><th><a href="#31Dec">31 December, 2010</a></th> <td><a href="#31Dec1">Show Season</a> - <a href="#31Dec2">Autumn Whiteout</a> - <a href="#31Dec3">Old Things &amp; New Things</a></td></tr> </table> <a name="31Dec"></a><h4>31 December, 2010</h4> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5"> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="31Dec1"></a><p><strong>Show Season</strong> &nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p><img src="../images/n10r3.jpg" alt="Commonwealth Show" class="elmfltleft" width="215" height="302" />It's that quiet time we get in the studios. Just before the New Years festivities and just after getting everything squared away at the end of Elaine's Christmas show season. A frosty dawn is just coming up, there is fresh coffee in hand and Julie is piping Haydn to me over the web from the CBC2's Winnipeg channel. So let's start wrapping up 2010 with our 'News' from the Treetops Studios.</p> <p>It has been Elaine's best season - ever. In spite of the wind and the rain, almost all her llama and alpaca women's wear sold out at the Saanich Fair on the Labour Day weekend. The weather was better than last year - but not good. The sudden demand for natural fibre and natural/synthetic blends, has caught the Vancouver Island breeders and shearers off guard. There are plans to upgrade the shearing, fibre grading and yarn production process. But Elaine may still have to use some imported fibre to meet the demand in 2011.</p> <p>Then Elaine and a friend combined forces for a three-event Christmas season. The image on the left shows their 2010 setup. This one is for the first event, the 'Commonwealth Show'. The large patterned blankets are by Elaine's knit buddy. The weather was bad - again. But that may have sparked a demand for Elaine's shawls, wraps, gloves and boot socks. Fortunately, she had replenished her stock in the six weeks since the Fair.</p> <p>The surprise was that the demand held through right to the end of the season. The weather improved, but cold weather 'gear' flew off the racks. The rage items have been the <a href="http://www.catbordhi.com/free_patterns.html">'Mobius' cowl</a> and 'fingerless' gloves. A second surprise was the colour preferences. Black and white or off-white are always popular colours. As are the lighter blues. This year there was a run on greens as well. But not for violet and orange, the other secondary colours. Instead, it was the greys that caught the buyers' fancy. &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="31Dec2"></a><p><strong>Autumn Whiteout</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="../images/n10s3.jpg" alt="Autumn Snow" class="elmfltright" width="227" height="302" /> If you have been following our 'News' over the years, you will know that the Saanich Peninsula does get a bit of snow around the Christmas-New Years period. Usually it is no more than a few inches, and that over several weeks. Regardless of the amount, the 'truly Canadian' thing to do with it is to get out right away and shovel it off on to the lawns and side gardens.</p> <p>The 'truly West Coast' thing is to wait a few days and the warm weather and rain will return and wash it all away. Not this year! The first winter storm struck unusually early, on the 19th of November. We were on the road, heading off to set up for the 'Commonwealth Show' as above, and felt the storm coming on; a bitter northeasterly gale driving skiffs of icy snow. By the time we finished the setup it was well after dark and the roads were covered with a couple of inches of frozen rime, obscuring the lane markers and denying traction to even the very few local drivers who mount winter tires.</p> <p>We made it home in good order and the show itself did not suffer. But the high winds continued for several days and nights and the overnight temperature fell to around -6C. The piles of snow left by plows and shovels lingered right to the end of the month. Not as perilous for our wintering over <a href="news08.html#31Dec5">hummingbirds</a> as the episode in late 2008. But cold enough to bring in the feeders at nightfall and put them out, filled and 'baby bottle' warm, the following dawn. We must have been successful in preserving at least some of our winter colony. As I write this, just at sundown on 29 December with the temperature falling past -2C, a clear sky and the promise of a windchill around -7/-8 here overnight, there is Calliope male at one feeder and what I take to be an Anna's female at the other: both 'tanking up' for a long cold night. We will put them on 'life support' until this cold snap passes early next week.</p> <p>Even unwelcome snow can part of an Island winter. Something about broad white vistas sparkling in the sunlight under a clear blue sky. Not this time. The image at the right above was taken near noon under the solid deck of storm clouds that persisted for several days after the snow struck. With the brightness and contrast augmented in Photoshop, the image is still nearly monochrome. The deck rails are actually a medium blue-grey and the western maples in the background have grey and white trunks with bright green moss on them. Grim stuff! &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="31Dec3"></a><p><strong>Old Things &amp; New Things</strong> &nbsp;&nbsp; Last spring we started preparing the studio for a computer migration to Windows 7 and the installation of a better integrated and more capable <a href="#11Apr2">design software suite</a>. We expected that we would have a year or more to do the research. 'Blackie', our XP-based main design machine, was in good shape. So no rush. Fooled again! The really old machine that we used as the software driver for Elaine's computerized knitting machines gave up the ghost a few weeks after we returned from our trip back east. So, with a bit more urgency we worked through the options and decided to retire Blackie, with his software and files completely intact - just in case, to the 'knit minder' job. Then we had <a href="http://www.paradon.com/">Paradon Computers</a> assemble 'Blackie2' for us, the sixth or seventh computer they have assembled for us in the past ten years or so, and the third main design computer. Blackie2 came in as a bare Windows 7 box. John did the software and data migration - one handed - the other hand had the fingers too tightly crossed to be really useful. (Yes, that is Christmas wrapping debris in the background.)</p> <p><img src="../images/n10t3.jpg" alt="Blackie1 - Reassembled" class="elmfltleft" width="275" height="302" />The image on the left shows Blackie 1 - rechristened - sitting on John's carving bench. Everything for Elaine's work, including a new monochrome printer and audio output for her collection of 'toons', is connected and plugged in ready for the final test - one press of the 'ON' button to go. For the record, it all works, jes' fine.</p> <p>If you have been following our 'News' for a few years, and have been really alert today, you will have wondered why the end of the previous section 'Autumn Whiteout' refers to Photoshop. Doesn't the Treetops Studios use CorelDRAW X3 Graphics Suite? Well, yes it does. It is still installed and running well in Blackie2. But the problem of getting a half dozen open source design programs to 'play nicely' as a broader integrated design suite did not get solved. So off we went to Adobe's Creative Suite 5 - Design Premium. It is certainly pricey. But with just a bit of reading 'Bridge', 'Photoshop' and 'Dreamweaver' have cooperated to bring you this year-end update.</p> <p>The last of the 'New Things' for this year has to be Elaine's. Over the years she has placed her wares in many boutiques. The sales have not been too bad but the sort of longer term relationship that a conventional 'artist' might cultivate with a gallery has never matured. Then about a week before Christmas a boutique owner noticed that one of her customers was wearing the sort of fingerless gloves that the owner had wanted to carry in the store. A couple of phone calls later and Elaine had an assortment of her wares, including the fingerless gloves, on display. Sales have been excellent. Elaine has to restock her display this week.</p> <p>There. Let us finish on that high note. It's time to wish you all the best in the New Year. And, as always, take care of the those you love and help someone who needs you. &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> </table> <a name="30Sep"></a><h4>30 September, 2010</h4> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5"> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="30Sep1"></a><p><strong>East &amp; West</strong> &nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p><img src="../images/n10q3.jpg" class="elmfltleft" width="415" height="302" alt="Evening - Canada Day"/></p> <p> With the car packed for five or six weeks of travelling and reservations made everywhere, off we went. Mid-June to late July lodgings do require planning: high school proms and graduations, the 1st of July and 4th of July celebrations in Canada and the US respectively and the flood of July vacationers and families on the move. Even booking six weeks in advance our first two choices in Fargo were already full. We started off with a short business detour to Portland, Oregon and then east, more or less, through Sault Ste. Marie to Ottawa, Ontario. The weather was fine, mostly. There was snow in the Dalles - unexpected in June - more in the Rockies - expected - and lots of road work in Idaho and Montana - fully expected and worked into the schedule.</p> <p>Along the way east Elaine knitted, of course, and John collected rock and fossil samples out of the roadwork debris. Grandson Nicholas has developed an interest in geology. Granddaughter Caitlin has been drawing for several years now, so a nice box of supplies came east for her too. She has decided to try for the visual arts stream when she enters high school in two years. Places are in demand and the <a href="http://canterburyhs.ocdsb.ca/arts/visual/index.html">entry routine</a> is quite specific: a portfolio of work done in junior high school (grades seven and eight), an assessed studio drawing session with live model and then a final interview. John is a firm believer in the maxim: "Learn to draw first - learn to paint second." so he gave a few starter lessons. Then off the two of them went to the new <a href="http://www.deserres.ca/en-ca/">DeSerres</a> art supply store in Ottawa for a guided tour through the displays of quality papers, pencils and charcoals. Naturally a 'few' items came back home with them too.</p> <p>The rest of the three weeks of eastern visiting, the drive back, including a two night stop near Edmonton with John's brother, his wife, their son and a new daughter-in-law, passed as something of a whirl. Lots of relatives and friends, good food and great company, mixed with dodging storms on the way back west. The one event that does stand out took place on Canada Day. We have done a lot of stops at Best Westerns over the years, finally working our way up to 'Platinum Elite' status. These things do pay off! The chain's 'Cartier Hotel' on the Gatineau side of the Ottawa River put us up - literally - in a very quiet top floor corner room looking out over the river and its parkways.</p> <p>Very quiet, except for the 1 June Canada Day show. The image above shows the evening crowds just starting to flow into the celebration site on the Quebec side of the river. By dusk the grounds, and every other vantage point for a quarter mile up and down the river, was packed. Perhaps a hundred small boats took up the moorings in the river. The party itself ran along both sides of the river, ten floors below us. The fireworks burst right in front of us, just above eye level and about a quarter mile away. Spectacular! &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="30Sep2"></a><p><strong>Back Home</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="../images/n10k3.jpg" class="elmfltright" width="376" height="302" alt="Artisans"/> Meanwhile, back on the western front ... .</p> <p>Elaine had passed on her remaining duties with the <a href="http://www.cacsp.com/">Community Arts Council of the Saanich Peninsula</a> just before we left on our trip. She had, by then, helped get the CACSP's 'Summer Artisans' Show up and running. Some of her own contributions, mainly loosely textured tops and accessories, are shown in the image to the right. After her very busy spring she had fewer items than usual to display. But sales were good.</p> <p>The final show of the summer season is the Saanich Fair, one of the oldest, surviving, agricultural fairs in the country. Elaine usually alternates between helping with the needlework exhibition in the fair's main building and demonstrating machine knitting with natural fibres in the more remote pavilion set up by the <a href="http://www.vilac.org/">Vancouver Island Llama and Alpaca Club</a>, VILAC, for short. This year the weather was only 'fair', with a good bit of cold, wet, drizzle blowing around and into the tents. Still, the crowds were great. Elaine nearly sold out of her llama and alpaca knitting.</p> <p>At first encounter you might wonder why a knitter would be accepted as a member for a society of livestock breeders and fibre shearers. But the market for domestic llama and alpaca fibre is not well established and a good 'Buy Local' showing helps. John is not much help there. Both his grandfathers started in farming when they came to Canada about a century ago. But not ranching. The family's focus is on the production of premium cherries here in <a href="http://www.dendy.ca/">British Columbia </a> and in <a href="http://www.fortunefruit.com/">New Zealand</a>. Nevertheless, for this fair VILAC needed a "whipper-in" to control traffic at the show ring. Not a big job. The animals and their handlers knew what had to be done.</p> <p>Sadly, Elaine's arrangements to hand on the curator's duties for the Arts Council's "Gallery By The Sea" show fell apart while we were gadding about back East. These things do happen in volunteer organizations. But Elaine is an experienced volunteer team leader. Threads get picked up, ducks fall into line and reset buttons get pushed. Artists, sponsors and buyers get reconnected with the public and things go forward. Once again the show finished in the black, four of the nine exhibits sold and public balloting for the favourite painting was up again. The image on the left below shows Elaine and the Mayor of Sidney, Larry Cross, addressing the gathering in front of the Arts Council's Tulista Park site at the closing ceremonies for the show. &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/n10l3.jpg" width="283" height="302" alt="GBS Closing"/></td> <td><img src="../images/n10m3.jpg" class="elmfltright" width="336" height="302" alt="Beached"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><p>You can tell by the brightness and glare in the photo on the left above that it was a clear, bright, day for the show closing. It turned out that there was a quiet half hour between helping with the set up for the ceremony and the advertised start time. John had packed a camera to help with the publicity photographs anyway, so off he went up the seawall. No clear object in mind. Just looking for interesting shots. The sun was at just the right angle to bring up the surface textures on the driftwood stranded above the tide line by last winter's storms. A few minutes exploration and thought and then about twenty images of deep shadows, complex surface textures and strong highlights. They should be ideal models, like the one on the right above, for pencil, pen and ink, or ink and wash studies. &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="30Sep3"></a><p><strong>A Get-Away Reward</strong> &nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p>Now, with all that travelling this summer, then an unexpected extension in Elaine's curatorial duties and the Christmas shows still to be prepared, you would think that more travel would not be in order. But, Best Western came through with promo vouchers for two free nights. They had to be used before Christmas. Why not? Just a short 'get away' to celebrate a successful summer?</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/n10n3.jpg" class="elmfltleft" width="244" height="302" alt="Tin Wis Front View"/></td> <td><img src="../images/n10p3.jpg" class="elmfltright" width="331" height="302" alt="Tin Wis Ocean View"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><p>We really like <a href="http://www.tourismtofino.com/">Tofino</a>. It, with the neighbouring village of Ucluelet, is probably the only easily accessible resort area on the west coast of Vancouver Island. We must have been there a half dozen times in the past eighteen years: on our own or with family visitors. The drive from Saanichton is an easy day, even with stops for lunch with friends living along the way and visits to some of Elaine's favourite yarn stores. So, off we went for three nights at Best Western's Tin Wis, on the sea front just south of the Tofino townsite. <a href="http://www.tinwis.com/">Tin Wis</a>, "Calm Waters" in the language of the Tla-o-qui-aht (Clayoquot) First Nations, is right on the Pacific Ocean, but looks out over Mackenzie Beach, the relatively sheltered quarter mile 'calm water' upon which the ancient name is based. The inn itself draws much of its design inspiration, and some of its operation, from an association with the local First Nations heritage.</p> <p>We drove in on the last blasts of an early autumn storm and settled into a nearly empty inn. The next morning dawned clear, warm and calm. The weather held for the rest of our stay and the inn acquired a small population of other 'get away' folks. Elaine is still waiting for the call for her new knee, so she missed her walks on the beach. Instead we made short visits to the galleries and native craft shops in the area, dined very well - both in the resort and on the town, and just generally stretched out. For Elaine that meant long 'stretches' in the sun on our room's patio. And for John there were several more hours on the beach front with a camera. The image on the left above is the west face of the inn, suggesting the range of long houses that would have fronted onto the beach in a northwest coast native village before the great smallpox epidemics of the nineteen century. The image on the right was taken from the lawn in front of our room, looking west onto the 'calm waters'. &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> </table> <a name="08June"></a><h4>8 June, 2010</h4> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5"> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="08June1"></a><p><strong>Weather &amp; Gardens</strong> <img src="../images/n10d3.jpg" class="elmfltright" width="243" height="302" alt="All Together"/> &nbsp;&nbsp; Our <a href="#11Apr4">'Foolish April'</a> was followed closely by one of the coolest and wettest Mays on record. Mother's Day, the 9th of May, dawned with frost on the roofs all 'round the little cul-de-sac where are studio is located. Fortunately, there were very few really stormy days. The steady light rain has filled or local reservoirs to overflowing and kept them there for longer than ever.</p> <p>And ... as you can see in the image on the right, the flowers loved it. There must have been enough sunlight and warmth for everything to bloom. There was certainly enough moisture for them to keep their blossoms. Once the blossoms set they just held on. Before we took this picture we had to lift some of the grape hyacinth and bluebells. They are 'volunteers' in the gardens. (That's often a polite way of saying 'weeds' of course.) But we let them blossom every year in some other parts of the gardens. The bare patch in the left foreground was completely covered over by a thick mat of their leaves with no room for the summer flowers to penetrate. We're also thinking about putting a white lavender there next year. Yes, we know that lavender is a dry land planting. Our springs are 'moist' but the summers can be almost rainless.</p> <p>A new white lavender would have some very nice neighbours:&nbsp; left to right, front to back, a scarlet azalea, several blue hyacinth, various tulips, a bleeding heart in full flourish and on into more bluebells and grape hyacinth. It's hard to see at web page resolution, but the last of the jonquil and the spring crocus are in there too. Clustered in the shady area closer to the front of the house, and not in full bloom yet, a miniature rose, another azalea and finally a hydrangea. &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p> <p><img src="../images/n10e3.jpg" class="elmfltleft" width="245" height="302" alt="Misty Evening"/>&nbsp;&nbsp; A cool and wet spring does keep us closer to the Studio than usual. And it does cut into John's camera time. Still, the unusual weather has brought its rewards. The image on the left is one of a long series of evening light photographs taken towards the south face of Mount Newton in the middle of May. Every evening for about a week a thick bank of mist and low cloud settled on to the top of the mountain. But the sky remained more or less clear to the westward, over the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saanich_Inlet">Saanich Inlet</a> and along the south and east slopes of <a href="http://www.vancouverisland.com/regions/towns/?townID=120">The Malahat</a>.</p> <p>On many evenings a last ten or fifteen minutes of bright sunlight came in, horizontally, under the mist. The cool weather held the trees that you can see in yellow and pale green foliage for much longer than usual. The effect was similar to that of a summer sun shining under a retreating rainstorm and turning on a brilliant evening rainbow.</p> <p>It took a few tries to get the exposure set up properly with my trusty HP315. The trick turned out to be setting the exposure to the dim light falling on our neighbour's decking in the foreground. As the week progressed I was able to catch several good examples, using the bright returns on the white porch, just below centre in the middle distance, to catch the brilliant cadmium yellow colour of the tree just behind it. Now, for a bit of work to restore the blown-out glow on the underside of the mist along the face of the mountain. &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="08June2"></a><p><strong>Wild Life</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; As the spring wore on our local 'critters' responded well to the gradual warming of the prolonged rainy season. Lots of deer sightings, of course. But also bald eagles perching in the spruce and fir trees around the studio. That might account for the recent scarcity of rabbit and squirrel sightings and the frequent alarms among the crow and raven nests around here. Then, early one morning, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_River_Otter">river otter (Lontra canadensis)</a> popped up out of the brush in the back yard along Hagen Creek. One of the few times that there was not a camera at hand! Sorry 'bout that. It shuffled right up to the front lawn, looked about, decided that there was nothing to eat there and returned the way it had come. There are lots of shellfish, frogs, stickleback and some small trout down in the creek. (No salmon. Hagen Creek falls into the Inlet over a ledge too high for salmon to scale.)</p> <p>There are some new creatures up on the lawns about the studio that an otter could have eaten, if it could catch them. This spring we have all kinds of rough-skinned <a href="http://www.prbo.org/cms/204">salamanders and newts</a> about the neighbourhood. The largest are a light sage green and as much as eight inches long. The rest come in various lengths, down to about three inches, and in lots of colours:&nbsp; medium gray, apple-leaf green, and a dull brick red. Again, no good photographs. They are shy - and fast. The pile of split and drying spruce on the sunny side of the studio is just right for them: lots of good things to eat, lots of places to stretch out in the sun and lots of places to hide. &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/n10f3.jpg" class="elmfltright" width="234" height="302" alt="Snail in Firewood"/></td> <td><img src="../images/n10g3.jpg" class="imgtblctr" width="310" height="302" alt="Pacific Sideband Snail"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><p> In the course of splitting all that firewood I did find something that moved slowly enough to be photographed. The images above show what I suspect is the <a href="http://daveingram.ca/2010/05/31/pacific-sideband-snails/">Pacific Sideband Snail (Monadenia fidelis)</a>. Over the years I have seen a few of them in the damp and mouldering places and rescued a few more that strayed onto the driveway or the road. The one on the left above showed up under the lowest tier of the spruce rounds that I was splitting for firewood. I took a few pictures and left it snoozing until it was time to split this last round. It got transferred, gently, into a shady trash pile and had gone on its way when I checked back after stacking the wood.</p> <p>I discovered the larger one, on the right above, on the lid of the black plastic composter that renders down all our vegetable scraps. It would probably have found its way down unassisted. I have seen six to eight inch <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_slug">banana slugs</a> do that quite handily, if very slowly. But since humans choose to hurry through life, we do like to dump kitchen scraps into composters right away. So I moved this little guy too. Fortunately, there was a camera at hand and good light. It opened and closed a few times as I set up and then posed, half extended, while I shot a half dozen frames. One interesting discovery is that it has no response to the camera flash. Several of the shots - not this one - were taken with extra light to pick up the detail in the shell. Not a twinge. (Yes. I washed off all the goo before handling food or dishes again.) &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="08June3"></a><p><strong>Studio Life</strong> &nbsp;&nbsp; Now, you will be remarking that there is far too much leisure in our lives this spring. Really! Time to take pictures of snails! Where is the hustle? Is there something more going on?</p> <p>Of course there is! We are preparing for three big events. The first, in terms of its long term impact, is getting Elaine 'on the train' for a complete replacement of her left knee. The doctors have been watching it for about a year and a half while Elaine has been toning up and sizing down in preparation. No lesser treatments have worked and we are expecting a decision later this summer.</p> <p>Elaine's design and production output has not been slowed up by the creaky joint. The evening jacket on the left below is based on a traditional pattern for a Japanese short kimono. It is knit-woven in a silk and bamboo blended yarn over a knit cotton base. The piece won a Jurors' Award and an immediate sale at this spring's Saanich Peninsula Arts and Crafts Society's show. The tea cozy on the right is a more traditional design intended to take advantage of the patterning possibilities in some of the space dyed synthetic yarns that have come into the market in the past few years.</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/n10h3.jpg" class="elmfltright" width="231" height="302" alt="Short Kimono - "/></td> <td><img src="../images/n10j3.jpg" width="415" height="302" alt="Tea Cozy"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><p>In the meantime, we are preparing for one of our tidewater to tidewater trips back east this summer. We drive out and back so there is a new car to put through its paces before we leave. A mid-June to mid-July agenda means advance reservations, far in advance for some of our favourite stopping places. Several boxes of family 'treasures' - no monetary value, great sentimental value - are already packed up. The arrangements are in train for a big family reunion dinner in Ottawa. And, Elaine and I are going to fill in one more line on our 'Been there!" map. We are going east through the US, mostly on the Interstates through Spokane to Fargo. That will leave, among the major east/west routes through Canada and the US, only the eastern half of I-10, essentially Texas to Florida, and the <a href="http://www.yellowheadit.com/">Yellowhead Highway</a> west of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper,_Alberta">Jasper</a>, Alberta unexplored. Don't take that as a hint that we want to 'get off the road'. There are still quite a few north/south routes between the Mississippi and the east face of the Rockies that have to be explored.</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><p>In the intervals between preparations for the these two 'big events', John has set off on a third big event of his own: a two year personal tour through the realm of figure drawing. His aim is to spend the first year pulling together all of the loose bits of drawing and sketching skills that he has developed, filling in gaps where he finds them. The second year will then be dedicated to portraiture. Watch this space! &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> </table> <a name="11Apr"></a><h4>11 April, 2010</h4> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5"> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="11Apr1"></a><p><strong>Starting up 2010 at The Treetops Studios</strong> &nbsp;&nbsp; Welcome back to 'News from The Treetops Studios' - and to the 2010 edition. If this is your first look at the Studio News, the <strong>Back Issues</strong> are available above. Just click on the year. If you are a new visitor to our Studio, you might like to <a href="../tour/tour.html">Tour the Studios</a> or <a href="../home.html">Enter</a> the main site after you have read the News. Then, the next time you return to the Studios, just click on the <a href="sitenews.html">What's NEW on the Website?</a> link when your browser opens our site. It's set up like our Studio News, with the most recent additions at the top of the listing.</p> <p><img src="../images/n10a3.jpg" class="elmfltright" width="268" height="302" alt="A Gloomy Winter"/>If you are a frequent visitor to the Treetops Studios, you will have realized by now that we are back on our irregular schedule of updates and "News from the Treetops Studios". Last year events just took over our schedule. An <a href="news09.html">end of the year edition</a> won't be repeated any time soon - we hope.</p> <p>Things were still a little busy after the New Year. Elaine got a fair number of orders for spring deliveries during her Christmas shows. Our knitting machines came in for minor servicing. Other machines, from estates or downsizings, walked into the Studios, were checked over and then passed on, across the generations in many cases, to beginning knitters. Still, timings must have loosened up a bit as Elaine is accepting a few students, something she almost never had time for in the past.</p> <p>As I am writing this morning, 8 April, there is frost on the roofs in the village, again. The image on the right is typical of what has been one of the coolest and cruelest winters in decades. Dark, wet and often very stormy. It is calm here today but there were power outages up and down Vancouver Island as another windstorm came ashore overnight. Fortunately, there is always something great to do on the West Coast. There was a grim winter like this just after John's parents moved out to the Island some 25 years ago. They had come from Calgary, the land of sunny winters and frequent warm chinooks. So, off they went for a week in San Francisco.</p> <p>We were not quite that enterprising. But a week and a bit on the road, visiting with knitty friends in the Portland, Oregon, area and then a long stop in Tacoma, Washington, for the <a href="http://www.madronafiberarts.com/">2010 Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat</a> early in February brightened up the wet season for us again. Elaine did her fibre arts thing and John checked out the galleries and the book stores. &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5"> <tr> <td><a name="11Apr2"></a><p><strong>Dreaming in TechnoGeek</strong> &nbsp;&nbsp; The book store supported research project for this year is an impending upgrade of the Studio's computer network and the move to Microsoft's Windows 7. That probably won't happen until the Windows 7 service pack 2 is released a few years from now. John likes leisurely research schedules. But, the first rumours of a release of Windows 7 service pack 1 are on Google as I write. It also seems to be a good opportunity to switch to an open source applications model as well. Over the past few years many new, professional quality, open source graphics software packages: <a href="http://aviary.com/">Aviary</a>, <a href="http://www.inkscape.org/">Inkscape</a>, <a href="http://www.blender.org/">Blender</a>, have blossomed to fill out a garden plot once only planted with the long-established <a href="http://www.gimp.org/">GIMP</a>. They all merit a review, as does Open Office - since we are currently running with an old version of Microsoft Office that will soon have to be upgraded. And, while we are at it, perhaps we will add in <a href="http://www.scribus.net/">Scribus</a> for open source desktop publishing.</p> <p>Our longtime HTML editor AceHTML 6 Pro has not been upgraded by Visicom Media for years. John is looking at the open source alternatives there too. Perhaps the newly released version 2 of <a href="http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/">Bluefish</a>? Finally, and farther out on the horizon, why not use Blackie, our current but soon to be outdated, "big box", as an off-the-net platform for <a href="http://www.virtualbox.org/">VirtualBox</a>. Then we can run some of the software from the glory days of machine knitting, including the never upgraded <a href="http://www.softbyte.co.uk/dk7.htm">Designaknit 7</a>, that still runs Elaine's computerized knitters, John's antique version of <a href="http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/ca/en/Product/1166553885783#tabview=tab0"> Painter</a> and, just maybe, the suite of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizardry">Wizardry</a> games that span the early Microsoft systems, from the 1981 to 2001. &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a> </p></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5"> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="11Apr3"></a><p><strong>A Member of the Board</strong> &nbsp;&nbsp; Elaine has come to the end of her year on the Board of the Community Arts Council of the Saanich Peninsula <a href="http://www.cacsp.com/">CACSP</a>. Like John in his term as treasurer a few years ago, she found it very time-consuming but well worth the effort. You come away from these 'tours of duty' with a much better sense of how your local arts and crafts community really works, its surprising breadth, and the constant pressures on show space and finances. Elaine's tour came at a particularly 'interesting' time, with the downturn in the economy from late 2008 leading to immediate shortfalls in provincial government revenues. Within a few months the provincial grants to all sorts of charitable societies were substantially reduced, and in some cases cut off. The regulations governing charitable societies in Canada do not allow a charity to accumulate much of a cushion against a 'rainy day' or, in this case, a 'dry year'. Coming immediately after the CACSP had <a href="news08.html#31Dec4">leased a permanent site</a> at Tulista Park and hired a manager, the future seemed bleak.</p> <p>But community support has held up, expenditures have been forced down and the Arts Council's own shows continue to be successful. The two shows that Elaine supervised did well. Then at the very end of the term of this Board it turned out that the show space at Tulista Park had not been rented out for the last part of March. So the Board gave itself a show. It is hard enough to get volunteers for the Boards of very active charitable societies. The show, christened "Board Work" was a success. Part of Elaine's set-up is shown in the image on the left below. The whole concept, of a final "Three Cheers for Us!" show could become a tradition.</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/n10c3.jpg" class="imgtblctr" width="320" height="302" alt="Board Works Show"/></td> <td><img src="../images/n10b3.jpg" width="239" height="302" alt="Next Year's Firewood"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a name="11Apr4"></a><p><strong>A Foolish April</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; The stormy weather has carried on in spite of the best efforts of all our flowers, wild and gardened. They still think that it is spring. Elaine is busy setting up for her first spring show items, for an opening on the 23nd. John has mowed the lawn three times already, after the frost burns off of course. But, we're not taking any chances. The image on the right above shows the first of next year's kindling already split and stacked. And just in case John needs more exercise there is a sawn up spruce log stacked beside the house ready for splitting - anytime. &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="#pagetop">Top</a></p></td> </tr> </table> </div></div> <div><p>&nbsp;</p></div> <!-- explicit vspacer --> <div><p>&nbsp;</p></div> <!-- explicit vspacer --> <h4><a name="Contact">Contact Us</a></h4> <p>Elaine Dendy <a href="mailto:e-laine@shaw.ca">e-laine@shaw.ca</a><br /> John Oliver Dendy <a href="mailto:dendy@islandnet.com">dendy@islandnet.com</a><br /> URL: <a href="http://www.treetops-studios.com/index.html">http://www.treetops-studios.com/index.html</a></p> <!-- #BeginLibraryItem "/Library/copyright.lbi" --> <p>Copyrights for the entire site, unless otherwise stated :<br /> Text and Photography - &copy; 2001-11 John Oliver Dendy<br /> Design and Art - &copy; 2001-11 John &amp; Elaine Dendy<br /> Web Layout - &copy; 2001-11 John Oliver Dendy</p><!-- #EndLibraryItem --> <p>Revised 23 March, 2011</p> <p id = "navbardown"> &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../index.html">Enter</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../home.html">Home</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../tour/tour.html">Tour the Studios</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../fabart/fabart.html">Fabric Arts</a> <!--&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../visart/visart.html">Visual Arts</a>--> <!--&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../workshop/workshop.html">The Workshop</a>--> <br /> <a href="../study/study.html">The Study</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../gallery/gallery.html">The Gallery</a> <!--&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../commune/commune.html">Our Community</a>--> <!--&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../links/links.html">Links</a>--> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="../gglsrch.html">Search</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#Contact">Contact Us</a> </p> <p> <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer"><img src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-xhtml10" alt="Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict" height="31" width="88" /></a> <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/"> <img style="border:2px blue ;width:88px;height:31px" src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss" alt="Valid CSS!" /></a> </p> </div></div> </body> </html>