Garage Sailing – Page 2 – Summerhouse Art

Garage Sale Travels

Posted on June 7, 2010January 16, 2015 by Helen

blk-and-wht-post-cards

Another Saturday morning of garage sailing has come and gone. We had a good morning, found a few things that will be useful for very little money. Things like a new wicker hamper for the bathroom, never used for $2. And some shelving perfect for drying and curing sculpture in the sculpture studio for just $4. We love to find bargains but we’re really out to enjoy ourselves too. As we drive around looking for next sale, enjoying the sun, glimpsing lovely front gardens, we enjoy listening to whatever tape we’ve found at some garage sale. Today we sang along with Cat Stevens and songs of the “Tea for the Tillerman”album.

Sometimes you come across things that are a bit different, not always necessarily useful and you get a bit of history to go with your purchases.

Like the post cards we bought from a fellow with a couple of tables set up on the street corner in James Bay. The seller, an older man, told us they had been his late sister’s cards, who had traveled a lot in her day and collected post cards of the places she’d been or just whatever caught her fancy.
The odd ones at the top of today’s post, were a happy find, which we may use in a collage or even send to a friend for fun.

Or like the post cards of these colorful sunsets from Firenze in Italy..
firence-postcards

Gazing over the seller’s shoulders we noticed this very bountiful community garden.

comm-garden

But what really drew our attention was this little softly-rounded straw bale shed topped with a roof garden sprouting grasses and succulents. We wandered over to admire it and the roses…
straw-bale-hut

Which brings me indirectly to my next photos. But first let me tell you about why I have been inspired to present the following photos as diptychs.

For the past many months, each week I have been waiting for the next installment of blog from Australia. Louise, a very talented photographer features another suburb in a colorful photo journal of the over 600 suburbs of Sydney. Her goal is to present 52 suburbs. What makes her posts so special? Why do so many followers check every week for her latest photo journals? Well, I’d say it is her unique way of presenting photos in pairs, sometimes connected by color, sometimes by content or sometimes by similarities in curve or line. Go and see it, spend a little time, you don’t have to know Sydney to appreciate her amazing photos. I’d hoped to introduce Louise’s blog by doing a little photo journal of my own neighbourhood. But I found what Louise does much more difficult than it looks. So instead I’ve just taken a page from her diptychs and tried to emulate what she does.
So these next photos displays are my little tribute to Louise’s blog. My attempt at making those connections.
Like the Paint by Numbers of roses done by the next sellers Mom, now in her 80’s. And the roses in the community garden.
rose-dyp

Or the colors in a pair of flamingos in a porch window (ok they do look a bit amourous) and the colors of a box of fishing lures at another sale.
flamingo-lures

Which brings me to my last little pairing of today’s bounty – an old kettle, soon to be a home for a trailing plant, some heirloom squash plants found at the Moss Street Market, the old muffin tin which I hope to make into planters for Hen and Chicks. But then I decided to clean up that old kettle, and somehow it’s just a bit too brilliant now. But I’ll leave it outside, and soon it’ll lose it’s shine and fit in nicely with the old grate in the herb garden.

kettles

Looking for Plant Sales and Other Treasures

Posted on April 26, 2010January 16, 2015 by Helen

plant-sale-sign1

Saturday found us getting up late and dithering about whether or not the weather would hold out for garage sailing. But I found an ad for a plant sale or two so off we went. And you really couldn’t miss this sign.

plants-in-red-cups1

And although I loved the way they’d planted things up in these lovely red cups, we didn’t find anything we really needed at this one. Although we did spend a few minutes trying to justify a couple of things.

But that’s not to say we didn’t find anything. I found these Cleome starts at a flea market later

cleome-starts1

and Bill found this Firetail at another sale. Ok it had a latin name on the tag too but I can’t make it out. The bloom is a sort of thistle like flower in magenta.

bills-plant2

As you can see, Bill has been very efficient and planted his find already, right next to the Cardoon. I, on the other hand haven’t got around to quite a few things that need planting. But I will, I will…..

cat-on-chair2

Couldn’t resist a photo of the seller’s cat sitting in the sunlight.

The next garage sale was overlooking the ocean on Dallas Road and I had to catch a photo of the very ocean flavoured fence of driftwood. I might borrow this idea, I like it so much.

driftwood-fence1

Then, as we made our way to another sale we passed Beacon Hill Park and practically screeched to a stop for this photo. Lovely, isn’t it?

Here’s a close up to see what produced this car stopping scene.

Then on to have lunch in front of this pond where we could enjoy not only the view of the pond with it’s geese but a glimpse of the ocean beyond.

geese-in-pond1

The find for the day were these pillows, especially this one with the Japanese scene. Love it and I may even have to totally redo the decor in the living room to accommodate it. There was another good find but I’ll have to keep it secret for now, it’s going to be birthday present for Hart and I don’t want him to see it yet.

pillows1

Time Traveling on a Saturday Morning

Posted on April 10, 2010January 16, 2015 by Helen

It was really too early for garage sale season. But the column in the paper did have a couple of possibilities. One, a “Giant Jumble and Plant sale” looked promising. Just say plant sale and I’m there. It was at Point Ellice House, and was a fundraising sale for this little gem surrounded by what is now an industrial area.

We were so lucky to arrive, just as a woman dressed in a long black dress and a black straw hat with feathers, invited anyone interested, on a free tour of the house. Bill and I gave each other a glance and both quickly fell in behind the lady in black, the tour guide by the name of Gail.

Now hopefully I’ve got my facts right. Ellice House was originally built by the Warks for their son and his wife as a wedding present. Later, in 1867, it became the property of Gold Rush magnate and Commissioner, Peter O’Reilly.

ellicehouse

In 1974 the house and all its contents were sold to the BC government. When they said all its contents, they meant it. From the dishes and cutlery, linens, the stove, the games and even letters. According to the brochure, “it is now one of the largest collections of Victoriana in its original privileged Victorian home.”

We entered by the back door, just off the verandah and were lead into the scullery and then the kitchen. We weren’t allowed to use a flash, so could only take photos and keep our fingers crossed that they would turn out.

back-door-veranda

All the pots waiting on the work table by the window, glowed in the morning light.
pots-in-window

I’m kind of proud of the this photo, taken in the butler’s room, of the silver service catching and bending reflections of the curtains in the window. Sometimes you can get lucky.
teapot-and-creamer

Imagine the staff scurrying off at the sound of the bells, to wait on one of the O’Reillys.

servants-bells

The dining room, a Victorian period piece, all set for a gracious meal, perhaps with the Prime Minister or some other members of the elite of Victoria at the time.

dining-room

If we were to follow this path it would take us to a set of stairs that would lead to the Gorge Waterway dock below where visitors embarked on boats to take them back to the Victoria harbour.

garden-path

After the tour, we shopped the Jumble and found a few treasures, a little rag rug for the kitchen floor, a bright yellow throw for the couch or a daybed. No plants though. Nothing there that we didn’t already have. Ah well.

Then on to a flee market in Esquimalt. Tables and tables of treasures. And we found a treasure too, an album by Joni Mitchell, called “Wild Things Run Fast”, one that we had somehow missed! From 1982! I’m listening to it as I write. All new songs to me. Sorry Joni, don’t know how we missed this one.

And then back to the car and what did we see? Goats! Baby goats! In a little impromptu petting zoo set up in the parking lot.
baby-goats

So there was a morning’s travels in time, from Victorian times and the privileged classes and their servants, to 1982 and jazz with Joni, to the present full of exuberantly bouncing baby goats or should I say kids?
Now I’m off to pick more Spring rhubarb, a Crisp with oatmeal this time I think…

My Morning Walk

Posted on March 9, 2010January 16, 2015 by Helen

I find I rarely leave the house for a walk without my camera. And today, although suddenly the weather has turned colder, I was determined to get some photos of the trees. This is, after all one of the reasons I moved here… trees in bloom in February and March.

My artist eyes like to see abstract compositions and this juxtaposition of the red new leaves in the hedge against the fine pink blossoms just caught me.

red-hedge

Only a few houses away I couldn’t resist the twisting black branches of this tree full of blossoms.

tree-in-bloom

The one thing about Victoria is that we are a garden city and even the traffic circles have landscaping! Don’t you just love it?

traffic-circle

I know that when I decide to turn to the right on my walk, I’m going to end up visiting the chickens. There is just no way I’ll miss them. The people here have such a collection of pretty chickens and I’m sure they have pretty eggs too.

chickens

The park next door on the way home presented a chance to get a close up of the blossoms, which I couldn’t resist.

blossom-cls-up

And finally, home again, to be reminded of my flea market find of last weekend. OK consider this the “before” photo. Eric thinks it’s ugly, but Bill and I sat on it in the church parking lot, where the sale was held. The swing has a great swinging movement and hey, it didn’t break. I’ve always wanted a garden swing. Plus the price was right…$8! Now I just have to decide what color to paint it. Oh decisions, decisions.

swing

The Repotting of the Bonsai Tree

Posted on November 25, 2009January 16, 2015 by Helen

Last year, for my birthday, Eric gave me a Bonsai tree, a really cute little Ficus. Growing Bonsai was something entirely new for me. Everything about growing a Bonsai is quite contrary to my experience with houseplants. My aim with houseplants is to get them to grow as large as possible, have lots of leaves, and live in ever larger pots.

Bonsai, on the other hand, are meant to live in small pots, get pruned a lot and stay small. Hmm. I have problems pruning bushes and trees outside. I’ve lived most of my life in Alberta, where you stand back and cheer if things grow and you hardly ever have to, in my opinion, prune. Now here I had a plant that you actually had to not only prune stems but also roots! I have to admit that to me it seemed cruel and nasty, unnatural, sort of like foot binding. But having one of my own, has made me start to appreciate the “art of Bonsai”. That is creating the look of a large tree in a small pot, a vignette so to speak, of a larger natural beauty.

But the time came when I realized that Bonsai or not this little plant needed a bigger pot or needed to have it’s roots pruned. My way of doing anything new is to look up everything at the library. So off we went and back we came with lots of books on Bonsai, care of and growing, pruning, training, etc.

before-old-pot

Now this poor little plant was so root bound that my method of checking to see if it was watered enough was just to pick up the plant, roots and all, out of the pot and check.

out-of-pot1

Between the three of us, Eric, Will and I, it was decided after much studying of various books, that rather than attempting to prune roots, that it would be better to move it into a larger bonsai pot. Luckily, as garage sailors, we had a little supply of recycled bonsai pots. After a bit of consideration, one was chosen.

Eric, took on the task of loosening the old dirt from the roots with a little bamboo skewer, amidst worried remarks from me admonishing him not to tear the roots or hurt the poor thing. Eventually it was ready to re-pot.
loosening-dirt

Eric also trimmed the roots from a little lower root that would become a root feature near the bottom of the trunk. Following instructions from our many books, the scissors had been sterilized with alcohol.

trimming-roots

At the Glendale Garden Show, on one of my many jaunts around the other exhibitors, I‘d picked up a bag of Bonsai mix at a Bonsai Garden Exhibit. This was basically a mixture of bark mulch, turface (still don’t know what that is), sand, gravel, grit, vermiculite and perlite. To this I added a bit of regular bagged houseplant dirt. This was added carefully around our little plant in the new pot.

planting

Then our little plant was watered and the new dirt gently tamped down around it. It has, for the last few weeks, resided happily in it’s new pot on the sideboard in the living room. I’m happy to report that it survived the move to the new pot very well.

potted-up

New leaves are coming and only one leaf was lost. And doesn’t it look very very Japanese with it’s display of Japanese coasters, also a garage sale find, set prettily but minimally, of course, in front?

The End of Garage Sailing Season

Posted on September 19, 2009January 16, 2015 by Helen

Today, after checking the paper for garage sale ads and noticing so little out there, we have not gone out garage sailing. We’ve decided what is there is so far apart that it would waste gas, so it looks like last week was our last outing. And last week we went all over and spent a dollar, just a dollar. Got 5 CDs but found nothing else we could really use.

So today as a little wrap up, I thought I’d show the sights, the fun stuff, we’ve enjoyed along the way to sales. Because part of the fun of cruising around looking for garage sales is the stuff you run into along the way.

This is something we spied, drove past and backed up again to see it. OK we’re old hippies and here was this van, that just expressed those days. It was flower painted, a VW van known as Hippie haulers in those days, but the bumper had such a fun message. Had to get a photo.

Then one morning we came across this veggie garden out in the street, on the boulevard, in the front yard. Something that’s becoming a trend is growing your own food and getting rid of front lawns. Whoever grew this certainly had green thumbs. Everything was just totally and abundantly sprawling almost over the curb!

Potatoes and squash sprawling over the curb

Now, we’ve always had a thing about Jaguars, the cars that is, especially the one that Morse drove in the Inspector Morse Mysteries. There is just something about a Jag, the old ones especially.

They have a beautiful design to them, lots of curves, and to us, they just suit having people in them. That’s something to notice, whether a car actually looks good with a human in it. So many new cars don’t, people look proportionately wrong or squashed or maybe the car looks so aerodynamic that you only notice that. Anyway, we came across the Jag Show in Oak Bay one afternoon.

We tried to make our little Subaru look like a Jag one morning this summer but these were the real thing.

That’s Will with his choice. I guess, as artists, we are just attracted to this car that is itself a work of art, right down to the hood ornament.

Sculpted right down to the hood ornament

All summer we’ve tried to take in Jazz in the Park. Often during intermission we wander around Beacon Hill Park taking in the sights. Now what is it about a duck with it’s bottom pointing up as it looks for food underwater that I just can’t resist taking a photo?

And this photo, of the trees, just behind the bandshell, brought to mind Emily Carr, an eccentric, now finally famous, local artist and writer.

If you’ve never heard of her, you must look her up. She’s been an inspiration to me most of my life. I love all of her work but the trees she painted are my favourites. Just looking at these trees you can see how she felt moved to capture the flow, the strength and beauty of these coastal trees.

So that’s it, a hodge podge of our little travels. The garage sailing season is over and that time will now be spent on other things, like work in the studio on mosaics or work on sculpture. Or maybe finishing up projects started and forgotten over the summer. An end to one season and the start of another.

My Little Dirt Secret

Posted on July 23, 2009January 16, 2015 by Helen

The other morning I woke up really early and just couldn’t get back to sleep. I’m talking 4:30 AM. By 5:30, I gave up going back to sleep and sat out on the deck sipping hot chocolate. It was just so wonderful out, cool, green and quiet. The light is totally different at 5:30 AM. I should do something with this time, I thought. I should use this time to do something I really like.

You’ll never guess what I really like to do in the garden. I love to make compost.

There’s something about clomping about in my gumboots, layering all the ingredients of my compost that is quite satisfying. Well, there’s something about clomping about in wellies that makes me like to pretend that I’m Barbara Good in the Good Life.

If you have never heard of The Good Life, you are too young. If that’s possible. Anyway, this was a very popular British TV series back in the 70’s that featured a couple determined to be self-sufficient on a 50 by 100 foot lot in a trendy area of London.

Anyway this couple, Tom and Barbara Good, had a veggie garden , chickens, even a pig at one point, instead of a lawn and flowers and a wood stove in the kitchen. This was all much to the consternation of their trendy Yuppie neighbours. Anyway, if you can, rent it. It’s even rumoured that the Queen of England plopped herself down on the couch every Tuesday evening to watch it.

We get everything second hand, we’re into sustainability, conservation and all that.

Actually five wheel barrows, if you count the handy little green weed barrow

We have about four old wheel barrows, all for free, giveaways. Now you may wonder how does a couple on a 50 by 100 foot lot possibly use 4 wheelbarrows? Well, we do use them. Mostly to store all the weeds that we pull and the finished flowering plants. We don’t always have time to do the compost so basically I just store the stuff in the wheelbarrows and let it get sort of pre -composty. Then when I can, I “do” the compost.

Now, if you’ve been searching the internet for all kinds of ways to make compost , you’ll know there are many ways to do it. Then there’s my way. And here is my little dirt secret. I cheat a bit.

For instance we have one of those big black composters, which I got free, by the way, given away by a neighbour. I like to use that one for all the kitchen stuff like tea bags, coffee grounds with the filters (unbleached of course), peelings from fruit and veggies, egg shells (I crush them usually). I save all this stuff in two plastic recycled containers on the kitchen counter. As soon as they get full they get emptied out into the black composter, but, and this is where the cheating comes in, with each load I add a few trowels of dirt from the compost already made.

In winter I leave a pile of this finished compost close by so I can scoop it easily. I like to think that I’m adding some good bacteria and worms to get to work on all this bounty. Putting the kitchen scraps in the black composter until its composted, keeps it away from the rodents. We do have rats in Victoria.

Then we also have a pile of sod, from making new flower beds. This is the dirt I talked about in a previous blog, that is hard, dry and no self-respecting earthworm will touch. So there you have the ingredients, the old sod, the kitchen scraps from the black composter, and the wheel barrows full of decaying weeds and the secret ingredient, finished compost added to the mix.

Dirt for the backyard lasagne — The old sods for the backyard lasagne

Now I like to think of lasagna. That is layers. I put a layer of sods which I break up into the smallest bits I can by hand. I water that really well. In fact, my latest trick is to keep the hose going on a fine spray pointed at the compost

while I layer to keep the dust down and wet the stuff as I go. Then on top of that I put a layer of weeds, also broken up as much as possible. Then I add a layer of composted kitchen scraps from the black composter. All of these layers get thoroughly watered down, since the compost needs to be wet to work. Then back to a layer of sod, then weeds, then kitchen compost with some finished compost added.

We have two bins next to each other. We usually empty them both on to the garden in the spring but we save a bit for the cheating. That is we save some good finished compost full of worms and wigglers to seed the new layers with.

A layer of black plastic keeps the moisture in

The last thing we do is also a bit of a cheat. We put black plastic over the working compost to increase the heat and keep it wet. A dried out compost won’t work.

Then by the next spring we have “black gold” as we like to call it. All for free, all natural and the garden loves it. Barbara and Tom would be proud.

The Creeping Jaguar, Jazz, Brides and a Crimson Dragonfly

Posted on July 13, 2009January 16, 2015 by Helen

Saturday was one of those days that dawns with cloudless blue skies, warm breezes and the whole day ahead of us to enjoy. We had our cereal on the deck while surveying our wild garden. Just a couple of days before a hummingbird had come right up on the deck to drink nectar from a flowering succulent right before our eyes, oblivious of our presence. I had to take a memory shot, hoping to keep this forever in my memory, since as is usual when something like this happens, no camera at hand.

The day was planned, garage sailing in the morning and Jazz in the Park in the afternoon and maybe a little gardening as the top off at the end of the day.
Garage sailing started off well. Free stuff! Got a nice big basket to hide an ugly plant pot in the green house that houses what I like to call the Avocadon’t, an avocado plant grown froma sprouted avocado pit that Will had rescued from the compost heap. It is now about 4 feet tall! No avocados though. Just this big hulking plant that requires lots of water.

Then on to Esquimalt to find more good stuff at other sales. On the way, while stopped at a little store, I spied this odd assembly in a window.

The goose ornament and it's rooster buddy — The goose ornament and it’s rooster buddy

A large goose ornament almost tipping out of the window, seemed to be enjoying the day, with a rooster inside next to it.

And on the wall outside, for some unknown reason, a graffiti artist had chosen this spot to do some work which was colorful and oddly funny.

Picked up our good friend Mary Lou whom I’d convinced to leave her work behind and enjoy some good garage sailing.

This garden may be even wilder than mine

While waiting for her to join us I spied this rampant garden, which may be even wilder than mine, I think.

Our little Subaru always wanted to be a Jaguar

In James Bay we found this stealthy black jaguar ornament with plastic orange roses that got my kitsch radar going. Had to have it. Decided to give our car a little transformation. For a few moments it was a kitschy jaguar complete with hood ornament. Ah we’re flying high now.

Later, we scarfed down a quick deli lunch complete with Nanaimo bars for dessert (Hey only one calorie, ok one very big calorie) while listening to the great jazz of Paul Wainright and his group.

Paul Wainright and the band on Stage in the park

This Jazz in the Park is free and can be enjoyed every Saturday afternoon at the Beacon Hill Park Bandshell. We enjoyed this immensely last summer and never heard a band we didn’t like. If you live here or are visiting, you must check this out as well as other events.

The park seemed to be full of weddings. The band had apparently been asked to stop playing jazz for 15 minutes at a certain point so that wedding vows given near the bandshell would not be overwhelmed by the concert. Before this intermission they’d jokingly played the theme to ‘Mission Impossible”.

Strolling, while the band took their break,

A beautiful crimson dragonfly by the lagoon in Beacon Hill Park

we came upon this stunningly gorgeous crimson dragon fly. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Then hot and tired, we headed home, ostensibly to do some gardening, but decided instead to indulge in what those who live in hot countries do, siesta.

Sunday morning found us in the garden at last. It’s amazing how good you feel after a few hours of gardening on a cool morning. Doesn’t matter what is on your mind or what aches and pains you have, somehow being out in the garden, just makes you feel great, better than any antidepressant. All in all, a very, very good weekend!

#2 In the Pique Assiette Mosaic Inspiration Series – The Japanese Plate

Posted on June 11, 2009June 14, 2015 by Helen

I didn’t have an idea for this piece to start with. I wasn’t thinking about Japan at all. Until I found this beautiful plate at a garage sale. It was an authentic gorgeous plate Hand Made in Japan, printed on the back and had a little chip in the border. The reason it had been sacrificed to the sale table I suppose. The pattern was of chrysanthemums or carnations, I’ve never been sure. But I think that the former is more of a Japanese favourite. It was a large plate, about 12 inches across. I saw it as a background for something. And I knew it would look really good broken and reassembled in a mosaic.

Geisha Mosaic, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

So the plate was the start or maybe it was the finish. Because suddenly I had a use for a few things that I’d collected in my studio and it all came together. The Geishas are actually drink glasses from a Japanese restaurant.

The backs of them are open and there is a little hole in the front of each one to put a straw in so you can sip your drink. These drink glasses come in all types of figures from geishas to samurai warriors to Buddhas, lots of Buddhas. You find them everywhere at garage sales and thrift shops. And I have a collection of them. Ok I have lots of collections but more about that on another blog. So now I had the geishas in front of the plate, on a shelf and I needed something else. The quiet little birds had been gathering dust for ages and their color caught my eye as being perfect with the colors of the plate. And they gave this sort of lyrical touch to the ladies.

What else? A bowl. A Japanese bowl to float a flower in for my little Japanese shrine.

Geisha Mosaic Detail, by Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

Then there was shape of the background to deal with, and in keeping with the theme, I drew out a pagoda shape for the top of the shrine. Now I only had to come up with something for under the shelf. I also collect those little porcelain floral bouquets. No, not to display, but to take apart very carefully with plyers or a hammer and chisel, and use the flowers on mosaics. They’re good even if a bit chipped because you can hide the missing petals in an arrangement easily. So under the shelf there is an arrangement of flowers. They don’t necessarily match the plate but who wants to be too matchy-matchy? And the little lid from a broken pot, turned upside down? Well, that became the finishing touch.

I suppose this was a case of inspiration backwards. The plate started the idea and the Japanese shrine came later. The Hawaii shrine started with an idea and the pieces came later. Backwards, forwards. Inspiration works either way if you let it.

Quote for today. Apropos, I think, for today’s blog

Minds are like parachutes – they only function when open.
– Thomas Dewar

Burning Daylight

Posted on May 24, 2009January 16, 2015 by Helen

Now having said this I have to admit that we’re not like some of those people that are derisively called “early birds” that a lot of ads warn against. No, we’re not that intense. We know that garage sailing is like fishing, sometimes you catch something, sometimes you’ve just had a nice outing. In fact, we find that there seems to be an odd way that one week you’ll finds lots of good stuff and the next, just a few little things. That was yesterday. Just a few little things, a nice thermometer for the greenhouse for 25 cents. An amber glass globe that I’m hoping to use in the garden somehow as some part of a sculpture.

But we did all right on the plants. This sale is never really advertised and but somehow we manage to find it every year. There’s always a good selection of plants to choose from.

We had a few misses. Things that we liked but were not in the budget. Like these clothing forms that Will had such great plans for. We never expected that they were such distinguished ones, from the 40’s, the seller said, and worth $35 and $45. They were almost going to become garden sculptures with very unique heads created for them. Ah well.

Then there was the little lamp base that had such a wonderful expression that I had to take a photo, but didn’t really want to own. The photo would suffice.

We always try to work in a park, an ocean fix or garden either for our coffee break or at the end of the morning. Today it was Finnerty Gardens at UVic. This garden is known for it’s collection of Rhododendrons, all apparently started from seed. This is Rhodo time and we almost missed it. Luckily there were still quite a few in all their glory.