Donny's house

Spent the bulk of the week in Vancouver at Donny's house. This kitchen is one of my favorite places in the world to hang out. Brother Greg flew down, I picked Austin up from university, and we all had a good family bonding session, making battered fish and chips with the cod and halibut Donny and the kids caught on their last trip. It was funny to look at Donny's three kids, all at that age where they think their siblings are a cross to bear, and know that 20, 30 years from now there will be no one they'd rather have dinner with.

I drove out to Richmond to pick Greg up after he landed. Why oh why are there no street signs in Richmond? It's like a concentrated planning effort to keep people lost when they go there. Add to that the sky train construction and what should have been a 20 minute drive turned into and endless circling, trying to hone in on a target. I found it funny that, after I waved to a car in the next lane to ask if I'd passed Westminster Highway (for the third time, seriously) the next car that drove past me waved my window down and asked me the exact same question! A request to the City of Richmond: signs, please. You'd reduce your traffic by at least 50% because people wouldn't have to do all these extra loops trying to figure out where they are.

That's all.

Fibonacci's Roastery & Cafe

diedrich
Originally uploaded by sketchalina

We spent the weekend in lovely Nelson BC, weaving our way through their hilly streets, looking at the beautiful, funky houses built into the slope, eating at fantastic restaurants (Red Fish and Max and Irma's Kitchen were two of our favourites).

Tonight is Italian Night with the girls. I just found out that because it's at my house I don't have to do a thing except open my door. Gotta like that! I thought I'd be spending the day cooking, but now I'll spend it working on some vintage watercolours of Kelowna instead. They're all sketched, just waiting for some colour washes. I'm doing them from old sepia museum photos, but I think I'll add a hint of colour.

I popped into Fibonacci's this morning, mostly for breakfast, but also because i've been wanting to paint this beautiful machine, and I knew sitting and sketchbooking would make me feel good. It did. They were playing a recording of Carrie Catherine's performance there last week, which we were at. She's a great songwriter, wonderful story teller, and has an easy, graceful bluesy style.

Being in Nelson this weekend, I got this idea that it'd been cool to do some more sketchbook trips, but make an accompanying video, sort of a travelogue type of thing. I feel a new adventure coming on!

Now on to those watercolour washes.