After the damp, misty mornings of the last few days I woke up at 5.30 to a still, quiet morning with the sun just touching the tips of the mountains.  I walked out to the little rocky promontory that is just behind the apartment block opposite Ian and V’s house. There was Mt Begbie again, this time blushing in the early sunshine, while its lower slopes were still shrouded in shadows. Its neighbour Mt Macpherson is scarred with avalanche trails. In the foreground the Columbia was rushing along faster than one of Revelstoke’s freight trains.  The alder trees that line its banks were flooded with gold, while the two low hills behind them glowed bright emerald. Without the distraction of shifting clouds, the only major change that took place as I drew this was the disappearing shadow behind the foreground hill as the sun climbed above Mt Revelstoke.

Father advising son on how to renovate

The renovations were almost completed today, with the laying of the floor in the basement room. I spent the day around the house, attempted to make a walnut and blueberry cake and prepared lunch for the fervent workers.  In the afternoon I met Richard Farrell, the mokuhanga artist whose work I discovered in the last post. I was delighted to hear that he now has quite a following locally, and he is embarking on a series of botanical studies. It’s heartening to see an artist of his calibre beginning to be recognised. It seems it is possible to live in Revelstoke and do almost anything.

This is a very blurry photo, but it’s a lovely example of his special technique: the bark effect on the left and the little pool at the bottom were made by printing the natural grain of the wood.

In the evening we kind of celebrated the finishing of the floor with takeaway pizza and a game of Catan.  I tried to follow what was going on but soon gave up and started drawing the players.  That’s my husband Graham on the left and my son Ian on the right: the man with the rather large head (yes, it really is that size) is called Jesse and he works on a ferry boat. You can’t see James, the other player, he’s behind Graham. Jesse won, claiming that he had to prevent Ian’s attempted patricide.  Given that Graham had never played the game before, he was a likely candidate for slaughter, but he battled on bravely and performed admirably.