Nolan's first birthday!

Nolan, our great nephew turned one last week.  Here are some photos from yesterday's celebration:

Birthday boy with great aunt.

Train or flame - both amazing!!

(Notice my blue suede shoes, Jets socks and bow-tie bib)

First taste of cake.  With Daddy Nathan and Great Grandma Ruth

This ball is fun, go Leah!

CRJAS

The Central Region Juried Art Show was in Carman on Friday.  About 150 pieces of art were adjudicated and 40 are going to be on tour.  Both Don and I have one piece each that will tour.  Cool!

Here are some photos from the art show:

Don's three photographs...  top middle is Impala, 

bottom left Elephant and Baobab, bottom right Nile Crocodile

My three fibre art landscapes.

Mixed media / found object sculpture,

Annette from Rathwell area.

Water photos on canvas.

Water colour and acrylic Sunflowers.

Photos for Barb.

Dearest Katlyn

Hard to believe that it has been five years since Katlyn died.  I wonder what she would be doing if she were still alive?  She was such a vibrant person! Miss ya sweety!!

Cypress River Quilt Retreat

Last weekend was the Cypress River Quilt Retreat.  Instructors were Coreen Zerr from Nanimo, BC, Annette Young from Cypress River and Yvonne Carlson from Winnipeg.  Everyone seemed to have a great time.

Wonderful ideas from Coreen who pushes us to be creative with our quilting.

Annette's group  worked on Snap Purses and 1600 quilts.

Yvonne's classes learned Fabulous Fractures.

Rob Lutes

Our last Home Routes concert was tonight. Don and I hosted Rob Lutes at our house for supper, and Shirley provided refreshments for the concert at the Tiger Hills Arts Association gallery.

Rob Lutes web page

Rob has a wonderful blend of blues and folk melodies with interesting lyrics. He is an amazing guitarist! His guitar is a Blueberry - hand made and carved in Bali - gorgeous sound! A wonderful evening. Thank you Rob.

Blueberry guitars

Happy Easter

The Easter bunny dropped by!!

Good Friday hike

Another gorgeous day on Good Friday.  Leah and I went out to the Sand Hills searching for crocuses.

Manitoba crocuses, our Provincial Flower, are actually Pulsatilla patens.  These plants are cardiogenic toxins and slow the heart.  Native American used them medicinally and they are used in Homeopathic remedies.  There are 30 species in this genus.   These prairie crocuses are also known as Pasque Flowers,  since Pasque is an archaic word referring to Easter/Passover.  

Leah sitting among a group of Pasque Flowers.  

(She later noticed the ants!  Oops!)

A beautiful clump. The purple part of the flower consist of sepals not petals.

In its natural location, getting lots of nitrogen.

This one was hiding among the juniper.

View from the top of the Moving Sand Hill.

Marsh Marigolds (aka Kingcup, May Flower, latin name - Caltha palustris, which is latin for 'of the marsh' which refers to its preferred location, belongs in the butter cup family) are beginning to bloom.  This is very early as they aren't usually in full bloom until June!

Gorgeous weather

What extraordinary spring weather we have been having!  In March the average temperature was 8 degrees Celsius above normal and there were many days that broke high temperature records, including 7 days in a 9 day span.  Wow!!  Very unusual!!

Here are photo of the latest quilting projects....

Matt is inspecting my work piecing sides to the Harmony wall quilt shown in the last post.

Notice the scrap quilt on the design wall behind Matt.

Yvonne setting up to quilt a doll quilt project.  

Notice the new pattern on the design wall behind the long arm machine.  

Gorgeous!  (Even if I do say so myself!!)