Happy 55th Anniversary!

 On December 11, after a very difficult year, we celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary. Don't ask me why and how Vickie has put up with me for that long. Heck I don't even know how I got her to marry me in the first place!

It was a wonderful  evening with bubbly sipped from the modified flutes sent to us 5 years ago by our good friend Ted (who lives in Australia).

We found the flute revisions didn't affect the taste one bit! Of course, when you live in Nova Scotia, you have to have lobster.

And we had plenty!

What made it even better was that we got to share it with our daughter Sandra and son-in-law Sean who live in Dartmouth.

And also, via Zoom, with our other daughter Lisa and son-in-law Jarrod who live in Freeport, Grand Bahama and our dear friend Charlene who lives in southern Ontario.

All in all, it made the year, on balance, a great year!

Best wishes to you all.

Life on Digby Neck

Every summer (well maybe not THIS summer) we get tourists stopping by and saying how much they would love to live here. Well, we sure love living on Digby Neck but it isn't without its challenges. Take yesterday for example. It started raining softly mid afternoon and the winds slowly picked up. After supper, Vickie checked Windy, her weather app, and casually informed me that the winds we had expected to peak at about 90 KPH were now projected to get to 110! So by about 10 PM the winds were roaring off the bay across the street and it was like someone was hitting the front of the house with a firehose. Amazingly, the power was still on.

We went to bed (our bedroom is at the front of the house) but the noise made sleeping impossible. And besides, by now the whole house was shaking and moaning (it is, remember, over 170 years old!). So we decided to move to the back bedroom. The sound was a little less but the shaking was even worse. It as like a freight train was running in the room with us. So we went downstairs to the main floor expecting it to be better but there is a vent in the kitchen that was clanging so we climbed back upstairs and ended up in the TV room. By now it's about 1 am and the wind gusts are over 120 but amazingly, I fall asleep. And when I wake up around 4, an eerie quiet has descended on the house (what I imagine the old cone of silence might have been like). We go back to sleep and wake up to a sky that looks like this

.

Amazingly,the house is still standing and we didn't even lose any more shingles and it is supposed to be sunny and +14 by the afternoon. Welcome to Digby Neck!

But not to worry, spring is definitely in the air. The Great Blue Herons are back in the marsh.

And if we can ever put this virus in our rear view windows, maybe we'll get to see you this summer.

Stay healthy.

Welcome to "The Roaring 20's" !

OK so I jumped the gun. There are still a few hours left in this tired decade but what the heck!

For me personally, the "teens" have ended well.

Last night, my Florida Gators won their football bowl game vs. Virginia and now I look forward to following their basketball team. Go Gators!

Last weekend, we drove to Dartmouth to see daughter Sandra and her family and also old friends visiting from Ontario. Sandra and Vickie saw "Cats" and, contrary to the reviews, absolutely LOVED it. So much for critic reviews.

And of course, no Boxing Day (27th here) would be complete without an amazing lobster feast!

That's son-in-law Sean "guarding" them! In all, Vickie and Sandra cooked and cut in half 26 1.5 pound lobsters in one hour and 50 minutes! I'm pretty sure that that is a world record. Even the drive through the beautiful Annapolis Valley was fun- especially with a sky like this!

Not too shabby, huh?

Meantime, our other daughter and her family were enjoying their weather in Freeport, Grand Bahama, where life is slowly returning to normal after Hurricane Dorion.

I am supposed to get my second bionic hip on Feb. 24th. It's a Monday so I hope they don't make hips like they make cars! The timing is good as I should be ready to go when it's time to open the shop in the spring.

I was involved in a very interesting test project for Hi-Tech (lapidary products) and have just sent in my results. If you are interested in lapidary, watch this space as I may be able to let you in on it at some point.

Cheers and best to all!

The Fish Are Getting Larger!

With the cooler weather, the focus around The Artist's Mark has shifted inside to the art and jewelry studios. And while our shop sign is now sitting on the ground, if the sign says "Open" come on in. We plan on being open, at least on weekends, to the end of the year.

Currently, we are doing a bit of a renovation in the art area, but Vickie has been painting up a storm. As discussed in a previous post, her current fascination is the interaction of ink and watercolour. And her focus has been on creating "Fundy Fish", whimsical creations that highlight just how "special" this area is.

She started small but as the creations flew off the shelf, her focus has shifted to seeing if the idea could be executed in a larger format. So now she has moved to an image that fits into a 5"x 7" frame.

By the way, the above is shown in a "Ribba" frame by Ikea. Online reviews of these have been a little spotty but we really like them and find them very good value. Who knows how large these fish can grow to become. Lobster season starts here on Monday so with them gone, these fish might get huge!

And speaking of Ikea, they make another line of frames called "Hovsta" which we also like. here's another of Vickie's latest works shown in this frame.

We hope to be able to offer these pieces online at some point and if that becomes possible, we'll let you know.

And by the way, I have been asked to participate in an exciting lapidary product trial so stay tuned for further developments!

Cheers!

More New Pieces From The Bench

Well the weather has been up and down like a toilet seat so I've had some time to sit down at the bench and finish a few "WIP"'s- works in progress. I stole that term from the knitting crowd (heh,heh).
Here's a nice little piece of Crazy Lace that comes with a sparkly druzy in the center.

It has a hand made copper prong setting and copper clasp and is hung from a premium leather cord.

Then we have this nice piece of banded jasper.

I used a really nice decorative copper bale and is hung from a longer soft hollow glass cord.

The next two pieces were really fun to do because they required a lot of planning and engineering. The first is a beautiful piece of local carnelian that absolutely glows. I decided to use it in its natural shape- pretty much just as it was found.

Gunmetal chain and wire were used to complement the colour and a solitary glass bead was added for balance and a sense of mobility.

Then the fun really began. I hand hammered and drilled a piece of thick copper wire to produce a flat paddle and the clasp and all other findings are hand made in copper.
Finally, here is a gorgeous piece of local plume/ fortification agate. Both the colour and patterning are amazing so I decided to come up with a setting to really showcase it.

The stone is wrapped with copper wire attaching it through drilled holes to a copper back plate which was then attached to two hand made copper eyelets.
In this close up you can see the delicate design which was impressed into the copper plate by running it through a metal roller with a piece of desiccated leaf.

It is hung from a premium Greek red leather cord with a beautiful copper lobster clasp.
So my next project will be to use some of the butter soft leather I picked up recently in a couple of pendants and then learn how to use the JoolTool to finish a few specimens. So stay tuned and see how it turns out!

Finally- Dump Day!

So after a one day delay due to high winds, Dump Day has finally arrived! I would advise some of my friends, (you know who you are Cal and Ted!) to read that again- carefully. It is not "Take a Dump Day"!
Dump Day marks the official, legal opening of the lobster season here on Digby Neck.

The lobster traps have been loaded and on board for several days but at midnight Tuesday (morning), the boats were able to leave port.

The ship above seems to be listing a bit under its heavy load of traps.

At just past midnight, there is a string of ships leaving Sandy Cove (these pics are from last year) and head out to the lobster grounds. There, the ships will do the initial "Dump" of their traps or pots as they are sometimes called, all baited and waiting for the lobster to step inside.

This is a very important day locally as lobster fishing is a big part of our economy. And even with all the latest advances in hydraulics, navigation and safety, it is still a hard and dangerous job so the next time you are enjoying a lobster meal (after complaining about the cost), think of these fishermen, doing what lobstermen (and women) have done for untold centuries, heading out to the unknown to bring the bounty of the sea back to us on shore.
So next summer, why not make plans to visit Digby Neck, a spectacularly beautiful, interesting and totally unique part of Nova Scotia. You won't be disappointed.
And when you do, come and visit us here at The Artist's Mark Studio/ Shop. You will be able to see our inventory of world famous Seawall Fibres Hand Dyed Yarn and watch as spectacular local agates, jasper and amethyst are turned into beautiful jewelry in our lapidary shop. If you have kids, they will really enjoy it and even get to take home a free "piece of The Neck".