Weekend Wrap-Up: Blue, a Cat, and Three (Visible) Painting Ladies

I have had - and am still having - a lovely weekend. It's had the right amount of social and at-home.

We started with Saturday - hurray! Back to Ultimate after a 3-week hiatus.

This is one of the dresses I am considering - shapeless blobs of stretchy fabric, but in a nice colour. This is such an easy dress to wear, particularly over a sports bra and post-sweating 2-hour game.

I will admit, I love the colour.

Uncropped to show the bags of gear we take to the field.

Other than that, it really doesn't do anything for me. I last wore it here in September 2013 during Monochromania! week.

Gah, all that sunblock. It was a really hot day and a very long game (clocked in on a Fitbit at just over 9K of running), and I was so happy to sit down at the diner for lunch afterwards.

The stuff:

Living in these Born sandals lately - I've never had a thong/flip-flop/evil thing between my toes shoe that's actually worked for me before. I'm officially in love with these and wore them all weekend. I last wore them a few weeks ago here (2nd outfit) in July (again to the Ulty field).

Dress (Simply...Taylor, consignment), shoes (Born, consignment), earrings (local).

When we got home from doing groceries post-lunch, Officer Vizzini was being completely remiss in his duties.

"Wha..? I'm on my break, woman!"

Of course, he can never sit still.

"Want to roll about; too hot."

Look at that face!

"Give me kitty treats."

He was very happy to have us home most of the weekend. We've been out a lot lately, and this is the first weekend in weeks with a good amount of downtime. We hung out on Saturday night and played Arkham Horror and drank wine. It was an awesome time!

Today, I had plans to go get my inner artiste on.

I coloured my hair on Saturday as well - a bit darker red!

Mom and Elaine and I did our annual painting expedition. See here for our last painting jaunt, and the previous summer here when I went painting with Mom.

Ack! It's "Visible Monday" over at Patti's Not Dead Yet Style! Get yourself over there, stat!

It was hot again today, so out came the straw hat.

I think I'm done with this top and cardigan. I hardly ever wear them anymore. I'm just over these. I last wore both pieces here in May with my green culottes. I always wear them together.

Bam! Hair!

The skirt is a keeper, however. I love the rich purple and the flutter ends of it. It's 100% silk, and is a dream to wear. I last wore it here (3rd outfit) in July.

Same shoes as Saturday. This was their first test on a 2+ hour jaunt. They performed admirably.

Cardigan (Alternative, thrifted), top (Dex), skirt (Le Chateau, consignment), shoes (Born, consignment), earrings (Plum).

Mom picked up Elaine and I in the morning and we headed out to Beacon Hill Park. Beacon Hill is kind of like Victoria's Central Park (of NYC) or Stanley Park (of Vancouver). Every great city has a great park in the middle of it!

We wandered down some paths, looking for benches to set up our easels on.

We all got the memo: big straw hats!

Through the Douglas firs, we glimpsed Goodacre Lake (more like a pond, really).

The sunlight streaming through the giant trees was just gorgeous.

There were mallard ducks everywhere.

They are mostly tame and will follow you around looking for food.

Love this little bridge.

According to my mom (whose father lived in Victoria in the early 1920s/30s), this was the bridge where Emily Carr played as a girl.

I have many memories going back to my very early childhood of being at Beacon Hill Park, with my parents and grandparents.

This little pond drops off in a waterfall into the lake.

This is only a small part of the park.

We headed south, around the shore.

I love this pergola, shading the eastern side of the lake.

Mom set up her easel in the shade of the bench there; Elaine and I continued scouting.

The wee turtles!

A line of them sunning themselves. Note the single duck in the middle.

There are fountains in most of the lakes in the park.

I like the Canada geese in the foreground, taking in the view.

I have teen memories of being Up To No Good on that bridge in the background.

There were too many aggressive Canada geese in that area. As soon as we sat down, they were all like, "Lunchtime!" and starting coming at us. Ack!

We moved back over the little "Emily" bridge, where I spotted this crow.

Not actually headless

He was sitting so close to us! I noted that most of the birdlife in the park was pretty much fearless of humans.

There's that little waterfall from the feeding station.

I lost a digital watch here when I was in my teens. I was throwing bread out to the ducks and whoosh, there it went.

Elaine and I ended up settling near the old aviary. It was built in 1888 and is the oldest structure in the park - it was originally a bandstand (source).

It's been restored and painted pretty Victorian-era colours - it's an info kiosk now. When I was a kid, it was unfinished wood, and entirely trimmed with chicken wire...and full of birds. There were holes in that central part, and the birds flew in and out. The sound was amazing.

 Elaine was captivated by the trees and light in this area.

I was bemused by this palm tree.

Yes, we have palm trees in Victoria.

We sat in this structure.

It's a cedar tree trunk that's had a shelter roof and bench installed around it. Cool, eh?

I liked the bandstand/aviary and did my picture in inspiration from Emily carr.

I'm not a great painter, but I was happy with it. Into the closet you go!

This is the view I had.

I think I got the light well.

Here's Elaine's watercolour.

A good job getting the sense of scale and that gorgeous light!

We painted for about 2 hours, then I stretched and looked across the lake.

Who do I see there?

It's Mom!

She's so much more gregarious than me - she loves the people coming by to chat. I'm more like, "Leave me alone."

Look how the light shifted by noon:

Isn't that fantastic?

I think next time I'd like to paint some of the flora - I'm tired of trees and bushes.

I'd also like to splash through the fountain, but the bird poop is rather off-putting. There are copious amounts of it, particularly from the Canada geese.

Pigeons took a break from their city life.

And so did I! It was lovely to be outside, enjoying nature. I need to do this more.

While Elaine and I were painting, we heard a major ruckus going on. We realized once we were on the other side of the lake, that we'd been right beside the heron nests. Those babies were squawking to be fed!

Do you see the heron on the branch?

As we went back to the car to load up our paintings and easels, I saw this little marker.

I was 20 in 1987.

I also found this memorial stone.

I was born 100 years after Mrs. Alfred Watt, M.A., M.B.E? F?

There's a juxtaposition of the old and new at Beacon Hill.

The 1960s apartment buildings (much-desired with a park view), and a Victorian-era heritage house.

We went to the pub afterwards, and basked in the sun on the patio.

Mom painted her heron necklace

If you look closely, you can see Elaine and I reflected in Mom's shades.

A fabulous time with two fab ladies! I hope your weekend was just as fun!