Welcome Chilko

Rosemary, you make such beautiful stained glass!!

Sounds like it was pretty scary fro you during that forest fire alert. It is such a concern for all of us in B.C. that are in forested areas. Our problem in the Southern interior over the past couple years has been the lack of rainfall and that coupled with very hot weather, spells disaster.

Just had to tell you that your Stained Glass art is...

Thankew for the kind comments about my glasswork. I love doing it--all those amazing colours and patterns in the glass. I usually select the glass based on it's draw for me--and THEN decide what to make!

Yes, we've had 3 years of drought here also. But had some good rains in the late fall, so hopefully the situation will be better. This is what the firestorm looked like from up on our ridge...not nearly as frightening, though, as it must have been for the Okanagan the previous year. Kelowna...bad,bad,bad.

Love your stained glass Chilko! :D

Scary, but a beautiful photo. Yes it was bad in the Okanagan 2 years ago and very frightening. I have a daughter that lives in Summerland and they could see the flames from accross the lake. It was too close for comfort. That same summer we had a fire just accross the border in Washington that was only a couple dozen miles from us. We watched that smoke coming over the mountains for weeks. They had a bulletin board at our Post Office with updates every day. Thankfully the Americans kept it contained and it never came over the border. But we had lots of firefighters waiting if it would have. Nasty stuff those forest fires! Hey, but I guess I found a good reason for winter. No worries now! :D

You make beautiful art, Rosemary. Now we have 2 stained glass artists on DG - at least that I am aware of. Kidneyguy/Dianne in Verona, ON is the other one. I've wanting to see her work too. Keep it coming! It fascinates me and I love to take a class in it. Thanks so much for sharing - we want more! we want more!

Rosemary your stained glass art is lovely. if i didn't have a friend doing a piece for me, I'd be talking to you about it. Yours is lovely, just lovely.

Linda

Hi, Chilko. Welcome to Daves. I joined on the same day as you. Luv your stained glass pieces. Beautiful!!
:) Donna

Yes, I recall "The Hill". I don't think I'll ever forget it. My mom and dad came to visit one summer in their motorhome. My mom refused to drive back out, choosing instead to fly to Anahim and be picked up there. I heard that many people left the Bella Coola valley due to the forest industry since I was there. It was small before so I can't imagine what it's like now.

I have a pretty good idea of where you are now. There's a map at the beginning of Isabel Edward's book "Ruffles on my Longjohns" that shows Precipice and all the rivers that go into Lonesome Lake. Probably the closest I ever got was hiking up to Hunlen Falls a couple of times to camp. One year we rented canoes from John Edwards on Turner Lake and then paddled and portaged several of the lakes in the chain. As I recall we got rained out at Junker Lake.

It was horrifying to see the pictures of the fire in that area last summer. It must have been very scary for you. It's good that you had an escape route figured out. I saw John Edwards interviewed on the news at his cabin on Lonesome Lake with his tame fox. He was trying to save as much as he could in case the fire got to him. I often wondered how much was destroyed....whether he lost the cabin and whether the poor fox survived. Do you know if it got up to the area around the falls and Turner Lake?

Your stained glass work is beautiful.

Sandy

Gorgeous area; I have acquaintances that ranch around Williams Lake and have often had romantic notions about living out in space like that but to be honest I don't think I could manage it.

Is your greenhouse heated and electified with solar or do you have diesel or what? What do you use for backup or do you just suffer through and cloudy non generating times.

Your work is beautiful. Maybe you could post a mini portfolio some time in the future. I'm a glass nut.

Would hate to have to make up your grocery list for those two big shops. Do you grow a lot of veggies in the summer, can, freeze, dehydrate etc

Bella Coola--yes, they logged everything and moved out; leaving a depressed area.
Nightowl, you HIKED up to the Hunlen Valley lake chain? Wow! That is one stiff hike, practically vertical with about 75 switchbacks. Takes 7-9 hours. Whew! I'm impressed.

John's homestead was burned out, but Vicky (his tame fox) survived. We heard the news from some fire workers, contacted John, and one of the fire helicopters flew him in for a tearful reunion. John has had lots of donations and help and already is rebuilding. In fact, he's living back there this winter.

Also wiped out was the cabin near there that my friend Chris Czajkowski built. She wrote her first Coastal Mountains book about building it, virtually single-handed, no prior experience. (Cabin at Singing River). She has since moved further into the mountains and built 3 more cabins, 2 completely by herself, and has written (and published) 4 more books about her experiences. She has an eco-hiking business. She is in her fifties--a tribute to independent women. Her latest book, "Lonesome, Memoirs of a Wilderness Dog" was #1 on the B.C.Bestseller List for 5-6 weeks--might still be. It's a delightful book. Written from the dog's point of view, and Lonesome is quite frank and revealing about her owner Chris! I help Chris with publicity, her bookings, slide tours, etc. and really enjoy the involvement. Her previous book (2003) "Snowshoes and Spotted Dick" has one of my photographs as the cover! Neat, eh? Her "Cabin" has been published in German, as well.

Here is a picture DH took after John's place burned. What is amazing, is the trees that DID survive.

Yes, I used to love hiking and did quite a bit when I lived in Bella Coola. I'm afraid I'm out of shape now and one knee gives me trouble going down hill so there's no way I'd be able to do it now. The joys of getting old...er, eh? I'm really glad to hear that there was a happy ending for John and Vicky the fox. It's great that he was able to rebuild the cabin and I agree, it is amazing how some of the trees survived unscathed while others nearby burned.

I remember Chris. I met her a few times but I didn't know her very well. She was doing watercolour paintings at the time. Does she still paint? It's neat that you have one of your photographs on the front of her book. She was living at her first cabin I guess when I met her because I remember that she lived way up the Atnarko. She's definitely a good example of a very independent woman. I can't imagine building a cabin by myself never mind taking my supplies in and out.

I met a lot of interesting people when I lived up in Bella Coola. There were some real characters up there.

Sandy

Re Chris Czajkowski

Yes, Sandy, Chris is still painting. She does slide show tours (she's a super photographer and an entertaining speaker) in the spring and fall, often coinciding with a book launch--was in your area last fall. If you like, I'll put you on a list of people to notify. She usually has a collection of her artwork on display at those shows.

Her knees got pretty bad also and it's difficult now for her to do the 2-day trip in or out of Nuk Tessli--she usually flies. But a couple of years ago she went on HRT and it made a huge improvement!

My knees are getting cranky also. I'm using Glucosamine/Chondroitin--it helped my dog, so...... Actually, I've seen amazing results on friends with arthritis, but it takes up to 6 months of about 2,000 mg/day to see results. Took only 2 months for my dog, but he weighed a lot less!.

Here is one of Chris' watercolours...she also is a highly skilled amateur botanist, although knows little about cultivated gardens. She is currently working on a very basic plant I.D. book which will apply to plants, whether wild or cultivated, across Canada--I love the concept and the publisher is interested. Probably out next year, stay tuned!

rosemary, did you find any difference in your dogs (or for that matter yours) urine output. My rottie/shep cross has significant arthritis now and I tried the glucosymine/condroitin on her but she seemed to need to pee every hour which is not in the cards - so now she has her own physio who gives her electromagnetic therapy and that seems to keep things under control without drugs

i haven't used it myself for fear it will affect me the same way

Re Glucosamine--I have friends who do rescue work and currently have 15 dogs--they use it on all of them; no side effects. In fact, it often is an ingredient in a lot of the better pet foods, the ones with the more natural ingredients. And I know lots of humans who have used it for years--no problems. Either your dog is allergic or maybe has another problem? My dog's liver disease went undiagnosed for many months, in spite of blood panels.

But you're lucky to have access to the electromagnetic therapy. Wouldn't mind trying that myself, for me!

That's a very nice painting Rosemary. I only remember seeing paintings of clouds but that was 20 years ago. You don't need to put me on the contact list as they always put something in the paper a week or two ahead of time.

We have another artist in our midst, this is a link to Todd Bolens painting, he's in NFLD
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/475361/

Linda, you should start a new thread with that, so everyone sees it. Thanks for telling us.