A little update about life on the home front...

WHOA - I mean Whoa!  Things have been very busy here over the past few weeks.




Had the opportunity to travel with Ike and the Nelson Speed Skating Club team to Vernon for the winter games...hard to believe that's already a month ago! Ike did beautifully well, and we had tons of fun and many tales to tell when we came home.  Honestly, it was the best skating I've seen live in my life...with the added thrill of being in the coach's box and feeling the wind as the skaters flashed by.  It was inspiring and exciting!



We came home from the games to finish out our own club skating season.  Every year it's a bittersweet thing...the time we gain back from the arena each week is much appreciated and enjoyed, but it means that we can't skate for another 6 months.  Sigh.

The ShelterGuides pilot finished and was a great success.  I'm grateful every day for that project, the opportunities and people it has brought into my life.  What an absolute joy.

Since the last post here I've been working and playing, and often both at the same time.  Work for the school district continues to be a joy - I'm so grateful for the school community that I get to be a part of, for the students and staff alike. As the Teachers' job action escalates, I'm hoping for a good outcome.  I know that the teachers have our schools' and students' best interests at heart, and wish them all well in their continuing negotiations.

I've finally launched a new site to promote the other business that's been marching alongside my regular job for the past year+, at lisathiessen.ca .

Please take a peek over there to see what has been happening lately.  You'll find that some of the work on the 'Fine Art' page looks familiar if you've been reading this blog for any length of time.  Please bear with me as I get the pages fleshed out and play with the layout a little.  It will all settle into something useful and easy to navigate before TOO long, I promise.

I had the great fortune of joining a team last weekend for the CBT's Columbia River Treaty Young Leaders' Conference.  The recording was exciting and interesting, and I came away with a much greater understanding of just what is happening with the CRT, and a passionate belief that all residents of BC should be aware of it and the future ramifications of possible changes in the Treaty.  I loved the 'good neighbour' parts...how we really do scratch each other's backs (BC and the USA) in so many ways.  We are shared stewards of this water, of this land, of the industry and resources that spring from it.  We need to continue to work together, for certain, for the future.

I guess that sort of sums it up right now!I'd like to have more eye candy for you, but most of what I'm working on hasn't gone public yet.

Cheers,
Lisa

Skating!

 Last night we had a special guest come and skate with our club, Scott Bickerton.

The whole club was terribly excited to have him come - Nelson is his home skating club, and he was among the founding skaters of it in 1999.  He now trains in Calgary, at the long track, and competes in World Cup, World Junior and National level races.

We were all a little star struck, to be honest!

Scott was lovely: friendly and generous with his time and autographs.  I hope he knows how much it means to all the athletes to have had him come out and skate with us.  It was so inspiring for everyone!

We all learn so much by watching, by listening, by being out there with skaters who are further along in their journey of perfecting technique.

As a family with two young men growing up in it, we are always aware of the male influences in the world around our boys: in the culture in general, and in our community. I think this is a pretty confusing time to be growing into a young man.  Many of the boys that I meet in the same age range as our two are heavily into video games, often 1st person shooters (and think that they'll grow up to be video game testers). Having the opportunity to meet Scott, with his kindness, his openness and his obvious dedication to his sport was a real gift.

Thanks, Scott.  Spending a few hours of your life with us was a major event in ours.

Lisa

A first of sorts

It's not a gold, but it a first for me.  It's the first medal I've ever earned for any sport.

Great fun speed skating day yesterday in Vernon...

:)

Happy to be home,

Lisa

Chicken (and skating!)

 

Better late than never - right?  It's my contribution to Illustration Friday's challenge, 'chicken'.  The last couple of weeks have been silly busy with life and skating.  This is the first chance I've had to get myself across the street to photograph some chickens at our neighbour's house - so my challenge entry is two weeks late.  Does this still count for keeping my resolution to draw more?  I hope so.  

Now to do 'Dusty' (last week's challenge) and 'Surrender' (which was in my inbox this morning).

It's going to be tough to focus on the drawing today as my neighbour sent me home with another one of his fleeces - black this time - and I'm looking forward to knitting his daughter a beret with part of it!

Last weekend I was not drawing on Saturday morning because I was here:

 

...at Nelson's first Speed Skating Comp. Our club hosted, and the day was fun and friendly.  We each skated 5 different races, the distances based on our age categories.  Both of our boys skated, too, and DH was an official timer.  It took all of the available parents, grandparents and friends of the club to make this happen - would the world still spin on its axis without volunteers to power it?

:)

 The boys and I combed through the 200 or so photos that were taken of us all out on the ice to analyze for body position, weight distribution and technical form.  It was fun to go through them and enlightening to see, with a critical eye, what we are ACTUALLY doing on the ice vs. what we THINK we are doing on the ice.  For myself, I know that I need to get lower and not allow my upper body to move as much...

Now - off I go to rinse out the soaking fleece, then figure out what I'm going to draw for 'Dusty'.  Hmm.  I have some lovely pictures of sheep here, maybe I want to draw one of them??

:)
Lisa