What we've been up to

We've had a really busy week.

Last Wednesday the boys and I drove to Castlegar to deliver quilts. The weather has been tremendously hot! Castlegar has this amazing outdoor water park in the old downtown area that we spent a good chunk of time at after running all our errands. As you can see, the boys were grateful for the cool water and the chance to run around.

We've been finding time in the evenings to go to Camp, one of our favorite places. (I wrote about it in my mother's day post) The boys have got new fishing rods this year and are looking forward to learning how to use them.

The weather has been so hot that we've been comfortable swimming until well into the evening.

Thursday and Friday last week I worked as a volunteer in Artist's Hospitality for the Music Festival here in Nakusp. ( If you go to the website and look at the gallery, that's me on page three with the balloons. Last year I worked in the family area, the 'Kid's Zone'. Talk about fun. There's nothing like the look on a child's face when you give them a balloon!) They have a sweet setup...if you volunteer for 2 shifts, you get your weekend pass for free!

I was very lucky and got to work both my shifts before the festival opened, so we got to go whenever we wanted. We stayed home in the mornings each day to get a little work done, then went in the afternoons and evenings. Some of our all time favorite bands were there... and the boys got AUTOGRAPHS! It's the first time I've ever stood in an autograph lineup in my life, but man, was it worth it to see what it did for the boys to meet the musicians.

The boys got their shirts (and Youngest's hat) signed by the Blues Brothers revival and, in the photo here, by all the members of Skavenjah - a wicked cool Canadian Ska band. We've seen Skavenjah each time they've played our music festival and it's always awesome! (My calves are still sore from jumping...)

The Festival is pretty darn big. Our little town has about 1600 - 1800 people. Music Fest brings about 6000 people to town! We live within two blocks of the beach and park (festival site), and right next to the schools. In order to accommodate all the people, the in-town campground (also right near our house) is sold out, and all overflow is in the high school and elementary school fields...this area becomes tent and RV city for 2 1/2 days during the festivities. Almost every lawn and driveway has someone camping in it.

We're close enough to the site that we're on one of the roads that is restricted to local traffic (we do let our friends from further up the hill park in our driveway, though!). All things considered, it's not TOO loud. We can hear the music clearly at our house, and people don't tend to stay up partying too late.

This year the boys had an iced tea stand at the end of our street, right by the campground and high school fields...they made a killing! They shut down on Sunday because they ran out of ice and iced tea. Big plans for next year. Big plans.

One of the other things that was going on in conjunction with the Festival was a sandcastle demonstration by an award winning local sand and ice sculptor, David Ducharme. It was really magical to watch this develop throughout the weekend! The sand at our beach wasn't quite suitable for the kind of fine work that he does, so they brought in sand. Behind the sculpture there was an area where the kids could play with this soft, silty sand and make their own mini-masterpieces.

Because of the heat, we spent a portion of our afternoon at the beach each day, swimming and cooling off. Although the pictures are a little dark, the day was bright and intense. Most days this past week we've been in the top 30's, temperature-wise, and have had to take special care not to get overheated (especially with all the dancing!).


I've included here a long overdue quilt photo. This is of a quilt that I got the opportunity to do recently for a nearby school. The Home Economics (do they still call it that?) teacher led the students to do a 'snippets' quilt based on a photo that she took of the Valhallas, a local mountain range and protected wilderness area. The quilt came out so beautifully! I thought you might enjoy a peek at it. The border is taffeta - a little nontraditional, but supremely effective. There are two narrow panels that go with this central large one; the small panels have blocks depicting activities people do here, as well as animals and other things local. The three quilts will hang together in their school. Beautiful.

Well that's it for us right now. Sorry not to post for so long, but I just wasn't spending all that much time at the computer.

Back to the quilts, then back to the beach!

Lisa