Submitted June and July, 2001
Enid Petherick: Artist and Observer of the Wilds
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June 30, 2001
It has been a spectacular year for wild flowers. Annette and Rosie had perfect timing when they came for a week of painting and hiking on the 24th of June. Before their arrival we had noticed an especially tall wood lily near the cabin they were to occupy. We were surprised to see five equally large buds at it's top; a record since three is the largest multiple generally seen. The buds all opened during their visit in one glorious orange blaze to supply inspiration for photography and painting (we had an art show at the end of the week). And, most amazingly, on their hikes they discovered a lily with six blooms plus a second with five!
June 22, 2001
We set up the computer
with inverter to run off our solar system. Marvellous! Can work about
an hour ,then take a break to let the batteries get full again. Re-charging
does not take long these hot sunny days.
Now I can practice my typing (ha!), and learn the paint and draw program
(yay!), and begin to print out the cookbook we began when our girls were
learning to cook. One hitch - we still have to use the library computer
to access the internet since we have no telephone.
June 15, 2001
Five cabbages nipped off. Then my three largest sunflowers - the ones
I had been nurturing since March (!) The next day more cabbages gone...a
borage - every day something disappeared, even though we covered the plants
at night. This thief worked daytime! I blamed the gopher. Then I noticed
a pile of five withered cabbage plants! PACK RAT. Ralph searched the barn
- ah! a dried borage inside the cat door to the loft - more cabbage plants
among the bags of peat moss. And the STENCH! Packrats mark their territory
with a heady urine that sticks like glue and years later the smell reincarnates
in damp weather.
Our daughter, Lisa, was home and volunteered to read her book under the
apple tree and keep her eye open for four legged intruders (apple blossoms
in full bloom and sun shining, she knew a good location). Very soon she
heard something in the loft. Packrats thump their hind leg as they move
about. Now generally we go to great lengths to avoid trapping and killing
animals - birds, bugs, anything. But packrats are in a category of their
own. There is something terribly obnoxious about an animal that nips plants
off and doesn't even eat them, uses only the odd one for nesting material
and abandons the rest. Vandalism! Ralph baited the trap and set it among
the dead plants in the loft. Lisa returned to her book. An hour later
she reported that the trap had gone off.
We got the culprit and gave it a decent burial at the back of the garden.
I filled in the empty spaces with new plants and I am watching the garden
spring ahead. We have enjoyed the first radishes and early greens - and
first rhubarb pies - with satisfaction.
And first crisis met.
June 11, 2001
We are putting in many long hours trying to keep up to the garden these days. But throughout there are many distractions. The young bucks are back this summer - sometimes seen singly or in a group usually voraciously browsing to support the growth of their rack. These horns sprout and shoot up into 1-2-3-4 etc. prong racks in the short span of our summer months and one can see visible growth within days. One of nature's miracles!
After a hot morning in the garden there is nothing more refreshing than a dip in the pond. Fed by springs from underground,the lower water always feels a bit glacial (!!?) but with the up to 38C temperatures we have been getting, the surface gets balmy - w-e-e-ll comparatively. After the initial shock it is glorious to swim, float , stretch, relax and cool down. Finishing one such swim, I stood upright preparing to leave, and stopped. I felt watched. Looking up I scanned the treed bank. ...There. A head thrust its way between the branches and the neck took on giraffe-like proportions as a doe tried to remain hidden while taking in all that was happening. I laughed. With beautiful grace she sprang up the bank and disappeared.
On our way for a dip one evening Ralph and I looked north to where the creek widens and meanders shallowly across the flats.A wolf stood at the waters edge looking over it's shoulder at us. An unusual siting since with a few exceptions we generally see them only occasionally on the frozen river. A week previous , I had seen a doe watch over her fawn as it cavorted in this same shallow spot. Two legged or four legged the water provides entertainment and relief from the heat. I wonder who provides the most entertainment for whom?
23 May 2001
hopefully we have
planned enough for all....Hmmm...That exotic grub with the red ends...maybe
a painting.....
12 March 200l
I am envisioning a figure emerging from the vertical rock cliff opposite
my studio balcony when I see a ribbon of snow dribble from the trees near
the top - the shoulder of my visionary figure - and cascade one-third
of the way down to land in a sparse grove of trees - the lap. A pause,
then snow slithers from the bottom of the grove. It has spread and added
size. It drops over a short cliff into a larger, denser group of trees.
I can see the moving snow broaden now - the trees breaking it up, slowing
the slide down but spreading it ever wider and picking up more snow. I
reach sideways to pick up my binoculars in time to see the avalanche break
through the bottom trees and plummet over a several hundred foot drop,
free-falling in a span covering one-third of the cliff-width and landing
in the scree pile at the base of the mountain. A breathtaking sight, beautiful
and spectacular in terms of a huge waterfall of snow. But with the binoculars
I see a large tree break over the edge and tumble down, along with myriad
other bits of rubble that had been gouged out and scraped together by
this rapid and powerful descent. A force than demands respect and due
care. Awesome.
26 February 200l
Painting makes me ravenous. It's not a discriminating hunger, the criteria
being able to eat with one hand and paint with the other. I'm not sure I am
even aware of what I am eating. It's an energy exchange - from left hand to
the mouth - right hand to the canvas. I am presently experiencing late winter
blahs. Choice treats are gone and everything tastes the same. This painting
is not going well and my mind wanders...I recall the same time of year – February
- Puerto Escondido and a tiny cafe operated in a family home. Two huge platters
mounded high with cubes of watermelon and cantaloupe fresh from the vine are
placed before us. Spiked with lemon and washed down with tall glasses of Cafe
Con Leche it disappears as by magic. Sabrosa? Musy sabrosa! I once asked my
daughter who has done several student exchanges in other countries if she
had one particularly memorable food or meal and waited in anticipation. Her
reply, "I remember homemade soup and fresh bread when we came back from
skiing"!!!!! Clearly association and circumstances influence how we taste
- and how I paint.
7 March 200l
Twelve degrees Celsius sun caused a thick slab of frozen snow to very slowly
but steadily slide. A strip now extended three feet beyond the roof and began
to curl in a tunnel, the fringe of icicles spiking diagonally toward the wall.
Would the overhang break off or would the whole slab slide? We heard a muffled
thump - the overhang had dropped but noises from the roof indicated the main
slab was still moving and we could see a new overhand quickly forming. We
positioned ourselves on the outhouse steps. Minutes later with scraping and
groaning, the entire slab shot forward and landed far out beyond the wall
to add to the snow bank below. Drama over.
"The Kiss"
Enid Petherick
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