Taking Time Out To Do Community At Camp

The people are here! The people are here!

Life up here continues as we live out our summer exploring, creating and having lots of family time together.  It's a summer I am sure to remember and I am quite certain will have a hard time saying goodbye to.  Yes, we could have stayed home for the summer and been much more comfortable on so many levels: nice soft beds with no kids in them, space to cook, bathrooms, laundry machines, the security of a regular paycheque, hot water for dishes (a sink for dishes for that matter), and here's a BIG one, a crib to contain my 2 year old in.  But hey, who really wants to be THAT comfortable???? I truly believe the time up here is so much richer than all of those other things.  We have had the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and meet so many new people over the past few weeks.  It has really stood out to me how much more happier we all are being around people on a regular basis.  Back home we have lots of good people around us but don't always take the time to really spend time together.  It's been so easy just to get into a busy mode and keep going with my own deadlines in my head which many times are unrealsitic.  Up here I have been forced to slow down and let go of getting as much done as I have wanted.  Taking the time to embrace one another has become more of a priority.

Oliver Pengilley: an amazing artist from the U.K.

This weekend we had the privilege to meet Oliver Pengilley, an artist from the U.K. http://www.oliverpengilley.co.uk  He spent the weekend here at the camp painting during the church sevices.  It was really amazing to see what all he painted on the canvas and how so many people responded to what he was painted because it had touched them in some way.  He offered a painting worskhop that Steve and I signed up for and did.  It was lots of fun and very informative!  I really enjoyed his work and his style and it also showed me once again that I have my own unique style, just as everyone else in the group did.  That's what I love about art... we all have our own style! There were about 30 people in the workshop and we all painted the same picture with step by step instruction.  But something very magical happened when I looked at everyones paintings.  Not one of them were the same.  Every person there had there own idea of how to paint the picture.  Some used more paint, others less, some lots of brushstrokes, others were very blended.  How pleasing was it to my eyes to see all that diversity coming from one original source painting.  It was once again a good reminder that you really can't compare what you do to others because you are so unique and what is inside of you is so unique that it is uncomparable!

Steve and I  with our masterpieces after a great workshop with Oliver.

So even though we haven't been doing as much as I have liked creatively, we are still expressing our creativity and sharing with others our journey along the way.  So maybe next week I will be able to finish some projects.  In the meantime I will continue to live out each day creatively one step at a time enjoying all that is around me.
So Just what have we been doing around here lately?????

Let the fireworks begin!

Setting up my art at the camp. A great way to meet lots of people.


That was until a rain storm came and left me and Steve standing under a soaking tent in the middle of a field.  I should have listened to the weather man!!

There is always time for the beach.  Steve got creative with the sand and threw in a lesson on rivers and lakes!
Gotta love school in the summer!

My Lucy!  She really lights up my day!  Making a super cape from an old pillow case and decorating it with markers!

The family portrait on the super cape. YIKES our pants are missing!  At least we've got shoes on.

What is this photo doing in here?  Well you never know who you meet and where it may take you.  We met a really nice family that lives down the road that has the most high tech diary farm I have ever seen!  So we took a tour that I know the kids will remember.  One more school lesson done.

Lining up for milking. 

Finishing the day with a wing shindig: hay, country music, and yummy wings!  Stevie where is your cowboy hat?

Food to sleep to! Good night all.