On Saturday, April 2nd. at 10.52 in the evening ,a baby girl was born, her name is KORA SOPHIA , she weighed in at 6 lbs.13 oz.

her very proud parents,Mark and Amber, live on board of a sailboat, here in the harbor.

Little KORA is just gorgeous, and once in a while i can hear her little voice , telling mom and dad to get with it: feed me!!!    clean my diaper!!!!      Its a joy to have a baby close by!!!!

Sweet , little KORA SOHIA !!! 5 weeks old!!

You might have seen the two containers, full of pansies on the deck.   They have been on the boat since last October.         This spring ,when things became very wet from the rain, i noticed many, and i mean many aphids all over the one pot of pansies, the poor flowers were full of them, so i proceeded to pick them off, gross little bugs, when i shook the plants, aphids were jumping everywhere!!    After a couple of weeks of this, i had had enough, but what to do…….    I refuse to use poison of any kind, but i did know that lady bugs will eat their weight in aphids and then some, i love lady bugs, and i did get one ,visiting the boat, i think the aphids just laughed……..

On my travels through the valley, i buy rhubarb at one of the farms, and while shopping there, i noticed a bag, chock full of lady bugs , sitting on the counter!!     They were not moving, and the lady told me there were one hundred aphids in the bag, it had just come out of the cooler storage ,so they were still sleeping so to speak.      I bought the bag.     It was a nice warm , sunny day, the van was cozy inside and i put the bag on the seat, in the sun…….   Within a couple of minutes , the whole bag came alive!!!!!    And i mean alive, lady bugs jumping and crawling, trying to get out, they were awake!!!!

I took the bag to the boat, and contemplated how to do this, so i figured just to shake half of the bugs on one container, and the other half on the other.     Most of the little beetles co operated , and settled on the aphid infested flowers, some went exploring on the deck, some flew away……    I figured they were going to be busy , eating and chomping up all these little , pesky green bugs.        I left them be till the next morning, i could see from my spy spot through the port hole, that they were busy.       I looked out , the sun was on the side of the flower pots , and the whole sides were lady bugs!!! What a sight!!!!!         They were looking for warmth, presumably had full bellies, but now what?????   A few hours later they were all gone, and i mean all gone!!!!       But, so were the pesky aphids, this is now 2 weeks later, and i have not seen one aphids yet!!       Truly a success story, the pansies are in full bloom again, full of gorgeous , purple buds, ready for another year on Curtsy’s deck.

Bag full of lady bugs!

My friend Rita took me to the first park, it is called  Gore nature park, and is located very close to here.      I had no idea what to expect, but what i saw was a little piece of heaven, a gorgeous small park, open areas covered in Camas flowers, in between all the purple stood small pink Sea Blush, here and there some oxeye Daisies showed themselves, some being shaded by young Garry oaks, all the Arbutus were blooming, their scent mixing with the soft smell of the Cotton wood trees standing nearby.   There are Shooting stars, the odd Trillium still left, and further down the small path , i found two Ladyslipper orchids.    Birds were singing everywhere, what an amazing spot to discover, thank you Rita!!!!

I keep busy with all kinds of projects on Curtsy, there is the constant cleaning, trying to stay ahead of the weather damage, since we put the tarp overtop of the cockpit, the cockpit cover is staying much cleaner, it is already 10 years old, most of the tread has worn badly, but bit by bit we replace it.     Our friend Vaughan, who owns a canvas shop in Sidney, has helped out too, his machine is super duper industrial, and flies through the old canvas.   his business  is located on Harbor rd.in Sidney, right next to Waypoint marine.  His business is called :Marine Canvas Works .    marinecanvasworks.com

Back to what i was talking about.     I love making jewelry, and just finished a project for a friend’s birthday.   you can see this on : http://www.blissfulbeadingonaboat.wordpress.com

For the last 13 years, i have also been collecting art affects in nature, i pick up shells, rocks with holes in them, seed pods, glass, and special items.    I have been hanging them in the aft cabin, using natural rope and wool.     here are some photos to give you an idea, it might be a fun project to do this for kids .

Rocks, shells, feathers ,seed pods, anything goes!