Flowers and Berries and Veggies

I think that it’s been many years since I’ve worked as dedicatedly as I have these last several months on an art project. “I’m Not The Only One” (last two blog stories) took every spare instant of time that I had. I’m realizing now that it’s already July and I have yet to share any pictures or stories about my gardens. So, that’s what I’m going to do today…

For the last several years I’ve really enjoyed being able to share my garden photos with my friends from around the globe on Facebook. This pic was created as my album cover for this year. It looks nice, but it’s hard to see how much time went into creating this image… it took almost an hour – fiddling with sizes, art media effects and so on. Notice the size of the flowers in the immediate background? Very tiny…

This is what this garden looks like today! These are called Day Lilies and they got this name for a very simple reason – the flowers last for only one day. You may think that these flowers would complete their flowering rather quickly, but their flowering season lasts for almost an entire month!

In this photo you can see the many stems that grow so tall. Each stem is filled with many buds that take turns blooming.

Here’s a zoomed in crop shot of those same flowers. It’s now easy to see how these flowers continue to brighten our days with so many wonderful colours and shapes for so long during their flowering season.

Day Lillies also come in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes. I used my computer to help me create this interesting ‘arted’ image of a yellow Day Lily that grew near my Blueberry patch, several weeks ago.

Each species of Day Lily probably has its own unique name, but I don’t know what they are – I make up my own simple names for them. I call these ones my ‘Wine Day Lilies’ cuz their burgundy colouring reminds me of a glass of red wine.

During the springtime, my berrybush garden looks rather empty, so I’ve planted a few Daffodils and Tulips to brighten it up until the bushes and berry canes grow and fill the area in. These were my first flowers this year.

Even if an area only has one or two flowers you can still find ways to get in really close to take interesting photos. By fiddling with different computer effects a stimulating image can be created to please any eye.

I’ll often visit an area of photographic interest many times over the course of a day or two, to find the perfect light, shade, dryness or wetness from the rain to compliment my compositions. Sometimes, inspirational lyrics from songs get added to my photos to share simple ideas – simple ideas that may be a little more complicated than, at first, they may appear.

This fun series of pics shows how my Blackcap patch has filled in to produce a rather large amount of berries for my family to enjoy as well as my next door neighbours, who received several small bowls during the height of the season.

Like most fruits, Blackcaps taste best when eaten straight from the vine. I find that keeping them in a refrigerator changes their taste and texture, so I’ll often find myself picking these berries several times during a day so that their taste is the freshest!

This year’s berry harvest was so successful that I’ve even managed to freeze a nice sized bag to use in making jams – I’ll be adding these Blackcaps to my Black Currant and Wild Cherry recipes sometime very soon. They also blend with Maple Syrup very nicely to make a sauce for pancakes or French toast!!!



I’ve always found that having a garden – whether it’s a flower, fruit or veggie patch – is the simplest and most rewarding way to understand the importance of life’s miracles here on planet Earth! It boggles my mind to try to understand how a little seed can be filled with so much information and motivation to want to reach for its Creator – our sun! How does a plant know how to or where to put its leaves? Or branches? Have you ever watched the tiniest of buds – smaller than the head of a pin – grow to produce a colourful flower larger than your hand? How does that work?

Yeah! Yeah! We know enough to fill books on this subject and if I was interested to learn about all the strands of molecular growths and movements I’m not sure if I’d feel satisfied. To me, it’s a great mystery. A mystery that I have no desire to solve. A mystery that makes me feel content to leave as a mystery, so that I’ll forever be amazed by all the complexities that are life!



Now, I’m definitely not saying ‘Live life in ignorance’ cuz that’s a completely false appraisal of my attempt to define the word ‘mystery’.



My desire to learn about the things that grow in my garden is great - I’m learning new things about these plants all the time. My garden if forever being moved around as I learn about what a plant needs to flourish and I try to provide that personalized environment.

By reading a book about how to prune berry bushes and berry canes I was able to produce this beautiful arrangement of fruit. These are Red Currants and they’re always a little on the tart side. I grow them cuz they’re easy to grow and care for and the fruits are very useful.

I grew up with these berry bushes in my parents’ garden, but I’ve never known them quite as intimately as I do now. Because of their tart taste, we store these berries in our freezer. The freezing process seems to bring out a richer, sweeter taste in the berry. We’ll just use a ½ cup or so of the berries in our muffins and pancakes that we bake. Very nice!



When I eat a berry – especially one that I’ve just picked – I can’t help but to think of the sun! Because of the sun we have life on this third planet of nine, hurtling through space, simply spinning in infinite surround! There’s this great gaseous inferno blasting all of space with its energy and warmth and here… in my garden… a simple man touches the sun… and enjoys the freshest of berries!!!!

It’s been a really hot and dry summer… and then there was an accident of some kind that burst apart a major water pipeline that keeps London wet! We were under water rations for several days!!!

My veggies were just starting out and they were struggling because of the non-winter we had (creating no ‘snow-pack’) plus the lack of rain in the spring. Joanne came up with a great solution! We started using Devon’s bath water on our gardens. That – combined with the way I shape my gardens for water conservation – allowed my potatoes, carrots, eggplants and tomatoes to grow to their potential.

It’s good that humans have the great capacity to be able to adapt to ever-changing conditions. As each of us strives to live life more simply – cutting back on fast food dinners ( C’mon, now!! Let’s not just cut back – let’s stop supporting factory farm fed industries altogether!!!) – we’ll begin to appreciate, on a deeper level, the value of our food and water. Then a new kind of change will occur… humans will begin to work together in new ways, planning a future instead of merely adapting to a decaying present.



Normal, evolutionary adaptations have always been fine throughout the history of our species. This is because these changes occurred over thousands (even hundreds of thousands) of years. The last three hundred years (a sliver of time by comparison) have seen such a swift and massive change in humankind’s ability to dominate global natural environments that our ecological support systems has been threatened with extinction… simply affecting every living organism on this space marble of ours. This time, our greatest abilities to adapt could never be enough to overcome the obstacles we could soon face. The time to plan was 100 years ago… but the time to act is now!



Ohhh – the problems!!!!! Yet – all the glory as we reach our true instinctive potential to bring peace and balance for all life forces to this breathing Earth of ours!



Having a garden brings these ideals to life!



So… I should end this story on a lighter note and so I will share a few more lovely photos taken in my gardens this year…

These are my chives in flower. The density of the purples tingles the senses in my eyes. Not only do they look gorgeous but they add a nice tongue sensation to my bbq’d ‘taters!

I just love this photo. These Blueberries are soon going to fill out and change to the deepest blue hue – it’s so nice to seem them at this young stage in their lives. Some people may say that I really missed my shot by a week or so cuz all the baby blue Forget-Me-Nots have already flowered and have turned to seed – only a few flowers remain in bloom, but I think the timing of this photo was perfect. It captures the whole ‘cycles of life’ idea with the end of one species of flower and the birth of a new one. Also, if all the Forget-Me-Nots were in bloom then the background would have been a simple wash of only one colour and texture instead of the many presented here.

And finally, the other component of any great garden… the rain!!!! I just love rain storms… except when they are moving at such a rapid rate that the sneak up on you and send a blast of lightning that you are close enough to hear to your left side followed by the loudest thunder you could ever imagine deepening the distance between your ears – LOL!!! – making your heart miss a beat. That scared me to one step closer to death!!!



Ha! I’m alive to tell about it… so I guess it was all for the good.



Jim

I’m Not The Only One - Part II

My last blog entry shared the stories behind the ideas and inspiration that influenced the creation of a twenty-foot long wall mural entitled, “I’m Not The Only One”. To date, I’ve only shown you the first of the five panels used to create this mural…

Here it is again, in case you forgot what it looked like.

I mentioned, briefly, that I’m also creating an animated video to tell the story of this mural, leading up to the opening reception. I’ve created these 3 image sequences to share this idea on my Facebook pages. There are many more photos that will be appearing in the video, but the 3 image sequence gets the idea across.

In each 3 image sequence, one completed mural panel is showcased. The artwork created by the students who ride The Peacebus is used to create the words in these mural panels. Each panel also shares stories about some of the adventures that have happened on the bus. This panel showcases all eleven pages of the book entitled, “A Turtle’s Great Adventure” that was created at the beginning of this school year, last October.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2011/10/turtles-great-adventure.html

Now that a mural panel has been loaded into my car, it is time to venture to the Cherryhill Library where it will be hung for the opening reception – Vroom! Vroom!

And now I’m unloading the mural panel and taking it into the mall where the library is located. But wait!? What’s this???? Above we see that I’m loading the panel “NOT” into the car, so how is it that I’m unloading the panel “THE” when I arrive at the mall?

HA! When this idea popped into my head I laughed! I thought that this would be a fun way to showcase each individual mural panel and also show the journey that all the mural panels went through, at the same time.

And this is the completed 3rd panel in the sequence. As you can see, there is a lot going on inside each panel. There’s no way that this art creation could be fully understood just by a passing glance. This artwork demands a closer look!

I wanted people to get a sense of how this project would look when it was completed, so I made this image showcasing the first 3 of the 5 panels. I was very satisfied to see that the bus (painted in shades of gray) was becoming very visible.

After entering the mall (above), I’ve now entered the library and I’m carrying the “ONLY” panel to the Cherryhill Room, inside the Cherryhill Library, which is found inside the Cherryhill Mall, where I will soon be hosting the opening reception.

This panel was a bit more challenging – it has the most letters in it. If I had made all the letters the same height (as the rest of the mural panels) then the letters would have been very thin, making it almost impossible to read. This panel looks a bit more abstract but that’s okay with me.

The “O” in this panel is dedicated to many of my Facebook friends. It tells the story about how I used photos sent to me from these friends to be the first art decorations on my bus.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2009/06/peaceflowers-from-around-world.html

This is the final 3 image sequence that I’ve put together. It was meant to be a bit of a tease, because you’d possibly expect me to have shown the whole mural. If I did that then there would be no need to attend the opening reception… and I wanted you to attend!

It was Thursday, June 14 at 2:22pm when the last artwork was glued onto this mural panel. This was a great moment – I could relax for about 30 seconds! The opening reception would be in two more days and I still had a lot of work to do to get ready.

This work took me until the day of the opening to complete. One last minute run down to the photocopy centre and then back home to pick up Joanne and Devon and I arrived at the library with 43 seconds to spare! Wheewwww!!!

I made just twenty prints of this ‘mini poster’ and then I numbered and signed each one. I made them to be small souvenirs for any of the Peacebus students who attended the opening reception….

… and several did!!!! The first to arrive were Abbey and Liam with their father. You can see that Abbey was having fun giving Mr. Jim the ‘rabbit ears’!!!!

As you can imagine, Devon and I made it into many photos, but since this part of my story is about those who attended I’m just going to show those photos. I quickly learned that Andor’s father loves babies. Seconds after this photo was taken, he was playing with Devon on the play mats that I had brought into this room.

It was very nice having many moments to chat with the students and their parents outside of the school yard and bus stops. I see Justine’s parents almost every morning and usually we just have a few seconds to exchange some fun words, so it was nice to be able to have an actual conversation.

It was hard to remember to take photos of everyone who attended. Although the atmosphere was relaxed, there was always a lot going on.

I was really happy to see that Carrie had come to visit with her mom and her son Jakob - who I’ve known since only a few hours after his birth!

Even my real estate agent Bud (there’s no Bud wiser!!!!) made a huge effort to be a part of this days happenings. He had spent the afternoon working in nearby Strathroy and noticing that it was getting near 4:00pm (the end of the opening reception) he quickly wrapped up his business and zoom zoomed his way to London to check out this mural. Thanks Bud!

A great surprise for me was seeing one of my closest friends from high school. Because it was a two hour drive to London, Brenda decided to make a day of it with her daughter Alyssa. They spent the morning at Storybook Gardens and after lunch then arrived at the library to meet my family and see the wall mural. It had been almost 21 years since we last saw each other and I hope we won’t wait another 21 years until we get together again.

There was an interesting surprise waiting for Don, when he surprised me with his visit. It seems that there were many surprises for many people during this two hour long event!!!! Don’s surprise was seeing his picture in this wall mural!

Two summers ago, I had arranged to use the Peacebus to transport (for free) people from across London to a local organic blueberry farm. Photos from that event made it into this mural and since Don also attended the ‘Blueberry Daze’ he is now a part of the story.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2010/08/blueberry-daze-continued.html

This is Grace. She is one of the many people who I see when I’m working at my second job. My second job is driving mini-buses around town, helping people with mobility problems. Sometimes my passengers are going to doctor’s appointments and sometimes my passengers are visiting local libraries to see art mural installations!

All in all, it was a great event!!!! It would be hard for me to plan anything better – even if I could. All the smiles and silly jokes, rabbit ears and crying babies, hugs and memories shared made this an afternoon I will cherish for the rest of my life!! Thanks to all for sharing these moments with me!

Since then (and this event only happened a week ago) I have received emails and posts on my Facebook pages by other parents and students who have also gone to view this mural. Even some fellow bus drivers have made it down to the library for a look-see.

If you would like to pop in to check it out, it will be on display at the Cherryhill Library until the end of July, before it continues its tour through three other London Libraries over the next six months.

If you decide to go I will make just one simple suggestion… be prepared to smile!

Mr. Jim

I’m Not The Only One – Part I

To say that the last few years of my life as an elementary school bus driver have been interesting would be a grand understatement. The stories, songs and artworks that the students of The Peacebus have shared with me have filled me with the most positive of assurances that these ‘Future Leaders of the World’ will grow to respect our Earth and all of the lifeforces that abound here in ways that I can’t even begin to imagine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD7j_STtc_8

About two years ago, I began to wonder what I would do with the hundreds and hundreds of peace art drawings that these students are continuously creating. An idea began to form, in the back of my mind, and since then I’ve spent much time developing this idea. My plan was to create a large mosiac mural, using all of these artworks.

Since I knew that this mural would be a very unique art creation, I thought that it would be a great plan to be able to share this with the community. I began to organize a small art tour throughout the libraries, here in London, Ontario.

The construction of this mural began five months ago. Wood panels were cut and primed, wood supports were fastened and eye-hooks were mounted so that the panels for this mural could be easily hung from a wall.

The inspiration for my art concept came from John Lennon’s song entitled “Imagine”. The lyrics from this song are very inspirational and found myself being drawn to one line in particular: “You may say ‘I’m a dreamer’, but I’m not the only one”.

I wanted to create an art mural that would show John (rest his soul) that indeed he was not the only one to have dreams about ‘Peace on Earth’ – the children of today (40 years after this song was written) also have thoughts and desires to realize humanities destiny to bring peace and balance back to our global civilization.

The mural concept focuses on just five words from this song – I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE. Since there are five words in this expression my mural is designed using five separate panels – one word is found in each of the five panels. The students’ artworks will be used to create these words in large capital letters.

Since all of these artworks were created to decorate The Peacebus, it seemed obvious to me that the background image – filling the rest of these mural panels – should be of The Peacebus.

I decided to paint the image of The Peacebus in many shades and tones of grey. I figured that this would make a nice background.

I really want the students’ artworks to stand out, so they’ve been printed using full colour which, when set upon the grey background, really sparkle with life.

Early on, I realized that I wanted to do a little more than simply showcase all of the individual artworks that the students have created. I decided to highlight many of the art adventures that we’ve had, as well.

Part of the first mural panel, tells the story about how Peacebus buttons were created with the generous donation by a Peacebus fan.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2010/07/buttons-for-bus.html

Another panel shares the story about how I shaved my head to raise money for the children of Kenya.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2012/05/mr-jim-goes-bald.html

Another panel shares the Earthday adventures where students joined me at a local park area to help plant trees and learn about birds of prey.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2012/04/mr-jim-celebrates-earthday-2012.html

And so on! In the end this mural will become more of a history of the students and my adventures over the last several years.

I’ve also been taking many photos of the mural’s creation – right from the beginning where I spent time priming the wood panels that are being used. The photos in this blog story have been grouped into sets of three – highlighting each of the stages. Many more photos have been taken and my plan is to create a fun animation film that I will be sharing in another several months, once it has been finished.

To conclude this story, I’m going to leave you will the promotional flyer that I’ve recently created to invite the community to the opening reception and the art tour that is to follow.

The opening reception is taking place at the Cherryhill Library on Saturday, June 16th, 2-4pm.  Please, consider yourselves ‘invited’ and I’ll hope to see you in a couple of weeks!

Jim