We consider ourselves, above all, story tellers. We do this in a visual way and often the narrative is felt rather than being told directly. The best stories are grand and full of detail. And the very best tales can stretch the truth substantially if they are told well. Over the last three weeks I’ve been busy at my design board drawing up the concept art for three awesome projects. The concepts are finished for two of the three projects thus far. I’ve done more than sixty drawings in that time with the balance to come in the next week or two. Most of the concepts need to be kept under wraps for a while yet but I can give a brief glimpse of one. Our customer operates two dinosaur adventure golfs which they have asked us to add to, while keeping the existing dinosaur features intact. We suggested a Mayan overlay, designed on the premise that the Mayans interacted with dinosaurs and worshipped them. We first did extensive of research of existing relics and then modified what we found just enough to convincingly tell our story. This is going to be a whole lot of fun!
Enjoying a (almost) white Christmas in Yarrow
Our friends from the south often assume because we live in Canada that we are under a blanket of snow much of the year. That isn’t true for the most part. In the 44 years Janis & I have been married we’ve only seen snow a couple of times on Christmas. Our little town of Yarrow sits at about 60 feet above sea level and we are just over 100 kilometres (sixty miles) from the ocean. We are less than five miles north of the Canada/USA border. This means we don’t get much snow and only a few weeks below freezing each year. But less than a mile to the south Vedder Mountain rises to 3000 feet above sea level. As the colder temperatures arrive the snow level gets ever lower. This morning the freezing level dropped to under 1000 feet and with it the fresh snow. We get to enjoy it without having to shovel. That’s plenty close for me! We are enjoying a (almost) white Christmas in Yarrow.
Christmas traditions
Christmas is a wonderful time we enjoy with family. Through the year our traditions have gradually changed as our family grows and new members are added. Christmas day was relatively quiet this year with only six at the dinner table this evening (tomorrow will be 20) but we still had plenty of laughs. Christmas crackers with the silly hat and small prizes is one tradition we still enjoy. Phoebe ‘won’ a lovely turquoise crown and moustache which she graciously modelled for us. Others were less eager for their picture to be taken with their prizes. Merry Christmas to all!!
