Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.18

While my brain is gathering blurp thoughts ...I'll share the weather!

"Sunrise, February 8, 2008"

Well, like most of Canada and the US, we got a lot of snow during January and February here in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. Ski operations like White Mountain loved it. There is actually much more snow here in the mountains, than what Europe has been getting on the slopes apparently. Luckily we are getting 10 degree plus weather with lots of sunshine for March in the valley and most of the snow has melted. Those early season flies are out already, and a butterfly landed on me today while I was cleaning up my yard. The province of Ontario and Eastern Canada is still being hit with severe snow storms one after the other. Many flights are canceled or delayed, making it very hard on travelers trying to get away for the March School Break.
visit: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/wea_winter_storm

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While surfing the web, I often find other interesting art forms:

Something old, something new, something similar:
We've probably all seen pictures of Julian Beever's sidewalk art which creates an amazing realistic feeling of depth (above images). In Germany they have created the same three dimensional illusion in product advertising images on the sides and back of transport trucks. (images below)

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Most fine art requires lots of time and patience:

I remember making a house and playing with a small kite made of popsicle sticks, when I was young. Later in art college, I saw a three foot high rooster, very realistically done, by an artist who used popsicle sticks. I was not aware of the craft below "Matchitecture". (match stick architecture)

About Matchitecture:
My name is Roland Quinton. I am the (innovator) creator of Matchitecture. Contrary to what many think, I am not an architect, but I am a pharmacist practising in Quebec (Canada). I began constructing with wooden matches and corks approximately 50 years ago. I was then 8 years old. We cooked using a gas stove and with the half burnt matches and corks I built little wooden figurines. I never lacked anything as, at that time, my father had a toy store.

Later, at about 15 years of age, I started to build a tower with very poor glue and absolutely no technique. I almost set fire to the house trying to remove the sulphur from the matches.

It was only at the age of 30 that I had tools made and created the construction technique now used for Matchitecture. The matches then became Microbeams.

In the early 90's, I realised that I had the beginnings of a construction game and I thought of naming it Matchitecture.

I worked very hard with different teams to finally develop with BO-JEUX the fourth generation of Matchitecture and we are continuously improving it.

I created Matchitecture because, for me, building with microbeams is very exciting. I wanted to share this passion with others.

Incredible!

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Surf - Design Planet: Blurp No.3

Well, I'm back eh!
April to September has flown by quickly. Today, most children go back to school. Fall has begun. Already, there are "get your turkey early" ads in the local newspaper.







Our Big Move:

In May 2007, in Honolulu, Hawaii, our family said goodbye after living there for 13 years. We completed packing our household goods and my art paintings, collectibles and bicycles for shipping. We also took our vehicles to the port for shipping to Seattle, Washington. At the end of May I officially retired, We flew to Seattle and picked up our vehicles at their port the next morning. We drove north to the Canadian border, south of Vancouver, and spent the next 6 hours at the U.S. and Canadian customs completing paperwork and fees due for importing our vehicles. I won't go into detail, but this was quite the process. On entering Canada we thought we would drive the 300 miles to the city of Kelowna, which is in the Okanagan Valley - in the interior of British Columbia, but after a few miles and with rain getting heavy we wisely crashed at a roadside motel. The next sunny morning we drove to Kelowna and enjoyed the spectacular mountain scenery along the way.

The First Two Months ...Work, Work, Work!

We rented a condo in downtown Kelowna, near the waterfront for the next 3 weeks. The condo was very nice with a rooftop bar-b-q area. The Kelowna waterfront is great. We rented the condo as our movers had stated that it could take up to 7 weeks for our goods to arrive from Hawaii by Hawaiian canoe ...just kidding. During this time I drove about 11 miles southwest each day to Westbank, where our new home is, to do renovations and painting. We had purchased this home three years before and rented it out. Sadly, renters had made a mess. Basically, twelve to 14 hours a day I worked for the next 6 weeks doing lots of repairs, painting and upgrading ...pimped my place! I'm certainly NOT retired yet!

After 3 weeks, we moved into our new home, bought air mattresses and anxiously awaited for the movers. When the movers finally came they unloaded a 40' container of household furniture and goods in about 4 1/2 hours - teamwork. They also filled our garage with boxes of my art, collectibles and bicycles.






Yes! I love our new home!

It took another 3 weeks to unpack - decide what should go where, purchase new items, and to make several trips to the local dump to recycle a ton of cardboard boxes and bubble wrap. Now our home looks great inside and is very comfortable.

The Westbank area is very nice with many orchards and vineyards. The evening setting sun always surprises us with God's beauty as it lights the valley hills.



Oh, I just tried some large fresh deep red cherries with a little chocolate fudge crackle ice cream - spectacular!