This week we had two marvelous opportunities to see the coast of British Columbia, as guests on boats belonging to friends and relatives. This article is about the first cruise.

The weather was sunny and breezy on Saturday, as six family members boarded a 38 foot sailboat that was docked at West Vancouver Yacht Club (above). My brother in law is pictured here, and the boat belongs to his brother.

Shown above are me and my husband John. Our cruise was about 90 minutes north along the coast from West Vancouver to the Elliott Bay Outstation, a private docking facility belonging to the Yacht Club (shown below).

We docked here for a few hours, ate a delicious picnic lunch provided by the captain's wife, chatted with neighbouring sailors, and walked on hiking trails in the hills above the bay.

We saw these ferns during our hike. It was a magical place.

Above is the sailboat docked at Elliott Bay. On the way back to West Vancouver, we had some excellent views of the coast, other sailboats, and a huge ferry. Below are a selection of my favourite photos.

I was surprised how uninhabited the coast appeared to be, north of Vancouver. I guess the terrain makes development too costly. As we got closer to the city, we saw more signs of human activity.

And as we neared our harbour at the Yacht Club, we saw more homes on the coast.

What an amazing day, thanks to my Vancouver family!

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These are the official photos of me accepting my medal and a framed illustration award from the Reader's Favorite Book Awards, for my book Watercolour Toolbox: Essentials for Painting Success.

I was one of about 250 authors honoured at the ceremony, which was held in the nightclub of the Regency Hotel Miami last November, during the week-long Miami Book Fair International festivities.

Among the award winners were two authors from Canada, some from Australia, Denmark, England and other foreign countries, with the majority from the US. Everyone was dressed in suits and party dresses, just like the Academy Awards in miniature! My husband and I had a grand time that evening, chatting with authors and their spouses, all with interesting life stories to tell (go figure!).

We also spent a morning walking through the street fair portion of the Book Fair. There were hundreds of booths showcasing authors, publishers, publicists, printers, and other facets of the international book industry. Many venues hosted seminars and presentations by writers.

The first picture above shows me with my book in front of the Reader's Favorite booth, and the second gives a view of part of the Book Fair, which took up about six city blocks in downtown Miami. I tell you, the book industry is a whole other world out there...

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I had some great news today - I am thrilled to be the feature artist on ArtsyShark.com, which is an American web-based company that teaches professional artists how to promote their work.

I started following Artsy Shark's blog about a year ago, when I was investigating ways to market my art instruction book Watercolour Toolbox, and found their blog posts to be full of great advice on all aspects of art marketing.

I applied last fall to be featured, but did not know until today when my work would be showcased.

The article captures my story in a nutshell - how traveling with my camera inspires my artwork and my art classes - and is illustrated with ten of my paintings of rocks and flowers.

Here is the link to the photo article.

Most years, in mid February, we embark on a multi-day couples' snowmobile trip to celebrate our Valentine's day wedding anniversary. In the past, our trips have taken us to Labrador, Quebec City, the Gaspe region, and several parts of northern Ontario.

This year, my husband John organized a six-day excursion to discover the winter wonders of the Bruce Peninsula, which lies between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, in central Ontario. Four couples took part, trailering their sleds for as much as eight hours, to congregate on a Monday at our 'base camp' at the Days Inn in Owen Sound. The Inn graciously allowed us to park our trucks and trailers in their parking lot until we left the following Saturday. We like to tour on week days as the trails are less busy.

Day one we snowmobiled about 200 km up north to Tobermory (that was our longest day at 11 hours of riding); day two we made our way back south and west to Port Elgin; and day three we meandered eastward to return to Owen Sound. All three days were cold and clear for the most part. The trail was very smooth and fairly easy to navigate, taking us through rolling hills, hardwood bush, and lovely open farmland.

Day four, which was Valentine's day, we made a big circuit east towards Meaford under cloudy skies, then south and back to Owen Sound, passing through the scenic Beaver Valley. We stopped for a delicious gourmet lunch at Ted's Range Road Diner, directed there by a sign on the snowmobile trail reading "Ted's - hot food - cold beer". This was our third visit to Ted's (see my Owen Sound post from last spring) and we have never been disappointed. Don't let the humble Quonset hut disguise fool you!

After dinner that evening back at Days Inn, the group gathered in our suite to play a version of 'The Newlywed Game' for valueless prizes, and enjoyed Valentine's treats and conversation.

The next morning we all headed home, thankful for such a great week - 750 km of sledding in great company, beautiful scenery, and gorgeous, classic winter weather.

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Yesterday I learned how to do something really fun, cool, useful and easy - make a short (30 second) video using the free version of Animoto.com and post it to YouTube.

The seminar was hosted by the Writers' Community of Durham Region at Trent University in Oshawa and taught by Rich Helms.

Animoto is very user-friendly. You just have to upload a couple of images, type in the text for each slide, choose a background theme, and select the music you like. It's amazing to play with, like PowerPoint on steroids, and you can change the slide order, add or delete images and text, try different music and another presentation style.

And if you want to make longer videos, Animoto has very reasonable monthly or annual fees.

Check out my first two videos and let me know what you think:

We spent a month camping at the excellent KOA Campground on the outskirts of Owen Sound this spring. Several groups of our friends joined us from time to time and all of us were very impressed with both the beauty of the region and the vast number of interesting things to do there.

Aside from a few hours spent relaxing, we were busy every day touring the area. Having done that, I would like to recommend that anyone interested in visiting  Owen Sound should experience the following highlights.

VIEW GEORGIAN BAY

Owen Sound is situated on the shore of Georgian Bay, which is part of Lake Huron. The water in the Bay is very deep, pure and clear and at times we thought some shorelines looked like the Caribbean. I never got tired of looking at the gorgeous blue water and all the fabulous rock formations and stones on the shore.

Highlights were a cruise out of Tobermory to Fathom Five National Marine Park (home of Flower Pot Island) and hiking in nearby Bruce Peninsula National Park. It was hard to pick just these few photos of the hundreds I took:

REVISIT THE PAST

We spent many lovely afternoons and evenings strolling through the residential areas of Owen Sound. At one time, this city had the largest number of millionaires per capita of any city in Canada. Imagine the lifestyles of the families who built these lovely homes.

HIKE TO WATERFALLS

Since Owen Sound is on the Niagara Escarpment (a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve), there are lots of accessible waterfalls nearby. Pick up the handy brochure Waterfalls of Grey County  which provides a map, photo and description for each of nine waterfalls.

We visited most of them and found Inglis Falls and Indian Falls (pictured below) to be the most impressive. Many can be accessed via the Bruce Trail and all are fairly easy to get to (no cliff climbing!).

DINE AT TED'S RANGE ROAD DINER

This unusual restaurant is out in the middle of nowhere, east of Owen Sound, and offers an incredible array of dining choices, from kangaroo to caribou to sea bass.

It is housed in a Quonset hut that surely does not meet fire code, and the extensive menu is written on chalk boards around the room.

The food was so tasty and beautifully presented that we went twice with groups of friends. Check out their menu and location here.

ENJOY GLORIOUS GARDENS & WILD FLOWERS

Many private gardens in Grey and Bruce Counties are open to the public year round. Pick up the brochure or visit RuralGardens.ca. Our favouite was Morland Place home and garden (shown in four photos below) - a huge labour of love.

The Bruce Trail runs very near Owen Sound and offers easy access for hiking and photography. Since I love flowers, I took hundreds of floral photos during our month stay in this area and it was difficult to select just a few to show you here.

RELIVE YOUR CHILDHOOD

We chanced upon an unusual museum east of Owen Sound called Vintage Riding Toy Collection. It showcased 300+ antique bicycles, wagons, scooters, pedal cars, sleds and many more ride-on vehicles.

Call 519-538-3200 for a private tour and a trip down memory lane (for us baby boomers that is).

More interesting places to visit:

Munshaw's Bistro, Flesherton

Bird Sanctuary at Harrison Park, Owen Sound

Artists' Co-op (40 local artists), Downtown Owen Sound

Sunday Flea Market, Rockford

Saturday Farmers' Market, Owen Sound

Factory Outlet, Meaford

Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound

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While we were near the south shore of Nova Scotia we made a quick trip to Lunenburg in what the local radio station called 'biblical rain'. That means pouring buckets. But we just had to see Bluenose II before the new launch later this summer. I took these photos of her in drydock.

Bluenose II in Drydock at Lunenburg Harbour, NS

I had to take the photos from the open doorway of a portable toilet so my camera wouldn't get soaked!

Bluenose II Almost Ready to Launch, Lunenburg, NS

We saw a fabulous, informative film in the visitor centre about the original Bluenose, which was a wooden-hulled commercial fishing schooner built in 1921. She was 181 feet long and her main mast had a height of 126 feet above the deck. Her displacement was 285 tons and total sail area was over 11,000 square feet. The film showed footage of her sailing and I was blown away by her massive size and graceful strength.

While the lifespan of most schooners was just 10 or 12 years, for 17 consecutive years Bluenose won the annual International Fishermans' Trophy (racing 40 miles against schooners from Maine). Her highest average speed was 16 knots, which made her the fastest sailing ship in the world. In 1938 when the racing series ended, she was named Queen of the North Atlantic Fishing Fleet. Bluenose has been pictured on the back of the Canadian dime (10 cent piece) from 1937 to this day.

Canadian Dime (photo from Wikipedia)

Every year, Bluenose earned her keep by fishing on the Grand Banks, surviving many storms, gales and the wear and tear of commercial use, but World War II marked the end of the great fishing schooners with the advent of diesel-powered steel trawlers. In 1942, Bluenose was sold to the West Indian Trading Company who removed her masts, added engines and used her to haul freight in the Caribbean. Four years later she struck a Haitian reef and sank. (There is a commemorative plaque on the ocean floor at the site of the wreck.)

Once Bluenose was lost, everyone realized what a tragedy it was that this world-famous, hard-working ship had not been preserved. Eventually in 1963, an identical schooner, Bluenose II, was built from the original plans, in the same shipyard and by some of the same men who built the first one. It was used as a showpiece and was sold to the government of Nova Scotia for $1 in 1971.

Bluenose II is now almost 50 years old and has been repaired many times, but this latest visit to drydock to replace the entire wooden hull and keel is costing $16 million.

If you would like to see photos of the restoration or read more history of Bluenose, they have a great web site http://bluenose.novascotia.ca/

As we near Canada Day later this week, it is very fitting that I pay tribute in my blog to this symbol of Canadian excellence in ship design, shipbuilding and seamanship. Happy Canada Day, Bluenose II. You're a grand lady and I'm proud to have met you.

We spent a week at the KOA campground near Sackville, NS, which is about a half hour north of Halifax. The campground is right on the Sackville River, so on our only sunny day there we finally had a chance to use the kayaks we hauled from Ontario. It was so great to get out into Nature. Here are some photos of us and some waterfowl.

John Kayaking on Sackville River

Karen Kayaking on Sackville River

Families of Canada Geese, Sackville River

Five Black Ducks on the Sackville River
(One upright and four bums-up)

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Since we were camping in Five Islands, NS for two weeks, we spent some time exploring sideroads looking for scenic spots to photograph.

Down Blue Sac Road we found this lovely view of one of my favourite of the Five Islands, the one with the hole in it, sort of like Piercee Rock in the Gaspe.

Down Economy Point Road we found a lovely public park with several km of oceanfront trails and I took lots of photos including this one with a sea stack at high tide.

One day we walked along the shore from our campground at low tide and hiked a little ways up a river. Well at high tide it looks like a river (although very brown and muddy looking), but at low tide it is just a trickle. As I mentioned earlier, those folks with waterfront property on the Bay of Fundy should get a rebate on their property tax - look how far the boat on the left is down from the steps up to the house!