Oh — hello. I didn’t see you there. I’m Ellen, and I’m back with another installment of trillium trails. We’ve been back from this trip for a mere month, so this is pretty much breaking news by my standards.

Our destination this time: Wenatchee, Washington! Didn’t see that one coming, did you? Why Wenatchee? Well, besides the convenient access to Aplets and Cotlets and faux Bavaria, we were meeting up with my mum- and dad-in-law on their spring campout. The spring sun was warm, the grass was green, the apple trees were in blossom. And not a mosquito to be seen.

I know that my reader(s) really only use me as a way to get updates, and more importantly, photos of Sam. Give the people what they want, I say. Here is himself at camp (above) and on a day trip to Steamboat Rock (below).

Meanwhile, all kinds of news has come and gone. It was a busy year for me at UVic. I went through an Eva Hesse period in sculpture. I did a lot of drawing and some animation. I highly recommend going back to school. I even got a box of free art supplies this year. And with the software discounts (Hello CS5!), I feel like I’m making money on the deal.

I finished a couple of stints at the museum, including the launch of their social media efforts. Look for them on Facebook, and check out this blog post featuring my former workspace in the basement electronics workshop (I’m not in the post, just my office and coworkers). Of course, my job ended just when all the fun was starting (the actual creative content part), but the group there are doing a fantastic job with it so far.

So much more is going on. I won’t go into it all right now, but I’m happy to be shifting to a different pace. Some things ending, other new things to look forward to. This summer: a good freelance project, a trip to Boston, and a class in printmaking among others. And more travels for the trillium. Starting this weekend with our first trip to Long Beach, Tofino and Ucluelet. Possibly Sam’s best beach trip . . . evah!

The mightiest little trailer in the world is just back from another triumphant road trip. This time we conquered the Hope-Princeton highway and the 12 mile dirt forest service road to the top of Mt. Kobau.

The summit overlooks Oliver and Osoyoos on one side, the Similkameen valley on the other, and to the south peeks into the US. This was the first year that me and Sam came along for Gary’s annual Mt. Kobau star party trip. After two years away from working full time with astronomers, I was finally able to face the idea of three solid days amongst those those lovable gearheads. It was fun.

For one thing, its BEAUTIFUL up there, even in the daytime. The sunsets were spectacular. We spent three to-die-for clear nights under the milky way on top of a mountain, and we had our little trailer and our dog with us. It was the good life. I would hang out as the sun went down listening to the excitement build as scopes were unburdened of their protective tarps and each little encampment would go through its pre-observing rituals. When it got dark I stayed out for a while just watching the stars come out. Not a hard core observer myself, I just enjoyed sitting under the stars and watching for meteors, stealing an occasional look through one of the scopes. And when I got tired, I cocooned myself in the trailer and read under a red light until I drifted off to sleep.

Next year we really have to set aside a whole week for this trip. We didn’t really have enough time to hang out back in Penticton with Gary’s folks, and soak up the summer beach town atmosphere. On Thursday we were back on the road in a hot car, heading for Victoria and the cool sea breezes of home.

Tilt your head to to the left (or your display to the right) to get an idea what these curtains look like. I have finally finished the oh-so-classy Trillium Trailer curtains. Only the best; I got the fabric with a store credit at Chintz & Co. I do love their home dec fabric department. Have you been up there? I love that long, narrow shelf of mark-downs in the back, where you have to walk in sideways and can lose yourself for about an hour. And the bin of pretty scraps all rolled up nice and tidy.

Showing both their exquisite taste and research savvy, one of my aunts and the cousins on that side gave Gary and I a gift certificate to Chintz for our wedding. I sort of hogged it and have been spending it bit by bit at the fabric department, getting store credits for the part that I didn’t use. This is actually the perfect project to use it up on, because it is helping cozify our little house on wheels.

At first I thought the Chintz fabric department was a bit intimidating, a foreign world where dry-clean-only fabrics stop over before becoming window treatments and slipcovers for the wealthy Victoria elite. In my experience, however, it is staffed by friendly, helpful types who take deliberate care over each detail of the fabric purchase and offer well-informed advice. Most of them do custom sewing work too and know the fabrics well. I love that it’s tucked upstairs; my first encounter with it had the feeling of stumbling upon Ali Baba’s cave. They have beautiful samples and books to look at, and in fact it was one of their samples that set the direction for these curtains, a plain panel with a smaller panel of patterned fabric. The fabrics are pretty sumptuous for a trailer, but the cheerful dot pattern and colors fit in perfectly. This fabric has probably never had this much fun before. I guess we’re kind of house proud when it comes to the Trillium. After all, we own that baby free and clear!

Once upon a time I had my own blog. I had a lot of adventures to share when I went for that long car ride from Massachusetts to Vancouver Island. But, after a while, my new life fell into a routine and there just wasn’t much to say. I mean, how many walks to the waterfall can I tell you about? It gets old.

Ellen figures its okay if I come to her blog sometimes and tell you about some of my new adventures. Like this weekend, we all got in the car and we brought the trailer with us. I have my own special bed in there all to myself to sleep in at night. The campsite we got was a little gravelly, so I decided it might be a good idea to get comfy on the blue foamie. I couldn’t get too comfortable, though, because I had to keep my ears perked for passing dogs all the time. There were lots of other dogs camping too. I met some of them at the beach.

Yesterday, we took a long walk to a place called Mystic Beach. It was like hiking up a mountain only backwards, because we had to walk down the steep parts first, then climb back up them on the way home. This is me crossing the suspension bridge. It was very high and had a metal grate that hurt my paws a little.

When we got to the beach, I was ready for a rest. This beach wasn’t as rocky as the other one, and I could get comfortable on the sand and cool down a little. I had a relaxing rest before we had to go back up and cross the scary bridge again.

It was a good adventure, but very tired-making. I can barely keep my head up, so I’ll just leave you with some sunset pictures. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some napping to catch up on.

The elements of a really good tea break include a warm piece of soda bread, strong cup of tea, extremely tired dog from weekend of hikes and camping, and the entire third season of Battlestar Galactica waiting to be watched. (I mean, not right now, but its something to look forward to.) Oh, and some light reading. Ahh.

We did a one night trip to French Beach in the Trillium (our 1973 lime green fiberglass trailer) to open the season. We were away almost exactly 24 hours, but it felt like a vacation. Yesterday friends of ours met us at the campsite and we went up to China Beach for a hike. Sam the dog had an Outward Bound wilderness trust experience, making his way over a metal-grate suspension bridge over a ravine, paws spread out and cautiously stepping paw by paw across the bridge. My brave dog! Back when we first got him, he was about a year and a half old, and he was afraid of a lot of things, including the hardwood floors at my mom’s house. We used to have to line up all the area rugs and floor mats so he could make his way from one end of the room to the other. Now he’s a west coast adventure dog!

I did a little playing with furniture finishes over the last couple of weeks, trying to pick up some new skills. This was sort of a distressed/aged finish, though its probably the kind of thing you’d apply to a door to make it look old and weathered, more than a chair. But I loved working with the layers of glaze. If you haven’t used it, glaze is this gooey, non-colored medium that you mix with other paint colors to get a translucent color. It stays workable for a long time, and you can texture it, or wipe it off, leaving traces of the color in the recesses of the grain. Or you can add subtle layers of color, making some areas of the finish look a bit darkened with age. Its pretty sweet.

This was our destination for the maiden voyage of our new (old) Trillium fiberglass trailer. French Beach, about an hour’s drive west.

Our little green house on wheels parked snugly under the mossy green trees.

French Beach is relaxing. The waves crash all day and night on the rocks, making them clatter. Pebbles pool in the nooks and crannies of the driftwood.

We poked along the beach for treasure. Later we listened to the world series on the radio. Sam guarded camp until we all retired to the snug little trailer for the night.