Moving towards retirement without a pension, but with a plan...

Since Michael Chesley Johnson and I will only get minimal social security and have no other "pensions", I have been working a plan to have some type of income coming in for our "remaining years" which in both our cases due to family genetics is likely to be well into our 90's.

I have been working the plan which is to move to a CHEAP fully paid for house in a beautiful place(done) and sell all other real estate investments with long term owner financing.  I am happy to say that we have one house sale to go and one piece of land remaining and I am working diligently on finding the right buyer for those as well!  This will take the pressure off Michael to make a full-time living as an artist and allow us to do some budget travel!  We hope a used truck camper is in our future...

In the meantime, Michael teaches weekly and I maintain houses and deal with the minutiae of daily life among the self-employed!  Michael is still writing articles and doing a lot of painting, but his focus lately has been more to challenge himself rather than to make a painting to sell and I love the results.  I even commissioned him to paint something which had personal meaning and he did a great job!

We have closed both galleries to concentrate more on online sales and reduce the time just hanging out in case someone came by to be more productive.  We are open by appointment wherever we are at the moment.   Follow Michael's blog to know where we are...  Plein Air Painterman's Blog.

Fog and Green

Since May it seems that we have had lots of fog and rain and also lots of green growth!

Fog and Boat


Once we get a few miles under our feet in recreational travel, we will get a new herding rescue dog probably in Fall 2018 when we are back in New Mexico.  We miss Saba every day.

More flowers on Campobello Island--lupine, poppies, lilacs, ranunculus and so on

We are preparing our house for sale http://campobellohome.com/ so have been getting the gardens tidied up.  Met with a realtor yesterday so that process is beginning... SOLD!

Amazing Poppies

The garden path sphere

Lilacs still blooming...  

The weather has been cool until now and so the spring bloom has gone on and on...

Lupines appear to be exploding!

The old Homestead at 822 Route 774 Campobello Island, NB

One of my seaglass windows

Columbine in Purple

Summer Commences in My Garden

This summer's extravaganza continues.  At their peak right now I have peonies, yellow yarrow, yellow hawkweed, heritage roses, iris, daisy, delphinimum, bridal wreath spirea, clematis, cosmos, dianthus, chives, ferns, Miss Kim late blooming lilacs, and lupine( although they are beginning to go to seed as they do from the bottom up!). I am sure I missed a few and the ferns are still spring green so we still have much more spectacular blooming to go until things begin to die back in September or so.  The first frost here is late, usually not until some time in October, as the water begins to moderate the fall temperatures as compared to areas farther inland. The seeds I planted a week or so ago are up 2-3 inches!  We have had 5 inches or more of rain in the past few weeks so everything is blooming now that we have an seemingly unending sunny period ahead of us.  The comfrey was flattened by the rain, but everything else seems to be relishing the weather.

I am going to do a lot of kaleidoscopes of these flowers as they have inspired me! Friar's Bay Studio Gallery and Artists Retreat Studios & Gallery open on Tuesday so I will have enforced indoor time beginning on July 1st to plan some new projects...

I did not caption the kaleidoscopes so you have to actually look at them to see what flower is "kaleidoscoped".  Some are very obvious and others are a little more subtle.

Poppy in My Garden--3 Different kaleidoscopes

I was going to do a series on spiderwebs, but I took a photo today of a poppy I grew from seed that I knew would make a great subject!  Here is the original photo:

I am deep into finishing my book of the best kaleidoscope creations of the past year.  I expect to announce it next week!

Sneezeweed, Smokebush, and Gooseneck Loosestrife

These odd sounding plants are in their full glory now in my Campobello Island gardens.  Although a little dry this summer, I don't think I have ever had a better year for my garden than this one.  My mints are over 4 feet high, my sunflower is over 5 feet high, and everything is doing incredibly well.  The fireweed has passed though and the old-timers say when the fireweed goes to fluff, the cool weather is not far behind.  Well the fireweed is beginning to "fluff"...

We are winding down the Friar's Bay Studio Gallery and have repopulated the Gallery with paintings Michael has brought back from the St Andrews show today.  Come visit us at 822 Route 774, Welshpool, NB E5E 1A6.  Don't use your GPS or Google Maps to find us as they seem to have wiped out all the data on the Island for those of us on Route 774 and despite lots of effort, I can't get the addressing corrected.  See our directions at:  http://www.friarsbaygallery.com/  I would be happy to give you a tour of my gardens!

Below are kaleidoscopes of the 3 plants in my title today!

Gooseneck Loosestrife and Spinner

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Smokebush

Sneezeweed in Full Bloom

You will have to visit to see the plants from which I have created the kaleidoscopes!  Maybe you will take home an original painting with you!