In a Garden, Welcome

Yesterday, on the way to a family picnic, my sister and I stopped in at the "In a Garden" event hosted by artist Kathryn McHolm in the small town of Welcome, Ontario, about an hour east of Toronto. Karen Elmquist had mentioned on Facebook the day before that she was displaying her creations there and since it was on the way to where we were going, we turned off the super highway and travelled one mere kilometer north and arrived in Welcome, which is little more than a four corners with several houses and an Esso station. I hadn't really planned to go, as I didn't think my sister would want to stop, so I hadn't brought any information with me, such as Kathryn's name or directions to her place (which is very unlike me). In any case, I thought that since she lived in such a small village, she would be easy to find.

Ten minutes later, after we had driven in all four directions and seen no sign of her place or any activity whatsoever, I went in to the Esso station to ask for help. The gentleman behind the counter said there were several artists in the area but since I didn't know the name of the one I was looking for, he very kindly allowed me to use his laptop to look up the link Karen had posted on Facebook about the show (thank you, sir, for that small town generosity!) Once I had that information, it couldn't have been easier to find Kathryn's place as it was only 3 or 4 houses down from the corner on which the gas station was located. Of course, we'd driven right past it as we arrived in town but when we went back, there were several cars out front and it was much more obvious there was something going on in that location.

What a wonderful place it was! There is really too much to describe, so I've included a slide show of the photos I took and will just list some of the highlights:

- seeing all of Karen's lovely beads, beautifully displayed;
- the chipmunk on the outhouse door;
- Diana Cohen, whose blog is called "Her Wings" which is why she thought she should be wearing hers for the day - she makes beautiful purses and jewellery - I am still slightly regretting that I didn't buy the bag she made that said "French Kiss is Bliss" - you can check her out here: http://www.herwings-diana.blogspot.com/;
- the beautiful wooden cheeseboard and bread boards and the leaf shaped birdbath that Janine bought;
- the lovely fibre and vintage fabric items made by Veronica Derry - who doesn't have her own website yet, but here's a link to some information about her: http://www.thecolborneartgallery.ca/veronica-derry.htm - she makes the cutest little birds swinging on a perch out of fabric but I had already given all my money to Karen for beads, so I had to go without a little songbird for now;
- the weather, which turned out to be much nicer than I had expected;
- the lovely tables and chairs set up within the shady part of the garden where people could have a seat and enjoy the homemade treats available;
- Kathryn's studio in the barn at the back of the property, complete with wasp nest decorations; - the garden itself, which would have been completely charming even without all the talented artists interspersed throughout; and
- the whimsical garden scupltures made from chicken wire and lightbulbs.

Here is a link to info about Kathryn, who also has a "Harvest of Christmas Delights" scheduled for Nov 20-22nd and is taking part in the Northumberland Hills Studio Tour the weekend of September 12-13. I would highly recommend you make your way to Welcome for one or both of these events!

http://www.northumberlandarts.ca/artists/kathryn-mcholm.htm


Commitment update: 4 workouts in 5 days.