Brian's Amazing Work

The Whatcom Artist Studio Tour is this weekend and next. I love this chance to visit art studios around Bellingham and Whatcom County. I took this photo at Gossamer Glass, Brian Kirkvliet's glass studio in the county. His work is amazing. And I find it really interesting that his work is so delicate and yet he is also a farmer. In winter he blows glass. In summer he and his wife Alexandra farm. They call their farm Inspiration Farm.

This morning Arvin and I picked up Helena and headed up to Lynden to pick up my paintings from their late summer show. Afterwards we visited the Lynden Village Books and then had lunch at JoFish. It was delicious.

From there we drove down Hannigan Road and turned off on Laurel to go to Brian's studio. We've been going to his studio for a very long time. We've even made Christmas ornaments there on several occasions.

Eight years ago we adopted our cats Duma and Mehitabel from Brian and Alexandra's daughter Rosie. Her young white cat, Sneaky, and their young orange boy, Pouncer, had four kittens and we chose the orange boy and one of the two torbie girls. The kittens were adorable and have become two of the best cats who have ever been our owners. (Yes. You read that right.) 

Today we had a very long talk with Brian about the very busy and complex year they've had. We found out that Pouncer had died after a very happy and rich life. As Brian said he was happy, happy, happy and then very quickly, gone. Not a bad way to go. We were sad to hear about his death as he was a fantastic fellow. Sneaky had already gone on before him so now our kitties' parents are gone. We are just glad they had one litter together because of what great cats they produced.

We also saw Rosie whom we both love. She is now 17 years old and is taking Running Start classes at Whatcom Community College. Soon she will have her AA degree and graduate from high school at the same time. It was wonderful to see her again.