FORGETTING WHERE I LIVE

FORGETTING WHERE I LIVE

Here is a personal reading of my place in this hemisphere today. Only three more sleeps in our home. Technically it is still ours but it doesn’t feel that way. Yesterday Christine and I signed all the required documentation for the legal transfer of this family home of twenty years as well as for the purchase of the new accommodation we will call ours soon enough. Nothing will be the same, and that is both beneficial and disquieting. It is intentionally beneficial as a matter of choice to make the investment in this property work for us, to unload the responsibility and work of maintenance and to gain a measure of freedom to lock up and to travel. It is involuntarily disquieting as a natural outcome of leaving a quarter acre lot with a spacious building that has been home to children through university and for their spouses and children as years sped past. It has appealed emotionally to us for its attractiveness outside and inside and for the inviting interior design that permitted us to host large gatherings of people for numerous occasions. Perhaps the disquiet factor is dominant over benefit presently because of what this change in our lives signifies. Twenty-one years ago we moved from Ontario to a new province, a new job, a new life opportunity and new dreams. We purchased a dream home and filled it with the enduring quality furniture of our choice. Today, all of that furniture has either been sold or given away and what remains is in boxes that will be carried into either our new place or our storage locker. We will acquire new furniture of course but we will never again have the same attachment to it as we had earlier. Life has changed. We have changed. This move, while it is wise, is necessitated by our years, almost seven decades of them. We are following an obligatory human life-cycle curve. Christine and I think about this. Yet, we are choosing to regard the adjustments and the move itself as a grand prospect. We will be opportunistic. On Christine’s bucket list is short-term mission service and we are considering Mozambique among other options. We will do what we can to be healthy. I have dropped 28 lbs. and I am going for 51 by July. I walk or run several miles each day. We will continue to invest love and time into our five grandchildren. We will spend time enjoying one another, savouring refined cuisine in our own kitchen or with friends, reading and writing and playing or listening to fine music, or sun-soaking at the beach, painting and loving life. Since God our creator and keeper has been integral throughout our lives, He is coming with us into our new home and there is profound security in knowing this. I believe this move is a good thing. Good bye wonderful home.

MY HALF PRICE SALE - SO SO!

Well that was fun. An enjoyable window on a Sunday afternoon. I scheduled three hours for a half price sale of my original paintings. In spite of the fact that I made a nuisance of myself by repeatedly sending sale reminders to friends and acquaintances, a few people showed up and purchased. Upon reflection perhaps it was because I made a nuisance of myself that only a few people showed up. I consoled myself with warmth of the sunshine outside and the conversations with people and the income. Here are some of those paintings acquired today.

Between the Rows

Merlot Blues

Shiraz for Harvest

 

Beach Bikes

And now, I have reboxed the paintings that I will take to our new abode when we move on Friday, and several of the other paintings that didn't sell I will give away. I will take today to Penny Pinchers, that take whatever you given them, resell it and the proceeds go to the Langley Hospital. These paintings and several others are donated. Now if you want them, you might pay $2 instead of what I was asking. 

Penny Pincher

Phone :

(604) 530-3232

Address :

20211 56 Ave, Langley, BC V3A3Y6

La Boheme in Montmartre

Montmartre Sidewalk Cafes

RON UNRUH'S GOING AWAY 1/2 PRICE ORIGINAL ART SALE

Between the Rows  oil 8X10  
$325 framed; $250 unframed 51% $160/125

Welcome to Ron’s ½ Price Going Away Sale Art Show,

Sunday afternoon, March 25, 2012, 

2:00 - 5:00 PM 

5767 185 St., Surrey

“It’s Time to Move Them.”

Christine and I are leaving our heritage home. My paintings must also find new homes. To encourage this, I have reduced my prices for three hours this Sunday. With the exception of a few paintings, prices are reduced by 50%. I would love to know that one of my works is hanging on your wall. I invite you to come to look around. Purchases will be by cash or cheque. A list of 22 painting titles, dimensions and prices follows. 

 

Many of the paintings are on my website. An unframed piece can be fitted with a frame. My gallery frame is a dark espresso with a white liner. Allow ten days. Frames 11X14 or less = $75; frames larger than that = $100 to $150.

Paintings                                          Unframed Size             Framed            Unframed        Sale    

Bicycle Motif

1.       Beach Bikes       oil                                 11X14               $325                 $250     51%     $160/125

2.       Between the Rows     oil                          8X10                $325                 $250     51%     $160/125

3.       Bicycle at the Beach         oil                  16X20               $400                 $300     50%     $200/150

Agricultural and Coastal

4.       Window Pots      acrylic & oil                 16X20                                       $200     50%     $100

5.       Raspberry Workers          acrylic           11X14               $275                 $200     51%     $135/100

6.       Blueberry Workers          acrylic           11X14                $275                 $200     51%     $135/100

7.       Marsh to Crescent Beach Marina        9X12                 $125                  $70      50%     $ 35     

8.       Blackie Spit Marsh  (acrylic  study)       9.5X13               $125                 $70       50%     $ 35     

9.       Beaver Dam                      acrylic           8X11                 $250                 $175     50%     $125/85

International

10.   Mary’s Child                     oil                16X20               $250                 $150     50%     $125/75

11.   Baynac and Castlenaud, Dordogne      11X14               $225                 $150     51%     $145/75

12.   Morning Coffee – Guernsey Island     16X20               $400                 $300     50%     $200/150

13.   La Boheme in Montmartre    oil         11X14               $175                  $100      51%     $120/50

14.   Begging Mother in Arles   oil              20X24               $600                 $500     20%     $480/400

15.   Montmartre Sidewalk Cafes acr&oil    11X14               $175                 $100     51%     $120/50

Vineyard Motif

16.   Translucent Sauvignon Blanc   oil        11X14               $500                 $450     10%     $450/400

17.   Merlot Blues                    oil                11X14               $400                 $350     10%     $360/315

18.   Grapes on the Vine           acrylic         20X24               $600                 $500     20%     $480/400

19.   Taste of Autumn               oil                18X24               $700                 $600     10%     $630/540

20.   Cab Sauvignon Colour      oil              11X14                $400                 $300     10%     $360/315

21.   Shiraz for Harvest             oil               16X20               $500                 $400     20%     $400/300

22.   Naramata Vineyards         oil                 8X11               $225                 $150     51%     $110/75

ICE CREAM CONE DAY CAME

We had a family gathering. All eleven of us stood around the kitchen island with cones and scoop and tubs of ice cream and frozen yogurt and dipped to our hearts' content, with sprinkles on top. Christine asked the grandchildren whether they knew why we do this and Ryan popped up with, "Because it's a tradition." That it is. We are remembering Grandpa Edward's Birthday. Sadly, he saw only one of his grandchildren, Kailyn when she was a baby. But neither he and mom or our children with their children were able to travel from either BC or ON during those last years. But the children all sang heartily a Happy Birthday tribute and here it is.

ICE CREAM CONE DAY IS COMING SOON

The Unruhs and extended families that enjoy a connection with my Mother and Father, Tina and Edward Unruh, see March 8^th as a special day each year. It is treated as ICE CREAM CONE DAY.  It is also the date that commemorates my father’s birthday and recalls that he is gone now. He passed away in 2008 at the age of 93. He would be 97 today. 93 years was long enough for Dad however because Mom died six months earlier. Back in 2008 on the day we said goodbye to Dad, we all understood that we have lost two very special people in a brief period of time, yet we celebrated. I should explain that.

My father loved ice cream. Throughout our years as children and young adults and adults with children of our own, his suggestions punctuated our visits with delight. “'Let's stop here and see if they have some ice cream," or "Do you care for an ice cream cone?” “I think I would like a cone.” So, on the day of his funeral we paid the appropriate tributes and said our appreciative goodbyes to a wonderful father and grandfather, and then I credit my brother Murray and his wife Dianne with this lovely highlight of that day. They brought out ice cream scoops and ice cream tubs and cones, and we ate ice cream in memory of dad.

Each year now, on this date, in homes in British Columbia and Ontario where Dad’s descendents gather, we treat ourselves to an ICE CREAM CONE EXTRAVAGANZA. Grandpa Unruh was an established ice cream lover. One small cone always tasted like one more to him and if we were with him, that became the biggest treat - a gigantic splurge of pleasure. Having more than one cone today is playing by Grandpa's rules as my daughter put it.