Post 100!

Peter

Peter is a retired high school music teacher who turned his retirement into a full time exploration of his passion for art. Peter and I met at the Government Gardens, a place I spend a great deal of time wandering around in, and he spends a great deal of time painting. One of his paintings was presented as a gift from the city of Victoria to Dorothy Lam the wife of the Honourable David See-Chai Lam, one of this province's most beloved of the Lieutenant-Governors. He did amazing things for this province always with his wife at his side.

The Government Gardens are beautiful, free, and almost completely looked after by volunteers. Many of the gardens themselves have been donated by different people. The rose garden was donated by David Lam as a gift to the people of this province. Any of you living in British Columbia if you go to any of our major galleries you will find many of the paintings housed within the permanent collection were donated by David Lam and his wife. The man has been extraordinarily generous to this province.

One of the many gardens that you will wander past was donated and planted by Peter. He took a section of the land that had been neglected for many years and planted it all himself following the original plans of the garden that he found within the archives.

Peter is getting on in years and must be close to 90. He can no longer do the gardening that he once could. More to the point he should not be doing the gardening but he still does! Much to the chagrin of his wife. I remember passing by his house and Peter was up on a rickety old ladder doing something with the clematis growing amongst the tree branches with his wife down below yelling, "You old fool. Get down from there right now. Your son is on his way over, he can do it."

Peter's response, "Oh, what does he know he'll only screw it up!"

Peter is now suffering from arthritis and his hands shake uncontrollably. He has not allowed this to deter him from his painting. He has set up a kind of wooden structure that fits over his canvas that he can "lock" his painting hand under to try and reduce the shakes somewhat.

Of course his paintings reflect that he no longer has a steady hand and they are much more elementary with less precision and controlled technique than his earlier works but he is still always painting. He has to paint. It's a part of him.

Passion is something I admire and envy with an intensity I cannot possibly convey. Passion is something I have never fully felt for a sustained amount of time and I am completely in awe when I see it in others. Someday I hope to find my passion, that something that I must do in order to sustain life. The Peters of the world are definitely my inspiration and what I aspire to.

Peter's House

His garden which in a few week's time will be covered in lilies. After the lilies are done then he has a profusion of flowers in oranges and reds. Don't know what they are though.

This is part of the garden that he planted and donated to the Government Gardens. Again, it's spring and not really out just yet. It will go from being a field of purple and blues and then in the fall the pink lilies come out and he has planted them so they look like a river of pink flowing down. They are very beautiful. When the times comes I will definitely take a picture.