Another Bucket List Painting

 Milford Sound / Piopiotahi
watercolour and crayon

©2024 Charlene Brown

This sound, on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, is one of roughly 90 places to have been given a dual name as part a 1998 Treaty of Waitangi settlement recognizing the significance of the fiord to both Māori and non-indigenous (primarily European-descended) New Zealanders. This name consists of both the Māori and European names used together as a single name, instead of as interchangeable alternate names.

This view includes some of the same mountains (from almost the exact opposite direction) that were in the Streetview I painted  when the Virtual Paintout was in New Zealand 

North of Glenorchy, Otago
Watercolour, crayon and CP
©2011 Charlene Brown

South Pacific possibilities for the Bucket List chapter of my Paint Every Mountain book

Mount Otemanu

watercolour and crayon

©2024 Charlene Brown

This extinct volcano,  which rises to 727 metres, is the highest peak on Bora Bora, a small island northwest of Tahiti in French Polynesia.

I’d like to see some other mountainous islands in French Polynesia and I’ve found that most South Pacific cruises feature some combination of these and (conveniently) sail out of another Bucket List destination I'll talk about next week – New Zealand 

Also on my Bucket List is Easter Island. But this turns out to be one of those ‘can’t get there from here’ spots, and is described as one of the most isolated places in the world. 

It’s a long way from French Polynesia and in fact belongs to Chile. So now I’m trying to figure out how to combine it with places in Chile which are also on my Bucket List

Moai, Easter Island

watercolour and crayon

©2016 Charlene Brown

Springtime in the Rockies

Early crocus in the Bow Valley

watercolour and crayon

©2023 Charlene Brown

Although the crocus, and dozens of other bulbs are up and shrubs and trees are starting to blossom here in Victoria, this painting is not showing the current conditions at the Banff Springs Golf Course.

I painted it several weeks ago in the dead of winter simply because I needed some Springtime in the Rockies that day. In fact, crocus don’t usually get through the snow until late April, sometimes May, in Banff

Are we reaching a tipping point in global heating?

Alberta Wildfire
watercolour
©2023 Charlene Brown

The National Centers for Environmental Information in the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides environmental data, products, and services covering the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun.

NOAA Chief Scientist Dr. Sarah Kapnick said that the findings of their 2023 climate analysis were astounding. “Not only was 2023 the warmest year in NOAA’s 174-year climate record — it was the warmest by far.”

The impacts of climate change are happening here and now, like extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent and more severe. There were many extreme weather events in 2023, along with record-low sea ice coverage and catastrophic wildfires. In Canada, 45.7 million acres burned, 2.6 times the previous record.

One of the confounding factors making forecasting the future more difficult, which I wrote about three years ago is the phenomenon of tipping points.  These are actions of a complex system which has become unstable.

Are we reaching a tipping point in global heating?

Read Decimation doesn’t begin to describe what happened in Lytton. 

Or have we already tipped?