Fishing Around the Fundy Shore

A small lighthouse stands above a tiny fishing port that is home to about five boats...

 

It's low tide.  All the lobster boats are out.  They can't get back into port until the next high tide....

I am fascinated by the old, decaying wooden walls of this tiny harbour...

 

We come here to walk this rocky beach...

 

And perhaps find art supplies.

Scrappy Wrapping

A messy worker am I.  Usually end up surrounded by discarded scraps of cloth and thread.

When the scraps get too distracting, I gather them up and store them in glass bowls, jars, flowerpots...

When my fingers need something to do, I wrap them around a core of string one scrap or bundle of thread at a time...

Perhaps some rusty bits and pieces could be used as frames or borders.

Stitch Scratchings

Men would choose to use this background cloth as a car polishing rag.

That's where I found it, in the automotive section of a hardware store....

But I chose to dye it and cover it with women...

 

Of all shapes and sizes........

Don't know why my women seem to be grey haired or red heads so far.

And the Sun Keeps on Rising Every Day

Do you remember last week's red sky in the morning?

 I wondered if it was an omen for snow Saturday.

 Well it DID snow on Saturday.

 And what is more a friend and I were on the highway.

 She had taken her car to have snow tires put on the day before;

but the garage broke a lugnut and so the job wasn't done.

 We were tootling along in a line of traffic when all of a sudden the car decided to play ice hockey.

 We slid and skated into the other lane and back again for what seemed like ages.

Then the car had had enough and decided to race off the road.

 My poor friend seemed very calm on the outside but her hands were trembling.

 She had done a marvelous job getting us out of the way of oncoming traffic.

Wonderful people stopped and helped me push the car back onto the highway.

 We sat by the side of the road for a while.

 When we got going again, it wasn't long before we came across police and ambulances helping people who had not been as lucky as us.

Earth Coverings

The rusty pups disappeared into the woods for what seemed like an eternity. They just wouldn't come back to my whistles or name calling. When they finally bounced back through the woods they were as joyful and innocent as could be. Then they realized I was worried and decided to sit down at my feet (one of them is on my foot!) and spend some quiet time with me. The mossy ground beneath them reminded me of....

 

this piece of stitching that was meant to be part of something larger; but ended up not belonging.  It obviously wants to tell a story of it's own....

Perhaps it is a grassy ground covered in twigs.....

Or perhaps a moss-covered rock. No matter what is decides to be, it will involve many more stitches.

Tree Triangles

Seven days of stitching five hours a day and I've made my contribution to the Art Society's centrepiece fundraiser. Fifteen of those hours it took to create the base fabric. Speed was essential, so reverted back to machine work. But as the week progressed I wondered if I was in fact being protective of my hand stitching. Not prepared to expose it to the pressure I was feeling...and still am feeling! Hope someone falls in love with this 20" high red and glittery spruce!

Then some tree triangles from a while back caught my eye...

And they calmed me down again!

Critter Activity

Do you remember my wrapped birch branch that I have wedged in the old apple tree?....

I have to give a talk at our local art society in December; was planning to take the branch along to talk about natural dyeing......

But I will have to talk about distressing fabric. There is not a speck of colour.... the critters have ripped it to shreds...

And remember that fungus growing through the wrapping? It has nearly detached itself from what is left of the wrapping.

Mark Berens at The One of a Kind Show

Mark Berens is an amazing landscape artist...and he's my son!

He loves the rugged and watery parts of Canada....

and his love of that landscape shows in his paintings...

If you live in Ontario, you know all about "The One of a Kind" show at The Ex from November 25th to December 5th. Do go and visit Mark at his booth number J-4 and tell him his mother says "hi". I haven't seen him for ages!

Fidgety Hairy Woodpecker

The hairy woodpecker in search of breakfast will try anywhere.....

and find delicious things even on the squirrel box......

and if he'd like, the squirrel box has seeds on the roof....

But he didn't fancy seeds and went off hopping, and fidgeting and pecking elsewhere.  Apologies for the quality, he was constantly moving and pecking.  Some photos ended up with just tree trunks because he hopped round the back of the tree before the shutter clicked.

When Skies are Red

Red Sky in the Morning....

Shepherd's warning....

A friend in town has people coming to stay this weekend and apparently every time they come we get a snowstorm....

It's too early for me, let's hope today's warning is not for snow.

Seed Protection

Amazing piece of engineering to house tiny poppy seeds....

Hairy shields Keep things or critters away from stacked disc-shaped seeds within.....

Safety in numbers...Wonder how many seeds were stacked in each tube....

Seeds have worked their way underground in the Rooted cloth.