Dragonfly

He didn't fool me hiding among my weeds!

Always Allow Time for Percolating

Finally back in the studio....Feels good.

For me working in the studio is like life itself 

or at least the ebb and flow of the oceans that surround me.

I work in great bursts of energy followed by

periods of slow percolation and reflection

and then the energy returns.

The rusty gate has been percolating for a while!

The design was not working for me.

Some weight was surely needed along the bottom of the piece.

All it needed was a thin strip of rust....wrong!

Luckily I pinned a wide strip in place expecting to cut it back later.

But,

viewing it from a distance,

it occurred to me the width of that strip was perfect.

Now the piece looked balanced.

And the few random echoes of the more precise shapes above play an important role

I think.

Parts of the clover leaf spirals were lost in the new seam.

The eye will want to follow that curve.

Some kind of stitching will do the trick.

There are echoes of triangles that need to be developed.

I see many hours of stitching in the near future!

A Busy Week

It's been a busy week of visitors and surprises.

Elizabeth and Stan arrived from Ontario.

How many of you have had the bagpipes played outside your studio?!

The sound of pipers always touches my very soul.

I knew they had connections to this part of the country,

but as it turns out

Stan's great, great grandfather is buried

in the old cemetery that overlooks the dyke of our daily walks! 

Not a stitch has been stitched

but wonderful memories of time with family and friends

have been etched into our hearts and memories.

Watching Seals Watching Us

Brett and I drove up the coast

past beautiful bevies of cows!

We were heading to...

...watch seals basking on low tide rocks.

There were lots of young ones with their
mothers patrolling between us and their babes.

She came closer to get a better look at us and the rusty pups....

trying to work out if we were friend of foe.

Watching Whales

Some were lucky enough to go whale watching...

I had to stay home because of a commitment.

They got home disappointed there had been no breaching.

The whales were too busy eating.

But it seems to me they were greeted with friendly waves.

Surrounded by mothers and daughters...

and pretty close encounters.

And of course good-bye tails.

They had a simply gorgeous day for a trip out to sea.

A Fundy Walk

The rusty pups, Brett and I walked a Fundy Trail.

Because I can't bring it home, I often photograph driftwood and flotsam and Jetsam.

Do you see the deer's head?

I wasn't the only one taking pictures.

Not exactly Niagara falls or Iguazu falls

but a stream emptying out into the Bay.

Mushrooming

Like helmeted soldiers they pop up to about 4".

Then their helmets become crumb littered tables.

Finally the tabletop gets too top heavy...

legs start buckling

and tabletop tips and splits.

Other mushrooms make your mouth water

looking like honeycomb sugar candy underneath.

Summertime Visit

The young man that this little chap grew into

is arriving by plane today for a bit of family time.

Spiralling in Time

Things in nature often spiral into being.

How long does it take a shell to grow beneath the waves?

Fossilized ammonites have lasted how many millions of years?

Stitching a spiral takes but a minute or two.

If life is a spiral, my question is... does the spiral speed up the older we grow?

It amazes me that as I age time seems to rush by faster and faster.

I expected it to slow down......not so.

I spent the whole of Tuesday thinking it was still Monday!

The Hunter overhead

The eagle soaring overhead fills me with awe every time.

He`s up there in a clear blue sky hunting for his dinner

and hopefully he has a family to feed back at the aerie.

Thank goodness the rusty pups are too big for him now...at least I think so.

Crow Fully Dressed

Crow's final stitch was done

and then he hung on the design wall

while I pondered how the edges should be finished.

Traditional and not so traditional quilt binding just didn't seem right.

Raw edges was the only way to go.

By the way, the stitched white strip on the right is the back of another piece,

nothing to do with Crow!

The weight and drape of two layers of blanket with a thin

cotton sandwiched in between is very satisfying.

Handy Hubby simply can't understand why Crow's legs are not coloured black!

That's just how it has to be I say!

This piece will always be very meaningful to me.

It is the first time embroidery stitches

randomly cover the whole.

Not the precious precise embroideries of my childhood.

Nor the starched Linens for table tops or tray covers.

But free flowing imperfect stitches

that dance here and there

across an old wool blanket

dyed with pin cherry bark and tea bags.

Another Serving of Breakfast

Mourning Dove was the first to the table.

Then pigeon joined in.

A young female cardinal made a dainty landing.

She was back and forth all morning.

I'm wondering if she has youngsters in a nest across the stream.

Even rowdy blue jay youngsters would not deter her from picking yet another seed and flying back to who knows where. 

Even a very young fluffed up cardinal was bold enough to land

at the breakfast table.

Meanwhile a few feet away, Mrs. humming bird

sipped nectar at her own table.

Apologies for being fixated on birds at the moment!

I think it's because there are so many noisy young ones about.

Or perhaps I am trying to attain a simpler state

as in this Doug Coupland quote

"Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain."

Creating Together

Chris came from the South Shore to stay for a couple of days.

She worked on a couple of canvases.

She's leaving the province and moving back to Ontario.

I will miss her dearly.

There was a time we painted together every week

and we even wrote proposals on writing a book on creativity..

which was soundly rejected by the way!

I scraped...

and doodled..

and tried some stitching...

Might explore that some more over the winter.

Breakfast with a Cardinal

just landed on the breakfast table.

What's on the menu?

Anyone else around?

Think I'll make myself look bigger just to scare off those blue jays.

You watching me?