Monday 30 April 2012

The length of Four Months of Daily Scratchings


A week of storms and the return of cold
but the forsythia still shines brightly in her yellowness
Loose Threads had a day together
And the pheasant strutted through the garden.


Daily scratchings are now about 8 feet long
Long enough to climb up a mighty rock...


...ramble across crusty lichen...


...and make its way...


...down the other side.
I just thought...
if its  8 feet now...
it will be 24 feet by the end of the year.
Woops.
Perhaps I should make 3 sections that button together!

Thursday 26 April 2012

Dressed for dining at The Feeder


Here he comes


All dressed up for dinner


They dined together


Just look at those markings


Perhaps a face only a mother could love
Does he ever blink?

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Fallen Trees and Forgotten Bundles


Windfall 


Black Birch perhaps
but
Handy Hubby thought
I was barking up the wrong tree
Ha!


Yams maybe?
....but no....
forgotten bundles from two weeks back
patiently waiting the unbundling ceremony.


Unbundled 
A shadow of a maple leaf
and hazy purple blobs from Rudbeckia left drying all winter.


Striped gentle browns.

Tuesday 24 April 2012

A Mess of Yellow


Springtime yellow
cheerful and uplifting


Yellow stimulates memory
and boy do I need that!


My yellow duckies cheer up any wet and rainy Springtime day


Yellow brings clarity
even to my mess of tangled thread?


Stitching on yellow cloth
made me use bright happy colours

Monday 23 April 2012

That Was The Week That Was


Tuesday baskets
for the Mi'kmaq basket I came home with


Wednesday's eagles.
Driving across the province to hear Lynne Edwards talk
we followed the LaHave river.
I said we hadn't seen any eagles
because we always do...
and ..... poof
there were three eagles soaring above us!


Friday's SAQA show opening
meant a drive to Halifax.
Our drive looks rooty because the show is called
Rooted


On Sunday Val Hearder
brought Lynne over for a visit between workshops.
We laughed and reminisced and of course visited Frenchy's.
Frenchy's is one of Nova Scotia's best kept secrets!
The blue scratchings are my attempt at
depicting cathedral windows
that Lynne is famous for.


So that was the week that was!
Oh, and the rusty scraps stitched down with running stitch
was the day of our local quilt guild meeting
and a great meeting it was too.


Thursday 19 April 2012

Standing Side by Side


Copper Birch I presume
with a skinny companion growing tall close by


Sharing common ground


Side by side patterning
There is a stitching somewhere in these barks


None of us can create pattern like Mother Nature


The naked middle parts of trees is fascinating me at the moment.


I've always loved where they meet the sky 

Wednesday 18 April 2012

After an evening of Music and Art and Theatre


We have the bestest community art centre
Last night Chief Greg McKewan
demonstrated how the Mi'kmaq harvest ash trees
and weave their baskets.


I had to come home with one
and will obviously have to keep it out of reach of
nosy Rusty Pups!


The ash tree is a slow grower.
He has to find just the right tree
that has grown straight and tall.
It is amazing how he hits and bends long sections of the trunk
and makes it split into the thin strips they use.
Greg has made baskets for the queen
and other leaders from around the world.


Right now my basket holds a CD of Caleb Miles folk music.
But the basket is a good contender for holding daily scratchings with it gets bigger!
Caleb also entertained us last night.
He started off in Albuquerque and now we're lucky to have him here.

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Couples are Gathering at the Pond


The happy couple
were here for a long time yesterday morn
The rusty pups had to keep their legs crossed!
To our surprise Henrietta on the right wandered off into the trees


Handsome Harry caught an enormous fish
Didn't know we had anything that big in our pond!


 Then Henrietta wandered back down the other side of the stream
(by the way I have no idea which is which!)


With all our attention on the herons
we didn't even notice there were two more pond paddlers.
We've tried to discourage this pair
we worry about their safety
but they come several times a day.
Yesterday they bravely tried to keep the Rusty Pups at bay.
I'm worried they're going to nest here.


The trees above the pond in the hazy morning light.


Good morning.

Monday 16 April 2012

Scratching Thoughts


Decided to record that the dye pots had been busy all week
Don't you love the bundles about to drop in!
My favourite scratching so far.


Then we had to celebrate Handsome Harry's mate
Hope you can tell which is which
She has painted her toenails.
You can see from the pin holes that 
I started off giving her Minnie Mouse red shoes
but they just weren't her!
She's followed by the ugliest scratching so far
way too orderly.


Getting ideas wherever I go


Rows of satin stitch surrounded by a mass of cross stitches?


Have a nice day
Just had a worrying time with Picassa
something got corrupted
Handy Hubby worked hard
Hope all is well

Friday 13 April 2012

Pond Paddlers


Great excitement around the pond....
Handsome Harry has a mate or at least a date.
One of them fished as the other sat high atop a spruce
on rusty pup watch.
Let's hope Henrietta approved of our fishing ground
and that they will nest in a tall, tall spruce nearby.


Meanwhile the alders are dangling rusty catkins
that dance in the breeze.


Pleeeeeeeeeese throw the ball
from the obsessed Shandy RP


The Kayla RP finds dried wood much more interesting than balls


but chewing is so exhausting!


After chasing ball
Shandy RP decides to catch her breath
and some rays!