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!

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?

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.

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

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.

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 

After an evening of Music and Art and Theatre

We have the bestest community art centre

Last night Chief Greg McKewan

from Beartown Baskets

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.

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.

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

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!