Around the Beaver Pond

When the cold came

Little islands of ice

started forming on the beaver pond.

Beaver sticks jutting up from the pond

the ice islands

and then the reflections in the water.

There is stitching inspiration here.

On my walk that morning I noticed

a new beaver highway.

It drops down into wateriness

and they obviously just slid down it.

A toboggan run!

 Above the toboggan run

was a mass of beaver footprints

They had been busy the night before.

And, yes, then I noticed all the chewed up alder

beside the path I was walking.

They did all that in one night.

They really have earned that expression

"as busy as a beaver'.

Out in the open on the driveway

rabbits hopped along beside a line of beaver prints.

Another beaver path going down to a burrow

that goes into the beaver pond.

You can see how worn it is.

Beaver footprints next to mine.

Big aren't they!

 A piece I called Beaver Moon.

 I am having so many beaver experiences this year

I think I should stitch a beaver series.

And just a few dots I am enjoying stitching at the moment.

I really need quiet for stitching.

Alone time.

Lately I have been busy like a beaver.

Hanging shows and going to openings.

Times like that I can't settle into stitch.

Too much left brain activity going on!

May you find time to quietly stitch today.

Mother Nature Deconstruction, Manmade and Woman-made

We lost two more trees

The winds have been wild

Tree hugging after the violence

So now we have three trees that look like this

Since then Winter has arrived

so those trees will be under the snow

until Spring allows us to move them.

This tree had carpenter ants and mice living in it.

We have been a construction site for a month.

The guys who installed our solar panels left a sea of mud behind.

We had to get someone else in to redo the drive!

Gee whizz.

Meanwhile at the other end of the driveway

all our culverts have been replaced

and the road resurfaced and widened for cyclists.

Handy Hubby had a whale of a time

marvelling at all the equipment and activity.

Sometimes I got caught on the wrong side of the road!

I can't show you what I've been working on for the last two weeks.

I am in Christmas mode!

But, since we've lost trees I thought I would show pictures

of some of my own tree inspired stitches.

This one being a detail of Woodpeckers Lived Here.

And from The Edge of the Woods.

And from A Stream Runs Through it.

I hope Winter warms up a bit.

It's only November for goodness sake!

Stitched in the Faded Greens of Fall

I returned to a piece once thought finished

Adding more stitches

Layering Textures.

Walking past feathery elephant grass
I realized how the greens around the marshlands
matched the greens I had been stitching that day.

 Walking around water's edge I noticed
Canada Geese still up here way past their fly south date.

 As I passed by
some ducks scooted away so fast they left a trail behind.

and some just drifted away.

Some carried on eating with bums in the air!

Surprisingly some just snoozed the afternoon away
resting before a long flight south.

After the wind and rain we have had this week
I wish I could hitch a ride with them!

Lately

Lately I have been walking up to the red barn

To look down at the new duck pond

slowly filling with water.

To look at the beauty of naked trees against the sky.

To find grey leaves still clinging to 

high bush blueberries.

 To wonder at the red abundance of nature's harvest this year.

And to fall in love

as I do every year

with the beautiful colours Maples bring us every Fall.

Perhaps this colour-filled time of year

is what drove me to make colourful marks.

Didn't last long

Back to my usual neutrals

Back to stones

Hmmm

Winter is coming

Snow squalls will be back soon.

Can't believe it's November already.

The Night-time Work of Wind and Beavers

The winds howled and buffeted us for two days and nights.

This morning we woke to this outside our bedroom window....

....and this outside my studio window.

Snapped

What has always amazed me over my years of living in the woods

how silently a tree snaps and falls.

You'd think it would be a loud dramatic event

but, unless we witness a break as it happens,

we are often oblivious until we discover it after the event.

 We were lucky this time.

Rather close to my studio.

The Beavers down on the marshlands also work the night shift.

The acreage they've flooded over the past few years is amazing.

They have a huge lodge that the Rusty Pups visited with glee

every time we walked by.

Over the years at least another four dams have appeared

strategically placed to increase the Beavers' domain.

Brilliant little engineers they are

though I can see that a human engineer has placed some kind of drainage

system presumably to stop the whole area becoming part of the Annapolis Basin again!

Meanwhile my design wall has layer upon layer of new beginnings.

I'm a messy worker!

I keep all the pieces I want to get started on pinned up there.

When a 'what if' moment occurs about one of them

I bring it to the front and work out solutions. 

I am liking the big swoosh of a mark

but not so much the circle shape on the bottom left.

Have a great day.

Guy Fawkes Day.

An important day in history for us Brits.