Morning Walks as Winter Approaches

 

Rusty Pup Ginger

Ginger has turned out to be the mischievous one

Hole digger

Hunter

Excitable

Constant tail wagger

Loud barker

Overwhelming greeter of visitors

Our morning walks are getting colder and colder

I don't like winters

The Rusty Pups love them of course.

Rusty Pup Brandy has turned out to be the quieter one

Though she will follow her sister into any mischief

She just loves being with you

and often stays inside lying at my feet

instead of joining her sister hunting or digging outside

Mushrooms and fungi are a mystery to me

I have friends who hunt them down

who study them

who know which ones are edible or poisonous

I just think they are beautiful.

Some look like they have been baked

like an angel cake!

Others dance with Fall leaves

Some are iconic

Others can be mistaken for the strangest things

This one made me think of air raid wardens helmets

from WI or II comedies

"Dad's Army" anyone?

That is how my mind wanders as we walk the woods!

I hope your walk is a meditation today.

Messy Beginnings

Beginnings for me are always a messy business

Boxes are rummaged through

for every potential colour and texture

and there are soooo many!

Fabrics and threads end up piled onto every flat surface

After all any change in colour or texture

affects the whole story.

I am not too precious about my fabrics

Always prepared to cut into them

well....that's a bit of a lie

There are some precious ones!

Friends interrupted my beautiful mess

They came around for a day of discharging

Had to tidy up as best I could

Piled everything on the floor beneath the design wall

'Creativity is not a pretty sight"

When I make a decision to get started

As you can see my starts are usually nothing

like my initial play on the design wall!

Just stitch and the story will start unfolding

But I have to go through that messy initial auditioning.

It's simply how it works for me.

I started by stitching messy shrubs along the water's edge

Didn't like that

Too literal

So then covered the shrubbery in a mass of tree debris.

This is a piece about the Canada that I love

The tangled backwoods

interrupted by hundreds of thousands of lakes and rocks.

Rocks

Lakes

Trees

Where wildlife can flourish if we don't mess things up.

 

Early Morning Inspiration

The best start to my days

Early morning walks with Rusty Pups

Always something new to inspire.

On a dewy morning

Spiderwebs billowed in the breeze

throughout the meadow.

Walking with inquisitive pups can be a problem

When one shows an interest in something

Of course the pups want to know all about it

and so

Apologies to any siders who lost their webs.

I reckon some spiders were still working on their skills!

Some were huge and perfectly crafted.

Some were kinda baggy.

Mist was still lingering over the Basin.

 A new day

A new beginning

When Trees Topple

After many months of avoiding it

 the pups and I walked what I used to call the 'Advanced Trail'. 

 After this latest walk I am renaming it the "Ankle Breaker".

We clambered over rock after rock

over moss covered roots

 and through muddy streams.

Every time we turned a corner we discovered a newly uprooted tree

So many trees toppled by wind and rain.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, 

but in having new eyes." 

 Marcel Proust

Every morning the Rusty Pups and I walk familiar trails

through meadows and woods

along an ancient railway line only identifiable because of their straightness!

through marshlands

Over streams

and over oh, so many rocks!

Every morning there is something new that shouts out to be noticed.

Through changing seasons and weather systems

there is always something new to discover.

Today it seems what we are called to notice is roots!

Mighty trees still manage to grow on ground that looks like this!

Amazing!

Root systems towered above us.

Lovely Messiness!

I hope you found something new on your walk today

or as Marcel Proust might say

 on your daily voyage of discovery!

Inspiration for Some New Beginnings Perhaps

I am finding the landscape the Beavers have left behind fascinating

Sometimes the Rusty Pups and I

visit the old Beaver territory on our morning walks

Because they are no longer here to maintain their dams

the water had receded

Revealing chewed off stubs of trees and bushes

Jutting up and out at every angle

I love the randomness

Back at home this Groundhog boldly

walked across the front of the house

right under excited Rusty Pups watching his every move 

from the safety of the kitchen window.

Apologies for the photo

it took me ages to find the camera and so got his backside!

Exhausted mighty beaver hunters

and groundhog observers!

New beginnings don't happen suddenly for me

I have to absorb and ponder

and understand 

before I can decide what story I want to stitch

but there is a point, as Meister Eckhart says,

when I do dive in and trust the magic

of new beginnings.

And suddenly you know:

it's time to start something new

and trust the magic 

of new beginnings

Meister Eckhart

Love Getting Started on New Work

Starting new work

Pinning bits and pieces

Here and there.

Sitting down to ponder on how I feel about these combinations

A book of Egon Schiele landscapes catches my eye

I pick it up

It opens to a painting Autumn Tree in Turbulent Air

Which takes me back a few years to a walk in the woods

When I came across an uprooted tree lying across my path

It's roots swirled and curled six feet into the air

A rock still held tightly within their grasp

At about eye level.

Amazing

Exciting

Synchronicity

And so the story begins

The strip of fabric on the right

is silk velvet

with the texture of tree bark

I started by rusching it onto a pre-felt base

Treated it very badly in the washer and dryer.

Once dried I unstitched the rippled velvet

from the pre-felt

and....

....voila!

Lots of work but worth it in my opinion

Meanwhile out on the dykes

our morning walks have been pretty dramatic

Not that the sunrise is of any interest to the Rusty Pups

They prefer to have their nose to the ground

Or look into the distance wondering how far we will go today!

 I hope your new beginnings are exciting to you too.

Marking Virgin Snow

It might not look like it but the RP's and I are the first ones here!

It has always astonished me how much one car, one human

and two Rusty Pups can disturb the ground they move upon.

One of the joys of early morning walks on virgin snow

is the visual proof of who has been there before me.

The Rusty Pups know all year long

with their noses to the ground.

rabbits live here

squirrels live here

A tiny jumper of some sort?

Bobcats live here

Mice headed for shelter before we got here.

If one takes too long to get a shot of new footprints

Rusty Pups come rushing over to help

and of course destroy any chance of a photo!

Wherever one goes....

 ....the other is bound to follow.

And finally remembering

the Beaver footprints from last year.

Huge aren't they!

Knowing that these creatures share this land with us

fills my soul with joy.

I hope you have a joy filled day.

Manitoulin Memory

Looking towards Killarney from Manitoulin Island

Spirit Island

Judy Martin's home

Judy's inspiration

Photo by Miranda Bouchard

For years and years Judy and have visited each other

stitching

sharing

supporting

dreaming

discussing

critiquing

sometimes friends joined us too

This time Miranda Bouchard joined us.

We are happy Miranda is curating our next show

I believe we are all finding this intergenerational collaboration very rewarding.

Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for funding Miranda in this curatorial project.

Top Judy's work in progress Bottom Penny's Whispering Cairn

 We viewed pieces together

sharing thoughts and insights

It is a special friendship

when you feel comfortable

giving honest critique and receiving it.

Thank you for that gift

Left Penny's Stone Islands  Right Judy's Dark Side of the Sun

Sometimes we turned things around

Sometimes we turned things upside down

Sometimes we got the scissors out and took things apart

Left Penny's Work in Progress Right Judy's Work in Progress

Judy and I are very similar but oh so different too.

For this show...

Judy aims at inspiring people to gaze skyward

at it's enormity 

but also to find that immensity in ourselves too.

My goal is to inspire us to observe the places we live in

to recognize how we are in nature

and how nature can fill the immensity that is us.

Judy's Work in Progress

We reach out

We touch

We are textile artists after all

Touch is everything