Dealing with Mother Nature

Three ladders required

Two to hold up a fallen tree leaning on wires

One for a crazy Handy Hubby to be an arborist

Phew….Finally sawed through after two afternoons of work

The top of the tree is stuck in the branches of its neighbour now!

But with the skill of an engineer’s brain

It is down

And the telephone still works!

No more climbing in ladders…please!

Way too old for this kind of caper.

Don’t try this at home!

Small Observations Walking With Rusty Pups

We walk before the Day Lillies awaken

We walk past tree stumps

reminding me of those years long ago

when people were talking about insects taking over the world!

Perhaps they will.

We walk past grasses arching gracefully 

from what used to be our veggie beds.

We've given up on veggies

now it is left to nature for the butterflies and bees.

And then of course

there is always the favourite huge stick of the day 

that has to accompany us around!

This hot sunshiny summer makes the stream 

a very inviting cooling spot for Rusty Pups

who often dive in and splash their way downstream

disrupting the quiet, still beauty of reflections!

To my surprise I discovered 

there are tiny rusty critters who live close to the stream!

Everything is attracted to our quieter Rusty Pup, Brandy!

Others like the horrible deerfly really bother her

But beautiful butterflies, not so much!

LET me go inside pleeeease.

Rusty Pup, Ginger, is not a fan of the heat

When we sit out on the front porch

She likes to go inside and lie under an open window.

Close enough to still feel part of the pack!

Sometimes the small observations of daily life

are the most important.

Bits and Pieces

 

April is coming to an end and yet still it snows

But loving the dots created by dripping trees as the day warms up

There is proof, however, that nature's critters 

know summer will soon be here.

One critter, Handy Hubby, 

had the foresight to build a shelf in case the robin's returned.

He thought they would prefer to use his shelf

A shelf is surely more comfortable than a hose

which we really need to use in the summer!

Hope you can see his very smart shelf!

For several days just a pile of straw sat on the hose

but several days later

a perfectly formed bowl appeared!

Looks like our Robins will bring us a new family.

I love my old Matriarch tree

She has been shrinking for seventeen years now.

Riddled with woodpecker holes

Not a scrap of bark left to protect her

Yet still she stands.

I really must stitch a piece about her.

My beautiful Rusty Pups and I love our break of dawn walks.

They always have to share treasures with me

 Treasures discovered in the woods....

....even rocks.

Sometimes they just wanna say hello

or show off the holes they have dug.

Our very messy front lawn is even messier nowadays!

I hope your walk inspires you today.

Tree lines Moving into the Backwoods Piece

 Been photographing tree lines

Hoping they will help with the Backwoods piece

currently in progress

Work has begun on the woods

No rocks in sight yet!

Tree lines are starting to appear

Stretching high above the shoreline log clutter

They will be paler

I am following the changing season

Cooler weather is here

The sun, she is moving southward

Time for the woods to sleep their Winter sleep

This is what I call the shoreline log clutter!

The backside

Never the wrong side

Usually the best side.

Perhaps we should all show the world our best side 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.

 

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!

Bending in the Wind

 Nearly there

And so happy to have taken the trouble to remove the messy wind of before!

When you look straight on you hardly notice the wind at all now.

But....

....moving around and looking at angles

the wind can be seen a shimmering there.

 A few leaves are dancing

all that's left.

The winds have been strong here these last few days

We lost a couple

Snapped off half way down

Contemplating whether to enter the woods

where trees are blown over

on windy days just like this

but

out in the meadow

 lean into the wind

or be blown to and fro

like rag dolls I fear.

 Back at the car it's sheltered thank goodness

And back home there's a couch for

pooped Rusty Pups 

to collapse on!

Feeling Unstitched

Since this all began

I've been stitching windy gusts around my windswept tree

happy to have work at the stage

when rhythmic stitched meditation can take over.

After a day's stitching

an important part of my process

is to pin the piece on a design wall

take a quick look and react.

Usually this means trying out bits and pieces of cloth or thread colour

and leaving them there overnight

to react to them first thing in the morning with fresh eyes.

On Monday night however

my immediate thought was

Oh, my goodness, I have to unstitch all that wind!

.....

I went to bed.

Next morning my reaction was just the same.

So I started unpicking.

How much unpicking you may ask

....well....

I started first thing Tuesday morning

Handy Hubby then decided he had to

vacuum all the rugs

and then

shampoo all the rugs.

He did that by lunchtime.

I unpicked for two days!

The Rusty Pups thought it was pretty boring.

I found it quite calming.

Once I have made a decision like that

I commit fully.

I should tell you why....

That Monday night

it hit me that my beautiful elegant tree

was being overwhelmed by those messy winds.

When I started the wind was an important part of the story

Now I am relegating it to background noise!

So today I will start calming the wind down

and feel secure in the knowledge that I have done the right thing.

Perhaps my windy stitching didn't work

because

for the past few weeks I should have been

with these two little monkeys

whom I haven't held in my arms for ages now.

Usually I get to visit them at least twice a year.

I wonder when I will see them next

in these days of uncertainty.

I know many of us are wondering the same thing.

Love my little honeybunches

See you on FaceTime tonight!