Winter Foraging

The big guy on the left brought along two younger lads to nibble at the high bush cranberries that grow along the stream..

Always alert to movement in the house, especially rusty pup barks.

Females heading for the wild rose bush that they like to nibble on.

Hoping to find a forgotten and by now frozen runner bean.

Surfaces

A favourite of mine...not composed I promise...just as it was.
Here's a description of Miksang that I found on the web.  So much better than my feeble attempt at describing it.


Miksang, at its most basic level, is concerned with uncovering the truth of pure perception. We see something vivid and penetrating, and in that moment we can express our perception without making anything up—nothing added, nothing missing. Totally honest about what we see—straight shooting. 

Doors carved in Thailand....so much more than the doors in my home.

A wall with hundreds of repair scars and obviously in need of more.

Rust glow.

Markings.

Thinking that's enough man made things for now...back to stitching and nature!

Shapely Rounds

Balancing act...

Carvings in wood and clay...

Erosion on the pier...

Well rounded.
Just a few more photos from about town...
Now I'm back to preparing my scraps for Jude's boro class that starts tomorrow.

Ode to Rust

When I took a Miksang photography course, 
the last thing I expected was to be told "no nature photographs".
We were sent into town and had to find inspiration among the bricks and mortar of civilization.
Started off wondering if I would learn anything in an environment I wasn't interested in.

What I learned was not to be so close minded and just look.
Walk down main street and simply look for one design element such as line or texture.
When focussing on one element, it starts jumping out at you from every nook and cranny.

The process was to walk, look, and observe my reactions to what I was seeing....
Stop when something caught my eye....
and consider what exactly I had reacted to.

Then click away without trying to create a composition.....
....That was difficult.
Being a rustaholic I photographed all the rust in town.
But I did find other bits and pieces ....... more to come.

Trees in a Blue Snowy World

Stitching continues....nearly done.

It is about 20" x 18".

Perhaps it should be called "Three January Days".

The gathering of trees beneath and beyond the moons are the focus of this particular story....

Think I have managed to integrate the stream that runs through my woods.

Bringing the rocky ground in has been a problem... appliqué rocks made it look too busy...

The simple outlined rocks are perhaps not important enough!

The potted root-bound tree bottom left is my least favourite part....a week attempt at demonstrating how we humans try to control everything.

The bluest piece I've ever done.

Photographing yesterday's snowstorm reminded me how colourless the woods are when winter strikes.

Couldn't resist finding out what the real world and my world look like combined.
Reminds me of Tolle's words
"In the forest, there is an incomprehensible order that to the mind looks like chaos.
It is beyond the mental categories of good and bad.
You cannot understand it through thought, but you can sense it when you let go of thought, 
become still and alert,
and don't try to understand or explain.
Only then can you be aware of the sacredness of the forest."

A Snow Day

Thick flakes of snow drifting down upon us...

Thick sticky snow that clings to everything...

Birds won't come to the feeder in a snowstorm.....
They need to eat .... they loose a huge percentage of their body weight during cold winter nights.
If you look carefully you can see that not one of my cranberries has been eaten...
But they do love my peanut butter and fat balls....

It might look like not a critter is stirring....
We know for sure the mice at least are busy creating a network of highways under the snow...
We will see the evidence when spring melts the snow.

A Blue, Blue World

I've been working beyond the moon.....

Bringing stars into the vast deep blue universe...

While beneath the moon and above the trees, snow and rain fall.

And there are ghosts of trees at the back of this piece too. Love messy backs!
The skies are done.
Now on to Terra firma beneath the trees.
I hope the story there unfolds with the same energy and clarity.