Where the Birds Gather

Birds gather in our berry laden bush.

They wait there because the bird feeder is very close by.

the Blue Jays are bold and noisy.

Cardinals are timid.... 

....but patient.

When the coast is clear

they dart towards the feeder.

The Junko family is always hopping beneath for fallen seeds.

Scratching a New Year

I have decided to continue 

recording my days in stitch.

and as it snowed Mark's Donna celebrated a birthday.

We have had the most snow

 and

 the lowest temperatures since moving to the Maritimes.

This year I am going raw edged again.

This year I am going to add smaller bits and pieces

of cloth to a base rather than the long strips used in the past.

This year the stitches might flow from one day to the next.

Every evening after dinner I will sit down and scratch away!

A Wintry End of the Year

It has snowed

and snowed

and snowed.

And now it is the last day of 2013

It has been a good year.

Fourteen Days of Christmas

It's been a quiet Christmas

Just the two of us

Brett couldn't get time off work

So

all the kids decided to come in January

and have a family Christmas then

Good thing

the ice storm and snow 

have wrecked lots of travel plans

A star for Christmas Day

For the last few days of the year

I think I will finish up thready odds and ends.

I do like that higgledy-piggledy darning in the middle.

I should explore that further.

Stitching Row upon Row

Snuggling up in front of the fire

stitching

stitching

stitching

A pebbly shore

of row upon row of loosey goosey stitches.

and a flowing ocean

of layers of stitch.

The Colours Before a Winter Storm

Driving up the valley

past clusters of homesteads

protected from the Bay of Fundy

by the North Mountain

The highway takes a sweeping bend

where we pass my favourite sight

of trees leaning in towards the road.

I always look forward to seeing them no matter what the season.

Then there are beautiful copses of trees....

and row upon row of neat little apple trees.

Another thing I love is the sight of stubble breaking through white snow.

The colours are so gentle at this time of year

yet the weather can be so harsh.

Pale blues. soft greys, beige and white and

perhaps an occasional bright red front door to catch the eye.

Let's Scratch Winter!

A snow week

Our song birds disappeared in the Spring

with the arrival of the falcons.

This week the cardinals finally came back to the feeders.

I'm a happy camper.

We travelled up the valley past fields of snowbound stubble.

Snow devils flew snow up into the air

and it snowed

and snowed

and snowed!

Old Man Winter must think it is January or February.

It's freezing.