Happy Valentine's Day to All....

Happy Valentine's Day!

Especially to my Handy Hubby

Who I fell in love with when I was seventeen

My goodness that was well over half a century ago!

He is my knight in shining armour.

We have been swamped with snow

Kind of marooned

But Handy Hubby has come to the rescue and

snow-blowed trails for the Rusty Pups and me.

No ordinary trails mind you

He created a whole network of paths that criss cross all over the place!

Luckily the Rusty Pups find this just as exciting as a walk along the dyke.

They wait with bated breath for me to get dressed and join them.

We walk our trails every morning at the break of dawn.

My beautiful gentle Rusty Pup Brandy

Who stays close.....

.....Most of the time.

I know it's a bit blurry but I like it all the same!

And this is my Wild Child Rusty Pup, Ginger

Who thinks she is on a mission on every walk.

She walks with a purpose.

Today's mission took her across frozen pond

to see who had been through the woods last night.

Gentle Brandy would rather stay with me but keep an eye on her sister.

There is always cause for a celebratory romp when Ginger returns to the pack!

And after an hour of walking my perfect snowy trails

my fingers are frozen

Time for a nice warm coffee!

Hope your day is full of love!

Walking with Rusty Pups

After the rain or perhaps a morning fog

The colours become richer

The browns browner

the reds redder

I do love those browns

See two Rusty Pups?

Fast approaching

Galloping along

and here they are!

They do some pretty weird things

Like to carrying rocks

Whoever picks one up first carries it

Her sister doesn't try and grab it....not ever

but

as soon as it is dropped because something more interesting turns up

the other one will take her turn and carry it for a while.

 Wonder where they got their love of rocks from!

Well, they have always seen rocks disappear into my pockets.

I hope you find a beautiful rock today.

Time Passages

RP's Brandy and Ginger One Year Ago.... 

....and Today

Can you tell they have swapped sides!

and looking very serious too!

Mark the father 30+ years ago....

....and his daughter today

I suppose we all want to pass our passions down

to the next generation!

Can't say that fishing was ever a passion of mine

Handy Hubby and the boys

were always way more successful!

I hope your next generation is passionate about your loves!

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!

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.

Not so Blue About Blue Anymore

Had to go buy blue threads

Now I can continue working on my first all blue piece!

I have a problem

Don't like the two rectangles slap bang in the middle there

Need to decide how to eliminate them

That might take some time!

What I do love is the texture created by my couched stones.

There will be more stones

Surprise!

A crowd of stones

in a time of isolation

 Every isolated individual

forming a community.

Where will this piece lead me I wonder

There are several new blue ideas in my head

Hope your day is full of blue skies

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.