Scratching Out 2014

The last days of 2014

like the tides of time!

I've been stitching pebbles onto canvas

for a couple of paintings I have to do.

This year's Christmas Eve stocking is pinkish

in honour of Ashley Rose

who suddenly discovered she could string noises together

and converse with us over Face Time!

Brett arrived for a few days rest in our woods.

I always seem to do a Christmas Day star.

This one is dancing.

Some of my mother's paper piecing 

for this family time of the year.

Brett left after what must have been a very quiet week for a city boy!

And so another year of scratching comes to an end.

That is three years now.

The Night Before Christmas

I hope all your stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

Homeward Bound

Chugging back up the Basin

Coming home after a night's fishing.

Leaving their night's safe place

and on the lookout for breakfast

they paddled away from 

my dangerous Rusty Pups

diving intermittently as they went.

Mmmm....think I'll go home for my own breakfast.

Stitching Paths on Scraps Full of Memories

Is it not amazing

how a tiny scrap of forgotten cloth 

rediscovered

can evoke memories of times gone by.

So this week the scraps from the studio floor

had me thinking of times gone by

of stitches as footprints

of paths

sometimes running parallel

and sometimes crossing.

Rusty Pups

Our constant companions

Devoted to us as we are devoted to them

Exercisers

Feet warmers in the winter months

Face lickers

One Expert catcher of tennis balls

One expert at scratching her back on grass and snow

Guardians of our woods

Squirrel chasers...actually chasers of anything that moves

Barking announcers of visitors

Mud seekers

Source of serious dust bunnies in this house

Creators of dirty nose prints on clean windows

and much much more

So grateful am I

Daily Routines

We walk down the Basin in the early morning light

until I say it is time to turn around and go home.

As soon as we turn

The Rusty Pups routine is to start playing

some kind of game of ambush.

One has to try and get past the other.

but it usually ends in a mighty clash

of mouths and wagging tails.

As we approach Annapolis Royal

the RP's energy has usually waned

and if it is around eight oclock

I know the Tai Chi group will be gathering

way over to the left on the jetty

for their early morning routine.

Scratching Studio Debris

Perhaps my biological clock has gone awry

I am still sorting and resorting the studio

Isn't that what we do in Spring.

The energy is building up

towards a brand new year

My stash still holds scraps of childhood memories.

Even the drawers full of threads are being reorganized.

One scrap became a Christmassy tree.