Thursday 31 January 2013

Walking under Purple Skies


Fascinating...the purple sky
behind a huge setting moon


As the sun's rays slowly came up in the East
the Western sky
changed from purple to pink.
With the grey clouds
it kind of looks a bit like a Fauve painting.


Beneath the moon's dance
these two do everything together


Sometimes one takes the lead


Back on the dike RP Shandy always initiates puppy games.
A lovely walk
 but boy it took me all morning to warm up again back in front of the fire!

Wednesday 30 January 2013

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Speckled Suet Lovers


Crowds of starlings
Huddle in the crab apple tree


Awaiting their turn at the suet ball.


They fluff up their feathers in the cold


and patiently wait.
Trouble is the hawks also wait higher in the spruce trees.



Monday 28 January 2013

It's Monday Again


That was the week that was


Just doodling around the green splodges.
No green to be seen here at all at all.


Starting to work out how to approach my next commitment
a huge 7 ft panel for a group show.
Must get cracking on that one
but need to make some decisions first.


Another day of doodles.


Perhaps cabin fever looks like this.
Feeling a bit confined and claustrophobic 
in a cold, cold winter.


Playing with blanket stitch 
was all that came to mind on a quiet Sunday
spent recovering from a late, late night.

Friday 25 January 2013

Wintry Layers and Discovered Games


Walking through our unruly woods
the Rusty Pups and I found
Wintry layers


a snow capped burl


Summery remnants swaying by the stream


We watched the stream still flowing beneath icy coverings


Rusty Pup, Shandy, discovered a new game...
drop a tennis ball in the stream...
then try and retrieve it without diving in and before it disappears beneath the ice.


Luckily she retrieved it each time.
If she hadn't
she would have looked at me with those big sad eyes
and expected me to do something about it!


Snow on ice on water...
More layers
from a very cold tangled woods!

Thursday 24 January 2013

Sticky Snow


We woke to snow falling
(so what else is new!)
Snow that clings to rusty gates


Snow that clings to frozen faces


Snow that even clings to the sides of things that stand still long enough.

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Wintry


They swoop down  from the tops of trees
and we hear the alarm calls of smaller birds.
Sometimes they are successful
more often not.


Such a harsh season of the year

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Reverting to the Machine


For a few weeks now I've been
stitching and stitching and stitching


Covering cloth with row upon row of machine made stitch


Meeting a deadline


in a weak attempt to reproduce part of
a JEH MacDonald painting.
I hope I don't have to do something like this again!
Not my cup of tea.

Monday 21 January 2013

Time Scratched


A muddle of a week


Old Man Winter loosened his hold for just one day


A handsome but, oh so stinky critter
thought he might move in under my studio
making me a very unhappy camper!


Of course Old Man Winter returned
and on Thursday at quilt Guild
we made prayer flags for one of us


Handy Hubby suggested I couldn't just do snow, snow and more snow!
So I made circles but couldn't resist filling them with snowflakes


As the snow still fell on Saturday
a Merlin swooped down and captured a starling.
When we first arrived here we would be shocked
and try to scare off the hawks or falcons
but now we know they too need to eat
and winter is very hard on them.


Studio got a cleaning
so scraps from the cutting room floor
found a home here.

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Unlikely Dining Companions


Handsome fellas ain't they.


They were joined at the table by a bunch of pigeons
and just out of my photo a squirrel munched away.


I'm not sure what they talked about among themselves
but they weren't too happy about Rusty Pups watching intently from the window!

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Walking Hot and Cold


To the left of us it looked like a warm summery sunrise.


But looking left over the basin it's obviously wintry cool.


Cracked ice covers the tidal grasses in rounded mounds.
(Ha, there was a printed cotton in the 90's we used to call 'cracked ice'.)
(I used it a lot.)
Back to the sewing machine today.

Monday 14 January 2013

Scratched and Wrapped


Two weeks into a new scratching
and the rolling around a stick has to begin


The sun came out but not strong enough to melt the mountains of snow 


Finally a day at the sewing machine.
A deadline is fast approaching
so I resort to the machine.


Wednesday...a day of row upon row of straight stitch.
Thursday was spent zigzagging over and over.


Friday we travelled up the valley to the eye doctor
then returned for the evening showing of 'Life of Pi'.
We get such good movies in our small community thanks to the hard work of volunteers.


Woodpeckers are getting fat on my suet balls!


I'm very fond of a higgledy-piggledy blanket stitch.