june flower fairies

The last day of June. How odd that it should come and go, like every moment, so quickly. The only way to savour it is to be intentionally present.

The summer heat has finally struck. It will be a good day to stay in. This kind of heat is like a blizzard to me. The best excuse to ensconce myself in the studio and make something new.

I cut around some old flower paintings for want of any direction and calmed myself with this focused activity. They lay on the table overnight and the next morning, as I turned them about, I saw the inherent dresses they made...

and glued and drew

very dancey

a red tulip

and then I turned the forget-me-not around and so liked its abstract form that I glued it face down

and drew the bunny above

Consider creating as an act of giving and you will see that you can give in many ways.

Consider giving as an act of creating, and you will see that you can create in so many ways.

miraculous nature

A beautiful rainy day here in the Annapolis Valley, the gentle rain that feeds life, just as the sun does.

Our newly trimmed hedge, still pretty high, that borders our yard.

the few poppies delight the eye in all this green.

Glimpses of radish, and lettuce, beet greens and chard, onions and tomatoes and zucchini.

Still working on loosening up, this young mother and her babies emerged.

a bunny in the grey paper sketchbook done only in acrylic

my wild-eyed Babu nearing his first birthday

Spring lingers here, the longest one yet. I am loving the reprieve from heat.

Grateful for the sweetness of miraculous nature.

summer solstice 2014

Always fascinated by the summer solstice. Just squeezing this entry in on the shortest night of the year for us here in the northern hemisphere. We had an afternoon reprieve at the Kentville Agricultural Centre. Just a short visit.

Wally comes to the Centre quite often in the early mornings. He wanted me to see- and smell- this exotic, jasmine-scented bush/tree sort of thing we don't know the name of.

The grounds were covered in perfumed flowering bushes

It was quite heavenly and we were all alone

under great tall trees

while below us a great gathering of graduation photo takers

gowned like the flowers they walked among

a joyous celebration of blossomed debutantes

 in their brief burst of glory

what fun to see the colourful celebration

on the longest day of the year.

Do you celebrate the summer solstice? I think of my old friend Fran, now 100, who, in winter, could always tell me how many days til spring. 

hope springs eternal

A misty, sometimes rainy weekend here.

We went for a walk along the trail in Wolfville yesterday.

 I love the many ways the fibinacci spiral reveals  itself.

Lupins everywhere.

lovely vetch blossoms

Red clover and Vetch

a walk along the grassy dyke

The marshlands are harnessed for farming here by dykes, earthen dykes one can walk for miles on.

looking across the marshland on the side that is not farmed.

Beyond is the Minas Basin, and across it, Blomidon, the end of the old north mountain range

among the grasses are tiny sunbathers

more clover as we walk back

and a bumblebee at work

I have a special fondness for bumblebees.

new leaf growth everywhere

this one hides a secret

I never noticed quite how beautiful this scrubby tree is in spring.

peace and faith in new beginnings

Granville Ferry and Peggy's Cove

It's been a busy time here as I prepared for company.. I missed a lot of great shots, distracted with my job as tour guide on the first day. But the second day in Annapolis Royal, I had my trusty camera at hand. Here are a few favourites.

The town of Granville Ferry across the Annapolis River from the historic town of Annapolis Royal.

a Granville Ferry Victorian

The garden of a little house I fantasized about buying when it was for sale 2 years ago.

I love the white garden of irises and a rose tree

Outside of Annapolis Royal we stopped for the view of the Annapolis River from the Annapolis Royal Generating Station dam where it harnesses the action of the tides to create electricity.

A view of the turbulent water directly below

The endless display of eddies, swirls and gushes 

One gets the impression that it is we who are moving.

This idyllic vignette lays right beside the gushing torrent.

A few days later we were back at Peggy's Cove, 2 months to the day we were there with my sister. 

My photographs are more personal this time. I was fascinated by the wrack, a type of seaweed that grows in the harbour

It is oddly mesmerizing in its underwater mystery

And here I fell for another tourist shot. A few old boats lay rotting about the cove for this very purpose.

And so ends this batch of holiday pictures. The extended spring continues here. I am most grateful for the reprieve from the intense summer heat that comes to the Annapolis Valley where we live. 

It is a kindness. I am on the lookout for such kindnesses. 

escape or make

Muji and I were on the same page yesterday: making the great escape.

It was a gorgeous day for the Apple Blossom Festival here in town, and a runaway day for me.

Despite a year of resolve to escape the dreaded bass vibration of the rock music that traveled across town last year and into the house, I took a chance and risked staying home.

I really wanted to  work on some ideas I have for an abstracted base to a painting.

Instead of the abstract base, I got cold feet and decided to work on some funky colouring for this doodle I did last week. I cut it out and glued it into my grey paper sketchbook. 

While doing this I saw Muji in the vestibule regaled by the robins through the screen in the door.

It was if they were calling him like the sirens called Odysseus.

How he longed to go to them.

And then suddenly he was airborne.

Clinging to the edge, so sure he could make it

And then he just hung there for a moment; almost made the Great Escape

a "what now?" look

Babu, never having been an outdoor cat doesn't quite get it

but he consoles Muji nonetheless 

Back to the living room where I catch their attention  in a kitty totem pole

And this is how I spent my afternoon.

The piece on the right was my previous attempt at creating the wide-eyed character

focusing that day on neutrals with a little colour. It is done in Prismacolor.

The work on the left, completely in acrylic paint.

And yet another glorious spring day, the nicest kind of spring, long and temperate leaning to cool with frost warnings at night these last few days. Just beautiful.