twelfth

The twelfth. How often do we get to use 4 consonants in a row? How many 7 letter words only have one vowel? English is a delightful old thing.

Our kitschy artificial Christmas tree is up and decorated with every little ornament I could find including a few new ones.  Our kitty, Muji,  posed very nicely for me as if he, too, was artificial- as I worked seemingly forever on getting the right exposure.

Just try to get Babu to hold still while I capture my two boys together.

This is Babu's best imitation of haunting the Christmas tree.

Just a brief post today. It is snowing like the Dickens- okay, I have to look that up...

"This phrase has nothing to do with Charles Dickens. Dickens is a euphemism, specifically a minced-oath, for the word devil, possibly via devilkins. Shakespeare used it in 'the Merry Wives of Windsor, 1600: I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of."

and that's what I mean about English!

And thus my 50th post this year. Not my most fruitful year for posting. The last time I did 50 posts was in 2011. But I have 19 more days til the end of the year and I'm sure I'll have more to share with you in that time.

Til then, have a lovely, loving, loveful day

deer in the hayfield

Good Morning on this quiet Saturday.

In fact it has been a quiet week, spent stitching.

On Wednesday I spied this young deer, one of the fawns in the hayfield.

Just beyond him I could see his mother.

My pictures are blown up from poor shots to begin with, my little camera smaller than a playing card.

She remained like this for quite a while, certainly enough time for me to compose myself and steady my hand against the window. Ah well, better than nothing at all. It's a thrill every time to see these beautiful wild animals in their element.

And here are my "boys" in theirs. They were in a charming embrace when I went to get my camera.

But this is how I found them when I came back. "What?" they seem to ask.

Again, my little camera has trouble with the low light, but still worth a shot.

Considering a subject for a new embroidered piece, I doodle with my Japanese calligraphy pen that is set up with a cartridge like a fountain pen and gives an amazing fine line, the nib treacherous to soft paper- i.e. very sharp.

have a lovely last weekend to November

keeping peace in our hearts and intentions

Early Autumn in the Garden

And the beat goes on-

the grinding of motors, the house vibrating and what must the trees think?

On the 19th of September the water and sewer trench was dug

though we won't actually be hooked up until everyone beyond us is dug out and connected as well.

That means Free Water! for now, though, of course, we pay for our filtration and softener.

I must say the novelty has worn off as the grind of heavy equipment takes its toll.

Wally came home on a gorgeous Friday evening past to find me in bed with a book, windows open to get some fresh air, despite the house and the aluminum tool shed rattling for 3 hours worth of rolling the temporary street's gravel before this long weekend past. It's enough to make a girl crazy.

A few days later, Wally called me over to see this marvelous visitor

Out on a Limb- of Dill Weed.

I guessed it was a swallowtail butterfly caterpillar and upon researching it, it is,

and what do you know, the first reference was someone finding one on her dill!

Dill is a lovely herb, the seed heads so pretty. I enjoy it in yogurt with garlic, a quick tzatziki which I serve with almost any savoury dish, especially nice with enchiladas or any bean dish.

All lined up like chorus girls, I call this the Dance of the Dill Seed Heads

I turned to the garden, the kale looking hardy, with the tomatoes ready to pick

Two Cucumber Buddies that we hoped would grow bigger. Don't let the picture fool you; these are quite small.  They become bitter the older they get (well, isn't that just like some people)

but they still work in a salad or juiced.

Cropped from a blurry photo of a bumblebee, these are wild asters that my camera likes to bleach out.

Really, they are such a rich pinky violet.

That same afternoon, the wind-tossed trees across the hayfield.

The lighting, the heaving of the trees like lungs, this grips me with its melancholic beauty, the last breath of summer.

Meanwhile a pen and ink drawing of a bunny that I cut out and place on a page from the same book from which it was torn, a book I plan to "alter" as the latest expression goes.

For now,

let us plant ourselves in the Now,

the only time we've truly got.

peace

a time for gratitude

It's clear I've been letting my blogging slide.  The roadwork noise does take its toll, but on the upside, I'm making again, and that makes most days go fast, sometimes too fast and I'm shocked to find us well into the first week of October.

My domestic duties carry on and though a late September succession of rainy days kept me from hanging laundry ( I let our hamper pile up until I can hang outside),  the cooking from scratch...

and fresh veggie prep for juicing never cease.

The longer skinny stalks here are bolted broccoli from our garden. The broad leaves are kale.

One lovely morning I heard the screeching of a blue jay that I hadn't heard for a month or more

and found the little guy drinking from the bird bath.

That gives me so much pleasure that I can be of service to these jays who appear to be a couple.

We had a barrage of crows in the neighbourhood for a while- about 2 dozen

There is a phenomenon out here that I never hear talked about and that is the hundreds of crows that fly in from the north each autumn night, roosting in the trees in New Minas, our next door town. It must be so hard on the human residents with all the noise (and who knows what all else) they make.

Walking up our mangled street to our car one evening, we met a local man who said they used to roost in our town in the old day. OMG! Thank goodness for the  relatively few marauders who come to CAWCAW to each other in our trees each spring and early summer.

Wally working on the far side of Forget-Me-Not Cabin's roof in mid September between rain days.

You can see the top of his makeshift ladder that he slapped together to help support him,

especially on the edges.

You'd never know by this great smile how nervous he was that day

as the wind had picked up and made his maneuverings that much more precarious.

so proud of him

on another day, with the sun dappling the bathroom floor,

Babu gave me a suspicious look as I appreciated his languorous beauty.

Mr. Muji took residence in the vestibule where he loves to sleep in spots of sunlight.

I actually have to watch that my fair-haired boy doesn't get too much of it.

I continued with some more pen and ink, this time studying doll heads

beginning to reinterpret them

and finally, a stylized flower, the pen nib so sharp it indents the paper

and so,

another visit with you.

thank you so much for dropping by!

thank you 

Between the Hedges

Hello again! I've finally gathered myself for a new post, one I've been postponing, nearly as distasteful as the previous one on the spider was, though with the same components of interest- if you're into that sort of thing.
And as a reward, I have some artwork to share with you- finally.

As you may know from past posts, concentrating on anything requiring focus and quietude is nearly impossible from the roadwork that has continued in and around here since the beginning of May.

Sewer Pipes stacked next door

Since the 2nd of September the amount of work on our section has escalated.

"Green" pipes (as explained by a friendly worker) or as the artist in me would call "Turquoise" are for sewage and Blue pipes are for water.

Here a worker moves a water pipe passing by our driveway entrance,

a window on the roadwork between our hedges

The Bulldozer rests his weary bucket on a dump truck's bucket

another bucket, this one with a fork for lifting, comes into view

and the clanging and banging begins

The house vibrates as these Caterpillar machines roll by

Getting a grip on the dump truck bucket the caterpillar drags it along

as another loud tractor rolls by- what fun! (not)

The caterpillar spins on a centre axis to reverse the direction he wants to go in.

(I've never seen one actually do anything but go forwards and backwards, though of course they must be able to turn a long curve hence the 2 tracks)

That evening, our view by the setting sun

We do get reprieves from the noise levels as work carries on in another section over the next day or two, but by the 6th, I am awoken by THE DIGGING OF THE TRENCH.

The grinding of the motor, and the pounding into the earth goes on for hours

as a huge trench is dug deeper and deeper outside our driveway

and where can all that earth go

but alongside our driveway-

all to lay our water and sewer pipes

and our driveway eventually becomes impossible to access

as one worker

after another goes by

goes by

Eventually the pipes are laid and the hole is filled in,

including a gentle clean up of the earth that blocks the driveway

I wander out to inspect our water access

and get a good look at the new manhole that has been installed

getting some context for its placement

I gather up my courage to wander out into the road

and capture this crazy picture

of the tunnelling that continues further up the street 

Here comes Donny, one of the foremen, who has helped to make things as easy as possible for residents and workers alike, in this arduous process

But, wait, what's this? The water main below us has broken under all the vibrating and flooded our neighbour's basement, making a muddy river of the road. I fill pots with water just before we lose pressure (and my camera's battery charge) after the water source is shut off.

That's how we spend the night.

Some of the workers consult at the back of their pick up well after dark, a terribly long day for these hard-working men who showed up back the next morning at 7am as usual.

By the 8th we were attached to a "temporary" water line: free water!

which the foreman kindly arranged to have connect into our water softener and filter so that we wouldn't have to endure chlorinated water for the next month or so.

And as promised:

a little doll in pen and ink

I am pleased I am making again, very much with Wally's encouragement.

A pleasant wind down to September as our temperatures gradually cool here in the Annapolis Valley.

Kindness First