a smile and a song

Good July Morning to you.
Or at least it was when I first started this post. After a relatively brief time in the garden and a ridiculously extended time correcting my over/under exposed pictures on this fabulously sunny day it is now late afternoon.

The morning started as it often does with seeing yellow birdies flitting back and forth across the garden like I'm Snow White

in Walt Disney's famous first feature length animated movie

Then, to add to the magic, I saw the pheasant!

You would have laughed to see me run for my camera.

The shadow and light, the breeze and a moving subject, made it nearly impossible to capture a good image when he surprised me by coming back.

A lovely, handsome fellow, I'd been wondering what happened to him when the hayfield was mowed on the first of the month.

Clearly it was much too open for him to linger

so he headed back for shelter.

I had no intention of putting much up on the blog today, so I grabbed this bowl of lychees, a favourite treat this time of year, often on sale like these- not quite ripe- because I think the local produce people have no idea what they are. I thought they made a beautiful study in colour and texture.

This gorgeous little bowl is by Ontario salt glaze potter Paul Kaye.

The joyous morning drew me into the garden. That was my first mistake.

Once I begin shooting flowers, it's impossible to stop.

Here, the aromatic flowers of lavender.

The slightly deeper colour of what Wally informs me is not Salvia, but I've yet to discover what they are.  It is a reliable standby in this corner of the composter garden.

On the outer corner of the same garden, the Echinacea are getting ready to take over the world with their leader, the only one blooming, standing out front as a leader does.

It is absolutely hypnotic as only a charismatic leader can be.

As I wandered around to the back, two yellow warblers followed me!

a little closer

I was amazed by their boldness.

Looking back at the massive hydrangea stand.

I call it a stand because it doesn't appear to grow from one plant like a bush, but from many, many stalks.

In a corner, the clover is blooming.

Walking to the back of the yard, the warblers are chip, chipping - much like that cardinal did last week when it saw the ginger cat. But I'm not convinced he's afraid of me as he appears to eat the little berries while he peers at me from overhead.

Pink Lupin is still blooming on the hayfield perimeter 

though much of it has gone to seed

Lupin seed heads amidst the cow vetch on the hayfield perimeter

Like crop circles, the hay mower left these "islands" of grass and weeds in the middle of the hayfield.

I can see the little tree on the left which explains that  one, but the rest...?

Wally has been mowing a patch behind Forget-Me-Not Cabin. At the back of it, the giant rose bush has lost many of its little blooms, and the hedge behind it is begging for a haircut.

In the foreground the little maple tree that we can't seem to remove is shading the honeysuckle.

Pink and white blossoms on the Honeysuckle

The yellow warbler is still watching me as I step back into the yard

probably my best shot yet 

though this one seems clearer

altogether too many of these shots

I leave you today with this drawing done in graphite and Sharpie gold paint pen done from a picture of a stone bust of Eleonora d'Aragona made around 1468 by Francesco Laurana,  a wonderful Renaissance sculptor whose work seems like a precursor to the stylized paintings of women by Modigliani ( who in fact was smitten with Egyptian art).

Yes, done on the 2nd, I didn't mean this to be connected with Leona, yet that was her birthday and I do miss her so much. I cannot believe it is only 4 1/2 months since she passed.

"Everything is ecstasy, inside... Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-endings drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside...and you will remember..."

                                                                  Jack Kerouac

backyard fauna

"Oh my ears and whiskers!" said the White Rabbit. That's how delighted I feel to wake up to such a beautiful- and coolish- morning. A real treasure, the kind I'd hoped for when we moved out here almost 5 years ago. After some seriously hot summers (and who's to say that's still not coming), the temperature sits below 20C on this cloudless sunny morning.

Yesterday, was a temperate day that kept the house cool with the windows open til midday.

I woke to this wondrous sight, dodging the laundry line as I

surreptitiously took photos from behind the curtains.

Having to enlarge my shots gives a fuzzy impressionistic look which works out well

with this lovely subject

I'd obviously caught her hearing something and with a flash of her tail

she leans towards where it's coming from

ever intent

Her ears large receivers, receptors for pertinent information

such a beautiful, even regal, animal

I'm so blown away that I have this opportunity

These shots are in sequence; I could almost make a video of them

For all her stillness and decent light, my little camera can only capture so much,

making these pictures rather pixilated.

Still, there was enough  information that I was beginning to suspect from the unusual brightness of her body that she might be the young piebald fawn all grown up,

and sure enough, as she turns, chewing on something tender enough to call her into the middle

of the field, I can see, beyond the laundry line,

  that she is, indeed, the young Piebald fawn all grown up.

I have pictures of her from last year that you can see in the pink link.

It is amazing to think that only a short time ago I was taking pictures of the pheasants in this same spot where the grass and lupins are about 4 or more feet high now.

Such a magical moment

She poses as she breakfasts so well that I can see her mottling clearly now

I am thrilled to see the beautiful young piebald doe

all grown up, even more special for her rarity

She moves further away

preparing to leave

with tail raised

she may suspect reason to depart

The morning was fresh and cool and I came out onto the deck, now that "the coast was clear",

to listen to the chorus of different bird calls, and record this geranium beginning to bloom.

Suddenly I heard a thump behind me on the cabin window and there was that same fool bird doing battle with itself in the window that I had shown you about a month ago.

I was too slow to capture him so close,

but I did see this small yellow warbler flying away from the apple tree.

I mistook it for a female goldfinch, and am now amending this post after several of you have already been to visit

landing on a stray branch of the hydrangea

with apologies for mislabeling it, it is not a female goldfinch

but a small yellow warbler- with a truly delightful song

Overnight, the buds of the wild rose in our border hedge bloomed

I turn towards the Honeysuckle which is beginning to bloom very nicely

despite the dramatic haircut I gave it in April.

How amazing to see Mr. Slug, about 2.5 inches long

making his way out of the sunshine toward the shade of the cabin

There are some bricks to signify an old garden on that shady side of the cabin, but grasses

with a raggedy beauty of their own

Forget-me-nots grow there as well, as they do all over the property

which is a bit raggedy as we slowly address the bits and pieces

of our new life as town folk in Nova Scotia.

While preparing yesterday morning's pictures, I could hear the rumble of a large machine approaching. It took me a few moments to realize that it was the sound of the tractor mowing the field out back.

It took me a while to brace myself for the loss of the lupin field only an hour or so after I took the pictures of the deer in it. There is an odd bit of unmowed field towards the back there.

This morning, the tractor is back, baling the hay

He has made short work of the field, leaving odd unmown clumps though one or two I know hold young trees planted last fall by a young couple.

As I cleaned out the birdbath of debris, I caught this view of more bales beyond our raspberry bushes.

As much to comfort myself as to try out my new sticks of graphite,

I drew this monastic on kraft paper with 6B (soft and dark) graphite.

Always, always with gratitude,

we make our way in life,

a little raggedy sometimes,

but intact.

peace