and that's august

Welcome dear viewers, on this last day of August, unusually balmy with a gentle breeze and wispy clouds on this late summer afternoon. I hope you've been well and have taken time to figuratively, if not literally, stop and smell the flowers. It all goes so soon.

Wally continues to be very busy at work, and I continue my quiet days at home with the cats. They put me through the moves each morning as I will soon describe, but now they are both passed out as cats are wont to do, enjoying their naps with fresh air from the windows wafting through.

One day last week...

Muji was awake one afternoon and caught sight of something fluttering, most likely a leaf.

My pretty boy makes a pretty picture

Babu was on hand waiting his turn in the window.

On another day, Babu was "stalking" a sparrow- through the window screen.

Oblivious, the little bird  fluttered and preened on the railing after a splash in the bird bath.

This morning I caught a rare sight of my two companions sitting together.

Babu is usually the one who doesn't stay still except when he's asleep, but this morning they were waiting for "seconds" in the kitchen.

Actually, it's just Babu who wants seconds. Muji hasn't finished firsts.

This is the new routine as I try to wean Muji off of his demands for his beloved kibble before he's finished his tinned therapeutic food.

Babu has elected himself clean-up committee. 

This includes cleaning up Muji's plate before Muji has finished.

This keeps me on my toes as Babu is already a touch overweight and that tinned food is expensive.

That doesn't stop Babu from kitten mewing plaintively for my attention to his appetite.

As long as I stay on top of them (and myself for I must not soften up to their demands) things are under control.

 Muji didn't finish his breakfast this morning.

And Babu can't understand why I lifted Muji's plate.

Lots to show you, this piece is done in coloured pencils with a few dabs of white paint pen.

Experimenting with a all my different black pencils, the one that came out the darkest was,

surprisingly, my 55 year old Laurentian coloured pencil- another allusion to the better quality available in the past.

After watching some videos about printmakers, I found myself intrigued, once again, by the new retro palette in somewhat earthy pastels. I themed this picture using some animal symbols of love and did a variation on Botticelli's Venus. Sketched in grahite mechanical pencil, I went over the lines with extra fine Pitt pen, then coloured in with Jane Davenport coloured pencils, or as she calls them, "magic wands." The surround is washi tape.

It's back to school season in the stores and I found myself in front of a display of school supplies pondering the value of Crayola coloured pencils. I found a 100 pack for $12!  That's outrageous. So I bought them.  This is what I did in place of a swatch test, using as many colours in the pack as I could. I then, like a crazy woman, proceeded to colour in all the negative spaces in black Pitt pen with some coloured pencil blends down the middle. More washi tape, these are by Tim Holtz, went on the border.

Continuing to experiment with the Crayola coloured pencils I began to scribble first one...

and then a second abstract. I worked them from every which way and am pleased with the balance I found in design by doing that.

Last night I began making these little "C' shapes, again trying to use an ever-changing variety of colours from the Crayola pack.  This morning, I carried on, eventually summoning the courage to draw the rabbit in a Pitt brush pen and then continued colouring it in with the Crayola coloured pencils.

Here's a little footnote: I was surprised to see that the label on the box spelled "Coloured" with a "u". I see now that these, as well as "All Crayola Art Materials are Nontoxic". Crayola is now a Hallmark company. My pencils were made in Brazil and imported by Crayola Canada out of Lindsay, Ontario. I found this news comforting somehow... ethical comfort.

peace on earth

bright and cool

What a shift in temperature and light. It was so cold last night that I shut the windows. Wally would have had them wide open. Those are the nights I tell him to go and sleep in the backyard "you camper you"- but he doesn't.

I thought I might do some interior vignettes this morning,

this of the clothespin basket that hangs in the vestibule.

The Broom and the ancient message centre hang there too, original to the house,

as does the homemade cookies sign.

I imagine Marion (original owner with two successive husbands) making homemade cookies and taking messages from her customers, all so quaint and old-fashioned.

I do get drawn out of the vestibule into this surreal day, with its harsh light, its jolly breeze

and cooler temperatures. Strange little clouds float along the horizon like UFO's.

As I step off the back deck I notice that Wally has bundled the Echinacea which were sprawling all over the place. Their colour has faded and the bees aren't much interested anymore.

mauve blooms from the hostas in the foreground, the huge "prehistoric" plant with its yellow blooms breaking out of their "pods"

I wander over to the vegetable garden, the peas mostly done on the green trellis

that Wally set up for them,

their scribbled tendrils still reaching out for something to grab on to.

Without much new to share, I wander back to the house, breaking off a large hydrangea bloom as I go for the kitchen table.

Muji has been waiting by the door the whole time and is still there when I sit down

"You lookin' at me?" I can never figure out why I get these looks...

Babu has finished clean up duty (Muji always leaves "crumbs") and also has an odd look.

I put the hydrangea bloom in a cut glass vase that I bought at a big secondhand market held in town here the year we were house hunting, taking it back to Muskoka to pack for the trip back out here along with a rock from the ocean.  Sometimes even I think I'm weird.

With many pictures made since this one, I will share two again today.

This trio done in coloured pencil, the border outlined in white China marker. The white sharpie pen highlights are showing much stronger than they actually are. 

This piece evolved from Derwent watercolour pencil in Sea Blue that I began doodling with.

From there I got the courage to draw the face in one of my favourite black coloured pencils, a Koh-I-Noor from Czechoslovakia. With the figure in place I began to doodle in similar fashion with a white Sharpie paint pen, adding more of it to the face, etc. A very light use of moistened paint brush to waken the watercolour pencil went on last. That night I left my sketchbook under the laptop to help flatten the paper, so rumply after the water was added.

each day a gift

the message of presence therein

afternoon at second peninsula park

Good Friday Mornin' to yeh!
Yes, after preparing all these photos of our trip to Second Peninsula Park, I'm a little potty from reliving the experience, not to mention computer weary. But it is so worth it.
I hope you enjoy the ride.

Starting with this funky sign, we  knew we had gone too far.

Lunenburg is only 10 kilometres (that's 6 miles) from Mahone Bay and the road we were looking for is not signed on the Mahone Bay side from which we'd come- just to make life interesting.

So we turned around and soon found First Peninsula Road that let us know Second Peninsula would soon show up. We made our turn and followed a winding road along this peaceful inlet.

This shoreline was so much like our old haunts in Muskoka, Ontario,

a somewhat tamed wild beauty we'd come to love.

I asked Wally to turn around so that I could capture this Raven in a quintessentially northern setting.

There was a LOT of loud screaming going on between it and another one or two hidden from sight,

not far from someone's home. Yikes! That'll spoil the mood.

We carried on around quiet bays

Though many water-edged properties are owned by wealthy people,

it charms me to see these humble old time properties.

another private dock and the road continues its scenic curves

a moored sailboat

Though this is a saltwater inlet, it' rolling hills, spruce, birch and white pine

truly reminds me of Muskoka or Haliburton at least.

a peaceful scene across the water

driving around another little bay

coming into the manicured park, discreetly signed park

With sentimental memories, we find our picnic bench of two years ago,

unoccupied at the end of the steep trail down to the shore

We have a neighbour this time, ensconced in her book, so we speak in hushed tones.

Beyond is a small Inukshuk, the appropriated (and ironic) Inuit message "we were here".

Beyond that, someone swimming, and then the sailboats.

Thankfully there was only one motorboat that went by. When I remarked on how quiet it was, Wally explained to me that it had an inboard motor unlike the outboard motorboats that spoiled so many visits to the lakes years past in Muskoka. (Those days had passed by the time we left five years ago due to a failing economy and higher taxes for those living on the lakes.)

It was, in fact, exquisitely quiet where we planted ourselves and we had our lunch. Wally thought to bring an organic apple/cranberry juice to mix with Perrier which was deliciously decadent.

Afterwards we took out our watercolour pads and palettes and set to work playing,

with this exquisite scene to rest our eyes on

.

This is the life

for some people

Two Ships in the Night

Oops, I mean

Two Boats in the Light

closer

We watched a sailboat motor in to its little motorboat, the second mate reaching for its line.

They took the little boat to the public dock where their truck was waiting. That's 3 motors for their afternoon holiday. That struck me as odd somehow.

Look what I found in the woods behind us! An honest to goodness Toadstool!

Mr. Snail close by

one of a few clamshells left behind by a seagull I'm guessing

over my shoulder the rock and windblown trees

down the Shore with the ocean proper not nearly in sight

the dock beyond where those sailboaters left from

two moss adorned trees, spruce I think, a little worse for wear.

Wally informs me it is lichen that hangs from the branches, not moss.

Their roots exposed where the soil has eroded, they stretch out for yards on either side.

more roots amid the growth of sea plants

With the tide out, little seaweeds cling to their moorings.

The tide gently laps its way out

so gently that you can see a good way into the clear water

As it comes in, it gently ripples, swaying the hinged seaweed with it.

It's good to see Wally unwind, here with his watercolour seascape that he splashed with seawater to see if the salt would make a difference. (It didn't.)

Squinting in the sun, I didn't wander too far from our "home base" as the shore was so rocky and I have a huge respect for rock against bone.

squinty, happy me

While still holding the camera, Wally took his traditional One Shot a Year.

Come Again

sometime

And just because...

I could have shown you earlier as they were made a week ago when I was still floundering.

I figured I owed myself a play date.

I brushed some of my new Jane Davenport acrylic paints into sections on the page and filled each coloured box with a different something or other.

It really amounts to doodling with paint. A matte acrylic is very compatible with paint pens and ink as you can see.

I learned from my squirrel picture, that I showed you yesterday, 

that a little white paint pen can take a picture out of the doldrums.

Thanks again for coming along with me. My day trip pictures will need one more installment.

But I think, for now, we've earned a rest.

kindness first