last days of september

It is a dark and gloomy day ...

but Boy! Is it welcome!

It's been quite the drought these many weeks. I don't remember the last time it rained. July?
The irony is not lost on me, considering the devastation that wind and rain have brought to so many this last month while we have waited longingly for a bit of that rain. Nature, for all her beauty, well, I have my reservations.

One can't help but admire her, keeping a huge amount of respect in reserve.

Here, one evening, we pass the Agricultural Centre on our way into town. This is where I saw a fox nosing around on the lawn a few weeks ago, oblivious to the cars; a rare sighting.

New Minas is a big box town, full of little plazas and a mall. 

Since this is one of the few pictures that turned out on this balmy evening after the heat of day, I thought I'd share it, especially as the moon and the sweet light lend a beauty to almost anything.

A grand Victorian that stood on the market for quite a while

is most wonderful when it is decked out for Christmas. The rest of the time it is a little spooky as some Victorian houses are wont to be.

Little houses like this one on the main drag get bought up for business,

this one by a discreet professional.

I've been promising myself to remember to bring my camera when we go out in the evening as we see the most amazing sunsets across the wide expanse of parking lots, this one at the mall.

The primordial roar of triumph!

After Wally assembled the first wall unit, we searched for months for the dowels, bolts and brackets for the second one til Wally finally searched the hardware stores for the missing pieces, even travelling to Berwick for them. In the meantime, he stripped wallpaper, patched plaster cracks, sanded, primed and painted the room, researched the best way to preserve our vintage linoleum floor and proceeded to clean it as well.

Imagine his chagrin when he realized that he had assembled the first unit with a top part on its bottom and now had 2 bottom parts with which to assemble the second unit. Patient, dear Wally replaced one of the "tops" with a bottom on that first unit and proceeded to assemble the second unit with a proper top and bottom. Hence his out-of-character rejoicing! He holds my father's mallet that came in handy for pummelling the dowels into place.

This narrow room once was our guest room. Then it was where Wally set up oil painting. It began to fill with more and more random supplies til it was a holy mess. I measured the units, each 6 feet long to run the length of the room, but it only exaggerated its narrowness and created a corridor where a planned table is to go. It is actually an "L" where it turns to the left by the half revealed window and opens into a closet that creates the ceiling of the stair landing below. How to keep it open and welcoming, functional and cheerful, that's been the question. I'll show you what we come up with as it progresses. I have a feeling I won't love it so much as I do when it's empty.

Now we move onto my boys. Babu looking most fetching.

Muji admiring my art,

then hunkering down for a nap

Babu on another day, licking his chops after breakfast

Try to get this boy when he's not moving.

oh-oh, two little monkeys squaring off. These little tiffs don't last long and often break up with a licking session or just plain obliviousness. You know, the cat kind where "it never really happened".

Muji was feeling particularly needy this day and needed lots of cuddles.

I forget just how small he really is until I see him in context like this.

I've been pulling out my watercolours lately. This one embellished with white details with the uni-ball Signo and outlined with a fine Pitt pen in black india ink. The busyness of the washi tape border gives me a Persian miniature vibe that I really like.

Then, as often happens after I use a lot of colour, I turned to the monochromatic palette of a mechanical pencil, but ended up adding some paint pen because I can't help myself. It was interesting going over the bright pink roses in her dress with more graphite to help them recede.

And now I must continue restoring the new studio. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to share of it by next week. Til then, be well, be centred, be present for everything you do, you see, you hear.

It is the gift.

backyard flora

Hi again, and welcome back!
It's been the most incredible spring in my memory. Maybe it's enhanced because I'm so grateful-
or maybe it has fed into my being so grateful.

I call it spring because we're having a cool, somewhat overcast day, a blessing after some terribly hot weather. A few lovely days of rain has cleared that up and the plants and birds are thriving.
In fact, it's SUMMER! As of today!

Last night I made a zucchini lasagna.

I was surprised when I went into this Spanish garlic to find that this was one clove!

As the lasagna baked, I stepped out onto the deck to refresh myself from all the chopping and layering of zucchini, ricotta cheese, new leaves of kale and chard, tomato sauce and garlic of course.

This shot doesn't do credit to the enormity of our hydrangea stand.

Stepping off the deck, the purple sage blossoms are out-purpling the chive blossoms.

We don't eat enough of anything to worry about it going to seed, and the beauty is so worth letting the herbs go to flower.

the sage with the white thyme flowers

Honeysuckle

The Hayfield

looking south

Pink Lupins

a zillion wild rose buds on the giant bush out back of the cabin

new leaves on the scrub tree behind the cabin

a pink wild rose bud about to bloom in the side hedge

purple lupins at the corner of Wally's trellis filled vegetable garden

the poppies in different stages of bloom

with seed heads past bloom and buds about to open

poppy petals after the rain

oregano in the bottom left corner, dill that seeded itself amidst the tomato cages in the middle

21 baby peaches in this picture alone!

neither yarrow nor Queen Anne's Lace, I have yet to figure out what the flowers that bloom from this ground cover are called. They run along the fence line between us and our neighbours.

Up close they appear to have a pink centre, not unlike the purple centre of a Queen Anne's Lace

Along the composter, Creeping Charlie makes a charming appearance.

Inside the composter, more charm from the purple clematis that have worked their way in towards the sunlight.

The fungus on the Ninebark has been outshone by its beautiful blooms this year.

I don't remember them from last year.

Maybe it's that gratitude that is making me see things.

exquisite!

Across the pathway from the Ninebark we have a bevy of Pinks blooming.

On the weekend, Wally planted a new shade garden along the far side of our little front lawn to compliment the hostas he planted along the front porch almost 2 months ago.

Reluctant to return to my duties, I wander along the back of the garage to take this shot of the little Harelson apple tree that is doing tremendously well on the hill overlooking the yard,

Forget-Me-Not Cabin as a backdrop.

Behind me, Wally replanted the sprawling Goji Berry Bush last fall (which he pruned back severely)

and made a little homemade trellis for it til we find something nicer (though it has its charm)

Suddenly a most spectacular copper and black butterfly went fluttering by and try as I might, my camera could not catch an exposure of it in this low light.

Instead I got this chance photo of some grass budding.  Well, why not?  Almost ethereal in its beauty no matter its ubiquitous invisibility, this is what I mean about "something from nothing" and the eyes to see it with. Gratitude incarnate.  If we were that much more aware of the inherent beauty in everyday life, what a different world it would be.

Happy Summer Solstice dear World

springtime selection

Hello again and thanks for dropping in.
The heat has come and we haven't begun to switch over to our summer wardrobe so that is something I'll have to do today.

I have a smattering of photos from the last week that have little to do with each other, but the week is wearing on so I thought I'd throw a few together for you.

We've had some rain, which is always welcome, making for some fascinating skies

here, over a shopping mall parking lot

I asked Wally to stop once more so I could get this shot

Back home that same evening we'd had no rain.

the forget-me-nots under the old ash tree

I continue to see the raven out back, mated pairs of robins, starlings, blue jays, sparrows and of course, the crows. I even saw a young deer challenge the raven in the field one evening, scaring him off, poor guy. Yet he returns daily for a forage or two in the field.

One morning I ran for my camera just in time to take one shot of this gorgeous male pheasant as he traversed the space between the cabin and the treed perimeter, just where the old shed used to stand.

Muji and I had a love session on another morning. He loves to hug.

He loves to rub my chin and give little love bites, but I've learned what's coming- so I duck him

As I said, just a disparate selection of pictures to share today, this one from my cookbook shelf

I regret that I still don't have any new artwork to share.

This is the little Gainsborough copy I made in watercolour that you may recognize from last year.

It floats around the house and has settled here on the Quebec hutch.

Thank you, as always, for visiting. In the heat of the day, I have closed up the house, curtains and windows, to keep the cool inside which means I just may make it into the studio (and hang a load of laundry).

let's have a lovely day!