an early evening drive in the valley

Hello and welcome back, or just plain welcome to those of you who have never been to this site. It is a gorgeous day here in the Annapolis Valley after a post Hurricane Jose dreary start to this week that culminated in much needed rain on Wednesday. Wally told me that hurricanes start as thunderstorms in Africa and escalate as they move westward out to sea. The results here are generally benign though that can be a different case altogether on Nova Scotia's south shore. So far so good this year.

It has been super dry this last month. Though there is some colour change, the leaves on the trees are crispy and somewhat brown from dehydration so we're glad for a little rain. Today is the first day of Autumn and we're sure to see some change in the weather. Already the nights are cold, the days temperate, sometimes warm.

Last week we drove to Berwick to find some bits and pieces at a specialty nut and bolt shop to assemble a no longer made Ikea shelving unit that we'd like to put together alongside its twin that Wally already put together. I'm sure the package of elements will show up one day (we've looked for many months), but in the meantime we'd like to get on with it. So last Thursday, after quite a bit of paper sorting on my part and much painting and plumbing on Wally's part, we rewarded ourselves with an afternoon drive. These are my best shots from a moving car:

A big grey house in Berwick with signs of ongoing renovation on the front porch

one of many apple orchards that line the drive home

another apple orchard with old apple wood stacked

an old country home tucked back from the road

an old barn turned garage, roadside

pride of ownership, an old home, landscaped and in good repair

a humble old country house

a corner house in Waterville looking quaint and somewhat European

a maple lined drive with a tire swing hanging from an old maple out back 

the old Waterville Community Centre (I think)

evening country homestead

raised bungalow with a courtyard installation

Cambridge Baptist Church with a promise of "ham potato scallop bean supper" on September 30th

The yellow door makes it

Muji in the vestibule after breakfast. I just missed him rolling around on his back which always means he's in a good mood.

Babu has taken to exploring under the rolling laundry cart which we use for a recycling divider.

Here he does the combat crawl. There's a conch shell in the stew can where I'm softening the  periostracum outer layer to make it more presentable. I change the water every now and then; it sure smells like seawater. 

Worked and reworked, I struggled with my propensity for muted colours, trying to bring the children (cut-outs from a Tim Holtz pack) into the foreground by colouring them with pigment markers. The muted washi tape colours didn't help, nor did the outer border in Winsor & Newton pigment markers and Gold Sharpie paint pen. Eventually I blacked and smudged an ink background over the original brown coloured pencil background which helped immensely, and added the quotation from who-I-don't-know in white Sharpie pen. It says:

"Do not let your fire go out spark by spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet and the not-at-all.  Do not let the hero in your soul perish in the lonely frustration for the life you deserve and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It is real. It is possible. It is yours."

Enhancing the subject with a darker outline,

this mixed media piece is a mix of watercolour, coloured pencil, paint pen, ink, and a washi tape border. The chair is based on my 1930's pink chair in the living room.

 Another mixed media piece starting with an inked circle for the face and coloured in watercolour with a little coloured pencil on her pathway and in her hair and dress. I used some white paint pen for details. The wing of this Flower Fairy is done with triangular points of colour cut from a magazine, the border done in various washi tapes. I felt the border was encroaching too much so I used some white China marker and white paint pen to enhance the separation between the picture and the border.

Late last night I completed this circle face group of a mother and her children.

There was no black outline for this watercolour but I felt it needed the distinction once again and added it afterward in fine-lined India ink with a  Pitt pen . The little boy's hair and teddy bear are blacked with a Derwent Colorsoft pencil.

Thank you for dropping by dear viewers. 

 with conscious breath that pulls us into this moment

happy Fall Equinox

always something to do

How much quicker time flies when one is being productive. I don't know; is that a good thing?
You won't find me enjoying the run to stay in place. As I corrected these pictures I'm about to show you, my critical eye saw a dirty floor mat and windows that need cleaning, a hedge, bushes and a lawn that need trimming and artwork that could use  a few tweaks.

In the meantime, Muji needs cuddles. Like, really! He needs them.

Some animals are much needier than others. Just like people. They suffer for not getting their daily requirement.

Babu loves his cuddles too, but he's very squirmy, the weight of his body pressing down on his little paws, so I put him on his back. Then he reaches up gently to my cheek like a baby, purring and grooving with the attention. Here he's doing his baby mewing, wanting some affection.

It's rather hot today. Too hot to open the windows. On the way to check the mail, I caught this vignette of an aluminum squirrel nutcracker, some seashells and pebbles plus a beautiful vase carved into stone by Nova Scotia artist John Hannah.

From the front ramp, the yard is looking that late summer scruffy. It needs a tune up.

I've been steadily exploring what those cheap Crayola coloured pencils can do. They are showing great promise, certainly equal to that of the much acclaimed new Jane Davenport "Magic Wands".

Disappointed with the eyes, I whited them out with Sharpie white paint pen and drew them again with extra fine black Pitt pen and a little brown pencil crayon.

It's funny what you see when you take a picture of your work. This squirrel turned out ok, done from memory, years of drawing them on pottery, but now I see that I forgot to colour in the nose and he could have used some shading where his feet touch the branch. Other tweaks would enhance this picture, but I'm done. I get like that.

"Life is just a dream, sweetheart"

done in Crayola coloured pencils and my new Uni-ball Signo broad white pen.

Then I was scribbling, filling the page with Crayola coloured pencil layering, enjoying the mix of colours I might not normally put together. Some washi tape by Tim Holtz made a nice muted border for one of his cardstock cut outs that I got in a pack earlier this summer.

It has a bit of that "going back to school" vibe.

It's been so nice having Wally home, even though he's pre-occupied with his plumbing right now. He's ordered the fabulous dramatic tile we decided on after such a long while, but we won't have it for another week and a half. That's ok. There's so much else to do. Now I must make lunch.

sweet September energy to you dear viewers

with peace in our hearts

morning of the solar eclipse

Perhaps because I was self-employed most of my life, Monday mornings don't hold the usual dread that they do for many people who differentiate them from weekends. I tended to look at my down time in terms of seasons and winter became a haven for me from the rigours of business. But today, this Monday of all Mondays, is supersaturated with relevance, for today,

Western Europe, Northeast Asia, Northwest Africa, North America, much of South America, the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic 

will have a solar eclipse!

If that don't beat the Monday blues! We live such little lives on our beloved little planet and cosmic phenomena really serve to remind us the relative importance of everything. There won't be another solar eclipse in my part of the world, eastern North America, til 2025.

After another rainy Saturday and a hot and humid Sunday,

it promises to be bright though hot again today.

Muji would rather be outside with me

Babu would rather share the window with Muji

The hayfield looking ESE already promises heat as the dew lifts this morning.

So far so good with the grapes ripening

The beans grow in rows like a curtain

A brown butterfly suns itself on a fallen maple leaf

What a clever landing pad.

Raspberry for breakfast

Our new mint patch

a new stalk of gladiola

a nest of hens and chicks

a tall weed with its pretty little blossoms

We're inveterate, or should I say, "veteran" sales hunters,

but this ten cent cabbage takes the cake,  my best deal in years.

Muji hops down from the window and is at the door to greet me before I've got it shut.

Babu isn't far behind.

The middle section of my sketchbook has two signatures of cheap kraft paper which I'm enjoying for its mid tone, allowing me to use a light cream colour to effect. Outlined in a brush-tipped India ink Pitt pen and coloured with coloured pencils, I'm still working with multiple images for more interest. The heavier, gold-dotted kraft cardstock that I collaged on was harder to tear and therefore left some really nice edges.

 

Smitten with that gold-dotted kraft card, I found a place to lay it down in this coloured pencil extravaganza. It's been so much fun not to work to anyone's expectations but my own and see where my intuition will take me. I haven't been able to work like this since the '80's.

Giving myself permission has been a long time coming.

"Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement."

                                                                                    Nelson Mandela

peace on earth

an august august

And now it's Tuesday, another glorious summer day. Somehow August seems quieter as the summer winds down. And yet it is still "august", meaning respected and impressive. What is it all about if we don't stop and take notice of the enormity of its quiet, its self-effacing magnificence?

Basil and Cherry Tomatoes

The Cherry Tomatoes are ready now for impromptu snacking.

Our little pot of Dahlias on the same deck are thriving but looking quite raggedy as something else is clearly enjoying them too.

Last night I picked curtains of green beans for supper.

How I love knowing my food source is organic.

An onion flower head about to go to seed.

The peaches, protected by bird netting never looked so healthy.

The Harelson apples, by contrast, are falling before they've ripened into the redundant netting that we gathered around the trunk. They are infested again with the local blight- Codling moth maggots- yich!

beautiful shadows  

The 3 roses are well past prime since blooming last week among the coral bells around the old tree stump. Against the garage wall are several hostas and that amazing "prehistoric" plant, the one where...

the flowers bloom out of a pod

(though these two buds somehow escaped the pod).

Bursting out of the pod,

they grow in a small bouquet.

Over on the black hollyhock buds by the composter, this fly plays with me, knowing how close I am yet flying back again and again to allow me to move in closer. 

What a lovely weave of greens and mauves the clematis and the black hollyhock make.

More paint chip play, with faces this time, done in ink and pencil crayon with some white paint pen and washi tape. The black backgrounds went in last. Composition seems more complicated to me with multiple images, but I'm finally ready for the challenge.

Today I leave you with this quote by Alan Watts:

"You yourself are the external energy which appears as this universe.

You didn't come into this world;

You came out of it

like a wave from an ocean."

peace on earth