holiday wind up

After a light snow last week

a sweet view out to the lightly icing-sugared trees beyond

We never took down the deer barrier with the little apple ladders so I must look past them

Blue jays caught my attention with their screechy chatter but try as I might I only got this vague shot.

I totally missed the cardinals that flitted through, a flash of scarlet.

The sun threw some lovely shadows across the hill behind the garage

The next morning we awoke to much more serious winter as the wind threw it

against our window screens

It seemed a light fine snow, as is typical when it is really cold

and it was really cold as our ash trees clung to each other as one.

This year Wally hung some ornaments from the lower branches, but one has already worked itself loose in the wind and fallen with a crack to the ground. 

I turned to our cheerful living room, the mantle revamped for Christmas

Wally brought in some birch logs for our electric fireplace. Oh well, we do like a bit of kitsch; and nature is never out of place. They are a sweet compliment  to the old Christmas stocking he found last year and our funky 1940's ('50's?) fireplace that we've grown quite attached to.

Here is a wonderful paper Christmas tree that a friend made for me many years ago as a Christmas card. It stands about a foot high.

Another display of cuties- the Santa on the reindeer is a Christmas lamp that we found with the wiring still good

on the tree a small mitten

an owl with glass ornaments, the yellow one a special vintage one

a vintage happy new year noisemaker with some modern "old style" unbreakables that I keep near the bottom of the tree in case the cats decide to knock something off- which they do, but not often.

One of my recent favourites, bought after moving out here so near to the sea.

Can you see the little fountain of "water" coming from the whale's blowhole?

This embroidered lion is several decades old, probably from India, given to me by one of my cousins

a dear felted snowman

One thing that is getting me off my duff these days is Babu hounding me to play.

Here he puts the beady eye on an elastic stringed toy, his eyes all the beadier because of my shaky photography as I dangle with one hand and shoot with the other.

He loves this interaction

and it gives him a good workout

Look how his little toes on his back feet splay with the pounce!

One of many times that he thinks he's got it

and starts to march off to some secluded corner only to be pulled back by bad old me.

We've already had one encounter with an elastic wrapped toe, so no playing with his toy alone.

So that's a bit of pre-Christmas cheer. It has since rained and melted most of the snow. Boo hoo. I so love a white Christmas. As miserably cold as it was, it became springlike warm on Saturday which brought the rain; very jarring. Which way is up?

So who knows what weather this week will bring?  At least it's sunny today and hanging around -5C (about 18F). The cats are sleeping and I must get back to domestic duty.

Kindness like love is better thought of a verb. They both come with attentiveness and a compassionate heart.  Giving them, so shall you receive

peace

Greetings from a snowy day in Nova Scotia. It's not a Friday. It's certainly not March anymore. I wanted to have lots of artwork to share with you, but I've been distracted by other things.

Near the end of March, Wally was feeling well enough to tackle the studio closet

 which we want to incorporate into the bedroom closet.

I kept a piece of the old wallpaper, most of which was too fine to peel off the paperboard

 

You can see how small the original closet is on the far left,

and how wide Wally will expand it- almost up to the light switches.

 

A few days later, the weather was so mild

that I decided to go for a walk 

Our front lawn is covered in crocuses (which are under snow today)

They are not nearly this blue, more of a red violet that my camera cannot capture.

 

there are SO many robins about this year

 

Here is one of the unusual houses I saw on my walk

and a house I've shown you in years past that I love for its orange door,

an inspired palette altogether

 

This is what we woke up to this morning

 

So many plants are in bud. You would never know that this is our wonderful Honeysuckle

 (with a young maple growing out of it)

The backyard blanketed.

 

Muji finds the sunlight too harsh

and can barely open his eyes

though he tries

but it is midmorning by now and he goes off to sleep soon after 

 

The intense snowlight doesn't seem to bother Babu as much

 

his pupils narrowed to fine slits, he demonstrates the mop of dust he is on his black coat 

as he looks for some action outside

Kitty Squeeze Toy stays out of the way

 

This is the only "artwork" I've done in a long while,

a doodle on a 60+ year old piece of note paper I found in the attic of this house.

 

Thank you for dropping by for a visit. It shouldn't surprise me that I've slowed down on creative work this time of year.  Wally is finally over a nasty cold that lingered too long. Added to work, he became very tired; he is looking forward to some time off to work some more on the house.

 

Muji is mostly better. I've decided since my last post that the black stuff on his muzzle is a form of feline acne caused from bacteria that forms from licking his chops after he eats. It's not a problem for him as it seems to come and go, just an eyesore.  I'm happy to be of service to my sickies over the last 6 weeks, and particularly thrilled to have resolved Muji's most serious issues which started with alkaline crystals a year ago. Being a purebred Flamepoint Siamese makes him susceptible to digestive disorders. Add to that the abuse he had suffered and we've been able to piece together the "why's" that make him more vulnerable than hearty Babu.  Babu, in the meantime benefits from a lesser version of Muji's regimen just as Wally and I do from accommodating each other's diets. Refining the information has been good for all of us.

 

In the Serenity Prayer, there is the line:  "the courage to change the things I can".  It has been the theme of my life over the last year. It has set me on a course of no return.   It always makes me think of the title of Thomas Wolfe's book, "You Can't Go Home Again". Things change. Life is change. Learning to adapt to change changes us. We cannot go back to who we once were.  Hearing one's own voice starts the ball rolling.  This is not something to be afraid of, though heaven knows I was afraid to go against the veterinarian's order a year ago. I know in my heart that I did the right thing. This sets me apart from the status quo. The road opens up in ways I never imagined. 

 

 

Courage my love