random early winter snippets

Well, what do you know, I found some more November pictures on my camera.

Towards the end of the month, a blazing sunset.

If I had my car, I'd get myself to a better location than this view over our street, power lines and a cell tower, not to mention trees and branches blocking its radiance. This is the view out the kitchen window.

The next day Wally and I gave ourselves a holiday and hit the road.

I've regretted not recording the amazing carving up of this forest to make a cloverleaf access from the main highway to shopping in New Minas, our big box shopping area "for the Valley", that has lost so many of its businesses since this project was planned ten years ago making a mockery of "the horse designed by committee".

Our destination (yes again) Ikea for lunch. We can't really afford eating out, both financially and healthwise, but a late lunch at Ikea with most of the cafeteria to ourselves, was a rare treat. Could Wally look any happier with his "Naughty Meal".

Mine was barely healthier with its sauces and sugar and salt, etc. I opted for poached salmon with "vegetable patties" (mostly potato I think) and an appetizer for dessert: gravlax- more salmon.

I came home with a bad back that lasted for 2 weeks. I don't remember what would have caused it.

As usual Babu wanted to play. He has demanded I play with him after breakfast every day for a while now, but boy, it was hard to unbend myself. Still, it was good for me to get out of my chair.

I'm pretty much healed now with a little bit of stiffness.

One of our many first snows. I kept getting a chance to re-experience the magic.

Wally strung me out a heart in Christmas lights on the cabin doors.

I will try to get a photo with them on.

And a parting shot, as I have regrets about not having any new artwork of my own to show you.

I treated myself to this little collection of Patrick Mok's fantasy work several years ago.

Handmade out of stoneware clay, Patrick is an older man now, living in Toronto. Once a cartoonist, he changed his medium to clay. With an elfin sweetness about him,I wish I had got to know him better. Here is a link to a gallery that carries his work to get a closer look.

(Oh yes, that's the first picture ever taken of Wally and me. We were picking raspberries with friends at the house we since sold, in Bracebridge.) 

Now I will tell you a not so secret secret. This is post 94. (You can see that in the sidebar.) Because of all the posts I made this summer, these are the most posts I've made in a year since starting this blog. That is so cool for me who can get so discouraged at times by the lack of response and the crazy amount of "Bot" hits (automated views) that have made a mockery of my statistics. But I have made new friends through this blog, and that pleases me more than I can say.

The year is quickly winding down, but with 6 more posts, I can reach 100 altogether. With a little more time on my hands, I am aiming for that. So, once again, thank you dear viewers for dropping in and allowing me to share my little part of the universe with you.

peace dear ones

first snow and a trip to Ikea

Still doing the last bit of November catch-up, including this:

our first snow!

It's unusual for us to see snow here in November, our 5th in Nova Scotia.

Usually we're lucky to get it by New Year's.

Our little Harelson Apple tree is still wrapped in netting to keep the birds off the apples.

But the apples were all wormy this year, and discouraged, we left the netting up and the apples as groundfall.

The trees and shrubbery still provide great pleasure, with the empty field beyond.

This sugary beauty all disappeared within a day however. Ho hum.

The following weekend was our 2nd since Connie had been gone and we were itching for some fun so we hit the road south to Dartmouth, passing the white cliffs of Gypsum Mines just beyond Windsor.

This rough terrain with its sheer bluffs are just further down the highway as we climb Mt. Uniak.

A rainy day, I still felt it was worth keeping some blurry highway shots of the kind of mixed landscape we see in the space of an hour, from farmland to these great boulders and rock cuts.

I love the lighting on this little forest pond.

Here is another larger pond,

and one, larger still.

In the grand foyer of our destination, Ikea,

this crisp bedroom was done up so that one could walk all around it.

In fact, all Ikea's displays are done in the round and people are encouraged to sit on the merchandise.

Wally was quite taken with this display, wondering if we should put some more of the trendy brass into our décor. We already have a vintage lamp and some sculptures so that's probably enough for our little house.

That's the thing: our house is pretty full as it is though I love the eye candy of interior design.

There always seems to be an accessory here that we find to update the energy of our old house with its secondhand furniture.

I got that linen tea towel on a previous trip, but I do love the modern country style incorporating the black and white ticking for the duvet cover, and metal furniture.

Oh, I didn't do Wally justice taking our picture in this bathroom mirror. I probably saw him from a different angle, but it does show the teeny camera I've used all these years for the blog.

We spent a good little while inspecting this sophisticated "Besta" modular wall unit that we both liked for the living room as we, old fogies that we are, still have a LOT of videos that we'd like to store out of sight but handy. As it is, we keep them in the blanket box coffee table and baskets, scattered throughout the room, inconvenient to say the least. Since we didn't have a tape measure handy I asked Wally to "reach for the top" to help us estimate how this arrangement of modules would fit in our low-ceilinged room.

We couldn't stay late on a Sunday, not only because Wally had to work the next day, but also because the doors shut at 6pm. That was probably a good thing; otherwise we might have moved in.

Well, I think that finally winds up November.

Thank you for coming along while I play catch-up to this present moment in time...

as if that's possible on the internet!

Still, it's good to have you along to share these experiences.

thank you!

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

a quiet overcast september afternoon

Wally is home for a week and 2 days, attending to the house, painting, plumbing, and gardening on his agenda. I've got paperwork to do when I'm not on domestic duty or drawing in my sketchbook.

 The cooler autumn weather has slowed the growth of things around here and our 10 cent red jewel cabbage that made it into an available pot has certainly grown larger than the seedlings behind it, but won't grow much more I suspect.

I would have shown you this picture first but I didn't want to shock you so soon with such a good close up of a hornet that sat on the uppermost leaves of the climbing hydrangea that still sits in its pot on the deck, propped near the door to prevent it from constantly falling over in the wind.

Hornets are notoriously aggressive, but I sensed this fellow was somewhat sleepy

from a rather cool night before.

so I came in for his close up

and closer still.

As I stepped off the back deck, the vegetable garden is looking somewhat spent as most everything is ripening. The hydrangeas are looking tired too, bowed from the rain a few days before.

Into the yard, I noticed lots of wild asters growing around the perimeter,

this one by Forget-Me-Not Cabin's old beat up garage doors that I painted in the spring, 

The roses that Wally put into a new garden at one end of the cabin are budding profusely.

There are fading blooms on the other side of the same plant.

Lovely heirloom tomatoes are ripening.

and I'm overdue to pick some more green beans.

On his way to the garage, Wally catches sight of me.

"Hi honey."

I had to underexpose this daisy to pick up the detail in the petals

Beyond the rose garden is the rhubarb, then some wild asters, and the shipping pallet that Wally leaned in place to discourage the deer. Apparently they figured out a way in as the netting was pulled on our little peach tree, bending it over again, the remaining peaches gone

. At least we got some this year.  Next year, a real fence!

There were more wild asters growing on the other side of the cabin

by the old door crying for some paint.

Turning, I look East by Southeast at the hayfield whose weedy clumps of goldenrod, milkweed, etc.

are growing faster than the grass.

The wild roses in our border have turned to rose hips.

I make my way over to the garage garden where, that huge plant with the funky yellow flowers, Ligularia Dentata, is still putting on a show. Wally wanted me to check out where he placed the silver pitcher that I didn't need but didn't want to give away.

We both got a kick out of seeing it in amongst the Sweet William.

Over by the composter that Wally made out of shipping pallets,

the clematis is still blooming wildly.

Their seed heads make fabulous starbursts,

an added bonus.

Beside them the "black" hollyhocks are nearing the end

as they grow from the bottom of their stalks upward.

A gorgeous green and gold fly perched sleepily on one,

even as the wind bounced the bloom up and down and sideways.

Such an exquisite creature with its orange eyes.

Just to the side of the composter, more wild asters.

Sweet peas are blooming on the other side of the composter.

Going back up the steps, I look into the composter which looks more like a flower box with its Echinacea, clematis and the wild asters poking up through the deck side

The Echinacea are faded, woven through with sweet pea vines.

looking down on this natural bouquet of wild asters.

You may remember that I bought an extra cheap box of Crayola coloured pencils that have turned out to be of mixed quality, but fun nonetheless.

This piece done in Crayola coloured pencils as well,

as well as this one.

I'm feeling a little impatient to finish this book that I am drawing these images in so that I can justify turning to better quality paper. I've got a history of not completing my sketchbooks.  Better quality paper will actually enhance the appearance of these children's quality pencils, not to mention other media. Paper matters more than the materials sometimes, like the quality of a piano one plays on.  Still, there is much to learn each time I set out to draw something. The beaver's face was a challenge with its unusual shape, certainly not bunny or squirrel like, but as you can see I gave up finishing this piece, a sign that something better is to come.

Thanks for visiting today. I hope your September is kind to you. It is something to be grateful for, a little bit of kindness.

blessings