birds and bees

Clearly, I'm on a roll these days with my drawing and colouring and photographing and blogging.
It is an honour to share my work with you, a privilege I don't take lightly.

Today, I've finally installed Google Translate at the top of my sidebar, long overdue.
 Thank you for visiting me here.

"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality"

                                            Lewis Carroll

A Blue Jay set to squawking in its blue jay way

hopping from branch to branch

I went outside to see what all the fuss was about, but nothing could I tell

the first zucchini blossom in its place

the ripening peaches in theirs

mystery berries on a scrubby tree with leaves like any cultivated fruit tree 

It put me at a good vantage to see the neighbours' yard.

I never picked up on those funny moulded concrete steps before.

a pot of bolted arugula with their pretty flowers

Suddenly I saw a most magical sight- a Bee riding a Magic Carpet!

Before I could get my wits about me, it disappeared into this crack in the railing

where I now noticed sawdust.

Then another went in without a carpet, so fast that I still wasn't prepared to capture it.

I waited just long enough to see yet another bee land on the composter just beyond me.

 

Of course it wasn't riding the "carpet" but carrying it.

.

And what's this? It has sawed off the bottom of the leaf instead of plucking it by the stem as we would. Well, I never.... Of course, I had to look it up and found that is, indeed, called the Leafcutter Bee. Here is a link to this gentle bee.  It even speaks of them as being cavity dwellers that use existing holes. What a delightful discovery. The site even describes how to raise them as they are so benign and such wonderful pollinators.

As I turned to go in, the Song Sparrow, who seems to have become quite used to me flitted down to the middle garden to have a look/see.

poking about in the wood chips.

I've skipped a few drawings that I wasn't satisfied with to share this with you,

another pencil crayon drawing that's actually a little more vibrant than this.

Do have a lovely day and perhaps see where your imagination can take you. 

july glory

July, in all her glory.
The first was the second of two days of rain.
The second, the heat and humidity were stifling.
Day three, the humidity lifted.

Today, glorious summer.

On Saturday night I made a chickpea and cauliflower curry on brown basmati rice with a dollop of homemade tzatziki that had fresh dill from our garden. Butternut squash with flaxseed oil and bok choy on the side. Yum. I have to laugh at myself for taking such a picture, but I truly am proud of the way we eat with as much organic food as possible.

It is so incredibly fresh and high pressure a morning today that I am feeling quite perky.

The potted tomatoes are coming along brilliantly.

The giant leaves on the Hollyhock are perforated by bugs making them look quite homely, but their blossoms will be worth the wait. The Clematis are doing well alongside.

The Hydrangea is blooming prolifically; I wonder that it hasn't taken over the yard yet.

We got a Dahlia on sale in the annuals section. Wally was pleased to research his hunch that they are, indeed, a tender perennial, meaning that their bulbs need to be dug up and overwintered each fall.

After I gave the cats their breakfast, Babu had a little snooze in the vestibule.

Muji still wanted attention.

plaintive Muji

His cries woke Babu up

Beautiful Blue-Eyes 

 I went outside to take a picture in the shade where the light is true of the drawing I did on Saturday, when I heard the Song Sparrow singing quite close and looked up to find him- close!

Try as I might, he'd turn his head each time I took his picture- always watchful.

Something happened on Saturday night after that chickpea curry dinner as I watched videos of various contemporary artists. The sensitive line drawings made me want  to scribble, and as I contemplated what I had done, I drew a face amidst and suddenly saw ears in the mess as well. Coloured Pencils again with tiniest touches of India ink Pitt pen.

Don't forget that you can always make a picture larger by clicking on it.

It surprises me when I see shifts in my work. It is easy to be influenced by a million things, and so hard to self reference. We are obliged to wake up, to take conscious note of where we are, who am I today?

I leave you with this quote by Anais Nin:

"Life is a process of becoming. A combination of states we must go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death."

birds and more birds

Just a  little update on the raven and the crow.
While I don't know what goes on behind the scenes, I suspect that having a hungry raven in the neighbourhood doesn't bode well for little crow nestlings.

Mr. Raven just appears to be rummaging through last year's hay that remained after baling.

There seems to be lots of little things to eat underneath for he has returned each day, morning and evening for an inspection.

He has very good eyesight and can often see me move behind my window. So he's good at gauging the crow dives and making himself big to keep the crow at bay.

The crow was determined this day and did several successions of double dives, looping down and up,

then down and up again.

How's a raven, minding his own business, to have a peaceful breakfast?

Again with the diving

and, oh dear, again.

The raven was getting very practised at returning to his foraging after each crow swoop

 

as he immediately gathered himself

but, really! This odd photo looks like the raven began to fly but it's probably a hop

Here he just ducks

I've kept these photos sequential, but you can tell by this edited amount that this business went on for a while

The raven was getting tired of the whole thing

and eventually gave up and flew off

All this drama and there's Muji behind me patiently waiting for breakfast.

I couldn't leave you with such a story without something more uplifting,

so I got out my trusty (?) camera, and headed out for the garden,

but not before taking another shot of this revamped vignette that I've changed since Monday.

Out the back door Forget-Me-Nots are blooming by the composter

New leaves on the Japanese maple are looking rather raggedy before they plump up,

rather like newborn birds, all scraggly

In back of the garage, Wally replanted the wandering Goji Berry bush that gave us a nice little crop last year, but needed an arbour out of harms way so we thought this might do.

Out by the back corner there are more forget-me-nots under the maples

I kept hearing birdsong rather close by

and was surprised to see this bold little song sparrow in the old wild rose vines

preening

and singing a merry melody

As I walked through the yard I found some white Forget-Me-Nots

under the white blossoms of the cherry tree

a starling sang to me

then more came and went

here is a happy foursome that can't wait to plunder the cherries as they do each year

I'm so tickle I caught one about to land, feet first. 

And that is all for now.

I keep hoping to have something creative to share with you soon.

til then

peace in our hearts