Summersgate - (Egg Shell)

In the Belly.


More Imbolc stuff. White for purity, green for new life, blue for protection and gold for fire. I'm planning to weave these together later today. Maybe it's just thinking about it being mid winter, groundhog day, halfway to spring, but I'm feeling a bit hopeful today. I've gained weight this winter with practically no hiking. I hate slogging through deep snow. And I don't like being cold. But I'm feeling like spring WILL come and warmth will return. My body can recuperate. Being able to hike in the woods will come again.

It's only 4F right now. Blaa. But it's supposed to get up to 15F later and Candy and I are planning to walk in town on the sidewalks.

Yesterday's art. I'll either call this Mother's Day or Blue, White, Red and Black.

Candy and I hiked to the Dennison Point Overlook this morning. 3.5 miles over hill and dale with a long sit-down at the overlook bench. I took no pictures but I did try and picture in my head a painting I could do of the little fresh folded maple leaves looking like birds flying against the blue sky.


Skye, my new sweeper, Andy's food that he doesn't want to eat and one of his chews that he's not interested in either. I took the picture to show my sweeper that I am loving right now. It's QUIET. I find that I don't mind sweeping - going over the rugs with this. I already went around the main public spaces twice today! That's crazy. Compared to how I used to housekeep. I've picked up a new hobby. It's called "trying to keep the floor clean". I got as many of those thin flat rugs to cover the floors as I could find spaces for. It is so easy to run the sweeper over them. I find it fun. Dave said that when I was little I must have had one of those wheeled popper toys on a stick that little kids push across the floor. I think I did.

Dave took Andy to the vet this morning. Andy's having a flare up of anaplasmosis and he's anemic too so the vet sent him home with antibiotics and something for inflammation and pain. Poor guy. He has no appetite and he's sleeping a lot.


Leaves Like Birds.

It's been raining all day today. I'm glad that Dave and I got a lot done yesterday afternoon with clearing multiflora rose from the old cottage lawn before the storms started. I feel like we are bringing the woods back to where they were when Dad was alive and in his prime.

The orioles are visiting their jelly feeder pretty regularly today. The hummingbird feeder is in front of my window back here where I write on the computer and the oriole feeder is by the living room window. Orioles like to drink hummingbird water too so I get to see both birds back here.


Art a day: It's Baby Green and Pink Again.


I took this pic last night through the fence into Dave's garden. Rhubarb. I was surprised to see those bulbus white flowerheads (?) on the plants. It'll be interesting to see what they develop into next. Oh wait - I was just reading about it and they say to get rid of those flower heads so the stems will develop more. Maybe we won't get to see a rhubarb flower.


And here's an update on the pregnant tomato. I took it outside so the babies could get more light. I think I'll set it into a pot of dirt by itself next so they'll have something to root into, if they can get that far.

Some pictures from the last couple days:( Read more... )

Candy and I hiked the Erie Wildlife Refuge Deer Run Trail this morning. It's been a while since I was there last. It was good to see nature progressing along into our new season. There were millions of tiny springbeauty wildflowers in one spot. So small that at first you'd think you were just looking at grass blades but they all have little flowerheads. I should have stopped and got a picture but I didn't. Here's the pictures I did take - mainly brown woods with streams winding through and bright spots of fresh green here and there:( Read more... )

Portrait of a Daffodil. They are all up and open out front. But there's been rain, like we always seem to have in daffodil season and many are laying with their faces in the mud. I found the worst one this morning and brought it in and put it in a jelly jar so I could paint it.

It felt like there was some negative stuff building up in me this morning so it was really good that I had a day where a lot of the time I was outdoors or else doing something creative to take my mind off it. Money, the state of the world, politics, getting older.  Blaa. Jan and I walked the bike trail beside the river from the Oil City boat ramp to the Venango Campus gazebo. It started out cold with the wind in our faces. I wished I had worn a knit hat instead of just having a hoodie over my head. I felt like I had "brain freeze".  On the way coming back it was much nicer with the wind at our backs and the sun came out too. We met Chloe at Baked Goods From Heaven for lunch. It's in the store front where Famoores used to be. Really nice, like a coffee shop with good food. Afterwards we went to Chloe's Paint and Sip at the library. Came home and took the dogs for a walk down back, and then went back out again just by myself so I could try painting or drawing something plein air. Some pictures from the day:( Read more... )

Riffles. Tried to capture the look of creek water in the sun. I sat down by the creek for quite a while this afternoon, interspersed with forays into the woods to lop multiflora rose bushes. I got a lot done. Cleared a spot by the old cottage foundation where two trees were the right distance to have a hammock strung between them. I lay in the hammock with Rainy on my lap, looking up at the tree tops for about a half hour. It was windy with lots of movement going on up there. Came home and had dinner and then went back out with one of the lensbaby lens. Five backyard pics:( Read more... )

Woke up from my nap a while ago with a dream clinging to me. I was climbing a huge tree, smooth bark like a beech tree, in something like a city park. It was near a college and there were students walking around. I had climbed it for some reason that I didn't remember by the time I was done with the dream, but anyway, I was up there. I had been up there for a while and enjoying it. Felt capable of moving around from limb to limb. It seemed like I was getting higher and higher. In front of me I could see where many other people had written their names on the tree in something like sharpie ink. I wished I had a writing instrument because it seemed important that I show that I had gotten this far too. Then in the dream I took a nap nestled between two big limbs. But when I woke up I was disoriented and didn't know if I was looking up or down. When I turned my head to try and figure it out it made me dizzy. I clung onto the big limb in front of me. All the limbs seemed too big and the trunk was now too big to shinny down. I started to wonder how I had even gotten to the place where I was. Should I call for help? Ask for a firetruck to rescue me? That was when I woke up, very relieved that I didn't have to worry about THAT anymore.

This morning we took our tax papers to Kathy, our tax lady in Titusville. I'm the ''secretary", compiling papers and storing them in folders, finding things, but Dave is the "decision maker" and I have no idea what they are talking about half the time when we are there (numbers, stock abbreviations). We don't have a lot of stocks but we have a few that Dave manages and when he sells some it needs my attention later. I came home with a list of more things I need to wait for and then send along to Kathy.

Another warm day. Nearly 60F at the moment. I took the dogs for a walk down to the creek. The world is waking up. You don't see much green yet but you can just know things are happening underground. I love this time of year - there is a sparse beauty in the gray/brown/dull greens. You can see the land quite clearly without summertime lush growth covering everything. It's easy to see new possibilities for paths and weed-wacked openings.

I'm getting excited about the upcoming full lunar eclipse. It will be at its best for us this Friday morning at 3am. I hope we have a clear sky that night.

Imbolc: Halfway to Spring. I had never heard of "Imbolc" till yesterday when SmokingBoot wrote about it. It's a day in the year that falls between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Wonderful! Another day to think about and celebrate life and light returning to the northern hemisphere. Makes me want to celebrate more pagan holidays and pagan ceremonies.

We just got done watching "Here". A good movie.

It was cloudy this morning. Coolish. We walked at Robinson. I took my new binoculars and saw lots of birds: cardinals, robins, white pelicans, fish eagles (I have a block in my brain and can never remember their real name), lots of little birds and water birds too. It is amazing to me how many birds there are here! Not like the woodlands in PA at all where animals and birds are few and far between. Though I love the hills and scenery of home and wouldn't trade it for all the birds in the world.