A little bit of this and that

Wednesday? Well a day early, because I made a scheduling error, oops.

Today I have a an assortment of pictures, some from the park and some from gardens in my neighborhood.

First here is a Great Blue Heron fishing. I watched it for a while and I think it caught a couple of small fish, I was not quick enough to "capture" that with my camera. They are amazing to watch, still for so long and then a blur of movement, so quick if you look away for a moment you will miss it.

 

"Blue skies smile at me, nothing but blue skies do I see."

Irving Berlin

 

It is so green and lush in the woods, I think some of the pathways may vanish under the vegetation. 

 

 

 

But there are also lots of berries, these early salmonberries, and lots of flowers on the blackberries promise a good crop of berries mid summer.

 

The Strawberries are ready early this year too, a favorite around our house.

 

This little fella was "just hopping down the bunny trail" and stopped briefly to see if I had a treat for him.

 

 

Another bunny, and there are lots of baby rabbits too.

 

 

 

 

These Redwing Blackbirds seemed to appreciate the handouts.

 

 

Reminds me of this tune: "Feed the Birds"

 

 

The park is full of wild roses and daisies.

 

Anyone remember making daisy chains as a kid?

 

This beautiful Dogwood, Dogwood is the Floral Emblem of British Columbia.

 

 

I haven't seen many white Foxglove flowers, I share this one with you.

 

 

Honeysuckle, also early to bloom this year.

 

 

 

This is a picture of one of my Honeysuckle plants, a favorite of the hummingbirds.

 

 

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I have an Art Show at Image West, and have been busy framing, labelling and hanging pictures.

 

Follow this link to see the images and location

 

 

I have started a few things this week but only finished one, and it is another food painting titled "Squashed":

 

 

Here is how it looks framed:

 

 

 

 It is the latest of my Food cards, which include a recipe card using the pictured ingredient. What is the recipe for this card, take a look:

 

View at:http://www.pswhimsy.com/food-cards-series-22.html

 

or all the food cards at: http://www.pswhimsy.com/food.html

 

Here are some other cards I have recently added to the site:

 

To see all recent additions and names and details follow this link:

 

 

http://www.pswhimsy.com/new-additions.html

 

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Until next time...

Thank you for all your kind comments on my last post.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

 

happy Whimsy Wednesday

 

 

 



Aye, eye all around

The weather has been quite wet and rainy most of the week, March getting an early start on April showers, no doubt. The garden is moving along slowly to the promised May flowers and birds and critters are busy making a living.

Not a great week for photo walks so I did a bit of Spring clean up of my photo files and came up with this week's offering. A few of these may have been shown before, if so I apologize ahead of time.

This week the theme is about eyes again, but eyes in nature and in verse this time. The young mallard above, from last summer, was darting around the pond in front of the Planetarium, but keeping a little dark eye on me and my camera. The rooster below was very busy watching the hens, the other roosters and me.

"The eye is the jewel of the body."

Henry David Thoreau

"The eye speaks with an eloquence and truthfulness surpassing speech. It is the window out of which the winged thoughts often fly unwittingly. It is the tiny magic mirror on whose crystal surface the moods of feeling fitfully play, like the sunlight and shadow on a still stream." 

Henry Theodore Tuckerman

This Redwing Blackbird looks ready to chastize me for venturing too close to his territory. I liked how the reeds glowed in the afternoon sunshine.  The Anna's Hummingbird below reflects the red glow from the feeder. I may fill the feeders, but the hummingbirds still chitter at me and buzz me if I get too close at any other time. I once picked up a feeder to take it inside to clean and fill and surprised myself and the hummingbird sitting on the other side of the feeder; after a bit of a stare down the bird flew off.

I love the bright red Towhee eyes, I think it makes them look a bit comical though.

"With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things."

William Wordsworth

The female Redwing Blackbird, is so unlike the male, and this one was watching me carefully, I think I may have been close to her nest, which they build in in the reeds above the pond. A Sparrow stops foraging briefly to see that I am no threat.

"A beautiful eye makes silence eloquent, a kind eye makes contradiction an assent, an enraged eye makes beauty deformed. This little member gives life to every other part about us; and I believe the story of Argus implies no more than that the eye is in every part; that is to say, every other part would be mutilated were not its force represented more by the eye than even by itself."  

Joseph Addison

There are quite a few rabbits in the park, they forage in the grass and eat the leaves of the blackberry bushes, but they also have a very faithful group that supplies them with seeds, grains, pellets, carrots and vegetable bits.

"Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" Groucho Marx

I don't know what this squirrel was carrying, maybe his purse, but this struck me as a funny pose.

"You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." Mark Twain

The compound eyes of a hover fly on an Echinacea flower (above) and below the "eye like" pattern on the wing of a butterfly. The butterfly picture was taken in a tent like structure that was very warm and humid, an atmosphere that the butterflies thrived in; I tended to wilt and went outside ocassionally to be revived in the cool air outside. This one seemed to be enjoying the fruit.

"Men trust their ears less than their eyes." Herodotus

The sheep and donkey are from a farm on Gabriola Island.

"The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends to be impatient, craves the novel and is bored by repetition."

W H Auden

The billy goat and horse I saw when I was visiting a local nursery, the horse was in a field close to where I parked.

This mama goat was having trouble with the "kids", they kept escaping under the fence.  Each day the owner would mend the fence and put them back inside and the next day they would be back outside again.

Well that is my spring cleaning offering.  It is fun to look through and air out the "photo closets" from time to time.

I have been rather lazy recently, partly to give my eye time to recover and partly because I got the cold/cough thing that has been making the rounds. Thank you to everyone for the good wishes following my surgery, I really appreciated it. I hope to be more perky and imaginative next week.



I did start on a couple of paintings but sadly nothing got finished; there is always next week.



Happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week .............

Starting a new page

Towhee taking a closer look

"The New Year lies before you like a spotless tract of snow. Be careful how you tread on it for every mark will show." Unknown author

This is sage advice for the start of a new year. We get the opportunity to have a fresh start, a new canvas and fresh page. So it is time to give some thought to what we will put on that page. An opportunity to take stock, make fresh plans, set a path or continue a journey already begun. Some will say that the beginning of the New Year is an artificial time for this, that a new path can be followed at any time, the start of a day, a week or a new month. Starting with a new year, though, a beautiful fresh new year, is like starting a huge new empty sketch book.

I have started my New Year with a cleaning and reorganizing frenzy in my studio, I now have a much more functional workspace (neater too). I also now have my own computer, yeah! Well, I think so most of the time, for someone who did not grow up with computers (remember the abacus and slide rule, you get the idea) so new technology can be daunting and frustrating at times as well.

Head scratching seagull

This guy seemed to be giving it some thought, wonder what he concluded. 

Have a look around and then hop to it.

 

 

Red wing blackbird

LBB (Little Brown Bird, sparrow probably)

Now its time to get back to a regular drawing and painting schedule. This year I want to experiment with some new techniques (poured colours, negative painting), and balance the detailed work (which I love) with some more spontaneous and quicker drawing. I need to finish up a couple of pieces that have been in progress for too long or abandon them entirely.

Smiling gargoyle

I need to make time to do at least one or two 15 minute paintings each week; these were recommended at the workshop I attended last September.

Watchful Crow

At the same time I have been struggling with the lack of light at this time of year, I guess I have seasonal depression. It will pass. With the short daylight hours and dull weather I think nature intends us to hibernate a bit, rest, refresh, and not push ourselves too hard. Why is it that we often are a lot more understanding and realistic about others capabilities than we are about our own?
For my part, I will try to get a bit more sleep, if the sun doesn't get up until 8 am, maybe that's when I should rise too, when I can.

But it's the beginning of a new year, a new page to start, a new path to tread, don't be so afraid that you make no mark at all, for that would be a shame; go ahead take a step, make your mark, follow your own path.

"Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang the best" Henry Van Dyke

I am pleased to report that I have 2 pieces, one drawing and one painting in the student show at the FCA Gallery (1241 Cartwright Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, B.C.) from Jan 10 to Jan 22, 2012. The opening reception is on January 12 from 6 to 8 pm. The Gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10-4 pm, it is closed on Mondays.

Fall Colour III - Gillian Olson watercolour

"Little Cutie" - Gillian Olson Pencil

 Starting here, starting now (Barbara Streisand):

Until next week, happy Whimsy Wednesday, thank you for dropping by.............