Who's Watching Who

Well I am back.

Bird watching is a curious phrase, I often feel like the watched rather than the watcher as in these pictures:

Asleep?  I don't think so...

Watching while having a dip...an eye out all the time.

 

 

 

This eagle was surveying its surroundings, taking in me and everyone else passing by.

 

 

 The Redwing blackbirds have been back for a while and are staking out their territory around the pond.



 

 

 

A Rufus sided Towhee taking a rest from foraging in the undergrowth.

A Robin catching the early worm still has a bit of time to keep and eye on me.



..and this Chickadee stopped to watch me pass.

 

 

The Crows are always alert.

 



It is two weeks since my surgery and I am feeling much better, still sleeping a lot but able to get out and walk now. The fresh air is wonderful and I even took my camera with me yesterday and came home with these shots.

 

I have started splashing a bit of paint around in the last couple of days but have nothing to show yet.

 

Spring seems to have snuck up on me this year, I think it came while I was napping. I am looking forward to improving my fitness, flexing my artistic muscles and enjoying the new season.

 

Until next time, happy Wednesday, thanks for stopping by.........

 

Gillian 

 



The Melt

Last week's snow ended with a power outage here, sure makes one appreciate the light and heat that we usually take for granted.

So days of grey skies gave way to sunshine and all that is left is the melt.

A thin coating of snow is still on the trees, nestled in the rushes and on the bridge over the pond.

 

 

 

 

Still a few traces of snowmen.

 

 

There is still a coating of sludgy snow on the pond but the blue of the  sky is still evident in the reflections. 

 

The ducks have "cleared" pathways through the water.

 

 

 

There is a fresh coating of snow on the local mountains too, but after all that is where the snow should be.

 

 

Since I took these pictures it has snowed again, and again, and almost vanished. Usually the snow has fallen on the weekends minimizing traffic woes.

 

Pretty while it lasts as long as it does not stay too long. We are more used to rain than snow here, and that does not need shovelling!

 

Here is one new painting, it is finished or almost finished. I have not decided what to call it yet but it is a watercolour on paper. This was inspired by a photograph that a friend Robert took. Here is his website:   www.alifeintheday.ca

 

 

Untitled watercolour

 

 

Thank you for stopping by, I am always interested in your thoughts, happy Wednesday.

 

I will likely be absent for a week or two because I am scheduled to have surgery next week. I will be back as soon as I am able,

 

Gillian

 

 

 

 

 



 



Snow Dropping

Last week it looked so like spring but this week it is snowing; but it is heavy wet snow and dropping not flaking. I didn't take the good camera out with me in the wet weather so apologize as the pictures are not quite up to my standard.

 

The star of the show last week was looking much the worse for wear after a day and a half of the soggy stuff.

 

The snowdrops were drooping under the wet snow, but will certainly rebound once it is finished.



 

Snow drops that fall on my nose and eyelashes? What about on hare, actually a rabbit.

 



 

Berries and "hips" with a coat of snow:

 

I thought these looked almost abstract:

 

 

.. and down on the beach this shell nestled in the snow near the tide line.

 

And now for something quite different. It is a watercolour painting on Aquabord (a board with a clay surface that accepts watercolours. I have never used this before, an advantage is that it can be fixed and varnished so that it does not have to go under glass.

Sometimes I see something that just begs to be painted, the following scene is one such. The shells were caught in a battered piece of driftwood that was washed up by a storm and lit up by the bright late afternoon sunshine. It is a watercolour that I call "Catch of the Day":

 

 

That's my Whimsy for this week, thanks for dropping by,

 

Gillian.



 



 



Just a little bit of fluff?

The day was predicted to be cloudy with showers, but the sun shone.

A piece of fluff, a clematis seed head really, caught my eye as it danced in the breeze so you know I had to reach for the camera.



Catching the light so perfectly.

 
Not being poetically gifted myself I offer these quotes:

"Every problem contains within itself the seeds of its own solution."

Stanley Arnold

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.

Robert Louis Stevenson

 

 

It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring,
who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.
- B. C. Forbes

 

 

 

So delicate and so pretty, caught in the sunshine, they made me stop, take notice and smile. I hope they brought a smile to your day as well.

Maybe it is not too early to start looking at seed catalogues and dreaming of spring.


On the art front I have recently started painting portraits. Here are two quite different subjects; the first is a singer at a country fair and the second is a small child peering out of her stroller.

 

 "Hey Mr. Guitar Man play a song for me" (sorry I didn't get a very good picture of this one):

 

"Guitar Man", watercolour. 13" X 10"

And a small girl peering out from her stroller:

"Small Wonder"

 

That's your Whimsy for this Wednesday, thanks for dropping by,

 

Gillian

Lost Whimsy?

Whimsy on a Wednesday?

I have spent the last few months feeling a bit lost. Lost in space, cyberspace that is.

In the fall our old, and usually reliable computer, died or so it seemed. Were the files gone with it? What about all my pictures?

A new computer promised improved speed and storage and the technician promise all our files were safe and had been transferred. Well, not so much.

First time I turned it on, the mail program didn't work, all our saved mail was not there and the screen looked very different. No start button?

Hey Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Nothing is the same!

We had gone from a 32 bit operating system to a 64 bit one. None of my old reliable and efficient photo storage and editing tools worked anymore.

 

..and I admit I just gave up for quite a while.

 

So I have "found" my pictures, got new editing software and am gradually getting used to it. Maybe I might just get this blog off the ground again.

 





 

 

 

Well at last!

I have some paintings to share and some art news.

First here is are a couple of new paintings:

Coming and Going, watercolour, 14" X 20"

 

"Alight", watercolour, 20" X 14"



My art news: 

Two of my paintings have been accept in a juried exhibit titled "Works on Paper" at the Federation (of Canadian Artists) Gallery on Granville Island in Vancouver.

"Aurora", watercolour 14" X 20"

 

"Echoes", watercolour 20" X 14"

 

 

The show is on February 11 to 23, 2014; here is the link to the online gallery.  I am thrilled to report that "Aurora" was given an "Award of Excellence".

I am happy to say that I have a surgery date soon which should resolve the medical issue that has been hanging over my head for some time now.

Happy Wednesday, until next time, with whimsy,

Gillian