Flying Turkeys

Just after I uploaded the last post, I went outside and the turkeys were back; ran for the camera hoping to get some shots of them in flight. Got a few of the take off [bottom photo] but a couple of hours later I was lucky, thanks to the wonder dog Zoe, to get them in full flight.

Beautiful feathers

Take off

Christmas Visitors

These turkeys were eating all around the bird feeder yesterday. Zoe had already chased them around the pond which was a very funny sight as she leaped through the snow trying to reach them and they, needing a fair bit of runway to launch themselves into fight, ended up in the trees looking rather like basketballs. Good thing they hid last week or the ending of this story could be quite different. Love the pattern and colors of their feathers. I am always surprised by how much blue is in the feathers.

Wild turkeys

More Amaryllis

Can't seem to stop playing about with these photos of the amaryllis, cutting them up, using them whole, re-arranging, re-photographing, re-constructing and de-constructing. Here are a couple of results.

De-constructed Amaryllis

Re-constructed Amaryllis

Amaryllis

Every year, well most years, I get a white amaryllis for the table at Christmas. I love these flowers and today with the light coming through the leaves it is just yummy. It might be the tender green, with its promise of spring that moves me so, especially when the outside is a buried world with only faith to sustain one that it will be green and lush again. Another favorite thing about amaryllis is that it always reminds me of this song, Amaryllis by Caccini and sung by Cecila Bartoli. [ I LOVE Cecilia Bartoli, in my next life I'm coming back as a singer please.]

Christmas Amaryllis

Wishing You All The Very Best

Wishing you all the very best however you celebrate the season. We will go the route of family, friends, food and drink, books and music, studio time and walks with Zoe. The trees are up and decorated, and I am about to make tattie scones, something we always have for breakfast on Christmas morning. Basically left over mashed potatoes and flour, mixed to the consistency of pastry, rolled out very thinly, cut into triangles and fried. I think you might have to be a Davidson or Scottish to enjoy these, but I love them.

Add caption

Views Through The Old And New

JB and I and of course Zoe live in an old (1862) farmhouse that we bought 35 years ago. It's been a good house for us and we love it. The brick was made down the road and the glass for the windows was also made down the road and has lovely ripples and bubbles.  It had a summer kitchen attached to the back of the house, then a buggy barn attached to that and a cow barn attached to that. The summer kitchen became our kitchen and the barns became out studios. About 15 years ago we decided to rebuild our studios and they became a berm, with windows. The other morning when I got up there had been more snow and it was beautiful. I was struck again by the fact that the house is another layer of skin, the windows eyes to see out. The old windows have their mullion bars while the new are tall and thin and frame the tree trunks.

2 views

Cleaning the floor

This post is not spiritually up-lifting or incredibility creative, but man is it clean. One of my rituals for getting ready for Christmas is to remove the old wax from the kitchen floor and apply new wax. I told you this was not uplifting but does it ever look good. I may hate the job but I love the results.

My Clean Floor

Snow Shadows

The light is absolutely beautiful this morning, soft, pale rose and gold with undertones of blues. The sun is rising so far south and I can hardly wait for next weeks solstice. That is the moment for me when I know we are on our way to back from the dark to the light. Meanwhile I will enjoy this light.

show shadows

Lights

I LOVE Christmas lights. I don't care what color they are, I just love them. The day light is over by 3.30 p.m. and I love seeing these twinkling lights outside.

Twinkling Lights

The Heart Wood

After the big wind storm of last week and just before the big snow storm of this week, our friend Aurel had time to cut and haul away the 4 big trees we lost to the wind. The Manitoba Maple is considered a weed tree but the colors of the heart wood are glorious. See what you think!

Heart Wood

A Paler Shade of White

Love that song and love the deep quietness of this white world. Someone said we had 41 inches of snow, that swirled about the house and now lies deep on the ground. The world has become so still, now that the wind has died down, almost as if she is resting. Snow has piled up against the doors and windows and there has been a lot of shoveling to do. JB, my darling, shoveled a path from the studio to the parking area, making it easy for people to visit for the studio sale.

Snow against the windows

Getting Ready

The 25 small works are finished, now it's time to clean up the studio. Painted the big wall, the first time in 15 years and will see if  the other big wall gets done, but first need to scape the wax off the floor, do some , actually a lot of reorganizing and clear the path to the studio door. After 24 plus inches of snow that could be the biggest job.....maybe I'll  trample it down with snowshoes, might be more fun. Meanwhile the freshly painted wall looks very fine and love the shadows the ladder makes

the ladder shadows

December 6, 1989, Montreal, Quebec

In Memory of

Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Marie Klueznick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne- Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte

who died in what has come to be known as the Montreal Massacre on December 6, 1989.

14 stones set in the concrete of my studio floor

Link  For Sophia...the female Christ
Link  The Singing of The Stones

Some Street Art of Florence

While wandering around the city I took these shots. We were both surprised by how similar graffiti is all over the world, where I had expected differences. One thing that really did stand out was the scratching into the surface of the stucco, and the fact that there was so little graffiti in the old town. I found these beautiful.

Street art / graffiti in Florence

Garden Light Studio Sale

When I started this blog back in the late summer I had no idea where it was going or where it would take me. One of the wonderful and unexpected things that happened was starting to use a grid to organize images and the other piece of serendipity is that it's become something I look forward to. A way of preparing myself for the studio. It's like playing scales. Working with the grid gave me the idea of making 25 small format works, 10 in x 10 in, that would be shown in the grid form but that each work had to be able to stand on it's own. I invite you to come and see the result. The studio will be open the weekend of December 11 and 12, from 10 am - 5 pm. If you need directions just email me [click on the link and it will even address your email] and I will send you a map. Hope to see you!