". Arranged Words: Summer
Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts

5 Sept 2023

All About Summer



Brockville in the Thousand Island.

Sails up ready for fare winds! Or was he/she just in a really hurry for lunch and a cool drink.

Hi everyone,

Labour Day raced by and I am happy to report we are still in the throes of summer.
Although autumn brings with it so many wonderful sights, sounds, smells, and well, just so much beauty, I like to hang onto summer until the equinox on September 22nd. Autumn can wait.

As you know, August always rushes in the front door and out the back door before you can say jack rabbit it seems. But it did make a pit stop for my birthday. Yes! Completed another milestone trip around the sun. I'm happy to report my birthday was a red letter day too!

 Moving on...I do have a name for the draw, but more about that later.

 
 
 Oh, photo might have been clearer...

As you can see, I was at a red light in a purple and green, backfiring (putt, putt) standard jalopy on a very steep hill--need I say more.


                         
       Just love doors/beautiful entryways. This one in particular looks so cheerful and welcoming. It is a hotel, so a lot of signage going on, but nevertheless I love how it looks. And how about those reflections in the window.
I could easily spend a night there, I reckon.


    
    Took a stroll down this street because one of the windows in this old wall holds a surprise that I've been wanting to get a photo of.


 
And here they are--horses of all things! What a in your face look.  Could they be stallions with something to prove?

        
                                            A front garden. 

 Although bountiful, and even though it isn't really small it brings to mind a quote from the Pride and Prejudice movie: "You have a very small garden, madam." 


Brilliant idea to create levels.


                                                                 
                                                                              * * *
 
From the sketchbook...
 

First time using Etcher sketchbooks. Rather good sketchbooks, I'd say.

Painted using some metallic and regular watercolours on a background of indigo.
I've been watching a few you tube videos on indigo dyeing. An artform in itself.
                    At some point, I will make a card out of this, I reckon.

 ~ And now to the draw. Drum roll...please Figaro! Oh, Figaro... F-I-G-A-R-O

Figaro the Magnificent fired up the random number generator and... he's happy to announce that the winner is: Marilyn. Figaro insisted on two winners. He loves giveaways! 
So the Second winner is: Jeanie. (Second winner will receive same print but one card will be different.)
Please contact Dixie with your addresses via email/contact form, so she can zoom down to the post office in the jalopy (asap) with your packages.

 A big thank you to all for your lovely comments on my last post and for your visits. You are appreciated.

Until next time...

                                               Cultivate your Dreams

                                  Linking to Link Parties via my link party page. 

                                                Thanks to all for hosting.  

1 Aug 2023

Summertime

                                                                        Sumacs

                                                    
    I've been away from blogging for sometime, so hello there once again. There were changes, so I needed some time away to process and deal with things. I am; however, glad to be back, and I am sending along a heartfelt welcome to all of you!

Wonderful, lately, to enjoy a few cooler days with a lovely breeze; so nice after the extreme heat of most of July. Summer breezes, to me, are a refreshing gift.  I also love to hear the breeze rustle through the rushes and to watch the wind ruffle the water. 

                                                                 

The world looks lovely and green thanks to all the rain sent down from the heavens in July.



                                                                    Purple Loosestrife

        Queen's Anne  Lace                                 Sumac                                  No quite sure. Could be                                                                                                                             Coneflower or Black-eyed Susan

                                         

                                                  


If you are in the U.S. or Europe, you may have experienced or are experiencing  smoke from Canadian wildfires.  So many are burning--approximately 880.

 In N.S. some of my family members had to evacuate, but fortunately they were able to go back to their intact homes. Not so for many others. And a month or so after the fires they were hit with flooding from unusual torrential rains. (Tumultuous weather and fires have been reported world wide this year.)

At the end of June 27.1 million acres or 11 million hectares have burned nation wide. So sad for people, and, of course, all the wildlife. 

Our forests are vast and it's nearly impossible to curtail these fires. Some are very remote, so they pick and choose which ones to fight. Of course, they suggest some areas need to burn, but 50,000 lightening strikes in British Columbia in seven days has added to the burden. Fortunately the world has stepped up; firefighters have been arriving from as far away as South Africa. Bless all those who risk everything to help out!
                                                                     
                                                                   * * *

 

A little reading...

The Covenant of Water--a heavy tome for sure with a total of 714 pages.  If you haven't already, you can watch a six part Oprah interview with the author. 

James Gurney author of the book Color and Light knows a thing or two. You can check out a preview of his book here.

                                                                           * * *
                                                                    Pastel on Claybord

This piece of Claybord was specifically made for watercolour. It has a very smooth surface, so I coated it with two coats Golden's pastel ground. I usually use Pastelmat, but I do like this rougher, textured  surface. 

                                                                     Unison Soft Pastels

This year marks many years of blogging for me. I will go into specific details next time.


Until then...

                                                 Cultivate your Dreams

                                  Linking to Link Parties via my link party page. 

                                                Thanks to all for hosting.  

27 Sept 2022

An Ode to Summer


 Hi everyone,

Depending on your location, I hope you all had a lovely summer or winter and are looking forward to a change in season.

Our summer was hot one with a few extremes. For example, one day the temperatures reached 100.8 F/38.22 C, and the next day it was 64.4 F/18C. First time, I've experienced 100F heat here in this part of the world.
                                  
Here, just now, gold, red, and orange colours are busy painting the treetops.

                                                                * * *

Time to say a few words about the Queen Elizabeth II. She has been a constant in the world for such a long time. I am grateful that she was with us for so long, and that she left us at this time and not in 2020 when she would not have had a proper send off. What a remarkable lady she was. And she certainly kept her promise to serve whether her life was long or short. RIP beautiful Queen Elizabeth. You will be sorely missed.

                                                       
                                                             Wonderful cloud formations. 

                       Pictures taken in Brockville in the 1000 Islands, along the St. Lawrence River.




Tall Ships Landing.
                                                                    Tall Ships Landing

 I think you can buy a condo there for a cool million or more. 



Unfortunately, hurricane Fiona has wreaked havoc the whole way along its track and has also decimated parts of the Maritimes. My relatives live in different parts of Nova Scotia. The storm brought heavy rain and 150K winds to Nova Scotia, but it swerved into a different track, and they were spared the brunt of it. But a state of emergency has been declared for other parts of the Maritimes, and the military has been sent to access the situation. The Maritimes have ridden out many a hurricane, but nothing of this magnitude has been seen for several generations. 

In Newfoundland several homes were washed way, and there's widespread damage throughout Cape Breton and PEI. There are hundreds of thousands of people without power; hard working crews have been working fast in N.S. and half of 500,000 customers without power are, as I type, back online. 
My thoughts and prayers and with the people.
Also praying for the people of Puerto Rico and other areas that were devastated along the storm's tract.

* * *


                                           
                                                     Pastels on Pastelmat Archival Paper

                                                            
Unison's Botanical Set.
     
My birthday was in August, and so I was gifted these lovely pastels. Because pastels are so pretty, it takes time for me to remove the wrappers, snap them in half and begin a painting. 



 A swatch of eighteen beautiful Botanicals and the three extra colours I received for good measure.


Abstract acrylics




                                    Sun print/Cyanotype, Watercolour/mixed media, and Sunflowers.


Linking to Link Parties via my link party page. 

                                                   Thank you all for hosting.

                                  Until next time...Stay safe and sound and

       Cultivate Your Dreams



14 Sept 2021

Summer Escapades Part 2


Since it's nearly the middle of September, I thought I'd better post the second part of my summer pictures this week so that I can catch up after two months away from blogland.
The blue mountains: the Adirondacks in upstate New York. 


 

                                                     
                                                         A bird's eye view. Well, almost.


Weeping Willows swaying in the wind.

     
                                                               Summer clouds.




I just received Remarkable Diaries to add to my collection. In my opinion, these are great books; they give you a fascinating view into many remarkable lives.  Armchair exploration at its finest.

          

  One of my container plants. Begonia still hanging in there. The nights are cool but the days are still lovely. After all, the very last day of summer isn't until September 22nd. And I am sticking to it!



Brown Eyed Susan's, Purple Coneflower, and an early turning Maple. The Maple photo was taken in August.

* * * 


Pastel on Uart 400 Sanded paper. As you can see the paper likes to curl up, but it holds colour and layers well.

                                 
Have a lovely week...

Cultivate Your dreams

Linking to Link Parties via my link party page. Do drop by for a visit; there’s much to see.

  Thank you, ladies, for hosting.


7 Sept 2021

Summer Escapades ~ Part 1

                                                             
                                                         Loosestrife in the Marshlands
 Hi there,

Since my last post, I've made another trip around the sun. Travel onboard terra firma; it's a marvelous world!

 I do hope everyone enjoyed a lovely summer, or winter. Thankfully, summer’s not quite over.


I did visit my usual haunts, but I certainly would have enjoyed a few more outings. But somehow when out walking, I twisted my foot and developed Plantar Fasciitis. I have no idea how athletes keep on the move with it. Obviously, they have superb medical expertise at hand. I hope to be on the move soon though; I do have lost time to make up for.

                                                                             A selfie.

   I love being outside for what I call my restorative nature therapy. I always feel renewed and refreshed     after a day, or even an hour, out in the heart of the beauty that surrounds us. 

The Loosestrife looks like Fireweed. If you really stretch your imagination, you can imagine lavender fields in Provence, France. According to Wikipedia, Bulgaria produces the most lavender. Who knew?


                                                   Peaches and Cream corn fields




Someone told me about this sunflower field, so I went on a little excursion to another town. Standing near the sunflowers, I found myself thinking about Van Gogh. I wonder what he would think about his sunflower painting selling for 39 million in 1987.


I hoped the farmer was the benevolent type, although my imagination conjured up an angry farmer with a shotgun in hand yelling at me to get off his land. Undaunted and with wonky footing, I stealthy crept into the field. I mean who could resist. 




                                                                          Busy Bee
    
Bees are a favourite creatures of mine. I've been out to the hives with a beekeeper a few times. 
Sometime ago I took a bee keeping course and would love to tend hives. These days I would need an assistant. A full super of honey can weigh up to 90 lbs.

A bit about bees. Bees navigate using landmarks and/or the sun. In the early spring, the scout bees fly out on a mission to find a supply of flowers. If they find them, they fly back to the hive and do a dance. The dance gives the worker bees the exact coordinates of that supply of nectar and pollen. In the summer, they air condition their hives to a precise temps required to raise the brood by fanning their wings that have drops of cool water that they have gathered on them. Easier done if they have afternoon shade, but, unfortunately, the proper placement of hives doesn't always happen. The queen bee, besides laying eggs non stop, controls the hive's activities with her pheromones. There’s much more to tell, but it’s time to move on.
Like many people, I am concerned about the bees; I wish they were treated better. They are such amazing creatures.

Here's a link for info and for a list of the many crops bees pollinate. 


The sky here looks so white. I've toned down the picture so you can look at it without wearing sunglasses. Actually, that's smoke from the many forest fires (over 100) that were burning in Northern Ontario at the time. Like many parts of the world, Canada has had a summer of extremes. In British Columbia, at one point, the temperatures were hotter than they were in Death Valley. On the B.C coast mussels fried on the rocks. Temperatures reached 49.6C or 121.28 F. It boggles the mind.



A late blooming wild rose. I wish you could smell it. Glorious!

                                                                         * * *

     Off the drawing board...





While clearing out my desk, I happened upon this wee birdie that I drew long ago; she was destined for the bin. I did manage to salvage it by pumping up the colour and adding the wee fly to cover a splotch of paint. (Sometimes the brush has a mind of its own; amazingly it can flip out of your hand and twirl about in the air and hit the paper with an unceremonious splat.)

While not much is happening on Etsy, a friend of mine knows someone who owns a shop, so some of my cards and prints will be available there next week. That makes me happy.

In other news, the local art group will be starting their regular meetings next week. (Social distancing, both vaccines and masks apply.) 
Also, the group hopes to have an art show at the mall in November. I have a few pieces of art to frame for the show. I can buy a ready made mat and frame for one, but two more will require a professional touch. (Mat cutters and I do not see eye to eye.) I love how the shops finish the back too.




Using up my scraps of paper. The top painting: pastel and then two watercolours.

'Til next time...

Cultivate Your Dreams

Linking to Link Parties via my link party page. Do drop by for a visit; there’s much to see.

  Thank you, ladies, for hosting.