A Tiny Garden Friend

When my husband was mowing the lawn this morning he noticed this sweet baby toad. It was so tiny! It waited around long enough that both Chloé and I were able to hold and observe it. It was understandably scared of us big humans. Chloé then placed it into the safety and shelter of the flower bed. Close encounters of the cutest kind.

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Beauty in the Winter Garden

This morning, everything in the garden was covered with a gorgeous feathery frost. I put on my boots, threw my winter jacket over my pajamas and ran out with my camera to capture the beauty before it melted in the sunshine.

During this busy, stressful time of year, I find that even a few minutes spent in nature can really help to provide perspective and calm. 

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A Giveaway!

Hello, my friends. I am starting to feel the holiday spirit and am having a giveaway on Instagram. I wanted to be sure that you knew about it! You could win a nature collection print, a 'Celebrate Simple Things' card and gift tag and a set of recipe cards--all featuring my watercolours. Check out my post on Instagram for how to enter. It's simple. Click here.

I will be choosing the winner on Tuesday, December 9th at 9:00 a.m. EST.

❤  ❤  ❤  ❤  ❤

Spring, Where Are You?

Winter weary. Frost fatigued. Ice impatient. It's interesting how the very people who look forward to winter's first magical snowfall can be the same ones who don't want to see one more single snowflake at the season's end. Count me in. I am tired of wearing boots, hats and mittens. I don't want to scrape ice off the car's windshield one more time or shovel the front steps. I'm finding it hard seeing photos of blossoming trees and plants in others' blogs and Instagram feeds. I am aching to see my garden.

Although the calendar says spring arrived here about a week ago, this is still very much winter weather.

And yet, once temperatures rise, Meeko and I will no longer be able to take our daily forest walks. The little forest at our street's end will be too wet and swampy in a matter of days or weeks to walk in. So, I realized that instead of hating the last few days of this long, long winter, I should be cherishing its final moments. So I shifted my focus and my mood followed. Interesting. A recipe perhaps for other areas of my life?

I took these photos near the end of the day two days ago while trying to drink in the beauty of the snow, shadows and light. I thought about the freedom and joy that these forest walks give Meeko several months a year. I thought about the times I laugh out loud at Meeko's crazy antics in the snow or his goofy expression as he runs back to my side on the path. I thought about the welcome break these walks give me in my day and the peacefulness they provide to my spirit.

Oh spring, I can't wait for you to come but do you know what winter, I'm actually going to miss you.

The sun goes down and one season slowly concedes to another.

“It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want—oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” 
― Mark Twain

A Bittersweet Gift from Nature

This past week, I received a bittersweet gift. In the winter months, Meeko and I walk almost every day on the little forest path not far from our house. At this point in the winter, the scenery is quite familiar and predictable: snow, tree trunks and shadows. I love it but there aren't many dramatic changes from day to day. We know what we are going to see at each curve of the pathway. One day last week, Meeko hesitated beside one snow bank and it made me glance over. Scattered over the snow were the most beautiful spotted feathers.

It didn't take too long to figure out that what we were witnessing was the aftermath of the tragic end of a woodpecker, most likely a Downy Woodpecker, although all that was left were feathers. I am squeamish about injury and death and hate to know that any creature has perished.

I need to tell you a story. One day a couple of years ago, I looked outside into our backyard and saw a hawk sitting in one of our trees. Our trees are still relatively small so it was a pretty impressive sight. He had a sparrow in its beak. I have been known to walk out into the backyard and announce to the birds (I'm usually talking to the blue jays in springtime) that there will be no murders in my backyard. I was horrified in this case to see that I was too late to do anything. I have to say that my reaction moved from horror to respect over the course of the very long time that he was there. This was not sport. There was no waste. This was his food.

So this week on the forest path, I respected the fact that most likely another hawk had had its lunch and I had ended up with the most beautiful subjects for a new painting. Meeko was very patient as I trudged through the snow trying to gather as many as I could. Do you look at nature sometimes and think 'How could this be so beautiful?' Me too. The markings on these feathers are exquisite. It's the first time I've seen woodpecker feathers up close.

I created a composition with sixteen feathers. Midway through working on my painting, I thought that maybe I should have included less feathers as it would have been so much less work but I like that there are so many shapes and variations of feathers included. The photos show my work still in progress but I am happy with how it is coming along.

While working on it, I learned that painting while breathing is complicated. My delicate subjects were flying all over the place. (Trying to paint without breathing is even more complicated!) I finally placed my reference feathers under a cello sleeve so they would stay in one place and I could still see them. Much better!

I am thankful to the hungry hawk and my scout Meeko for the gift of these beautiful feathers.

"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift." Albert Einstein

A Love Note to December

December has arrived. Our snow came and went and is, as of today, back again. Yes!

Last week looked oddly like springtime. It felt so strange to lose the snow so quickly. I didn't take photos then.

Here are some of the wintry photos I've taken in the past week or so when we did have snow. The forest walk that Meeko and I take once a day and occasionally twice is restorative for me. About 35 to 40 minutes surrounded by nature is a joy. Meeko bounds and leaps and then waits for his less rapid companion who is usually off taking a photo somewhere. We both revel in the sights and sounds of the forest, each other's company as well as occasional encounters with fellow nature lovers, both two-footed and four-footed.

Airborne! 'Superdog' in his head and in my heart. :)

If you look at all of the frozen water, you get a sense of why we can't walk here for three seasons.

Wrap yourself up. It's getting cold.

Autumn and winter. Soul mates.

Love in the forest.

Gorgeous spiky frost on the marsh. It reminded me of a feather boa.

Touchdown after leaping over the log!

Frost-tipped echinacea in my garden. (The only photo not from the forest.)

My beautiful heart tree. When I was trying to find it again, I actually said
'Where is my heart' out loud and then 'There it is'.  My heart.

More leaf love.

Is there such a thing as too much leaf love. I don't think so.

We have lived in our house here for over fourteen years. I didn't know about this beautiful path, even though it is just at the foot of our street, until we had Meeko.  I owe thanks to my furry friend for so many things.

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Leaves and The Sound of Music

When I was working on getting ready for my arts and crafts show, I had a moment of panic. I thought 'Oh no! I am going to miss all of the autumn leaves.'  Well, I didn't miss them all but there sure are a lot of them falling today. The wind is quite strong. It makes me a little sad to see the trees starting to look bare and the leaves all piled on the ground.

On Thursday, the weather kept changing. It was raining and then it wasn't. Back and forth. Meeko doesn't enjoy the rain so much any more. When he was a puppy, he didn't mind any kind of weather. So I waited for a gap in the rain to go for a walk with him. When I got out on our front steps, I had to run back in for my camera. The leaves on the front porch all had these gorgeous, big fat water droplets on them. It was a moment of magic.

As I was taking these photos, I found myself singing out loud. I was singing 'My Favorite Things' from the Sound of Music. Isn't that funny? (And what do the neighbors think, I wonder?)  Raindrops on leaves might not be raindrops on roses but, to me, they are just as beautiful.

That last photo is my favorite.

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I am celebrating an anniversary this weekend. Today is the 2nd anniversary of my shop opening on Etsy! It feels longer than that somehow. To show my thanks to all of my customers and supporters, I am offering 20% off today and tomorrow on anything in my shop (October 20th and 21st). Just use the coupon code 2THANKYOU at checkout.

❤ A big thank you to you all! ❤

When Anyone Talks About Trees

I haven't posted for quite a few days. Chloé had her March break last week. Emma has hers this week. The normal routine of my days has been interrupted not rudely but sweetly by the presence of my daughters in the house.  But it means I haven't painted as much or visited blogs as much or looked after my Etsy shop as much or any number of things as much. It's an adjustment but it's not a bad thing. Maybe it's a reminder to pay attention to the important things.

• I haven't been idle though.
• I've painted a little.
• I worked on a big print of my Lilacs image that a customer is potentially interested in.
• I've walked daily with Meeko (of course).
• I've watched the snow melt the past two days and heard the birds sing and know that spring is on its way.
• I spent a lot of time in the backyard today poo-gathering (one of the "joys" of the spring thaw for dog owners) and got to visit all corners of my garden. There are signs of life despite the fact that everything was covered by snow and ice two days ago. I am always amazed.
• I shopped downtown with Chloé last week, walked daily with her and Meeko, and enjoyed several days of one-on-one time.
• Emma went away for five days to visit friends (the longest she's ever been away) and I was happy for her yet also happy to see her again.
• I did some housecleaning (grumpily) to prepare for the visit of my sister Nancy and her family (not grumpy about that!). They won't be here long but we always love their company.
• I treated myself and bought some gouache paints for a painting I would like to do of a lovely tree with a heart shape on it. It's not the one in the photo above. That is another heart-marked tree I discovered on the same path I take with Meeko every day in the winter. I thought of posting the other photo but it's too special to me so I want to keep it hidden for now and let my painting be the reveal. Now the pressure is on for me to do it. 
• I am reading "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barberry. I have 50 books (not an exaggeration) beside my night table waiting to be read. I was an English major in university and love books so much. With my slow reading pace these days, that 50-book stack might be a little unreasonable, more like impossible (but I remain optimistic). It took me a long time to get into "The Elegance of the Hedgehog"--maybe even one-third of the book. I am a stubborn reader and am glad for that as I am now loving the book. This passage jumped out at me the other evening and I reread it more than once for the sheer pleasure of it. I love when that happens. And now you know why I chose the photo at the top.

After I'd had a chance to think about it for a while I began to understand why I felt this sudden joy when Kakuro was talking about the birch trees. I get the same feeling when anyone talks about trees, any trees: the linden tree in the farmyard, the oak behind the old barn, the stately elms that have all disappeared now, the pine trees along wind-swept coasts, etc. There's so much humanity in a love of trees, so much nostalgia for our first sense of wonder, so much power in just feeling our own insignificance when we are surrounded by nature...yes, that's it: just thinking about trees and their indifferent majesty and our love for them teaches us how ridiculous we are--vile parasites squirming on the surface of the earth--and at the same time how deserving of life we can be, when we can honor this beauty that owes us nothing.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Muriel Barberry

Water and Snow

Yesterday, despite a million other things I should have been doing, I sat down to paint a little and was so glad I did.

I have a habit of scooping something from the fruit bowl and taking it up to my studio to paint. Unfortunately, sometimes I get diverted by other things and forget it's there. One of fruit's virtues and, I suppose, downfalls is that it is very quiet. It might be useful if it shouted down the stairs every now and then 'Hey Kathleen, you might want to get up here, there's only so long we'll last!'

I did get up there in time. I did remember. Chloé was the one who suggested that I leave one pomegranate whole and cut one in half. I love the juxtaposition of the outside peel and the wonderful seedy inside of the fruit.  I painted it on a beautiful pad of Sennelier rough grain paper that Lucile gave me this past summer. I was thinking about Lucile when I painted the pomegranates and I tried to leave my painting a little looser than I normally do--inspired by her endlessly beautiful and fluid watercolour paintings.

Meeko and I are so happy to have our forest path back. We can only walk there during the winter as it is too swampy the rest of the year. We are so lucky that it is at the end of our street--a tiny slice of natural paradise in the middle of a suburban development.  It is the only place that I will let him go off-leash. He knows the routine. He knows the path. It provides a wonderful combination of freedom and peace for both of us.

On one of our walks this week, Meeko and I walked past one of the last bits of autumn colour outside--a lovely leaf hanging on despite the wintry weather around it.

Making our Christmas tourtières is one of the next things on my list. Still a number of things to check off my in order to be ready for the days ahead. Good luck with your lists!