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Painting With Leaves

(re-post)

The sight of this first tinge of leaves turning colour made me recall an adventure many years ago. 

In the late autumn when most of the leaves had fallen and people who did not want to use them as compost had put them out by the road in bags to be collected by the city (who would turn them into compost and offer this back to the public) I wandered my neighbourhood and carefully chose bags of leaves,  by colour, and carted them back home.  Twenty or so bags.

The large front garden area was in the process of being turned into a habitat and that became my canvas.  I made a painting with those leaves. Very large brush strokes using hands and arms as the brush.  Design more than image.  

When it was finished,  I enjoyed the sight from the ground,  walking around - and through - the art piece. It was even better standing on the verandah and then the picnic table.  I eyed the roof but it was quite steep.  Wings would have been a nice option.

The wind changed it.  And the rain;  the changing seasons.  The painting settled into the ground and enriched the soil. The memory cheers me now.

Posted on September 10, 2010 at 02:22 AM | Permalink

The sight of this first tinge of leaves turning colour made me recall an adventure many years ago. 

In the late autumn when most of the leaves had fallen and people who did not want to use them as compost had put them out by the road in bags to be collected by the city (who would turn them into compost and offer this back to the public) I wandered my neighbourhood and carefully chose bags of leaves,  by colour, and carted them back home.  Twenty or so bags.

The large front garden area was in the process of being turned into a habitat and that became my canvas.  I made a painting with those leaves. Very large brush strokes using hands and arms as the brush.  Design more than image.  

When it was finished,  I enjoyed the sight from the ground,  walking around - and through - the art piece. It was even better standing on the verandah and then the picnic table.  I eyed the roof but it was quite steep.  Wings would have been a nice option.

The wind changed it.  And the rain;  the changing seasons.  The painting settled into the ground and enriched the soil. The memory cheers me now.

Tomorrow Autumn Begins: September 22 2021

Which got me thinking about this Autumn Equinox when the  days are (more or less) the same length.  Which got me wondering about past Autumn starts and the Archives came up with the following  from September 23 2010.  I no longer have any of those fleece scarves...... but I got out the one I do have.  And coincidentally it is the same colour as the bottom one.

Fabulous fleece - scarves

Autumn was declared  yesterday by measurement- happy humans and  nature has gone along with this decision by producing, well - autumn weather.

Which had me searching out the cool weather scarves this morning.   

Fleece of this sort - the material kind - is suiting me more and more with its warmth,  lightness,  washing and drying ease,  non-itchiness,  moths disinterest,  lovely colours.

I made these scarves last year.  Wore one this morning for an ocean stroll and it proved its worth once again.  Toasty.  And then light enough to drape back on shoulders when in a store where, in true Victoria fashion,  the heat was on high  and the doors open.

These scarves were lengths of fleece material scunched by running a long stitch down the middle and then simply pulling it.  And then stitching over that to stabilize.  

Yet another garment in the adventure of collecting energy.

Posted on September 23, 2010 at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Autumn was declared  yesterday by measurement- happy humans and  nature has gone along with this decision by producing, well - autumn weather.

Which had me searching out the cool weather scarves this morning.   

Fleece of this sort - the material kind - is suiting me more and more with its warmth,  lightness,  washing and drying ease,  non-itchiness,  moths disinterest,  lovely colours.

I made these scarves last year.  Wore one this morning for an ocean stroll and it proved its worth once again.  Toasty.  And then light enough to drape back on shoulders when in a store where, in true Victoria fashion,  the heat was on high  and the doors open.

These scarves were lengths of fleece material scunched by running a long stitch down the middle and then simply pulling it.  And then stitching over that to stabilize.  

Yet another garment in the adventure of collecting energy.

Decorative Cakes. (re-post)

Many years ago a friend and I collaborated on a cake for our sons who were having a birthday days apart.  It had ladyfingers around the sides and jello for water, life savers for buoys, little figures - oh, I don't recall all the details and it seems neither of us took a picture - but it was so much fun.  The kids loved it.

Years later I remembered that cake when I came across a book about decorative cakes with recipes for the different types of frostings and their specific uses - figures, draping, cut-outs.  A number of cakes resulted; and I remembered to take pictures.  I came across the photos while looking for something else and  enjoyed  the memory.

(click on photos to enlarge)

That is a mother and her two kids - they are eggs (not sure why they are pink and not white!).

This was a cake for a friend's birthday and it was his girlfriend who asked that Jeff be in the tub, a favourite place, with all the 'necessities' nearby.

I don't now recall who this cake was for but again it was enjoyable to use icing as 'clay' (more like play dough!) and come up with the specifics of the hot tub and also to make the two men real characters.

There is a cake under all of these and everything is edible.

This plate of sausage and eggs etc. was the first  fanciful cake I made.   

This fortune teller cake was for the son of a friend and at the party it was decided the cake was too nice to cut and eat.  I am not sure when - or if! - it was eaten. 

Posted on October 02, 2018 at 05:35 AM | Permalink 

Many years ago a friend and I collaborated on a cake for our sons who were having a birthday days apart.  It had ladyfingers around the sides and jello for water, life savers for buoys, little figures - oh, I don't recall all the details and it seems neither of us took a picture - but it was so much fun.  The kids loved it.

Years later I remembered that cake when I came across a book about decorative cakes with recipes for the different types of frostings and their specific uses - figures, draping, cut-outs.  A number of cakes resulted; and I remembered to take pictures.  I came across the photos while looking for something else and  enjoyed  the memory.

(click on photos to enlarge)

That is a mother and her two kids - they are eggs (not sure why they are pink and not white!).

This was a cake for a friend's birthday and it was his girlfriend who asked that Jeff be in the tub, a favourite place, with all the 'necessities' nearby.

I don't now recall who this cake was for but again it was enjoyable to use icing as 'clay' (more like play dough!) and come up with the specifics of the hot tub and also to make the two men real characters.

There is a cake under all of these and everything is edible.

This plate of sausage and eggs etc. was the first  fanciful cake I made.   

This fortune teller cake was for the son of a friend and at the party it was decided the cake was too nice to cut and eat.  I am not sure when - or if! - it was eaten. 

Birds: Finches figured it out!

(re-post)

In this morning's post about birds I mentioned that the finches were doing fly-bys and perhaps were assessing the seed feeder.  (click on photos to enlarge)

When I came home this afternoon this is what I saw: 

The other birds mostly flew away when I got out the camera but this one stayed.  I thought she was stuck!

I moved around to the other window.

This guy appeared.  Attempted a landing but saw me and flew away.

He must have alerted her to the fact that she was being seriously observed.  She backed out and flew away.  And this finch immediately perched.

Another one joined in.

Posed .... and perfectly poised.

Posted on November 06, 2012 at 04:18 PM | Permalink

 

In this morning's post about birds I mentioned that the finches were doing fly-bys and perhaps were assessing the seed feeder.  (click on photos to enlarge)

When I came home this afternoon this is what I saw: 

The other birds mostly flew away when I got out the camera but this one stayed.  I thought she was stuck!

I moved around to the other window.

This guy appeared.  Attempted a landing but saw me and flew away.

He must have alerted her to the fact that she was being seriously observed.  She backed out and flew away.  And this finch immediately perched.

Another one joined in.

Posed .... and perfectly poised.

In this morning's post about birds I mentioned that the finches were doing fly-bys and perhaps were assessing the seed feeder.  (click on photos to enlarge)

When I came home this afternoon this is what I saw: 

The other birds mostly flew away when I got out the camera but this one stayed.  I thought she was stuck!

I moved around to the other window.

This guy appeared.  Attempted a landing but saw me and flew away.

He must have alerted her to the fact that she was being seriously observed.  She backed out and flew away.  And this finch immediately perched.

Another one joined in.

Posed .... and perfectly poised.

Birds: Nuthatches feeding upright

(re-post)

Usually red-breasted nuthatches feed upside down, as is this one on the peanut feeder. (click on photos to enlarge)

When the round black sunflower feeder was added in the summer (and I figured out that this was the kind of seed it was meant to hold!) the nuthatches were immediately interested but were not at all sure how to access it. 

It took them about a month to truly figure it out and now they are pros.  

Like this .... dah dah.  They no longer rush in and out;  they will now sit for a bit and choose a seed.

As I watched the process over that month I thought it was the larger male of the summer couple that was doing all the 'work' at that feeder, but I am not sure. 

What brought this to mind is that the two this morning (one in the photo), who seem smaller than the summer ones so perhaps are the next generation, both came today as if they had always been eating upright.  Maybe they 'learned' from their parents.

(There are sunflower seeds in a tray on the ground providing easy access but I have seen the  house finches doing fly-bys at this hanging feeder.  Hanging feeders are certainly safer, in some ways.)  

There is something weird and wonderful about capturing the moment of a bird in flight, as I did, unintentionally.  Perhaps it is the fact that a moment has been caught.  Perhaps it is the different feeling that is evoked from seeing a bird flying or seeing a bird flying. Wonderfully weird.  (click on photo to see bird in flight)

Posted on November 06, 2012 at 10:02 AM | Permalink

 

Usually red-breasted nuthatches feed upside down, as is this one on the peanut feeder. (click on photos to enlarge)

When the round black sunflower feeder was added in the summer (and I figured out that this was the kind of seed it was meant to hold!) the nuthatches were immediately interested but were not at all sure how to access it. 

It took them about a month to truly figure it out and now they are pros.  

Like this .... dah dah.  They no longer rush in and out;  they will now sit for a bit and choose a seed.

As I watched the process over that month I thought it was the larger male of the summer couple that was doing all the 'work' at that feeder, but I am not sure. 

What brought this to mind is that the two this morning (one in the photo), who seem smaller than the summer ones so perhaps are the next generation, both came today as if they had always been eating upright.  Maybe they 'learned' from their parents.

(There are sunflower seeds in a tray on the ground providing easy access but I have seen the  house finches doing fly-bys at this hanging feeder.  Hanging feeders are certainly safer, in some ways.)  

There is something weird and wonderful about capturing the moment of a bird in flight, as I did, unintentionally.  Perhaps it is the fact that a moment has been caught.  Perhaps it is the different feeling that is evoked from seeing a bird flying or seeing a bird flying. Wonderfully weird.  (click on photo to see bird in flight)

(re-post)

Usually red-breasted nuthatches feed upside down, as is this one on the peanut feeder. (click on photos to enlarge)

When the round black sunflower feeder was added in the summer (and I figured out that this was the kind of seed it was meant to hold!) the nuthatches were immediately interested but were not at all sure how to access it. 

It took them about a month to truly figure it out and now they are pros.  

Like this .... dah dah.  They no longer rush in and out;  they will now sit for a bit and choose a seed.

As I watched the process over that month I thought it was the larger male of the summer couple that was doing all the 'work' at that feeder, but I am not sure. 

What brought this to mind is that the two this morning (one in the photo), who seem smaller than the summer ones so perhaps are the next generation, both came today as if they had always been eating upright.  Maybe they 'learned' from their parents.

(There are sunflower seeds in a tray on the ground providing easy access but I have seen the  house finches doing fly-bys at this hanging feeder.  Hanging feeders are certainly safer, in some ways.)  

There is something weird and wonderful about capturing the moment of a bird in flight, as I did, unintentionally.  Perhaps it is the fact that a moment has been caught.  Perhaps it is the different feeling that is evoked from seeing a bird flying or seeing a bird flying. Wonderfully weird.  (click on photo to see bird in flight)

Wasp watching.

(re-post)

Leaving a bit of smoked salmon on the  plate lets me get on with outdoor newspaper reading once breakfast is finished and the wasp drops by.

However, today, the paper got put aside , the camera brought out ...

Wasp had pulled the salmon to end of plate, perhaps with the intent of trying to carry it - but fell onto the tray with it.  Fellow wasp showed up.

This looked more like  collaboration  than confrontation.

Division.  I've seen two ants dragging a single morsel, but not  two wasps carrying one.  Hmm.  Likely an issue with wing aerodynamics.

Second wasp up - up - and away'ed.

Initial wasp did some thoughtful 'packing'.

Chawed off a piece.

Sort of stumbled over to an edge .... and flew ....

.... a few feet across to the burlap hanging on the deck railing.  It fussed around getting a better grip  and then flew across the deck again ......

... landed on a scarlet runner bean leaf.

Scritch .... scritch ... scritch ....  

It suddenly had a piece it could comfortably carry - and took off!

I clicked but missed the flight.

The remaining piece of salmon ... ???

Posted on September 24, 2012 at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 

Leaving a bit of smoked salmon on the  plate lets me get on with outdoor newspaper reading once breakfast is finished and the wasp drops by.

However, today, the paper got put aside , the camera brought out ...

Wasp had pulled the salmon to end of plate, perhaps with the intent of trying to carry it - but fell onto the tray with it.  Fellow wasp showed up.

This looked more like  collaboration  than confrontation.

Division.  I've seen two ants dragging a single morsel, but not  two wasps carrying one.  Hmm.  Likely an issue with wing aerodynamics.

Second wasp up - up - and away'ed.

Initial wasp did some thoughtful 'packing'.

Chawed off a piece.

Sort of stumbled over to an edge .... and flew ....

.... a few feet across to the burlap hanging on the deck railing.  It fussed around getting a better grip  and then flew across the deck again ......

... landed on a scarlet runner bean leaf.

Scritch .... scritch ... scritch ....  

It suddenly had a piece it could comfortably carry - and took off!

I clicked but missed the flight.

The remaining piece of salmon ... ???

(re-post)

Leaving a bit of smoked salmon on the  plate lets me get on with outdoor newspaper reading once breakfast is finished and the wasp drops by.

However, today, the paper got put aside , the camera brought out ...

Wasp had pulled the salmon to end of plate, perhaps with the intent of trying to carry it - but fell onto the tray with it.  Fellow wasp showed up.

This looked more like  collaboration  than confrontation.

Division.  I've seen two ants dragging a single morsel, but not  two wasps carrying one.  Hmm.  Likely an issue with wing aerodynamics.

Second wasp up - up - and away'ed.

Initial wasp did some thoughtful 'packing'.

Chawed off a piece.

Sort of stumbled over to an edge .... and flew ....

.... a few feet across to the burlap hanging on the deck railing.  It fussed around getting a better grip  and then flew across the deck again ......

... landed on a scarlet runner bean leaf.

Scritch .... scritch ... scritch ....  

It suddenly had a piece it could comfortably carry - and took off!

I clicked but missed the flight.

The remaining piece of salmon ... ???

UNEXPECTED SHAMPOO

This is a re-post but yesterday I washed my hair again with Sunlight soap and it worked!  I haven't used that Soap (except on clothes) for years.  But I have been using bars shampoo - there are many available.

  (re-post)

Maybe some knitters get together and just knit, or just talk about knitting.  I doubt it. I look forward to what I will hear, to what I will learn, to what the stitches will produce.

At a recent Knitting Guild gathering the topic of how to wash wool arose; some new product was mentioned and discussed, where it was available, how much it cost, was it worthwhile, who had actually tried it.

One woman suddenly said that she used Sunlight soap.  She is a weaver and a spinner as well as a knitter so, she being a person with experience in wool fibre from 'sheep to shawl', I paid extra attention to this input(meaning I remembered it: I have forgotten the name of the new product).

Later, at home, undoing my hair preparatory to washing it, my gaze latched onto the bar of yellow Sunlight soap sitting cheerily on the bathtub rim; I use it for hand washing clothing and it just then occurred to me that I also use it for woolen garments. 

The next thought, with hands in hair, was “fibre!” and then, "why not?".

Well, it worked very nicely.  It left my hair clean and soft and manageable; lord, I sound like a commercial.  But it did!  What's good for the fleece is good for the dandera. 

I'm groaning too.  In atonement I'll pass on good advice given to me by a doctor many years ago.  Itching ears for which people go to a physician thinking they have an infection may be due to shampoo getting inside the ear and not being rinsed out; a bar shampoo is easier to control in this respect than liquid.

Hat?oh! Fibre archeology; sweater to hat

(anther re-post)

(re-post from February 27 2004)

Hat?oh! is said using the punctuation marks as part of the word so it is Hat? with a rise in tone as if inquiring "is this a hat? and then  oh!  with an "aha,  I get it" finish

Satisfying the requirements of being as simple a design as possible,  clothing as architecture housing the body,  fibre archeology/recycling - this hat is made from a slightly felted, handknit sweater,  unearthed at a thrift shop.  A 15- inch circle was cut from the front and the back,  the two circles put right sides together and stitched half way around the circumference.  Edges left free.

That's it.  The hat?oh!

It is very versatile. 

Tortoise knitting needles are used to change the shape.

Here it is with the original sweater. 

The rest of the sweater  will be turned into mitts and a mini shrug - or -?

I very much like how thoughts of whoever knit the sweater come to mind as I reconstruct and hope that he or she would like this 'rescue'.  I assume that whoever donated the sweater had accidentally put it into hot water or a dryer and the felting was not welcomed;  it likely no longer fit as it once had.

Both sides up and 'pinned' with the knitting needles.

Hat turned so that flaps are at front and back;  front flap has knitting needle threaded through thusly so that ....... when released ....

... the flap forms a visor in this sou'wester version.

Back view of the sou'wester.

Side view of the sou'wester.

The hat works well in both sunny and rainy weather on its own.

I imagine that teamed with a scarf it will tame cold and wind ....  or desert weather.

Heigh!ho!   hat?oh!

 

 

 

Posted on October 18, 2018 at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(re-post from February 27 2004)

Hat?oh! is said using the punctuation marks as part of the word so it is Hat? with a rise in tone as if inquiring "is this a hat? and then  oh!  with an "aha,  I get it" finish

Satisfying the requirements of being as simple a design as possible,  clothing as architecture housing the body,  fibre archeology/recycling - this hat is made from a slightly felted, handknit sweater,  unearthed at a thrift shop.  A 15- inch circle was cut from the front and the back,  the two circles put right sides together and stitched half way around the circumference.  Edges left free.

That's it.  The hat?oh!

It is very versatile. 

Tortoise knitting needles are used to change the shape.

Here it is with the original sweater. 

The rest of the sweater  will be turned into mitts and a mini shrug - or -?

I very much like how thoughts of whoever knit the sweater come to mind as I reconstruct and hope that he or she would like this 'rescue'.  I assume that whoever donated the sweater had accidentally put it into hot water or a dryer and the felting was not welcomed;  it likely no longer fit as it once had.

Both sides up and 'pinned' with the knitting needles.

Hat turned so that flaps are at front and back;  front flap has knitting needle threaded through thusly so that ....... when released ....

... the flap forms a visor in this sou'wester version.

Back view of the sou'wester.

Side view of the sou'wester.

The hat works well in both sunny and rainy weather on its own.

I imagine that teamed with a scarf it will tame cold and wind ....  or desert weather.

Heigh!ho!   hat?oh!

 

 

 

Little ice wreaths in the fog

(another re-post)

re-post from November 19 2001

It is unfortunate that across forty-four winters in Ontario I never knew about ice wreaths - all that cold weather wasted!  When I learned about them  I couldn't wait for the next cold snap here on Vancouver Island (actually I could wait - happily forever)  but I had to experience them and during the next period of below zero temperature I did.

I put water and snowberries and holly berries and variegated leaves in a donut pan and froze it.

Strung the small wreaths  on some clear fishing line so they would appear to float.  Hung them outdoors on a branch.  It was foggy.  I stood and stared.  They were enchanting.

How long did they last? 

They were melting as I finished taking their pictures.

Posted on October 23, 2018 at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

re-post from November 19 2001

It is unfortunate that across forty-four winters in Ontario I never knew about ice wreaths - all that cold weather wasted!  When I learned about them  I couldn't wait for the next cold snap here on Vancouver Island (actually I could wait - happily forever)  but I had to experience them and during the next period of below zero temperature I did.

I put water and snowberries and holly berries and variegated leaves in a donut pan and froze it.

Strung the small wreaths  on some clear fishing line so they would appear to float.  Hung them outdoors on a branch.  It was foggy.  I stood and stared.  They were enchanting.

How long did they last? 

They were melting as I finished taking their pictures.

Natural Habitat Gardening: happenstance

(re-post)

The happenstance aspect of natural habitat gardening has a wait and watch, look and see participation approach to nature, human and otherwise. 

It plays with Nature and delights in the unexpected.

It can occur in an established garden or from a lawn or on a bare patch of earth which does not remain bare for long, this nature-abhoring-a-vacuum being the reason happenstance gardening is so dynamic and fascinating.

The above photo is what happened when an area  with an azalea, hydrangea, outlined with a variegated ground cover, planted with spring bulbs of tulip and daffodil, was left to to grow. 

This is what it looked like in the early spring with the tulips and daffs, some grape hyacinth, perky dandelions, dainty white tiny flowers and, I think, a dock plant. 

Now it has buttercup, a foxglove,  butter'n'eggs, forget-me-not, and two plants unknown to me.  It also has a sapling hazelnut tree (there are two large ones twenty feet away).  It is lush and beautiful.

A silver gazing ball that became hidden in the abundance has had the ground cover gently pushed back so it can glow again.

What will happen next?  I don't know.  I look forward to finding out.

In the past, when I have let an ordinary lawn grow into a meadow, between five and nine different types of grass grew.  And then it flowered. 

This is a raised garden bed in the back garden where last year I grew potatoes, nasturtium and I forget what else.  The nasturtium are back and a potato plant and something that looks like it might be cauliflower and in the corner is a tomato.  I've put in two cultivated seedling tomatoes and a groundcherry (thanks, Barb!), a cleome flower (reminds me of southern Ontario where I was born) and a scarlet runner bean growing along with a clove of garlic that sprouted.  The everbearing strawberries are ripening, one at a time, just right for snacking.  That bare earth, visible now, will be covered soon.  The bindweed I will pull out but the rest will get a prolonged viewing.

The narrow space between house and fence is filled - and filling! - with plants that thrive in the dry, east-facing location and I love to walk it each day and see what is happening.  If I miss a day or two the changes are astounding and I almost expect to hear a chorus of "Surprise! Surprise!"

Posted on June 20, 2008 at 03:00 AM | Permalink

The happenstance aspect of natural habitat gardening has a wait and watch, look and see participation approach to nature, human and otherwise. 

It plays with Nature and delights in the unexpected.

It can occur in an established garden or from a lawn or on a bare patch of earth which does not remain bare for long, this nature-abhoring-a-vacuum being the reason happenstance gardening is so dynamic and fascinating.

The above photo is what happened when an area  with an azalea, hydrangea, outlined with a variegated ground cover, planted with spring bulbs of tulip and daffodil, was left to to grow. 

This is what it looked like in the early spring with the tulips and daffs, some grape hyacinth, perky dandelions, dainty white tiny flowers and, I think, a dock plant. 

Now it has buttercup, a foxglove,  butter'n'eggs, forget-me-not, and two plants unknown to me.  It also has a sapling hazelnut tree (there are two large ones twenty feet away).  It is lush and beautiful.

A silver gazing ball that became hidden in the abundance has had the ground cover gently pushed back so it can glow again.

What will happen next?  I don't know.  I look forward to finding out.

In the past, when I have let an ordinary lawn grow into a meadow, between five and nine different types of grass grew.  And then it flowered. 

This is a raised garden bed in the back garden where last year I grew potatoes, nasturtium and I forget what else.  The nasturtium are back and a potato plant and something that looks like it might be cauliflower and in the corner is a tomato.  I've put in two cultivated seedling tomatoes and a groundcherry (thanks, Barb!), a cleome flower (reminds me of southern Ontario where I was born) and a scarlet runner bean growing along with a clove of garlic that sprouted.  The everbearing strawberries are ripening, one at a time, just right for snacking.  That bare earth, visible now, will be covered soon.  The bindweed I will pull out but the rest will get a prolonged viewing.

The narrow space between house and fence is filled - and filling! - with plants that thrive in the dry, east-facing location and I love to walk it each day and see what is happening.  If I miss a day or two the changes are astounding and I almost expect to hear a chorus of "Surprise! Surprise!"