rain ,April and Eddie

Today it is raining again, my birdhouse boots still without roofs. But I have been very busy with a few things such as my blank greeting cards, chuck cut them taking him at least a whole day and I have been folding and gearing up with envelopes. All done ,so that was a job done not to be worried about again.

When I was a child I always thought I would love to be Veterinarian as an adult, I found out over the years that I would never make a good Vet, how could I see to help them with tears welling in my eyes all the time. I do donate to our local SPCA , always being asked to donate art to various organizations I finally choose for myself who I want to give to and that is the Animals. Above is a photo of one of my paintings I donated to the SPCA.

We had a scare with our Little Papillon Dog Eddie, he is 12 years old, blind and deaf and we thought not doing well . He had been messing in the house and I say had because he hasn't the last couple of days. I invited all his people and doggy friends as well as his boy our Clay to visit on Sunday thinking that his days were numbered. Well, you should have seen him perk up and he had a great day, after seeing and watching this all Sunday , I knew in my heart that he was to be with us a while longer and kept it to myself to wake Monday morning to a new day and fresh thinking. Eddie is still with us and will be until he stops eating ,and I see that he is uncomfortable .

We are all relieved especially his boy Clay and his girlfriend Kate :-) we are happy to still have our sweet little friend with us and what can I say but these things are so ,so hard , our hearts ache for our little fur friend's. Here he is ,this is an older picture , his eyes are more cloudy these days but he can get around just fine and is eating well and when his dog girlfriend Laura above photo is here he still has Love on his mind so he is fine I am happy to say.

Milton School Art/Math projects

I am back from the school and because i will be out tomorrow and Chuck is at a meeting I decided to write this evening.

It was an honor and treat to be there, to see Teacher's and children I have known for years .

There was so much , they worked so hard and were so proud . There was a great turn out and it was so nice to see all the young parents and Grandparents I was thrilled to be there, Thank you for the invite.

Mobiles hung in all the doorways.

Here we have Haily from a below photo and her Friend's, to think these young Ladies may continue growing and going to school with each other for years to come, to have their ups and downs , to share laughs and secrets with friend's who someday may be standing with them on their wedding days, oh to be young, I wish you all the best girl's ,become great in all you do, be happy , safe and have fun learning.

This one I really Loved ...gumdrops....yum!!! I wonder how many they ate building this?
Now that was a great way to learn.

Here we have a lovely young lady Hailey Saulnier standing proudly infront of her art work.
It was so cute as I was walking the hall ways looking at this great colorful work, I saw Hailey pointing to the butterflies, I asked her if this was her work, then looked up to see that I knew her parents , the last time I saw Hailey I believe I was face painting her and that was a few years back now. My you feed these little munchkins and they grow like weeds. Which reminds me, speaking of growing like weeds , I either grew like a little weed this past Winter or my cloths shrunk over these past Months with all this dampness..I made a funny...

I was having a time trying to find something decent to wear this evening.

Milton school is primary and one then they head into town to Dr John C. Wickwire where I have had the privilege of doing drum workshops and art projects with the students over the years,our Clay came into town from where we lived then in Charleston for grade 6, there was talk of the Mill village school closing so we sent him to town to be in the first grade six graduating class at Wickwire, we started doing workshops at that school if seems so long ago ,Clay is 25 now, where does the time fly?

So back to the art work, what they did was combine art and math in many different ways,I did try and get as many shots as I could there was so much to choose from so hopefully you will get the idea from these photos.

Now to share with you something I thought was very sad, all this great ,beautiful art work will have to be removed from these walls by the end of this week, there is a fire regulation as of just two years ago that no paper of any kind can be hung anywhere in hallways or classrooms unless it is on a bulletin board, so why not put up more bulletin boards you ask as did the Teacher's when first they heard of this new law ,to find out they can't do that either because they are only allowed so many bulletin boards so many feet apart, well yes there are rules and rules are made for a reason but we all know children learn a great deal from visual and I remember classrooms with so much stimulating information around them now this is no longer the case, all their wonderful work , what will happen to it? too bad it could not be left up for awhile longer at least . The times they are changing and sometimes you really must wonder if for the best?

So time to veg and watch TV ,while I wait for Chuck to return.
Do you not agree Earth Day was beautiful? lets make everyday "Earth Day"

EARTH DAY

Happy Earth Day !!!!!

Well my Birdhouses do not have roofs yet but my house is clean and I got out on my bike...so all is well and I woke to a clean house this Earth Day.

I thought I would put up this picture of our pet Crows from back when we lived in Charleston there is nothing more Earthy then our Crows. We loved them and now our real estate agent says they hang around her home and farm nearby our old house.

Now as I say that , and we did feed our Crows when we lived on 20 acres of land....BUT!!! here in town we have noticed people feeding the Town Crows by throwing out whole loafs of bread and meat products ,thinking that they are helping these bird's when in fact what they are actually doing is feeding the town rats and bringing in flock's of Sea Gulls while the Crows wait for the left overs . These bird's are not starving to death, there is plenty for them to eat. Above is a picture of a chunk of bread that was dropped on our roof by the Gulls, as well as one group of gulls on our neighbors roof. Folk's need to be informed about Gull feces which can be very dangerous , their feces is a major source of E.coli bacteria and any contact can cause infections and or salmonella and can corrode the paint on a car as well as your house roof shingles. This is no joke . I have been sitting out on my deck at times when this happens to be driven inside because of the large flock of gulls flying above my head to then return to my deck later to gull feces on my deck floor which would and could have been on my head . I watch and discourage them from landing on my house roof but they are all around here on other roofs as again you can see above.

Last Summer I found a chicken bone and chunk of tomato in our back yard,there are things they will not eat so they drop what they don't want. We have a small dog and often have friend's dogs over and the chicken bone could have been fatal for these animals so I am constantly watching for this. We are very fortunate to live in a town where recycling , composting and garbage pickup is every second week. We don't keep our garbage can or composter in our back yard so this food scrap did not come from us.

So that is my little Earth Day rave, lets keep our World clean, think before you drop!!!!!! anything!! anywhere!!!

On a lighter side ,this evening I am headed to the Milton Elementary school to view and celebrate with the children an evening of "Art/Math" I am so looking forward to it. I will post pictures tomorrow.

"these boots are not meant for walking"

These boots are not meant for walking anymore. Houses for our tiny feathered friend's are what they now will do . Today hopefully, I will get to work on the roofs. Yesterday I worked hard to get this much done and I just love the little gold boots.

I took this quick shot this morning just to give you an idea of what I am up to with them.

The weather here this AM is nice and sunny and yesterday I did not get out on my bike because of bad gusts of wind, hard for me to cut through, but today it looks like a bike ride may indeed happen, fingers crossed.

Check back in a couple days to see the boots complete.

I have one on my bunkhouse from last fall and have had two chickadees looking, I can only wish that they move in this Spring. When we lived on our 20 acre farm we had so many song birds and now that we live in town, well with our one little tree, I must incourage our tiny friend's to nest in my boots.

Just a note regarding this ash cloud, our friend has been stuck in France ,she was due home last Sunday and now as of last night it looks like this Sunday. She is fortunate she can stay with friend's but told us how angry and confused people are, those with no where to go . I hate to think what this is going to do with the airlines, and costs. So lets hope all works out for the good and that folk's get to where they are going safely.

a few more small paintings

Just a few more of the little paintings ready for the season.

The weather has been cold and damp which leaves me grounded so to speak, grounded being on my mind of late with this ash cloud from Iceland all over the news as we watch closely .

Not sure what I will work at today, I have an appointment at 10:30 and have a few thoughts on what to do the rest of the day, I put off the cowboy boot birdhouses for a few days not wanting to work outside but must pick up the slack and bite the bullet and get out in the shop.

I believe earlier this Month just spoiled us with all that wonderful weather and now because of that I just want to go crawl under a blanket and wait for Summer.

We got news that our Dear friend's from Vermont will not be joining us this Summer because of health problems. Our hearts are sad with the thought of not seeing them for our usual fun filled Summer and we send all good wishes their way for better health and for their return next Summer, but you know we are constantly thinking about them because we usually are marking the days from the calender waiting for their arrival. As well some of our other Summer residents we still have not heard from since Christmas so hopefully all of you will be with us in the next little while.

It looks like the sun is trying to peek through the clouds...I hear my bike calling me :-)

little paintings

a few smaller paintings are now ready for the Tourist season, lets hope we have one...a lot going on in the old World at the moment with the Iceland ash cloud grounding all of Europe. Our Dear friend who we doggy sit for is one of these traveller's. She called last night from a friend's house so we know she is safe and sound and not sleeping on a bench in an airport somewhere . she expects to be in the air by Monday, we hope she is but better safe then sorry and all is fine here so she has no worries .

I have a couple more of the smaller paintings to do in preparation for the opening of our local gift shops.

I have been
collecting cowboy boots all winter when i see them at frenchies and other second hand places . I make birdhouses from them . This week my plan is to try and get one or two birdhouses done and then take a break and do some needle felting.
The weather has been cold with an icy wind so we have not been out on our bikes for sometime, way missed I must say,for I am not at all mobile without my wheels.

Folk's have been dropping off driftwood for Chuck's driftwood furniture, Thank God for our fence, for not everyone would understand what we have this old wood for, as well the odd pieces of wood that these paintings are on , it does make the subject seem more interesting to me as well as many others, people either love this type of painting or not, just that simple. I for one must say I love to see my paintings on nice smooth clean walls , there is a very interesting contrast. Today I will do a couple more small paintings .I will share when done.

the past few days painting again

Well I did take a break...but the past few days I have been working on two paintings boat hatch covers. "Peggy's light "and "weathered wall" these are possible paintings for coming up the steps in the inn to be seen from the elevator portholes where the mural is.

Well Spring is in the air and the hopes of a good Tourist Season is on every one's mind. I was approached regarding small prints or watercolors , affordable easy to travel that kind of thing, one always has to be thinking of the travelling aspect, so many times I have had to show, convince folk's afraid of returning home with one of my boat piece paintings, afraid it will be scratched or hurt in some way in transit, no worries ,that is what is nice about these paintings painted on wood ,they aren't like canvas, no worries travelling. I remember the time we shipped a boat bow to Switzerland, they were so worried but I convinced them all was well and sure enough it was, remember most of this wood is older then us and is as tough as the Sea it's self. So that piece made it there in time for their wedding anniversary. Which makes me think of all the times I got pictures sent to me of my art on folk's walls all over the world, what a nice feeling to see where my work hangs , I get a warm cozy feeling when I see these photos and realize just how much my work has put a smile on someones face, I thank the powers that be for what my life has given me, and that is pride in knowing others are enjoying what love to do...Thank you all for that.

I am headed to one of our local Elementary schools in the next couple weeks for an Art/Math gathering, over the years Chuck and I have done a lot of workshops , projects etc...etc...with all our schools here in Queen's county as well as organizing Christmas Parades ,face painting anything to do with children ,back in my earlier days I would make puppets and do puppet shows with nursery schools, today I find it hard to believe I had that energy back then, don't get me wrong I love kids but they do wear me out big time these days, but I have fond memories especially the time Chuck and I did a special birthday party for a young friend and her friends ,we made beaded necklaces and paper Mach' cats, well you should have seen the wonderful creations these young ladies made and the mess which you can just imagine . Where did we find the energy? For I believe I can't find it today:-)

So this week coming I will work on my small paintings for the summer Season .

Local News Paper

Well it has been awhile since finishing the mural, I guess you could say I took a bit of a break as far as starting a bigger project. Small things I have done and I am working on a large boat piece Peggy's light I will share with you in a couple days.

Here is a shot of the news Paper article from last week covering the mural, what fun I had with Kate who wrote the article, lovely person and as you can see by my large grin ,we had a few laughs. She did a great job and was very kind in her writings, Thank you Kate :-)

We have been out riding our bikes these past lovely days getting back into what we call shape, funny word that, for we have no shape and are no wheres near in it, but try we do and we may see some shape come September in time to put the bikes away for the Winter, oh it's not that bad, we have tons of fun on our bikes.

We drove the Trestle Trail a few times already this Season and we so Love it, we saw our first chipmunk's of the Season on the trail, funny me being excited to see them because when we lived in the Country we use to live catch squirrel's who would create havoc in my bird feeders and would relocate them further into the woods only I am sure to return again another day .Now that I live in town I look forward to driving through the quiet woods on the Trestle Trail across the Mersey River to feel such joy in spotting these critters.

There is talk about letting ATVs ride across the bridge with us cyclist's and walkers to join up to another trail on the other side somewhere, we hope this does not happen, we see it not working and as well as many others we feel it would not be the best decision ,so fingers crossed for it to remain the same way and be as quiet and beautiful as it is now.
I love to stop on the bridge and look up and down the Mersey and remember all that is in my memory from being a little girl growing up right there, Liverpool is a beautiful Town, if ever you can walk this trail and see what we see, do it , it is a great hike.I love to share these stories with Chuck ,swimming in the river and jumping off the bridge and so many other memories from those great days.

I have noticed some song bird's have returned this year to us, we put up a large fence when we moved in three years ago now here in town and we only have one tree where as when we lived in Charleston we had 20 acres of trees with many many bird's so now we have to entice them here and we are succeeding and like two Kid's we giggle with excitement when we see our little feathered friends. And you know we really don't see black flies behind our fence here in town. Another World indeed.

One cute story from back then in the Country, I was working outside the home for a bit and Chuck was doing the in home work . We had cows, pigs, Chickens etc. He was doing a wash one day and being a smart man he decided to remove his pants and put them in the wash with the rest , he went back to doing his work when he heard something outside and looking out saw a three legged Coyote with one of our Chickens in his mouth, chuck picked up a piece of firewood and chased the Coyote down over the field towards the woods in his underwear , I wasn't home but I can see it in my mind. When I got home we tracked through the woods and every so many feet we would see feathers , this poor animal must have been really hungry I suppose with three legs hunting would have been difficult for him ,so he came to our take out ,you might say.

Things like this happened a lot back then, one of those living in the Country things , I am happy to have done all that but my body says now"time out"

I will leave you for today and hopefully with the promise of showers today , my day will be full with painting .

needle felting for the upcoming Summer season

I have been needle felting this past bit ,trying to get some smaller ,more affordable fun stuff done for our Tourist Season. Everyone loves cats so I made half cats with brooch pins on the back as well as colorful heart with brooch pins as well.

Yesterday I started a new painting ,I will share this with you soon, actually this painting may be sold already .

Maybe today we will get out on our bikes, there is some talk of drizzle lets hope not.

We were suppose to be building a toy wheel barrow for our Grandson...never keep things until the last minute, we will not get it done so we called all around looking for a plastic toy wheel barrow with no luck at all. Darn!!! So we will have to search for a special little something to go with his garden tools.