Body

Well as usual, I am just under the wire to participate in the Creative Every Day Challenge. This month the theme is Body. I had a number of ideas to play with. As a nurse, the obvious subject would be to look at illness and working to help the person cope within the realm of that challenge; especially if the illness changes one’s daily routine, health or way of being. When I first started nursing I was struck by one patient who was sitting dejectedly in a geriatric chair and tried to imagine what she was like as a young person. The outcome was a poem titled “Grains of Sand”.

Grains of Sand

O youthful beauty, do you think back on younger days in your sedated stupor?

In your gracefulness, as you languished

daring, cigarette dangling

from your fingertips

do you relive those times?

As you sit in your chair,

rasping, rumbling in your chest

now others feed and dress you

you fight for air,

living on oxygen,

yet continue to crave your nicotine.

What do you see, coke in hand?

Blonde hair flying, laughing sparkling eyes were they blue?

Dancing feet, slender, beguiling and

daring to take on the world where

did those days go?

What I decided on was a quick life-drawing sketch of the female form. I just wanted to display simple, clean lines, nothing complicated.

SkyWatch Friday

I am having a blue day today. When I was a little girl I spent much of my time lying on my back in the field behind our house looking up at the sky and listening to the bobolinks as they burbled and flitted through the grass.

On this grey day I just want to think about sunsets and clouds and the great expanse of the sky.

These photos were taken at Southampton this past summer.

Where have all the birds gone?

In past years I have seen an abundance of blue jays, chickadees, pine grosbeaks, siskins and redpolls. Occasionally we were treated by visits from rose breasted grosbeaks and cedar waxwings as they were passing through.

This year in my back yard, I have observed a decline in the winter bird population. I have been trying to verify this with other local bird watchers. If you have noticed a decline in your area I’m interested in hearing from you.

This watercolour is a result of my bird studies and simply called “Blue Jay Study”.

Elegant Sentinels

I’ve started working on a new piece, some life drawing and thought it’s time to head out for a snowshoe. So King and I took our usual trail towards the beaver pond and decided to follow along the ridge that borders the pond.





































































I love the skeletal look the dead standing trees take on, standing like sentinels and took some photographs of stumps and deadheads.























There is lots of material here for painting. As we started the climb up the steep slope of the ravine, we came across interesting granite outcroppings and bedrock formations.










































When we descended down the other side of the ravine and headed back home across the beaver pond we were anticipating a nice hot toddy to warm us up.

Winter Painting

For years I have spent countless solitary hours exploring various marshes and beaver ponds when I lived in a little hamlet outside of Port Carling. There was a large property that I liked to explore which I now realize is identified as a Provincially Significant Wetland.

According to the District of Muskoka, this site has “biogeographic significance” and contains rare species. Being somewhat of an introvert, most of my spare time was spent wandering with my dog Sheba. In the winters I would ski in this particular area.

There was a large marsh that I called “The Bowl” that flowed into the Joseph River. Most of the time we encountered numerous animal tracks such as fisher, otter, deer, snowshoe hare and fox but on one particular afternoon I had the good fortune to see a coyote on the hunt, before it disappeared into the brush.

This watercolour is the result of our rambles and is called “Frozen Oasis”.

Snowshoe Ramble

I received a pair of snowshoes for Christmas so I tried them out in the back 400. This shot is looking back at the house before I enter our trail.

I love the way the snow envelopes the trees. This picture looks as if I’m entering a secret “snow garden”.

This trail meanders around a few ponds and opens into a wetland, started by a beaver dam. Here it is now...

And how it looked the previous spring...hard to believe!