"Cooking with Stella" http://www.cookingwithstella.com/ is a wonderful film, very clever and humorous and I wanted to eat Indian food right after.  See it if you can.

Spring

Long weekend

Gardening time approaching

Another birthday soon 

This weekend is forecasted to be mild....the grass is just beginning to green-up a bit...more spring bulbs are pushing through....I'm thinking ahead...forever designing in my head....searched 'container gardening' and found these beautiful lush photos that have inspired the design that is inside my head.

I have a bucket similar to this...will I fill it with herbs or flowers?  Herbs on the patio beside the new bbq - cooking area, or flowers down in the bottom where it is lush and green and needs some colour

On the back patio, big pots filled with drought-hardy flowers and a vine that earwigs don't like.

House bricks are this pink colour...I like the purple ground cover, white clematis with the bright orange potted plant...this would work.

Now, to find a sturdy porch swing for the back patio

A strange day today....missing a beat...on the outside looking in...strange day...strange week or two...when there is nothing to say...I will document with photos and pictures...I live but I also document..out of step..saw beautiful sunflower yellow crocuses today...spring.

100 Snowdrops in my garden

Sedum..poking through

 

• if a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it....hmmmmm there is some truth there...being a secret 'friend' is akin to being invisible...I should run

• pay off your credit cards each month....I used to do that and I will again someday...maybe when money grows on trees.

• make peace with your past so it won't screw up your future....I don't have a past that I need to make peace with...just a past that holds some disappointments..

• take a deep breath it calms the mind...I know that is true..this may only work for a minute...so take another deep breath. 

• get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful...spring cleaning!

• what other people think of you is none of your business...I like this one.

Sunday

A perfectly lovely lazy Sunday

Cold and damp

A dusting of snow

No sun

A sleep-in

A day to stay in my pj's

Playing and painting

A chicken is roasting in the oven

.......poor thing

Today's Play

The Subject

The Teapot

The Beginning

Mid-way

The end...spring tulips on my dining room table

Played with my watercolours today....still looks like folkart to me...keep on trying

Spring

Spring...tomorrow is the first day of spring...the days have been mild..but we are not fools for snow will happen one more time...but....I could not pass these cuttings by...pussywillow and forsythia for the front porch urn and tulips for the house.

Saturday

It is a dull and rainy day today...the snow has been washed away and this is good...spring is coming. 

I made a list of what to do today - paint, read, knit, and walk. The soft showers changed to a bit of a downpour so the walk was out.  I am always knitting and I will continue to knit intermittently throughout the day and evening...two projects with a spring deadline. . I like to read at night mostly, in bed. 

After playing with the camera, I set up to paint, prepared my space, sketched, had all my tools and inspiration nearby and painted.....the picture is now in the garbage...these things happen.

where I paint

stuff

why the ipod picture?  this is the ipod that took a bath with me several weeks ago...slowly it has been drying out...and this week I discovered that it works...it plays my music...the screen is blank however and I have no control over what I listen to...playlist, fast forward, shuffle  are functions that no longer work...but the ipod is alive - sort of

My contribution to 'Virtual Paintout' on Facebook this month...a house on Norde Ramsvigvei, Stavanger, Norway...watercolours on paper.

Bright Star....I watched this gorgeous film this week...beautifuly restrained...The main character of this story is John Keats but his true love Fanny Brawne was an interesting woman and I wonder how her life played out.  She was ahead of herself in fashion and the scenes where she is stitching fabric are beautiful ...well done by the cinematographer...sad story of true love stopped short.

knitting
blogs
walks
and work

reading
painting
slumber
and a friend

...that pretty much has been my activity for the last couple of weeks...I can almost feel spring in the air some days...especially when the sun is shining...

Balance

I have found a balance

Let me hold on to it

I have been looking forward to the spring  the summer, spring - a time when I like to make some changes.  My garden  my outdoor oasis  each year I like to introduce something new, adding to an old theme...last year the front theme was Moroccan and the back didn't have one, sadly, but this year I will get some recession-chic ideas.

I found these photos on line and for the life of me can't remember where so I cannot put credit where credit is due...but I like the look, the feel, the lightness, simplicity and "pretty" without being pretty-pretty to these views.

Just one little idea for the next season.

Laugh

Whenever  I need a laugh...a full-on genuine laugh...I look at this picture that someone played with...it is just too funny...my 'beloved' Alan Rickman on the left....but....but......just who is that guy on the right??  Funny funny funny .... how did Bruce (and Leslie) know I needed a laugh? ....or just something to think about...thanks guys.

Separated at Birth?

but but but.....this almost looks like Geoffrey Rush don't you think?

The 2010 Olympics
Speed
Grace
Skill

Red shoes
Lollipop shoes
My orthopaedic shoes
Big enough to wear with socks  

Bright blue wooly socks I made
Toe-up magic loop sock
Interesting technique
Very warm feet

And a painting
I finished today
Watercolour
Oh how difficult you can be
A slightly garish painting but
it suits the dark place
where it now hangs

That is how I have been spending my time while watching the Olympics:

knitting

Painting

 

Zen Thursday

Thank you Leone I need this and as always I need prompting. This day is sunny and bright, clear blue skies, very cold but still the sun shines.  Maybe I will paint.  Maybe I will walk.  Maybe I will write.  I will do anything but brood today...enough broody-moody days...let it go...I will let it all go and let the pieces land wherever they please. I will step back. I will step away. I will create instead.  I will be alone. Enough!!

"There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against a wall."........Colette

Wish I Were Here

I find this photo one of the most beautiful I have seen

peace

serenity

tranquility

glorious colour

photo from: http://www.amitpatty.blogspot.com/

Friday...yay...love Friday's...not sure what the weekend will hold for me. 

second watercolour attempt...copying from Marlene Bulas

yesterday's 'play'

Remember My Word?

My Word is Joy

Even though joy is all around me, sometimes it is hard to see it, feel it, catch it,  hold on and never let it go. Caitlin, another gorgeous niece, a picture that fills me with joy.

GOODBYE JANUARY...SO LONG!

Last day of January...yay...may the rest of winter be kind to us and will let spring come around the corner.

In the meantime, toe-up, magic loop sock class #2 is today. Always nice to learn new techniques and I do like this way of making socks over 4 double-pointed needles.  Today I want to finish my painting - more shadows and highlights need to be added, maybe some details and then I am on to something different.  This week my pendents arrived from the woodturner in Ajax...so close to us.  I do like this work, he is talking of having a studio open house and I think it would be fun to see his workshoop and meet the artist.

beginning at the toe so no grafting is involved and knit with just one long circular needle - brilliant is all I can say.

A little different than my first painting, hope to complete this one soon as I am itching for still life now.

Little things make me happy, especially wooden things.

..and another painting project of mine..these original 35 year old pressed wood cupboards were still dark and cavernous inside, impossible to find anything.  This is the cooks's cupboard, this picture taken before it was complete - 4 more magnetic spice strips have been installed to the inside of both cupboard doors..and I have filled them all!