A Mother's Day Tale

Hi! (that's me)

Mother's Day was a week ago, but I thought I would share a bit of my day with you. 

Every year for almost 20 years  my mother and father, husband, daughters and I 

 (and sometimes my sister and her family who live 100 miles away)

go to this place. 

We call it Crocus Hill, as it is where the first signs of spring are found. 

Whether we are having an early spring, or a late spring,

 there has ALWAYS been crocuses on this hill on Mother's Day.

Another thing about this place is that it is ALWAYS very windy.

But we go anyway. 

 It is only about a five minute drive from home.

We have a picnic,

 that often turns into a tailgate picnic, as the wind is quite cold, and it blows things around on us.   

We spend time just enjoying the place and our time together.

(husband and daughter #1)

We blow bubbles

Well really the wind blows bubbles for us.

(my mom and daughter #1)

(my dad and daughter #2)

(my mom and her bubbles)

We fly kites

My dad is the master of kite flying. 

 It is so windy here that an ordinary kite does not fly well, 

but over the years we have learned that a kite with a long and heavy tail flies well.

Or in this case, two kites joined together. 

You can see my dad's kite high, high above the trees. 

These trees have eaten a number of our kites over the years.  

And my dad has been known to climb a tree 

or come back with a ladder later in the day to rescue a grand daughters special kite.

We then go for a hike among the wind blown trees, that never grow straight. 

This little wind blown tree is probably close to the same age as my dad (80 years old)

The leaves have still not arrived, and will be some time yet.

(it snowed last night)

Just before we go home we pick a few crocuses to take with us.

My husband gathers me some.

We then head home after a lovely time on Crocus Hill. 

Embellished

The drawing challenge this week is hosted by Stefanie.

She gave us the theme 'fillip'.

Now I must admit that I had to go to the dictionary to get a definition for this word, and this is what I found:

1. A snap or light blow made by pressing a fingertip against the thumb and suddenly releasing it.

2. An embellishment that excites or stimulates

All week long I have thought about these definitions, and the idea that kept coming back to me was about embellishing.  

AND  SO  I  EMBELLISHED!

Using charcoal and paint, pan pastels, botanical bits and pieces of collage.

Until my snow goose was happy to show herself off.

I then played  with her on my computer....

but find the original is really my favourite of her. 

fillip - An embellishment that excites or stimulates

To see more be sure to visit Stefanie!

Finding Green

 In the search for all the colours of the rainbow it is time to find GREEN.

 

 There are no fresh leaves on the aspen trees yet, 

but this little spruce tree did show its lovely fresh green amongst the browns and greys of its surrounding environment.

 

 And because I still have some pressed green leaves and petals from last year, I decided they could be the focal point of a green  based creation.

Here you see the inside when it is open....

 and here is the outside.

 It can stand up and be displayed closed 

 or wide open.

 To find more green visit Jennifer and Julie

Spring Time Bouquet

 

The drawing challenge theme this week is 'smell' hosted by Barbara

Smell conjures up such wonderful memories, and I received such a beautiful spring time bouquet recently that I can not resist smelling it each time I walk by.  With this bouquet in my thoughts I went about creating this weeks challenge.  The smell of flowers takes me to so many memories. 

   Our spring has been very snowy, so I added lots of white to it including some snowflakes on the bouquet. 

 

 Here is a close up showing lots of the pencil scribble I did on this piece. 

 After I took the picture I realized I hadn't added the white dots yet.

 When I finished this piece I wasn't completely happy with it and wondered if I should add something else.  But when I put a mat on it, and looked at it through the view finder I was much happier with how it looked - the smell .... her memories .... all connected.

 

I added the final white dots and called it finished.

  

Well.... except for just a bit of playing with it on the computer.  

For more interpretations of the theme 'smell'  be sure to visit Barbara's blog!

The Birds Of Whimsy

Did you know that Whimsy was a place?

Did you know they had a field guide to the birds that live there?  

Well, actually they didn't -  until I created one!

Using my old sewing machine, a picture I drew, and my computer I put together the cover for the field guide.

I drew pictures of the birds that I know live there, and wrote up some information about each of them.  I then sewed together the pages  and added them to the cover.  

There are many amazing birds that live there. 

The Necklace Pelican uses it large pouch to catch fish.

The Neck Tie Boss Bird protects all the animals found within its territory.

The White Throated Roller is usually quiet and shy, but likes to be raucous and rolling during its courtship flight.

The Bubble Crested Treecreeper searches for insects on tree trunks in a spiraling motion.

The Tear Eyed Puffin's call sounds like a person is laughing.

The Speckled Throated Racer loves to race and spends 15 to 20 hours a day in flight.

The Spotted Barrier's spots change colour depending upon the amount of berries it eats.

The Star Eyed Balancing Bird spends hours each day practicing balancing one or two or sometimes three rocks on their heads.

The Mothering Cormerant  protects smaller and weaker animals and tucks them under their wing for protection.

What fun I had creating this little field guide!

  I submitted it to Somerset Studio magazine for consideration for their March/April issue that had 'Whimsy' as a theme.   It was not chosen to be published, but after almost 8 months of not having this little book, I am just so pleased to have it home again. 

It just makes me smile.