To Public Footpath

The coastal cliff paths from Abbotsham towards Bucks Mills in Devon provide some challenging climbs and lots of beautiful scenery. What a great way to shake off jet lag. These are just some of the views we had from the footpath as we walked for miles, up the cliffs and down, up and down, again and again. High on a cliff one moment, then down at the beach another. Tremendous exercise with lots of bracing air and seaside breezes.

If you look closely you can make out the footpath in some of the photos, evident as zigzagging lines or stairs.

As we walked along that late morning and early afternoon, I kept having to tell myself that it wasn't all a dream. Here I was in England again, after all these years.

Bundling the Beach

I knew it was only a matter of time before I did something with the beachcombed finds from various Vancouver beaches when I posted about them on August 26th. The string bags are great because they allow the air to circulate. I was so happy when I found a piece of crockery on the first two beaches but try as I might I didn’t find a piece on the third. If I’d just had a little more time I know that I would have found at least one piece! But I only had a half an hour as the sun was setting to conduct my search and sadly we were not able to return to Spanish Banks Beach on that particular trip. Using those finds that you bring back from trips around the house is a nice way to remember your travels and in this case those sunny summer days.

Autumn Arrangement #2

Tried out another arrangement using the mini white pumpkins I had with some dried leaves, along with various wooden objects and creamy ceramics I already had in the house. The sunlight, at different times of the day, really makes a difference to the scene. I love the golden warmth of the autumn sun. It bathes everything in a warm golden glow and I adore the creaminess of this variety of pumpkin.

Autumn Arrangements

I am slowly amassing pumpkins as I come across them and must say, I’m having fun arranging and rearranging them in various parts of the house. The latest addition is a large white pumpkin which is presently sitting atop a well weathered tree stump I’ve had for around 15 years, though it has spent most of its time outdoors. The big white looks rather ghostly there, especially side-lit as it is at this time of day.

Changing with the Seasons

Why not put to use your seldom used three-tiered plate rack by turning it into a display for the seasons? It took almost no time at all to place a few pumpkins, dried hydrangea and lanterns on the plates and yet the impact is high. This piece is a fair size so it fills the corner of our kitchen. Now whenever we sit at the kitchen table we have something lovely to catch our eye. With so little effort involved, you can change the displays often and always have something new to look at.

Autumn Trio

This is a very quick and simple project that will add a touch of autumn to your décor. I used three glass vases but any sort of clear containers would work. Mine are filled with small yellow leaves, twigs and plum tomatoes, but in fact anything that reflects the season could be used, such as small pinecones, acorns, maple keys or small red leaves like those from a burning bush, to name just a few. My preference is to go out and see what mature can provide. A blending of autumnal colours looks great together, and doesn’t have to cost a penny.

Pacific Ocean

We arrived in Vancouver yesterday for a week’s stay. The day was hot and sunny and what better way to begin than with a refreshing dip in the Pacific Ocean. For me, any trip to the beach is incomplete unless I’ve had a chance to beachcomb. No doubt my finds will find themselves in some creative project down the road. These ones were found on Jericho Beach.

Waxy Monkey Frogs

Aren't these fellows adorable? My youngest and I went to the Museum of Nature today and enjoyed their exhibition of all sorts of unique frogs. These Waxy Monkey Frogs were my favorite though, and they posed most obligingly for me. These three each seem to have their own unique personalities too.

Canada Day

Perhaps not the photo you would expect to see on Canada Day, but we decided to celebrate the occasion by taking an afternoon hike in the Gatineau Hills, far from the crowds and excitement of Parliament Hill. We only saw a handful of other people while we were on the trail so it was certainly a quieter way to reflect on Canada and what this country means to us. And I think it is a fitting way to spend the day, for what is it about Canada that is great if not its natural beauty?

Spring Green

We’re at that stage in spring when the buds on the trees are poised to burst forth. The bright light green of these buds, just before they unfurl, is such a lovely fresh shade. And if you’re not careful, a moment of distraction can cause you to miss the moment altogether. It seems that in a blink of an eye the spring buds unfurl into leaves and the time to notice is gone for yet another year. So stop and take a look while you can, enjoy this brief encounter.

Wikipedia says that spring green is the colour on the colour wheel “that is precisely halfway between cyan and green” and that the complementary colour of spring green is rose. It also reports that the “first recorded use of spring green as a color name in English was in 1766.”

But I think that spring green is more like the Crayola crayon that’s labeled “green-yellow,” created in 1949.

More Winter Scenes

By now, those of you in the midst of winters like mine are probably groaning at the sight of yet more winter photos. But at least they are focusing on plant material rather than snow and ice clinging to branches. Right? Somehow, “winter wonderland” photos like the ones used on cards are wearing a little thin with me. I think they might be more appreciated by people who don’t actually experience the type of winters that we do. I hope that you’ll agree that the ones pictured here are somewhat different from the “snowy vista with snow padded trees” variety. The last thing we need are more beautiful winter scenes. Do I sound grouchy? It must be January.

Life Will Prevail

Have a close look at these roses that I came across in a tea room. Although the blooms had died, the stems were sending out leaves! I have had my share of cut roses but I have never had the stems leaf like this, especially in a window in the middle of winter. How extraordinary! Given the right conditions, life will prevail. Quite a sign of hope in these gloomy overcast days filled with dampness and cold.

Curtain of Moss

I seem to have been on a beige, brown and grey kick for awhile now. So... on yet another snowy overcast day I thought I would bring you a breath of summer and a therapeutic blast of colour: the stunningly beautiful green of moss. For those of you have read my blog for awhile, you will know that the theme of being able (or not able) to see what is front of our own eyes recurs on a regular basis. How many times have I passed by something I have seen almost daily only to find that one day I notice something I had never “seen” before? Moss is one of those things.

How can you not be attracted to its jewel-like greens in all its varying shades? How can you not be drawn to the sheer tactile pleasure of it? Now I realize it is not really fair to pose this question when all the moss for miles around is covered in a foot or more of snow, and I don’t expect you run out right this minute if you haven’t... but have you ever stopped to really look at moss close-up? Author Robin Wall Kimmerer (who is also that rare combination: scientist and poet) has.

In her book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, she puts it this way: “With sophisticated technology, we strive to see what is beyond us, but are often blind to the myriad sparking facets that lie so close at hand. We think we’re seeing when we’ve only scratched the surface. … Has the power of our devices led us to distrust our unaided eyes? Or have we become dismissive of what takes no technology but only time and patience to perceive? Attentiveness alone can rival the most powerful magnifying lens?”

If you take the time to really look at moss, you will find that what you perceived to be a clump of one type of moss actually turns out to be many different types of moss. “There are fronds like miniature ferns, wefts like ostrich plumes, and shining tufts like the silky hair of a baby…. Magnified twenty-fold, the surfaces of the leaves are beautifully sculpted. The light shining brightly through single cells illuminates their elegant shapes. Time can vanish in exploring these places, like wandering through an art gallery of unexpected forms and colors.”

And just as the patterns in a single leaf replicate the shape of the tree from which it grew, so too “the architecture of the surrounding forest is repeated in the form of the moss carpet, the fir forest and the moss forest mirroring each other.”

For those of you in the throes of winter, you’ll have to wait for some time before you come across a cushion of moss of any size, let alone one as lush as the one pictured here. This one, in the Gatineau Hills, is a living curtain, a cascade of undulating shades of green and brown breaking over a cliff’s edge and running down a rugged rock face. And it is spectacular.

When you next see moss, whether it’s a small cushion or a whole curtain, try to remember to take the time to stop and look. Really look.

A Regular

Chickadees are regulars at our birdfeeder. When no other birds are venturing forth you can always count on chickadees to show up. Such dear little fellows they are too. Soft, fluffy and plump. Their colouring reminds me of the scarf I featured in my post yesterday.

Some interesting facts about chickadees:
* They can remember where they have hidden food up to 28 days after concealing it.
* The number of “dees” in their familiar call, “chick-a-dee-dee-dee”, increases with the level of the perceived threat from predators.
* In the winter, chickadees who are used to humans will readily take seeds from a person’s outstretched hand.

Shades from Nature

I promised in my post a couple of days ago that I would show you what I used my latest thrift-shop wool to make. It didn't take long to knit this scarf as it is only a simple plain stitch from beginning to end. In my previous post I had remarked that these two yarns contained a mixture of colours that reminded me of shades taken from nature. And now that it's done I see just how much they are in keeping with the colours of stone and weathered wood. The yarn itself has the softest feel imaginable. I think it must be partly made of silk fibres (one of the disadvantages of buying from a thift shop is that the labels may be missing). But this yarn is so soft around the neck that I couldn't wait to knit it into a scarf. So very cozy.

If you are looking for a super simple project to do these winter nights while watching the telly, you'd be hard-pressed to find something more straightforward than knitting a scarf like this one. I cast on 21 stitches but you can add more if you like a wider scarf. As I mentioned, I only used a plain stitch so there's no changing of stitches requiring your concentration while knitting. And if you use a single colour, then you don't even have to remember to change colours. You'll be amazed at how quickly your scarf grows!

The Passing of Time

Left out in the harshness of winter, this dried hydrangea bloom has acquired a delicate fragile beauty, so different from its robust summer self. There is a certain gentleness about it, a vulnerability. The softness of the beiges and browns against the blue of the snow, the veined petals attached to such brittle spindly stems, all of which engenders a sense of the passing of time, the inevitability of decay, but also of its great beauty.

Barren January

Maple keys, bent over like a pair of wings. Perhaps they are huddling to keep warm in the cold. Barren January... a month to keep cozy, to snuggle under a blanket, curled up with a good book and a hot drink at the ready. A mouthful or two of good chocolate wouldn’t be amiss.

The Bare Tree

My mother once said to me, '"When one sees the tree in leaf one thinks the beauty is in its leaves, and then one sees the bare tree."

From The Bare Tree by Samuel Menashe.

Back and Forth

New Year's Eve. A time when one quite naturally looks back on the past but also has one looking to the future at what lies ahead. Time travels backwards and forwards. Which brings me to pine cone magic. I used to think that once pine cones had opened up, that was that. But I recently learned otherwise. Dried pine cones can open and close, seemingly going back and forth in time. Don't take my word for it though. Give it a try. Take an open pine cone and place it in water. In a couple of hours it will close up tight. Out of the water it will open again after about a half a day. Magic!

Repetition and Continuity #2

Here is another photo that has a similar vertical pattern as yesterday's. I remember when I first saw it, how the lined-up trunks really pulled me in and made my eyes travel down the row. It makes me do some work, so in that sense I don't get the same sense of peace from it as I do from the reeds.