Watch those flowers open

Last week was my birthday and I received a very neat joint gift from my daughter and son and my husband.  It was a Time Lapse Plant Camera.  I have tried a few time lapses and they are pretty amazing.  I haven’t worked out all the kinks yet, but I want to share the two that I have attempted.  It won’t take you long to view them because the longest one is only 15 seconds.

Here is a photo of my beautiful orange iris:

And here it is opening!!!!  I set the camera up so that it would take pictures every 5 minutes and it started taking pictures at 7am and I stopped it at 4pm.  (If you look closely you can see the rain.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS7wi4YvIPk&feature=plcp

Here is a photo of a bunch of my Siberian irises:

And here they are opening!!!  It was a little too shady but if you look closely and focus on just one bud it looks like magic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRd7MtFPz6E&feature=plcp

Quilt Canada 2012

Last Saturday, I was able to attend Quilt Canada in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Three projects really caught my eye.  We attended all the quilt exhibits and the FAN (Fibre Arts Network) exhibit of quilts entitled, "From Away", was very interesting and I loved, Stone Stories, by Marianne Parsons.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Another piece of work that I liked was at the Mary Black Gallery, at a showing called, Rooted. It was called Dandelions.  It was at the SAQA (Studio ART Quilt Associates) show.

How many of us have hauled out a dandelion and thought, "Look at that root!" ?  Ode to the dandelion!  Thank you, Regina, for appreciating that weed.  I will never look at the dandelion the same way after seeing this homage.
Last, but not least, was Curtains, by Karen Miller.  This work of art took my breath away. 

Karen had quite a few pieces in a variety of shows but this gem from Newfoundland was beautiful.  From the clapbords, to the grasses, it was an extradinary piece of work.  These are the wild flowers in the front of the abandoned house.  I loved all of Karen Miller's quilts.

Chicken Pin Cushions and a Sock Piggy too

Last week I was looking at a quilting blog called Quilt Scapes.  I found a great tutorial for making chicken pin cushions.  I had seen the pattern ages ago and I have wanted to make one so I gave it a try.  I think they turned out pretty cute.  Here is where to find the tutorial, http://quiltscapesquilting.blogspot.ca/p/hen-party-chick-pincushion.html

And here are my chickens:

Notice their lovely tail feathers!

My sister found a sock creature book on the Hampstead House website. http://www.hampsteadhousebooks.com/  It is a hilarious book with great pictures and all kinds of terrific ideas for sock animals.  Daniel, the author, has a great sense of humour and a very strange imagination.

I made the little pig from a pair of infant socks. 

Time in the Garden



I realize that I have not posted on my blog for a while.  I have been busy at work and in the GARDEN!  So I thought I had better show you some garden photos of the work I have been doing.

Here are my river beds, in some of them you can see the river in the background:

 

And some of my favourite flowers at this time of year are





Solomon's Seal

Varigated Solomon's Seal

Purple Iris

Virginia Blue Bells

As the summer continues I will have lots of pictures of my favourite flowers of the moment.  Before the end of the week I will have two sewing projects to share as well.



Cape Enrage

This is Cape Enrage, NB and it is a beautiful place.  The cliffs and the ocean are magnificent.  What a fun place!  Here is my twin and me last Friday.  This was a wellness opportunity for the two of us.  We enjoyed the chance to zip-line and to take part in the obstacle course.  Here we are getting ready to ZIP.

And this is me zipping:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PJ7EtEH6M8&feature=g-upl

Jay, my twin sister, was able to capture it on video.

It was exciting (but not as fun as zipping across Grand Falls in New Brunswick!!)

then we all challenged ourselves on the Cape Enrage obstacle course.  I did not make it through the ropes challenge but my twin had a go and she was more successful than me.  Here she is trying her luck (and strength)

 

It was easier said than done!

If you get a chance visit Cape Enrage, New Brunswick, Canada.

http://www.capeenrage.ca/

Box top Challenge

This coming fall our quilting group is having a quilt show and we always have a challenge project for our members.  This year's challenge was to select an empty box out of a bag and use that box to inspire us to complete a project.  The only rule was that you could only use the colours that were on the box.  You will notice in the photo that my box selection was the tissue box.  My project is the one on the right.  I used fake flowers and I had to dye the centre of one black and the red flower is painted as well.  The project on the left is my friend, Melanie's, tea cozy.  She had the same box as me.  She made her flowers and if you look closely you will see that at the very top of her tea cozy is a white piece of fabric that she says represents the kleenex.  Some of the projects that our quilting group have designed have been really neat and very original.

I have recently created a blog for our quilting group, the Keswick Ridge Quilters.  On this blog you will see information on the activities our group has been involved in and samples from the Show and Tell portion of our monthly meetings.  There are also some more completed Box Top challenge projects to view as well.
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http://keswickridgequilters.blogspot.ca/

You Know it is Spring when...

... the lab swims!!!

Our dog Sophie loves to swim and even though the river water is still freezing, she swims anyway.  She is a river dog!!  When we sit out on our deck, she spends most of her time in the water.   Today, as we sat out and enjoyed the sun and the lovely evening, she swam out to her wee island and had a seat.

My twin and I are sock monkey fans.  A couple of weeks ago my brother was in Austin, Texas and he sent me this great postcard.  He claims that the folks in Austin, Texas are crazy about sock monkeys. 

It was the perfect postcard for me.

My Sunflower Gourd

I have been unfaithful to my blog these last few weeks.  I have been working on another blog for the quilting group that I am a member of.  But now I do have a few things to share... Like this great bottle gourd.  Last evening our gardening group got together and painted gourds.  Marilyn, one of our members, grew these gourds a few years ago.  She dried them and then was willing to share them with us.  It is a challenge growing gourds, the conditions have to be just right!  This summer all the members of our gardening group are going to try to grow them so that we have more to paint and share.  My gourd is hanging above our deck that overlooks the Keswick River.  I can't imagine that a bird would want to live in my gourd, but what a great view if it chose to live here!

The Old Days

I love the spring because you can see so much.  I don't mean the daffodils and tulips, I mean that you can can see so much of the past.  When I walk to school everyday I walk past where the old saw mill used to be.  It burned in the 1930s, and yet some of it remains.  Here it is:



 

The bricks are there and the stones from the foundation are there.  Back in the 30s the mill was owned by Elwood Burtt and it look like this:

You can see the boiler in the foreground and the covered bridge (now a Bailey Bridge) that we lost in the  1970s before we moved here.  The road went beneath the conveyor belt and the foundation from the pictures above were from the buildings that you can see across the road. 

I walk past these cement remains everyday and most people don't even know they are there!!  I love this little bit of history.  If you want to learn more about it you can read the book,  Peek Around The Corner - Burtt's Corner, the Early Years by Sharon Bird.



A ROCKY April First

It is no joke, these are rocks, but they are beautiful.  The high water in our river has receded and our beach is above water.  Every spring brings a new crop of rocks, some for skipping and some some for just looking at.  These are just some of the rocks on our beach.  I love the colours and the textures and the stripes.

Amazing Snow Quilts

This picture is of Simon Beck's art.  He designs patterns in the snow.  He just uses snowshoes!  Just Google his name and you will see the amazing designs he has created.  Most of his designs are about three soccer fields in size and they take him over five hours to create.  And then it snows and his 'canvas' is ready for a new design.  These ones are in France. I hope he puts together a book.

Pine cones and Pussywillows

The snow has melted very quickly this week.  Last week we had temperatures in the 20 (C).  We even ate outside on the deck one evening.  At the beginning of the week there was still lots of ice in the river and this is what it looks like today and below is what it looked like last weekend!  Amazing, I love the changes in the seasons.

On our walk today we saw pussywillows.  They are always a sure sign of spring.

This pine was planted along the river by my husband, David and this year the cones were abundant.  You can see the high water in the background.  Now that the water is open on the Keswick, we have seen lots of hooded merganzers and some whistlers.  We have even seen one kingfisher already this spring.

Books and Owls?

I have been working on a few projects.  Some are a little silly and some are useful.  Below is my sock  owl.  I got the idea from this website, http://httpecho.deviantart.com/art/Sock-doll-tutorial-98753371?offset=10 . I thought he was pretty cute.

 

The other project that I completed last week is a book.  It is a nutrition and fitness journal.  I have looked for a journal to record my fitness and healthy eating progress and goals.  I haven't found anything that I was happy with so I made my own.

Sunday River

Here we are at Sunday River.  We had three fabulous days of skiing.  The sky was blue and the slopes were groomed to perfection.  In the background you can just barely see Mount Washington.  This year we stayed in a lovely chalet.  It was a perfect fit for the five of us.

We were just minutes from the hill.  The heated pool and the hot tub were available for us so we could relax after an exhausting day on the slopes.  The National College Championship snowboarding and skiing finals were in progress.  Our friend Lui joined us this year and the Maine Adaptive Ski Program offered him three guides and he had a great time too. 

After four days away, when we returned home, the wonderful weather continued and we sat outside on our deck in +16 degree (C) temperatures.  We shovelled off part of the deck and toasted our wonderful trip to Sunday River and the promise of spring.  We had the best March Break EVER!!!