CELEBRATING SPRING

Dreaming of spring and  working on some things.Temps today were forecasted to be in the 70's and while that happened in some spots on the western shore, we had a stiff wind off the river which kept temps in the low sixties.

Reworked this background canvas to add some color and charcoal, then scrutinized it to see who was in there, printed it and gave it the fabric treatment.

Easter is early this year, and Scout and Nigel are anxious to show off their Easter bonnets. Nigel thinks I overdid it with the paper flowers, but I do love those dollar bins at Target. He's a tad grumpy. He has strained a neck muscle, romping with Scout, so I wasn't planning to shoot him today. He kept inserting himself in my photos anyway. He has a strong work ethic, our Nigel.

Scout was okay with the hat, but I think they both agreed the paper flowers were too much.

My laptop was down with a virus yesterday, so I dropped it off at the computer hospital and headed down to Blackwater. The turtles were out and sunning themselves on every available log, and I saw three groundhogs, who were not camera shy at all.

Still working with some pics from the Las Vegas trip...

Not sure where I'm going with this, but it will come to me. Eventually.
Hope you have lovely Spring/Easter plans with friends and family this weekend. I am going to the Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farm to take some pictures of fleece before the shearers come. After that, I'll be enjoying the company of our boy, who is coming home and is a whisper away from finishing school and moving to the west coast. Time flies. 
Happy Spring, blog friends. XO.

OLD MAN WINTER

Old Man Winter was rather late to the party this year, and now we can't get him to leave. I don't mind the snow so much, but my old eastern shore bones are not accustomed to this level of cold. I have had some fun with my camera though, and renewed last year's fascination with frozen bridges. 

Choptank River

Choptank River

Dorchester County. We actually kayaked here a few months ago.

Also managed a couple of quick trips to Blackwater where not a lot of creatures are stirring, besides eagles, who are not only stirring but nesting, a few heron, and this disgruntled penguin.

Exercise caution when landing in icy conditions.

We've had frozen pipes in the house and barn, but were able to get the water flowing with no ruptures. Lots of folks on the shore were not so lucky. I think by now even Scout and Nigel are tired of playing in the snow. 

Inspired by the frozen marshes in and around Blackwater, I am working on this...

Vintage fabrics and papers, hand and machine stitched on a cotton print of my hand-painted background. It's a process!

 One last thing. While we've been having all this wretched weather, we have had the most spectacular sunsets. This one in particular, had a peculiar beam of light shooting upward from the horizon. 

I think Mother Earth is dangling these little treats in front of us at the end of the day as compensation for what we've endured, such as the icicle bending wind that has accompanied the deep freeze.

Stay warm blog friends! XO

THUMP: THE POST-CHRISTMAS SLUMP

That thump you hear is me coming back down to earth after drifting along in a cookie fueled, largely unscheduled, haze for the past ten days. The last child left on Sunday, extra cat and dog in tow. It is incredibly quiet. Eight extra paws creates a lot of extra noise and activity. I miss it.
I was hoping to have something really exciting to tell you. Mike surprised me with the news that I was getting a horse for Christmas. So in that frantic week before Christmas I made the time to drive up to Church Hill with a friend and take a look at Jack. I brought him home for a ten day trial and vetting.

In the end, I decided he was not what I was looking for and sent him back, but still, how lucky am I, to be married to a man who after thirty-four years is still trying to make my dreams come true? This isn't the end of the story, I am now seriously looking for the right horse. Abby is anxious to have a new barn buddy and I am hoping that come spring, I will be hitting the trails on my own horse, because some dreams never die and horse crazy little girls grow up to be horse crazy middle-aged ladies. It's a fact.

Santa also brought the fever/aching/coughing flu, and I spent the day after Christmas in bed, and the next day running around disinfecting doorknobs and light switches, hoping no one else would catch it. They didn't. The weather was mostly dismal throughout the holiday but we did manage a couple of quick trips to Blackwater. The bald eagles were out in abundance.

On Saturday,  despite the miserable weather, my daughter and I grabbed our cameras and headed to Old Trinity, hoping to take some photos of that lovely old graveyard in the mist. We left Mike and Kelly's boyfriend holding down the fort. We were barely out of the car, when they called to say there were three stray horses in the yard, and what should they do. We determined pretty quickly where they belonged and told them to call a horse savvy neighbor for help. The trio had managed to break a hinge and knock down a pasture gate while their owners were away. By the time we got back they were rounded up and restored to their pasture, though not before leading Mike and Sean on a merry chase around the neighborhood. Luckily they ran toward the river and not the highway. Really sorry not to have gotten pictures of that.
There was even more four-legged excitement the next day when a neighbor from across the highway knocked on our door. "Are you missing a pair of beagles?" he asked. I wish. I told him they didn't belong to us or anyone in our neighborhood. He asked if I wanted to hold on to them, as he was taking them to the humane society the next day. They had been chasing deer on his property for three days, before he caught them. Well no, I didn't want to hold on to them, but I certainly wanted to take a peek. Mistake. I peered into the back of his truck. I picked one up. I was lost. Husband and daughter came out. They were lost. Long story short, I would keep them in my barn, and take them to Talbot Humane on Monday. 

There are no words to describe how sweet and wiggly and adorable they were. Each time I went into the barn, they were a little less timid and more delighted to see me. It was hound dog heaven. 

Our first married dog was a beagle, also a Christmas present from my sweet husband. The man knows the way to my heart involves four legs and fur. We both have a soft spot for hound dog eyes and silky ears.
We fed them, bedded them down in an empty stall, and took lots of pics, some of which I posted on Facebook and within a couple of hours had over a hundred shares. After four hours, I was on the phone with the owners, and by nine pm they were on their way home. They had escaped from their kennel and their owners had been driving the back roads on the other side of Trappe for three days, never dreaming they would make it down this far. A happy ending and a fun distraction to ease the end of holiday blues.
Last night we had a gorgeous sunset sky and today we are having our first light snowfall. It has given me the urge to make soup and crochet. I am not very skilled at crochet, but I have some gorgeous alpaca wool from Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farm, which has inspired me to improve.

Hope your New Year is off to a cozy start. I will keep you posted on the horse search. I've already received a couple of tips this week. 
XO,
Mary

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND A FAVOR

This weekend was Talbot Humane's annual Bark in the Park fundraiser. Normally, I have tons of pics to show you, but this year we had Scout, Nigel, and Kelly's Gus all dressed up for the costume parade and as we were being herded and counted and marched along single file in an attempt to break the Guinness record for costumed dogs in a parade...I was distracted, and Nigel was too fidgety for me to bother with my camera.
Not sure yet how many dogs were in the parade, but I have to say we were so impressed by how organized the event was.

Speaking of Nigel, here's the favor...Hair O' The Dog Wine and Spirits in Easton, a sponsor of the Bark In The Park Parade is holding a little contest of its own to promote the event. Costumed dogs were invited to the store to have their pictures taken and the owners of the three dogs with the most "likes" win gift cards. Nigel and I would love it if you'd take a minute to like his pic on their Facebook page. Just click here...Hair OTheDog. Thank you, kindly. Frankly, I think I earned free booze making that hat. So many tiny little pieces, lined and interfaced. It was a labor of love. He had his heart set on being Sherlock, so what could I do?
I did take a handful of photos. My fave people costumes...this pair of mail carriers.

One of the best dog costumes...this Melon Collie.

This is always such a fun event, and it was made even better by the fact that this year, our children and niece were visiting.
Monday morning I was up early to feed Abby and drive down to Blackwater. Bad weather is moving this way and I wanted to take advantage of the abundant sunshine and the first deliciously chilly day.

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hope you find the time to enjoy the fall sunshine this week. XO.
Vote for Nigel!!

EAGLES AND OTHERS

Monday morning's long to-do list was put on hold while I made a quick trip down to Blackwater. I spotted eagles right away, but they were too far for my modest lens to capture. There were two other photographers there already, with lenses like great cannons protruding from their car windows. Slightly envious, I drove around them and headed toward my eagle tree, hoping to get lucky...and bingo! This beauty obligingly landed in the one spot of fall color. I don't have a monstrous lens that needs to be supported by a tripod attached to my vehicle (though I would like to), but I have patience and persistence and sometimes that pays off. Beautifully.

Great Blue Heron

"Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own." ~ Charles Dickens

On Friday, I visited Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farm again for a few more shots of the crias. One week later, they are thriving and vigorous, with much better command of their spindly legs. Two more were born this week so I will have to visit again soon.

Friday ended with this gift of a sunset...

Trappe Landing

Saturday was for watching skipjack races.

So much outdoor fun to pack into these fall weekends. Trying to spend as much time as we can outdoors, storing up memories to see us through the winter months.

Gotta run. Still working on that to-do list from Monday, cause when Nature whispers and my camera finger gets twitchy, I'm out the door. XO.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." ~Albert Camus

SANDPIPER

Vacation was great, but it's good to be home and up to my elbows in paint and fabric again. Played around with this pic from a March trip to Blackwater.

Used editing software to get this. I loved the purples, so I printed it on fabric and used some snippets on the final project. Also, cut out the bird and used it as a template.

Started with a previously collaged and painted background. This one has nautical references. I was lucky enough to find notebooks that contained engine logs and ship's supply lists at a used bookstore. They are large and make a great background layer for all sorts of paper projects.

Printed this on fabric, backed it with linen and cotton batting and began to layer the fabric for my sandpiper, and finished with this.

Used bits of the gorgeous fabrics in my oldest scrappy quilt. I'm going to be very sad when I've used that up, so I should probably start looking for another. Tip: Using fusible webbing will stabilize fabric enough to enable you to use even very fragile bits.
Finished with a bit of hand stitching.
In barn news, Abby has the "clover slobbers." A 1200 pound teething baby and a Saint Bernard together could not generate the amount of drool that one horse produces at the peak of clover time. It's disgusting. Is that TMI? The good news is, it is August and we still have pasture. Usually the grass is brown by this time, but we are still mowing the lawn weekly, and I've even had to cut the pasture. Can't complain about that when parts of the country are dry as dust, so I am counting my blessings here.
Tootles, blog friends.
XO

BEAUTIFULLY BUGGY

After a fun, but hectic weekend of 40th high school reunion festivities, I knew just what I needed. Took myself off to my beloved Blackwater yesterday, where it was beautifully buggy and blissfully quiet. 

So grateful for this peaceful place, where the only sounds on a hot summer afternoon are the hum and flutter of thousands of tiny cellophane wings.
XO