Squirrel's Delight

A couple of weeks ago I put up my hummingbird feeder. The ruby throated hummingbirds sensibly spend their winters in Mexico and Central America and fly back to Ontario in May. This involves a 800 km (500 mile), non-stop flight over water from Mexico to Louisiana or Florida before they start their journey north. Incredible.

I filled the feeder with sugar water (1/4 cup of sugar to 1 cup of water) and within an hour there was a hummingbird sampling the syrup. And then another one. My neighbour has a feeder too, so there is plenty of sugar water to go round.

But yesterday someone else discovered a taste for sugar water.

She discovered that if she tipped the feeder with her weight, the liquid could be sucked out of the hole on top.

 She hung on with her back feet and dangled upside down to get the treat. I don't think this was the first time she had done it, she seemed to know exactly what to do.

When she had enough, she sat on the fence and washed her hands and her sticky fur. And now I have to refill the feeder.....

Green

After six months of living in a snow covered monochrome grey and white world, green is so pleasing to the eyes. And it all seems to have happened in the last 2 or 3 weeks here in the Great White North. Gradually the bare winter branches of the trees get that pale green fuzzy look, and then we have that first warm sunny day that we have all been waiting for, and everything bursts with new life.

The trilliums are blooming in the forest. White trillium is the official flower of Ontario, and is protected in provincial parks and conservation areas. Apparently, the seeds are dispersed by ants. Nice to know that ants are useful for something!

It was a gorgeous sunny day so I took TessaDog for a romp through Eldred King Tract in York Regional Forest. It has been such a cold icy winter that this was my first visit to the forest since fall. She ran and ran, having a wonderful doggy time. Can you see her on the trail?

We walked all the way to the pond which is a gathering place for both dog walkers and horse riders. At one point I counted 20 dogs tearing about at top speed, and 2 horses. I'm sure there were a lot of happy tired dogs later that day.

New beech leaves have such a lovely pale green against the blue sky. These leaves will turn a golden brown in the fall.

Timmy's

On a road trip in Canada and need a break? Indulging in some retail therapy at the mall and your feet hurt? Need a coffee and a bite to eat to restore your energy? Then you'll probably make a stop at Tim Hortons.

Timmy's has 3,588 restaurants in Canada, 859 in the United States and 38 in the Persion Gulf region. There was even a temporary Tim's set up for the Canadian military in Kandahar in Afghanistan. They can't do without their "double double". The Kandahar Tim Hortons closed in 2011 after serving four million cups of coffee and three million doughnuts over five years.

The restaurant chain was started back in 1964 by NHL hockey player Tim Horton who played for Toronto Maple Leafs for most of his career. Unfortunately Tim didn't live to see the huge success of his coffee shops as he was killed in a car accident in 1974. Warning: even if you're a famous hockey player, you're not indestructible..... don't drink and drive!

My small town now boasts TWO Timmys. And they are always busy. They are a meeting place for high school students, seniors, and everyone in between. I stopped in for a small coffee and a muffin yesterday... yummy! 
See those weird looking black and white donuts on the third shelf? Stanley Cup Playoffs Donuts. Tim Horton would be proud!

Return of the Lost Blogger!

I know, I know, it's been far too long. Did you miss me? I'm not sure why I neglected this blog for 3 months, but I'm back, and I intend to keep on blogging. It's been a brutal winter here in Southern Ontario, with ice storms destroying trees and hydro services, and bitter temperatures. In fact, so cold that it seems that I have been trapped indoors all winter, with no opportunity to get outside and enjoy the snow with my grandchildren. I'm deliriously happy to see some sunshine and feel the warmth of the sun at last.

I've been continuing with art classes, and really enjoying it. This is my latest painting. I'm not sure if it is finished or not. It's at the stage where I'm scared to do anything else to it, although Colin says there are too many hard edges. Perhaps the door needs more detail or texture. And I think it's a bit too blue......

Party at the weekend.... grandson Isaac will be five. Menu (birthday boy's choice): BIG sandwiches with pickles, cheese and mayo AND a big "chunk-er" of chocolate cake. Sounds good, right?

SIX!

My oldest grandson is SIX today! SIX! How did he get to be so grown up? He's gone to school with this wonderful treat for all his friends:

I was hoping he would save me a N for Nana.... but no N, too bad!
He'll be here for the weekend so we'll have a special birthday cake on Saturday with the rest of the family.

SuperHeroes

The sewing machine came into use at Christmas. I made all three of my grandsons Superman capes for Christmas. Black with a yellow felt Superman logo.
Callum wears his to his skating lessons.
Emma got a special cape.... red with a pink felt Princess Crown on it. Max loves dashing through the house wearing the Princess cape more than his own, so Emma has to wear the Superman.
And the capes are reversible.... red on the other side with their initial and a lightning bolt. The big boys seem to like the red side best.

SuperCallum and SuperIsaac taking a break from their exhausting SuperHero activities.

Back to Art School

I attended a 4 week acrylics painting class with three friends back in November. I've attended classes with this instructor a few times and I really enjoy the way he instructs the class. Lots of technique, composition and colour theory, and then the practical part.... create a painting using everything we had learned.

He normally encourages his students to paint whatever they choose, usually from a photo that they had taken themselves, but this time there was a fixed subject matter.

Our mission this time.... our subject was a still life, this bunch of rather faded flowers, plonked into the vase, no flower arranging, just paint whatever you see and interpret it however you like.

Step one, a quick pencil sketch of the basic shapes, and then add in the darks, lights, and the grey shades in between to determine the values. And then choose a complimentary colour scheme using the colours opposite each other on the colour wheel, and do some preliminary colour sketches.

I did four quick paint sketches on 6" x 8" canvases because I just could not visualise how I wanted my painting to look. That's always the hard part for me, getting started and making a decision on the direction of the finished piece.

We worked on our paintings at home and at the instructor's studio, and even though we were all painting the same subject matter, we produced four paintings that were radically different. This is mine.....

.... using only three colours: Phthalo Turquoise, Cadmium Red and Titanium White. I'm still not sure if I like it. It looks a bit like one of those "Velvet Elvis" type paintings to me.