Not quite the Texas Chainsaw Massacre...

Our friend Eugene took Gordon out chainsawing on Sunday. Eugene is very experienced with the saw and has taken a safety course, so he ensured that Gordon was doing things properly, and sent him home with all his limbs intact.

That looks like a devilish grin under the face shield. The tree must be trembling with fear!

Going...

Going...

GONE!

Eugene and his son brought one of their horses out into the bush to get him used to the sound of chainsaws. These heavy horses pull the wood out of the woodlot after it has been cut. We are getting a load of firewood from Eu this winter.

I think Gordon looks quite striking in purple and orange!

Thanks to Eugene for the photos. I was at home cleaning out the garage, considerably less fun.

Latest hens of the week

The latest additions to my Hen-of-the-week collector cards...

Now go watch my chicken video from yesterday!

Chickapalooza

There went 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back! I swear to you I was completely sober when I made this movie...

There's something fishy going on around here...

Yesterday it was paintings, today it's rug-hooking. I hooked a bunch of "ruglets" (teeny-tiny hooked rugs to hang on the wall) for our art sale last weekend. The leftovers are now in my Etsy shop.

Fiona Fishy 9" x 7.5"

Francesca Fishini 9" x 6.75"

Felicia Fishy 10" x 6.75"

Fabio Fishlips 9.25" x 7"


I am ready for 2010 to be over. Bring on 2011!

Wee Spotty McBugster and Friends

I had a great time at our art sale last Sunday! We all did well selling our art, and I have just finished slapping most of my leftovers up on my Etsy page. It's nice to see my shop all tanked up with some new things.

I had fun doing a series of tiny acrylic paintings, which as you can see quite different and somewhat less realistic than the coloured-pencil drawings I did for Katie of the Sonoran Desert:

Dainty Dragonfly 6" x 6"

Mr. Flashy Golden Bug 4" x 4"

Love Bug 4" x 4"

Wee Spotty McBugster, 4" x 4"

The Etsy listing reads: "Wee Spotty McBugster, Scottish cousin to Mr. Flashy Golden Bug! Spotty is one wild and crazy beetle and if he wore a kilt, he'd have nothing on underneath. You'll recognize him at parties by the lampshade on his head and the Drambuie in his hand...paw..claw...foot -- whatever you call the insect part that holds a shot glass! His mandibles are bright orange and channel his inner parrot. He loves a full Scottish breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, blood pudding, haggis, tattie scones, baked beans, fried tomato and oatcakes."

Yes, well, I've been sitting in the office for about ten hours today and by the time I wrote Spotty McBugster's description, I was feeling a little punchy!

All paintings now for sale on Etsy. Next I'll post the leftover "ruglets"! First I need food and a very long nap.

And thank you Phyllis and Michelle for buying my skull-teacup ruglets!

The art show!

My friend Ronna is kindly allowing me to use her photos from our art show in my own blog post!

The sale went well and we had a lot of fun. I hooked a whole lot of little "ruglets":

And I put out some larger rugs, coloured-pencil drawings and pen-and-ink birds...

Plus I had fun doing whimsical little acrylic paintings of bugs and cats!

I also sold copies of our book, and photo cards.

Ronna had lots of her beautiful painted china. Why that lovely tea set wasn't snapped up is beyond me. I love the white coneflowers on the black china, and the ladybug accents.

I already own several of Ronna's pieces! And I am now the proud owner of this:


Ronna's folk art on wood. Love it!

She did lots of colours paintings on wood, plus some lovely framed birds and a tiny sheep...

Meanwhile, Holly had her lovely linocuts (we now own that rooster!)...

And exquisite pastels of barns and stones...

Holly did a lovely series of small acrylic paintings called "The Story of an Apple", and she also had colourful cards for sale.

Holly, Ronna and I! We set up Saturday, a job well done.

And a bit of end-of-day silliness. I was praying for good weather on Sunday!

Thanks Ronna and Holly for inviting me to participate this year. I am looking forward to next year's show.

Late November beauty

This afternoon, my friends Ronna and Holly and I set up for our art sale tomorrow. On the drive home, I stopped to take photos of the gorgeous sunset and moonrise. If only I'd had a tripod with me! Breathtakingly beautiful, and the light was spectacular. Pictures don't really do the scenes justice, although I am very fond of the silo shot!

Late fall in eastern Ontario. Soon the fields will be covered in snow.

The full moon is tomorrow!

A farm under the setting sun.

Moonrise and a nice old silo.

The moon reflecting off Loch Garry. Not quite as spectacular as the Loch Garry in Scotland after which it was no doubt named, but still very pretty. We have kayaked all around this lake.

Makes me want to start howling like a wolf!

Another beautiful old Glengarry barn!

Wish us luck at our art sale tomorrow. Wouldn't it be nice to sell every last piece of artwork? :)

Medal's here!

Yesterday the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards medal and certificate for Katie of the Sonoran Desert arrived...

(Maybe if I earn enough from the book, I can afford to burn my hideous office wallpaper and have the 100-year-old plaster walls repaired!)

Evidently it's not solid gold! But it is very cool. The circle in the centre spins!

Times have changed!

I recently came across the photo page from my parents' British passport from the late 1950s, the year before they moved to Canada. They were still in their 20s. What's amusing is that in those days, British wives still went on their husband's passports, instead of getting one of their own.

I am very glad times have changed!

Dogs love goose poop!

...and wild turkey poop, and chicken poop, and cat poop, and their own poop. Which goes a long towards explaining the rancidity of their intestinal eruptions!

"Sophie, don't you think Canada goose poop is the tastiest?"
"No, Tristan, to be honest I prefer the subtle nuances of wild turkey!"

Apart from this, we had a very nice walk yesterday.

Tristan enjoyed his daily swim!

Sophie enjoyed her daily hunt for meadow voles and chipmunks (she usually catches nothing!)

Mr. Handsome!

Winter's coming!

And poor Errol Flynn! Someone is pulling out his tail feathers. He only has one or two left. But I think changes are afoot amongst the rooster ranks. Errol is definitely the biggest and he seems to be standing up for himself a bit more. I'm not sure who will end up as top rooster: him or Lord Gaga.

Speaking of Lord Gaga, do you like how he stands above everyone else?

He has a beautiful tail!

And Beaker remains the randiest. He is smaller than the black hens. Beaker sometimes manages to grab onto one of them and won't let go, and ends up being dragged around the coop by his beak until the hen can shake him off. Other times he succeeds quite well with the ladies!

Food and birds and a prickly creature!

On Saturday, we went into Ottawa for haircuts, then stopped in Chinatown for lunch. They have just finished building a beautiful new arch there:

For some time, it caused a lot of disruption in Chinatown, but I think the results were worth it...

...for a mere $750,000!

We had lunch at the So Good Chinese restaurant. The clientele was alarmingly white (this usually tells me the Chinese food isn't authentic!), but we had a very yummy lunch. They have a ridiculously long menu, but the owner helped us narrow down our choices. Along with Chinese food, they have Thai, Vietnamese and other southeast Asian dishes. Gordon had the "wrap and roll" platter, while I had some chicken/peanut concoction (don't tell the hen-girls!) that was quite yummy.

We prepare to dig in.

Lots of cashews and peanuts in my meal, and it was fresh and tasty. None of that "Canadian-Chinese food" aftertaste you sometimes get, and not cloying. My best friend from childhood is of Chinese descent, and I have many authentic, delicious Chinese meals with her and her family over the years, and I don't take well to crap Chinese food. Let's just say I'm not a huge fan of breaded chicken balls with fluorescent sauce!

Gordon's rolls were definitely of the Vietnamese persuasion. We visited Vietnam in 2004 and I adored the food. We had a very nice lunch. I enjoy trying all the different restaurants in Ottawa's Chinatown, not to mention shopping at the many Asian grocery stores!

And look what we saw as we whizzed home along the highway:

Bazillions of snow geese! I presume they are Lesser Snow Geese, as we live right on their migratory flyway, but we are also very close to the flyway of the Greater Snow Goose. We love seeing them but the farmers tend to hate them, as they allegedly damage the fields.

If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the clouds of geese over the fields. It was hard to get good photos driving at 110 kmph.

Nearly home!

And look who lives in a tree on our road:

Mr. (or Mrs!) Porcupine! I have seen him three times in this tree. Clearly he has taken up residence there. He's always snoozing on a branch during the day.

We have porcupines on our farm. Just ask Tristan!

And what do we come home to? Three hungry (and demanding) cats!