lunar New Year

The Autumn and Winter flowering shrubs and trees are not as plentiful this year due to the late Autumn drought and colder Winter temperatures we had this year.  But finally some are starting to out on their show.  The yellow Witch Hazel is always a late arrival.

This was an unexpected cloud formation at sunset the other day.  I love how it somewhat mimicked the form of the tree.

The orange Witch Hazel is a much bigger colour show than its yellow cousin.

It seems to have many more petals to them and are much denser on the branches,

Today is the Lunar New Year, I wish you luck, good health, wealth in the year of the rabbit,

 As part of my goal of Renew my word for this year I decided to pick up my Somthing’s Fishy BOM designed by my friend Uschi Geiner of Woolies on the Coast.  I’ve not stitched on it for awhile and it still needs a bottom sandy bottom border to be added.  As always I put some of my own twists and changed placements of her design.  I modified the seahorse from her design.

Last night I decided to stitch this rickrack guy.    I hadn’t yet done the bullion knots around the outside the French knots or the Palestrina stitching on the tail.  I’ve decided to move the mouth placement a bit lower as the fish is angling down to the right.

One of my favourite pieces to develop were the two jelly fish.  Trying different fibres for their tentacles amongst my collection.

I may still add some more stitching to them before they are done.

I love how these tentacles drift along side of the praying mantis,

Enjoy your Sunday and have a lovely Lunar Celebration.

Word of the Year

Last year my word was Inspire.  Both as a seeker of it and hopefully being an inspiration for others to find in things I have done or do through the year.  A past word has been Create.  This year I think I'm making the phrase Inspire Creativity to be my touchstone.

I came across this Instagram Post that someone I follow had shared and decided to play along.  What are the first four words you see?   I'll tell you later in the post what mine were.

January 1st I decided to start this cross stitch called Begin by Bent Creek.  Well it didn't quite go as planned.  I had to change the colour of the linen I chose as I didn't realize how long the piece was plus the recommended borders for finishing the piece.  I was lucky to find something else that a friend had found in a thrift shop that she gave me along with several other pieces of linen. Irene has my gratitude for gifting me with these pieces of linen and also a wonderful fish depression glass bowl her eagle eyes found for me last year.

I love things with words on them.  When I saw this key chain I knew it would make a great thread ring.  It also speaks to my love of travel and the connections you make along the road with friend, family and sometimes even strangers who become friends.

Here was my piece by day 2.  Of the 9 threads listed only 4 had symbols.  I have two friends in Oregon who are also going to do this piece so I reached out to them. Sadly Robin's copy was like mine lacking and Anna was moving and hadn't yet found her box with charts and linens when she first was looking.

I've also started a Wintersal with Stitchonomy. I chose to get the kit with Aida cloth and the threads which are very well organized.  I'm not sure exactly how many different colours we were sent.

After a series of Pacific Storms we had an unexpected change of some blue skies with wind blowing us around.

I love watching the cycle of the Witch Hazel during the Winter.  The orange variety blooms a week or more ahead of the yellow one.

They remind me of spider crabs a bit don't you think?

The Winter flowering Viburnum is also opening its lovely scented blossoms. Both of these plants have such strength in their beautiful colourful displays.  We have a lot of rain and occasional snow and they weather thru it all.

I took some pictures earlier in the week during the rain but they look so delicate against the blue skies.

This was my journal I used last year.  I started it in February so I still have one more month to use it.

Each of the dividing pages has some special thoughts for the month.

This is the 18 month one I got for this year.  It is a larger book and has some goal setting prompts in it.

The new one has a pocket in front to keep certain special papers.

It also has goal setting pages with various prompts on it.

A good goal for us all.

Part 4 stitched and part 5 arrived a short while ago.

I decided from the picture that the next tree was a solid colour and stitched it.  Later in the day I got an email from Anna her copy is a different edition its printed on brown not white paper and her version had the proper key to it.  I'm so grateful for this as Bent Creek has yet to respond to my query about the key.

If you have been reading this closely you will have found what the words I first found were.  

Gratitude, Connections, Change and Strength.  

My gratitude to good friends and family and the staff caring for my mom and other residents of the care home where she live. 

 Connections that have been made thru my blog with Anna and then meeting her friends in Sisters and Portland. Also thru workshops and quilting groups which have been a lifeline during this pandemic time. I cant wait to be able to travel and see them all again along with family in other provinces.

The ability to Change when you can't just drop everything and go to the store when you want to.  Having the Strength to hold onto the hope that things will improve if everyone takes the time to respect the science of what the Doctors and care givers are presenting to us.

Doing this  so we can continue to make new Connections and Changes in our lives and have the Strength to show and share Gratitude to all in this time.

 

Happy Valentine's Day and Snow Days on the New Westminster Quay.

This quilt top was the result of a heart swap I did with my Mary Lou Weidman yahoo group several years ago.  I went overboard making hearts and it has ended up a small twin size.  I have it prepped for quilting but haven't tackled it yet.

 Sunday morning a day late the snow started to fall with very fine flakes.  I went out and at times it was coming horizontally towards me hurting exposed flesh.  I saw at least 3 joggers along the walkways.

 This is facing east at the bend of the river.

 Looking west you can see the difference of the blowing wind.

 The witch hazel was starting to be covered.

 The yellow witch hazel is a bit more protected.

 Back looking from my condo.

 About an hour later.

 I went out around 10 pm and the road was covered and several cars.

 Lobby view.

 Outside about 10.

 About 4-5 inches in the protected area of our front driveway.

 Next day on Monday I went out for another walk.

 Lots on the witch hazel.

 This poor daffodil is up to it's neck.

 The Native Paddle wheeler at the dock.

 Spotted a Robin a humming bird buzzed in and out before I could snap the picture.

 Some more birds joining the robin, chickadees or sparrow, hard to see their marking and another robin.

 Startled by an eagle flying overhead.

 A few poking thru but the rest were basically buried.

 Love the blue in the sky and the green of the leaves on the palm.

 Lobby view lots of snow on the ice.

 Viewed from my condo.

 Looking across the river, you can hardly see the sidewalks in our courtyard but a few people have walked one of the paths.

 Wednesday Rita and I went for lunch at Angelina's, this tree looked amazing.

 More ice and snow on the river.

 A pigeon swooped by.

 Looking west along the river, the plowing stopped here so walking was a bit dicey.

 Rita's flowerbeds are covered.

 Snow starting to melt on the yellow witch hazel.

 Same with the orange.

 Rita and her two dogs walking, Cupcake looking back and Buddy moving forward.

 The mountains peeking out behind some low clouds.

 Even more snow melted in the half hour.

 Lovely colours.

 Snow on the winter flowering Viburnum.

 Love this picture.

 View from the walkway.

 Crow hanging out.

 More higher in the tree.

 Playing peek a boo.

 Day moon out.  When I enlarge this picture it's hard to see.

 Don't know if you can see the moon here.

 Lobby view things are melting.

 This car hasn't moved since the snow started or the ones behind.

 This morning it's about -3C with a high of 3C later with possibly some snow and rain.  More snow may arrive or maybe rain.

 Ice is melting in the ponds.

 You can see the top of the table.

 Working on my block 3 of Fresh Cut.  Stitched wool pieces on last night and then removed them along with the green crescent shape to the left as I misplaced and forgot to sew some of the cotton pieces.  Back to the drawing board later today.

Short attempt at showing the ice flowing down the river.  Hard to see the screen in the bright sunlight.  A helicopter flew over head but you'll get the idea.