Things I Love Thursday

I love the changing of the guard!  A new season has officially arrived.  I sat in my yard over the weekend with my morning coffee and heard them coming!  ; )

First there were three...

Then there were five!  (I love odd numbers.)

* * * I LOVE that photo!!  I can't believe I caught it!  : )  I have never been able to capture birds until recently.

...AND THEN!

yipeeeee!

p.s.  I believe the groundhog is over-rated!

Agreed?

And another sure sign of spring...  When the air is warmer, the clouds are different.  The spring sunsets are back.  !  I took these ones last night.

This is from my favorite spot where I took the cattail pic I've stitched up several times.  It's essentially the same photo, but cropped a little differently.

I LOVE the next photo.  The sky is SO loose.  So full of water vapour and coloured sunshine.

I loves me some prairie spring sky. 

Happy Thursday everyone!

Sunday Snapshots

I was told that there was a flax field blooming off of 'Old 27'.  (I had to look that up...)  It happens to be the road I go to a lot.  Thank you Bernie & Patti for the heads up!  When I got there, I think it was already starting to close for the day, but there was one low angle that got enough blue all in one shot.  VERY PRETTY!  With the evergreen, it reminds me of a sprinkle of snow except for the fact that it's blue.

you can click the image to view it larger

It was a BEAUTIFUL day.  20 degrees, which means the sun is warm on your face, and the shade is very cooling.  Well, I gave up on the flax and just kept driving, when all of a sudden I spied this.

Do you see that?  I see a heart, right in the middle above where the road meets the horizon.  So I got to thinking... haha!  Why not a bit of spray paint editing?  ; )

: )
I hope your Sunday was lovely.

Things I Love Thursdays

I love to be creative.  I also love nature.  

Here are some other ways I have been delving in to both.

I love my new pan pastels.  : )

This summer I am spending some time on a regular basis sketching up the clouds with my new soft pastels.  I have a couple perfect spots where there is an unobstructed sky view right at home:  one on a north second floor balcony, and one facing east from the middle of my backyard.  (no powerlines, no trees, no nothing.)

I love studying clouds.

It's oddly familiar to sit and do this plein air as they call it.  I feel like I channeling my mother.  I secure my paper to a board with wooden clothes pins and sketch quickly and loosely as the clouds drift by, ever changing.  Clouds change FAST, so this is kind of exciting - like trying to catch a butterfly.

You know I love to look down as much as I love to look up.  LUCKY ME - I found a terracotta flower press at a garage sale!  It came with a big book to boot.  To be more specific - it's a microwaveable flower press!

modern day wild-crafting?

No kidding.  I didn't know it when I bought it.  You can quickly dry a pressed flower in less thank 2 minutes.  Done.  The color retains VERY well too and there's no chance of anything going funky.

I did up a bunch of samples and it's amazingly fast.  This is wonderful.  I can collect prairie plant specimens now and save them indefinitely.  Love that.

As for these specimens... we shall eat them!  : )

Happy summer and happy Thursday!