“Sunset, North Saskatchewan River” (2014)

I thought I would share the final result of the stitched piece I have been working on for the last two months. The original post is from my more professional and better behaved blog http://www.debrahunter.wordpress.com . I hope you enjoy how the final piece turned out.

Mayflies!

Here is the post everyone has been waiting for!

(Yeah right!)

Every year at our cabin we experience one or two mayfly weekends. A mayfly weekend is pretty hard not to notice. The sides of our cabin are coated with mayflies. There is a constant buzzing and humming as the mayflies swarm. A step onto the grass sets off another swarm, and if you dare open the door to the cabin the little invaders invite themselves in to fly near the house lights all evening long.

Mayflies

We went to the lake and got swarmed. We tried to rake the flowerbeds and got swarmed.

Mayflies on the fence.

We went to check out the noise at our neighbours and saw this…….

Mayflies swarm over the roof.

Even sneaking into the cabin meant dealing with these flying creatures. We left the light on at the front and went in the back door in the dark hoping to lessen the number of indoor mayflies.

Mayflies by the light over the door.

Mayfly weekend is definitely something to see, however remember to keep your mouth closed when outside or you’ll have a not-so-tasty flying treat in your mouth!

Into the Garden

Spring is finally here. The snow is finally gone. Here is a peek at what is growing and blooming at our garden at home.

(Please click on the images above to view pictures from the gallery full size.)

Western Skies

Driving west on Hwy 11, Alberta, Canada .

Still Beading……

I am still beading. One week left to finish the piece completely. The sun (pictured below) was two days of beading in itself. The piece is starting to sparkle and might even be finished in time.

beaded sun

 

beaded trees

And the beading begins!

The beading has begun. Truth be known I am probably a good twenty hours in on the beading with a very long way to go. The bulk of the beading will be on the river currents and from there I will move to the sky. This piece is based on the North Saskatchewan River.

I thought I would include an image to give some sense of scale; the boots show it is a big piece for stitching and beading.

And here is a close up shot just for fun .

Time to get more done!

Feels Like Summer

I usually share my west coast images on my other blog, but I thought it would be nice to share this lovely summer-like scenic of Peter Cove North on Pender Island.

Awesome Sky Over The Kicking Horse

Frogs on the Blog

I recently took a break from stitching and beading (and feeding children and doing laundry) to spend an afternoon at the Gaetz Lake Sanctuary in Red Deer, Alberta (Canada). Walking down to the bird blind we were serenaded by the songs of frogs.

We stopped at one area that was particularly loud, looked down into the water, and saw frogs everywhere.

Getting close for photos wasn’t an option as these images were taken through the slats on the bridge leading to the blind. Still, the frogs look pretty interesting by cropping in.

I think frogs are pretty interesting to watch. They will move quickly, then stop and stay perfectly still for ages. The way they swim is great to watch.

In all the times I have been down to Gaetz Lake this is the first time I have ever seen frogs. On this visit  I must have just been at the right place at the right time.

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Cleaning Up The Park – A “Green Deer” Event

Saturday was a dull and windy day, but even the weather didn’t deter a group of our neighbours from taking part in an organized clean up of the Woodlea Park. Thanks to Peter McGee who organized the event, 20-30 people showed up to pick up trash and make the park once again clean.

The whole park was cleaned up from end to end, into the woods and up the toboggan hill.

The woods were particularly disgusting. It appears the high school students from the school across the street feel it is perfectly acceptable to throw all their lunch garbage into the woods by our homes. We collected garbage bag full after garbage bag full of food wrappers and fast food containers. This was really unimpressive.

The parking lot was also tackled as there was a ton of garbage lying around in this area.

We found a ton of garbage under this tree, literally a pile. Under the pile of garbage we found a mangled fence. My husband noticed the tag on it and said “Let’s lift it up and maybe it says who it belongs to….”

Ironic, huh?

We finished leaving behind a better and cleaner park.

We filled up bags and bags with garbage. There was a huge amount of trash. It is pretty unacceptable that people still think that in this era of environmental awareness that it is okay to litter.

Here is the great group of people who took time out of their busy lives to make our neighbourhood a better place. Well done everyone! The park looks great.

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If you are interested in participating in “Green Deer” and leaving Red Deer better than you found it the link to the City of Red Deer’s information can be found HERE.