Look what I found...

I haven't had a lot of time for art over the last few days. Time seems to disappear and lots of deadlines are looming.

The wedding for one is next week and the house is littered with flowers in various forms as test arrangements are being made by Beth who is doing all the flower arranging. Some of the flowers are very strongly scented, like stocks, and the smell is becoming overpowering at times. Its a bit like one of those movies where the man, wooing the woman, fills her space with flowers. Except there's no wooing going on.

There are flowers in the back garden as well and yesterday someone else found them interesting. Not so much the flowers, but the Reemay that covered them to protect them. This young squirrel seemed to think that the Reemay was THE find of the century...

and was busy stuffing this huge sheet into his mouth...

then decided it might be just a little unpalatable...

so decided to sit on the fence about it for awhile.

Thinking Blogger. Me?

Katherine Tyrrell of Making a Mark nominated me for a Thinking Blogger Award. I read Katherine's blog on a daily basis and she should be the original Thinking Blogger as there is never a day goes by without finding a treasure trove of information and food for thought on her pages.

I am pleased that I was nominated but a little puzzled too, as to me, a lot of my posts seem to ramble from nowhere and wind their way in and around art, animals, farm life and life in general. It is always pleasing to know others read my rants and ramblings and if it provides food for thought, then even better.

Now my task is to choose five other bloggers whose work makes me think and if tagged may feel that they would like to participate as well.

The Soul Food Cafe is the brain child of Heather Blakey, and is my resource for inspiration when I'm in one of those mental fogs that overcome most creative people at one point or another. Soul Food Cafe is full of ideas to make you think, talk and create. Its like being bombarded with ideas and colours and its wonderful. Writers and artists will adore it.

Paris Breakfasts is a lovely, delicious, artistic view of Paris by Carol Gillot. Its like sitting at a little sidewalk cafe watching the Parisian world go by while sketching it. There are glimpses into the French world that would never be seen - the inside world which is more intimate.

Gone to the Dogs is the work of Vicky Taylor Hood and is well written, humorous look at day to day life with a husband, a small child and 3 dogs. Vicky is in Newfoundland also, in the next town to me.

Wish Jar Journal by Keri Smith is another blog where I head when needing inspiration and thoughts to push me in the right direction to create.

The Artwork of Armin Mersmann. Armin is a gifted realist graphite artist with a flair for creativity. His portraits of individuals are inspiring and his symbolic drawings fascinating.
I have been lucky enough to take a class with him on WetCanvas and his guidance in portraiture creativity has been so valuable.

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

Here is a little update on the drawing of Biscuit. I've been developing his face and fur and its slowly coming together. The background will be the challenge I think.

Valet service

Each day when I come home the Embden geese decide to do a little valet service on my car. They love to pick off any bugs that have collided with the front of the car and I think they rather like seeing their reflections in the car as well. Its always rather funny to see them at it.

Another visitor today, but not volunteering for valet service. This was a young moose wandering on the road to the house - the driveway to the house is leading off to the right. He looks rather small and skinny, I hope he's ok.

He brought a buddy too, larger and more robust. These are reasons I hate going down this road to reach the main road to do my run. I don't particularly like meeting these guys!

Things in the woods

I started this drawing of Biscuit a couple of months ago, then it got put to the side while other projects took over. I discovered it and decided to do some more work on it today. I wanted to put the dog in a setting that he was most happy in - tearing up the lane into the woods, chasing bunnies and moose - always unsuccessfully.

I have roughed in the background and will expand on that over time as well as adding detail to the dog's fur. I added a remarque to the page, a classic for poor Biscuit, who always seemed to going in the opposite direction to the rabbit.

While gathering spagnum moss from a nearby marsh today, this little plant was found growing in it. It is, as far as I know, a form of a sundew plant, which is an insectivore, as it supplements its meagre food supply with insects that it catches in its sticky tendrils. I will try to keep this alive in a damp setting to see if it grows larger. I think its rather pretty and so tiny - about 2 inches high.

Another cat

Gizmo
Graphite, 9 x 12
Copyright Jeanette Jobson

I promised a long time ago to do a drawing of a friend's cat, Gizmo. Well today I finally got around to it with this pencil drawing.

There does seem to be something quite drawable about cats and the public appeal is there as well, making them prime for sales.

Yesterday one of the Pekin female ducks was killed by the pond, presumably by a mink as not much else hangs out by the water. I had wondered why the ducks weren't in the pond in the late afternoon as they nearly always are. Then when evening came and they headed to the barn, one was missing and the discovery was made.

I really do dislike mink. They are such vicious killers and the farm has been struck again and again with them. I know its part of life on the farm and part of the risk taken when you have birds wandering around. But each time it happens I feel discouraged and saddened by it.

Maybe its time to get a duck watch dog or a big hungry barn cat, unlike the spoiled brat tomcat that currently resides on the sofa.