Monkeying Around

See no evil...

Hear no evil...

Speak no evil...

Lots of China This Week

This week has been a lot of fun with exploring different designs. Here's a 6" high vase with a red-winged blackbird sitting on cattails.

A funky (11 inch) plate for serving cantaloupe...

An "Eat Your Veggies" serving bowl, measuring 8.5", featuring the frozen veggies I grew up with: peas, carrots, corn and lima beans.

A fantastic, large (12") snail-shaped fruit bowl perfect for strawberries, cherries, blueberries...whatever!

A 6" tall lupin pitcher.

A 12.25" round cake stand, sitting on a 5" stand, covered with nasturtiums.

We Are Family

My fabulous cousins Jane, Jamie and their daughter Maddy made their annual trek northward from Tennessee and met us in Ottawa last night. We also met up with my Ottawa cousins and my aunt Sylvia and headed out to a fantastic Chinese supper.

Don't you just love that huge turntable full of food?

We're all a bit silly when we get together...can't help it, I guess!

Jump!

For the past few weeks, a mamma robin has yelled at me from her nest as I hung my laundry on the clothesline below her. Yesterday was the big day...it was fledging time. In the photo, one of the babies is out of the nest and ready to take its initial flight. I didn't see the little guy fly but later on in the day, I heard mamma robin egging on her fledgling who was in the brush about 10 metres from the nest. Lucky my cats are all indoors!

Wood: Before & After

Many of my winter days are involved with wood. Richard cuts, and we both haul it in. And then it's stacked up, waiting to be split.

Splitting day came, we rented the splitter and the following day brought all this wood into the barn. Although I'm not looking forward to winter, at least I'm ready for it. Looks like about 10 cords, eh?

Poutine Chronicles Part Deux

On our virtual vacation with John and Nancy, we are in search of the ultimate poutine. While on our art tour, we spied the "Tante Doris" chip stand and knew that John would insist we stop.

So we stopped.

And ordered a poutine.

Good call John!

Art Tour

Richard and I went on the "Route des Arts" in the Laurentides, which encompasses a huge area in Quebec. We only visited a few places and saw lots of very cool stuff. A fantastic iron worker, Pius Beck makes metal into art.

Here he is posing with his work ... the papparazzi were close by.

Lupins Galore

Of all the motifs I've painted on china, the lupins seem the most popular. I decided to paint a few more lupin items to keep up with the demand! I just love this 6 1/4" serving bowl covered with multi-coloured lupins.

An oval serving platter measuring 9 3/4" long.

Odd-shaped little pieces...I think they are used for onion soup bowls? Not sure. I thought they'd be fun to serve olives or pickles.

An 8" square serving plate with purple lupins. The edges of this plate are up-turned to stop stuff from rolling off it I suppose...

The same server but decorated with pink and purple lupins.

A nice sized, 8 1/2" serving bowl with pink and purple lupins.

Hummingbird Moth

I love these tiny moths that look like teeny, 1" hummingbirds. They even hum! They are attracted to the sweet smelling phlox that grows in my garden and today a pair of them were hovering around the flowers. To read more about the hummingbird hawk moth click here onto Wikipedia's info on Macroglossum stellatarum .

Glengarry Highland Games

On the first weekend of August, the tiny town of Maxville, Ontario (pop. 700) hosts the Glengarry Highland Games when the town swells to over 20,000 people! Everyone is busy getting ready to welcome the masses (and the massed bands) this weekend.

Since it's only a 10 minute drive from my home, I asked my friend Peggi to snap this photo of me in front of the welcome banner and the hand-hewn MacDonald piper. Does this count as a "Big Thing" for my collection, I wonder?

Ceramic Stuff This Week

This "Cat and Dot" set would work well for a cup of tea and a cookie? Or maybe for a child's lunch.

A china "Bug Box" to hold little trinkets.

A set of unusual coneflower candle holders...this time to hold tea lights.

A fun sunflower bowl, to serve veggies or just to look at.

Chocolate and Strawberry Cake

I made this cake last week to celebrate a friend's birthday. I covered it with white chocolate, drizzled extra-dark (85%) chocolate around the edges and dipped the strawberries in semi-sweet chocolate. I added a small pile of blackberries in the centre of the cake and topped it with another chocolate strawberry. It was really yummy.

Virtual Vacation: Picnic

A great thing to do with all the leftovers from our ATC lunch from the previous day? Doesn't peppered goat's cheese, wilted tomato salad, bean salad and devilled eggs just scream "picnic"?

I used my picnic blanket, always rolled up and waiting, and put it in a shady spot under the trees.

The old maple sap bucket held ice cubes, glasses and a cold bottle of lime-flavoured Perrier.

Perfect lunch. Perfect day.

The trouble with going on a "Virtual Vacation" with friends who live in the city, is that they seem to have more to do. If you want to see more virtual vacation, click on John's blog.

Mailboxes Etc.

My own mailbox, looking a little rusty around the edges. But I just love my cat flag that I found on a trip to Oregon some years back.

A lovely little folk art painting on the side of this mailbox.

A little log cabin mailbox -- very cute.

Okay, this one wasn't on our delivery route, but I saw it on the way to the grocery store and thought I'd snap a pic. Pretty cool racing car mailbox for a place called Mr. Rad.

I found it pretty interesting how curious these cattle were and how they watched us as we pulled up to the mailbox.

Why does a snapping turtle cross the road? Not sure but he was right beside the mailbox as we drove up.

All in all, a really fun experience. Can't wait till I get called on to do it again!