Winter Doldrums

Those winter doldrums have hit and I'm afraid I don't have much stitching progress to show. I've been housebound too long what with all the snow and cold and I can't seem to settle. Just too antsy as I move from one project to the other. I've had three new starts during the past month but very little done on any of them really. Here's where I am at this point.

 I continue to plug away at Threadwork Primitives Wintertime. I'm looking at this and the lighting is really terrible. You can't see one colour difference from another. Sorry about that!

My first new start is La D Da Briar Rabbit. As you can see, there's no sign of the bunny yet.

This was followed by My Dear which is from Blackbird Designs The Gift is Small leaflet. Not much to show but this is going to be a lovely stitch!

The third new start is the one piece on which I've made the most progress. This is called Such Friendship and is designed by Annie Beez FolkArt. I may be stitching this design more than once since I have a couple people in mind which I'd like to gift this with. There are a couple of new stitches in this one which I'm learning as I go along. One is a Leviathon variation stitch and the other is the Rhodes Heart which I haven't tackled yet.

Besides my cross stitching I've been busy putting together a couple of photo books. One is of all the deer photos which I've taken over the years and the second one is a compilation of all the snowy owl pics I took during their visit to our area in 2014. I had a coupon for the photo books that was expiring at the end of February so I spent a lot of time on these so as not to have the coupon expire before I could use it. I'm happy to say that I managed to get them both done and ordered with one day to spare!

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny but bitterly cold day. Despite the cold, Bob and I decided to take a drive out towards the bird sanctuary and see if we could spot any wild life or feathered friends. We had a bit of success on both counts. About halfway to our destination I spotted from a distance what looked like a log resting on a tree branch. You can see it in this pic to the left of the centre.

Here's what  was revealed as we got closer.

Mr. Turkey was settling down for a nap.

There were lots of deer on the road which hightailed it (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun!) back into the woods as the car approached. 
We had been told to watch out though for this particular fellow as we continued on our route. Can you see what it is?

A little closer now:

Yes, it's a snowy owl!
 

  This is our first sighting in 2015. I spotted one lone owl at the end of October just up the road from our place. I was excited that they were back in the region but I hadn't seen another one since. Although there are not the numbers around as we had last year, I'm still glad to see one or two of them in the region. They're such beautiful birds and fascinating to watch.

Following this we finally arrived at our destination. The bird sanctuary does have a number of winter birds in residence but we visit mostly to see these lovely creatures.

 We've seen as many as 30 deer in this area but on this visit there were 2 moms and their yearlings. They were picking at some corn that someone had left for them and at times they moved out to the road to lick at the road salt.
As we left to head home we ran into this little fellow who was not shy and was quite proud to show off his fluffy white tail.

 We stopped one last time at the area town dock to snap a pic of the frozen St. Lawrence river. The trees in the distance are on the American side of the river and are part of a park where I camped frequently with my boys when they were young.

All in all it was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. We stopped and grabbed a Timmie's coffee on our way home and we discussed the fact that perhaps next year we can return to the area and make use of the trails available for snowshoeing. This year is out of the question as my knee replacement surgery is going ahead on Mar. 16.
I hope you are all finding ways to keep warm during this bitter winter and for those of you down under, enjoy your warmth while you can. Wish I could visit!

A New Framing Addition

I'll start off today's post with a picture of a finish I completed back in March of 2013.... Baby Its Cold Outside. This is designed by Heartstring Samplery and I started stitching it last year during one of our final storms of the season. I knew that I wanted to have it completed and framed to hang the following year during the winter. Courtesy of a Christmas gift, I am pleased to say that it returned home from the framer a week ago and is currently adorning my dry sink.

The frame isn't white as it appears in this photo. It is a lovely mix of grey and cream and is textured to give the appearance of barn wood. When we were looking at different frames for this we tried out a pure white frame and it just didn't do the picture justice. 

There, I gave it one more try and this is closer to the look of the actual frame. You can see a lot more of the texturing in this one too.

As for stitching, here is what I've been up to recently.

With Thy Needle and Thread - A Pink Sparrow update:

Saturday I put this aside and went in search of something else for a change and found Hands To Work -This Is The Day which I'd started last fall. When you last saw this I only had the house completed.

I've also been working on some smalls for February's Smalls SAL. I've completed two already including the final finishing which is amazing for me. Here's a peek at one of the finishes. I've chosen an opalescent fabric for this one although you can't tell from the picture. Can you guess which design this is?

I also wanted to show you a lovely card which I received early in the new year from Chiara in Italy. 

Chiara sent this to me with Christmas greetings. It is actually a postcard with the greeting and address on the reverse. Each of these words is the word Beauty in English, French, Italian and Spanish. I think it is actually a lovely stitch for Valentine Day and I hope to have time to work on it this month. Thank you so much Chiara for your wonderful greeting!

One of my step-grandchildren has shown an interest in learning to cross stitch. Although all the grandchildren like to watch me and inquire as to what I'm stitching, Yanie shows much more interest in how to accomplish my design and is always complimenting me on the many framed works in my home. So for Christmas I found some beginner kits on Ebay and ordered one for each of the kids, although I knew that Yanie might be the only one who completed her design. She's 10 and has the concentration to stick with it.

On Sunday I spotted this post on Facebook announcing her progress.

Yeah Yanie! I'm so happy that she was able to finish this and in such a short time. I haven't talked to them lately but I can only hope that she enjoyed it as much as I do and that she didn't just complete it to make me happy. The kit I had sent for Summer was a stamped one. She's 7 so I figured this would be a bit easier for her until I opened it. All the other kits came with Aida but her design was stamped on a cloth similar to evenweave but the weave was quite tight. She was unable to see the holes in the fabric so I mailed them a piece of Aida when I returned home and told them she would have to follow the chart like the others. So much for making things easier!

Yesterday was a beautiful, bright and sunny day here. My son Daniel had been visiting us for the weekend and I was heading back to Cornwall to take him home. He has been quite interested in my owl sightings and inquired whether I had seen any lately since he would love to see one up close. I told him that if he didn't mind we'd take a longer way home and see if we could spot one for him. Luckily we didn't have to go far. This fellow was sitting on a post just outside our village on the main highway. This is the closest owl I've seen to us yet.

We also spotted one other during our travels, sitting just around the corner from our local Tim Hortons coffee shop.

The sun seemed to have drawn the wildlife out just as much as the people. On our return from Daniel's place the sun started to slowly sink in the sky and the deer suddenly started to emerge from the woods and the cornfields in our path. We could only inch along this one portion of the road for fear of running into one. There had to have been between 40-50 deer in this area crossing the roads back and forth at various times.

After leaving the deer, we rounded the corner and in the distance near the rail tracks we saw another owl.

I was driving and my hubby was snoozing during the latter part of the drive. Suddenly I saw a large dark mound in the top of the trees as I drove towards the woods. Was that a hawk? It seemed a little too large. No, it's an eagle!! I made a quick U turn (we're on the back roads at this point and there is very little traffic) and headed back to the spot. Bob woke up and quickly grabbed the camera. He was so thrilled and in his haste he didn't focus properly when he took this shot.

Unfortunately it was the only pic we could get. I think we spooked the bird a bit and immediately after this he flew off further into the woods. This is the first time I've ever seen one of these magnificent birds anywhere near our area. I've seen them when we've been boating on the St. Lawrence River but never this far ashore. I would love to return to the area again and get a better pic but I'm sure that's the last we'll see of one for quite awhile.

I've been watching the weather reports and I know that many of you received more snow on the weekend as we did and are expecting still more in the next few days. It seems our Ontario groundhog, Wiarton Willie emerged from his home only to discover his shadow, immediately signalling another 6 weeks of winter. I not sure exactly how accurate rodent predictions are (LOL) but from the long term forecast in my area it appears he may be right! Keep warm, keep safe and keep on stitching!!

Better Late Than Never!

Yesterday I finally finished off a couple of Valentine pieces I had stitched. One was from last year and the other is a recent stitch. I had planned on having these finished in time for Valentine's Day but there was a death in my ex-husband's family which meant I was ferrying the boys to and from Ottawa to Cornwall where the wake and funeral took place. Only my eldest son drives and he was not able to make the trip so Mom ran the roads again. 

As you can see from the pic below, I was also involved in our church's Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper. I flipped those flapjacks from 2:00 pm until 6:00 pm and didn't feel much like eating any after that, lol!

My first finish was a Valentine freebie which had been offered by The Primitive Hare as part of a contest last year. I finished the stitching last year but never got around to the final finishing until now. 

The Primitive Hare May Love
stitched on 32ct Sassy's Sugared Coffee
using Victorian Motto red floss

The second finish was offered as a freebie by Plum Street Sampler in 2009. You can find the chart here. I just finished the stitching on this on Valentine's Day.

Here's a picture before I finished it as a pillow:

Plum Street Samplers Lovely You
stitched on 32ct Pink Sandy Beaches
using Gloriana Rose Violet

And after the finishing:

Both pieces will be lovely additions to my Valentine decor next year. I still have two other finishes from this year waiting for final finishing touches. Perhaps they'll get done this weekend...... or not!

This past weekend I also picked up my two main WIP. I only devoted one evening to BBD Awake The Dawning Day.

The rest of my free time I spent on Heartstring Samplery Baby It's Cold Outside. I am loving this one!

I still have to finish frogging out that letter O above the house. I wasn't paying attention and started stitching the word Look ( as in look at what you're doing!) instead of Listen. That's what I get for watching TV at the same time!

I need to get my act in gear and start stitching a RAK for the Random Acts of Stitching Kindness blog next.

As a Valentine's Day gift my DH had planned on taking me to dinner at one of our favourite spots, The Village Antiques & Tea Room. Unfortunately, the night of our reservation we were hit with a massive snowstorm which left us with another foot of snow. When we tried to rebook, we found out the tea room is now closed for a week due to health reasons so our dinner has been postponed for now.  Instead we spent the day with a trip to the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary. 

We took our new camera with us in the hopes of getting some good pictures of the deer that roam the woods as well as the birds. Here are a few shots from our day. First stop - the birds. The chickadees will feed directly from your hand! We brought some sunflower seeds with us.

 Not one, but two!

A Tree Sparrow

The Red-Winged Blackbird, a sure sign of spring!

Then I caught a flash of red!

Soon after, this male cardinal landed on the snow in front of me.

On to see the deer now. Most of these deer are fairly tame and reside in the woods of the sanctuary. They know the sound of cars and will emerge from the woods looking for handouts.

Is that a car I hear?

I'll just take a peek over this snowbank and see.

Yup, that's a car alright! Might be treats coming!

I love this little one! Look at those eyelashes!

One of my favourite shots of the day.

Time to head home

We spotted this fella after we'd left the sanctuary while on our drive home. This particular cornfield actually had about 25-30 deer in it.

Hightailing it home!

I hope I haven't bored you with the pics from our day. I love taking a drive out to the sanctuary. It's also a great spot for snowshoeing, cross country skiing and hiking. Hope you enjoyed the visit!