It has been a strange month weather wise. The winter seemed short but the spring has been a long time coming. At one point I saw a flock of geese flying south and felt for sure that they had probably given up on a Manitoba spring. We had snow and wind and rain and then snow again. Every so often we would have a bright and warmer day and then it was back to the grey skies again. But the pelicans are back!

The paths of ice have melted to canals and now I need a canoe to navigate the bush but they are starting to dry up with temperatures at long last above freezing during the day and with the help of fairly strong winds I’ll soon be able to take my rambles around the property.

The only things that seem to be growing in the garden and the bush at the moment are patches of brilliant green moss on trees and logs and even on small patches of earth.

The delicate design of them which at present is so vibrant seems to get lost when everything else starts putting out shoots, foliage and flowers.

My orchid is still fully in bloom. Having been used to ordinary, more common plants whose flowers fade so quickly I am still amazed that it can still be looking beautiful for more than a month. I have another strange bud that I am waiting to see bloom – my aloe plant, which started as a very tiny thing back in 2002 has a flower on it. The plant has grown and been cut back many times, and off shoots given to other people but in all the years has never had a flower. I wonder what colour it will be.

I finally sent off my hanging for Ekphrastic and it has arrived. I am really looking forward to seeing all the different interpretations of the twelve poems. It is going to be a fantastic show of work from forty eight different fibre artists.
I have finished my leaves. Had to stitch them all down because every time I pinned it onto my easel to see how it looked I had to sweep up all the leaves that fell! Obviously the amount of Mistyfuse I used wasn’t enough. I have machine stitched and drawn some veins on some of the individual leaves and have embroidered several branches and twigs. So I am now ready to actually staple it on to a stretched canvas. Still trying to make up my mind whether I should also glue it to the canvas.

I am still pondering what my next project will be – am looking at symbols and signs to represent life and age and the games we play, drawing more realistic ideas incorporating more flora and fauna and then going off into totally different directions entirely. I have to think of several different projects to complete in the next few months – two for the show Kathleen and I will be having in November, one small piece I need for the Fibre Art Network retreat in October and three for a group show with the Fibre Art Divas next year. I have so many ideas floating around I am having difficulty landing on one. One thing is for certain I need to start soon.
I had intended to write about an exhibition of fibre art by a friend of mine but as well as the grey weather I have been suffering with a five day headache so a visit to Portage and the exhibit will have to wait until next month.

So I will end on a bright note – on my walk down to collect the mail today I saw a red admiral butterfly and the cottonwood/poplar trees are showing their dark red catkins – spring and summer are definitely on their way.