Back in 1977 when “The Diary of an Edwardian Lady” by Edith Holden was first published I bought a copy for my mother. Firstly because being a watercolour painter I was fascinated by the wonderful illustrations and secondly because it was mainly about the area of Britain where I was born. Edith Holden painted the various fauna and flora that she saw on her daily walks around the west country of England. Nowadays there are many beautifully illustrated books on every subject but “The Diary of an Edwardian Lady” was one of the first to hit the market. My mother looked at it in a totally different way from me – she compared the weather she was experiencing every day to the weather Edith had experienced seventy years before. She found that at that time it was very similar – I wonder what she would find now forty years on. Certainly our weather here in Manitoba seems to have changed – when I first came to Winnipeg minus forty in January seemed the norm now we are horrified when it stays cold for a few days. Having said that I will comment that the beginning of the new year was fairly mild but that it then turned much colder.
Now for a change of subject – my crazy orchid is sending out another shoot – too early to tell if it is going to have flowers yet but already it has some very interesting bumps.

Still working on my quilt for Ekphrastic – the binding is done, a name decided (with help from an English/Philosophy teaching friend) my Intent to Enter sent and fees paid – I now have stitched on a hanging sleeve and just some embellishment is needed. I had lots of ideas of using gold leaf and foiling but as none of my experiments gave me the excitement I was wanting I think I am only going to stitch on a few small beads and one faceted topaz-like large bead in the centre of my painted topaz – so I am almost totally finished! With the deadline pushed back it is so easy to sit back and say –maybe tomorrow! Just as well as the Christmas season is always busy and then there were some health issues.

Yesterday I saw one of the animals who had been tracking through our bush – not a neighbour’s dog after all but a coyote. We had just had a flock of hungry Bohemian waxwings descend on a crab apple tree and I guess in their enthusiasm to eat they had knocked a lot of the apples off the branches – the coyote took advantage of the ‘windfall’ and was enjoying his mid day snack under the apple tree.

Am now starting to think of my next projects – have started a few scribbles and have been looking through my stash of fabrics. Sometimes just looking at a group of fabrics, spreading them out on a table initiates a raft of ideas. I usually write the ideas or thoughts down and then they get filed until I need inspiration. I have been doing that for years – since I was at college and it always seems to work well at jolting me into gear and invariably something starts a chain of thought and another painting or hanging is begun.