October Full Moon Art

 

 

That month slipped by pretty quickly and with no posting here.  Spring is a busy time here, with garden work going on, but also with daylight savings in progress, and a short spring before the really hot weather hits, I'm enjoying being outdoors until dark most days.  There's time to hang out with friends and neighbours, enjoy cool walks along the river with Mirrhi, or sit outdoors to sew until the light goes...just doing rather than blogging about it before the heat of summer drives me indoors again. 

I'm joining Woman with Wings again as we share our full moon art.  I made a small string pieced moon from scraps of my plant, rust and compost dyed linens and cottons.  It's about 11cms in diameter.

I was inspired by this quilt by Natasha Rutter titled "Moons" ....it was posted in a textile newsletter I receive, but I can't find a website for her, so I have no have information about her or the quilt, unfortunately.





 

 

 This full moon is in Taurus, and is about connections.  As I stitched my little strings I thought about how strings connect us......to our deeper inner selves, to those around us -family, friends and community, Mother Earth and the cycles of our lives. They make a complete "whole" when joined together.

Here's another look at the magnificent Jacaranda Tree from my last post, in full colour this time.  I love the 'reflection' of colour on the ground as the blossoms fall, which they do almost constantly, drifting down all day long.  People spend a lot of time raking the blossoms, or worse, getting their noisy blowers out in an attempt to keep everything neat and tidy.  Mother Nature, begone, keep your distance!

and to finish.........
 

 Good girl, stay!

Full Moon Art - Jacaranda Moon

Joining with Peggy of Woman with Wings again creating full moon art with the cycles of the moon.

At this time of the year the first blue mauve fuzz starts to appear on the jacaranda tree, while at the same time, as some of the old leaves are still dropping, the new blossoms are also falling, carpeting the grass underneath with pretty splotches.   A plainer moon than I usually do, my plan was to embroider tiny blossoms around the moon, but as I didn't have any of the right colour in my thread arsenal, instead it's scattered with the real thing.

I used this vintage quilt block as a background, since the sky has been dark with rain clouds for days, and all I could see of the moon was a pale, pale glow, just a hint there was anything there.

It's impossible to capture the colour of the emerging blossoms against the grey sky, but the branches make great patterns and have a beauty all their own.

Go visit Peggy and have a look at the full moon art created this month.

Hello, my name is Betty

and I lay blue-green eggs. 

 Araucana Betty

Betty's offering in the middle, Lola's snow white egg to the left, and Brenna's big brown on the right. Green eggs and ham anyone?

Betty was late to lay, the others have been laying for about a month now, and I was beginning to worry.  Then she started talking about it, sitting  near the nesting boxes for days and having a little workshop with herself, and yesterday was the day!  Her egg is a deeper green in real life, and makes a lovely rainbow with the others.  Araucanas can lay a variety of colours, from pale blue and lavender, to this deep almost khaki colour. She's rather odd looking, with no comb or wattles, and a funny 'bed hair' tuft of feathers on top of her head.  I've promised this first egg to my neighbour's 3 yr old....I suspect she's going to be disappointed with the colour, although I've tried to tell her Betty's eggs might not be blue like the sky, I think she's still hopeful they will be. She's away on holidays, so I'll hear the verdict on the weekend. 

And an update on the other girl ................

Miss Mirrhi, 4 months old, and all long legs and perky ears. She's a  real sweetie, is just as happy to lay on my feet and nap as she is to chase and bring a ball, she sits, downs and comes on command, waits to let me go first through doors and gates, and waits until I give the ok before she eats.  She also rings a bell with her nose that I tied on the back door knob when she wants to go out..........sometimes it's a false alarm, as she's also partial to chewing on it.

When not collecting eggs and gushing over my puppy, I've been busy stitching and sewing......more on that next time.

Blue Moon: Swimming in Cosmic Tides

was Mary Pat Lynch's description of the full moon, a blue one, as this is the second full moon for August, on her blog Rising Moon Astrology.  I loved the images this conjured, and so I stitched a happily swimming blue moon, with fishy companions, as this full moon is in Pisces. Clouds covered the moon as it rose here, so I've included them across the moon. My moon circle's a bit wonky, as I was distracted as I was watching an excellent  Australian documentary "Go back to where you came from" as I stitched.  Click on the link to watch a preview of this hard hitting, heart wrenching, often confronting story that deals with the human and political side of asylum seekers and the debate currently raging in Australia about "boat people".

 

 

Joining with Woman with Wings once again for her Drawing down the Moon series of art inspired by the energy of the full moon.

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I hope you're keeping warm if you're in the eastern states of Australia, where winter is having a last blast at us, and sending temperatures way down.

Urban Homesteader

Quilt finish and around home

It's finished at last. This quilt has occupied all my waking hours lately, and some of my sleeping ones too, as I'd wake and fret I wouldn't get it finished in time.  It's now in the hands of Mr Australia Post. It's a relief to have it done and away.

Just a little peek until it arrives at it's destination.

Around the homestead, the "new" chickens are no longer new, but part of the flock. Here they are dustbathing together, but since I took this photo, the new ones have been coaxed into sleeping in the big roost.  They were pretty nervous to start, and no wonder, with that big orange monster bearing down on them from above, and pecking madly.  All's well now, though, and spangly Lola now sleeps
happily under that monster's wing.

The girls have really grown up, as Brenna...in the middle next to orange Juno...started laying yesterday, and Lola produced her first egg today.  My last bantie, Goodie, doesn't lay anymore, and spends her days now standing quietly and very still, gazing off into the middle distance.  She still looks well, is very ready to let the young ones know when they've overstepped themselves, but I wonder if I'll have her for much longer....

I call this pair my yin yang cats....that's mother Molly on the right, and her "baby", Velvet Brown who's around 7or 8.  These two ended up staying with me when I was fostering cats for an animal rescue group.  They'd come out of a very nasty situation, and I couldn't bear for them to go through the adoption process, they were so terrified of people, so I kept them.  Even after nearly 4 years with me, they're still quite timid, and will come to me occassionally for an ear scratch, but mostly keep to themselves.  I'm more than happy to give them a safe haven and let them live out their days peacefully.

Until of course, this one showed up. This is Neesa, my feisty little princess.  She was treated cruelly as a tiny kitten as well, and has some "issues" too.  Here she's keeping an eye on Mirrhi...none of the cats have taken to Mirrhi, but she doesn't really care, she has me!

And to finish, here's the puppy herself, helping me in the garden. As you can see, she's quite the lady.

She's growing so quickly, and her legs are getting long and lanky.  She's a good girl, and no trouble, and has been quick to learn.....she waits for the magic word before she eats, she can sit, down and stay, she'll come most of the time, she sits and waits until I go through the door first.....she's also strong willed and is ready to argue if she's told 'no'! She's fun and wonderful company, and as I write this, she's napping on my feet.  It's hard work at times, but I have no regrets about getting her.

Have a good week everyone.

Puppies and presents

Mirrhi went off to puppy pre-school yesterday.  She was a little shy at first, and was happy to sit quietly, close to Riley, the maremma pup who lives next door, and who she knows well.  After watching for a bit, she gained her confidence, and happily joined the fray of whirling, running, jumping gleeful puppies.  As I expected, she wasn't at all happy when it was time to go on lead, despite working with her on the lead every day, she's not taking well to it.  It was entertaining at least, my puppy dancing and yelping on the end of her lead, while everyone else sat reasonably quietly!  She did however sit for her treat without being asked, 'waited' for permission to take it, and 'downed' when I gave the command, so we redeemed ourselves.

I gave up trying to take pictures, all the puppies moved so fast, it was a bit of a blur. Here's Mirrhi chasing Rosie the german short haired pointer, who's lovely long ears she liked to swing off.  There were 6 puppies there, including Mirrhi, of all shapes and sizes and she enjoyed the fun and games with all of them.

But puppy school is hard work!

A lovely surprise during the week was a parcel from across the ditch, from Leanne in NZ.  Leanne had a give-away on her blog, CottageTails for a candle lit from a candle, lit by a candle, blessed by the Dalai Lama, and joy! my name was pulled out.  I love to light it first thing in the morning, and remember it's journey.  Thanks Leanne.

 Mirrhi wasn't forgotten either, out from the parcel popped this shaggy rabbit!  Leanne's daughter Abbey has a pup, too, a sweet little miniature poodle, Stella., and it's been fun to share puppy tails.

 Hmm, not very sure of this....especially when it squeaks!

 It's alright now, I've got it under control!

Thanks Leanne, Abbey and Stella, I love my rabbit.

A stitching day here today, with the weather changeable from warm and sunny to cool and cloudy.   Enjoy your Sunday.