Sunset Spectacular

Recent sunsets have been stunningly beautiful. Walking along the road by the bay and watching the colors shift and deepen as the sun travels through the clouds on its way to the horizon has been a delight.

Each of these pictures was taken at a different point along the way, but it's still possible to see the changing sun show. (Don't miss the duck swimming in the lower left corner of the picture above.)

Here's a closer view to highlight the intense colors.

But the fuller sky view with the larger cloud stage was spectacular.

It's so nice that Baloo got me into the habit of taking sunset walks. I think of him (and miss his excellent company) along the way every single time!

Creative Assist, Please

Some of you may remember this picture from a blog post a couple years ago. Well, I finally got around to getting the drawing done and carving the mother and fawn.
 

Now, I'm in the process of making some prints and I have a small problem. I haven't been able to come up with a title that makes me totally happy. Some ideas have been:

Breakfast Break
Mother's Milk
Nurturing Nature
Fawn's Feast
Breakfast in the Meadow
Milk in the Meadow
Morning Meal (or Milk)
Morning Meadow (just leave the whole food aspect out entirely)
Doe's Delight

Any other brilliant ideas or preferences? I'm sort of stumped. Am I overthinking things? (Almost certainly.)

 

Early Warning System

I always love seeing the early arrivals. When the robins and the red-winged blackbirds start returning to the north woods, I know that spring will not be far behind.
 

This year, they seem to have arrived earlier than usual. I hope they aren't bitterly disappointed in their decision to push the normal timeline.
 

Birds and other critters are usually more aware of weather and seasonal changes than we unobservant humans, so perhaps it means we'll have an early spring. I like that idea.

I spotted the robin yesterday and the red-winged blackbirds (two of them) showed up today.

Last year, a pair of red-winged blackbirds nested in my yard and it was delightful to watch them rear their brood and then have the youngsters stick around fairly late into the fall. It makes me wonder if these two might be related. They seemed to feel quite at home.

Here's hoping that when the ladies come join the gentlemen, they'll choose to nest here again. Hearing them sing and watching them raise another brood would be quite a treat.

Simply Red

For many years, I have struggled with keeping the squirrels off the bird feeders. I have installed baffles, trimmed branches back to discourage leaping, sprinkled hot pepper in the seeds (the birds can't taste heat) and finally, I completely moved and changed the entire feeding landscape. 

Red squirrels are quite cute, but they're also quarrelsome and destructive. Happily, this cheeky little fellow can no longer get to the feeders.

He does come around and clean up the ground food I put out, though, along with anything the birds happen to drop from the feeders as they search for the perfect seed. He still keeps trying to get to the source, but (knock on wood) so far, the baffles are limiting him (and his black and gray squirrel competitors) to ground snacking. 

I call this success!

Ducking Trouble

Ducks are still swimming around in the bay. I'm not sure these intrepid souls are going to leave this year, since it looks like the water will remain open enough for them to find food.

 
I took a walk along the road by the bay to see who was still paddling around.

I saw mergansers, mallards and goldeneye ducks diving and dabbling. The mallards stuck a little closer to shore, being expert dabblers, while the goldeneyes and mergansers dove a bit farther out for their dinner.

There was some preening going on, as well as foraging.

It was a gray day, so the lighting wasn't as good as it might have been to capture details, but it was still fun to see them.

Mallards are always easier to photograph, since they usually don't venture quite as far from shore.

They like to be able to reach their snacks from the surface, rather than dive for them.

There's always something entertaining about seeing ducks go bottoms up - or diving down to pop up somewhere unexpected.

It was a fun little adventure on a chilly afternoon. (Ducks must have really good circulation in their little webbed feet!)

Introducing VersaFine Clair (and Other Ink News)

As promised, I have the new inks checked in, photographed and up on the Stampeaz site.  

Sadly, some of the inks that I have loved for years are being discontinued, so I went searching for possible replacements. I think I found one. I wanted something that would work with finely detailed images, dry quickly, be light fast, and fade resistant. Also, I wanted the pads to have matching inkers available, so they could be refreshed easily, rather than needing to be replaced when they started to lose their juiciness.

VersaFine Clair seems to have most of the advantages of our beloved VersaFine originals, with the added benefit of inkers to match the pads. I always found it frustrating that VersaFine only made refills available in Onyx Black and Vintage Sepia.  I plan to keep carrying the original VersaFine pads and inkers as long as they’re available to me (my supplier seems to be phasing out the standard sized pads, but I can still get the minis).

Some of the Clair ink names are a little obscure, but I have pictures of each pad and inker, so you can get a pretty good idea by selecting them from the drop-down menu. (For example, the orange pad below is called, “Summertime” and one of the reds is known as, "Glamorous".)

I'm going to keep looking for new ink possibilities, and I hope that these will be useful - I'm looking forward to giving them a try.

A Midwinter Ramble

I took a midwinter walk around my favorite wetland area the other day.

Surprisingly the marsh was still frozen, in spite of the fact that the snow had melted.  Although snow is coming back today, if predictions are correct. 

Those of you who met my hidden mystery dragon last year will recognize this fellow. Hey, it's not green, but it's a wood dragon, so it fits with the Lunar New Year, right? 

I found some fungi growing along the way, too. The bright orange caught my eye and made me smile. I always enjoy unexpected flashes of color during the gray time of year.

The shallower marsh areas did melt. I loved the reflections in the water, framed by the lichens and fungi on the fallen tree in the foreground.

Speaking of spots of brilliant color, there was also a pair of industrious pileated woodpeckers foraging for hidden insects. The head angle made me smile.

There was a male and a female, but the female kept to an area that had branches obscuring my view, so I didn't get any post-worthy pictures of her, but her mate was bolder.

He was handsome and he knew it. I may have to use him as a carving model one of these days. I have several designs transferred and ready to go, so it will be a little while, but he's definitely a worthy subject. :)

Some Bunny Loves You!

I like to send a few Valentine's Day cards every year. I ended up with fewer than usual, because the gallery took my first print run. I made another few to send out and realized I hadn't taken a picture to post here. 

 

 

So, I just printed one more to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day!! Remember, some bunny loves you!

Happy Lunar New Year!

It's the Year of the Dragon. As I understand it, the dragon is one of the most auspicious signs in the zodiac cycle. It's associated with wisdom, success, power and immense possibility. I particularly like the immense possibility part. 

A most excellent carving buddy of mine hosts an artist exchange where participants send her enough prints for everybody in the exchange and she binds them into wonderful books and sends them out in time for the new year. It's such a treat to see all the different interpretations and styles. 

So for today, I thought it might be fun to post my dragon - it's totally outside my comfort zone in terms of both subject and style and it was interesting to see it emerge as I carved. I used pastels to give the prints some color and depth. 

Happy Year of the Green, Wood Dragon - may your year be filled with happiness, wisdom, success, and especially immense possibility!

Happy Birthday to Stampeaz!

Eighteen years! I can hardly believe it. It has been quite an adventure.

How will we celebrate?  Well, first Tan-Z Kut is on sale for the day.  But wait! There's more!

I will soon be introducing a different line of inks to the store and I will need to make room for all the beautiful new colors (sadly, I can't keep everything). So, I have decided that I will be replacing these VersaMagic inks with the new kids. For the rest of the month of February, these inks will be on sale. They're great matte finish chalk inks. 

Many thanks to all of you for a great eighteen years of Stampeaz! You're the best!!

Here Comes the Sun!

Yes, it's Groundhog Day! One of my favorite days of the year. It's the day that falls smack dab in the middle between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. That means, as of today, the days begin getting longer faster. We've reached the steep part of the bell curve of day length.  It's already noticeable, but we're going to start gaining minutes instead of seconds every day. 

So, whether the groundhog sees a shadow today or not, it's definitely a day to celebrate. We've made it through the darkest weeks of our annual spin around our star and sunnier days are ahead. 

Some years ago, I carved a groundhog crawling out of its burrow to check on its shadow. I even wrote a silly couplet and carved that, too. I sent quite a few prints out as cards and some of you may have received one. Hmmm.... maybe next year I'll pull those old carvings out and print one to post in celebration of the day. :)

Anyway, I invite you to celebrate one of my favorite holidays with me. Happy Groundhog Day!!