Swan in Flight

    The other day I blogged about what a treat it always is to see wild swans.  The swans I see are usually gracefully gliding across the water.  The other day I got an even bigger thrill seeing that lone swan in flight.  Luckily, I saw it from a distance, winging its way toward me, so I had time enough to dig my camera out from under my coat, get turn it on, and aim it, and get a photo.

    Their unusual shape during flight is so streamlined, aerodynamic, and beautiful.  Swans not only exhibit amazing gracefulness when in the water, but also in the air.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Sunlit Snowcaps

    Because our house is tucked at the base of a mountain slope, we don’t get to see the Sun immediately in the morning; we are shaded by the mountain.  Before the sunshine gets to us, it illuminates the mountain peaks on the opposite side of the valley.  This is the view I had of the pink-tinted Cariboo Mountains this morning when I went out to put sunflower seeds in the bird feeders.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

The Conspiracy to Wake Me at Night

    For the last week or so Kona has been waking me up around 3:00 AM so that I would take her outside to pee.  Last night I discovered that Lucifer, our cat has now joined into the conspiracy with the dog to wake me and get me out of bed.

    Since we again have a dog in the house I have once again moved the cat food bowls up onto the corner of my desk, so the cat can get to them, but the dog can’t.  I learned some time ago that I have to make sure my computer keyboard and mouse are out of the way or else the cat will step on them, which wakes up my computer, causing the whole room to light up.  Normally I put a box over the keyboard and mouse so that won’t happen.

    Last night before going to bed I forgot to put the box over them, so as I had just fallen asleep, the dog caused a commotion because the cat had stepped on the computer keyboard which not only lit up the room, but Lucifer must have also stepped on the computer space bar, which caused Tom Petty to start singing from my computer.

    I dragged myself from the bed to deal with the problem, that solved, I headed back to my bed, but Kona thought it might be a good time to go outside, so I took my groggy self down stairs, put on my coat and boots, grabbed a flashlight, and took Kona out to face the snow flurries.  Later Kona also decided to take me outside at her regular time; 3:40 AM.

    I hope this pet conspiracy soon ends.

View my paintings at:   davidmarchant2.ca

 

Fields of Gold, Mountains of Blue

    The bales of hay are off of the fields, which are now lightly powdered with snow, bracing for the winter.   I really love the contrast of the colors and the topography; our flat valley against in the blue mountains.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Winter Sun

    The Sun is getting lower and lower on the horizon as we move closer to Winter.  I took this shot yesterday afternoon at 2:00 when we were walking Kona at Koeneman Park.  

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Cone Collecting

    I noticed this collection of spruce cones neatly stored on a stump the other day.  I assume a squirrel gathered them for winter storage.  When I decided on a title for this piece, it reminded me of the “Cone Collecting” that used to take place at the Forest Service when I worked there.  

    In the early spring they would sometimes send out a small crew to collect cones from superior trees.  The crew had a rifle and would shoot off clusters of cones from the top of the tree then collect them as they lay on the ground.  I often wondered how efficient it was to collect cones this way; suspecting maybe it was more of a “fun” project.  Other times they would just fell a tree to get the cones.  

    We have a spruce tree adjacent to our house and every fall for a few days the spruce cones rain down and bounce on our metal roof as a busy squirrel bites them loose from the tree and lets them fall, then later spends days gathering the cones from the ground (and our roof). 

Take a look at my photo-realistic paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

A Long Night of Too Much Love

    Normally when it is time to go to sleep, Kona our dog shuffles over to her big round dog bed, circles around in the middle, then sinks down and sleeps.  Last night for some reason instead of doing that she jumped up on my bed, made her circle, then collapsed into sleep there; tight against my legs.  That was alright, I figured she would soon awake, jump down, and retreat to her bed.   She didn’t, she slept tight against me all night long.  

    This didn’t sit right to Lucifer, our cat.  During the night, she likes to periodically come, jump up on the bed, and sit on top of me for some pets.   In the middle of last night when she did jump up, she was a bit tiffed when she noticed that Kona was there.  She lay on top of me, and I gave her more than the usual amount of pets because I didn’t want a dog/cat fight in the middle of the night in my bed.  

    As Lucifer sat on top of me, she soon decided to push her rights to me a bit further.  She quietly climbed off of me, down onto the side where Kona lay, then with cat feet she quietly inched very close to the sleeping dog and once positioned, she also plastered herself tight against me.

    So there I was with two animals snuggled against me and I didn’t want to make any move that might  cause a ruckus, so I just lay there, as still as I could, and tried to go to sleep.  After a long, long period of not sleeping or moving, my body started complaining that it had to change positions.  As slowly as I could, I rolled over onto my side, while the sleeping dog and cat adjusted to my new position.

    Normally I have to get up to visit the washroom in the middle of the night, but because of my situation I held off, but by 5:00 AM, I could hold off no longer.  I just threw caution to the wind, raised myself up, turned on the light, and watched Lucifer scramble from the bed, leaping onto the table and my open and empty guitar case for safety.  Kona then leaped off the bed, followed me downstairs where she indicated that she needed to go outside, so instead of going to the washroom, I put on my coat and boots and accompanied Kona outside where we both did what needed to be done under the stars.

    Once back in the bedroom, I took my previous sleeping position, as did Kona.  After I turned out the light Lucifer jumped back onto the bed and re-took her previous position.  This was the way it was until 7:00 when I woke up ( I guess I must have gotten some sleep) and we all got out of bed.

     I confess, I didn’t feel very rested as I faced the morning after my night of love.

You can view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca