Little Birdy - More play with characters

As we find ourselves nearing the end of the month I find myself deep in reflection, not only by the changes I wanted to make tailing off from 2013, but what I have managed to achieve this month.  I have been working steadily on the courses and I am also working on a collage one which I will share next week.

 My birds are part of a session on Soul Food with Zorana called Fluttering in Bronze

 Whilst I do like birds I never really gave them much thought within my work, but the more and more I worked on these I realised that they all spoke to me in some way that I could relate back to my role as an artist and symbolized aspects of my journey without this being my sole purpose.

Flying High in the Sky

 Flying high was about me wanting to go further within my work, I love trying new things and embracing experiences.  Sometimes stepping into the unknown is scary, but once your into it you find your way.  It does take a while to get to grips with new techniques, but you have to persevere and you can often be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Homely

Homely represents that part of me that loves the security of the home environment but a reminder that the world continues to move whether you do or not.  In this one I added an image which happens to be my brother who passed, and is a good reminder about relationships and taking action as on the day the photograph was taken we had taken all the kids to the park and had a really lovely day.

Looking Back

Looking back sees the bird from the tree looking down and you can see the daily life going on as well as the other birds in the distance.  Something I would love to be able to do one day is to be able to work from anywhere in the world, preferably hot with a beach close by.  As we age it seems as if the world has become a smaller place, technology means that we can communicate much better than we did before from anywhere in the world and there are so many opportunities available to have a better quality of life 9 hours in a plane in any direction from my currently location!

Tomorrow I will share not only the Gratitude's and Celebrations and the Memories of Home posts but some of the exciting things that I will be working on next month and it would be great to have you join me.  If you are taking Soul Food, leave a message and let me know how you are getting on, if not check out and be inspired! 

A Walk in the Park...

Took a stroll in the park this morning.  Had about 3 inches of snow fall last night, there was a lot of ice covered by a new layer of snow so it was crunchy to walk on.  The only only other people who ventured out were some joggers and a couple of dog walkers and me! 

There was such a peace about the place, it reminded me of scenes from Narnia in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

 

Scenes enticing you to venture in and take a peak 

I also had the joy of seeing a group of Parakeets.  I was informed by a guy walking his dog that they have been resident in the park for many years, it was great to see their bright colours on such a cold day,

and the blue skies reminding me of summers yet to come....

Clearing the Clutter Challenge - What's happening in the Garden? Day 27 and 29

Well, what can I say, nearly the end of the challenge and I have been quite on it (for most of the time).  I know we all have that part of the house, or our space - somewhere that needs clearing, organising or just plain dumping.  Wanting to make a fresh start and catch up with yourself.  I have unearthed many delights I forgot I had.  I will be posting for previous days to let you know how I got on.

Today's challenge was to sort out the garden and I have combined this with day 29

Its amazing what the wind can do, we have 2 New Zealand Cordyline australis palms in our garden I planted about 8/9 years ago, didn’t realise that we would be constantly picking up the fallen leaves, but they do look glorious in the summer with their lovely smelling flowers. When you open up the kitchen window you get a whiff.. 

 

Once fallen I have been using the leaves to tie plants together, when you split the fallen wet leaf they are quite strong and you need scissors to cut them width ways.  I haven't come up with any creative weaving ideas for the Cordyline Australis.... here is more information about the plant if your interested... .  They have also been useful as ground cover to protect the roots of some of the plants, I haven't yet tried to dry them and use them in an art piece....
 
The back of the garden got quite a bashing in the high winds. I have been thinking of converting the shed into an art space, at the moment it has a lot of things that also needs sorting, but thats for another day!

 

The other thing that needs work is the plum tree, it should have been cut back at least 2 summers ago, so we will be cutting it back this year. Hopefully we'll get a better crop of plums, though the birds have fed off the ones we couldn't reach.

Speaking of the birds I hung some fat balls, I love hearing them sing and thought I would take part in the RSPB big garden Birdwatch this weekend. It is an opportunity to see which ones are coming into the garden.  The RSPB also suggest ways in which you can make your garden or space more bird and wildlife friendly. I am hoping to get some pictures of the birds that are our regular visitors, and may be inspired to get some ideas down for the shed come studio! What outside jobs have you been putting off?