Little Beautiful Things

Often when we go on walks, it is the tiny little things that are the most visually exciting to run across. We've found teeney little interesting pieces of bone, itsy bitsy little coloured pebbles, and lots of tiny little things that are just so cool! When birds and animals are scarce, the plants, leaves, flowers and rocks draw your attention. I've always loved small little textures, neat cast shadow effects, and gorgeous texture and color on stones. If one really looks close, the smallest little thing that would normally go unoticed jumps right out and excites the eye!

If I had a macro lens, my walks would probably be 10 hours, I'd get about 10 feet and I'd have 1000+ pictures to download! It'd be obsessive pic taking here we come lol! So, maybe not but it is tempting and I often say' "I wish I had a macro for this!" I think it'd drive me nuts though, I'd be manic lol! And that is just on our local walks, I could Imagine if I ever got to go on a vacation Outside my area lol!


There are just so many really beautiful little things out there :-)

Yesterday at Halls Rd.

We went for a short walk yesterday beofre heading to visit friends nearby. Halls Rd. is always fun, you are always guaranteed to run across something fascinating, even if your visit is short.

Today we saw a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, a Black and White Warbler, some pretty fat ass Gold Finches, lots of crazy Chipmunks collecting food for the impending winter, and the highlight were the 3 or 4 pairs of Hummingbirds. Some of the dragonflies we spotted were almost as large as the hummers so we kept getting mixed up every time they whipped by. They like those little orange flowers called Jewelweed, which give them lots of energy. Those flowers also can soothe itchy bug bites and stinging nettle irritations, etc. You take the flower right off the plant and rub it on the affected area.

There were a whole bunch of Cormorants in the marsh today too, seemingly bathing or maybe fishing. Egrets and seagulls also seemed to be everywhere, looking like they were hunting. So maybe a whole group of fish hatched lately. All the Bluejays were efatherless on the head too lol! Must be molting time again.

We also got lucky and spotted the Belted Kingfisher out in the marsh perched right on a reed in the open. Too far to get a great shot without a 600mm lens, which I don't possess, but still cool :-)

A weird site we stumbled across, admiring little stones at the water's edge, were Lady Bugs all over the stones, crawling around. Not sure where they all came from.

A few weekends back we ran across the baby turkeys. Again on this walk we ran across them, now bigger. They were so cute! The parent turkeys were chasing them off the bird seed, survival of the fittest I guess, even between parent and young lol!

Gotta Love It!

Looking for examples of terracotta and blue used in rooms, I ran across this. So gorgeous!!! Warm Mexican or Morrocan spaces are so uplifting and positive in nature, the colours just make you feel good.

Colourful Morrocan Outdoor

We Will Be Saying Goodbye to Our Area

Come late October, we will no longer be 5 minutes from Whitby Harbour, nor Halls Rd. Though we won't be far. Still we will be within 20 mins of those favourite spots. We won't be able to just walk to Whitby Harbour, but we can easily drive weekend mornings to spend a few hours in the areas we have grown to love. Our time in Whitby and the things we discovered, will always be cherished and we look forward to new routines and some same ones like going out for walks at Leslie Spit, having kids over, and watching movies. One thing I do know is we will be living with whatever colour is in our new home till we feel like painting. A warm and spicy Mexican palette is planned, which we both love. A couple little artsy projects I hope to do, will be fun, and we can take our time. One will be incorporating many little interesting items we have collected on our walks, under glass as our eating bar top - something we can do ourselves with relatively little expense and will be personal and have meaning.

Cool Mexican Colors!

While looking for Mexican themed colours, I ran across a photographer, Jim Nilsen, who had some wonderful images he has shot in Mexico. I truly love this one and I love the colour scheme! Have chosen to keep note of some of these colours, particularly the electric blue tones.

His prints are very reasonably priced and would be beautiful as small accent pieces on a wall.

http://www.jimnilsen.com/home/jn1/page_56/mexico__255.html

Baby Turkeys!

We went for a morning walk this morning and were lucky to get to see the baby turkeys! There are a couple of earlier posts about when we saw the male turleys in the spring, all fancy and strutting around and fighting. These little cuties are the result! So cute. They remind me of little prehistoric creatures.

My Zazzle Store

I have not been posting much in here lately, having decided to devote a lot of my leisure time to building my Zazzle store, Natural Design. I do have another blog dedicated just to my store as well.

I have shot so many images over the last few years, hundreds of which I really love, some have become all time favourite captures of mine! I approach my photography artisitically first, technically second. It is not as satisfying as painting, but it is coming closer each day for me.

My store has many choices and designs, many have been born from images I have shot and enjoy, and have been enjoyed by others who have seen them as well. Zazzle is a wonderful venue and the products I myself have purchased, in the past and just recently, have solidified my opinion in Zazzle as a Great venue. It is owned by the same family who started it over a decade before.

My Store on Zazzle