A Church in Paris

My mom gifted me with this picture a few weeks ago when I was home to visit her.

She told me it used to hang in her parents' home although I don't remember seeing it there.  The writing at the bottom says "Paris Rue de la Montagne St. Genevieve".  It appears to be a framed print, rather than an original, but that doesn't take away from its charm.

When I Googled the words "St Genevieve church Paris", I discovered this picture of a church

which looks very much like the church in the drawing (which I found here on this Wikipedia page). Said church is known as Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.

I think I shall have to visit this church next time I am in Paris (which will be in about 6 weeks' time), just to say I have seen it.  I might even - can you imagine? - try to draw it!

Hatched!

When we came back to work yesterday after the long weekend, we discovered that the goslings had hatched.  I didn't see them myself but my boss, whose parking space is located very near to the nest, told me she had seen little heads in the nest when the momma goose stood up.  I had to take her word for it because every time I looked at the nest out my office window, the mother goose seemed firmly planted on top, just as she had been for the past few weeks.

I read on the Internet that once hatched, the parents will move the babies quite soon, usually within one day but sometimes after about a week. As a result, I knew it would be a good idea to bring my camera into work this morning but when I arrived, I could see right away that the nest was already empty.  I couldn't see the geese and I was quite disappointed that I had missed seeing the babies.  All that was left was the nest, a cozy looking spot with lots of soft feathers and several broken eggshells.

Then I realized that the geese were nearby on a grassy patch, although I could only assume the goslings were tucked underneath their momma (I'd read online that they need to warm up under her every 15 minutes).

She kept a close eye on me, to make sure I wasn't a threat to her brood.

I went in to work and by the time I got up to my office a few minutes later and looked out the window, I could see the geese were on the move. Back downstairs I rushed, in time to take these photos.

5 cute little golden goslings, stumbling about, taking a few steps then plopping down for a rest, then up on their feet again.

The adults were very aware I was there and kept a close eye on me. I was careful to stay between two parked cars, hoping not to frighten them.  My last sighting of them was as they made their way to the opposite end of the parking lot.  

I didn't see them for the rest of the day. I'm not sure they will return, as they tend to move on very soon after the hatching, to find a water source.  There's a creek a few blocks away but it's hard to imagine those tiny little geese making such a long journey so soon.  I hope they stay safe wherever they go, there's so much traffic on the block around where they were born, I'd hate for any of them to end up under the wheels of a fast moving car.

Good luck, little goslings, be safe, be happy!

Spring at the Cottage

Spring is still taking it's sweet time settling in.  This first long weekend of the season is when we normally open the cottage but the single digit overnight temperatures and frost warnings were a bit disconcerting.  We postponed our arrival until Sunday as a result.  

It was the first year I could remember being up there early enough that the leaves are still in the process of unfurling.  

The bareness of the trees and the cool temperatures made it seem more like fall and people were bundled up in thick sweaters and making jokes about cooking a Thanksgiving turkey!  This chipmunk was busy filling his cheeks as if winter was approaching.  Perhaps he knows something we don't?

The trilliums and the myrtle are in bloom, always a sure sign of spring!

There was a huge dead fish floating about at our shoreline, which my sister Janine discovered when she donned her hip-waders and headed into the lake as part of the process of getting running water.

One of our beloved birch trees came down at the end of October last year. It will need to be cut up for firewood but that's not on the "to do" list until next week.

For this past weekend, it was all about getting the water running and get things cleaned, dusted, vacuumed and organized, which we did in record time.  It seemed a shame to leave late Monday afternoon, just when everything was sparking clean and ready to enjoy!

Happy Victoria Day

Today we Canadians celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria.

Photo courtesy of brampton.momstown.ca

Don't ask me why, we just do.  It's as good a reason as any for a long weekend, don't you think?

A Flock of Bird Tags

Diana Trout posted a video on her blog yesterday about doodling paisley birds - click here to watch it (don't worry, it's only 2:40 minutes long).  I had some free time today and I was in the mood to make something but didn't want to start anything too time consuming, so this project fit the bill perfectly.

First I painted a batch of tags after watching this video by Dina Wakley (whose video is a bit longer, just over 10 minutes, and is also bird themed):

and used one of them to make a bird. In this case, because the tag was rather heavily decorated, I thought a text paper bird would suit it best.

Then I went back and watched Diana's video again and decided I wanted to make some tags with a lighter, more watercolour look to them, so I stamped a few different colours of Distress Ink on my craft sheet, sprayed it with water and smeared several clean tags through the wet ink. Voila!

Then I cut some birds from patterned scrapbook paper and added them to the tags.

For this last tag, I used a Donna Downey bird stamp and Black Soot Distress Ink, then sprayed the image with water afterwards to soften the edges a bit.

Such a fun, easy project.   Thanks for the inspiration, Diana and Dina!

Haiku My Heart: A Sign From the Universe

Sometimes it's just there

On the ground in front of you,

A message of peace. 

More Journal Pages

Here are the pages presented by my fellow Journal Junkies at our monthly meeting this past Monday night.  The main theme was "accessories", the optional theme was "the sun" and the optional art supply was "metal embellishments".

Bette drew this pretty face and added an accessories border:

Marilyn put her own twist on the metal embellishments option by painting this owl with metallic paint and adding a hair tie as an accessory embellishment.

Her second page featured these medallions:

Kelly's first page made us laugh with its reference to her "bad attitude":

Her second page focused on the accessories she uses in her current job as a costume maker:

Helen's metal swirl intrigued us all (and reminded me of a Slinky!):

Believe it or not, Louise created this page using pencil crayons:

Great job, everyone!