Showing posts with label wood pile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wood pile. Show all posts

Friday, November 16, 2018

Living in The Studio


A shot of the end of our kitchen.. we use it more like a studio, being as the house is so small... Everything is stacked up to the ceiling.   Brought one of the kerosene lamps out just in case the power goes out... I want to be ready... but right now I am enjoying the light being reflected off the snow.. altho I am not crazy about snow, by any means.


We had our first fire of the season back on Oct. 11. felt really good too.. had a little fire on most every day since.
 It has become cold very early this year... feels like we are going into our next Ice Age right before our eyes. 


Had the 2 cds. of firewood stacked outside and drying since early summer.. this is the wood for next year. mostly maple... we have this years wood already dried and stored inside.. we always dry our wood a year ahead if we possibly can... That is the woodshed John built last summer... sure is nice to have a real woodshed now instead of the Hobbit hut we had the first year here. that year it was stacked outside with snow piled all around it and John had to dig down to it every time we needed some.. looked like he was crawling into a igloo to get it on his hands and knees.. was not fun... good exercise tho, if one wanted to look at it in a positive way.


This stack of 2 cds was put away in the woodshed at the end of October.. that is late for us but it was not an especially good drying year. but John had it covered with two old sheets of tin roofing which let the air thru and kept it pretty well dry... all in now!!


Been playing around in my sketchbook this year during our sabbatical.


Oatmeal Brown Bread with raisins, sunflower seeds and flax... Love having time to make bread for us all.. it has been so many years since I have bought bread from a store, I can't remember. I always make 2 batches at a time and divide each batch in 2.. makes it easier to store and keeps it fresh as I put the other 3 in the freezer and then I don't have to make bread for a few days.


in the side field the milkweed is gently spreading its seeds... little parachutes flying everywhere.


Planted the garlic on Oct.22... later than last year.. was waiting for the ground to dry up a bit as it was a rainy Oct.  ...managed to plant over 100 cloves, double what I put in last year .. had to sacrifice them from the crop I grew this year.. sure hope they grow. 


to finish up I covered them with a thick layer of straw.  


I store them in a net bag I crocheted last winter.. this type is called Music and they are the best tasting garlic I ever had.. got the original bulbs from a garlic farmer not far outside Fredericton.


The birds are liking the sunflower seeds in the feeder outside my studio window.  We used another old piece of tin roofing to make a roof for the feeder, to give the birds a little shelter while they treat us with their beauty.. usually a big fat gray squirrel is sitting in there.. 


The snow is coming down out there right now and amounting to quite a bit. 


Still making a few earrings or posting some designs that have come to light after searching around in the backs of the jewelry storage cabinet... 


These sold in minutes on our FaceBook page soon after I posted them.


"Square Spiral" earrings, solid copper, antiqued with sterling shepherd  earwire... approx 7/8" across and 1 1/4" long. $25. pr.




"A little Medieval"... hammered shaped Sterling with African Turquoise... approx. 2" long .. handmade at Desideratum studio. $25. pr. 


If interested in any of our earrings please send us a message on our right sidebar. 

Well looks like winter has come early.. Hope everyone has a cozy place to curl up and stay warm.. till next time, Cheers, Gwen at Desideratum Art and Jewelry



Monday, September 12, 2016

The Busy-ness of Summer

 A field near the house where the Globe Thistles grow. Love these blooms and so do the Bees.

 Our friends grew a ton of Hardneck Garlic  and we were very lucky to be the recipients of these organic beauties!!I am tying them up in bundles here. 

 4 cds of  firewood was delivered cut and split... smelled so good. We stacked it behind the house for now. It is a pleasure to look at the textural variety of the pile.

The newest dry stone wall that John created.  This was a full time 3 week project, starting with the major pick and shovel work to dig them out of the ground to shaping the earth to a finished wall...  it was a major project. I have to tell more about this later.

And not to forget working on our jewelry. Here we are selecting Fresh Water Pearls to match up in pairs and making the sterling Silver ear wires to go with them. 
It has been a tremendously busy summer... have much more to tell in a while.
Till then... Happy September!!!

Monday, September 17, 2012

The Spotted Salamander



Look who we found when we were stacking winter firewood a couple days ago. 
The bottom layers of the woodpile had sat on the ground for the past year and it had to be re-stacked... When I lifted a fairly big piece, there he was all curled up under a concave section of it.  It was damp and cool there,  just what he liked.



He was very well fed too from the look of him.
  There were so many earthworms, grubs and slugs hiding under there, it was a Salamander's paradise.
They can live up to 20 years.



His skin seemed very thin and delicate, bluish-black and moist.. with two stripes of asymmetrically placed vibrant yellow spots. 
 His eyes were big... better to see in the dark.



He had 4 little toes on his feet and was about 7"-8" long from nose to tip of his tail, which he  kept slightly curled. 
 He was such a gentle little thing.




We didn't keep him out of his moist environment for very long... just time enough to take these pictures... 
then sat him down by the woodpile again, out behind the house...he quickly climbed back into a new hiding spot.  

He was really quite striking.
and we felt very lucky to see him up close and hold him in our hands.




...Max Ackerson took all the photographs.... That's me in the work gloves....
 from up on the bluff at Desideratum Art Studios overlooking St. Martins and the Bay of Fundy.

Friday, August 24, 2012

The Cottage Mermaids Haven


in the beginning this was basically a tear-down but through all the following steps we rebuilt it into a painting studio and then into a cottage










 

 




  









click here for the  SEQUENCE of how we created the front entrance.. step by step  


The cottage has been sold.

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 The famous St. Martins Sea Caves carved by the Fundy tides... easily reached  at low tide

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photographs by   Gwen Buchanan,  DESIDERATUM Art Jewelry and Paintings
all Oil Paintings on display in the House are done by my partner, John Ackerson