shallow thoughts

orange gerberas - more polaroid loveliness

Those darn kittens (they turned two at the end of this summer), Oliver & Gussie Gus are peeling around downstairs, crashin' and a bangin' and chasin' and having a grand ol' kitten time. Win's sleeping with one eye open and on me, waiting for signs that's it time to get ready for our walk and her date with Baby Duke & Maggie Sue and I'm just doin' my regular thing. Typing by the glow of my lovely 24" imac moniter (don't mean to gloat), enjoying my second cup of coffee and the quiet and darkness of another early morning. It's raining, softly and it feels very warm outside my big studio windows. No wind.

I've been practicing Shallow Thinking - not really shallow in the superficial way, more Shallow in the opposed-to-Deep way. And it seems to be working. Maybe you've noticed. I find lately, a thought will knock on the door of my ever busy little head, a thought like - So Susan ... if you sell this house where will you live ? Instantly alarms go off, locks on that door click into place, the dead bolt slides over with a thunk and I think to myself. Don't know and I can't think about that right now. That's way too big a thought ... way, way too Deep ... I need to stay close to shore, where my feet can easily touch the bottom and I need to take one tiny step at a time. For a girl who loves to think, to analyze, to ruminate and the deeper the better usually, I have found this exercise quite challenging, and believe me those alarms are trippin' all - the - time.

It's Tuesday ... almost always better than Monday ...
but rarely ever as good as Sunday.

another monday morn

tomatoes ripening in the sunporch

Kyle was much gentler then expected. So far this morning it's sounding like everyone is safe and sound. The south west tip of this province was expected to receive the brunt of the storm - Yarmouth & Digby as Kyle's route was along the Eastern seaboard and then up and into the Bay of Fundy. It's windy here this morning. Warm & windy.

I guess I did have quite a few items on that darn ol' Sunday's to-do list. It's the curse of that early morning, coffee in hand, invincible super-woman gal who lives in my head at that time of day. She can do anything and she always make my lists too long - way too many items to get through. And of course that means at day's end I'm never completely successful - which always makes me feel a bit bummed out. Sigh. I guess I prefer to aim high-est. Yesterday, miraculously, I did get all the things on the list accomplished except for one - the piling of wood.

Miss D and I are going here this weekend with MLou & her gal pal Miss J (Jiggs). Shut ! Up ! Yes !! it's true !! I am actually leaving this old brick house for a couple of days. Be still my beating heart. My goodness, I sure do need a wee vacation and I can hardly wait. We'll be staying at a cottage here (with Cabot the golden retriever on sight - MLou's doing). And BFF Harry will look after Les Boys (Bleet, Oliver & Gus) for the few days I'll be gone. More details to come ...

It's a designer gals scenic, food filled fall road trip, avec les chiens. Perfect! Yipee!

Another favourite Canadian band Great Lake Swimmers

cheeks

miss D

She's got cheeks of sweetness ... Winnie Dixon, sweet cheeks, sugar beet, noodle-ette, shag-ah-licious ... just a very few of her many sweet names. My girl. My constant companion. And I love her so.

Large Sunday plans: (ooh ... there's a colon - not at all sure if it's supposed to be there. I tend to use dashes or ... 'cause I don't know when to use a colon or heaven forbid a semi-colon - maybe Austen could give a lesson in Punctuation for Bloggers. Wink.) • clean out the fridge A household chore that I actually very much enjoy - I detest a disorganized and messy fridge and with many new groceries and provisions from yesterday's girl's trip to town it's the perfect time • wood to stack 1/2 a cord left over from last year's load now needs to be stacked in preparation for this years anticipated 4 cord delivery. eek !! • etsy shop promo card and mailing label artwork off to printer. Plus create 29 Black Street shop banner • outdoor furniture put away (hammock and chairs). Here comes Kyle (love this map) • general tidying and organizing of les office and teak topped desk in preparation for final drawings of latest project from Customer No Uno • reading my current book - Diane Arbus: A Biography while dreaming of walking the bustling and always thrilling streets of NYC. Sigh. • listening to Rex (swoon - super smart is the new handsome) while working at the teak topped desk. Another favourite CBC radio 1 show - Cross Country Check Up

and of course ... I'll be walking on sandbars with my best girl - miss D

and hey .... thanks so much for all your encouraging comments, I am hoping that my greeting card/art prints will be a huge hit. Merci.

tick, tock ... another step

assembled photography art print cards & envelopes

Tick, tock ... another step in the multitude of steps getting those darn etsy shop wares ready for my grand opening. Yesterday I attached the matted photo prints to the backing cards - a 5x7 card that opens with a lovely big blank space to write in. A super heavy (130lb weight), creamy white, super smooth paper stock. Absolutely beautiful paper. A double sided, special matting tape job and a job that I had anticipated was going to be much more difficult and time consuming than it actually was. Things are never as bad as you can imagine they'll be - or something like that. Another hit song from the soundtrack of my life. Oh how I do love to imagine those ragged mountain ranges from my ever tiny mole hills. Most definitely a mini poster idea for my shop of inspirational art prints. Maybe it's just things are never as bad.

These cards look fantastic !!! - the quality superb, they are perfect (dare I say) and I am SO pleased. I still need to photograph all of the prints in their various poses for my shop. Shown as a greeting card with mailing envelope and also each one shown framed so you all can see what sweet little art prints these photos are. They really are the perfect gift for yourself, best friends and/or family.

We, les dog walking mama's, are going to town today, all three of us. After our big, long morning romp on the beach avec les chiens. Deb's driving, we'll shop at the farm store and the feed store and my favourite the Superstore. Dog food and cat food and bags of kitty litter- we all have broods of cats and dogs. And we'll have lunch out somewhere nice. How exciting and how lovely.

More stormy weather a comin' in the form of Kyle, whose stormin' up the Atlantic Coast as we speak, his expected arrival sometime later Sunday. There are hatches to be battened.

sweet dreams

perfect pink cosmos

When I first stirred this morning, those first few moments waking to the smell of freshly brewed coffee (a coffee maker with a timer is my alarm clock - waking by aroma so much nicer then shrieking buzzers or loud radio voices) and realizing that another new day was beginning, as I opened my eyes to the darkness, I felt especially warm and safe, I felt snug.

As I lie tucked in the nest of cotton & flannel smelling the coffee and feeling the weight of Oliver lying at my feet, I felt happy, that warm feeling of perfect comfort and coziness and I realized that just before opening my eyes I had been dreaming ... I had been dreaming of Jake. A happy, perfect, carefree dream. He and I were roaming the countryside together, he had the starring role and he was my leading man. His character dashing and handsome, silly and fun loving, kind and always gentle - his usual sweetest ol' Noodle self.

Oh what a perfect sweet dream. Sigh. I miss ya so Noodle.

Track No. 4 here (no Youtube video available) reminds me of driving in the car last September with both Noodle & Miss D. Another great Canadian indie band from Prince Edward Island - Two Hours Traffic who are nominated for the Polaris prize which will be awarded this coming Monday.

some things

more seaside treasures

lemon, orange & patchouli bubbles a pouring
a second cup of coffee in my fat favourite Starbuck's mug
the new issue of Domino magazine ... sigh
10C on the outdoor thermometer
sharing my bed through the night with assorted furry bodies
darkness outside as if it were still the middle of the night
bags of pears, plums & apples from BFF Harry's petite orchard
maybe I'll make some chili sauce courtesy of Austen @ Stripey Pebble
feeling more optimistic and hopeful than I've felt in ages

I will sell this house ...
I will be free of all this overwhelming upkeep, maintenance and debt.
I will have a brand new tiny life with an oh so giant heart ... sigh.
I will be queen of my own little creative empire.

good things come ... to those who believe.

create

oh so handsome, extra soft, sweetest cat and loyal design assistant - Oliver

just a few inspiring blogs that I love

little red caboose lovely photography & crafty gal
little star soup bold colour & whimsical illustrations
the black apple etsy maven & oh so prolific artist/designer gal
one black bird gorgeous ceramics
charming wall inspiring art & amazing typography & animation
linzie hunter sigh, way cool illustration & hand drawn type - she's my hero
the noticing project more amazing photography
uppercase all kinds of cool design-ey stuff
color stripes great photos, design & colour
designer jots wow, another hero & current blog of the week
heather smith jones more lovely art, photography and oh so fantastic links
blog delanine beautiful, beautiful paintings

blogs that make me feel twitchy and excited, blogs that that make me want to draw, paint, cut, paste, take photos ... that make me want to just ... create.

My fingers and hands feel icy cold as I sit this morning at the teak topped desk ... not a good sign I fear. Here's to a swell Wednesday.

fleece headbands

dog joy - baby duke, miss d & maggie sue

red leaves
crunching under foot
sweaters
glorious sunsets over our little harbour just past 7pm
seeing your breath in the early morning air
pumpkins and squash
boxes of miniatures chocolate bars
fleece headbands
a fire in the fireplace
soft dusty pink dried hydrangeas
flannel & down
still green lawns covered with a new carpet of yellow, orange & red
feeling cozy
the smell of a sunporch filled with fire wood
MLou, who makes me laugh and giggle when I'm quite sure I'd rather be sad

... some things I love about autumn

A fantastic song and video by Prince Edward Island singer/songwriter Tanya Davis

tomato heaven

fresh country bread and garden tomatoes

So many tomatoes. Plump, sweet and juicy redness. Perfection. And a perfect tomato needs the perfect bread. For a sliced tomato sandwich with a smear of really good mayonnaise, salt and pepper or a slice of this bread with Gruyere cheese popped under the broiler until bubbly and hot and topped with thick slices of tomato. And bruschetta, toasted bread brushed with olive oil and rubbed with a freshly peeled garlic glove then topped with slices of tomato, salt, pepper, finely chopped chives and a drizzle more of olive oil. It's tomato heaven.

Here's a recipe for the most perfect tomato season bread, a favourite of mine and very easy to make Tuscan Peasant Bread (I add a teaspoon of honey to the yeast mixture and I use 1 teaspoon of salt).

Back to the nest of cotton and flannel this early morning, to curl up with Miss D. and my second cup of coffee. Goodbye Summer, hello Autumn.

berries

still life with red berries, vivid green stems

and ever inquisitive cat and always faithful, photography assistant - sweet Oliver

The real voyage of discovery
consists not of seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes.

Marcel Proust

sunny & warm

sunrise, dogs and low tide

Quiet and coffee this early morning. I don't have to work on thumbnails or greeting card designs today ... or tomorrow. I kind of have the weekend off. The weather report is saying sunny and warm - perfect September weather and I mowed the lawn yesterday, always my most challenging chore - done. Lovely. So I think Miss D. and I will snug back up in the nest this morning until the sky begins to turn a paler dark blue, I with my second cup of coffee, and she with her rawhide chew ... and we'll write up a little plan for this last weekend of summer. Mama loves a plan. Wink.

good things

good things come - 8.5x11 art print collage illustration

It's Friday ... the day of the week that I usually post a photo of my much loved red dog. The best friend this girl ever had. Jake. Actually, all week I had plans to make a photo montage of all four of my much loved canine and feline friends. Friends who are now prowling around, squawking, fetching sticks and carrying big stuffed bears around in their mouth while madly wagging their tails - up there in heaven, somewhere on a big soft cloud with a water feature nearby. My four assorted sized bundles of love and comfort that I hold tight and snug in my heart - my family. A montage of four photos, of Ernst, Lulu, Emma Jane Louise and that sweet Noodle dog. I had a busy week and a busy day and evening last night and I didn't get that photo montage created. This morning I really wanted to post this latest illustration ... the illustration that churned around in my brain yesterday while on our glorious early morning low tide walk (roll, run, twirl, gnash, snort, play) avec les chiens. The illustration that spilled out of me and onto my page of back lit watercolour paper yesterday morning with complete ease and oomph and way more perfect flowness. An illustration that I'm very happy with. There are those words, together again. Sigh.

I guess it's a sign. A sign that my big huge grief is finally softening. It's weird but somehow Lulu's death (last Friday) took some of the remaining sting out of Jake's death. I'm not sure why and I guess it doesn't matter why ... honestly this little brain has become SO tired of thinking SO much about everything, and very tired of feeling sad. Sometimes we cling to feelings and emotions because we're so used to them, somehow they feel safe and it feels frightening to lessen your grip on them. For now I just want to draw and paint and cut and paste for awhile.

I do love them all, and I miss them all ... and especially that sweet red dog, he was my favourite I'll admit, but just because he and I, we had a very special thing goin' on, we had a bond - an incredible bond that won't ever be broken ... I know that now. Hey there handsome.

This good things come illustration will soon be available both as a greeting card and a small art print suitable for framing ... in that big, exciting, huge etsy shop opening. Yeah, yeah, sure. Wink. It's coming ... it's coming.

more flow

corinthians 13:7-8 - love - painted sketch

I was rushing again yesterday. Rushing to do revised thumbnails for customer No Uno, rushing along sandbars in the afternoon sun while chatting about supper plans and laughing at the continued (daily) sweet antics of Miss D and Baby Duke and then rushing in the evening to whip up a sketch, a promised painting to show you my new illustration style. A miniature poster print with one of the many, many quotes that I love or find inspiring. I couldn't remember the last line of this quote and I do recall thinking to myself while rushing along at the teak topped desk Look it up Susan, check online to see what that last line is. But no, I didn't listen to that voice and instead continued on with my speediness and my rushing. The last line of this quote should be

Love never ends

Love never ends is completely different than love lasts. Similar but not at all the same. The last line is what drew me to this quote in the first place it's why I love it so much, that last line. This quote embodies all the feelings that I have for that big red lug of mine, that love of my life - my sweet red Noodle dog Jake and here I screwed up the last line. Sigh. Oh well, I must consider this a sketch. And I'm thinking now I may add cut paper, a bit of collage to the paint and my scribbly loose black pen drawing in the finished piece. And I'll get the words right next time.

The main thing is ... I loved making this, planning it quickly, drawing the letters and shapes in pencil first, then when I'm pleased with the composition and the details I go over everything with black pen. Then I tape this drawing to my small light table, and tape a piece of watercolour paper on top of that. Then I paint ... paint, paint, paint all the while listening to CBC radio (you can listen as well here). When all the painting is done. I remove the paper from the light table and get out my collection of thicker line black drawing pens and draw, draw, draw. Loose and free, the looser the better actually. Most definitely way more flow.

I'm happy with how this looks. It's not perfect but then I'm learning that nothing ever is. I can see loads of potential in this new style. It will only get better ... sounds like a new mantra to me.

check

It isn't what you have,
or who you are,
or where you are,
or what you are doing
that makes you happy or unhappy.
It is what you think about.

Dale Carnegie

It's quiet here this morning and I'm quiet. Quiet and still a bit sleepy. I think I'll go back to the nest with my coffee this morning, just chill a bit and do some plannin'. It feels like I've been rushing for days now and in my head I'm still rushing. There's been lots of busyness and deadlines and with Lulu's rapid and fairly sudden, steep decline and death thrown into the midst of everything - I'm feeling a bit out of balance. I'm worried I'm forgetting things, there's always so much to do. I need a list. There are calls to make, winter preparations to be done ... the furnace guy for boiler tune ups, chimney sweep's for sweeping, mason's for chimney pointing, there's wood to stack, lawns to mow ... and on and on and I mustn't forget anything. I need to slow myself down, float in bubbles of orange and patchouli for a time, take many deep, deep breaths, and then make a neatly penned list and begin to check things off.

I'm "hoping" (wink) to post a new illustration here tomorrow. One that will be available in my upcoming etsy shop opening. I know you're saying to your self. Sure, sure ... what etsy shop opening ? Honestly I have been busy bringin' home the regular customer bacon and I am determined that that darn shop will be open by this month's end. Along with matted art print cards I will have 8.5 x 11 art prints - like miniature posters, as well as illustrated (painted) and collage greeting cards. Honestly. I kid not. Wink.

Another gorgeous Michael Sowa painting - Strassen Hase

bubbles

standing in the wild rose & bayberry pasture looking away from the ocean

Well I emailed 8 card designs off to Great Arrow through the mist and magic of the internet at 8pm last night. The witching hour for this designer gal, who's most often up and drinking coffee before 5am. I shrivel past 8pm. I am moderately satisfied (now) with my efforts. MLou, also one of the cursed perfectionist creative types and I were discussing this the other day. How the good things that we do and accomplish in life, and especially the creative things we do, the things that for a fleeting moment we do think or whisper to ourselves Wow ! I'm really happy with this or Wow I'm proud of myself - you go girlfriend ... those moments are like big bouncy soapy bubbles blown from one of the plastic sticks with a ring on the end. Those bubbles whipping out in a flurry of existence to float and bounce weightlessly in the air in front of you just long enough for you to marvel at their beauty, the iridescent shine of their soapy thin walls and the jelly like wriggling of their shape and form. And in a blink Poof ! - their gone again and you know that they were really there but you can't conjure up that feeling again.

Such is the life of the malcontent designer gal. Wink. So goes the pile of creative accomplishments, my pile and I know that I do have a pile, a pile that is piled somewhere ... but I can never seem to find that pile when I need and want it the most. I am pleased with my efforts ... pleased that I met the deadline and accomplished another very long term goal. Pleased that I've fine tuned an illustration style or technique that I'm pretty happy with. The next submission deadline is Oct. 13th - categories Christmas, New Years, & Halloween. I plan to submit again ... as many card designs as possible and I do feel that now I am ahead of the game.

Today I switch back to more thumbnails (of a Tuscan theme) for Customer No Uno another deadline - end of day Wednesday for thumbnails submitted. Which means I will try and draw as many great miniature photo frame ideas as this little brain can churn out in two days because the more ideas I come up with the more ideas that they may choose. And choices = $$ and then ... sometime this week I must spring La Beast Rouge from her neat & tidy shed and take her for a spin before parts of my lawn become mower clogging long ... and maybe a trip to town on Friday for a big provisions shopping trip.

Second cup of coffee, a big full shining moon and more bubbles with mint & rosemary. Sigh.

quirky

broken paw - Michael Sowa

It's very windy this morning. Warm wind and with all the windows open it's windy in this old brick house house which is lovely. Leaves rustling and branches whipping back and forth the only sounds this morning.

I do feel like I'm on one of those rare creative highs ... the kind you get when you're very satisfied and happy with your efforts and I am. You get that feeling, that flow feeling, where you can't wait to be back at your teak topped desk, drawing and painting. Time flies by. Nothing else really matters. This is why I need, I must, live in a tiny house and have a very tiny life ... so I can let all this creative energy blossom and not be so bogged down with mowing and clipping and trimming and painting (walls, baseboards and molding). I have 5 card designs ready to send and I'll spend until early evening today getting as many other designs painted as I can (I'm hoping for at least another 5 or 6). The thing that I'm most pleased with is I have nearly perfected a style. A style that not only am I happy with but one that's also quick and easy - it's not a labour intensive style (which my past efforts always have been). The drag about a style that's labour intensive is - if you're not happy with the end results you've spent so much time. This new style, if I'm not happy with the colour palette or some other detail I can just quickly do another. Happy Sigh. It's quick, sketchy, loose, much more sophisticated (I hope) and more quirky than cute. You know how I do fancy myself a quirky dark cloud. Wink. I promise this week to post an illustration showing this new style and you can share with me your thoughts and critique's.

Another beautiful painting by Michael Sowa famous for his children's book illustrations.

Among many things in my life, at the moment, I am most grateful for my friend MLou who has kept me afloat day after day, kept me from drowning in badness. Merci mon ami.

I've also been thinking about Mary D in Texas. Hoping she and her family are safe and sound and dry.

quiet (very)

gull

Here I sit, with my first cup of coffee in my favourite cream coloured Starbuck's mug. It's 5am and all the windows in this old brick house are wide open, it's warm and quiet and absolutely still. The gentle steady hum of crickets are the only sounds we hear this early morning. I let Bleet out first thing. I turn the outside light on for him, tell him to be careful and out he goes to roam with the raccoons - the beginning of our daily morning routine. Then I turn my attention to the near famished kittens. Gussie, ever elusive, handsome and oh so sleek tabby cat, is most friendly early in the morning - because he is starving ... he is weak from hunger and neglect and might surely collapse at any moment. Hurry. Much mad bumping and rubbing and purring until I can get the can of cat food open. I would guess that almost 8 times out of 10, when I put a few spoonfuls of Florentine Duck or Crab & Shrimp Medley down into his dish, he takes a sniff and looks up at me with disdain as if to say You're kidding ? I'm not eating that. He is terribly fussy and then there's Oliver, he's not fussy at all. He's just happy. Happy all the time Oliver. Happy another day is beginning, always enthusiastic and game for anything. He's just plain sweet, in fact, he is without a doubt - the sweetest cat I've ever known. I pour my coffee and back up the stairs I go to sit and type by the glow of my beautiful 24" monitor.

I'm in the midst of a mad three day draw-paint-scan-meet that great arrow card design deadline of Monday Sept. 15th. No chores, no yard and garden work, only long walks with Miss D and her young beau Baby Duke, breaks to make pots of orange pekoe tea and restorative phone chats with best friend MLou. The rest of the time I'm happily ensconced at the teak topped desk in a creative flurry and I'm very satisfied (three words rarely heard together I'm + very + satisfied) with my progress thus far. I am going to make this deadline. Hallelujah ! Submitting card designs to this company has been on my list of goals for oh ... 6 or 7 years now.

Thank you all, once again, for all of your loving thoughts and hugs, and the strength and comfort that you've sent our way. It means so much to me and I'm so grateful that you all got to know our Queen, our Miss Lulu Belle. May she be roaming around in kitten heaven finding some new recruits to boss around and lord over. This house feels very empty without her huge and loving (to me anyway - I don't think the rest of Les Chats would concur. Wink) personality. I certainly miss you Squawkamolé, my Lulu Belle ... it's gonna take awhile to get used to this home without you in it.

lulu belle

Lulu Belle - she has such beautiful eyes and regal fur coat - so fitting for a Queen

This photo was taken last summer out in the back yard, out in her vast Queendom. The house feels completely weird without her this morning.

She and I had a lovely few hours yesterday morning. I bundled her up in a soft fleecy throw and she and I walked outside around the yard and garden and sat for awhile in a chair under the crab apple tree and watched the birds at the feeder. Yesterday was another of those absolutely perfect fall days, nothing but blue, blue sky and warm breezes. When we arrived at the vet's we had to wait for about 30 minutes, which ended up being absolutely perfect. She and I sat in the back seat of my car, with the windows rolled down, she cozy and snug curled up in her soft fleecy blanket, with the sun and the breeze and two eagles soaring in giant circles above us. And we reminisced, she and I, over our many, many years together.

Dean & I brought her home from the Toronto Humane Society, one Saturday afternoon, to our apartment in Parkdale . I think it was 1991 and she was 6 months old when we adopted her. We had chosen the name Lola but in short time decided that Lulu was somehow more fitting. Less than a week later Dean brought Ernst home (stray tabby kitten someone had brought into his workplace). As soon as tiny Ernst walked in the door Lulu became the Queen, he became the first of her many loyal feline, then canine, subjects. She was very demanding, and her most famous nickname was squawkamolé for her penchant to yell-meow as if maybe you were hard of hearing or didn't see her. Meow's came out of her with a grating loud forceful squawk - always.

She was loud and she was bossy and she was also very loving, extremely affectionate and always gentle. In her day an avid and skilled huntress and fierce, alert defender of these lands and territories here at 29 Black Street. She loved attention and loved to be picked up, she would burrow her little head in the crook of your arm and curl up and purr there ... endlessly. She slept on my bed, up high on a pile of pillows so perfect for a Queen, every night of her life until these last few weeks when she often found it too difficult to climb the stairs.

These last few days as soon as my slippered feet would hit the dark kitchen floor each early morning she would sit up on her puffy bed and yell good morning to me and I would try to concoct some delicacy that would appeal to her fading appetite - salmon & cream or flakes of chicken and broth maybe. When I'd go downstairs to get my second cup of coffee and after she's had a few nibbles of breakfast I'd bring her upstairs with me and she'd lie on a big pillow on the floor by the tub and keep me company while I had my bath.

She was a great cat. I'm thankful to have shared so many years of my life with her.

landslide

Jake & Em bedside

I took my love, I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around
I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
till the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life

Well, I've been afraid of changing
cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
I'm getting older too

Oh, take my love, take it down
Climb a mountain and turn around
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide will bring it down

Fleetwood Mac Landslide

I'm taking Lulu in today - it's time. It's past time. I had an apt. yesterday and I canceled it and I realize now I should have kept it. I'm ready and she's ready. I am so grateful that each one of my family of animals, first Ernst, then Em, that sweet Noodle dog and now Lulu, gave me notice, gave me weeks to get ready and to prepare myself. Gave me some time to gradually let it sink in, day by day, that it was time to say goodbye and to enjoy a lovely long goodbye. I am so thankful for that time.

Well, I've been afraid of changing
cause I've built my life around you

I love the Dixie Chicks version of this song

a lull in September

hey there's Baby Duke & Carol and stormy churned up seas

The most beautiful perfect light, and my favourite, is the orange warm glow of sunrise. The light that makes golden and red dogs glisten like gems on the beach and of course black dogs look beautiful too. Wink.

Yesterday the sky and light on our morning walk (twirl, romp, spin, roll, gnash) was stunning. Big brooding ever changing clouds and warm golden early morning sunlight - the most perfect combination. Thank goodness I took my camera. The secret to having great pictures is to always have your camera with you because as you know the Murphy's law of life is if you don't have it ... you will be sorry. Busy (just steady busy, not mad crazy busy) this week. More thumbnails for customer No. Uno, still plugging away at the great arrow deadline (which is Monday) and basically ignoring all things domestic (which believe me is nothing new - oh how I long for a full time housekeeper or a house the size of a small trailer). Sigh. It's been beautiful sunshiny September weather, warm and breezy and perfect for hanging sheets and pillowcases outside. Ache and Sadness have gone to the Island for an off season mini holiday and have left Winn and I to fend for ourselves ... and we're not sure when they're coming back. It's been a very quiet week, one of those medium kind of weeks ... I've let my guard down, perhaps that's the secret. It's been a definite lull in the ups and downs that often are life here at 29 Black Street.

miss D

Miss D at the beach

A few photos of my girl Winnie Dixon. She goes everywhere with me. She's got cheeks of sweetness, she loves the beach and her Baby Duke, her favourite words are Do ya ? and she always answers Yes please ! enthusiastically, she's a picky eater but she loves chicken and cat food and homemade beef and bacon dog cookies. And she misses that boy as much as I do but we're getting through it together, she and I.

I love her ... so much.

There's a big ship coming into the harbour. Crickets, occasional drops of rain, that tell tale first sound - the clanging of the big anchor being dropped into the water, and the hum of the big ship's engine that makes the windows gently rattle - the sounds outside my big studio windows this early morning.

la queen of all things

our harbour at dusk

I will grow. I will become something new and grand,
but no grander than I now am.
Just as the sky will be different in a few hours,
its present perfection and completeness is not deficient,
so am I presently perfect and not deficient
because I will be different tomorrow.
I will grow and I am not deficient.

Wayne Dyer via MLou

Lulu's holding her own, I've made an apt. for later this week, that appointment. But I'm thinking it may be canceled. We're taking things day by day and yesterday she had a pretty good day. She, La Queen of All Things, appreciates very much all of the kind comments sent her way yesterday by all of you. She really is some kinda cat. She's a very strong, (both willed and physically) old girl. Determined and stubborn and I'm thinking she's got a bit of life left in her yet. Yesterday was was one of those most perfect early September days. Blue sky with gigantic puffy clouds like giant weird space ships hovering low on the horizon. The light golden, that perfect beginning of Autumn light and the breeze in the air was warm and gentle, just enough to rustle the leaves on the trees and Miss Lulu spent the day outside basking in big patches of sunlight and enjoying her vast Queendom.

I'm off to land of bubbles and scent ... and here's to a happy Tuesday.

6:50 - aprés bubbles & scent. Miss Lulu decided to come upstairs this morning and keep me company while I had my bath. She hasn't done that in awhile. She curled up on a pile of bath sheets beside me and she purred and sqwawked (her new gentler squawk) at me a few times as if to remind me let's not rush things along ... your wish, happily, is my command Miss Lulu La Queen of Black Street.

aftermath

Sunday morning, grey and raining

Well Hannah kind of blew by us with not much fuss at all. I waited all day for the high winds to begin ... and they never came. We did have, earlier in the day, throughout most of the morning, torrential rain. Rain that fell in steady sheets of grey wetness, straight down and onto already well saturated ground. We have had record breaking rainfall this August. Yesterday late afternoon as Miss Winnie Dixon and I drove to the beach to meet up with Carol and Baby Duke for an afternoon twirl and romp session there were huge puddles everywhere but the roads were already beginning to dry and the sky had turned blue again in places. Some reports of minor flooding, and a few washed out areas in these parts but as storms go this one was pretty gentle - to us.

My Lulu, my squawkamolé cat has begun her final decline at a fairly rapid rate. She hardly ever yells at me anymore and there are no more death defying leaps from table to table. She is bone thin, and doesn't eat much or hold much food down when she does manage to eat something. She doesn't seem to want to go outside into her kingdom these last few days and the time, that time, is now racing towards us. That's how it goes it seems, once it begins ... it comes at you fast and furious. I need to do the right thing, the kind thing ... once again. She's almost 18 and she enjoyed another summer here at 29 Black Street ... two things that give me great comfort.


Miss D amidst the seaweed