february flowers

farmers market summer bouquet / recently purchased miniature roses / gorgeous apricot roses / sunny studio windowsill garden No.1 / daisy / Japanese anemone / zingy, cheery snapdragons at 29 Black Street / windowsill geranium blooms / Creative Empire Studio Manager Oliver with zinnias / more lovely mini rose bushes / sunny studio windowsill garden No.2 / sigh ... cosmos bright lights in the chocolate brown bedroom

I must have flowers,
always, always.
Claude Monet

While the wind howls outside my second floor studio windows here in Lunenburg, and a winter blizzard is blooming - I'm tucked inside cozy, warm and dreaming this snowy, stormy February evening of flowers and gardens ... and more flowers.

blogging about not blogging

red berries, fresh snow & blue skies // Samuel on the beach // the Dory Shop, Lunenburg, front harbour // back harbour walking trail with my guy // new at home studio space // bittersweet berries windowsill gardening // I live by the sea in Nova Scotia // red wooden buildings, Lunenburg front harbour // trailing tiny succulents, studio windowsill garden // Oliver (on our main staircase - we have a back staircase also that leads into the kitchen) - Creative Director at Susan Black Design // open Atlantic Ocean photo taken at Herman's Island // early morning hydrangea // another of my beautiful at home studio space //Samuel's holiday photo - a fundraiser on Lincoln Street put on by elderdog.ca // yesterday morning 5 minutes from home // I love the woods - Back Harbour walking trail, also 5 minutes from our front door

try again.
fail again.
fail better.
Samuel Beckett

I have spent an incredible amount of time pondering the reasons why I stopped blogging and I've yet to come up with a crystal clear reason. I can so vividly remember the time, and for years and years, that blogging felt as necessary as breathing or at the very least as important as that first luxurious coffee in bed each morning (a lovely habit I have kept for my entire adult life). There was a time when I couldn't imagine that I wouldn't continue my blogging - documenting my life (my loves, the things that are important to me, my creative journey, the struggles and challenges that go along with being a creative entrepreneur as well as the day to day battle with anxiety and depression) in words and with photos, lots of photos. My blog was/is therapeutic ... it's kind of crucial habit and I miss it.

Not that it really matters "why" I stopped blogging but I wonder if perhaps it was because of a few new challenges in my life ... like moving away from 29 Black Street (my home for nearly 22 years) and starting a new life in a my new community of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, saying goodbye to my dear Winnie Dixon and Bleet (both nearing their 16th birthdays), and most recently the finality of actually selling 29 Black Street ... all those things, all those transitions plus  all the while having a creative business life that's become busier and busier all the time !!

I miss this place. I miss the practice and dedication of blogging in a regular fashion. I know it's not realistic for me to think that I'll ever blog with the daily enthusiasm of the past but I do hope to manage a weekly post here about life here in lovely Lunenburg and another weekly post over at my Susan Black Design blog about what's happening in my blossoming Creative Empire ;-)

I'm no longer on Facebook and have no plans to return there but I love Instagram and I do post a few photos with descriptions daily & you can follow me there here ;-)

Until next week ... much love from me & les Gang

hello 2016

blue abstract No. 1 9x12 acrylic on watercolour paper


be easy. 
take your time. 
you are coming 
home. 
to yourself.


Hello 2016, hello beloved and sorely neglected blog space. I'd like to come home again if I could, please.

I'm not sure what that means exactly. I'm not at all sure how often I might post here or if I'll post words or photos or artwork or maybe all of those things - a mish mash. I just know I miss this space, I miss this record of my life and Hello 2016, I'd like to make the effort to come back again.

dear Winnie Dixon

top photo is from last week

Dogs are minor angels, and I don't mean that facetiously. They love unconditionally, forgive immediately, are the truest of friends, willing to do anything that makes us happy, etcetera. If we attributed some of those qualities to a person we would say they are special. If they had ALL of them, we would call them angelic. But because it's "only" a dog, we dismiss them as sweet or funny but little more. However when you think about it, what are the things that we most like in another human being? Many times those qualities are seen in our dogs every single day-- we're just so used to them that we pay no attention.

Jonathan Carroll

Our days, Miss D & mine ... together

A post from May 2013 / our nearly 15 years worth of days are coming to an end - I'm quite sure of it. I bless her beautiful soul for rejoicing & bounding with grace & love into her 16th year and I relish in how lucky I am to have shared her company for such a very long time. But our days together, they are diminishing. I see it, I feel it, I resist it, yet I am grateful for it. I don't want to hold her back. I know how very lucky I have been to have this beautiful shaggalicious, odd, neurotic, fearful, crab killing, muskrat hunting, & extremely loving girl with me for 14 + years. Wow ! I watch her lurching gracefully into her 16th year. She, who's been with me for forever - it seems ... who's comforted me through so many near unbearable sadnesses. I love her, desperately. I cannot imagine life without her.

I love you Winnie Dixon with all my heart. Here's to our remaining days xoxo Susan
I love you & I promise I will not cling to you. & I will forever rejoice in all of our glorious days together. Always.




to live in this world
you must be able
to do three things
to love what is mortal;
to hold it against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
let it go

Mary Oliver

Today, October 27th 2014 is that day - the time has come to let you go Missy D. Oh my ! my sweet girl the many adventures we've shared. You have been my constant companion for such a very long time I do find it hard to imagine my life without you, but thankfully I never will be without you because you have a permanent home in my heart and our life together will live on in words and in photos, hopefully forever, here on this blog. I adore you Winnie Dixon & I always will ! xoxo Susan

Miss Winnie (Darn) Dixon / January 1999 - October 2014

Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. 

Rumi

(original post from Oct 2014 - if this blog is going to remain out there in the universe indefinitely without further updates I want Miss D, my Winnie Dixon and her beautiful self to be the first thing someone comes across when they stumble upon this blog - love you my Dee girl xoxo)