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A few steps forward....

...a few back , then a few forward again! That's how this week has gone. I have actually been doing some more piecing on the Hosta swirl but it is slow going. Anyway, here's the story so far...
This is the beginning of several "instars" of this piece.

I have now removed that dark bit half way up the right side and am back to what's below.I have left the veining though. I like that.

That is where I am now but here's an earlier shot .
That bit half way up on the right looks like this now! I still have work to do on it.

I am now somewhere in between! There is still a fair way to go but I SHALL get there!

Anyway, Here is a little guessing game! I succumbed and bought a new camera this week!!!! Yes, I KNOW I bought one last fall and it is great- except!!!!A LOT of the stuff I really want to do creatively, I was having issues with ( egad, what grammar!) . So... I bought a new Nikon D7200 ( last one was D5300). It is FAB! I am a VERY happy old camper - with a HUGE learning curve to tackle.

So what's the guessing game, I hear you ask?? Well, I was playing with the new camera and my beloved Macro lens, photographing the top of an old teapot using the "mirror up" feature( Mup!! LOVE IT!!) and here's what I got. Try to zoom in on it before you read the question.....

Look very closely if you are able to.


The question.....
What do you think has taken precedence round this household this week?- Dusting ??
                                                                                                                     - Artsy pursuits?


No real prizes for guessing the latter. LOOK at the dust on that pot lid. Great lens though, no???

I did a bit of more serious work in the garden and on Photoshop too- see below.
These are all the same bloom but I was just messing about- Here using Auto Levels. I rarely do that when I use Levels but these colours are kind of nifty!!

The "real " photo.

Same pic with Poster Edges filter applied. I can maybe see a quilt in the offing!
And so, Dear Friends, we come to the end of this week's post. As it is Wednesday, (and My Sister Violet's birthday __any other Keeping Up Appearances Fans out there? - We are four siblings in my family and we are ALL Violet- even our brother!!)- I will give her a call and then post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com I hope for everyone's sake that the rest of the posts are not quite so giddy as this one! Enjoy.

Trigger Finger!!

Have you ever had it? This is my second experience. The first was with the middle finger on the right hand. Eventually, I had surgery to correct it. It was very successful but it took AGES to get my fine motor control back- like over three years! Well, now the RING finger on my RIGHT hand is in trouble- BIG trouble. I have no grip at all and when I DO try to grip something- like the handle of my teapot- the finger locks in a tight curl and has to be unsnapped by hand! Ask me how much work I have done on my big Hosta piece??? Can you say NONE????Booo. I am SOOO upset. To make matters MUCH worse, my left wrist is now VERY sore . I must have sprained it slightly doing something- I know not what.

I have not touched anything to do with sewing. I am afraid all the tight pinching and hard gripping required to do my fibre art stuff is just NOT very doable and is likely the cause of the problem. To console myself, I have been taking a LOT of photos and posting some on Flickr.

The garden is OK this year. For so long we had cold weather and NO rain. It has suddenly become pretty hot and humid. SOME of the "humidity" has fallen as heavy rain so some flowers have been badly beaten down - e.g. peonies. ALWAYS when the peonies are at peak, the strong wind and heavy rain visit us. That is why I no longer try to grow delphiniums.


The crop of seed- TOTALLY absent last spring on the Siberian Elm trees (wretched things- NOT planted by us) is VERY HEAVY. As a result, the darned things are EVERYWHERE. When the wind blows, it is like a heavy snowstorm. SO, when I take pics here, I have to spend time cleaning things up so the pictures are not marred badly by detritus. The good news- this brings the squirrels, chipmunks and red squirrels who LOVE those seeds. They are TRÉS amusante to watch!

Well, this is not a very exciting post with nothing to look at . A couple of weeks ago, I participated in an all day Photo workshop at Chassagne Farm in Puslinch Twp. Chassagne is a beautiful private farm and we were invited to go. Sadly, it POURED rain all day and I was still feeling sick but I did manage to get a few pictures.
This is Cedric, the Tawny Owl! We shot these pics indoors in rather poor light so it is not my best photo but Cedric is lovely. There was a tiny barred owl called Beasley too but as he was at the very end of a very long day, I had lost my will to live by then and had to sit down so I don't have a pic of Beasley:-(

The Harris Hawk ( whose name I forget ) was a real " camera hog". She enjoyed her "sitting".
The farm specializes in horses, Shetland Sheep and Birds of Prey. Here are a few of the bigger beasts.
How are EWE?

Poor wet beasts!

The foal was only a few days old! Lovely, frisky little fellow:-) The sheep were wonderful and the lambs were adorable but rarely stood still!
 And there were hens! Here's a pretty young lady.

And now, it is lunchtime. Even though all there is in this post about needlework is WHINING, I SHALL post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com once it is open this afternoon- just to explain myself and to say hello to everyone. Pardon the whining and enjoy the photos!

Hah! Look what I found! I am NOT to be trusted!!! I DID do a bit more on the Hosta. Here's proof.
Granted, it is precious little but I feel better knowing and REMEMBERING now that I DID do a little more . NOW I shall not feel so guilty about posting sheep and chickens on TNTN! Enjoy the posts!!