The snows lie deep after yet another storm.

BBQ Weather
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

The snows lie deep after yet another storm.

Normally I would be out enjoying this weather but
I am at home recovering after surgery this last week.

Still it doesn't mean I cannot record an image or two. My 'Photo of the Week' this week was taken through the window..
An image of my BBQ, sculptured by Winters hand.

As my tag line on my email says "In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary." ~Aaron Rose

This is especially true in winter.
The landscape is transformed into a world of black and white. Mother Natures colourful palette has been put away and replaced with charcoal, pencil and ink.
No less beautiful, just different if you have the eyes to see....


'[W]hat a severe yet master artist old Winter is.... No longer the canvas and the pigments, but the marble and the chisel'. ~John Burroughs, "The Snow-Walkers," 1866

White Breasted Nuthatch - Grindstone Creek

White Breasted Nuthatch - Grindstone Creek
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

When we stepped out from the shelter of the tree's the wind cut like a knife. Whipping across the frozen marshes to find us then seeking out all the chinks in our armour. Fingers refused to work after a minute or two, glasses and camera viewfinder fogged up with each breath.

Welcome to Canada in the winter ...

I am always amazed at how anything survives our brutally cold winter season especially the birds. The tiny Chickadee's, the Nuthatch, and the Junco's; so small, so fragile and yet so resilient.

Grindstone Marsh in the Botanical Gardens, Burlington is a magical place in all seasons but in winter the tree's are alive with birds who over winter here and are well fed by the people who come for a walk and bring bags of bird food.

If you are up and about and are the first to break trail in a morning you are welcomed, first by flocks of chickadee's who then attract the larger birds.
Mr and Mrs Cardinal couples arrive, then the Blue Jays, all looking for a breakfast handout after a cold night
Just as suddenly as they arrive they vanish, the woods silent, no excited chirping, no 'chick-a-dee-dee' sounds.. Why?

Well if you look up you will see why, all this fuss has caught the attention of the local bad guy.
High above, the hawk circles looking for his breakfast too.

Everyone sits quietly until he moves on then they are back flocking around once more.
What a great way to raise your spirits on a cold morning to watch the antics of our feathered friends and to wonder how on earth they survived the night...

"Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art." ~Izaak Walton

No photographs this week, nary a one...

Ignatius Centre - Spider Plant-framed
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

No photographs this week, nary a one...
I cannot remember the last time I didn't have any images.
In my defence I did try, on the way out of the Ignatius Centre yesterday I stopped to photograph an apple tree in the fog. Looked good 'in phone' but I had the sizing all wrong in reality its the size of a postage stamp, so no help there.

However, yesterday Patrick and I ( the third amigo, Doug is sick with something that we don't want to catch so he is banished for a week) Met at the Ignatius Centre here in Guelph. The plan was to wander the foggy lanes or if it was too icy / rainy then we would venture indoors for some pencil and paper time.
The driveway was impossibly icy and so was the parking lot.
Rain on ice = walking on ball bearings, so we headed indoors to seek out interesting subjects to draw.

One thing I have found with sitting down with a pad and pencil is time simply vanishes. We sat down at about 8:00am and next thing its 11:00 am and three sketches had appeared in my sketch book.

A quote from Bert Dodson in his book Keys to Drawing confirmed my suspicions..
" Ordinarily, involvement in a drawing is like involvement in a dream. You are seldom aware of the passage of time"

So it's not just me ..

So my blog this week is about the other, older form of 'painting with light', drawing and its use as a time machine.

Its not all about photography these days...

Its not all about photography these days.
In recent months a spark was lit which slowly produced a flame. A flame fed by the comments of others and old memories. In the corner of my closet the whispers became more insistent there in the corner sat my sketchbooks, watercolour paints, pencils and pens and long ignored work.

I mentioned in a blog post back in September of last year how I finally I gave in, took down the boxes and with baby steps picked up where I had left off all those years ago. It was the mid 1990's when I stopped painting it was time to put that to rights.

Fast forward to today, the sketchbooks are in constant use, the 'photo outings' on Saturday mornings were followed by tea and conversation. Now there is a new twist; tea, conversation and sketching. Well the conversation dies quickly when the sketchbooks appear but no matter the friendship and camaraderie remain as pencils and pens work to capture what is before us or at least what we see before us.

Yesterday it was Doug and I at Quebec St Mall (a good place to hide from winters icy grip). Somehow an hour disappeared but a drawing or two appeared in the sketchbooks and a "peaceful, easy feeling" to quote the Eagles had fallen upon us.
It's quite amazing how that happens. Maybe it is the returning to something deep within, the need to express what we see using simple tools instead of modern day technology. The time taken is repaid with satisfaction, the longer it takes the greater the satisfaction.

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time". 

~ Thomas Merton