Fallen from the nest

Hello my friends !

The tree swallows are back !

Each spring it gives me great joy to see the return of the tree swallows.  I love hearing their chirping and witnessing their quarrels over the bird house with other swallows.  Since we have this bird house, the swallows have returned year after year to it to build their nest and care for their chicks.  Did you know that tree swallows always return to their birthplace to build their nest ?  The same is true for cardinals.

While the swallows are quarreling over the bird house, (and it will last for at least a month) other species have already built their nests and produced some eggs. While I was looking at the growth of my plants in one of my flower beds I found a cute little pale blue egg.  Two weeks ago I had noticed a common starling was building a nest in my stove fan exhaust which is right above where I found the little egg.  I didn’t try to destroy the nest, what harm could it be doing ?  Did the egg fall from this nest ?  I’m inclined to think so because there are no big trees or shrubs or cedar hedge near that flower bed.  The egg is in perfect condition, it’s such a cute little egg, so I decided to keep it.  I can picture my boyfriend smiling when he will read this…Well, he’s used to my eccentricities.  After all, I once returned home from a walk in the woods with a deer skull in a bag, and a few days later I once again returned with the jawbone and teeth that were missing from the skull !

Many years ago I had also kept a beautiful nest I had found in my backyard.  Unfortunately I don’t know which species it belonged to, but while I was looking at how the nest was built I had the (big) surprise to see some of my dog’s hair in the bottom of the nest.  I’m positive it is my earlier dog’s hair, it’s the exact same colours and texture.  The bird hadn’t just deposited the hair in the bottom, it had weaved it in the nest from under it and it covered a little spot where the egg would lie, rendering it soft for the little chick to be born.  Isn’t it the sweetest thing ?  I thought that the little egg and nest would make beautiful photos, so I went back in the house to grab the nest and my camera.

To build their nests, swallows (and other birds too) can use different materials.  You can hang wool threads from branches or simply place them on the ground and there’s good chance swallows will use them.  You can also scatter hair from your dog or cat on the ground.  If you have a bird house you must clean it and remove the nest once the birds are gone.

I wish you all a nice week !

Jocelyne

I’m joining Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday

p.s.  I keep the little egg in my home. I hope it won’t hatch, I would have a chick to feed…:)

A change of heart

Hello everyone !

It seems orchids wanted me to appreciate their stunning and amazing beauty.  They somehow managed to find a way to reach me, as if they wanted me to reconsider my opinions about their beauty and show me how wrong I was.  I have always ignore orchids, I was just not into them.  The main reason I didn’t like them that much was their lack of foliage.  I prefer plants with lots of foliage and orchids, to my liking, don’t have enough of them.  But then, while visiting my family last December, my stepmother had received an orchid and didn’t want it so she gave it to me.  I thought I’d get rid of the plant when the flowers would fade, I was more interested in the pot it was planted in than in the plant, but after a few days of looking closely at the flowers and taking pictures, I decided to keep it.  The flowers had won, I was beginning to find them prettier than never before.

Then, two weeks ago, I went to the florist to buy roses, I wanted to take pictures of them.  The employee said she wanted to show me flowers she had just received and who were not displayed in the shop yet.  When she dropped the flowers on the counter I  was mesmerized.  Here were the most beautiful flowers I ever laid my eyes on :  Some beautiful, amazing orchids in the most sumptuous colours of deep purple and azure blue.  From that very moment I had a complete change of heart.  Orchids had finally found their way to me and from now on they would be among my very favourite flowers.   Isn’t it strange how life has its own way to make things happen sometimes…

I hope I didn’t do too much spelling and conjugation mistakes, usually my boyfriend revise my post before I publish (he’s perfectly bilingual but I’m not !) but he’s on a trip to Halifax, so he can’t.

Now I have to go prune my rose bushes while it’s not raining and I’m so excited, saturday afternoon we’re going to pick up our new kayaks and I just can’t wait !

Jocelyne

Texture on the last photo from El Vigilante’s Flickr account

At the sugar shack

Hello everyone !

Two weeks ago I went to the sugar shack with Bob and Winny.  I know we see flowers all over the blogs but I didn’t want to wait until next year to share these photos so, yes, even if you don’t want to see snow anymore, you will see some here !

I was glad it snowed two days before, leaving the surroundings of the sugar shack like I’m used to and love to see :  Plenty of maple trees with buckets hanging from their trunks and some snow to illuminate the woods.  And later, when the maple water has boiled and transformed into a nice, rich, medium brown colour and it has reached just the perfect consistency, snow will be needed to pour the syrup on it so it can be transformed into delicious maple taffy.

This sugar shack is not commercial, it’s a family one who was built in the 30′s and owned, along with the land, by the same family the past 80 years.  Located in St-Frédérick, Beauce, it is now owned by one of the sons of the man who built it.

It was a very gloomy day but it was so nice hanging out the entire afternoon with my boyfriend’s family and sharing a scrumptious traditional sugar shack meal.

Arriving at the sugar shack

Upon our arrival we were greeted by Max, a sweet 3 years old Bernese mountain dog.  Winny and Max seemed stunned to be in each other’s company !

Everything around here is old and shabby… I love that !

An old hand-carved mould for maple sugar

I love this old stove and teapots !

The interior of the sugar shack feels so warm and inviting.

(Kim Klassen’s Embrace texture on these photos above)

(Sarah Gardner’s Renaissance 90 texture on the photo above and Sarah Gardner’s Artisan Press and Renaissance 05 on the photo below)

Now I cross my heart and promise you, no more snow for at least the next 7 months !

Coming next time, I have some pretty photos of a beautiful flower to show you.

A happy week to all of you !

Jocelyne

I’m joining Mary at The Little Red House for Mosaic Monday

Vintage mood

Hello dear friends !

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the beginning of spring !  It has barely just begun here, so I still have some time to play with my photos before I have to turn my attention to the garden.

I like playing with my photos. I can spend many hours trying different effects, textures, filters and all sorts of adjustments.  I work with Corel PaintShop Pro X4 and it’s amazing all the things I can do with it.  In our digital age, photo editors have become the new dark-room.  For these photos I decided to give them a vintage mood.  I know…..vintage again !  But you know how I love everything old and shabby  All these wonderful old things, whether it be a piece of furniture, some fabrics, an heirloom dish or an old barn, they are all part of our history and heritage and that is what I wanted to celebrate.  What got me started in doing these vintage mood photos is my new dining set.  It is an antique reproduction and it really gives the room a sense of warmth and an inviting atmosphere.

This barn is located in St-Georges, it’s a beautiful old barn, just how I like them.  The winter scenery is at our local cross-country ski trails, the old wheel is on a yard in my neighborhood and the chair and oil lamp were photographed at my boyfriend’s cousin’s sugar shack (This gives you a hint of my next post  I included the before photos (always the 1st photo) so you can see the difference.

With spring and summer coming our way I won’t have as much time as now to play with my photos.  My priorities will be outdoor activities like gardening, kayaking, painting the picket fence, going on bike rides and day trips and relaxing in the spa.  But I love to play with my photos, so you can bet you will see more of these !

I finally found a font I like for signing my photos.  I think it’s lovely and so flamboyant !  There are many fonts you can download for free on dafont website, but you have to verify the terms of use with the creator of each font before using them.

Have a fun week, and keep smiling, it’s spring !

Happy Easter !

Jocelyne

I’m joining Mary at the Little Red House for Mosaic Monday

Kim Klassen’s textures were used on some of these photos.

Sleeping little Winny

Hello !

I just love puppies !  Aren’t they adorable ?  I thought I would present my little Winny since I sometimes mention him in my posts, but I will begin when he was a puppy at the age of three months.  I remember the first month we had him, when he wasn’t housebroken and I had to take him outside in the middle of the night at -25°C so he could pee.  And then I had to get up early in the morning (6 a.m. is pretty early for me !)  to watch and play with him because he wouldn’t want to sleep anymore.  I would take him outside to play in the snow and then he would be so tired that he’d fall asleep for a few hours.  This was when I took some photos of him sleeping.  He was so adorable, it was hard to resist kissing him to let him sleep !  And sometimes he would sleep in the most awkward places, and, of course, I couldn’t resist capturing the moment…

Enough with the photos, I’m trying to sleep here !

Sweet dreams…

Sleeping in the curtains…  This way no one sees me and I won’t be disturbed.

Sleeping on top of magazines… Very comfortable !

Maybe the smell knocked him out ?

Oooh…don’t kiss him Jocelyne, let him sleep !

Winny is now 3 years old, he has become a good and beautiful dog.

I have more photos to share, like when he plays with his ball and his friend Maya, an English cocker spaniel, but that will be in another post.

For now, I’m off to see the ducks on Chaudière river, they are many at this time of year, and of course Winny will come along.

I hope you’re having a great week-end !

Jocelyne

Clouds are angels’ drawings

Hello my dear friends !

Do you love clouds ?

I love them !  :)

I prefer a beautiful sunny day with lots of decorative clouds (but not rain or storm clouds !) than a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in sight.  I like them puffy and it amazes me to see the many different shapes they can turn into.  When the wind blows gently the angels are playing and drawing in the clouds all kind of animals.  Do you like lying on a hammock on a lazy summer day,  just thinking of nothing and gazing at the clouds to find a dog, a rabbit, a cat or maybe an elephant ?  And isn’t it the most magnificent spectacle   when, at sunset, the sky and clouds are bathed in heavenly hues ?

The next two photos have way too much blue in them.  I tried to desaturate them a little to obtain a more realistic photo but I prefer them with too much blue by far.  They have such a dramatic effect ! I see them more as artistic photos where creativity knows no boundaries and where it is expressed and reflected through my photo editing.

The only time I prefer a cloudless sky is when I look at our beautiful and mysterious moon…

Isn’t it a beautiful planet we live on ?

Don’t forget to look at the sunset tonight, or maybe the sunrise tomorrow morning ?  Have a beautiful day everyone !

Jocelyne

I’m joining Skywatch Friday at Bluff Area Daily

I used Happy Heart texture from Kim Klassen on some of these photos.