rewilding bits

I went for an extended walk out at Williams Nature Conservatory today, walking the North Loop and the Perry Road. It was terribly windy, had a couple of real 'we're not in Kansas' moments. It made taking pictures interesting as the canopy was doing this crazy dance above me and most landscape pictures I was taking were blurry. Changed my plan, then. Decided to concentrate on the little things.

It feel to the ground in a slow flutter, and then was picked up time and time again by the wind until it finally settled right by my foot.

This is exactly how I found this still life. It appears that I arrived right after the squirrels had brunch.

This is a little blurry as the wind was having a good time with it. Large leaf, that was like some sail on a boat. I looked closer at it and found that sail to be full of holes.

Moss has always been a wonder to me. Especially when I find it growing on a huge boulder like this.

There were quite a few of these crackling underneath my feet.

I just liked this.

Autumn color. Love it.

Oak leaves that caught my eye.

Thistles always catch my eye. These were as tall as I am, and that's saying a lot as I am over six foot. For a long time, I always thought of thistles as being these prickly things that made running barefoot as a kid a pain. Mowed them off in the yard. But when left to grow? Stunning. In all stages of life.

I have been taking a lot of inspiration from nature lately-- even more than I normally do! 

This month of "rewilding" has been good, and something I intend to continue with even after September has expired.

sunday stitches

Today was spent stitching outside on my little deck, enjoying the sunshine and weird warm we're having here in our Minnesota March.  I have been working on my bluebird design, and was able to get a good portion of the bird stitched today.

Spent some time online, digging around for inspiration and direction for a variety of things that are bubbling around in my head as well. One can never have enough images to flip through, and when I go surfing  I always find so many cool places I want to visit, both virtually and physically! (see my blogs & places tabs. Would love you to leave a note to share where your travels take you!)

A project I am working on now is developing adaptive classes for individuals with unique needs who want to learn how to make their own fabric, design their own cross stitch patterns and various other handcrafts. More on that as I go! Now I am just trying to think of a fun name for the classes. Suggestions, anyone?

Rainy Day Zen & Inspirational Feel Good Stuff

I had hoped to get out into my favorite woods and take the first pictures of the new season, but the dark skies and persistent rain has me inside looking through images I have stumbled upon over the years,  work of others that left me inspired, smiling or just simply looking again.  Here are a few of those images.

Source: The Rainbow Treehouse