Painting on Cedar Shim

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..painting birch trees on a piece of carpenter’s shim

I’ve recently taken an on-line course called Paint Your Garden where most of the projects were done on birch plywood. I loved using this surface for painting. While at at the cottage I noticed that we had a lot of shim left over from a recent building project so I chose a piece and primed it with Gesso.

I’ve always loved birch trees and since I’m surrounded by them I decided to use the forest as my garden for this project.

Acrylic paint on 8 x 18 inch cedar shim.

Close-up of tree on the right.

Close-up of the base of one of the trees.

To finish this project I’m planning on drilling two small holes at the top and adding wire to hang.

New Flower (July 30, 2014) – White and Pink Lily

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New Flower (July 26, 2014) – Blanket Flower

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..also known as Indian Blanket, Firewheel and gaillardia pulchella

Weekly Photo Challenge – Summer Lovin

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..I love summer and everything it brings but I especially love the beach at my cottage

Summer Lovin is this week’s WordPress’ Weekly Photo Challenge.

New Flower (July 25, 2014) – Pink Lily

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Harvesting the Garden

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….we’ve had a bumper crop of lettuce this year but today we picked beans, peas, zucchini and jalapeno peppers

As I was weeding the garden this morning I noticed that the purple beans and the sugar peas were ready to pick. Looking at the garden the night before I didn’t notice anything hanging from the pole vines but in the light of the morning sun they stood out like a sore thumb.

We’ve been keeping a close eye on the zucchini and picked three the night before and one more this evening. The jalapeño peppers were also ripe for picking.

Three of the four vegetables made it into our stir fry tonight (will save the jalapeño for another time) and to our surprise the purple beans turned a dark bright green. Everything was so fresh and delicious.

Cottage Life (July 24th, 2014) – Waaboos Lane

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..waaboos is Ojibway for rabbit

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that my cottage is situated on a First Nations’ reserve. The island is one of the largest islands on Georgian Bay and is approximately the size of Bermuda.

Over the years we’ve seen very little wildlife and I’ve often said that we have more wildlife here in the city of Toronto. In the last couple of years bears have moved to the island and we’ve had some issues with Fishers but for the most part one would be hard pressed to see animals other than squirrels and chipmunks. One other animal that I saw when I first started coming to the island were rabbits.

When the roads that lead to the beach and our cottages were named I thought that the name of our road was very appropriate because I had seen a rabbit there once. Waaboos is Ojibway for rabbit. This summer we’ve seen a Jack rabbit that is not the least bit shy and frequently comes up to the deck. Recently he was sitting by the side of the road and didn’t jump away as I moved closer to take a picture.