…thanks to Cee for hosting the Fun Foto Challenge
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Pairs
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Tag Archives: birds
Art From Another Corner of the House
….even though I haven’t found time to make art in the last 6 weeks my husband has
For about a year now my husband has been making cartoon drawings every day for our granddaughter. Certain days have themes like Monster Monday and Fishy Fridays. For this past Christmas Winnie gave her Papa a set of markers so that he could add more colour to his drawings.
When I first met Kevin, back at University, he had just finished a graphic design program at his local college and he worked as a graphic designer for the Ministry of Agriculture. When he switched careers in his mid 30s I was a little sad that he gave up his art but his job was changing with the times and computers were the way to go in the graphic design business. Unfortunately the first computers were very expensive and with a young family to think about he switched careers and his artistic side was put on the back burner.
Over the year I’ve seen his confidence grow and his drawings are developing a unique style of their own. This past week he’s gotten a bit of a head start on his drawings and he’s created six birds and a rabbit. Winnie loves to name them or she asks her Papa to give them names, which she often declares are silly. Here are his latest creations.
III’d love to create a children’s book around some of these characters.
London – Day 4 (Harrods, Hyde Park)
….day four was another busy day with lots of walking
Today my Andrea, Josie and I headed to Harrods and Hyde Park. We left Kevin at home to rest and agreed to meet up later in the afternoon.
Harrods is probably one of the most famous stores in London. It is not centrally located and is about a mile from Kensington in the area known as Knightsbridge. Knightsbridge is a very exclusive area, one of the wealthiest parts of London where some of London’s most expensive hotels are situated. Needless to say that we didn’t go there to shop but merely to look around. The food hall was most interesting and beautifully set up with gorgeous display cases of chocolates and pastries and the seafood was displayed on mounds of ice in the most attractive way.
While we were there we were told about the Egyptian escalators that were built in 1998 to reflect the Edwardian style of the building. Harrods built the first ever escalator in the UK in 1898. Nervous customers using the contraption were offered brandy when they reached the top to help them recover from their “ordeal”.
From Harrods we walked over to Hyde Park and walked along the Serpentine Lake. People actually swim in this lake along with the local ducks, geese and swans.
The installation art that you see in the lake is from the world famous artist, Christo, who unveiled his work The London Mastaba (2018) earlier in June. It is a 20-metre-high floating sculpture on London’s Serpentine Lake, constructed from 7,506 oil drums.
Stay tuned for part 2…….
London Birds
…the parks in London are a sanctuary for birds, especially waterfowl
Birds by the Lake
….most stay all year
Even though many birds migrate south in the fall, here in Toronto many of these migrating birds stay here all winter long. Now that the weather is starting to warm up and the sun has reappeared (although today is grey and raining) the swans, Canada geese and gulls happily go about their day and don’t seem to mind the close proximity of people, in fact some love the extra attention.
365 Days of Art – More One-liners Transformed
…day 82
I keep adding more colour, collage, line detail and background marks to my one-liner birds. I also added two new characters that I borrowed from Eva Ucgatwork. I love expressions and how they appear to be in awe of these strange looking birds.
365 Days of Art – Adding Colour to One-liners
…..Judith over at Curious to the Max suggested I try adding colour to my one-liners
So for day 76 I took another page of birds created with one continuous line and added colour with markers and then added more line detail.
Share Your World – March 12, 2018
….thanks to Cee for hosting Share Your World
If a distant uncle dies and you were always his favorite and leaves you $50,000 (any currency) in his will, what would you do?
I think I would use some of the money to do some repairs around the cottage and then take a chunk to travel to London, England. With any money left over I would divide it amongst my children.
What sound or sounds do you love?
I love the sound of birds in the morning, cicadas on a hot summer day and the laughter of children.
What’s your middle name? Why?
My middle name is Hildegard. I was named after my maternal grandmother. I always hated the name and wouldn’t tell any of my friends for fear of being teased. I actually never realized until much later that I was named after my grandmother. I knew her name was Hilde but I never realized that it was shortened from Hildegard. I wouldn’t have had a problem telling people that my middle name was Hilde.
What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.
This past week I attended two wonderful concerts with friends. The first was an afternoon concert featuring the Elias String Quartet and the second one was Tan Dun’s Water Passion After St. Matthew.
On Saturday my husband and I drove to Hamilton to spend the day with our daughter and granddaughter. Of course that brought huge smiles to our faces. As she gets older we find that we can actually carry on conversations with her and she happily instructs us on how to play with her. 
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Birds
….thanks Cee for hosting the Fun Foto Challenge
Playing With the Zoom Lens for an iPhone
…..it’s a bit tricky holding the iPhone with this long lens attached
I was very excited when I received all those wonderful lenses for my iPhone at Christmas. I used the fish-eye lens first (which I promptly lost) and posted a few of my experiments soon after I received them.
A couple of days ago I headed out for a walk with my trusty iPhone in hand and the zoom lens in place. I came across a group of birds, flying back and forth and hopping from one branch to another. This is the best I could do.
As I got closer to the park the wind picked up and the temperature fell. I came across some ducks, some in the lake and others in the pond.
I tried using the zoom lens for some landscape shots, sometime focusing on the branches in the foreground and other times on the background.
I’m not sure why it’s happening but can you see how the horizon line in the second set of photos is bowed?
Here are a few more photos taken of objects and scenery in the distance.
The only disadvantage of taking photos in January, even on a relatively mild day, is that your fingers freeze very quickly. Did I mention that the winds picked up and the temperature dropped? If I didn’t feel frostbite coming on I would probably have stayed out longer. As you can see from the last shot I was losing the light anyway. If you have any suggestions about using the lenses for an iPhone I’d be very appreciative.
Cheers!
Mama Cormier 