never a dull moment

I try to make the most of each day yet this past while I have been putting a little more effort into that. There is never a dull moment and I mean that in the best way possible, it's how I like it. These past few days have been full and fulfilling from chasing some of my favourite kinds of distractions!  At day's end, I lay my head on my pillow, put a smile on my face and give thanks for all that is good!   

The Wall Hanging

It's complete and hanging on the wall by my computer where I see it at least twice a day.  The Owl, Heart and Bird are hanging from a thirty year old hiking pole that was discarded in my basement for the past twenty-five years.  The Sunflower hangs from the Heart and three Leaves create the bottom border.  The Wall Hanging represents nature and each piece holds meaning, even the hiking pole.  Oh the stories it could tell!  There is room to grow on this display if I ever feel like knitting additional items.  I am pleased with the outcome and would be quite content to leave it like it is!    

The Photo Bombing Raven

In Tuesday's blog post, I shared a photo I took while hiking up on Nose Hill showing a Raven photo bombing a picture I took of the snow covered mountains in the far off distance.  I kept looking back at that photo and I don't know why.  For whatever reason it was calling out to me, I acknowledged the call out and thought oh what the heck just paint the thing. This is my watercolour painting of the Raven making the photo what it was!  

The Inglewood Bird Sanctuary 

Not many days passed since I last visited The Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.  Instead of saying I went "birding", I should say for this day I went "ducking"!  There were birds and there were geese but it was the ducks that tickled my fancy this time around.  I was surprised to see that in such a short period of time, lots of ice melted giving more open water opportunities for the ducks.  I was also surprised to see the Wood Ducks are beginning to arrive. On this morning there were two males and one female.  

male Wood Duck

female Wood Duck

she appeared to be partnered up with the guy above 

female Common Merganser 

male Common Merganser

that's his lady in the above shot

male Common Goldeneye 

I believe this is the hybrid duck that I saw last year!  The Merlin app was not giving me a continuous positive ID on one single species.  I gave a shout out to those in the know on a social media group that I belong to.   They set me straight on it being a hybrid, part Common Goldeneye and part Hooded Merganser.  

I did capture some photos of birds, an Eagle and geese but I will pass on posting those.  These are just a few of the ducks I saw, there were a few others of each, except for the hybrid, along with many Mallards.  

Votiers Flat 

One morning, I felt the urge to be by water so aimed for Fish Creek Provincial Park, specifically the Votiers Flat area.  I was aware of many trails that followed along side the creek.  In no particular order, nor rhyme nor reason, nor destination in mind, nor direction, I meandered along here there and everywhere.  A couple of hours of hearing the running of the creek, ice breaking, the odd bird song, slipping & sliding, squashing in mud, all these packaged together fed my soul and I felt like I could face anything the world threw at me!  

Carburn Park

I wonder how the Bald Eagles are doing?  Sorry, I can't answer that question as they were no where to be seen.  They were not near their old nest nor their new one nor did they do a fly by.  The whole while I wandered the trails, it snowed lightly. It was cold, -16C windchill.  That's probably why it was quiet at the Park on this morning.  When I realized I was not going to be seeing much, I changed focus to adding more kilometres to my collection than I would usually do by walking at Carburn Park.  There were some sights that caught my eye and one of those sights was the red head on this Redhead. 

I watched this female Mallard Duck for a bit to see what that white was on the top of her head.  I saw her from different angles, the white stayed there but it did not look like it belonged to her.  I wonder if it is a white feather from something else. 

the House Sparrow all fluffed up to stay warm

I saw movement in the bushes, the colouring was cat like as was the movement but it seemed small for possibly a bobcat.   I did come eye to eye with a bobcat on a trail at the Park last year.  I slowly moved closer to where the movement was.  What the heck was a domestic cat doing hanging out in Carburn Park!  There are homes close by and this cat had a GPS tracker on.  I guess it was meandering about getting its fill of nature just like me!   

Knitting

The big bulky calf high slippers I knitted are just too warm these days.  It was time to knit a spring/summer pair of slippers. These blue ones are the same as the cable knit "seaglass slippers".  I decided upon completing these, I will pass them on.  The colour is called "River Run" and that name appeals to me though.  No I will not keep them!  

But, I will keep these!  In fact, I have already been wearing them.  I did not have enough left over of the "seaglass" shade so had to put a plan in place to incorporate other left over year.  The bottom slipper is what the pattern called for to look like but with all the same colour.  In the top slipper, you can see I added a cuff.  When that worked out, I went ahead and added a cuff to the other slipper. In a way you can say I designed my own pattern. 

Well, like the title of this post says "never a dull moment"! 

In fact, putting all these stories together has me feeling a bit worn out.  

I'm ready for many dull moments on my sofa!