low low tide...

did anyone catch the 'supermoon' last night? i only caught it through glimpses in the clouds on my drive home, and my attempts to photograph it were a bit dismal. nonetheless, it was beautiful and big.

the low low tides brought by the full moon were a bonus at our picnic yesterday, allowing a glimpse at some creatures that don't say hello too often. at first we just noted the swathes of oysters, and the healthy population of sea stars. but there were also egg collars from the lewis' moonsnail everywhere we turned, those funny coils of sand and mucous (and eggs!) extruded out by the snail. the amount of collars suggested a healthy population of moonsnails, although without boots i was reluctant to venture into the water itself. i found one moonsnail upside down in the tidal muck, not quite fully tucked into its shell. it may have been too late already, but i placed it back in the water in hopes it wasn't. i also found a tiny purple urchin which got popped back in the sea as well. today the tide is supposed to be even lower and the sun is shining again, and i will be heading to another beach to explore. it's all 'research', right?

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thanks for all the feedback about the giveaway draw. while i was thinking it over, the winner did contact me, so i'll be sending the piece her way. don't worry, i will try to have another giveaway soon!

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while visiting my mom, i had the chance to meet one of the lovely ladies behind cooks cooperative and ripple rock farm. they are hard at work on what looks to be a fabulous garden, but Heidi was nice enough to take a few moments to chat with us and show us around. if you're looking for some tasty recipes, i recommend you check out their blog.

wishing you a happy sunday!

end of week

and it's been...a week. i could go into a long list of complaints, but suddenly on friday it doesn't seem worth the effort. and really, i don't think you need (or want) to hear my whining either.

so let's all look with anticipation for the weekend ahead. i have been having some quiet nights this week as A is out of town for a couple weeks on a course. but this weekend i'll be welcoming some noise in the form of my nephews who are visiting. not staying with me - that might be a bit much! - but at my folks. so there will be visiting, some time in the farmyard, and hopefully some beach time with bonus picnic. my other sister and her family are getting their new puppy today, so i might get a chance to visit there too and see the little beast. kids and animals and food, oh my! it could be a lively one.

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something else on my mind this week that i thought i'd open up to feedback here. currently, last week's giveaway remains unclaimed, despite posting the winner and a secondary attempt to let her know. i'm kind of torn on this issue. on the one hand, that person is the winner, as picked by the random number generator, and i'd be happy to send them their prize. on the other, since it has been nearly a week without hearing from her (with where to send the prize, etc), i'm tempted to draw another person from the comments to the giveaway post.  i'm not sure what is considered fair in these situations, and what proper protocol is for contacting winners. i kind of feel that if you have entered a giveaway or other contest on a blog, it is your responsibility to check back and see if you have won, not mine to track you down when i am already giving you something for free. i would feel the same if i entered a giveaway on someone else's blog. what do you think?

wordless wednesday...

dandelion bread

oh, the lawn these days. i've only mown it once yet, but now that the days are warming up considerably it's full steam ahead. i was evaluating it yesterday, knowing i'd have to haul out that abominable mower shortly. but there was something i wanted to do before all those pretty yellow blooms got chopped up with the grass. yes, i'm talking about those fluffy yellow 'weeds', that so many folks spend hours eradicating from their perfectly manicured lawns (neighbours, i'm looking at you). at our house we are a much more relaxed bunch, and the dandelions flourish mostly freely between mowings. but really i should get to the point of this post - did you know dandelions can do more than wave their sunny faces at you?

you can eat their young, tender greens in salad. you can make wine, cordial and other convections with their flowers. but did you also know you can make dandelion bread? i have been following this recipe from fat of the land for several years, trying to make the bread at least once each spring. the result is a wonderfully sweet (but not overly so) quick bread that i have a hard time not gobbling down in one sitting, slathered in butter.

i mixed up the recipe a bit this go around - using half whole wheat flour, plus some generous sprinkles of both hemp seeds and a ground flax/chia mix i throw in everything around here. i also used coconut oil instead of canola, and unsweetened almond milk as that is what i had on hand. it seemed to work out well, although did not rise as much as the original. taste was definitely not compromised though!

so if you've got some fluffy, sunny 'lions brightening up your space, i encourage you to pick some of the petals before breaking out the weed whacker. a bread full of sunshine is just the thing to enjoy on these longer spring evenings.

roly poly...

i have been reading about sea otters a bit lately, but mostly it has not been a happy story. i am reading the last great sea, which is a fascinating book, but talks a fair bit about the colonization of the coast and the ruthless hunt for sea otters for their thick fur coats. these poor little creatures were hunted nearly to extinction, in the times when similar efforts were made on many whale species along the northwest coast and elsewhere around the world. thankfully though, there does seem to be a happier future unfolding. sea otters are making a resurgence, in a few pockets along the coast between Alaska and California. i think these days sea otters are more known for their playful demeanor, rolling in and out of kelp beds and tumbling with their friends, than for the warm fur coat that could be made into a coat for humans.

this little fellow isn't made from fur, rather stitched up in some linens and a soft poly blend. he's a quiet sort, settling in for a float on his back and starfish snack. but he'll watch you with those gentle eyes, and perhaps offer a bit of his meal. sea otters are good friends. he can be found here.


soon enough i think i might need to make him a river otter companion. it's funny how similar and yet different those two animals are. river otters are so numerous along the coast, on the outside waters venturing far from shore, or on the inner coast swimming island to island, but also comfortable on shore, docks and anywhere there is some good exploring to be done. sea otters would prefer to stay in the water nearly all the time, their flipper-like back feet making them awkward on land. yet they usually stay close to shore and in shallow water, tucked into the kelp beds where there is lots of food to be found. two little creatures who have found their own niches on the wild west coast.


wishing you an good start to your week, and May, soon enough. wow, are we that far along already?

how to age gracefully...

there is a master class in aging going on in the woods right now. those western trilliums, brilliant white when they first burst open from lush green leaves on the forest floor, are now slowly changing to shades of pink as the days pass by. at first it is a very gentle blush, then a slow ombre effect moving across the petals. each day brings another soft layer of colour until finally the petals have completely changed to a rich, deep magenta. those trilliums, they know how to age in style. yesterday on my walk i had to resist photographing each trillium i came to, each one at a slightly different stage in its journey, a slightly different interpretation of the colour shift. all of them beautiful.

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without further ado, the winner of the mexican sunset giveaway is Abby! please send me an email with your mailing address so i can pop it in the mail for you. thanks to all that entered - i will try to have another giveaway soon.

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there are dark clouds looming overhead this morning, and although thunderstorms are a rarity around here, the booming sound of the snowbirds passing overhead now and then helps give the day that mood. on my foray out to the farmers market, i was surprised at how cold it is, at nearly the end of april. for now i think i will stay inside for a bit, stitching on a new creature and maybe watching a movie. hope you're weekend is going well so far!

thursday...

thanks for your encouraging thoughts yesterday. today was a bit better, and the sun shone. perhaps i should be working on some things for the shop right now, but instead i'm knitting away at something for me. mindless is good right now.

if you haven't already, pop over to enter the giveway. i'll close up comments sometime tomorrow morning and pick a winner soon.

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other things:
• this superfood toast is one of my favourite new breakfasts
• this quilt makes me swoon, as well as reminding me of the completely forgotten quilt i was working on last year. should get on that again...
• loving this emerson fry tunic - if it was in my budget, that would be my summer uniform.

detour / mexican sunset

it's funny how things get started, where ideas come from. Margie posted this photo taken on her mexican holiday a few weeks back. i thought it was beautiful, but didn't think that much more about it. but then Sonia chimed in, suggesting she could picture such a scene stitched up by me. hmmm...that got me to thinking. after i finished my little crab friend, i was in the mood for a change of pace, a detour of some sort. that photo was so different from my own main source of inspiration, and yet in common by celebrating the beauty of the world around us. and so this little piece came together, a mexican sunset.

it is fairly small, about 7"x5", and besides the base canvas stitched entirely in naturally dyed fabrics. the rich colours seemed to suit the mood. i picked fabrics based on colour, not material, so there is a mix of cottons, linens and silks. some are dyed by me, and some are from the little stash from Margie.

a very simple scene, but effective, i hope. a quick meditation on a high desert landscape so different from my own wet coast, where the rain is falling heavily outside my door today and the world is mossy and green with new growth. and since this idea was 'given' to me, in a way, i think it's only fitting to give it again. please leave a comment here before friday morning, if you like, and i will pick a winner to send this off to.

ETA: Thanks for all the kind words! Comments are now closed and a winner will be announced Saturday.

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i'm stuck in a funk today, a bitchy, grouchy mood, so i'm keeping this short. trying to repeat the mantra learned so long ago from miss Erykah....let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go...

sunday in pink...

some recent shots of salmonberry blooms in the forest. i love these pink stars glowing on the bushes right now, brightening up the forest at eye level while the other woodland flowers peek out from below. such vibrant flowers to cheer the heart right now, and with the promise of yummy tart-sweet berries later in the summer.

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happy earth day to you all! hope you were able to get out and enjoy a bit of nature today. we headed up to the mountain for the last day of lift operations this year. it wasn't the best day to be had, at bit slushy and low visibility, but it was fun to be out with friends and enjoying the alpine. we just stayed for a few hours and then headed back home. our initial plans for a beach walk were scrapped by our rumbling tummies and we sat out on a patio for good food instead. but i just returned home from a forest walk along the river with my friend and her dog. everything is greening up nicely under the trees, flushing out in fresh leaves. the river rushed beside us, over-full of icy water heading to the sea, and the birds were singing heartily in their excitement for spring.

now settling in for a quiet evening at home with my man, getting mentally prepared for the week ahead. thinking about slicing into fresh bread that just came out of the oven and is wafting its intoxicating aroma through the house, but thinking perhaps i should eat something more resembling a real dinner. hmmmm.

feelin' crabby*

* not really

today has started off pretty well, just back home after running errands around town. a visit to the farmers market to pick up a few treats (kale, other greens, fresh beet pasta, eggs, and some red begonias). a pop over to my favourite nettle spot to do one last pick for the season. i filled a good bag with tender tops, but the plants are getting big and woody and i will leave them be now. the fibrous stems can also be irritating to the kidneys and urethra as the plants get older. on my way home i sent a little fog and swell package off in the post.

but in between there me and my crabby friend went to the beach! it was a beautiful morning on the shore, the tide ebbing and only a few other wanderers to be seen. this little crab was eager to explore the wide stretches of sand, but he also kept a careful eye on the gulls, should they decide he'd make a good early lunch.

if you missed it, this is my first piece for my collaboration with Abby. a red rock crab, stitched together in madder dyed linens. i also used a little bit of wool for those black-tipped claws, a distinctive feature of this particular species. and you might be wondering if this crab is a boy or a girl (or did you already figure it out from the photo above?) - because i'm just that dorky, i decided this crab had to be a boy. in the world of crab fishing, only the males are keepers, the ones you take home. the females get thrown back, to make more little crabbies. when i was a kid, we were taught (mainly with the little purple shore crabs, but occasionally with big ones brought home for dinner) that if a crab had a lighthouse shape on it's belly, it was a boy; if it had a beehive shape instead, it was a female. i know there are other associations for the shapes, but lighthouse and beehive was what i was taught. so this crab has a lighthouse shape rising up on the underside of his carapace. this little crab will hang out with me for a bit, but soon enough he will be sent off on a cross-continent journey to Abby to pair with whatever ocean creature she dreams up.

now i think i'll go sit outside again and enjoy the sunshine, perhaps with some crafting in hand. this evening i am headed up to the alpine for an evening event, and hopefully i'll catch a few mountain sunset shots with my camera. wishing you all a wonderful Saturday.

friday and the sun is shinin'

1. Felt Moonsnail, 2. 1.5.12 3:58, 3. ..., 4. Feathers and toes, 5. this perspective, 6. tundra rain, 7. Left alone..., 8. Spring Nature Table, 9. Little Red Riding Wolf & Tater Tot, 10. natural dyed inspiration, 11. sunset in the city., 12. hellebore, 13. sunrise and sunny breakfasts, 14. Kelsey Bay, 15. Byron Bartlett Gets Barrelled, Seeking Exit, 16. European Ground Beetle

hoping to entertain you with the work of other photographers, who often do it much better than i could anyway. this weekend i will get back on track with some of my own shots - the camera has been feeling neglected recently!

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sorry if it's been quiet this week. adjusting to all the things in my new job, plus up to my eyeballs in projects at my old job (of course with the perfect timing) has left me feeling tired and unproductive in the evenings. i know i'll settle in soon, and i'm trying not to complain that much. there are certainly worse things than being gainfully employed, right? a few have inquired what it is that i do - i have been a graphic designer for a number of years, but am now also taking on a marketing/admin role with a local tourism organization.

thanks for all the kind words about the collaboration with Abby - so encouraging to hear others are excited about it too. my crab is coming along well, if a bit slow, but i might even have it done by tomorrow and then i will share in full before it gets sent across the continent. then i've got to decide on a forest creature for the other half of our collaboration! somewhere in there should be some regular stitching too - there are several beasts percolating in the back of my mind right now. hmmm, and some clothing plans too - how much can i get done this weekend? yeah, let's not get too excited - i am also (net)working tomorrow evening at a local event, and hoping to hit the slopes for one last day of riding on sunday with some friends before the ski hill shuts down winter operations for the year.

but a crab; a crab i can definitely finish. especially if there is a bit of sunlight still to be found when i get home, and a quiet spot outside to breathe deep and stitch. wishing you all much relaxation of your own this weekend.

wordless wednesday

Untitled, originally uploaded by fog and swell.

a collaboration...

a little while back, another maker emailed me about doing a collaboration together. have you heard of Abby Glassenberg? of course you have - she makes fantastic little creatures, teaches sewing workshops, and even has an awesome book about making fabric birds. i've been a fan of Abby's for a while, so i was psyched when she asked me to work on a project with her. and now it's time to tell you guys about it.

we have picked two fairly broad themes, ocean and forest, and we are each going to make a creature for each of the themes. Abby is starting with a forest creature, and i with one from the sea. the fun part is that once we are done these pieces, we will send them on their way across the continent (Abby lives in Massachusetts, nearly on the opposite coast from my BC home). then the other person will make a complimentary creature to pair with the piece they received in the mail, using some of the same fabrics too. so we will end up with two collector's sets, one ocean and one forest-inspired, with a piece from each maker in each. two pieces showing each maker's style and aesthetic, but with the same fabrics and in a common theme. times two! these sets will then be put in our shops, should any of you folks be interested. i hope you'll follow along here and over on Abby's blog as we work on our projects.

i wasn't sure what i would make originally, knowing i wanted it to be a new creature that I had not made before. in the end it was the dye pot that led to my inspiration. i dyed up some linen and cotton with madder, as well as overdyeing some red linen with purple cabbage to create a mottled look. then it came to me - a crab! specifically i am working on a red rock crab, one of the more common large crabs around here that i also see regularly on low tide walks (you can see one here). they are ornery fellows, known for the sharp pinch of their black-tipped claws if you get on the wrong end of them. but i like their vibrant red colour more commonly seen on other crabs only after they have been cooked for dinner. i'm trying to take more photos of my construction process, so check back in to see how he develops. above you can see the fabric that i'm working with, some of my research to get a look at these crabs from various angles, and a start on the main body.

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by the time you are reading this, i'll be well into the first day of my new job. here's hoping it goes well, and also that i won't be too tired at the end of the day to get back to stitching on this new creature!

a beauty-full heart...

at the front of our house are two large butterfly bushes, or at least that is the colloquial name i know them by. apparently bees don't care about names like that though, as this week those bushes seem to be humming steadily every time i pass them. i was just outside trying to catch some of the big fuzzy bees with my camera, but my arrival seemed to signal an opportunity for little bee planets to orbit around my head, rather than sit still for a moment so i could snap a photo. so let's look at forest flowers instead, shall we?

while in most cases the leaves of the plants and trees are just vibrant chartreuse sprouts at the end of branches right now, the flowers are really in their prime. the swamp lanterns (or skunk cabbage) are like a yellow carpet in the boggy areas, odd-shaped yellow blooms and lush foliage brightening up the forest (and filling it with their heady aroma). the trilliums have taken over too, little white three-pointed butterflies alighting on every green surface. i am looking forward to when they start to turn pink as they age - there are a few in my yard as well that i can keep an eye on. the bleeding hearts are still taking their time, but there were a few pink flowers here and there. but on this particular walk i was looking for a particular bloom, and then i walked around the bend in the trail and saw this:

oh, fawn lilies! i feel so melodramatic to see that i gasped out loud and my heart swelled a little at the first swath of pink stars nestled in the moss. but i was so excited to see them - i have been waiting eagerly, and their beauty never fails to capture me. the next few twists in the trail revealed hundreds more, of both the pink and white varieties (including many that were white with lovely pink stripes. the tricky part about photographing fawn lilies is that they face down to the ground, and are only a few inches tall. it's hard to get down on your belly to snap a shot without crushing dozens more. i did my best by venturing into the patch by navigating a fallen log, and using the blind shooting technique (where i hold my camera low and don't look through the viewfinder). of course then a crew of dogs on a walk came crashing through the scene to say hello, blissfully ignorant of the carnage they left in their wake. ah, well.

i could have spent hours in that patch of blooms, but real life called me back. and a new beast is taking shape today - more info tomorrow!

spring migration...

each spring, the grey whales begin their long migration from their birthing grounds (seas?) in Baja, and head north to the nutrient-rich waters of Alaska for the summer, passing by my island as they go. mama whales travel with their not-so-little little whales in tow. i have been lucky enough to see the whales travelling north a few times (and some stay well into the summer), although i have not seen any yet this year. but when you can't see the real thing, might as well make your own! except i just get to enjoy these two for a little while. this grey whale mama and baby set were a custom order for someone who recently visited Baja and saw the whales up close. a magical experience, i bet.

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i'm not sure if i mentioned before (i know i have been exclaiming over on fb), but i recently caught the three part series ocean giants on pbs. serendipitous, really, as i wasn't keeping track of when the episodes were on but somehow managed to turn on the tv right around when each episode was showing (over several weeks). so cool to see all the different whales and dolphins, and what amazing creatures they truly are. i highly recommend checking the series out - you can watch all three episodes online. in fact, i might watch a bit of them myself, as i settle into some work this afternoon.

back again tomorrow with some more spring flower photos taken in the forest this morning. it is a gorgeous day and the light in the woods was beautiful. and on monday i'll be sharing a little collaboration i'm starting that i hope you'll be as excited about as i am!

thursday...

i'm feeling of few words this week; i have few photos to share. just wanted to check in and say hi nonetheless. share a couple of beach 'butterflies'. hope you are all well.

this evening i felt like making food though. if you're interested, i made these quinoa corn muffins to have with dinner. they were very tasty. i have very thinly sliced sweet potatoes and parsnip in the dehydrator, after a quick blanch and a toss in some chili and cumin, hoping they will turn into some tasty chips. and i just put a batch of raw hemp protein bars in the fridge to harden. they look like they could be very good.

while i'm not much of a recipe follower, prefering a freestyle approach to much of my cooking and baking, i do tend to get comfortable making the same things over and over. my pinterest food board has been a great way to keep new recipes on my mind and get me playing around with interesting ingredients. if you have made anything tasty recently, i'd love if you would share in the comments!