The Find...

So I've had these lovely, antique wood spindles around for ages.

Technically called 'quills', they were used in the woolen mill/textile 

industry in big factories to organize threads on looms.

I've had a few inspirations on what to do with them

and then yesterday one of those ideas finally came to fruition...

Introducing... "The Find"

 These happy crows are making a big noise of today's find...

 I had these scissors in my button stash that I think were intended for scrap booking.

I believe they came from a little pack of buttons and such from the thrift shop.
I've aged them a bit to look like they've been around the cutting floor for eons...

So if any of you know anything about the Corvid family of birds,

you'll know that they love shiny things...hence the excitement!
Crows and Ravens are some of the most enduring birds.
Don't be fooled by their bad reputation.
Intelligent, loving, resourceful, dedicated family members and comical.
I'm not sure why they've been the subject of doom and gloom and bad omens
but in my books they are a joy to watch.
Definitely the bird of October aren't they?!

 I notched of the bottom edge of the spindle so it wouldn't roll around anymore.
The beaks are made from some outer teeth casings from a jaw I found on the beach...

...I painted them black and meticulously pieced them together before adhering 

them into the heads of the crows...

They worked into perfect crow beaks...

In photography, I find the two hardest colours to capture are red and black.
In practicing with different shutter speeds, apertures, etc, and some fine tuning
in the editing department I was able to get some fairly decent shots though.
So off they will fly...to a house on the river road...
...to a maker of lovely textiles and a lover of crows.

Morning walk...

This morning I decided to take my camera with me on my walk with Griff.

I haven't been taking many photos lately, but it was a beautiful, cool morning

and the tide was out; perfect for a walk on the beach...

This is Muir creek...named after the naturalist John Muir who lived not far from here

in the early days of pioneers...

The pacific ocean flows in and out of the creek twice a day and at low

tide you can walk along the beach for a few miles.

There was the usual sights and sounds along the shore...seagulls...

Seals basking in the morning sun...

Acres and acres of seaweed...

This beach is sometimes called the fossil beach because of the ancient layers of

seashells embedded in the cliffs and boulders...

Aren't they beautiful with their swirls and curls?

Wild asters lined the shore as well...

Hanging gardens adorning the cliff face...

Well worn stumps of driftwood as well...

As I walked along I was remembering the last time I was here.

It was last August with my sister and her girls.

We spent a gorgeous summer afternoon here, with food and ciders and the dogs...

playing on the giant logs and boulders.

And then the most interesting thing happened...

...right at the exact spot where we had spent the day picnicking

a flock of crows showed up...

If you don't know, my sister had a thing about crows...

She fed them everyday and had a collection in her house of everything 'crows'...

 They weren't anywhere else on this massive stretch of coast.

Ravens are the usual corvids around here, not crows.

Ravens are much bigger and tend to dominate the crow population, so when this

group of about 10 or 15 showed up, I thought it quite magical...

 I'm struggling along these days and trying to pick my way along this rough road before us...

Up and down, good and bad days but time is a healer 

and my morning walks are all part of it.

Meditating on the days gone by and looking to the ones ahead

but mostly being here in these moments of the present.

Holding on to these moments of gratitude for having  her in my life...all be it too brief.

'Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.'

 

John Muir