Out and about in Montreal

On Monday I went out with a group to practice our photography with Maria Korab-Laskowska who kindly helps us out.  Some of the older areas of Montreal have three story houses with exterior stairs.  Trying to get pictures without cars in the wrong spot was virtually impossible.  Below are some of the shots I took. 

lots of back alleys too!

Text'art at the Cottage - 2015

Once again the six of us had a great time relaxing and working at the cottage.  The weather was great, and so was the food and conversation. 

 A little late afternoon sun shining through the woods.  Marred a little by the chewed up hosta just below the white birch.  Now that we don't have a dog, our property has become fair game, and the menu is a cut above their normal fare!  Lily buds, hostas, turtle heads.....(the flower I mean)

 Colleen and Helena both had sewing projects and both completed them!!

 As usual, we worked outside.  Heather worked on her watercolours following a course that she took with Shari Blaukopf and you can see her work on her blog:  http://heatherdubreuil.blogspot.ca

 Lauma played with different types of discharge on linen.

 And Michele sketched.

Below are some of my endeavours.  The last lesson of the online course that I had signed up with Elizabeth Barton was to produce lines using screen printing and a few different variations. 

 This long piece was created by using torn strips of paper which are lain on the fabric, screened , then as they are now stuck to the screen it can be repeated.  The lines on white are done similarly but the paper is the size of the screen with thin cut-outs. 

 Although this may not look like much I'm delighted with the process.  Wiggly lines were applied to the screen, dried overnight, then the screen was placed on the fabric and alginate was drawn across.  I like the little parallel lines that were created.

I had hoped with this piece to produce the Marsala colour that will be needed for our next 12 by the dozen challenge.  However it is going to need a little more work to get the deep colour.

We started our mornings with a little yoga.  

What a great group - I'm so lucky to be a part of it.

This 'n That

Here are a few pictures from the cottage taken at the end of June when we had some lovely weather - i.e.  no rain! 

Orange Hawkweed

My lovely peony

Oh dear.  The deer.  This was a rather successful hosta until it became a midnight snack.  Funny how they don't like the striped ones.  And below, for dessert they polished off the lily buds.  You can see one, but if you look closely you will see lots of stalks without buds!!

My birthday dinner chez Rebecca.  Delicious!

Art in the park.  Park René Levesque

A great day biking along the Lachine canal.

Photography group

I'm a member of the  Montreal Lakeshore University Women's Club's photography group which is run by Maria Korab-Lakowska.  We just spent a weekend at the cottage on Lake Memphremagog honing our picture taking skills.  And rowing skills.  We had a great time, great food that everyone brought, and lots of good conversation. 

 It was raining gently as we drove down so here is a misty St Benoit du Lac. 

 A couple of turtles sunning themselves in a pond along the Tomifobia trail.

 the trail

 Learning the finer points of the manual. 

 Boat houses at the end of Fitch Bay

 Maria

 Lupin!

 A study in pattern

 

Up close with an araesima or Jack in the Pulpit

 The group!

Enjoying a row.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures as much as I did taking them.  Comments are most welcome.

Windmills

We saw all sorts of windmills from little ones to modern ones.  They were developed in the 1600s and were used to grind grain, saw logs into planks, move water uphill using an Archimedes screw, and to grind stones for making paint colours.

Below you can see the vertical saw blades attached to the grey unit.  

 People lived inside the windmill- and what a noise they had to live with as the blades rotated  in the wind!