I Get a Day Home

Hi everyone. Another week is flying right by, don't you think? As it always happens at the end of my vacation, I have a bunch of appointments and things I need to do.  So today is my first day without something on my must go out for list all week. Hurrah! Even though I have had some fun days out recently,  for me when I go out a lot the week seems to go  faster than when I am home.  And I am in slow down time mode right now trying to enjoy what's left of my summer break.

And to make today day even better, we should have sun! Hurrah again.

Thought I would share a few views from my latest travel journal from when I went to Newfoundland back in July.

And  a few more photos too.

Here's a couple of pages that aren't the same size so they might look a little weird here. On the left is a tag I made with some assorted bits and pieces fro my stash.  The right hand page is not white on the bottom as the paper is a bit shorter than the one behind it. This right hand page is my sketch of the fjord we took the boat trip on. The boat is the the white  object just below the ticket. If you want to see those photos you can hope over to this post: Gros Morne part 1.

And I punched and added in a tourist brochure (left, below) as well as making this moose tag.  The tag is a piece of "wood"paper which is actually a really thin wood veneer.

And a moose collage page.

We saw 2 moose when we were there, but I only got photos of this one.

And here's another fjord-this time a real fjord where the mountains go right into the sea.

Beautiful views, seeing wild animals and making art about it all are certainly blessings. So I am linking up to Art Journal Journey hosted this month by one handsome cat named Bleubeard and one lovely lady named Elizabeth. They're asking us to count our blessings.
That's all for me today. Thanks for visiting.

Coloring and Doodling and

counting your blessings.

Imagination is such a blessing because with a little imagination anything is possible.

I'm linking up to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's challenge at Art Journal Journey whose challenge this month is Count Your Blessings.

The last week of my vacation begins and  yesterday I made my first foray into school and did a bit of setting up. Now that that is done with, I can enjoy the rest of my downtime. Well I should finish cleaning up my studio space, but other than that I can enjoy the last of my downtime.

Don't know how much sun I will see for the rest of my break, but keep your fingers crossed for me that there will be some.

And I hope you have cool temperatures and sun in your world. (Or rain if that's what you need.)

Thanks so much for visiting.

T Stands for a Dreary Sunday

Happy Tuesday everyone. I appreciate that  you are stopping by to read my post. I am joining in today over at T Stands for Tuesday  where we share drink related photos.

Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what the T gang has been up to.

My weather is back into  dreariness with clouds, rain and humidity. We had one nice day last Friday and then it all started to go downhill.

But downhill doesn't mean it was a total washout. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned that my mother-in-law has been having major back issues. When she gets up from laying down she is in a lot of pain. It's sad to see her go from such a perfky vibrant person to someone so bent over and hobbled.  This has my husband's good son side coming out and so Sunday he decided to go buy her  one of her favorite meals and bring it to her for lunch.

So it is off to Pop's to get her lunch.

I've shown you Pop's before and it is the best place for fresh seafood in my part of the world. The food is good, the prices are reasonable and you get more than enough to eat. And they are only open from the end of May until the first weekend in September so we like to go a few times during the short season.

Now my mother-in-law loves a good lobster roll. (She is a smart lady.) Pops gives you lots of lobster for a reasonable price.

We decided since we were there  we would get ourselves some lunch too.

A clam roll for me (can you even see the bread?), chicken fingers for my husband, and a small side of onion rings for us to share. Our drinks were diet Cokes. And my daughter who was with us  had a cheeseburger (which is not shown here.)

It is soooo much food for sure, but for fried food, definitely not greasy. I guess every now and again you have to splurge and eat about a million calories.

And this is my mother-in-laws GIANT lobster roll.

She was more than happy with her lunch and with my husband.

We stayed and visited for the afternoon and even though it was a little raw for me  to swim (my MIL lives on a small pond), the dogs certainly had some fun going into the water retrieving  sticks.

 Pete just walks down the steps and then goes for a swim.

But Maddie, she loves to jump in.

Over and over.

And splash.

And they didn't even have all the calories from that huge lunch to wear off. 

So my rainy Sunday was actually a fun day, dreary weather or not.
Have a wonderful T day everyone.

Gros Morne Part 2

Hi everyone. It's been another dark and wet day here. Although Friday was gorgeous it's been a washout of a weekend in my world. Looks like most of the week is going to be humid and wet too. Looks like New Hampshire is turning into a tropical rainforest. (Grin)

So first let me show you a page from my Newfoundland travel journal that I have been working on.

It's a mixed media painting of the carnivorous pitcher plant that is also the provincial flower of Newfoundland.

 They were flowering when we were there as you can see these droopy looking flowers.

The leaves are these short tube shaped structures. They fill with sweet fluid/nectar and which attracts insects, and when the insects go in to feed on the nectar they get stuck. Then the plant releases digestive enzymes that changes the insects into food for the plant.

These plants grow really well in stark rocky environments because they don't need to rely on rich soil to grow since these insects give them their nutrients.

We saw a lot of these in a part of Gros Morne National Park called the Tablelands.

We went on a ranger lead hike up into the Tablelands. You can see how the mountain the background has a lot of green trees, but where we are walking is rather rusty brown.

 The reason this area is rusty brown is because there is  high amount of iron and other metals in this rock. And this is very special rock. It comes from a deeper layer of the earth called the mantle.This rock is not like rocks we find on the surface of the Earth. In fact the Tablelands is the largest area of mantle rock you can find on dry land on the entire planet Earth.

This is picture (the one above) is also deceiving. Although the mountain behind the ranger doesn't look that tall it is 2300 feet high. I know that isn't really tall compared to many mountains, but the Appalachian Mountains that run from the southeast US all the way up the North American East Coast into Newfoundland, Canada are one of the planets oldest ranges and have been exposed to lots of glaciation which wore them down. This is the same mountain range that runs through New Hampshire where I live.

And yes there were still little patches of snow.

It was very different from the rest of the park.

Hope you enjoyed your visit today.

And happy new week!

Gros Morne Part 1

It was a rainy Saturday here but my daughter's home for the weekend so even though it was a good art day, I spent time with her instead. Since I have a lot of photos from my trip to Newfoundland a month ago (wow-it's been a month), I thought I would share a few.

Today's photos are from a freshwater fjord (not really a fjord since real fjords are where mountains meet salt water but for lack of knowing a better name I will still call it that) called Western Brook Pond. It is in Gros Morne National Park, a gorgeous park  the very end of the Appalachian mountain chain.

It was a 3 kilometer walk in along a road (shown in the upper photo) through the peat bogs to get to where the boat tour docked. You can just see the mountains peeking out along the horizon. There is no transport for passengers in or out to the docks for the boat trip, but they must use this road to bring supplies like gas in for the boat.

This next photo is the view of Western Brook Pond near the end of the road. The house roof you see is where you confirm your ticket , use the toilets, or buy a snack.

This is the view of Western Brook Pond near the end of the road. The house roof you see is where you confirm your ticket , use the toilets, or buy a snack.

And this is the boat we took our tour of the fjord on. I took this photo when the boat came in from the tour before ours.

The views of and in the fjord were amazing.

Sometimes you had to look up to get the best views.

It was a wonderful 2 hour boat trip, worth the 3 kilometer walk in and then the 3 km walk out. (Not that 3 km is all that far.)

More photos from Gros Morne National Park another day.

Hope you enjoyed my photos today and enjoy the rest of your weekend.