Thursday, November 5, 2020

Breakfast Time

 Hi everyone.  It is Thursday already. Here in New Hampshire, after several  much colder days, we are supposed to have some  much warmer  weather. I am ready for that.

Today I have a page for Wendy's BIRDS challenge at Art Journal Journey


I was inspired by the hordes of  birds visiting my feeders lately. Sometimes I count over 30 birds out there at one time. All my usual winter birds are back: chickadees, nuthatches, titmice and the assortment of woodpeckers. I also have a small flock of juncos who have come south for the winter, as well as goldfinches and purple finches too. Plus bluejays, mourning doves, and even the occasional flock of wild turkeys.  I do enjoy watching them.
For my page today I began by spraying ink on some watercolor paper. Then I painted the tree and created  the illusion of  leaves by using some green Brushoes. To then pull my page together I use a quick splatter of white paint.
The bird feeder is hand drawn, colored and fussy cut.  Once attached I used some copper and black little plastic bead like items to create the food inside it. The birds of from a page of Victorian scrap images that I had in my stash. And the words are made with some stickers. 

I am also participating in Leah's Art Everyday Month
And also, there are some bits of black here, so I am linking up to More Mixed Media. This challenge is anything mixed media with optional black.

Yesterday was a beautiful November day, temperatures up from the near freezing/windy weather we had on Monday and Tuesday. Not warm, but warm enough with a hat and a jacket for a walk.
I met my friend Jo at the beach.  We'd taught together for over 25 years and both retired in June.




We walked for about 45 minutes and had walked the whole beach. (Mainly because the tide was on its way in and there was less beach.)
Neither of us were ready to stop walking, so we decided to drive for 10 minutes and go to the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth. It is a wonderful forested park that backs up against a salt marsh and has lots of trails that wind through it.









It was some much needed outside time. I managed to walk over 11,000 steps.  Smile!

That's all for me. 
Thanks for visiting!




23 comments:

kathyinozarks said...

Good morning, your journal page is beautiful-I really love it.
You live in such a pretty area-enjoyed all the photos very much-we are getting warmer weather too-very nice-enjoy your day Kathy

CJ Kennedy said...

Beautiful happy page. Because of the warm weather, I hope to be. Out in the sunroom cleaning and closing for the season. I’ll have a view of the birdfeeder so looking forward to see who is visiting. This morning the female cardinal was inspecting the honeysuckle vine. Maybe looking for a winter home. I wish I lived closer to the ocean for a beach walk. Enjoy the nice weather and take care

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Your journal page is amazing. I am SO impressed with your bird feeder hanging from your tree. I am SO amazed at how well you draw, as well as color. Beautiful rendition and a great page for Wendy's theme at Art Journal Journey, too.

BEautiful photos of your walks. I was most impressed with the arboretum map which broke the park into different areas. That is something I've not seen before and I so enjoyed seeing some of the park as you walked it. So glad you shared it with us.

Elkes Lebensglück said...

Your journal page with the tree and the food hanger with the birds are wonderful.
So many birds are with you, great to watch them.
The walk on the beach is so beautiful with the sea and also wonderful in the forest!
It's great to have taken so many steps, it was worth it.
Have a good day, hug Elke

Divers and Sundry said...

Your bird art reminds me of my patio bird-watching :) Sweet!

It looks like you have a wonderful place to walk. Great photos!

DVArtist said...

Wow your art is so pretty. Your photos are amazing you have a good eye for photos. Enjoy your day.

Valerie-Jael said...

Beautiful page Erika, love the colourful birds on the splattered background, wonderful! Great, sunny photos, too, lovely to see the beach and sparkly water! Have a nice day, Hugs, Valerie

craftytrog said...

Beautiful photos Erika, and I love your birdy breakfast time page!
Alison xx

WendyK said...

A fabulous page for the bird theme. Love the colourful background, and the birds really stand out. Lovely photos.
Hugs Wendy.

WendyK said...

A fabulous background which highlights the birds beautifully. Some great photos as well.
Hugs Wendy

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

You did certainly walked a lot of steps, Erika, and thanks for taking us along on the beach and arboretum outings. Yes, this unseasonal NE weather is certainly interesting. Who would have thought that last week we had snow and this week its shorts and t-shirt weather. Just after I had put on the flannel bed sheets too!

Tom said...

...two of my favorite spots to walk, the beach and the woods! Thanks for taking me along.

Words and Pictures said...

I so agree about the bird-feeding... I've always done it a bit, but got very attached during the first lockdown, and now as the cold weather starts to bite they are eating me out of house and home!! But it's a joy to stop and watch them. Your page is a wonderful celebration of that pleasure with so much life and energy.

Glorious photos of the sun sparkling on the water and wonderful autumnal trees too. Lovely post!
Alison x

Let's Art Journal said...

Such a fabulous page! Love how you captured the bird feeder and birds in your garden 😁. We have lots of birds visiting our feeder this time of year too, I love watching them! You've been on some lovely walks, I so enjoyed seeing the ocean and autumnal leaves as they bring back such happy memories of our New England visits! Thanks for the memories and sending you happy wishes! Hugs, Jo x

NatureFootstep said...

love your bird feeder and the beach.
We have an Arboretum but it is much different from this one. :)

Lowcarb team member said...

A wonderful page, I just love the birds

Many thanks for sharing your beautiful collection of photographs.

All the best Jan

Serena Lewis said...

I love bird-watching! I'm sure the birds appreciate those feeders you out for them. Beautiful art page!

A beach walk and a forest walk in one day sounds perfect to me. Lovely photos!

nwilliams6 said...

I totally love your colors and all the birds having breakfast - this is super fun and another fab page, Erika.

How fun to be able to go right over to the beach and meet a good friend. Sounds and looks fabulous.

Thanks for sharing. Hugz

Neet said...

What an array of beautiful photographs. I enjoyed my walk with you and your friend i the Urban Forestry Center. It was a lovely contrast to the beach walk you two had done. Thank you for that.
I really enjoyed the page you had made for your journal - that background was quite striking and at first I thought it was just Brusho's that you had used. Lots of delightful birds there.
I was in awe of the many birds you have in your garden, obviously I have not heard of some of them so am going to go and look them up in Google now. I love watching birds, especially the family of tits that come back to us year after year. Their antics can be quite amusing.
Hugs, Neet xx

Neet said...

fascinating seeing all those birds on Google - loved the purple finch and the ones with the little tufts at the top of their heads but I would be in raptures if i saw a bluejay - what a gorgeous blue that is.
Hugs, Neet xx

pearshapedcrafting said...

I love this page, it reminds me of how we used to feed the birds at the caravan. I gave all the feeders to my son who already had one in his garden - he tells me that sometimes there are around 25 or so which is fabulous considering that when he first moved in to his house there was never a bird to be seen in the sky around! I had hoped to be able to visit and do some gardening for him this year ...alas COVID happened!
We are struggling to find somewhere to walk without meeting others so we may justify driving farther afield to do so. Both of the places you walk look beautiful! Hope you are enjoying your weekend, Chrisxx

Jeanie said...

You have quite the haul at your feeder! And I love your artistic interpretation -- it has all the energy of those hungry birds.

What a fabulous walk you enjoyed. It will be a long time before I see open water -- I hope you savored every second. I have a feeling you did!

Anne (cornucopia) said...

Wow, beautiful place to have so close, to go walking in. Nice assortment of photos.