Fall on the Trail

Fall has always been my favorite time of year, it is beautiful and the scruffy trail through the woods is transformed! I love the colors of fall, the bright clear air and the rush of critters scrambling to store up food for the winter or preparing for a long flight south.

 This season is also a little sad, because Winter is around the corner and soon everything will be frozen, the critters will be hiding and most plants will be in their dormant stage. Winters here are harsh and raw most of the time and white and fluffy only sometimes.  I hope to get a fluffy one though then you can still see something when you go out for a walk. So here are some of my favorite views of fall and some of my quilts with that theme enjoy!

Different kind of wildlife

Wildlife on the Trail

The wildlife along the trail isn't all that wild, there are ducks and geese and even spring warblers, but there are also these two pigeons. There are people who feed the wildlife and so they are not so wild.

Most people don't feed them white bread anymore, everyone has gotten the message that is bad for any life. However feeding encourages scavengers to compete for light and nesting space.

Salt Creek Trail combines urban scenes and stressed natural areas, and a challenge to people who care about the environment.

A different Kind of spring

A Different Kind of Spring

Spring is different along the trail. It is not like spring in my garden, there are no pinks or purples, no bursting blooms. There are no feathery limbs or blankets of lawn. It is greener much greener the creek is green, the trees shrubs and fields are green, green is everywhere.

Oh there are flowers.

There are flowers, but you have to hunt for them, underneath the leaves and the shrubs. They are not pink or purple nor are they red. They are white or yellow, they are subtle understated and protected not showy, or loud. 

It's a rest for the eyes.

Spring on Salt Creek Trail

Spring has burst onto Salt Creek Trail this year, it seems one day it was cold, bare and frozen, and the very next day a warm breeze blew the spring into the trees in a kalidascope of varigated greens. I am so distracted, as each breeze tugs at me, each new sound, each scent pulls me this way and that, begging for my attention "pick me! pick me!" I don't know which way to turn!

Stitching Practice

Practice Makes Perfect 

 

I have been practicing stitched tree trunks for my Salt creek in the Snow piece. The practice piece has distant and closer trees with the creek in the background and dried grasses in the foreground. I can tell already that the final piece will need a more closely woven, more tightly hooped fabric, to hold the tight zigzag stitch I used on the distant trees.

The different types of trees were created by using darker and lighter threads in the bobbin and top of the machiene and distance was created by varying the width and placement of the trees realitive to one another. 

Here is a closer look at the thread variations on my practice piece you can also see the pulling.

I will need a stablizer on my final finished piece.

For closer tree trunks I will use a strait stitch in varying tones from light to dark to suggest roundness and closer detail. I will also paint in a light blue shadow on the ground to suggest the way the light is shining.

You can see the shadows painted in on this practice piece. Some of my silk painting bled on this piece so I am using it for practice. I did not yet stabilize and I can see pulling in the zigzag stitched trees.

The birds are back on Salt Creek Trail

                                                           Spring arrives on Salt Creek Trail 

      Well at least the birds have arrived! Canadian Geese trolling the banks of Salt Creek for secluded nesting sites, Mallards, and Wood Ducks scooping out nests in the remaining fall leaves and Robins well, the Robins have a secret. They say the early bird gets the worm but the really early Robin gets the best nesting site, the best mate, and a early start on reproduction with possibly two clutches of eggs and hatchlings. The Robins around here have secretly been wintering in the woods along Salt Creek Trail and had a head start on nesting spots in the neighborhoods this year. I've been seeing them in the woods all winter. They were in the yards as early as end of February. I don't have any close up pics of robins.

Ice and Deer on the Salt Creek Trail

 

 The Frozen Trail 

It is cold, the kind that bites you when it greets you coming out the front door.

The creek is nearly frozen, with cracks and bumps and snow dusted over but, in places you can still see the dark water rushing benieth. 

 

I watched a herd of deer crossing it gingerly the morning I took this picture, slowly following one another, then lunging quickly up the bank on the other side. Then they picked their way slowly almost delicately through the forest on the other side.

 They stopped on the trail each one and stared at me I stood very still and one by one they crossed the trail and continued their journey.