October's Here!

The rain poured down today...how fitting for the first of October. We deserve it anyway, it's been far too unseasonably sunny here and my rubber boots were feeling left out (of course I can say that because the forecast is for MORE sun all weekend!). Which is nice for T since he's off to Scout camp. It's 'saw and axe' camp this time. A mother's worst nightmare.

I'll try to keep my mind off of what could happen at saw & axe camp by participating in my guild bi-annual Fall Seminar. It kicked off last night with presentations by two of our amazing teachers who are in town for 4 days of workshops. Pamela brought her vivacious quilts adorned with everything from gold-leaf'd rubber bugs to mini clothes pegs. She's a revelation (or, she might say, a revolution). The gal's got moxy! Then Sue did a slide show, sharing her construction & dye-painting process for her enormous abstract pieces that were truly remarkable. Check out her nest series!

I leave you with this beautiful Arbutus bark (my kind of an autumn image). These trees are very special to us here on the west coast. They only live in the harshest shoreline environments and seem to grow right out of the rocks, clinging to the edge of sea-cliffs all along our Gulf Islands. I love to photograph these trees whenever we're on the islands.

I'm going to try and use this picture (above) in my 'stitched images' workshop on Sunday.

I'll show you how it turns out next week! Happy October!