February! Hand feeding Wild Birds & A Poor Left out Squirrel

Wow, it's February already!

Time really flies when you're not doing much outside of working and living a simple homelife.

Not that there's anything wrong with it. I still have a strong desire to go traveling somewhere. Lyndon and I have been watching a lot of documentaries and shows featuring places around the world. Like the Scottish comedian Susan Calman and her series where she travels around Scotland (Secret Scotland). She really cheers me up, and cracks me up with her endless enthusiasm. I started following her on Instagram and Twitter for that reason.

I've also been going for walks regularly as I can. Some news in my life - I've finally managed to hand-feed wild birds. Something that I've always wanted to do, but either never got around to it, or just don't have the patience to do. As a child I remember feeding seagulls in the front yard by chucking out pieces of torn up bread. Sometimes I wouldn't have the patience to wait, and left the bread pieces on the lawn unattended, only to be told later that the seagulls showed up and ate them all. Sheesh.

But it always seemed like something that I could do, but just had to plan for. Bring the seed, make sure you're ready, and have the time to wait for birds to show up. A few pointers for those who haven't done it, it took a few tries before the birds either got used to me or realized that I wasn't a danger to them. I also avoided looking right at them, but more of peripherally watched them at first just so they wouldn't freak out at having this bug-eyed human with those giant things on her face that make its eyes even bigger and scarier. Having the seed in hand and ready to go really helped too.

Anyway, I made a few videos of my experience.

That was my first attempt. The next couple of times things got easier, and the chickadees seem to recognize me now. Maybe it helps I'm wearing the same clothes? I'm not sure. Same walking poles for sure, so they can hear my poles squeaking in the snow.

I made this video as well, as a humorous observation of the squirrel, which was not really my target animal to feed, but obviously wanted some food, too. I found it interesting the chickadees really wanted him to go away, because as soon as he started to eat, they started to alarm call. I'm not sure if they were alarm calling for it, or the two people who were walking by the lookout point, or alarm calling for me. Either way, the squirrel eventually left, and the birds managed to finish eating.

The other hilarious thing was that I ended up feeling bad for the squirrel being kind of left out, and then ousted on top of that by the chickadees. When I walked back to head home, I stopped by the feeding station again, and this time left two almonds that I carry around in case I get hungry on my walks. I figured the chickadees are too small, they wouldn't try to eat the almonds and the squirrel can have a decent snack. As I started to walk away, I glanced back and saw one chickadee land and pluck up one almond and fly off, and a second later a second chickadee landed and picked up the other. Ah well, it's just fate then.

Can't wait to see what happens on my future adventures feeding the birds.

2021...some reminiscing to start it off about Safaris in Tanzania

I imagine most people are hopeful that 2021 will be a better year. I am too. Supposedly the vaccines are on their way, and people in high risk places are getting vaccinated. That's a good thing. I am looking forward to when my turn finally comes around.

Like most people, I haven't been traveling since all the travel restrictions and lock-downs have occurred. I am grateful that the majority of my life hasn't really been affected. We don't really go out that much, but I miss going out for a nice meal once in a while. And I can still get out and go for walks, which is a nice bonus. I also miss being able to travel. We talk about where we're going to go first when we can travel again. After visiting family back in Manitoba, of course. And it'll be a while before I feel comfortable flying on a plane.

Hard to believe it's been almost a year since I was in Tanzania with my sister. We went there to participate in a medical mission in a rural area. It was great. I made sure we got there with a few days extra to go on a safari of some of the popular parks. I also really wanted to visit Ngorongoro Crater, where you can see just about every African animal you would want to see.

I also made a few videos of our tour:

Ngorongoro Crater

My sister and really enjoyed watching a wildebeest giving birth. I couldn't get good footage of it, but it was pretty amazing. Our guide was patient enough to wait until the calf got up on its own feet, ready to face the world.

We also saw three rhinos, which was pretty amazing. And we got caught in a rainstorm. Some of the tracks were pretty muddy, and our driver used his vehicle to help push a stuck vehicle out. The drivers really impressed me with how skilled they are at driving in difficult terrain.

Lake Manyara

We never spotted any of the famous tree-climbing lions, but we saw lots of elephants, giraffe, and baboons.

Tarangire National Park

I remember getting eaten alive by the tsetse flies! Make sure you bring bug spray if you visit. As far as I know the ones here don't carry sleeping sickness. I really enjoyed spotting a Secretary bird striding through the tall grass, looking for snakes to eat. And part of my lunch was stolen by a sneaky monkey! My sister bashed it in the face with her lunch box!

If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend taking a few days to tour the parks. You're pretty much guaranteed to see something neat!

While we were on the medical mission, we also toured the nearby village of Terrat and surrounding areas. Like in much of rural Tanzania and Africa, it's common to see people herding their livestock down the roads. I managed to capture this close encounter with cattle and sheep and goats.

Hope you liked the videos! If you have any questions about what the medical mission was like I would be glad to share more info - leave a comment.

December - Zoominescence & Cat Tricks

Hello again everyone. Hope you're doing well, wherever you might be.

Things are continuing to chug along. We're almost halfway into December, and the holiday season is nearly upon us. I am looking forward to having a few extra days off, and the chance to do some winter activities.

A few years ago my husband and I went to Zoominescence. I finally made a video with the footage, which you can watch here: 

I love that carousel. I might request to go see Zoominescence for this holiday season just to see it again. 😊

I'm also working on another video, finally, one of my cat, Maho, and focusing on the tricks I taught him to do. It was several years ago that I actually trained him, but either because he was quite young or just persistence, he picked up the tricks quite quickly and has never forgotten them. When I have it done I'll post it in a page on my blog too. Hopefully sometime over the holidays.

Well, I'm going to work now! Have a nice day.

2020...Coyote encounters

So, life has been carrying on. It's been a few years regrettably since I last posted.

I've been doing well. Hope you have been also. I'm still painting, and still add things into my website occasionally. It's a lot of work, especially trying to get the images to line up and ensuring all the buttons work. My website. This year of course has been bad for my art sales, but good in the sense that I have more time to paint. I am grateful for my day job which keeps me going in life.

I've also been posting onto YouTube regularly. My page is here: My YouTube page. My husband and I have been going for walks in our local ravine, as well as touring the nearby countryside and finding nice nature places to hike. Check it out. I make clips of various things that I think are worthy of sharing, like this video I uploaded today of a coyote barking and howling.

Well, I think that's all I have to say. Please stay safe out there!

Update: I had another coyote encounter the next day which I also made a video of.

It was a very cool moment which I won't forget for a long time.

It's Been a While - Growing as an Artist

It's been a while since I last blogged, but I have some things I'd like to share with those people who may not be visiting my other internet presences.

I just updated my official website: www.ojibwe-art.ca and added a couple of paintings in the Bears section. I created some new paintings in 2012.

I'm also at odds with perhaps adding to my website and adding an Asian/Other styles page, and maybe fostering on the lands-and-skies (my husband's domain). I worry it may distract from my Aboriginal pages.

Anyway, some new works for 2013 that I'm particularly pleased with: http://fav.me/d5xcgx1 on my DeviantArt page. It's a painting of Japanese yokai, or demons, in a nightparade (see the link for a larger image). In the middle is a little man with a giant squash shaped head who sneaks into your house and drinks your tea.

Various household objects gain spirits when they reach their 100th birthday, so a sake jar (who contains unending amounts of sake), grass sandal and tea pot dance about as a biwa and shamisen (cut off from the scan) play music.

A line of sparrows dance, whose hats I tried to model after Awa Odori dancers. Around the gathering, a two-tailed cat, mountain wolf, giant rooster who breathes foxfire, and foxes watch on.

Another painting I created recently was Transcendence. http://taibossigai.deviantart.com/art/Transcendence-Wonder-of-the-Night-Sky-350454594 (also on DeviantArt)

This was my first real attempt at painting a realistic person, and I was quite pleased with the result.

For those who are interested in my artwork, I have pieces available as prints here: http://taibossigai.imagekind.com/

So, until my next update (hopefully it will be a little more frequent), enjoy the art! :)

New Shop Banner!

The other day I had a new banner made for me by naiveglow on Etsy. I was really pleased with the results, she took images from a few of my items and mixed them together to make a banner.

Her shop is here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/naiveglow?ref=pr_shop_more

She also provides a variety of other services: business cards, invitations, as well as makes cute keychains & charms.

Spring Sale and movie watching, works-in-progress photos

Happy Family everyone in Alberta! Spending a relaxing day at home on the computer. :P

Watched a very interesting Japanese movie last night, called "Departures". Its about a man whose dream it was to play in an orchestra finds himself out of work. He returns home to look for a job, to come across an ad for a job as an "encoffiner", which isn't a highly respected job by his fellow citizens, much less wife. Basically he prepares bodies for funerals.

As the movie progresses, he gains an appreciation for assisting people on their departure from life. It was a really lovely movie and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys watching foreign films.

In celebration of spring I decided to have a sale on Etsy. Until March 31 everything will be 15% off, using the coupon code SpringSale.

2021 update: Just added some images. They don't really have anything to do with the above story, but I wanted to share a sketch and some work-in-progress photos I took that I made of a bus stop on an early spring day. The people waiting for the bus were mostly students, but nicely line up. It was raining, and the road was shiny and reflective of the light sources from the street lamps and I could see the reflections of the people on the road.

What really struck me about the image was the pigeons that were perched on the overhead wires. With the people huddling in the cold and wet, it was a eerily beautiful but stark image of city life.

The last image is still a work-in-progress photo. I looked through my archives but couldn't find a photo of the final image with the pigeons added in.