no doubt

Tuesday, January 11, 2011




my gal Winnie with her snowy snout and a few snowy, snowy scenes from the last few days

The world, our world, has turned black & white, monotone, a grey scale of brilliant white, nearly black steely grey and many shades of in-between. The harbour is still ice free, dark & deep, with a swaying slushy layer of cold on it's surface weighing down the waves. It's winter again and as winter's go this one so far is quiet, unassuming, here day in day out but without much drama. There's enough snow to ski and to build snow people but not too much, so far no mile high drifts or looming snow banks. No blizzards or storms or heavy snowfall warnings and best of all no frigid temperatures, no wind chill warnings if we bundle up well in our down and fleece walking around the streets of this little village twice daily is quite lovely - winter's here and it's - snowy.

By perseverance the snail reached the ark

Charles H. Spurgeon

I had one of those days yesterday. You know the ones where you pull the rug out from under yourself. With a whip, zip, zoom-suddenly you find yourself asking Hey ! where did my rug go ?

I sat at my desk in the afternoon pondering + wondering what am I doing? where is this going? is it going anywhere? this is hard? I'm not so used to hard, challenging ... can I do this? and on.
I allowed myself to wish for awhile, that I had become something else, chosen a different path, something more straight & forward instead of this winding, up hill, up hill, up hill, path I'm currently on - that of the self employed creative person. I felt discouraged, disheartened, down. Before retiring to the nest with my book and a bevy of furry beasts (the Prince & Sam were downstairs watching Saving Private Ryan in the new fabulous entertainment den by the fire) I checked my comments one last time, I had a comment from Famous (in my world anyway) illustrator Stephanie Levy telling me how much she liked my tight, contained, obsessively crowded, potentially way over done painting of a zillion trillion hearts & tiny leaves. Ahhhhhh ... my nagging brain relaxed a bit & said, maybe it's OK. Remember please, this is a process, keep on doing, keep on making ... and guess what girlfriend ? tomorrow is a brand new day - hooray !!

Rock Steady

No Doubt









10 comments:

  1. Oh Winnie, I love you in the spring in the fresh green grass, I love you in the summer when the crab tolling tide is high, I love you in the fall, surrounded by the brilliantly colored leaves and now I love you in the winter with your whiskers white with snow.

    As for you mom, just keep whispering into her ear, Believe in yourself and your talents.

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  2. Living the creative life takes courage, no doubt. But can you image a life where you couldn't express your creativity, where you punched a clock and performed the same task day in and day out -

    I say your uphill path is a good choice for a creative soul.

    Love the image of your dog at water's edge - haunting.

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  3. Hi & good morning Shammy Sham & Karen

    Of course I couldn't imagine a life with no creative expression, it's the trying to make a decent living from that creativity that causes me to struggle at times.

    There have been many, many times over my long creative life that I have wished that I made a good, comfortable living from something a bit more straightforward, a little more practical and a lot less subjective. I can easily imagine the zen of making pizzas for a living or folding laundry ... weeding a garden. I often wistfully imagine a job that had an exact quitting time and at that time I'd say "bye, bye ... see ya tomorrow" and ultimately find my creative outlet & expression in that angst free spare time ... I know, I know I'm dreaming here, I'm grass is always greener-ing. Realize that I am being indulgent & whining & venting a little in this post - no doubt about it. Bonjour new day ! !

    xo S & les Gang

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  4. Very pretty, but BRRR. I hope you are sitting by the fire. Miss Dixon looks very fetching too, with her snowy snout. Such a sweetheart.

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  5. What a lovely blog, I really like it! And those images are the opposite of my life today in Rio de Janeiro, where the sun is shining and it's sooooo freaking hot!

    :)
    Camila F.

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  6. first of all, the last photo is incredible.

    second of all, i can so relate to so many of your thoughts. thanks for sharing them!

    xo Alison

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  7. Lovely photos, real snow, not the sparse mean-spirited sprinkling we had yesterday, and a lovely old dog....

    Keep going; you'll be fine. You know you'd hate working in an office, phones going all the time, and the zen of pizza-making would fade after the 3000th.....

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  8. See? See?? See??? Never too many hearts.

    I like your snow. From here.

    Embarking on that creative life in new ways again this year myself. It can be head-spinning. Glad to know it's not just me...

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  9. Winnie - you are deeeevine!Bet you love living with the creatives,their minds ticking over, pulling rabbits out of hats!...and Susan, folding laundry? Making pizzas? Na.xxx

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  10. what a gift to sit here and bask in your blog

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