It's been a while...but finally, some new drawings!

This is a self portrait. Note my favorite boots, the Rokka rubber boots! Very warm in winter! Keeping your toes warm is crucial, when birding in wintery Finland!

These were actually a part of a farther's day card I made with my little sister, each bird representing one family member. Lil' sister did the rest of the family, I did three. (Yes, the dogs had their own birds as well, sister did those.)

It became a fun card.

Mittens, part 2

I finished the Niuniu inspired mittens!

Again, I asked poor pup to model with the mits.

Here they are. Making up the design as I went turned out to be easier than I thought. I tried designing the pattern on paper at first, but that attempt turned out fruitless - I couldn't perceive how the pattern would translate from paper to yarn. Seeing it evolve straight in knitting was easier - I did have to take some double takes and figuring out the head and ears took some time.

With the second mitten the hardest part was figuring out the correct placement of the "decorative patches of dark yarn", since I wanted the mits to be mirrored, yet identical.

The back side. Except for the striped part, there are two yarns involved all the time to make the mittens more warm. At the top part and thumb this was done using two separate bundles of dark yarn, first knitting one loop from one bundle, then from another, and so on.

Niuniu inspects the mittens. First a sniff.

Then taste.

Then try.

They're fine, let's go!

P.s. The dog was not harmed during photographing the mittens! After I'd gotten the pics and sat down on the sofa to see what I got, she snuggled right beside me to get some cuddles.

Mittens, part 1

I realised with the cooling wheater I need new mittens. Since the stores didn't give any satisfactory results and I knew I had yarn at home, decided to knit the mittens myself. The dog/fox (I think it's Niuniu, hehe) was designed as I knitted along. Now I hit a creative block and am having a hard time decideing what to do with it next.

Day 2 - Fail!

This should be today's pic nro 1, two 1cy (first calendar year, that is birds born this year) whooper swans. But you see, the problem was...the swans. When I took the pic, they were swimming away from the shore. So I snapped a picture, couldn't resist the temptation. And it's quite honestly a bad picture.

This should be today's pic 2, the one of Niuniu. This was an accidental shot - I was looking at Niuniu through the lens, waiting for her to do something worth photographing. And as she started towards me, snap, out of habit, I took the photo without thinking. Not a good picture either.

And at that point I noticed the swans were swimming towards the shore a bit further away. I couldn't resist, so we walked there. They were hesitant at first and swam away a bit. But as I settled to a suitable spot to photograph, they came back close to the shore. With the light coming from behind the birds, I tossed my photo challenge away for a while and concentrated on taking pictures. Lots of them.


More depth of field needed because of the ducks at the shore, check.

Ahhhhh, nice! If only I hadn't had to take pictures through the reeds. And then I realised that Niuniu, who had been playing around on the shore and in the woods...

...was at the shore, looking at the swans swimming past her.

Following paragraphs are some thoughts on my filosophy on training a dog that is a trustworthy and well behaved birdwatchers companion, if not interested, just skip to the rest of the photos at the end:

Now birdwatchers and others as well might critizise me for having my dog loose nearby birds (mallards and swans in this case). Basically it's not a good idea to have a dog loose near birds. Wild birds should not be bothered. However, sometimes I make exceptions, like in this case. Niuniu happened to be loose when we found the birds, and since the birds didn't seem worried about her and she was more interested in exploring the surroundings than the birds, I let her be loose.

I've worked a lot on her obedience. There are few things I absolutely demand from her, and one of these is that she must come to me, when I call her. Period. No buts, no what ifs, no matter what. And she does come, she's even halted a chase after a reindeer at my call. At that point I felt humble and proud, my call being more strong than her herding instincts towards reindeer (her mom is a very talented reindeer herding lapphund).

With rare birds/nesting birds/baby birds/birds that for some other reason can't fly away around I wouldn't take the risk and would have her on leash. Most of the time when birdwatching she is on leash. When I make exceptions, it's only if I consider it safe or consider it safe and a good training opportunity at the same time.

Like today, this was one of those occasions when she could get close to birds and see for herself they're nothing to "woof about", just birds. I was observing the birds' reactions and her attitude all the time, city birds or not, they deserve their peace as well (I think they were more bothered by my presence actually).

Here are some more pics from my challenge fail day.




When we left, the swans and the ducks were still calmly feeding near the shore - swans having accepted even my presence (the silly dog they'd shrugged off as harmless from the very beginning).

I'll keep on trying... If I can survive even 4/7 days, I'll be proud of myself! Apparently at the moment I just can't let a good opportunity or nice birds pass by!

Photo challenge, day 1

Photography has become more and more of a hobby for me lately (no, I haven't forgotten drawing either, I'm just intimidated by brushes at the moment and have been too busy to actually spend a couple of days and nights painting), so I'll be tossing some photos here as well from now on.

As I have the tendency to take hundreds of pictures even during one walk, I decided to follow in the footsteps of my favorite photographer and copy his idea of "one frame per day" as a challenge for myself (which he did for several months one year and the results became an article in National Geographic magazine as well as a book, Chased by the Light). The idea of this is to really have to think what makes a good photograph.

So I'm giving it a try - but only for a week, I don't think I could last any longer. I'll duplicate the week at some point though, to see if anything has changed (other than the season).

Today was day 1 and I took my camera with me for our morning walk. Grayish morning, sun peeking through the clouds every now and then.

And this is the best I could come up with. Well, this "Rosewillow" or "Willowrose" definitely was interesting. I wonder if it has been caused by some fungus. The composition could have been better, much better, now that I think of it.

And... Since Jim Brandenburg didn't have a dog (as far as I know) with him during his "one photo per day" time, I changed the rules a bit - I may take a second picture each day, of my dog, Niuniu. She's got a blog of her own, but I'll have these challenge pics posted here as well.

My "Day 1" efforts seem rather amusing, not much going on in these. I'll be happy, if by the end of the week I'll have one truly special photo! But I am certainly going to have fun - and hopefully I'll learn something out of this!