Saturday, October 24, 2020

Pictures of inspiration

Walking in our favourite
park by Lake Ontario
we met a woman who
lives near the park walking
her cat home, 
by playing with it 
with a stick. 
(She gave me permission to take the
photo, and bonus, she knows
that bread is good for swans.
Her cat loves the lake,
and is not scared of swans.)
Photo: Barbara Muir © 2020

It’s Saturday, and I want a day off. It's been a wonderful day, starting with
the market, and seeing the wonderful farmers who sell us a gorgeous quiche
(they are chefs), organic eggs, and organic lettuce every week. We came home
to watch the finishing process on our front door, which was getting painted to
match the shutters on our white house. Red is a tricky colour, as any artist
would agree, and it had to be the right red to match the red shutters, which
make the house look pretty and happy.

The house
This is a before picture.
You can't tell from this
that the shutters are a
cherry red and all the
same colour.  The door
was more fire engine red.
It now matches -- Thank you Andrew.
Photo: Barbara Muir © 2020

So this afternoon the work got finished beautifully. And for the first time
since the rest of the front of the house was painted two years ago, the door
actually matches the shutters. That might not even seem important to you,
but it’s a major event for us.  

Then the excitement kept on going as I got to play a fabulous game of ball
with my dog in the backyard. This is a rare event because she doesn’t respect
gardens, so luckily we are near the end of garden season, and we concentrated
on the back of the yard, where nothing is growing, for our game.

Produce from some of the plants I 
didn't want the dog to hit in our game.

Random tomato plants from
our compost sprung up 
everywhere this summer.
Photo: Barbara Muir © 2020

Now I’m looking for a movie, and showing you some shots of things I’ve seen
in the past couple of weeks that made me happy. I hope you have a great
weekend, and we will keep on loving what’s great about our lives.


Recent view in our 
neighbourhood.
  Fall
colour -- leaving soon :-)
Photo: Barbara Muir © 2020


Happy weekend!

4 comments:

Judi said...

Hi Barbara!
That is a cute story of the lady and the cat. She must not live too far from the lake to be able to do that. So fun. I often think I should have a leash for Charlie and take him for a walk, he loves the leash he does have to go on the balcony. You must not be too far from the Lake either, are you? Your house looks lovely. I can understand getting the right shade of red for your door. The door is such a welcome it has to fit in and say the right thing doesn't it. Lovely. The trees on your street are so beautiful. I'm sure you take the same picture in the winter, for the seasons. Hope you have another great day.

Barbara Muir said...

Hi Judi,

Thank you so much. We do live about a half hour drive from our favourite park, and the lady lives on the corner across from the park entrance. The trees are not on our street, they are about five blocks over, but we still think of it as our neighbourhood. A bit more fancy. I would love to live by the lake. This cat is very confident. And people don't walk dogs off leash in that park most of the time. We don't take our dog with us because we love feeding the birds, and she wouldn't understand. And I would LOVE to live by the lake. Wishing you a great day!

XOXOXOXOXOXO Barbara

Evelyn Oldroyd - painter said...

What a delightful cat story! Our cat likes to walk with us but we only take him diwn the block and back.
Love your red door and shutters! Such a happy colour and I see a red chair too. Thank you for your blog postings of art and life. You make my day! ❤️❤️❤️❣️

Barbara Muir said...

Thank you so much Evelyn. You made my day. Yes there is a red
chair that needs repainting. Suddenly the cold weather comes, and
the long list of what you would have done in the summer is...
But hey! The front door being the right colour is a big deal. I'll
put up a new photo sometime showing the difference now. This was a before.
I love, love, love your drawings.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO Barbara

Portrait Artist

My photo
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I paint and draw on commission and for shows. To commission a portrait, or purchase one of my paintings please contact me at: barbara.muir@sympatico.ca
A major highlight in my career? Drawing Oprah Winfrey live via Skype for her show "Where in the Skype are you? Galleries: Studio Vogue Gallery, Toronto, Canada. The Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, New York City. Gallery at the Porch Door, Kingston, Canada. Your positive comments on this blog mean the world to me. I'd love to hear from you!