Category Archives: Birds

Beautiful Hedgerow Needlepoint…

14 Thursday Mar 2024

Posted by in Animals, beautiful, Birds, Crafts, Design, Nature, Needlepoint, Poetry, Sewing, Wool

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© Joan Currie – My completed 16″ x 16″ Hedgerow needlepoint pillow.

My Hedgerow Needlepoint Gift by Joan Currie

Six months of needlepointing, each day a steady hand,
With Victorian cross stitches, my large opus planned.
Thousands of small stitches, so meticulously placed,
And twenty hues of tapestry wool carefully spaced.

On this canvas, my heart is stitched in every row,
A gift to my daughter, a treasure on her bestowed.
I hope she will hold it close and feel the love it bears,
My offering of this hedgerow to cherish and to share.

This needlepoint pillow was planned as a gift for my daughter. So glad to have completed it! 🧡

Beautiful Flying Higher…

22 Thursday Feb 2024

Posted by in Birds, Nature, Needlepoint, Poetry, Reflections

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© Joan Currie – My needlepoint bird on mesh canvas

To Fly Higher by Joan Currie

In shadows cast by judgment’s weight,
I find myself, a bird, sedate.
Dreams clipped by critical gaze,
An anchor, heavy, in life’s maze.

Each flight of joy, a tentative dance,
Held back by words, a stifling trance.
But deep within, a yearning stirs,
For freedom’s song, no longer deferred.

To cut the chains, to break away,
From mainstays holding, day by day.
To soar anew, with wings unfurled,
Towards dreams embraced, in a boundless world.

So let me sever, let me fly,
Bid farewell to judgement’s sigh.
For in the vastness of the sky,
I’ll find my joy, no longer shy.

Today I noticed that the birds are back in my yard. Spring has come once again!

© Joan Currie – My needlepoint bird made into a pillow.

Beautiful Christmas Dinner…

25 Monday Dec 2023

Posted by in Art, Birds, Christmas, watercolor

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© Joan Currie – My watercolor of a Christmas Goose

No Christmas Goose!
Papa, please don’t make Gilbert
the Christmas goose!
I love him so.
How about ham?
from All Poetry

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
Fowl, but not goose, will be at our dinner table this year. Looking forward to merriment with family and friends.
Be well!

Beautiful Golden Eagle at Christmas…

08 Friday Dec 2023

Posted by in Art, Birds, Christmas, Purple, watercolor

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© Joan Currie – My watercolor painting of a Golden Eagle with a purple beak.

Purple (or violet) symbolizes repentance and penance. Vestments of purple or violet are used during the seasons of Advent and Lent. The color reminds us of the violet flower that bows its head and is a symbol of humility.

I saw a magnificent Golden Eagle soaring above me yesterday on my hike. What captured my attention was not its wingspan or plumage but its dark purple beak! It made me reflect on the color purple – one that has been associated with royalty and spirituality for centuries. In the context of Christmas, it carries a rich symbolism in the Nativity – one of the three Wise Men, Balthazar, wore a purple cloak and later Jesus was draped in a purple robe as King of Kings.

My last post celebrated the color red and a more secular vision of Christmas. But the color purple drew me into the real meaning of Christmas, the celebration of Christ’s birth, the liturgies, a deep reverence for the omnipresent spirit and ways of the Lord, and a profound connection with my fellow human beings.

Beautiful Blue Heron…

06 Monday Nov 2023

Posted by in Art, Birds, watercolor

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© Joan Currie – My watercolor of a Blue Heron

Now the blue heron
wades the cold ponds
of November.

In the gray light his hunched shoulders
are also gray.

He finds scant food – a few
numbed breathers under
a rind of mud.

When the water he walks in begins
turning to fire, clutching itself to itself
like dark flames, hardening,
he remembers.

Winter.
From A Poem for the Blue Heron by Mary Oliver

I watched a blue heron as it stood in quiet contemplation – its long, sinuous neck curved like an ornate candelabrum. In the language of the poets, this elegant creature embodied a dignified grace, a symbol of refinement and grandeur. Its slate-blue plumage, reminiscent of fine silk, caught the light, creating an ethereal aura that stirred my senses. I had to paint it.

Beautiful Sea Eagle…

07 Saturday Oct 2023

Posted by in Art, Birds, Nature, watercolor

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© Joan Currie – My watercolor and gouache painting of a Sea Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

From The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Until recently, I have not been a fan of eagles. I think I associated them with my father’s emphatic mantra, “You can’t fly with the eagles if you hoot with the owls.”

I wasn’t sure I even wanted to fly with the eagles – their sharp, hooked beaks and talons looked very scary! Rather, I loved the reassuring sound of owls hooting in the stillness of the night (even though they are birds of prey, like eagles, but I didn’t know that then). I wanted to hoot, too, but alas, that was not permitted as long as I lived under my father’s roof.

P.S. I finally finished the watercolor of our Akita, Kimmie. Please see my August 26th updated post.

Beautiful Taking Flight…

19 Sunday Mar 2023

Posted by in Art, Art studio, Birds, Home, Poetry, Reflections, watercolor

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© Joan Currie – Detail of my watercolor of a Grosbeak

When a bird, takes flight
Wings, sail on air
Silhouettes of time
Upon clouds, inspire
No height, inconceivable
Nor dream, unreachable
Fear, no longer, an obstacle
Hunger, no more, high I soar
Tears retreat, from, the earths floor
The sky, stretches out, its arms and opens its door
from A Bird Takes Flight by Bernard E. Harris

After months of contemplation, I awoke this morning and knew it was time to move. Although I haven’t settled on the exact location for my new home, I am ready to take flight!

Beautiful Pre Springtime Starlings…

24 Friday Feb 2023

Posted by in Art, Birds, Garden, Nature, Poetry, watercolor

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© Joan Currie – Starlings from my sketchbook.

The starling is my darling, although
I don’t much approve of its
Habits. Proletarian bird,
Nesting in holes and corners, making a mess,
And sometimes dropping its eggs
Just any old where – on the front lawn, for instance.

It thinks it can sing too. In springtime
They are on every rooftop, or high bough,
Or telegraph pole, blithering away
Discords, with cliches picked up
From the other melodists…

From The Starling by John Heath-Stubbs

Despite the snap of cold weather, the starlings were out in full force today perched on the branches of crabapple trees – mostly hidden by the burgeoning pink blossoms. It seemed as if they were rehearsing a mixture of musical numbers and squeaky songs for a springtime premiere. They put a smile on my face!

© Joan Currie – Crabapple blossoms from my sketchbook.

Beautiful Bird Nests…

27 Friday Jan 2023

Posted by in Birds, Garden, Photography, Reflections, watercolor

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© Joan Currie – One of the bird nests I found in my back yard.

Birds’ Nests by John Clare

How fresh the air, the birds how busy now!
In every walk if I peep I find
Nests newly made or finished all and lined
With hair and thistledown, and in the bough
Of little hawthorn, huddled up in green,
The leaves still thickening as the springs gets age,
The pink’s, quite round and snug and closely laid,
And linnet’s of materials loose and rough;
And still hedge-sparrow, moping in the shade
Near the hedge-bottom, weaves of homely stuff,
Dead grass and mosses green, an hermitage,
For secrecy and shelter rightly made;
And beautiful it is to walk beside
The lands and hedges where their homes abide.

When doing my yard work today, I discovered two enchanting nests in the garden and hedge. I love that the very inner layers are filled with small down feathers and soft grasses, and, surprisingly, small pieces of cording that I recognize as coming from my clothesline!

© Joan Currie – My garden Tree Sparrow

Beautiful Christmas Gift Tags…

18 Sunday Dec 2022

Posted by in Art, Birds, Christmas, Crafts, Reflections

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© Joan Currie. My watercolor birds as gift tags.

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas Day.
Don’t clean it up too quickly.
Andy Rooney

When you are finally cleaning up the mess of ribbons and wrapping paper, be sure to save some of the gift tags. I treasure the ones I have collected since I was a child. My mother loved to use the front of beautiful note cards with images of winter such as those by Cornelius Kriegoff, A. J. Casson, and Roy McMurtry. She had beautiful penmanship and always wrote a sweet note to go along with the present. I especially love the gift tags given to me from my daughters – their early attempts at printing “Mommy” and their names are delightful!

Last year my gift tag theme was Christmas trees, but this year I decided to go with birds. I hope one of my children continues my tradition of not only saving the tags but of creating them as well.