Happy Halloween!

BOO!

The Houses of Summer Street,
Kennebunk Maine

Trick or Treat!

The Sun Returns

The sun returns and with it some strange sitings at the beach.
First of all, this man appeared to be walking on water!


As I continued my walk, through the sound
of the sea and the wind, I heard another sound.

This fellow was practicing playing the bagpipe
on a little peninsula by the ocean, probably
so as not to disturb his neighbors.

By chance, on the way to Goose Rocks Beach
we saw a gathering of Canada geese.

At Goose Rocks, I had to photograph a
house that I am going to paint for a house portrait.
The sun eventually lit up Timber Island revealing
a glimpse of autumn colors. In the distance, I saw
some strange looking ducks. When I looked them
up in my bird book, they turned out to be surf scoters.

Looking at the Sky

photo ©Nancy Cooper Funk

I'm in love with the sky today!

Looking Back

©Nancy Cooper Funk

Among the things I love to draw are doors
and garden gates.
Around this time of year, many years ago in
a quaint old seacoast town north of Boston,
I sat on my little folding chair on the
sidewalk drawing this door when someone
peered over my shoulder and introduced
himself. Little did I know that he was to become
my best friend and husband!

Clouds to Sun

Today started out very cloudy and misty after
a night of gusty winds and heavy rain.
The sun peered through the clouds as
Sergey, the dog was happily chasing his
tennis ball in the surf.

As we walked along the sidewalk the light
rain stopped and the sun broke through in some
areas revealing blue skies.



Half the beach was in thick in clouds and the
other half was clear blue!

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Kim at Oakmoon The rules are:

1.Link to the person who tagged you

2.Post the rules on your blog

3.Write 6 random things about yourself

4.Tag 6 people at the end of the post, link to them

5.Let each person know they've been tagged

6.Let tagger know when entry is up

So, here are the 6 random things about me.

1. I can juggle to the amazement of myself and others.

2. I have adapted to drawing and painting with a cat on my lap.

3. I love clouds, especially big dark blue clouds with shades of other blues and pinks.

4. I am afraid of lightning and was in our house that my husband and I were building when lightning struck just outside the house. It went into the ground and came up through our cellar floor (which was sand at the time) and into the room we were in. A giant flash burst before our eyes and then disappeared. Just prior to that, D ( my husband) had said, "Don't worry, it won't strike here!" After that, we decided we needed lightning rods!

5. I always have my cameras with me and before I got a digital camera I would carry around several very heavy old 35 mm cameras that thankfully were built like tanks. One day I dropped my old pentax spotmatic and it fell down a whole flight of wooden stairs that echoed the sound all the way down! My heart sank until I realized the camera still worked!

6. I love baskets and fortunately so do our cats, which gives me a good excuse for collecting them.

I would like to tag, in no particular order:

Gretel at Middle of Nowhere
Fat Eric Fat Eric and Friends
Sian at Here Be Dragons
Susan at It's a Whimsical Life
We Three Cats at We Three Cats
Celia at Purple Podded Peas

Thanks for taking part, but only if you want to, of course :)

Woodcarving Exhibit Reception

A reception for my husband's woodcarving exhibit
at our local library took place yesterday afternoon.
There is something so magical about seeing all of his
work in one space, lit properly. Even the shadows they
cast looked beautiful.

A Time for Reflection

Reflections while pausing to
observe a blue heron.



Have a seat to take in the early evening
sky and sea.

A Peaceful Moment

Serenity

A Dramatic Sky

A very cool and breezy day, with gray blue skies.

A hawk came into view and paused briefly
on a high branch.

Woodcarving Exhibit

Stopped by the Library this evening for

another look at D's woodcarving exhibit.
It has been in Hank's Gallery Room at
the Kennebunk Library since October 2nd
and will be there through October 30th.
His reception is on Saturday afternoon.

Surf

Today the air was calm and the temperatures
on the mild side but the sea was a different story.



Something yellow caught my eye and
I followed a yellow butterfly as it clung
to wild radish flowers as the sea
roared around it.

The sea appeared deceptively calm
in between big swells that crashed
upon the rocky coast.
A mist settled over Mt. Agamenticus
as the sun began to set.

Last Rose of Autumn and a New Blog

Ellie May and I decided that we needed
another blog for our furry and feathered friends,
so we came up with something yesterday.

just click the picture link below to see it:


Today the weather was very blustery and cold but clear.
While D collected seaweed for the
garden at the beach, I wandered around and
collected photos for my blogs.

To my surprise, several beach roses were
still blooming as they swayed in the chilling wind.

Most peculiar were the squash vines with
small yellow squash growing right out of the
beach rocks along the coast.


There were several outcroppings of
squash vines. Has anyone ever seen such a thing?

After the Frost

Autumn treasures along the path to my studio.

Kita Cat

When I awoke this morning and
glanced out of the window the moon was still visible.

And then I saw her, Kita cat.
Kita lives through the woods behind the houses across the street in a
horse barn. We met her for the first time last fall when she
appeared in our yard and we thought she was homeless.
We were worried about her for the weather was getting cold and nasty.

She was the friendliest cat and would
sit on D's back while he was digging in the garden.
After calling everyone in the neighborhood we finally
discovered where she lived.
A year has gone by since we've seen her in our yard and when
I peered out of the window this morning, there she was!
Her fur patterns are the colors of autumn.




Ellie May watched with great concentration from the studio window.

A Rainy Day

Polly enjoys a catnap on this rainy autumn day.
(I'd like to join her)


David ran around the garden last
night collecting all of the vegetables
that could have been frosted.
There were a few eggplants and some
peppers. We do have many apples and
pears from our fruit trees. Does anyone
have any suggestions about preserving
them or any recipes for something
delicious to eat that is also 'gluten free'?
As it turned out, there wasn't a frost!

Fine Tuning Our New Blog

Ellie May is checking out our new blog to
see if any editing is needed...we've
tried making the fonts larger and smaller.
We're learning as we go along. Stay tuned!

Greetings

My name is Ellie May and I am an artist cat and I have my own studio nestled in a garden in Maine several miles from the sea. I share the studio with N, an artist who had a Gallery near my first home by the sea in a quaint tourist town on the coast of Maine. When I was a young and fancy free kitten, I used to visit her and her husband, D and we became close friends til one day I moved right into their Gallery and never left. I became their official greeter, helped with sales, and did my own art ( torn paper abstract), I provided pet therapy to people on vacation who missed their pets and I had a fan club of many dogs and a few cats who stopped by my door to see me.

We moved from the Gallery in 2002 into the studio that D had built in their garden. The house that D and N built is beside the studio and there resides sweet Polly, a brown tabby ( who is my daughter, another story) and a handsome ginger and white fellow named Brody.

Polly

I help N with her art now...I sort of guide her by sitting on her lap as she paints or I watch over her from one of my many baskets on her work table. I help her to get the true feeling of the pets she paints when she does commissioned pet portraits.
We love the same things: birds, chipmunks and other wild critters, flowers, shells, and the sea. Nature is very important to us!
With her ink and watercolors she turns all of the things we love into works of art that provide cherished memories for us and others.
Some are turned into prints, and she also makes little pins, note cards, bookmarks and is working on her own little books.
Working from photos, N loves making custom paintings for others of their pets, houses, and children. It gives her great pleasure to help others preserve their cherished memories with art.

We both miss all of the people, dogs and cats we used to meet in the Maine Memories Gallery, many of whom became friends who returned year after year. I thought it would be a good idea to get this blog started for her so we could continue to connect with those who may share similar interests in pets, wildlife, birds, nature, gardens, the sea and N's art (ink and watercolors) and photography and Maine.

"Ellie May's first home where the river meets the sea"

all artwork and photographs ©2008Nancy Cooper Funk
and may not be reproduced All rights reserved