Bird Sightings!

We have been watching the 'Planet Earth' series of videos lately- absolutely amazing footage of animals and plants on this beautiful earth of ours- if, of course, we can manage to keep it this way! The bird footage in the series has been great to see, especially the birds of paradise portions, where the male bird struts and dances around to try to impress the ladies! On my own bit of bird sightings, we went to the Parrot Sanctuary in Nanaimo, BC with the kids a couple of weekends ago. It is really unbelievable how many exotic birds have been plucked out of their natural habitat to become soon-to-be unwanted pets. The bird sanctuary provides a home with other birds as parrots live in flocks and like to be in the company of other birds. The birds are really loud but friendly- will say 'hello' to you when you walk into their space, but I really can't imagine having them in my own home. Furthermore, they often live for up to 100 years!
Anyways, the bird theme in my life has, of course, come out on my ceramics more recently. Since finding a baby bird that had fallen from it's nest in spring, I have been playing around with bird shapes on my ceramics. Some cardinals have recently appeared as a hommage to the cardinals I would see when I grew up out east. Also a couple of hummingbirds, a pheasant, and the little sculpture of a sparrow that I hope to make more of.

In other news I was back at the clay studio working away on the Christmas orders that have started to come in fast and furious... I also posted some new work on etsy, and hope to continue posting more images over the next week to have the shop well-stocked for the holidays.
The Portobello Holiday Market is coming up really quick so there will be more Cardinal Tree Ornaments finished in time too! Save the date: December 13 & 14, Noon-6pm at the Rocky Mountaineer Station- $2, kids free!