Monday 25 April 2016

Owls for Laurie

This post is dedicated to one of my favourite bloggers, Laurie of I Love a Cloudy Day. Laurie lives in a northern Ontario city with her husband Garry, surrounded by the rugged boreal terrain of the Canadian Shield. Laurie loves cats and dogs and, indeed, all tame or wild creatures. But her particular favourite is OWLS.

For example, I believe this is an ACTUAL, UNRETOUCHED photo of Laurie with one of her many owl friends. How she gets away with bare arms and lacy gloves in the middle of winter is beyond me, but she is one tough COOKIE, eh?


And who can blame Laurie for loving owls? They are magnificent birds. Just look at this spectacular image of a snowy owl in flight, whose photo was captured in January by a TRAFFIC CAMERA outside of Montreal --


EAT YOUR HEART OUT, all you human photographers in the blogosphere who would just kill to get a shot like this once in a lifetime! An inanimate piece of technology beat you to it!

Owls inspire not only photographers, of course, but also artists of all descriptions. Even those whose chosen medium is the WOODPILE out back --


But, I ask you, do we REALLY know and understand owls?


Owls can have bad days, just like EVERYONE ELSE.


But I KNOW that even if an owl were having a bad day, Laurie would still love and admire it. She truly understands how important NATURE and THE WILD should be in our lives.

May owls always bring you joy, Laurie!

35 comments:

anne marie in philly said...

they ARE magnificent birds; the traffic camera snowy owl pix is the best.

LL Cool Joe said...

I'm very fond of my creepy plastic owls we have in the States that are meant to scare away the birds. They don't work but it would be a shame to throw them away.

Marie Smith said...

The owly wood pile is amazing as is your friend. Art is everywhere if we but have the eye for it. Great post!

Anonymous said...

Owls have to be smarter than seagulls. Oh how I hate seagulls. But I guess seagulls are clever and conniving. They seem to always know when and where to poop to ruin a beach outing. I can't stop staring at that wood pile. That's amazing. Then again, I get hypnotized in the supermarket by the art sculptures made with the 12 packs of Coke, too.

Mark said...

I really love owls myself. Last year I had the pleasure of holding and petting an owl. It was great. They're so light there's barely anything to them but it was still so bushy. It was almost fluffy except it was all feathers.

Anonymous said...

oh my gosh,, I'm blushing now!!!!!!

Lois said...

I think that must be Laurie! Love the bad hair day owl, I can relate.

jaz@octoberfarm said...

laurie always goes bare armed in the snow. she is a tough cookie for sure! doesn't she paint the most beautiful owls?

MrsDuncanMahogany said...

I do love owls! Such majestic creatures to be sure! The odd night, we hear one hooting outside our window. Lovely sound!

yellowdoggranny said...

Dexter likes owls too...he likes them so much he wants to have one over for dinner...

Lynn said...

Love that stack of wood with the owl art! And the cartoon. All of it, really. :)

Cperz said...

WOW...the owl pictures are amazing!!! And Laurie is so very pretty...what a great photo.

DEZMOND said...

that lady stole gloves from you!

Jim said...

Yes, may Laurie always find the joy of owls.
Now to that photo!!
Oh my! Gives me an idea......remote cameras posted everywhere!
See what you've done, Debra!! lol

Heli said...

That woodpile speaks to me too!
- Heli aka the Log Lady

Rommy said...

I shivered at the first picture. Lace is pretty, but damn it, if it's cold I want to be covered up!

Miss Val's Creations said...

Owls are so cool! That is an amazing photo in flight!

Martha said...

I reached for my sweater with that first photo. No way you'd get me out in the cold dressed like that :)

Owls are the best! I so love them, too. My daughters know that owls and polar bears and white tigers are some of my favourite animals.

Christine said...

Lovely tribute to Laurie, a lovely lady!

Anonymous said...

Good job on this. Thank you for sharing.

Guillaume said...

I love owls too and I love Laurie's blog and her art. Oh and glad to see "our" bird the snowy owl on one of these pictures.

Magic Love Crow said...

Yeh Laurie! Laurie is the best!!! I love her owls too! Great post Debra! That woodpile is something else! Wow!

mxtodis123 said...

My friend Miguel loves owls as well. For his birthday I found an awesome owl calendar for him. Gorgeous bird, but my thing is bald eagles.
Mary

Mistress Maddie said...

Beautiful post! I love the wood pile with the owl design in it, how cool is that? The post brought back memories of a small owl I found in the garden here. I can't remember the name of the owl, but it was full grown, but very very small. Turns out they are ingenious to Europe, so we were never sure how it was so far off course. A local animal rescue came to get it. I was fretting with the cold winter it might have froze. They are very cool birds.

Magaly Guerrero said...

What a beautiful tribute to the relationship between a friend and owls. I bet it brought all kinds of grins to her heart (I'm sure the owls *and the traffic camera* appreciate your words, too).

Fantastic!

Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com said...

Laurie is a gorgeous lady, and the owls look amazing too. I wish I was as good of a photographer as that traffic camera.

Adam said...

hoot hoot

This N That said...

Owls are probably my favorites..I hear them but never see them..They are so mysterious looking..Thanks for sharing..

John M said...

That's a great photo of an owl in flight.

Ol'Buzzard said...

Like witches, owls have had a bad rap.
the Ol'Buzzard

Neesie said...

Basically, being a nosy parker, lover of nature and Laurie's blog, I just had to nip across to see your post and what a giggle you gave me.
Fantastic fun. I love all the photos, but I'm thinking seriously about whether to show my hubby the owl wood pile. He has a wood fetish already and no-one can stack his chopped logs like he can... but this might take his obsession to a completely new level!

Insomniac's Attic said...

I love owls! I prefer them alive but am not adverse to picking one up off the road in other circumstances. Tomorrow I drive to Olds with the unfortunate Great Grey I found last week, and will present him (or her - I didn't look too closely) to the taxidermist along with my F&W Found Dead Wildlife Permit and my $700 (thank goodness I have a job at the moment) and will wait patiently for at least a year for it to be finished. Apparently taxidermy is a booming business ... some have a five-year waiting period! I sense a new career in my future once this one is done. ;)

bj said...

I love her, too...she sure is a talented artist.....

laughingwolf said...

...yeah, yeah, yeah - nut wotta they taste like - fricaseed? :P

The Happy Whisk said...

When I was a little kid, I loved owls.