The Sugar Bush

It happens once a year for a few short weeks.  The weather has to be just right and all of a sudden you wake up one morning and it's time for a visit to the sugar bush.  Maple syrup season has arrived.  March into April is officially Maple Syrup season in Ontario.

The days are warming up and the nights are just cold enough.  Though you can't feel it, there's a stirring underneath us that reaches deep into the cold dormant earth.  There's a quickening, a gentle awakening from a deep winter's slumber.  The maple trees begin to stir and come alive again.  The sap begins to flow through their trunks and a sweet elexir that we have come to enjoy is extracted from these wise trees.  Maple syrup is on its way and the taste of sweet, sticky, golden liquid leaves me with a craving for sugar snow and steaming hot pancakes with melting butter dripping down their tender, fluffy sides ready for every mouthful to be savoured.

Each year, during maple syrup time, I am transported back to fond memories of an excited little girl going to the sugar bush with my elementary school class and making snow taffy with my classmates.  Hay rides with horses taking us through the sugar bush while our peals of laughter rang through the woods as we breathed in the sweet air that wafted out of the sugar shack.  When I go to the sugar bush, it's a pilgrimage of sorts for me as I remember the many fun-filled trips to the sugar shack.  The same eagerness and excitement I felt when I was seven years old takes hold of me as I plan my trip to the sugar bush each season.  Would you like to go to the sugar bush with me?

The Sugar Bush  --  PURCHASED

This painting is acrylics on canvas (24 x 36 inches). This painting has been donated to a silent auction that will take place at a gala that I am invited to attend.  Money raised from the silent auction will go to support programs at a mental health center in our community, to raise awareness and help to de-stigmatize mental illness.  This is one cause that I truly believe in and will advocate for.  Post a comment on my blog site, I would love to hear from you.  Below are some other views of the painting.  Ciao for now, Maria.

 The Sugar Bush right angle view and below is the left angle view.

 

A walk in the woods

March 1st and today is the beginning of my blog site.  I am excited to begin posting and displaying my paintings.  I am also looking forward to your posts and comments.   I have just finished preparing a few canvases so they will be ready to receive the colours and shapes that will bring them to life -- risky business for some but then again, I like to take chances-- especially the ones that will bring about positive results.

This painting titled "A Walk In The Woods"  - SOLD is painted with acrylics on canvas and is from a photograph I took on a drive up to Clark Lake, Quebec.  The weekend was great and the snow was just beautiful.  It lay heavy on branches of the tall pine trees.  It was one vast, never-ending winter wonderland.  Driving deeper into the woods to get to the cottage, it was as if I was being magically lured into the woods and all I could see for miles around me were the dense majestic pines, the expanse of snow that lay on the ground like a jewelled blanket with it's lavender shadows and champagne dappled sun beckoning me to get out of the car and lie in it, maybe even make some snow angels.

The sun coming through the trees created a glow around me that was warm, inviting and flirted with the idea that spring could be just on the other side of this Canadiana delight.  If I had a picnic basket with me, I would have stopped and laid down a cloth and enjoyed some cheese and maybe even a glass of wine, okay some organic blueberry juice pour moi.  The moment brought a song to my head and I began to hum it.   Do you remember the song The Teddy Bear's Picnic that goes like this: "If you go out in the woods today, you're in for a big surprise..."

Take a look at what happened when I waltzed with the canvas below.  Can you see yourself going for a winter picnic in such a beautiful place?