Ermine in the snow

How incredible is that? If I touched that leaf it would be dust...Lovely.

Oh,Gattina it's beautiful ! I love his face..on his guard,or seeing his dinner :o))..added to Favourites for sure !

Beautiful!!!!!

Fantastic! . . .

I had a Ferret called rhubarb ..Oh she was almost this this pretty.

We get white polecats round here - a bit bigger than ferrets, and a lot more destructive. They kill Teresa's poultry and steal the eggs. One once made a nest up in our logpile - you could smell it from miles away! Vicious little blighters.

Beautiful Gattina and what a feminine pose!!!

Yes, she's a bit come-hitherish, isn't she? Definitely female.

absolutely beautiful

That is lovely :o)

ditto xx .

Hitherish is a very good word, so I have added it to my computer dictionary.

That is incredible - such amazing talent!

Pimpernel, I'm not sure the word stands alone: Fairly certain it comes with the first bit or not at all.........

Amazing art work... well done :o)

It's lovely , a fabulous picture !

WOOOOO!! what wonderful painting, I think i will give up, absolutely fantastic :)

Er hem...!! The daffodil nodded it's head hitherish at the clouds, noted Mr Wordsworth..but failed to include it in his poem.

Quite, quite mad!!!

He was more concerned about wandering lonely as a cloud,Sticki..!All that faffing about,when he should have been hithering ! :o)

Lovely......

It reminds me original of Leonardo da Vinci´s Lady with hermine. I was allowed to watch it from few centimeters, otherwise it is not allowed, original is very often changed for copy in Cracow.
Admiring it alone with the guard and kunsthistorian for half an hour I came to conclusion that genius of Leonardo has not been in colours, but in painting invisible things :) I recommend all to visit Chartoriski Museum in Cracow to watch the original. It is great work.

I am really chuffed to have my little ermine mentioned in the same breathe as Leonardo's. Thank you, Katarina!

You are welcome :) Do you have your own hermine?

No, Sweetheart, but there are polecats living wild round here that steal the eggs from the chicken sheds next door, and attack the chickens - they are like huge ermine but much nastier.

Ah, OK. I checked vocabulary. Now I know what are polecats. They are stinking brothers of hermine, poor little creatures :) But do not kill them. In Eastern Europe they were already eradicated. So they are rare here now, although I rememeber that my brother and me, when we were children, we saved one polecat which was injuried by shots. We fed it with meat. Au, I remember until now those sharp teeths.

There was one summer when, as we walked up the garden, past the woodpiles, we could smell that polecats had nested in amongst the logs - the stink was awful. We occasionally find the corpses of the neighbours' poultry with the necks bitten through, and that is the typical way polecats kill. They also carry off any eggs they can get to, and when we moved here, we discovered very old, whole chicken eggs up in our attic, by the little open square windows. A sure sign that polecats, who are amazing climbers, had shinned up three stories with the eggs in their mouths, to make a little store of them. We haven't seen or heard any evidence of them for the past couple of years now, though. I do worry about them killing our cats, though, and several of ours have disappeared without trace, so may have been victims to those sharp teeth.

I do not think that they kill your cats, Gattina. As far as I remember, polecats never killed any cat in our yard. Hen and young rabbits yes, eggs they stole too, but never attacked cat or our foxterrier. I would reallu recommend you to put some terrier in your yard and they will leave. Terriers are their enemies.
Cats sometimes disappear, they are killled by cars usually, or sometimes they fight between each other so vigorously, they they cause each other fatal injuries.

I think you are right, Katarina - about a year ago our neighbour got a little dog - nasty little thing, they call it "Attila" which is very appropriate. It's very yappy and chases our cats all the time, but we haven't seen signs of the polecats since he arrived.

:)) You see? Attila solved the problem.

Yes, but he does create others. The postman won't get out of the van, because she is so scared of him.

You never know who is Mr Postman :)))))
Believe to Attila :)

you have so much talent ... if I was wearing a hat at the moment, I'd take it off to you

Absolutely beautiful Gattina . . . what a talent to have. :))

that's how an ermine coat *should* be worn ...

:o))))))

What medium did you use, Gattina? I can't tell "from here" if it's watercolour or acrylic?? So subtle . . .

Great pic, isn't it.
Looks super in my quiz :o)))

And if you hadn't included it Terra, I would probably never have seen it. :))

It's watercolour on white scraperboard, Sheila, then given texture by excising with a number 22 scalpel blade to give the fur texture. It doesn't reproduce very well, I'm afraid.

Good enough to impress us, Gattina! Are you planning to frame it??

Nope! Where would I put it?

lol answers on a postcard, please ...

Ooooh, You ARE awful!

... But I like you! *playful slap*

I'm happy to hear it, but I don't think violence is tolerated on this site, Fran ;o))

old Dick Emery exit line for Mandy, I think - one of his characters, dunno if you remmber that far back - "her" playful slap would knock the other person flat

Er Yes! I had cottoned onto that one!
I once encountered Dick Emery in the Kings Road in Chelsea, back in the early sixties, in the pouring rain, when he "stole" the taxi I had just flagged down. I went off him after that.

not surprised! should have mugged him with your handbag.

so lovely Gattina :o))