Art Creations Friday - Ugly Duckling

This weeks challenge on Art Creations Friday is the beautiful image of this young woman with her hat. You hardly ever see women wearing hats anymore unless they are ball caps with ponytails. None of the big romantic hats with lace and flowers. I think we just don't have the time. They were lovely though. I was somewhat challenged this week in that I am running on very little sleep, too many commitments and it goes on and on... A couple of arty friends pushed me to use some of their scrapbook elements to see if I could do a collage with them. I used their buttons and ribbon in this digital collage. It was fun. I really liked the scrap book paper for texture behind the whole collage.

The Ugly Duckling

In the area, in my neighborhood that is a preserved coastal swamp, we had only two baby cygnets. We have several lakes, the Intercoastal Waterway, etc.. in our neighborhood. We have several mating pairs of swans [that had many cygnets]. Each has an area or body of water they have staked out. This year we had several late nesting pairs. Each one of these only had one or two surviving cygnets. We have a lot of predators - foxes, turtles, coyotes that unfortunately take there toll. This is one of the two nearest my house.

Every morning Mom and Dad have their two cygnets sunning on the bank. Slowly, they are developing into the beautiful creatures they will become. The past two weeks their wings have started to finally grow. It won't be long before they are swans.

I think when I was a child I loved the story of the Ugly Duckling. I was so tall and thin I felt like an ugly duckling. I would always pray to stop growing. I finally did and now I love my height. I wouldn't change a thing. I think everyone has a period in their life that is like that. Maybe that is why I find these wonderful swans so interesting.