Photo of the Week - "Things with Wings"

Lots of winged things around here! Unfortunately, there has also been an awful lot of rain - not the kind of weather to make me take my camera outside for a look around. However, on Monday evening we were visiting my in-laws and the skies cleared up enough to spend some time on their deck. My mother-in-law has several bird feeders and houses around, so it wasn't long before the winged things began to appear.


They weren't too pleased to see us however, especially this daddy sparrow. The bug in his mouth is intended for his chicks that were chirping their little heads off inside the birdhouse, but he wouldn't go in as long as we were sitting there.   We could see momma sparrow hovering nearby with a bug in her mouth as well, but she didn't dare to come even this close.

There is usually a little flock of nearly a dozen finches at the seed feeder, but this little one was the only one bold enough to approach. He didn't look too happy to see us and didn't stick around either.  Sigh...

Fortunately for the birds, it soon got too cool for us to remain outside, so we retired indoors and they were able to go about their business in peace once more.

In other news, I have replaced baby mer's hair with a different color and sculpted momma mer's arms.  Unfortunately the clay cracked at the shoulder joint so I will have to repair that.  I am sculpting her tail fin tonight - it will all be over soon!

Photo of the Week - "Something Easter-y"

I have to be honest... my intentions were good, but I forgot to take my camera with me to church, which is too bad, because there was no shortage of "Easter-y" stuff to shoot yesterday. I really wanted to get some portraits of little girls in their new dresses. I MISS dressing little girls, LOL!


Forgetting my camera was the first and least of our problems for the day however. Church ran long, and we came home to discover that our little alpaca had died. He was old and had a good long life, but still...


Later in the day we got a phone call from our outside hand that something was wrong with the feed wagon, so Jake headed out into the rain to deal with it. It was only a thrown drive chain, which was pretty easily fixed, but somehow some rocks had gotten inside and starting it up would only have made the chain fall off again, so... the whole thing had to be emptied by hand with a pitchfork. Jake got his workout in for the day for sure! Unfortunately, he also managed to slice up his hand pretty good. He was all for just slapping a band-aid on it, but I made him go into town to get some stitches.

We still managed to have a nice time at dinner though, so it was a happy holiday after all. It could have been worse!


I actually finished this canvas last week, but it took me this long to get it hung up and photographed. I really do need to work on my focus. Anyway, it looks great in my bathroom.

I started a small watercolor sketch of a photograph I took last spring, and so far I like it - no "mud" yet at any rate. Perhaps I am finally getting the hang of this stuff? I include a photo today because if I ruin it, this is the last you will ever see of it.

So far, so good.  Next time though, I will begin with a plant a little less inricate than rosemary.  Argh...

Photo Monday and a Work-in-Progress

As a rule, sunsets here in the Valley are not very colorful. However, the farmers in the region are going full blast harvesting crops such as late beans, wheat, wildflowers, and hops, which throws up a lot of dust into the air. I know my little sunset can't compete with Mike's extravaganzas from Florida, but I still think it's pretty.


I have pressed on through the freeze that follows an "I can't do it" panic attack on my Ghost for the Retreat next month. I sculpted those darned hands and the foot. I feel a little silly about that foot because there is no way it is going to be visible in the finished piece, but at least I will know it's there. She is finally ready now for her draping. Her face will be attached last.


Why are white things so darned hard to photograph well?

Anyway, attaching her hair took most of Saturday afternoon. For one thing it was a major headache working around her foot (which is almost touching her scalp) and for another, the superfine silk yarn I chose is maddeningly tempermental. If I had known what I was letting myself in for I would never have chosen it; however, now that it is on, I am thrilled and it is going to do exactly what I want it to do once the Paverpol is applied. (Fingers crossed...)


If only I didn't have to go to work tomorrow!

Photo of the Week - Annika at Silver Falls

My sailor son is out to sea for a few weeks, and I had the great pleasure of entertaining my daughter-in-law and granddaughter for a whirlwind visit this weekend. We have been harvesting the spring silage crop this week and busier than busy, so we decided to take today "off" and go up to Silver Falls State Park for a picnic and to have a little quiet family time away from the farm.

(Oh! how I wish we had been camping instead and could have stayed for a while. sigh...)

Of course I took my camera along. Nothing compares to the charm of a happy and playful one year old, especially to her Nana, LOL.

Photo of the Week - April 27

After a few delicious days of sunshine and balmy breezes to tease us, the weather in the Pacific Northwest has returned to dark, cold, and dreary. I took my camera out this afternoon in a rather grim frame of mind, and the best my imagination could conjure is a few flower photos. Geez, I am getting into a rut, but at least the plants know that spring really is coming, even if the sky won't cooperate!

I grew up in Southern Wisconsin where Forget-Me-Nots are a common wildflower. When a small patch volunteered to grow in my herb garden a few years ago, I couldn't bear to weed them up. Aren't they the prettiest things?


My Mother-In-Law planted these Royal Anne cherry trees years ago - looks like we are going to have a bumper crop the year.

Photo of the Week - a Labor of Love

The Church of the Pater Noster is built on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem on the site where tradition says that Jesus taught his disciples The Lord's Prayer. Set into the walls inside the building are tiled plaques with the prayer written out in 62 languages. This snapshot is of the plaque with the prayer in Friesian, my husband's parents' native language.

My husband's youngest sister (easily one of the coolest people I know) recently traveled to Israel where she took this photo. I volunteered to clean it up a little so she could have it printed and framed for her mother as a Mother's Day gift. This memento of the Holy Land will be very meaningful to Mom, as members of both her family and that of her husband were active in the resistance against the Nazis in the Netherlands during World War II.


It took me a little while (OK, a long while, LOL!) to figure out the proper order in which to make the corrections, but both of us are pretty pleased with the results. The more I learn how to play in Photoshop, the more addictive it becomes!


I never was able to totally square up the tiles. I suspect that the tiles themselves aren't level or square on the wall.