Spiders Brave the Cold

This was sent in by Avalus near the end of December. I’m hoping, but not confident, that these brave little arachnids continue to survive.

I completely forgot about these pictures I took at the end of November!

Spider bridge is back! 

But now with my good camera I could take nice crispy close-ups of the spiders. Also a Glowspider! Happy Holidays PZ

There are still some orbweavers left, exploiting the night-lights in the railing but in November, the railing was full of webs. Now they are a scattered few. But it is really warm, 5-15°C, we had one day of snow at the beginning of December.

The rest of the photos are below the fold.

©Avalus, all rights reserved.

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Tummy Thursday: A Rainbow for the New Year

Usually we spend New Year’s Eve with our friends, and for the last years we always did a culinary world travel. Now, travelling has been banned, parties as well (for good reason), so we stayed at home, wondering what to eat. #1 gave me a challenge: A rainbow dinner! I accepted and delivered a three course meal:

Starter: Tomato coconut soup with a cheese stick, red and orange

©Giliell, all rights reserved

The soup was delicious, and dead easy: Pureed tomatoes, coconut cream, onions, garlic, molasses, spices, butter. We also used grandma’s good china.

Main course: Cornbread (savoury) and spinach (and some meat), yellow and green:

©Giliell, all rights reserved

The cornbread was  a little dry, sadly, but the lamb was not so I simply soaked up the juices with the cornbread.

Dessert: Petit Fours with cherry jelly and lemon curd, blue, indigo and purple:

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Petit Fours are always sweet as hell, but the lemon curd balanced it nicely. Still nothing where grown ups will ask for a second piece. Teenagers otoh…

 

Wind Power for Standing Rock

The Dakota Access Pipeline issue is still not fully resolved, but that does not mean that one cannot work on another issue. And in fact, people of Standing Rock are building a wind farm. For more information go here. If you can afford to donate, you can do so here. Current donations go towards building an access road to the future wind farm.

A Handcrafted Mausoleum and Graveyard

The first Monday of the new year demands something special, and thanks to Avalus we have it. Behold the wonderful mausoleum and graveyard to accompany his Wizard Manse and Observatory.

No town frozen by magic and populated with the undead is complete without a graveyard. So here is my interpretation. I tried making it creepy but also quite peaceful compared to the other buildings that are in ruins.

Again mostly cardboard, with a wooden base, a leftover from furniture. The tombs are just — stuff I had around. I wanted to avoid any real life imagery for the headstones, so I used several established fantasy designs. The fence is pieces of foam and some cocktail sticks a flatmate bought years ago and never used.

Sneaky bit: The mausoleum is removable. Actually, for storage purposes but it might be used for some reveal in a game with a gamemaster.

Also, one work in progress shot. Making these kinds of roofs is actually really satisfying. Just cardboard strips cut with some irregularity and then bend and warped a bit und finally glued to a roof substrate. Just handling the house to take the photos makes me want to make another small house just to have an excuse to build another roof. :D

So let’s take 2020 to the grave!

©Avalus, all rights reserved.

©Avalus, all rights reserved.

©Avalus, all rights reserved.

©Avalus, all rights reserved.

©Avalus, all rights reserved.

Happy New Year!

Yes, I know, it’s late.

No, I didn’t have a hangover. It’s just that we spent a lot of time together. Turns out that keeps me from the computer.

©Shivia, all rights reserved

We had a very quiet New Year’s Eve with good food (more come Tummy Thursday), Dinner for One (and Dinner for Brot), a German New Year’s Eve tradition, and some socially distanced cheers with the neighbours outdoors. The little one got told to put on shoes, and she complied in the most adolescent way possible:

©Giliell, all rights reserved

I have also been very nasty to Mr: I told him exactly what I want for my birthday and then I refused to order it myself because seriously, he can’t rely on me always doing the internet shopping. Turns out, he’s a big boy and can actually do it if there’s no wife to dump it on. At least I hope so. I’ll see when my birthday comes around…

Speaking of gifts: This is what Mr got for Christmas*:

I definitely love Rüdügür (the cleaning robot. The aardvark is called Schnuffelchen and greatly enjoys her ride). I tell him to start cleaning when I go to bed and in the morning it’s clean. Though he also forces us to be tidier: no more “just put it on the floor”, no more cluttering the kitchen table, because the chairs need to go up there.

So, I hope you all had a nice and relaxed end and start of the year, and that 2021 will have us all vaccinated and out and about again.

*No, we don’t do that “beggar yourself for Christmas” thing. At the end of the year we’ll look into our finances, see what the Christmas bonus was, see what larger items we want/need and then call it Christmas gifts. One year Mr got a new fridge and I got a power drill.

The Art of …

… sculpture, by David Govedare

About a month ago, The Art of… posted The Mustangs of Las Colinas, and a commenter by the name of Nifty sent me to look at this installation. I think it’s fabulous and wanted to make sure that as many people as possible get to see it. It is one of the most viewed art installations in Washington State, with an estimated 100 million cars passing by between 1990 and 2008. According to Wikipedia,

Although it can be seen for miles in all directions, the sculpture itself can be accessed via a rough footpath which leads from the east-bound side of the I-90 freeway near Vantage to the top of the ridge. According to the guide book Washington Curiosities, the best viewing point from a distance is Wanapum Vista on I-90 three miles east of Vantage.

Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies (The Wild Horse Monument), 1986 – 1990, by David Govedare. Image from Wikipedia.

Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies (The Wild Horse Monument), 1986 – 1990, by David Govedare. Image from Wikipedia.

The Art of ..

… painting, from the beginning.

This image is one of the oldest known figurative paintings. Found in the Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave in Borneo and dated to an estimated 40,000 years old, and possibly as old as 52,000 years. The artist is unknown. (via Wikipedia)

Figurative Painting in ochre from Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave. Image from Wikipedia.