Goldifnches!

These were very welcome visitors – about 8 to 10 of them. Last year I have seen no goldfinches at all, the whole year. A small flock last week made me really happy.

Green Woodpecker

Munchin’ on ants in my neighbor’s garden. I do wonder how she finds them under the snow, but she does.

More Robin

I think this might be the same bird as last time since I never saw more than one.

Fungi Friday

It’s unusual to find mushrooms in the winter, but Avalus has a good eye and found a few to share with us. Enjoy.

Here are some photos I took over the last few days of January mushrooms.

These two I found in front of the department building. I really like the colour of their tops, they look like leather. The undersides look fascinating too. (photos 1 & 2)

Yesterday we had some snow as well and today I found this little fella, poking out the fresh snow. (photo 3)

Jack’s Walk

I’ve been struggling to write this column, which is why it’s been so long since you’ve heard from Jack and me. We’re both fine, but our lives have changed, and we’re not having many adventures anymore. My sweet, beautiful Bubba will be 13 on Feb. 29th (March 1 in this non-leap-year), and he’s succumbing to the ravages of old age. He’s a big, heavy boy and his weight-bearing joints are full of arthritis, making it difficult for him to get around. He still wants to go out a few times a day to wander around the yard, but taking a real walk is no longer possible. We’re lucky to have an excellent vet who keeps Jack comfortable, and he remains a happy boy who spends his days gazing out the window or dozing by my side.

My vision for Jack’s Walk has always been for it to be a happy place where we take a moment to appreciate the wonders of the world around us and maybe take a deep breath and have a smile. It’s been hard to find that voice over the past few months, but it’s still there, and today, I have a HappyJack story to share.

For the past year or so, Jack has been bothered by warts on his face that itch. He rubs his face on everything – table legs, people legs, carpets, snow, grass, dirt, telephone poles, his bed, my bed, my hand if it’s dangling in reach, and sometimes even poop if it smells just right. One wart grew very quickly and then started to break down and bleed, and it’s been so bad recently that the vet and I finally decided to go ahead and have it removed. That would mean an anesthetic, which is risky for an old boy like Jack, who was listening in to our conversation and making plans of his own.

A few days later, I noticed that Jack wasn’t rubbing his face, and then it struck me that the big ugly wart was gone. I took a closer look, and all I could see was a small, clotted stump resembling an umbilicus that was ready to drop off. Apparently, Jack scratched it off himself. No need for surgery, no need for wound care, and no need to spend the estimated 1,200 dollars. What a good boy, eh?

Winter Wonderland 5: Miscellaneous

Well, it’s not the Arctic sea, but for a frozen puddle it looks dramatic enough.

A little chaffinch used the open ground under the trees to look for food.

The Nile Goose knows how to pose with a frame of tree branches.

Aaaand, save the best for last. It’s my absolute favourite. Taking pics of crows is damn hard, because the pitch black will just throw off your auto focus and they rarely keep still for long enough to adjust it manually. But in the bright sunlight, the auto focus caught on and the blue and green frame it perfectly.

Winter Wonderland 4: The Battle for the Skies

A buzzard used the opportunity to scout for food (and now guess who only had the 250 mm lens with her), but the crows were having none of it.

Winter Wonderland 3: More Swans

The two juveniles must be about the same age. They are still smaller than their parents, although they have grown a lot since they first arrived, but they have always been about the same size and started out the same cygnet grey. Yet one of them keeps clinging to its baby colours, only reluctantly letting go of the grey and slowly turning white.

Winter Wonderland 2: Swanlake meets Frozen

The swans are the mascots of the whole village. The old pair divorced and moved out some time in 2019, so last autumn they got a new breeding pair with two juveniles. They have shelter on a little island and get fed and I must say, they are remarkably relaxed for swans, especially since the pond has been busier than I’ve ever seen it. Can’t wait for Covid to be over and people going elsewhere again.

Winter Wonderland 1

We’ve been having some snow over the last week, but on Friday we had snow on the ground AND brilliant sunshine and the good thing about home office is that you can decide to take a long break at midday and work when it’s dark. So I packed the camera and the Pokémon and went to the pond for a walk.

It’s too many pics for a single post, so you’ll be getting them over the next few days.

That’s the same pic, more or less, different camera settings. Takes you from brilliant to gloomy.

I love icicles. I was not that easy getting this perspective and afterwards jeans were wet.

Take a pic in the shade, and suddenly everything looks grey…

Resin Art: Just some fun

Now, one of the good things last year was that we finally installed a “work bench”, i.e. my grandma’s old kitchen cupboards, giving me space to work on and where I can leave my stuff over night. The downside is that it’s in the unheated cellar room. Being fully underground, that’s the coolest room in the house, as it also doesn’t get any “spare heat” from that fucking huge wood pellet furnace. This makes working with epoxy resin in winter difficult. The epoxy is not really runny, and while curing you’re prone to “Kawaii sheen”: the surface gets matte and has some dots, much like the “soft, softer, do I need glasses” blurry filters you sometimes get in Mangas or animes. That’s not a problem when you cast something in silicone: the top surface is in the silicone and thus comes out shiny, but it is a problem when you want to topcoat something.

To solve the issue I dragged a gas heater we bought during renovations from the garage to the cellar and got a new gas bottle. This worked well the first time, but apparently there’s something wrong with the switch, so I can’t actually turn it to any setting apart from “starting” anymore. But I really, really, really wanted to do some resin, so I took the UV resin upstairs. You generally only work with small amounts and little stuff, so that’s ok to do in the kitchen. I just hope that the safety googles aren’t just labelled as “UV filter”, but actually are, or my eyes are fucked.

So here’s some less artsy and more cutesy projects.

A seashell shaker. The shaker form is epoxy resin. No reason to waste lots of expensive UV resin on it. Also: white UV resin doesn’t actually cure well, because the white pigment of course blocks the UV light from reaching everything below the surface.

A seashell charm. This didn’t turn out quite as well. I should have coloured the first blue layer a lot darker, but it’s still nice.

Look who didn’t mix her resin and her dye well enough… But I actually love how the dye separated from the resin. I sealed both sides well with clear resin to make sure nothing stains or sticks.

And now my favourite: the galaxy fox:

It’s got so much sparkle, and that’s sometimes the thing you really need.

The Art of …

… glass, by Dale Chihuly

These photos were taken at the artist’s Seattle Gallery called Garden and Glass. Photos are by Mike Heller Photography. and there is much more to see from the gallery at his site. I’ve chosen a few of my favourites and they can be seen below the fold.

From the exhibit Garden and Glass by Dale Chihuly. Photo by Mike Heller.

[Read more…]

Snowy Glitter

Yesterday we had a rare occurrence – a sunny day in winter. With pristine snow.

It did not lure me outside, I loathe winter with a passion and winter sports even more. But I did point my camera out of my window and did some clickety-click. It looks pretty. From the inside of a warm living room.

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AfD Wins

Goldifnches!

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Green Woodpecker

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More Robin

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Fungi Friday

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Jack’s Walk

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Winter Wonderland 5: Miscellaneous

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Winter Wonderland 4: The Battle for the Skies

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Winter Wonderland 3: More Swans

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Winter Wonderland 2: Swanlake meets Frozen

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Winter Wonderland 1

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Resin Art: Just some fun

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The Art of …

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Snowy Glitter

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