This morning we have some gorgeous photos sent in by Springa73 to help us start the week off with lots of rich, glorious colour.
I get some nice post-sunset color sometimes and thought people might enjoy a few photos. Sorry about the utility lines going through the photos, but I can’t really get a good view from my yard without them in the way!
©Springa73, all rights reserved
©Springa73, all rights reserved
©Springa73, all rights reserved
©Springa73, all rights reserved
I mentioned this before, and it bears repeating. These birds have a wicked sense of humor.
This time, two of them have shown up, and when I came out with the camera, one of them started to drift closer and closer and lower and lower, until it was circling right above me. But at the time it was right above me, it was so close, that its angular speed was too high for me to be able to keep track of it. So I only have a few blurry pictures from afar. As usual.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Keeping me waiting ©voyager, all rights reserved
My pink peonies have come and gone in a blaze of fuchsia glory, but the purple peony that lives beside it has just been sitting there with one great big bud that still hasn’t opened. Both plants are the same size and age, both plants live in identical conditions and both plants budded at the same time, yet something is obviously different. This is the first flower this plant has ever put out and I’m getting more and more anxious to see it. There wasn’t a label on the plant when we bought it last year so I’m not even sure what shade of purple to expect. I swear I’m trying to be patient, but please my pretty peony, won’t you please open your big purple eye and look at me.
Avalus has found a few small creatures who’ve been enjoying the wet weather.
Schneckenwetter: “Snail weather”, well lots of rain. And snails, everywhere.
©Avalus, all rights reserved
©Avalus, all rights reserved
©Avalus, all rights reserved
The river is high and I don’t care… ©voyager, all rights reserved
It was a quiet, sunny morning with a blue sky full of lazily drifting cupcake clouds that called to me to come outside. I’ve been waiting for this feeling. This not having to grin and bear it when I take Jack for a walk. Today was a day when I would have gone for a walk even if I didn’t have a dog. To celebrate, I made a thermos of coffee for me and some ice-water for Jack and took us down to the river to see if we could find us some beavers.
We’ve been avoiding the river area because of flooding, but it’s been a month or so since we were there and I was hoping things had improved. Well, not only hadn’t they improved, but they’ve worsened. We didn’t get far past the entrance when the whole path went underwater. Jack thought this was great fun and didn’t let it slow him down, but I wasn’t quite as willing to snorkel my way around. I let Jack frolic for a while and he was a gentleman today and dried himself off in the grass when he was done. Then, we trundled off to our usual forest for a nice, dry walk in the woods.
Happy Jack ©voyager, all rights reserved
It’s a mystery ©voyager, all rights reserved
Jack found a mysterious structure in the forest today and it left both of us shaking our heads with confusion. It’s a small building, you can see that Jack towers over it, with an open doorway and no windows. The walls are made of a mixture of mud, sticks and leaves and they form a simple A-frame cottage. Around the outside base of the structure there was a ring of plain rocks that formed an exposed footing and a single small sheet of gray plastic had been laid over the roof as weatherproofing. Inside there was a single, large rock painted a brilliant azure blue. The rock was incredibly heavy, much heavier than it looked, and I couldn’t lift it. I was able to shift it a few millimeters towards the back, but it felt almost as if something was pushing against me. As we were pondering the situation it suddenly began to rain and since neither Jack nor I could fit into the tiny shelter we reluctantly made our way back to the car. On the way home Jack told me that he’d detected a faint odor of pipe smoke and dirty feet and that he’d heard something that sounded like singing, but only for a moment. Well, that’s curious, isn’t it. Jack and I love a good mystery so we’ll be returning to see what more we can discover and next time I’ll take a few simple tools with me, like a flashlight and a something to use as a lever.
Avalus has sent us some wonderful photos of a spider he found in his parent’s garden. Photos are under the fold and you can click for full size.
…Then there was this spider, patiently waiting for prey.
The shy flower of mayapple ©voyager, all rights reserved
Things change so quickly in the forest at this time of year. Today we found very few trilliums and those that remain have turned the pretty pink of fading glory. Also disappearing are the Jack-in-the-pulpits and I’ll miss them the most. Taking their place are the shy flowers of mayapples and small patches of buttercups and forget-me-nots. The false Solomon’s seal is also in bloom and hundreds of baby trees have sprouted up across the forest floor. The biggest change we saw today was in the quality and quantity of light. The canopy is nearly full and the bare, bright light of winter and early spring has vanished into dappled pools and deep shade. The quality of sound has also changed under the fullness of leaves and the forest is entirely more intimate and inviting.
Mayapple, why must you bloom facedown? ©voyager, all rights reserved
Our tree this week comes from Avalus and I think it’s pretty special.
I have no idea how the smaller trunk grew that way, but it looks to me like the two trees are dancing.
The Bender. ©Avalus, all rights reserved
©voyager, all rights reserved
©voyager, all rights reserved
My grandmother loved flowers and my grandfather adored my grandmother and so he kept a large mixed flower garden where something was blooming from earliest spring until latest fall. Every few days he would tour the garden and cut the finest blooms for my Oma who kept them in an indigo blue vase beside her reading chair. First would come tulips and hyacinths, then branches of apple, cherry and plum blossoms. Soon lilac would follow in fragrant shades of deep purple and white and then finally, finally, the peonies would bloom. They were my Oma’s favourite flower and their yearly appearance was an anticipated event.
I’ve always wanted to grow peonies, but it’s one of those things I never quite got around to. We have a small yard and a large patio and we just didn’t have space. Then, one of our trees died. It was a white lilac tree (not a lilac bush) that had never done well and suddenly I had an open space big enough for peonies. A friend who helps me with my garden found 2 peony shrubs and last year we planted them in early June. They struggled and straggled along over the summer and fall and I wasn’t sure I’d get blooms this year, but about 2 weeks ago buds appeared, three on the pink bush and one on the purple bush. I’ve been filled with anticipation waiting for them to open and yesterday when the sun finally appeared all three pink flowers opened at once and they’re glorious.
©voyager, all rights reserved
©voyager, all rights reserved
©voyager, all rights reserved
©voyager, all rights reserved
A bit of adorable from Avalus today.
Here are photos I took in the gardens of my parents and my godson’s parents.
Eidechsen: There were tiny baby lizards, basking in the sun.
eidechse 01 ©Avalus, all rights reserved
eidechse 02 ©Avalus, all rights reserved
On of the things Marcus sent was a mould to make 4 resin balls, each about 1″ across. I think Marcus made them himself and I love them. They have enough space and a big opening to put things inside and give cool results. I’ve been having lots of fun here.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Lots more beneath the fold
Hello there. I know, I’ve been very absent recently. Work was pretty demanding, the Damokles’ Sword of not knowing whether my contract will be renewed hanging over my head* and life being busy as usual.
Last weekend we first had #1’s “culture workshop”, which is an evening when all the groups in her school can present their projects, including her class. It was an amazing evening and the kids are really damn talented, from the chubby boy with the glasses doing a kick ass rap presentation to the Syrian girls reciting poetry about their home town Aleppo.
The next day was the little one’s school festival, which usually means the very same people working a lot. It#s the same everywhere. My colleague was totally stressed out because she was organising things for her kid’s festival the same weekend. Or as Pratchett noted: if you want to get something done, give it to somebody who is already busy.
And the works in the garden have finally begun. There’s nothing like coming home with a migraine and having people use heavy machinery around the house.
As a result, we used this long weekend (holiday on Thursday, “bridge day” on Friday) to lick our wounds and recover and spend some very quiet time together, going for walks etc.
But I also got some resin art done over the weeks, especially after Marcus’ latest parcel.
Some of this will be up for sale/auction for the FtB legal defence fund, so if you set your eye on something, just let me know.
*I’m pretty positive that I won’t be unemployed come next term, but that’s not the same as knowing and I’ve noticed that it has been slowly wearing me down.
First of all, this is what the garden looks like now:
©Giliell, all rights reserved
In tearing down the old stuff they found tons of unreasonable concrete which they have to get our somehow.
First project: tealight holder:
©Giliell, all rights reserved
These look very complicated but are actually dead easy and I’d say the perfect project if you want to do something with resin but not invest a lot of money in moulds and stuff: Just pour your resin onto wax paper, let cure for about 12 hours, fold over a glass, fix with a rubber and cure completely.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
The fish are printed again, though I bought the sheet this time.
Next projects are under the fold: