Finding Inspiration

The other night I heard the little beep sound one hears from one's phone signaling a message has come through. It went something like this: Is this yours? with a photo attached of something the sender had seen at their local garden center. I replied that it was not, and who am I messaging with?

Turns out it was my friend Carol Kufeldt from the Seattle area, and the photograph showed an interesting collage. Thank you Carol, I took it from there! Many readers of this blog will know that I've been making collages of all sorts of images for a long time. That said, I'd yet to make one with images in the same color family, and after looking several times at the one she sent, I decided to make one of my own!

 Before you point it out, I already know that there is some variation, however, I was bound and determined to use the railing from Brighton Beach on the upper right, so I tried to incorporate the rusty color more than once. I kind of liked how it turned out, and thought perhaps someone else might too, so I put it in my weekly order for baby canvases. It's been quite a long time since I've shown a collage, so why not?

From there I included it in my monthly upload of images to SunDance, and within minutes I heard back from Alajandra, asking if I would be willing to make more using a color theme. You bet I would. I like nothing more than making things. :) Red, purple, orange, darker blue, black and gray theme, yellow, and green--I made them all.

Apparently they are heading to California next week to meet with buyers, and she was anxious to have printed copies before the trip. Well, she sure got them. Looking over the collages, I discovered that many of you are in there too. Above is from trips to England and Scotland (red door), so there is the Matt and Tom aspect (happy wedding day). The red chair--Jane and Ray, Tom's folks, took us to a lovely restaurant near their home, and that chair was in one of the rooms. That is one of the things I so love about photography, tangible evidence of my love for my friends and family. And yes, once again, I know the bike has a bunch of blue, but I'm using it for a wee bit of tension in the collage.

So, that took up a good part of Wednesday. Another big part was the RAIN and do I mean rain!

In less than 24 hours, in our neck of the woods, nearly seven inches of rain fell. Of course without my trusty rain gauge I'd have never known, so if you like to know what's happening in your neck of the woods, I suggest you pick up a rain gauge. Our newspaper reported that we got something like two inches, and perhaps at the airport that was the case, but it sure makes you wonder, say like, you look up average rainfall somewhere, and believe what you read.

Oh yeah, my knee is just fine. The WalMart manager called to check on me, I'm sure hoping I'd say I was fine, and gauging me to see if I was the type of person who would sue the store for having a pallet jack left in a walkway. I'm not. And my new flowers are planted.

Look who must have been hiding in the pool before it got so full. Generally, they get up under the lip of the deck, but a full pool makes that a little challenging.

Although the cardinal nest appeared to not yield any chicks, I believe we've already established I was incorrect in that assumption. So, so fun watching the birds.

Thursday I spent quite a bit of time doing errands that had gone undone due to the torrential rainstorms which are not so fun to drive in if not absolutely necessary. As is my custom, gift cards languish, so not only did I have my Bloomingdales gift card given to me by Dave and Michelle for Christmas, a second one from Mother's Day was in my purse. After looking at some girly stuff, I decided instead to buy a new Sanduko knife, the 5" size. For more than ten years, the 7" has been my workhorse knife, and I thought I'd add to my collection of one.

After the purchase I had about $7.00 left to spend. What, pray tell, costs that at Bloomingdales? Not much, but I did spend $2.50 on something I've never seen before.

A first for me, although I must say, it pretty much tastes the same as tap water.

At Big Lots I saw this display, and thinking of my readers who have curious minds, as in, what the heck are those Necco flavors anyway?, I took this.

While Bruce was enjoying the chocolate roll I purchased for him I asked him how much he thought it cost. Lo and behold, he nearly guessed it! 36 cents for the roll. Now let's compare that to the box of water, shall we?

Speaking of water, while at the library I filled up a water bottle at the fountain situated in the Young Adult section. Well now, look what I saw!

Carolyn Keene, indeed!

Well, there you go, I've written a post without an owl picture. Hard to believe isn't it? That said, I believe now that the little one has come down from the trees directly in front of me, the spell has been broken, and I can once again ride my bike any old place I feel like it. Well, maybe just one more...

Have an excellent weekend my friends,

Gail

p.s. names on there to protect my intellectual property!

Urban Nature

Sunday, while talking to the gentleman with the sugar gliders, I asked him what would inspire someone to carry around a pouch with four tiny marsupials, name them, and in general, treat them as pets. He responded by saying that his children were now grown, and these were his "replacement children." Well, he didn't really call them that, I did, however, that was his implication.

No one would ever accuse me of not loving my children, in fact, in my younger days I was a real "mama bear!" Woe to anyone who thought ill of the Peck boys! Bruce was my tether, keeping me from both embarrassing the boys, and myself. But this mama bear knows that all good things must come to an end, and by the grace of God, all four of our sons have made their way into the world, leaving the nest as it were. So, there are no replacement children around, if you don't count Baxter, and I don't, instead, there are natural delights found just outside our window.

Earlier this year, I was bemoaning the fact that I saw no cardinal nests in our yard for the first time in many. Well, I was wrong. Apparently they fooled me this spring because Wednesday evening, while fixing dinner, look what I saw through the glass door!

Oh my gosh it was so cute watching them!!! She looks to be about teenager age by now. Where has she been hiding???

Sunday morning the lawn sprinklers run, and while looking out my same kitchen window, I saw a butterfly kind of scooting on the deck. It is hard to describe, but the water was sprinkling like mad, and I thought the butterfly was in some sort of trouble. Shows you what I know. After the water stopped I went outside to investigate, finding the butterfly attached to the bottom of a shrub.

What do you think this meant? I'm fairly confidant butterflies don't eat little worms, just as I'm pretty confidant they are not rescuers of the same. It was while I was getting ready for the market, or should have been, but I just couldn't resist going out multiple times to see what was happening. Probably about a half an hour later, the worm was gone.

This was very low to the ground, so you can imagine anyone watching me, practically on my belly taking these photographs, would think I'd gone plum crazy!

Birds have been plentiful of late, both in the trees and on the bird feeders. Regina loves the seed pods on a tabebuia tree which form after blooming, staying there for quite some time. This little Carolina Wren seemed to as well.

It is not often that I post photographs of Blue Jays because, frankly, they are sort of the bullies around here, and I've never been fond of bullies. That said, I've taken two pretty decent BJ photos of late, one sort of pretty, while the other is intriguing. You decide which is which! This big boy is just below the back yard feeder on a pot of marigolds planted by Mr. Peck.

He has convinced me to add more and more flowers, claiming my little garden was entirely too bare. I kept saying I didn't know where else to put anything, however, he proved to be right. The various flowers are growing all over each other.

The kind of flowers I'm most fond of re-seed themselves like this little pretty which arose from the dead. Aren't they sweet?
 Don't think I've forgotten the second blue jay--ta da!

The other evening we ate dinner in the sunroom because there were several colorful frames drying on the kitchen table where we normally sit. My chair faces the yard, and of course, one of the feeders. If you are squeamish you may want to close your eyes and scroll down quickly. In a post on urban nature I feel compelled to show both the good, and the bad!

Needless to say, this did not a thing for my appetite!! Plus another one showed up!!! E gad! Make them stop!!! And to that I will add Bruce is doing what he can.

All those flowers have been attracting butterflies as well--hurray!

More please--that's the kind of nature I prefer in our yard.

Speaking of pets, most mornings when I'm riding, I see cats out and about. It's not often though that I see one that is this shade.

Lots of mixed breeds out in the streets.

Speaking of which, it is time for me to get out on the street myself before the heat of the day becomes more than I can bear. I hope you've enjoyed the urban nature around us, and you can count on more in the future as it is ever changing. That said, let's hope I have no further rat photos to post!!