I adore seeing fruit trees and vines and such leafing out, blossoming and getting the goodies growing! Here are some of the favorites I have; I already have picked a bowlful of the strawberries! I also have grapes, peaches and such, but these were the easiest to photograph.
Here are what they produce: Across the top are apples (I have five different kinds) and blackberries, the biggie below is blueberries and the stacked ones to the right are raspberries and strawberries. Come on cobblers, bread additions, muffins and lots of other ethereal edibles!
I live in a forest cabin with no neighbors, no visitors, no family. Gee whiz! I gotta do something to keep relatively sane! So I use what I have to make things when the needed work is done. I buy the cloth to make all my skirts, dresses, jackets, even stuff animals. What about all the stuffed animals I’ve collected over the years? Why not!
We BEAR-LY Made IT!
I had a huge homemade snowman on the living room table until Spring came along, then wanted a warm-weather display. TaaDAA! BTW, the white bear with the eyepatch has it as he lost a beady eye. I could have replaced it, but the piratish look looks good next to the aviator.
I do have my Old Lady Who bookstore in the garage that I sell on the Abe Books site so need to head to the Post Office every week, but unless I’m working outside or on the cabin I have a strong desire for creating something. I write sci-fi and other books, sew, paint on canvas, make yoghurt and bread and more, design jewelry, bake with all the fruit I grow, and anything else I can imagine.
I live alone here in a very rural cabin as you may know…and my creativity sometimes goes wild. I’ve been battling mice in my basement recently and these photos show what has addled my mind!
My ever most favorite power tool of my beloved scroll saw, a really nice one from Germany that I got decades ago. The cabin was new and the place needed a place to hang your coat:
Hanger at the front door
The experiment worked out, so next I tried making a…
Toilet Paper Holder!
Then I wanted something more fantastic, something for fun. Imagine this fella in the sky! I have it hung high up on the wall in the art room.
The Mighty Dragon!
Then I got me a wood burner pen, oh boy!
Dear Ol’ Shaggy!
A “Switch” to flowers!
I did lots with that dear scroll saw and the pen with its neat attachments. What fun! I set it all aside when life interrupted. Now, so many years later, I have some interesting ideas for that set-up…. let’s dust it off and see if it still works, eh?
After rain, rain, rain and more rain, I got jazzed to not only get some snow but 8 or 10 inches of it! I’ve lived in New York, California, Illinois, Florida and a little Indian Ocean atoll, but have the dearest attachment to my birth state of Kentucky. I love the environmental diversity, the equality of seasons (usually) and the log cabin I built here amidst the woodland and wildlife.
Yet I still love science and the fascinating areas of astrophysics and energy production. I study the climate issues and pick out the constellations on clear nights. I write science fiction with real science issues in them.
These two aspects coalesced on a snowy afternoon, impelling me to etch a Snow Geek in the freezing white fluff. Enjoy your day!
I recently created an acrylic on canvas painting. I thought lots about it before picking up a brush and thought I might share what I think it means. First, just take a look and see all the bright colors, flowers and creatures!
My view? The trellis is a community or city. The the flowers are what sustains the folks in the area, the grocery store. The hummingbird, butterfly, caterpillar and bees are us, people of all kinds and characteristics. They gather peacefully, don’t they? At least these do.
One thing folks don’t notice is that the flower vines have stems that have roots into the ground, aka the earth. What if that very bright sun with dagger rays shined for weeks with no rain? Drought is increasing. Of course floods are on the rise (ahem…) as well. What if petroleum or other pollution got to the roots? Happens too much.
If the flowers die, the whole system dies. And please see the flowers are all curved away from that hot sun; the planet’s already warming. I started considering this painting as a metaphor for love and light, the critters all getting together so well and all. It still does I suppose, love our planet and let the light shine on our correcting the harm done over the decades so those who come after us can have a safe and beautiful planet to live on.
“Prissy girls.” Mama went back to her crossword puzzle and I stomped back to my room to take off those durn blue jeans that showed my ankles as soon as possible. Tossing my book bag and shedding my shame, the treasure spread across my bed stole my attention.
My Bookmobile treasure: Pollinators. Geology and the Inland Sea, The Science of Fire. Storm Dynamics. With a fluffed pillow at my back and my giraffe legs stretched out before me, I reached for the nearest tome. The 8th grade science fair was only 27 days away. Hmmm, weather instruments.
I had a jelly jar in my hand wondering what to use as a membrane when I saw the fancy syrup bottle with the plastic handle and spout in the trash. The jelly jar went back to Mama’s canning supplies. The smaller opening would mean the little balloon would fit lots easier and still be big enough for a pointer. A needle would poke the balloon. Dootdootdoot…what the hoot? Epiphany! A toothpick! Glue, where’s the glue?
The two poster boards were a breeze to do. One had a wild tornado in the center with a spotted cow and a couple trees in it. Labels and arrows artfully drawn noted the details. The other had a description of my EXPERIMENT. The harder part turned out to be affixing the index card to the narrow bottle neck. Scissors! Tape! Where’s the durn tape?
I added another reading from the weather report; the toothpick had a great range against the card which gave me pretty good room to record the data. The weather guys said a band of storms were on the way. Great! I might get a few data points in the low ranges right before the science fair!
Me, the biggest idiot in the room. The guy to the left of me had put an Apollo capsule model together. On the right, the guy with a hamster in a cage kept trying to make the critter run in the wheel. Across from me the guy had a printed, full color diorama of the Grand Canyon. Several boys had volcanoes. Except for me they were all boys.
Seeing the strange high school teachers quizzing the Apollo fellow reminded me of a warthog, me, realizing lions approached. Could I still run Where were the exits?” I blinked at hearing someone knock on the table and there they stood, directly in front of me. Holy bovines.
“Miss, please explain why you brought this mess here.”
Mess? By golly, warthogs had tusks. “Sirs, Ma’am, I made this barometer from ordinary items and calibrated the device using the National Weather Association certified reports that are televised each evening.” Here I pointed at the data on the card. “There are 23 data points taken before last Tuesday. On that day, the barometric pressure got so low, the balloon busted. This mess is the evidence that my barometer worked.” I did not add that the sight of that balloon getting sucked into that bottle and popping will amaze me to the end of my days, all the while Mama clutched my little sisters under the kitchen table and screamed at me to join them.
Well, 1st place won me $50. The April 3, 1974 swarm of ravaging tornadoes allowed me to proceed directly to the Woolco Department Store where I purchased a brand new Brother sewing machine. I figured out how to use it. From then through now, I choose the material for my clothes, I select the patterns and alter as needed. And my pants have always been the right length.
I put a batch of Stout and one of Nut Brown Ale last Saturday. I am delinquent with brewing this year, so much going on and so many demands! I have a few cases of bottles to sanitize this weekend in great anticipation of the fermentation being adequately accomplished. Late Spring through early Autumn is the only time I can do a brew as I don’t implement much heating or cooling in the cabin…whatever nature gives me for the most part. Hmmm, I’ll have time to put up a ferment of Porter and a Bitter this weekend after the bottling is done…maybe. We’ll see. It’s gotta last all winter and I do need a way to keep warm.
So I got a late start? Well I did put up two batches of mead (yeah, like the Vikings drank, fermented honey) and have them in the basement snugly aging. One was a classic dry mead and the other has plums in it – that’s got a special name I cannot for the life of me remember at the moment. Megathlin or some such. It was a mess to fool with.
The flavored stuff I’m dubious of, but the dry mead I’ve done before and there is no reason at all for it not to be superb in a year or two. Yes, into the next decade. Got to think ahead, you know. And there’s plenty of space in the basement.
I get the Science Today feed for the headlines and a brief summary of the latest findings. This one caught my eye a while back:
That immediately brought to mind a painting I did a few years ago. It’s just a hobby but I enjoy making things. Wow, seeing this story about the very thing I’d imagined! It doesn’t matter to me that it’s silly and amateur…it was fun to do!
It’s on a huge canvas and I’d love to say it looks better in person…but maybe not. The textures come out better, anyway. The water looks more dramatic.
I have another painting I started a few months ago and abandoned when the weather started getting cooler and when I got a few bundles of beautiful new cloth to sew. I decided on making thermally superior long johns instead of painting, go figure. BTW, they’ve been so phenomenal that I am eyeing the materials to make more (sew I can wash this set more often)…
It’s another featuring my beloved stick-chicken type character. I have gobs of vacation to use – if the paint isn’t frozen (the room I paint in is over the unheated garage) I may give this masterpiece (HA!) a chance once more. Finish it? No promises.
I have a few cases of bottles to sanitize this weekend in great anticipation of the fermentation being adequately accomplished. Late Spring through early Autumn is the only time I can do a brew as I don’t implement much heating or cooling in the cabin…whatever nature gives me for the most part. Hmmm, I’ll have time to put up a ferment of Porter and a Bitter this weekend after the bottling is done…maybe. We’ll see. It’s gotta last all winter and I do need a way to keep warm.
I have another painting I started a few months ago and abandoned when the weather started getting cooler and when I got a few bundles of beautiful new cloth to sew. I decided on making thermally superior long johns instead of painting, go figure. BTW,
they’ve been so phenomenal that I am eyeing the materials to make more (sew I can wash this set more often)…
How Would You Do It? 