Showing Up....

Where on earth have I been? In the studio, making and clip framing lots of images for a juried holiday art show. 

These are a few of my pieces that are in the show, "Big Group, Small Works", which opened last Saturday and runs until January 1, 2020. I'm pretty excited (now that I've recovered) and I really hope some of my work sells. 

One wall of the gallery is going to be filled with 6 x 6  inch works, sort of like an Instagram wall (I don't do Instagram, so I'm not really familiar with that). Another wall will be filled with 4 x 4 inch art. The idea is to have a display of small, affordable pieces of original art, so people can give gifts of art for the holidays. Pretty cool idea, right? 

A Spooky October Project

I'm doing a group themed read/knit along project based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic, The Hound of the Baskervilles. It's been a long time since I read it and I do love Holmes and Watson. 

We read and discuss the book, come up with something that connects our knitting with the theme and have fun sharing the experience. 

For my project, I'm knitting a pair of socks in a beautiful, hand-dyed colorway called "221 B. Baker Street" (and no, I didn't have any idea this read/knit along would be happening when I purchased the yarn - I just loved the color).  It's a fairly simple broken rib stitch pattern that gives a subtle wavy texture to the fabric, which is also nice and stretchy. I'm enjoying both the knitting and the reading so far. 

It's the perfect combination for an eerie Halloween monster project. I mean, what could be spookier than hanging out on the moors with the fabled hound? 

Of course, a warming mug of freshly brewed Earl Grey tea does keep one properly grounded. I wouldn't want to mistake my great, black beastie, Baloo, for anything sinister - he does occasionally go bump in the night!

An Ace in the Hole

Out in the Big Field where Baloo and I walk pretty frequently, there are many interesting creatures for an inquisitive dog to investigate. 

Baloo finds the thirteen-striped ground squirrel particularly fascinating. They sense his approach and make this sort of whistling chirp that sounds almost like it could be some kind of bird, at least until you come to recognize it for what it is - the alarm bell for all the ground squirrels in the area. 

They scramble for their burrows and Baloo would be content to watch a freshly used hole for hours (they apparently smell really good to him - he often sticks his nose right into the opening so that he can get a better sniff). Well, at least content until deciding he must dig it out of its little home for closer scrutiny. We all know how that would end....   So, naturally, I distract him with hopes of more interesting finds to come and we move on down the trail. There's always something new to discover. 

Just a Flicker

Baloo and I spotted this yellow-shafted flicker while out for our morning ramble. 

I have always thought these birds very striking with their spots and bibs and bright feathers under their wings and tails. This fellow is a male. You can tell because he's channeling Hercule Poirot with his dramatic mustaches. Female flickers lack that particular fashion statement, thought they still have the red patch on the back of their heads and the yellow feathers, as well. 

I was trying to get a better picture when he decided to fly off and all I caught was the flickering patch of white feathers on his back that are usually hidden beneath folded wings and the blur of yellow wing feathers as he took to the air. 

Jewels in the Swamp

Also known as spotted touch-me-not, jewelweed is a beautiful gem in wet areas and there's a big patch of it along one of the morning rambles Baloo and I often take.  The bright orange of these delicate flowers in the mass of green foliage is such a lovely contrast. 

It grows about 2-5 feet tall in the same sort of environment as the dreaded stinging nettle and by the time the nettle has grown enough that it can sting the unwary, the jewelweed plants are big enough to soothe the burning sensation. 

The spotted part of the alternate name for this little orchid-like flower (though I just learned it's part of the impatiens family) is pretty clear as to origin, but the touch-me-not part is less obvious. It comes from the tendency of the seed pods to explode when coming in contact with anything. That's a good thing in this case - it means there will be another patch to enjoy next year!

Looking Up

Baloo likes to put his nose to the ground in hopes of finding something interesting (and he often calls my attention to small creatures along the path), while I let my eyes wander higher, where I occasionally find something interesting myself. 

I got to see a great blue heron migrating south along the bay. I tried for a closer picture, but didn't manage to capture one. I still like the bird's silhouette against the clear, blue sky. 

I also enjoy watching the Eastern Kingbirds performing aerial acrobatics to catch flying insects. They perch for a few seconds, spot a tasty morsel and launch after it. I would love to be able to catch one of these in flight - they are amazingly fast and the only way it's likely to happen is by sheer chance!

Finally, from the top of a dead tree, a brown thrasher sang enthusiastic renditions of many different bird songs - a veritable medley of mimicry. 

Sorting...

Guess what I've been working on today? :)

I'll be adding some Speedball cutters to the box I'm sending to Kirbert for modification, too. He'll have quite a few to do, so don't hold your breath for their appearance in the store... 

I Have Often Walked down this Street Before....

While visiting the town of my birth a few weeks ago, we took a quick tour past the old house in the old neighborhood. 

It's hard to believe that five of us squeezed into this little house (we didn't have a garage back then and the front gardens weren't nearly as spectacular, but otherwise it's much as I remember it). We did, however have a magnificent lilac bush in the back yard that had a child-sized opening I often crawled into. It acted as a grand house for tea parties and other creative play.  

The upstairs window that you can see in this picture was at the top of the stairs and my "bedroom" was the hall/landing right there. I remember that the head of my bed was up against the door to the attic - and if you don't think that gave a small child nightmares thinking about what could be hiding in that attic space, you clearly didn't have the fertile imagination I had! 

It was fun to see the old street and we remembered many of the families that had lived along it with us. Also, the park was still there, where there used to be a working May pole and they held various art classes and activities for children during the summer. 

Our house was at the bottom of the hill, sort of in the "hollow" and I loved walking up the hill through the fog on my way to the school bus. It was a magical start to the day. 

The Riddle of the Sphinx

The white-lined sphinx moth is a large-bodied moth that has to flap its wings very fast in order to stay airborne. In fact, this moth and others like it are also known as "hummingbird moths", since they tend to hover and act a lot like a hummingbird in flight (although I've never seen sphinx moths engage in aerobatic jousting matches like the hummingbirds do). 

Baloo and I spotted this fellow while out on our evening walk. It was lapping up water from the grass with its proboscis, so it was occupied enough to allow me to snap a few pictures. I love the way the wings look transparent and blades of grass are visible through them.  

In my research, I learned that the caterpillar stage of this beautiful moth is the dreaded tomato hornworm - the bane of gardeners! So there's the dilemma. Without the tomato hornworm, we wouldn't have these beauties, but the tomato worms are so incredibly destructive it's hard to tolerate them. 

One possible solution to the puzzle suggested by an avid tomato gardener and general nature lover was to move all the tomato hornworms to a single plant and sacrifice it to their voracious appetites and keep all the other plants happy and producing tomatoes. It makes me a little itchy just to think about the poor sacrificial plant. 

My brother once wrote a song about the tomato worm. And yes, I still remember it. Hmmmm.... I'm suddenly struck by an idea for a personal traveler. This requires a little more puzzling of a different sort. :)

Copper Mining

For butterflies, that is. 

This is an American copper butterfly. It's a small fellow, with a wingspan of about an inch - give or take a little, depending on the particular specimen. They fly low to the ground, in contrast to the monarch or painted lady, which often soar pretty high. 

I often see these colorful beauties out in the fields where Baloo and I walk. They're sort of hard to photograph, though, because they don't hold still for very long. By the time I have zoomed in on where they were a second ago, they've moved on. I need to learn to anticipate...

Apparently, they like to eat sheep sorrel when they're in their larval stage. It's abundant around here and it would be a great hiding place for these little guys, because they're a bright green color, too. There should be a large population of American copper caterpillars in my yard, since it has several areas that have been completely overrun by sheep sorrel (and other weeds). I will have to keep my eyes open to see if I can spot one. 

Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse

As part of our tour of the thumb, we stopped at Pointe aux Barques lighthouse, which I learned is one of the ten oldest lighthouses in Michigan. 

Not only that, it's still active today, making it one of the oldest continually working lighthouses on the Great Lakes. Pretty impressive. 

The Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse Society has been doing some amazing restoration work and, if you're in the area and like lighthouses at all, it's well worth the visit. Besides, there's a nice park right on the lake. 

(Did you notice that I managed to capture a seagull in flight when I snapped this photo? I didn't want you to miss that little bit of serendipity.)

Goose Crossingl

Baloo and I had to pause our morning stroll to wait for a gaggle of geese to cross the road.  

They were not the least bit alarmed and waddled to the bay in a very leisurely manner. 

When we finally made it up to the boat launch, there was another gaggle that gawked at us as we made our way to the end of the dock to get Baloo a drink of water. 

Being something of a language geek, I had to look up other options for what one might call a gathering of geese. Though gaggle has been my favorite since childhood (my father had a fabulous book called An Exaltation of Larks by James Lipton that I absolutely loved), I learned a couple new ones that tickled me. My two new favorites being plump and skein. 

Skein is primarily used as a term for a flock in flight formation, and it seems entirely appropriate, as they string themselves out and flow like a skein of yarn being unwound. 

Plump is just humorous, since geese are generally sort of rounded birds, but the term also refers to any group of wild fowl and I wasn't able to easily track down the word's origin in this particular usage. The best guesses seemed to have it being derived from "clump" or "lump".

Aren't you glad you checked the blog today? Trivia simply abounds! :)

Play Misty for Me

 Baloo and I enjoyed walking along the bay one particularly foggy morning. The effect was magical - the opposite shore was completely invisible, shrouded in mist, and the world had a very soft focus. 

These folks were out early to see if they could catch a few fish before the fog burned off. 

A colony of gulls took refuge on one of the docks, napping and preening. 

Boats lined up at the harbor's yacht club mooring looked like ghost vessels. 

And these two deep green pines stood out like brave sentinels watching over the park. 

Linus from the old Peanuts comic strip said that when it was foggy, the clouds were walking. I like the image. 

Painted Lady

The most common species of butterfly in the world, the painted lady sort of looks like a smaller monarch wannabe. I know that there are some butterflies (like the Viceroy) that mimic monarch coloring to fool predators into thinking they're poisonous, but I don't know if the painted lady is one of those tricksters. 

Both the adult and the caterpillar are fond of familiar flowers and weeds. Thistles, daisies, black-eyed Susans and asters are some plants they favor. By the way, the caterpillar of this species is a rather nondescript brownish-black color with a few stripes and tufts on it. Nothing as showy as the monarch or unattractive as the red-spotted purple caterpillars.  

While this might be the world's most common butterfly, I still think it's uncommonly pretty. 

Merganser Mom

This common merganser mom only has one little one to watch over at this point. It sticks pretty close to her and sometimes clambers right up onto her back when it gets alarmed. 

I see the pair nearly every morning as Baloo and I walk up the road beside the bay. I think the duckling is rather a late one. It's going to have to do some fast growing to be ready for migration - right now, its wings are way too short!

Watchful Wabbit

This very clever baby cottontail kept a close eye on Baloo and me as we walked along the trail. 

It didn't really want to give up its prime breakfast buffet, but didn't want to be added to the menu, either. 

It held tight until we got too close for comfort and then it ducked under the grape vine for cover. 

Camping in Style

Coming home from my aunt's memorial service, we all took a tour of the thumb and camped along Lake Huron at a state park. 

We were absolutely charmed by this setup. Those folks knew how to camp in style. They were traveling with a canine, too, so they really did have it right.  

Theophilus Thistle

Once thistles begin to blossom (and go to seed), goldfinches finally start their nesting season. 

Most other birds are in their second or third nesting by the time this happens, but these thistle lovers wait patiently for their favorite forage to fruit. 

I can't help but think of the old tongue twister about Theophilus Thistle when all of this is transpiring. 

So, if  you think you have the temerity to test the thickness of thy tongue, twist thusly:

Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle sifter,

In sifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles,

Thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb.

If Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle sifter,

Can thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb,

See thou, in sifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles,

Thrust not three thousand thistles through the thick of thy thumb.

That would be painful! If Theophilus was considered successful, I'd hate to be a failure!

Kits and Kaboodles

It's taken me long enough, but I finally put together some carving kits with Tan-Z Kut. 

First, the simpler, beginner's kit with two different carving materials, a handle and cutters. 

Then, the deluxe carving kit with bigger pieces of Tan-Z and Speedy Carve, mounting foam and a fuller range of tools. 

I also added another kit to inventory that I thought looked interesting. I only got a couple of them, so we'll see how they go before I stock very many of them. 

Next up? I think I'll try to sort through the last couple boxes of Staedtler cutters and get the ones that need work sent off to Kirbert for modification. (I think I hear cheering!)  :)

Safe Harbor

From time to time, when the weather gets a little bit dicey out on Lake Michigan, we get some interesting visitors taking refuge in the little harbor that Baloo and I walk along on summer mornings. 

Occasionally, they are so over-sized for this inlet that it's a visual surprise to see one of these huge crafts moored among the much smaller sailboats and fishing boats. 

Of course, when one comes to rest in the neighborhood, I try to look up what in the world it is. Sometimes we get cruise ships, sometimes we get cargo ships or other more industrial looking crafts and once there was even a really beautiful yacht called "Canim" that used to belong to Buster Keaton (yes, I did my research). 

This one is a Lacey Kay. It's a touch over 95 feet long and has nearly a 9800 mile ocean faring range. 

It's a really big boat. 

Red-spotted Purple or Orange-spotted Blue?

This beauty was beating itself against a plastic barrier and I managed to catch it and (try to) release it. It seemed to find perching on my finger restful and stayed there for quite a long time. When I finally got it to take off, it circled back and landed on me again. It did, finally, flutter off on its appointed rounds, but I enjoyed the opportunity to get a really good look at it. 

I wonder how this species ended up bearing the name "Red-spotted Purple". The particular specimen pictured here, at least, was orange-spotted and the most striking color was blue. I'm not a scientist, though, so I merely wonder whether someone might have been a little bit color blind. Maybe me. Who knows?

I also looked up information about the caterpillars of this species of butterfly. It turns out that it disguises itself from predators by looking like bird droppings. I went searching for images and, sure enough, it looks a lot like that. Pretty clever! Don't you just love nature?

Happily, they didn't name it the Bird Poop Butterfly.  That would have been bad. 

Oh, Honey!

Baloo and I walked back to the magical goldenrod field again yesterday afternoon, but there was only one bloom open and only one (very busy) visitor. 

This little fellow worked over every inch of the flower and packed his pollen baskets to the brim. 

I had to look up honey bee anatomy to learn what to call those bulging leg parts. Pollen basket seems so simple and descriptive, doesn't it? I love learning new things!

We'll have to try again next week to see if the flowers have opened and enticed the monarchs to return or not. 

Golden Moments

There's a loop trail that Baloo and I take through the woods and at one end of it there's a semi-open brush covered field that often has deer lounging around in it. 

At about this time last year, we walked it and while we didn't wake any deer from their naps, we found it bursting with color and movement. 

Goldenrod was blooming everywhere and between the monarch butterflies and the honeybees, there was constant movement and humming. 

Sadly, it was one of the few days that I had forgotten to bring along my regular camera, so I had to make do with my telephone. 

I couldn't believe the number of monarch butterflies. There were often three or four on a single goldenrod head. (There's a sneaky honeybee on the lower left blossom, if you look really closely.)

These pictures don't begin to do it justice, but I thought I would share them anyway and let your imaginations fill in the rest of the scene. 

Hmmm... Posting this has inspired me. Goldenrod is beginning to bloom again, so I think I'll take Baloo to that trail to see if we can catch a repeat performance! If we do, you may have to put up with another post about butterflies and flowers. 

Who knows? It might be worth it. :)

Being Green

Oh, look! A green frog. No, really. That's what it is. It's not just green and a frog, but it is actually called a green frog - or sometimes a bronze frog because of the somewhat bronze coloration amid all the green. (This odd introduction is a fond nod to my father's habit of teasing me about creatures with obvious names - like the green frog or the black and white warbler.)

The green frog looks a lot like a bullfrog, but the ridges of skin along the sides of its back distinguish it from its loud basso profundo cousin. As to voices, if I had to describe it, I'd say the green frog sounds a little bit like a banjo with loose strings being plucked enthusiastically.  I'm being completely serious (in a slightly tongue in cheek way). If you don't believe me, look up an mp3 recording of the green frog's song online. You'll see what I mean. 

So, does anybody else out there remember Bozo, the Clown's song about the Filbert, the Frog? No? Just wondering. I still remember all the words - and that's a little frightening. Pinto Colvig sang it and did amazing glottal stop renditions of frog croaking, also bringing green frogs to mind. 

Okay, it must be bedtime. This post has gotten even more peculiar than usual. :)

Make New Friends!

I love meeting new friends when I'm out wandering around in the wide world with Baloo. 

This vine was covered with little six-petaled flowers and the effect reminded me of a cascading whitewater rapids or waterfall. Of course, we were walking along the river, so the association was completely natural. 

I didn't know who this plant might be and had to go look it up. I learned that it's a wild cucumber vine! When the fruits ripen, they look like cucumbers - except they're really spiny.  Imagine if you crossed a porcupine with a cucumber - this is what you might get. Or a gooseberry and a cucumber - that would be just about right, too. I'll have to see if I can spot some later in the season and take another picture. 

So, now we've been formally introduced and I have a new friend out on the river trail. That's always a treat. 

Left Hanging!

I have sort of left the blog hanging for the past year. I got a little bit burned out and overwhelmed. 

The nuthatch is much better at being upside-down and backwards than I am, but I think I just might be back on track again. And I have plans to celebrate that very thing. So, stay tuned! :)

Happy Birthday, Stampeaz!

While walking Baloo earlier, I realized that February 8th is the 13th anniversary of my opening the cyber-doors of Stampeaz.com. That was sort of a mind-boggling revelation and one that seemed to invite a party!

So, to celebrate 13 years of sending cool carving stuff around the world and getting to know so many great carvers, printmakers and generally wonderful people, I'm having a one day 13% off sale on Tan-Z Kut. I think I figured out how to set up the store software to do this all automatically, but just in case I goofed somehow, know that I'll fix anything that doesn't go according to plan!

Thank you all for a great 13 years. It feels like a pretty lucky number today!