Panning for Gold

Sometimes, when Baloo and I are out walking in the woods, we find something really marvelous. Usually, it's something beautiful to look at or interesting to learn about, but occasionally we discover gourmet delicacies. 

We ran across a particularly nice bloom of golden chanterelle mushrooms glowing like a beacon in the shade of the forest. I know - they look toxic, don't they? One of my brother's friends says that they look like they are positively dripping with poison, but they are among the most choice of edible fungi.

Some of them were pretty sandy, so rigorous cleaning was required, but I ended up with a lovely bowl full of golden treasure. 

Then, after slicing them all up, it was time to saute them in a little butter and olive oil. 

Since mushrooms are mostly water, they took time to cook down. While they did, the nutty, earthy aroma was absolutely moth-watering. 

So, of course, I had to have some for breakfast in scrambled eggs, along with homemade sourdough pita bread. A mushroom lover's delight. Yum! I saved the rest of them for other culinary adventures.

It's Coming Together - Slowly

It was getting a little quiet on the blog front again, wasn't it? There has been a lot going on with the Stampeaz site rebuild, so it's time for another update. I can't pretend it's terribly interesting reading, but people have asked for it. You have been warned.  

The pieces are starting to create a picture that looks like it might eventually make some sense. As you can see, there are still big chunks missing, but it's beginning to look like it's really going to come together. So, what does that mean, exactly? 

All the carving materials and kits, most of the carving tools and several lines of ink pads and inkers have been entered into the new database. Today, I'm working on more of the inks, inkers and markers. I have set myself a deadline for getting it all finished and, if I manage to figure out how to deal with shipping costs, I just might come close to making that deadline. It's  possible I will have to use the same shipping refund workaround that I did in the old store, where I simply refunded any shipping overcharge. This is only an issue since I use regional flat rate mail, which varies in cost depending on how far away from me a customer is and I can't know how much postage will be until I actually create the label at the post office's web site, but we'll see if I can come up with a better methodology. I just don't like people to have to pay more than is necessary for postage. 

This data entry process has brought home to me just how many different things have been added to the store over the years, as people requested them. There is a surprising amount of stuff in the basement! So, I confess that I might cheat a little bit on the deadline thing - I am trying to get the most important and most popular inventory entered first and some things that don't get as much love from my customers may straggle into the store after it's up and running. That means that if you don't see something that you think should be there, don't panic. Let me know and I will take care of it. :)

How has Baloo been faring during all of this? He has been amazingly patient as I continue my extreme preoccupation with all things computer. His human is unusually boring these days, but he's still insisting that we get outside for several walks every day, so he's right on top of his job. When it's time for me to move (or feed him) he keeps jogging my elbow, making data entry impossible -- and I have to keep him from putting his chin on the keyboard to do his very own database manipulations. He is helping. 

Farm Art

Once again, the big farm that Baloo and I pass on our way to several of our favorite walking areas had a noteworthy addition or two (the last one being the baby burro that appeared in the blog a couple weeks ago). One of the people living at the farm is an artist and I have featured her work in past posts, too. On our way by, I noticed she was working on something out in one of the fields and I thought it might be a play area for some goats or something, since they have had goats in that little field before. 

On returning to the area a couple days ago, I saw that what she had been working on was a platform for a new art installation. The fun thing about the pieces she creates in her yard, her fields and on the walls of barns and outbuildings is that she uses characters from among the animals that live on the farm. In this case, you can tell by the markings that the baby burro is featured here pulling the cart.One of their several border collies is riding shotgun with one of the human residents of the farm. The pieces she creates are always delightful and I get to admire them every time we go by. 

In addition, this pony has just joined the herd. It looks quite content with its status as the newest denizen of the herd.  If my memory serves, this looks like a Shetland pony. I remember a few adventures riding these occasionally feisty little guys at the fair when I was a child... 

I'll have to keep my eyes open - maybe she'll create something using this pony as her model. 

Frogs and Fashion

One of the places Baloo and I like to walk is a wetland area that is currently even wetter than usual, due to the record high water levels in Lake Michigan. The water table is so high that parts of the trails have merged with the marsh. 

The fun thing about this was that frogs were hanging around right where the paths run and it was easy to see them up close as we wandered along the wetland's edge, trying to keep our feet dry. 

These green frogs (yes, that's their name as well as their color) must have been particularly confident because they didn't budge when we walked up to them. This was unusual, since most of the time I hear the plops of retreating frogs before I find them in the water. I liked the birch bark this one was using for a little bit of cover.  

Seriously, frogs were everywhere. Big and small. 

I think this one might have been my favorite, though. It had fashioned some sort of vegetative headgear - an amphibious trend setter, don't you think? 

It's a Shoe-in!

Once again, Baloo and I were out walking (we do that a lot) and we encountered a very active little butterfly fluttering around nearby. I wanted to get a closer look and maybe even take a picture or two so that I could identify it and maybe even use it for blog post or carving inspiration. And when I say nearby, I mean that it was flying all around us and frustrating any attempt at a capturing a photo. 

Then, for some inscrutable reason of its own, it decided to land on the edge of my shoe, which was close enough for a picture, but not a very useful one. 

It started to flap its wings, but rather than fly off again, it simply climbed higher. 

Apparently there was something rather pleasing about my shoe, because it stayed for quite a while. In this picture, I was able to get a tiny glimpse of the markings on the underside of its wings. 

Interestingly, when it opened its wings fully, the markings on the top were less colorful than those on the underside, where the spots had orange rings around them. I was able to look it up when I got home and learned that it's a Little Wood-satyr butterfly. They like sweet tree sap, some mushroom secretions and they even eat the sugary honeydew that aphids create from feeding on plants.

It must have found something sweet on the top of my shoe, as you can see here, because it has its proboscis extended to take in something - and it kept at it until Baloo finally got curious enough about what was going on to come over and nose around, which sent it on its way. 

While perhaps not the most colorful of butterflies, it certainly qualifies as one of the friendliest we have had the pleasure of meeting. 

On a Really Hot Day...

Everybody enjoys some nice, refreshingly cold watermelon! 

Grace and Awkwardness

As we walk through one particular area during our morning rambles, Baloo and I almost always encounter a couple of Eastern Kingbirds. I know I shared a few photos of them last year, but this year's crop seems to be more cooperative when it comes to mugging for the camera. 

They always seem to land at the tip of a flower or shrub after one of their beautiful flights, so that they can easily spot another tasty morsel to pursue. This stem can barely hold the bird's weight. 

It's almost as if they wait for us and enjoy swooping around showing us their acrobatic sky dives and loops as they catch their breakfast on the wing. Now that I think about it, that might actually be the case, since we're probably disturbing bugs and causing them to take to the air as we make our way through the tall grasses.

I just had to include this photo, silly as it is. Baloo kept photo bombing my attempts at capturing a nice image. Sometimes he would just run ahead, causing my subject to fly off before I could get focused. He likes to increase the challenge factor for me. 

I really liked this self-possessed pose atop last year's mullein flower stalk. That had to be a great vantage point for bug watching.

And for such an amazingly graceful flyer, the takeoff from its flimsy perch is surprisingly awkward looking. I love the splayed legs - as if it hasn't pulled in its landing gear yet. They're so fast that getting any kind of in-flight photo is a special treat for me. Even an awkward one. Perhaps I will catch a perfect swoop someday. I can always hope.