Plodding
along with the preparations, what gets done, gets done. What doesn't,
doesn't. As long as the heron box is finished and the feathers
mounted in their frames, everything else is extra. I do wish I had
been a little more focused on getting the planned lizard with lichen
(on the log I posted about making the reproduction mold for earlier
here)
with the lichen made from the modeling glass and the lizard and log
cast but I wasn't so, a project for next year. This has probably been
one of my least productive years. The last two days I've been making
more snowflake ornaments but I ran out of the liquid medium (more on
the way) and now am trying to fill the rest of the kiln shelf with
stuff I can make from what I already have mixed up and still I have
no idea what to do with any of it once it's all fired, like the
pansies. Saturday I made 3 pansy leaves but one I squished back up.
Maybe I'll do a butterfly or make another pansy.
It's a
gorgeous day yesterday as was the day before and today is shaping up to be as well. The gingko trees finally turned
yellow but not before already losing many of their leaves and in just
two days (seems like although the trees have been steadily raining down leaves for weeks), the tallows and the pecans have become bare.
The
picture of the gingko on the left was taken at 3 PM, the picture on
the right two hours later with the lowering sun illuminating it.
My
pecans trees are still holding onto some of their leaves but they've
dropped enough to carpet the ground making picking up the nuts
impossible, impossible to see them. No worries though as I think
99.9% of them have already fallen and I am weary of picking them up
anyway. I'm going to take one more small bucket to be cracked even
though I'm sure I have more than enough shelled and then Tuesday, I'm
selling the rest.
Wandering
out in the yard I've noticed the early spring bloomers are already
starting to sprout...the woodland petal pinks are shooting up like
giant blades of grass; the baby blue eyes, the rocket larkspur, the
love-in-a-mist all sprouted and starting to put out their first true
leaves; the bluebonnets spreading out, the sweet little yellow oxalis
is blooming.
Later
(yesterday)...I just closed up the shop for the day getting less
accomplished than I wanted or think I can. As usual. May be done with
the cold work on the heron box, just have to wash it and check a
couple of things before I start putting it all together. The
shadowbox frames are painted but I'm still indecisive on the color
for the backboards for the feathers so today I'm going to the frame
shop and pick my friend Margaret's brain since she has a good eye for
that sort of thing. Made zero progress today with the modeling glass
but I did get out the dragonfly and bee reproduction molds.
Supposedly you can press this stuff into silicone molds and it pops
right out after it dries. These aren't silicone but RTV (room
temperature vulcanization) rubber but I thought I'd try anyway.
----------
The
public hearings of the impeachment investigation are over. Now they
review all the testimonies given and decide if there is enough
evidence to write articles of impeachment though they are still
getting materials turned over to them and an important court ruling
on whether or not the White House must comply with subpoenas is
supposed to come down today. It's plain Trump is guilty of trying to
extort Ukraine, just one of his many corrupt acts since he has been
in office, even though the Republicans keep trying to deflect to the
debunked conspiracy theory against the Bidens, mostly they just
ranted and raved during the public hearings, and refuse to accept
Trump's guilt, demeaning and accusing dedicated state department
employees and a decorated veteran whose loyalty is to America and the
Constitution of lying. If the House votes for impeachment it goes to
the Senate for trial. It's so disheartening to know that none of this
will cause the Republicans to do the right thing and protect our
democracy. McConnell has already said that the Senate won't impeach
even before the public hearings and many of the Republican senators
have indicated that they don't care what Trump does so long as they
stay in power and they are prepared to do Putin's bidding. Never
forget that 8 Republican senators including Devin Nunes, Rand Paul,
and John Kennedy, 3 of Trump's most vociferous supporters, spent last
Fourth of July in Russia and these men are touting Putin's party line
and advancing Russian propaganda. As one tweeter wrote: REPUBLICANS
ARE DEFENDING RUSSIA. LET THAT SINK IN.
As bad
as the last three years have been, this coming year is going to be
ten times worse, 100 times worse. The Trump cult is already
circulating a fake image of Schiff with Epstein and last night Rick
Perry, the Energy Secretary, said on TV that Trump is the chosen one
and sent by god to do great things though as I recall god destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah for being filled with people like Trump.
As
hopeless and discouraging as it may seem, people are still coming
forward with information and remember, Republicans were adamantly
behind Nixon until the very end when suddenly they weren't. There are
some Republicans that are willing to go down with the ship, maybe
because they refuse to see the rising water but I hope there are
plenty more who will run for the lifeboats.
If all
else fails, vote blue no matter who for every office up for election
in 2020.