Wednesday, February 9, 2022

another mouse, an attempt at art, and art

Last night when I opened the drawer in the kitchen where I keep the few cookbooks I have and the printed out recipes, a mouse jumped out, leapt for the floor and ran under the dishwasher. Surprised the hell out of me. Mouse! Mouse!

Well, I knew there would be more. I tried to get more traps when I did my grocery shop yesterday but they didn't have the ones I wanted so I'll have to stop by the Feed Store today.

Tuesdays are shaping up to be very busy days with the watercolor class. It's also the day I do my weekly grocery shop and one of my nights to cook dinner. Yesterday I went to the watercolor class, dropped the cardboard from last Thursday at SHARE off at the recycling lot on my way to the grocery store, walked the dog after lunch, picked up Robin and took her to work, and fixed dinner which was Italian sausage, apples, and shallots all roasted together.

Here's yesterday's progress on the snowscape. I added in the trees in the distance and worked on the shadows in the foreground some more. I still feel kind of clueless about the snow and shadows as it's not something I'm familiar with since it doesn't snow here.

And speaking of art, I bought a print over the holidays from an artist, April Coppini, whose work I really like and she's just now having prints made of some of her drawings. Finally got it back from the frame shop. I've been wanting one of her bees for a long time. She's on FB and Instagram.




24 comments:

  1. I've got some chicken and apple sausages in the freezer and you have inspired me! Thank you.
    That bee print is amazing.

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  2. Your painting is beautiful. You may not know snow, but you sure know how to paint it. I love it!
    Love that bee too.

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  3. We had mice in the storage bays of the RV. Fortunately they never made it into the living part of the structure. Good luck with the hunt.

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  4. There are two traditional rural folksy dishes here in my neck of the woods, one called "heaven and earth" which is mashed potatoes mixed with fried onions and served with apple sauce and the other is BBS (which stands for birnen, bohnen und speck) or pears, beans and bacon.

    The water colour is coming along nicely, the darker clouds look as if it's going to start snowing.

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    1. The heaven and earth sounds like a version of latkes...potato pancakes (potatoes and onions) served with applesauce or sour cream. the beans and bacon I get. Are the pears mixed in?

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  5. Your watercolor is lovely! I think you're doing great with the snow. I'm pretty sure we have mice again, but I haven't actually seen them or any evidence of them so for now I'm going lalala....

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  6. Good luck with the mouse situation. And the bee drawing is very nice. I can see how you needed to have it.

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  7. Yikes! More mouse trouble.

    That dinner looks delicious!

    I sure do like what you are doing with watercolor. Hope you continue with that.

    Thank you so much for the introduction to the work of April Coppini. I googled her and found wonderful link to follow.

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  8. May those mice not reproduce before you get traps that snap.
    I can vouch for your snow. I wish you could see the "snow ocean" in front of the double garage doors.

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    1. I did get more traps but so far they haven't been sprung. And no thanks, no desire to see an ocean of snow.

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  9. Your painting is amazing. Mice are a nuisance. Martha, the boy cat seems to think hunting is an outdoor exercise, but I have doxies who will chase them down. More reliable than cats!

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    1. I have a rat terrier. You would think she would take care of the problem but she's more concerned with the possum that lives under the house that comes out at night and drives her nuts.

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  10. Your painting is shaping up nicely! Having a mouse jump out of a drawer would have freaked me out no end. Arrrgh! I really hate spiders and snakes (and mice too!) LOL

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  11. One thing I remember from my time in snow country is that snow has a thousand faces or more, so your vision is right on target. It's lovely -- as is the bee. Your dinner looks great. Apples and onions are one of my favorite combinations; I use them as a basis for my butternut squash soup.

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    1. People who know snow say it looks right but I have no idea what I'm doing. I have a recipe for butternut cashew soup I've been meaning to try but yours with the apples and onions sounds good too.

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  12. We hate killing mice, so one winter, we bought some live traps. We got a lot of mice that winter, and if we didn't take them off as soon as we found them, they would die. Peggy and I got bad colds, and the mice kept coming, and we kept driving from the middle of town to outside the city limits to set them free. We gave up and went back to using steel traps. Then we got cats. One night, we heard a noise under the fridge, and we knew it was a mouse. The two cats we had at the time did too, and the next morning the mouse was dead. That was the only mouse we've seen in nearly twelve years.

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    1. My cat died months ago and when she was young she was a good mouser. towards the end she ignored them but was hell on the little voles outside. I don't like killing the mice either but if you give them an inch they will take a mile.

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  13. Gosh, I think your watercolor is so pretty! Those sausages look so yummy!

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  14. Pretty good snow. I've noticed snow has almost psychedelic contrast between shadow and surface and uses every color in the rainbow.

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    1. All I remember about snow the year I lived in Chicago is the color black and brown.

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  15. As I am very rodent phobic, I think that mouse jumping out the drawer would have been the end of me. I feel queasy just considering it happening to you. I am glad you are made of sterner stuff. That sausage, apples and shallots dish looks scrumptious to me. Is it ias simple as cutting up everything and putting in the baking dish as shown? What seasonings or herbs did you add? How long did you cook it for? What sausages did you use? I am inspired to make this dish, it seems simple enough to be just my speed.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.