Fridays sunset. It was just past peak before I could get back out there with my phone to take a picture.
I’ve been seeing juvenile cardinals at the bird feeder; small, slender, don’t have their full adult coloring quite yet, unsure, looking around for mom or dad to feed them before tentatively pecking at the sunflower seeds but getting bolder. Just now a juvenile male and an adult female, mother and son?. He is spotty with color, raggedy looking fluttering his wings at mom, beak open. She turned her back on him, it’s right there in front of you son. Finches, sparrows, juvenile cardinals tussling for position until an adult male cardinal flies up and they all scatter.
It rained Friday, maybe about an inch, and a short shower today but still overcast and thundery, so it’s been relatively cooler. Yesterday was overcast and only got to 90, relatively being the key word here. Haven’t really been working out in the yard this week though I did dead head the zinnias again and moved some concrete mortar bricks to the barn, moved the white orchid tree in it’s pot to a shadier area. The pot it’s in is too small and it dries out fast in the sun. I’ll repot it this fall. Did a little weeding. These less hot days would have been good to be out there doing stuff but I just didn’t feel like it.
I’ve been working on my violet drawings, still in the pencil stage. Enlarged one in a 4” square and transferred it to the sketchbook. Been reworking another paying more attention to the whole photo and I’m liking it a lot better, also in a 4” square. New version looks much like the previous version.
When I did the initial drawings I cropped the photo on my computer to a 6” square, made four copies and then cropped each to one quadrant and that’s what I looked at when I did my first small drawings 2.5”/3” x 3”. I probably need to do that with the other one too. I need more variations of purple pencils before I do it in color so when we go to Costco next Wednesday I’m going to stop at Michael’s on the way. Last time I was there they had a fairly large selection of individual Prismacolor pencils so I made a list of what I have and the ones I want.
My daughter and Paisleigh came over Saturday. Paisleigh, who will be four in October, wanted to paint so she and I got out her watercolors. She has a box here that holds her paints, crayons, colored pencils, sidewalk chalk, her own little art box. The first time we got out her watercolors I taught her to clean her brush between colors and that way the colors wouldn’t get all muddy. So I asked her if she remembers what to do, how to paint and she said yes, to clean her brush between colors. The child is so sharp and she’s very good at doing just that. There was some discussion of which brush she wanted to use. My good brushes are not an option so I held up brushes until she finally chose one. Others rejected for various reasons, one because it looked like a makeup brush.
The wolf spider living in my bathroom has regrown its leg. I looked it up and yes they can regrow legs if they are not fully grown, are still molting, but I’m pretty sure this one is and was grown when I first spotted it and it was missing a leg so who knows, maybe it was just tucked away where I couldn’t see it. It seems to like being in the trash can as I find it in there often, though I don’t know if it can get out once in as the inside of the trash can is very smooth while the outside has some texture. Anyway, I will generally scoop it out when I see it in there.
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Just a few of the myriad horrors here: Ghislaine Maxwell, a woman who procured and abused children for Epstein’s rape culture and who lied on the stand and was charged with perjury along with sex trafficking of children was interviewed for two days by Trump’s ex personal lawyer now 2nd in command at the DOJ in an effort to ‘get the truth’ and dispel the controversy surrounding Trump’s participation and the client list while Trump dangles the power to pardon her. And why wouldn’t he? He’s already pardoned other sex traffickers and criminals.
It’s costing us $10M for Trump to go cheat at golf for 5 days at his club in Scotland but there’s no money for food assistance for hungry people here in this country, all that has been slashed. And get this, he thinks the Palestinians suffering from starvation should tell him thank you for food they aren’t getting because Israel is using starvation as a weapon. FEMA has designated $608M to states to build detention centers to hold people whose only ‘crime’ is being here and not being white after denying aid to Americans in several states suffering from devastation due to natural disasters because Kristi Noam already blew through the DHS’s budget for ICE raids.
I commented on a post on SM about why people are distancing themselves from friends and family if they had voted for and support Trump. Someone called foul on that, that you shouldn’t cut off your family over politics. My comment was that it wasn’t about politics but a difference in morals. One guy replied that if Trump was so immoral why did so many people vote for him? Unfortunately and sadly, the answer to that is self evident.
Oh, Ellen. I cannot believe this is the world we live in now. If we could only concentrate on our grands and our yards and our flowers, it would seem like paradise.
ReplyDeleteWhat seems so unbelievable is how fast it has happened. But really, the powers behind this have been planning and working toward it for decades.
DeleteWhat a great granny you are! If i got down on the floor like that, If I could, a front end loader would be hailed. What a lovely little girl- just the right age, too. Flora loves to 'MIX" colors to see what it makes. "hmmm, brown!" always. Your spider is handsome!
ReplyDeleteI have a trick for getting up off the floor. Hands and knees, straighten my legs, walk my hands to my feet so I'm just bending over, and then straighten up. Paisleigh mixes colors but does it on the paper.
DeleteCodex: That Pic with granddaughter needs to be framed. I'm staying away from the other topic because it's to revolting. *too*
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that in watercolor you do not have to section it the way you would with glass? It's what erasers are for (do you have a kneadable one?)
Interesting how that medium (glass influenced your drawing technique)
I don’t know what you mean by “that in watercolor you do not have to section it the way you would with glass”. The way I drew these violets has nothing to do with the way I did the art for etched glass. I drew the violets in quadrants because I was looking at an image on my computer and it seemed the easiest way to get the proportions and detail correct. If I had a printer I would have printed the picture and used a ruler to get the height and width proportionally correct and drawn it mostly freehand from there. Once I had the drawing I could enlarge or reduce with the printer/copier and then transfer it to whatever paper for whatever medium. I’m a lazy artist. Sometimes I’ll print out the picture, put it in a clear sleeve, and then trace the outlines with a marker on the sleeve then make a hard copy of that with the printer/copier whatever size I need it. I did that a lot when doing the full size artwork for etched glass. Saved me a lot of time.
DeleteWhen doing the art for etched glass I would do the composition in a 1” to 1’ ratio and enlarged it to full size through several steps cleaning it up adding detail. I have binders full of detailed drawings of flowers, birds, animals, etc in various sizes that I developed over the years making it easy to drop whatever image into the overall composition. Still a lot of freehand drawing though.
And yes, I have erasers and use them liberally. I have used kneadable erasers but they aren’t my first choice. I prefer vinyl erasers.
Kudos to you for coexisting with the spider and thanks for the picture. As for weeding, I think that’s really a substitute name for gardening! We provide all manner of enrichment for the garden soil so we should hardly be surprised that uninvited guests take advantage of our largesse. Having laid out the table for them, however, we immediately set about yanking them out! A condo is looking more appealing by the day!
ReplyDeleteI generally leave the spiders be. They do me a service. Most things I'll capture and put outside. Ants, roaches, and flies not so much. Cinnamon is a great deterrent for ants though if you can find where they are getting in.
DeletePaisleigh is just so adorable. I'm glad she has her greatgran around to play with. And I'm glad you're finding small pleasures in this current horrorscape.
ReplyDeleteSmall pleasures, focusing on heart and home is the only way to stay sane these days.
DeleteOne of the best days of my working life was the day I discovered my varnish brushes don't have to be cleaned after every use. Since I'm always dipping back into the same varnish and don't have to worry about mixing colors, I simply leave the brushes in solvent and change the solvent in the jar when it begins to get a little thick. That's such a great photo of you and Paisleigh. She truly is a beautiful child.
ReplyDeleteCleaning brushes was a main deterrent to me for using oils or acrylics. Watercolors though, just swish in water and done. Paisleigh has been only around adults for her almost 4 years so she is quite precocious.
DeleteI'm glad you had time with Paisleigh and are teaching her your art techniques. She will always remember that.
ReplyDeleteSince I don't have any toys here art is about all there is to do.
DeleteThe wolf spider looks awesome! When it comes to all the nasty Trump stuff, I'm afraid people who voted for him did so precisely because he is immoral. His cult is filled with incredibly strange, internally degraded, decayed individuals.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more. It's heartbreaking to see there are/were that many people in this country that enjoy seeing others suffer.
DeleteAt our feeder it's juvenile starlings I see most often. Sadly, America has a long history of electing immoral leaders! (Trump may well be the worst.)
ReplyDeleteThe birdfeeder is currently empty, ran out of seed. I expect to start getting the stink eye.
DeleteI found a spider in the kitchen that refused to budge. I got a piece of paper and coaxed it aboard them outside she went. I would have left her alone but I was afraid I would step on her. I've always been a relocater rather than a swatter. Except for the insistent or annoying fly. I've noticed we really are in the bug apocalypse right now so it is even more important not to kill.
ReplyDeleteSpiders I generally ignore beyond cleaning up their webs on occasion. Other stuff, wasps, beetles, etc, gets captured and put outside. Except for ants, roaches, and flies. They had best just not come into my house.
DeleteI agree with you about America's current Horror Story playing out for all of the World to Witness, it's disgraceful and abhorrent, and sadly, yes, self evident that a large swath of America has no moral compass and has become a Cult. I didn't know Spiders could regrow Legs, quite resilient Creatures, but don't Wolf Spiders bite hard? Here we get Brown Recluse and Black Widows, Scorpions, poisonous Snakes and even poisonous Lizards like Gila Monsters... so, I don't encourage any of them to set up House with us. *Smiles*
ReplyDeleteWolf spiders are harmless and only bite if they feel threatened and their bite has no real harmful effects for humans. I leave them alone when I find one in the house because they do me a service by hunting other undesirable pests. We have poisonous snakes here too.
DeleteHi Ellen, thanks for checking on my blog. Turns out that recovery is a bit harder than hoped for. Just very low on energy.
ReplyDeleteI am getting there but it's taking more time than expected.
Took down the last post bc family censored it, our daughter works in a politically sensitive area and apparently I must not share too much information.