flowers and critters and pots and art

A big surprise came in the mail on Saturday, a check from the gallery. After all these years she sold the four small botanicas she had, I assume to the same person. These pieces are 4.5" x 4.5" x 1.25"/1.5" deep.

These views give you an idea of how three dimensional they are (couldn't find side views of the other two).

I’ve been seeing a butterfly migrate through for days now, one I have never seen before; small, black with white tips on its wings. I finally did an image search and it isn’t a butterfly at all but a day flying moth, White-tipped Black (Melanchroia chephise). I haven’t seen them light on anything so here’s a picture from the internet. Image via: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/321697-Melanchroia-chephise

Walked out the backdoor the other morning to see a spider web glistening in the sun and at the center the spider was busy securing a small dragonfly it had caught.

The rangoon creeper has really liked this rain. It has been blooming profusely. The flowers are white when they open, pink midday, and red in the evening.

More work on the shadow box during the week. I think I’ve solved all the problems but I still need to do the painting of the robin. I meant to start that on Friday but Mikey called from across the street because Paisleigh wanted to come over so after lunch I walked across the street and fetched her. She stayed for about four hours. She helped me mix up some potting soil and manure and compost and repot one of the plants after I had to drill holes in the bottoms of all six of the pots I got a week and a half ago. Did you know plastic pots don’t come with predrilled holes in the bottom? Neither did I. They had one 1/2” hole with a plug you had to punch out with a hammer and screwdriver. I drilled two more 5/8” holes in the smaller pots and three more in the bigger pots. 

Saturday I mowed the little backyard and then mixed up more potting soil and repotted the big pink angel trumpet and the big yellow angel trumpet and that was it for working outside. I worked on the shadow box building up the thickness of the background to shorten the overall depth of the box. I think this is going to work. If I get it right, all the leaves and the robin will be attached to the back and the whole thing will just slide in.

Finally started on the robin today.

Finally, from the Department of How Stupid Can They Be? (the answer is stupider than you think), Trumplethinskin is going to call up Canada to bitch and threaten sanctions while several senators have dispatched a letter forthwith to the Canadian Government chastising them for poor forest management because the smoke from their wildfires is invading our air and what are you going to do about it! As if Canada controls the wind because yeah, they obviously sent that smoke down here on purpose. Maybe next time the PNW and California is on fire Canada won’t send their firefighters to help which they have routinely done in the past.