good food, color charts, stupidity

Buddha in the garden.

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Well, damn. No picture of my salad, no picture of the food laden table. Everything was so good…chicken and dumplings, enchilada casserole, clusters of green beans with bacon wrapped around the middle looking like miniature sheaves, corn and rice casserole, fresh fruit, my salad, deviled eggs, and more and that doesn’t even cover the desserts. And it was nice to have all the volunteers there, most all, a few were absent; the Monday group that deals with donations and other stuff but not open to the public and the Thursday group. As usual a prayer preceded the eating. I just stand there quietly and politely without bowing my head. I have no issue with the wishes for good health and being grateful for community and the good things in your life but the submissive appealing to the big daddy in the sky for granting those things or giving him credit for the same is where we part ways. 

Actually, here’s what’s left of my salad moved into a much smaller bowl. I didn’t bring home very much.

I haven’t started on my painting yet but I have been working on getting the last box of paints my friend sent me added to the color chart…a rectangle with straight pigment on dry paper and one with diluted pigment on wet paper. It helps me choose what colors to use in a painting. This last box, the pigments are very strong, dense.

This was the first chart I made of the three small tins. I need to redo it with the larger format.

I looked out the back door the other morning to see half a dozen or so inca doves all fluffed up on the little patio right outside the door in plain sight. I snuck away to get my phone/camera but when I looked again they had moved to the left among the pots there so they’re a little obscured.

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News is that the man who shot and killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare has been arrested. I can only surmise that he wanted to be caught and arrested. They found the gun, the suppressor, the fake ID, the clothing, and a 3 page ‘manifesto’ on his person when approached and arrested, well maybe not the clothing but they did recover that also. Clearly the man has never watched a crime show. The first thing he should have done was dispose of the weapon, ID, and clothing and for all the gods’s sakes don’t carry around a 3 page manifesto. If I have learned nothing from watching General Hospital it’s how to dismantle and dispose of a gun after a shooting. So how did health insurance companies react to the killing of a CEO? Did they send out orders to stop denying tests, procedures, and care recommended by doctors? Oh, hell no, they beefed up security around their board members.

And last from the Department of  Disconnect, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk are going around spouting about the ‘deep state’ in government, the unelected bureaucrats running this country into the ground, and how they are going to purge the government. They seem to have completely missed that fact that they are themselves unelected bureaucrats.

 

an outing and a finished model

So, did I mention I finished the second trumpet flower model. Friday between breakfast and lunch I took care of the minor issues, scuffed up the background (because there's no way to get the background smooth and unblemished and it looks better overall if it has a slight and random texture to it) and then after lunch smoothed it all out. I do this with naptha (a solvent similar to lighter fluid. It slightly dissolves the wax and I use my finger or a small piece of chamois dipped into the naptha.

Saturday I got a piece of styrofoam and cut it on the bandsaw to the right size but the block was 2 inches thick so I had to slice it into three thicknesses, glued two of them down on glass and then glued the models onto the styrofoam. The styrofoam is the reservoir to hold all the glass that won't fit in the mold. So now they are set up to have their molds made.

Before I did that on Saturday though, Pam and I went to the Hungerford (a dinky little town down the road) for their art and craft fair. The goods on offer were pretty predictable for a small town art and craft venue...canned and baked goods, costume jewelry of various kinds, big flashy seasonal wreaths, quilts and other homemade stuffed toys, plants from the local nursery, wood art of various kinds (lots of crosses), wine glasses and jiggers etched with a small dremel, etc. There was a woman whose son makes ballpoint pens with turned wood barrels which were very nice but also pricey and I doubt she sold any to that crowd and another woman who makes natural personal products...soap, shampoo bars, deodorant, insect repellant, lotion bars, stuff like that. I came away with a jar of pickled okra and a shampoo bar which I have been wanting to try.

After that we checked out the two new women's boutiques, both located in bad places as far as I'm concerned. The first was in the back half of a building that has a salon and while the salon faces one of the main streets around the square, this little clothing shop has no street frontage. The clothes were nice enough, not a large inventory, nothing I would buy but mostly because everything was made out of synthetic slippery stuff that all had to be hand washed or dry cleaned. The other shop had a bigger inventory but is tucked into a corner of the other big retail area in town and once again you really have to know it's there or you won't see it. She had a few things that we liked but for the most part everything was synthetic or skin tight or stretchy or all three and not one thing that we could find that you could just throw in the washer and dryer (do they not make clothes out of cotton or cotton/linen anymore?). Well, I hope they do well.

Then we went to the Peach Creek Market on the highway for more peaches and I think these are the best ones so far but they are ready so I'll have to do something with them tomorrow.

Back to work stuff, I looked for the wax cutout of the luna moth that I know I have, have looked in every container in which I have wax objects and I cannot find it! I've looked in everything two or three times. And you know, as soon as I finally give up and cut out a new one, then it'll pop right up.

I had thought to post some pictures from the garden but, next time. Meanwhile, Buddha ponders.

random pics

I've got one more leatherleaf fern, the morning glory bush, and two clumps of aspidistra to cut back and then that will be everything except maybe cutting down the small flowering senna tree though I haven't given up on it yet. Then I move on to repotting my three big plants...the night blooming cereus, the yellow angel trumpet, and the bird of paradise.

So while I'm busy doing that, here's some random pics.

what do you mean 'it's time to get up'?

the bevel on the etched bird ornament hanging in the window casts prisms from the morning sun

zinnias!

I've just come in from a walk around the yard and the pink angel trumpet in the ground is showing some nubs of new growth at ground level and the flowering senna has the barest wisp of a little green sprout coming out at the base!