Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden, Chiang Mai, Thailand
“The Quiet Sea” – Paul Militaru Photography
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Irene, her dog, Odin, and two cats live just off the beach in Spain. She makes jewelry so pretty it makes my mouth water. I’ve bought several pairs of earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet from her, and I cherish each piece. Over the year or so we’ve been corresponding, we’ve become friends, even though we’ve never met face-to-face.
A few weeks ago, Odin got sick with something mysterious. Of course, Irene was beside herself with worry. She’s been getting tests done and following all the vet’s instructions, taking the best care of Odin possible.
With all the stress and worry, Irene got sick with a virus. She posts almost every day, showing yet another piece of jewelry she’s created. Many times she writes of walking on the beach with Odin, a really beautiful, sweet dog. Her last email said she and Odin were doing better, feeling a bit stronger.
I wrote to check in with her yesterday, since she hasn’t blogged in several days.
Her daughter answered me today. Irene is in the hospital, very ill. I was amazed that she took the time to write to me to tell me what was going on.
Irene and Odin need us to send strength and energy in their direction, hoping they both recover soon. I hope you’ll think good thoughts for them in the coming days.
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
“Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.” – John Lennon
This nice bunch of lilies is almost finished for the year. It looks like a lily bouquet to me, and I love the rich color.
Last year, once the summer was in full swing, I sprinkled a bunch of zinnia seeds in the planters. Not many of them came up, so I was really surprised to see volunteers all around the planters and across the front yard!
I don’t know what this plant is, but it’s perennial and it seems to really like it in this planter.
Phlox and periwinkles.
Two colors of impatiens, plus phlox about to bloom and iris.
“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
My husband asked me to listen to his ‘new favorite song’ last night.
It’s called, “Song of Yesterday”
The band’s name is Black Country Communion.
I love it, too, and wanted to share it with you.
If the link above doesn’t work for you, here is the URL – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w82V4gsSW-4
Filed under music
This tomato is in the 8 foot brick planter to the east of the house.
And these are in the “Nook” planter between the house and the porch.
They’re still too firm to pick, but in another day or two, we BITE!
Rebel Circus via Lisa Bearnes Richey
Filed under Favorite Quotes, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
Nautilus
New Balloon Sculptures Depicting Animals and Insects by Masayoshi Matsumoto
Proboscis Monkey
by Kate Sierzputowski on May 30, 2017 – Colossal
Siamang
“Masayoshi Matsumoto doesn’t twist up your average balloon animal creations. Instead, the Japanese artist produces larger than life beetle larva and spider crabs, creating latex masterpieces that blow away the simplistic balloon animals we’ve come to expect. Multi-colored and not bound to any particular species, the works are incredibly realistic interpretations of the animals they imitate, making the requests at your child’s next birthday particularly bizarre.”
Spider
Termite
Capybara
Filed under Creativity
“Two Bright Red and Purple Colors” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
zazzle
Today I shut down my website, Creative Artworks. I’m feeling mixed emotions, but it is time.
In 2000, my son designed a website so I could try to sell the things I made. I then realized that for the same money, I could list the work of other people, too. At one point I had over 120 artists on the site. My enthusiasm was through the roof. I lived and breathed Creative Artworks.
I’ve met a wonderful variety of talented people over 17 years, and I’ve been proud to host the website, helping people sell their artwork. I’ll never cease to be amazed at how many really creative folks there are in this world. I’ve never met most of the artists who allowed me to display their work, but I’ve become friends with many of them.
The first one I told that I was shutting down the website was my son, who is halfway across the world from me. He worked tirelessly to make the very best website for me that he could. Even when he went on to do countless other things, he would make time to help me with problems, adapt the site to meet different requirements from the credit card people, web hosts, and others.
When I wrote to him this morning, he was still up, though there is 12 hours difference between us. He wanted to really chat, so he sent me the program appear.in (I think) so we could actually talk in real time and SEE each other. (This is like Skype – but we could never make Skype work well for us.) We talked for several minutes. He was worried that I was shutting down the site because I was upset for some reason, or was upset with him. I assured him that I had been considering the idea for some time and decided that it was time. I thanked him from the bottom of my heart for giving me 17 of the best creative years of my life, for designing the website that allowed me to show my own stuff and the work of others.
Part of me is sad because it’s the end of an era for me. I’ve truly enjoyed it, but my heart is now in writing my blog, square foot gardening, the new greenhouse, continuing to cook low carb and low sugar for my husband and myself, spending more time on my art, spending time with our new puppy, practicing yoga, and more. I feel really lucky that I am able to end one part of my life, freeing it up for more of the things I love.
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Changes
Well, shoot! I bought 5 tickets for the PowerBall Lottery Friday after Lunch Bunch. The estimated grand prize was $447,800,000, or ($279,175,254.46 cash). Even after taxes are taken out, that would be a handy sum.
There was one grand prize-winning ticket from the lottery of California…
I don’t know if there has EVER been a PowerBall or MegaMillions winner from Arkansas, but I’m sure ready to be the first. My husband’s list of goodies keeps growing, and my list of people I’d like to give a boost is growing, as well.
I won’t buy another group of tickets until the prize goes over $400,000,000 again.
But the Publisher’s Clearing House winner will be chosen June 30th….
123RF.com
Filed under Dreams, Encouragement
Just after we finished the main building of my greenhouse, my husband said that the former president of the Fort Smith Amateur Ham Radio Club had emailed him, saying that one of the members was selling a Rohn antenna. My husband said that if we tried to buy a used control box alone for one, we would pay what the man was asking for the control box, the “scaffolding” the rotor, and the stuff at the top.
I could see his mouth was watering, and he’s worked hard on his ham stuff – passing all three tests available and getting the main radio, and several different, much smaller antennas, none of which he could make work they way they should. People he had talked to in the club said, “It should be working,” but it wasn’t, in each case. He can reach the people for the weekly meeting, but he wants to really be able to USE it.
My husband had much the same look in his eyes that our new puppy, Amber, has when she wants a cookie really badly. So I caved, we called the man, got his address, programmed the GPS and drove to Alma, AR, about an hour or so away.
The 10 foot section parts (5 of them) had been on the ground in the back yard for quite awhile. The control box was in the man’s garage, and that was the main thing that needed protection. We bought the whole group of things, which my husband says is a Rohn antenna, put all the pieces in the back of the truck, tied them down securely and brought them home.
We spent awhile getting all the sections out near the place where the antenna will go. They’re heavy! We’ll need to measure to be sure the antenna is 45 feet away from the commercial power pole to the east of the house. It will be out somewhere around my greenhouse.
The first big thing – before I caved to the purchase – was that he would get REAL help – not just me – to get this thing up securely. We’ll need to hire the man who dug our water well 30 years ago – or whoever is handling that business now – to come drill a hole at least 6 feet deep. My husband says he’ll put a big, heavy pipe in the hole as the base for the antenna. We’ll mix Sac-Crete to put in the hole and around it for a pad on which the antenna will sit.
I insisted my husband call the head of the club back and ask if he knew people we could hire to put the antenna up. (This means someone skinny, strong, and agile enough to climb the antenna with another section in hand, hoist it up and add it to the one he’s standing on, and then do the same until the whole thing, including the rotor and the cable, plus the thingie that turns at the top, are together.) Then we need to install guy wires all around to be sure it’s secure. Happily, Mike knew two guys he called “The Johnson Twins,” who can do just that for us once we have the pad done.
My husband is like a kid at Christmas. There are a couple of places in the metal scaffolding that seem to have burst when water froze inside them. He’ll need to repair those, get enough of the proper 8-wire cable to go from the rotor on the antenna across the field to the house and into the house, attached to his radio and control hub. He’s happy. When we went for groceries this morning, the first thing he said was, “I’m happy we got the antenna.” :0)
Filed under Bright Ideas, Challenges, Changes, Dreams
The construction of my greenhouse is finished!
We did the last of the stapling this morning. We also arranged for electricity, a thermostat to control when the exhaust fan comes on, and a people fan.
Here is Smoke checking out the greenhouse. She likes it! She went right in and got under one of the saw horses. She didn’t want to come out.
We’re deciding if we need a light or a hose later. Right now I’m concentrating on getting all my supplies out there, getting them organized so I could actually fill a seed starter and plant something, have a place to throw things away, etc. I did take a folding chair out there today.:0)
the thermostat that controls when the exhaust fan comes on.
I’ll need to fill a big trash can with Mel’s Mix so I have my good planting medium out there. I bought a nice bottle for spraying the plants. It has a pump on the top and then it sprays out a nice, fine spray for starting seeds. (If I get to the point the greenhouse is full of growing plants, I’ll think about a LONG hose with a mister attachment.)
Here is a jumble of ‘stuff’ I need on one of the tables to plant seeds. I’ll organize it little by little.
A gloriously empty table!
Here you get the feel of the three tables, the storage underneath, and the empty corner where I’ll put a large trash can full of Mel’s Mix and other tall stuff.
I wheelbarrowed several loads of ‘stuff’ out there yesterday and will continue doing that today. I’ll use early mornings and evenings when the sun gives us a bit of a break to try to arrange my ‘stuff’ so I can actually plant some seeds for the fall garden.
I’ll be doing a LOT of reading – on
One funny ‘problem’ is that the wind blows under the door when it’s shut and causes the weed barrier to form a big bubble in the center of the floor. I’ll need to figure out a way to either pull the excess out farther under the main foundation and then put rocks on it, or I may end up putting bricks end to end right beside the foundation wood on the inside.
Now that the building is finished, I can concentrate on what I’d like to plant in the fall and when I should start the seeds. :0)
house fly
New Balloon Sculptures Depicting Animals and Insects by Masayoshi Matsumoto
by Kate Sierzputowski on May 30, 2017 Colossal
beetle larva
“Masayoshi Matsumoto doesn’t twist up your average balloon animal creations. Instead, the Japanese artist produces larger than life beetle larva and spider crabs, creating latex masterpieces that blow away the simplistic balloon animals we’ve come to expect. Multi-colored and not bound to any particular species, the works are incredibly realistic interpretations of the animals they imitate, making the requests at your child’s next birthday particularly bizarre.”
jumping spider
I’ve always loved the cute little animals that people can make by twisting balloons. I wish I could do that, because I love it so much. But this brings balloon-twisting to a whole new level!
snail
Nautilus
Filed under Creativity
Amber is training us to shut the door to the porch when she won’t stop whining or barking. Happily, she is responding to the bark collar (when she isn’t kicking it, trying to get it off), and sometimes stops on her own when we don’t respond to her noise. She is training us to come play with her, sit with her on the porch, bring her inside, or take her for a walk or swim when she is quiet. Shhhhhh!
She is training us to look at her water bowl every time we’re out there to make sure it’s full. Since she’s a water dog, she tends to ‘play’ with the bowl, spilling water all over the place. She gets frustrated with us if we don’t check it and refill it. She is also trying to get us to feed her more than twice a day, but she has found we’re really stubborn on that point.
She’s training us to take her for a walk every couple of hours, both for allowing her to take care of business and because she loves to sniff and/or eat whatever interesting things we find.
Most of all, she has trained us to carry a pocket full of treats, in case she does something she feels deserves one – basically anything that makes us say, “Good dog!”
We’re making progress every day, but she wishes we would learn faster.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
“Appreciation and Affection” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Busy Bee” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Eternal Beauty Rose 1” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Tulip for You” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Tulips 1” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Mother Nature, Paul Militaru Photography
Pinterest – Caterpillar
Feminiya
Filed under Childlike Fun, Creativity, playing with your food?
“Heartwarming, insightful, and often laugh-out-loud funny, A Dog’s Purpose is not only the emotional and hilarious story of a dog’s many lives, but also a dog’s-eye commentary on human relationships and the unbreakable bonds between man and man’s best friend. This moving and beautifully crafted story teaches us that love never dies, that our true friends are always with us, and that every creature on earth is born with a purpose.”
I saw that this book had been made into a movie, and it’s in our queue on NetFlix. I always like to read the book first, so I ordered it.
I cannot say enough about this writer. He is truly gifted. He made me laugh. He made me cry. He made me look at my dogs (and cats) through new eyes.
This book is well worth your time, and I’m keeping it so I can reread it from time to time.
A very special experience you won’t want to miss.
I hope the movie is half as good.
Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews
IGN.com
On our way to Lunch Bunch this morning, we had a rare treat – a doe was way down the road in front of us. My husband slowed to a crawl. When we got close, we stopped and just looked at each other. (This is not the doe we saw, but it gives you an idea.) We sat for several minutes and then she went to the side of the road and up the bank.
On the way home, we saw another doe standing by the road looking at us. We went by her very slowly and she didn’t move.
Such a beautiful sight!
Filed under Amazing Animals, Mother Nature
Welcome to the greenhouse! We have a door and an inside and outside now. Come in!
This is the exhaust fan end of the building. As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done to stretch and staple the film on. The plans we got say, essentially, ‘wad it up and staple it.”
This is the outside. You can see we need to gather up excess film. I plan to fold up the largest pieces to hopefully use if we need repairs. We also need to get rid of the excess black weed barrier sheet on the exhaust fan end.
We cut 4×8 sheets of plywood lengthwise to make 8 x 2 foot ‘tables.’ We also cut up two of these to make the tables 12 feet long. We put 2×4 on the edges underneath to keep the tables from sagging in the middle. We put the plywood on sawhorses.
We’re really amazed at how sturdy everything is. It’s not all completely level, but life is never perfect. You can see the mounted exhaust fan in this picture. We’ll add some electricity to the greenhouse and a thermostat so that the fan comes on to air things out when it gets too hot inside.
Here you can see the opposite side table. It’s a nice “U” shaped space with storage for tall stuff in the corner and lots of place to put things underneath the tables. I’ll have a wonderful amount of space to grow seeds in their various stages until they’re planted either in the square foot garden, the tomato planters, or in the flower planters.
We worked on the film on the exhaust fan end this morning. I’ll take more pics today to show you.
Filed under Gardening, Lewis projects
Huffington Post
One of my husband’s and my favorite things in the world is home grown, red, ripe, sliced tomatoes with a meal. No matter what else we try to grow, tomatoes are the main thing.
We built a raised bed, square foot garden for our other veggies (though I AM trying some grape tomatoes in two of the squares this year), but we moved our tomato plants to the east side of the house. We have a brick planter in what we call “The Nook” beside the porch at the end of the house, plus an eight foot brick planter on the east end of the house.
This is the 8 foot planter. We have six plants here. We planted two plants every two weeks.
This is “The Nook”. There are only two plants here, planted two weeks apart. As you can see, we have really large plants that are difficult to keep supported.
Here is a closeup of some of our green tomatoes.
And here are more.
And HERE is the first ripening tomato! Whooopeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Here is celery I started inside by cutting off the bottom 2″ of the stalks I bought from the store, putting them in water, and then transplanting them to the garden. I’m not getting neat ‘stalks’ like you buy at the store, but the plants look healthy. I’m not sure if I should cut off individual stalks as they grow or what. It sure is fun watching them grow, though.
This is a grape tomato plant. If you look carefully, you can see the yellow blossom at the top.
Here’s a second plant where you can see the tiny green tomatoes growing.
I managed to save a few romaine lettuce plants and one red leaf lettuce plant.
I feel like a kid at Christmas. This is a spaghetti squash grown from a seed I removed from one I had bought at the store and cooked. Isn’t it cute! :0)
I’ll try to get pics of my tomato plants to show you tomorrow.
We worked HARD last night from 6 to almost 9pm, getting the film out and unrolled, each of us taking a corner and trying to get the sheet pulled over the top of the greenhouse skeleton and down to the ground on the other side. If you look carefully along the foundation wood in this picture, you can see that we split the film between the ribs of the greenhouse, stapled on a 1×2, rolled up the film, and then screwed it to the foundation wood. We did this on both sides. Thank GOODNESS we both had stools or our backs would have broken.
We put a few staples on the film to hold it to the exhaust fan end of the greenhouse.
And the door end of the greenhouse before quitting for the day.
Today we got more wood for the tables that will go inside! We split two 4×8 sheets of plywood into two strips each. We put 2×4’s on the ground in the shop. We added one 8 foot strip of plywood, plus a shorter piece on either end, making 12 foot x 2 foot long ‘tables ‘to go inside the greenhouse. We bought sawhorses that the plywood will sit on inside the greenhouse. We’ll make a “U” shaped group of tables, leaving one corner empty for storage of a big trash can for Mel’s mix and other stuff.
We put the ‘tables’ into the back of the truck and carefully drove around to the greenhouse. We got them off the truck and just put them on the ground beside the greenhouse because the sun was really strong. The temperature wasn’t bad and the humidity was supposedly low, but we were still broiling.
We started stretching the film on the doorway end, but didn’t last long. We’ll go back out and do as much as we can tonight. As soon as we have the doorway end finished, being able to open and close the door, we’ll probably drag the tables and sawhorses inside.
It’s coming together!
Filed under Gardening, Lewis projects
Amber is too boisterous and friendly for her own good.
She was 3 months old yesterday and lives to play with us, with strangers, with the cats, with Molly.
Molly and the cats aren’t having any of it. We’re making a point of bringing Amber inside into the kitchen (with the gate up) after she has been taken out and then fed so that she can socialize with whoever is with us. Today it was Abby the cat and Molly the dog.
Abby hissed, spit, and the fled the scene.
Molly would have LIKED to do that, too, but can’t get over the gate. We allowed as much action under the table while we ate as was reasonable, trying to allow them to work it out. Amber was trying SO hard to get Molly to play. At one point, Molly was over by the door to the garage and Amber was in front of her, with her front half down and her back end up, tail wagging furiously. Molly’s reaction was to curl her lip and growl.
After we admonished Amber a couple more times, she actually laid down! Molly kept a really low profile at the other end of the table and that seemed to keep Amber much more calm.
Maybe if we do this every morning, things will eventually tame down…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
The last storm made all of the tops of my onions break and bend over. They looked awful, so I went ahead and harvested them. THEN – not having a clue what to do to them to get them like the ones we buy in the store, I went to my “Square Foot Gardening Book” by Mel Bartholomew to find out.
He said to find an old window screen or chicken wire fencing to put the onions on that allowed a bunch of air circulation so they could fully dry in the sun.
I didn’t have either of those things handy, but the side of our trailer had a nice grating stuff on it, so I put the onions on there. Happily, it’s not supposed to rain here until Tuesday, giving them several days to dry. Then I can store them either in net bags or a large bucket of peat moss until they’re all used up!
He also pointed out that I COULD have simply cut off the broken tops, allowing them to stay where they were in the garden to keep growing. That’s good to know for next time.
Filed under Arkansas, Greenwood, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
This picture doesn’t show that we finished the framework of the greenhouse, adding the exhaust fan to the doorway on the opposite end, some structural supports, etc.
Here is the opposite end of the greenhouse, showing you the exhaust fan that will be controlled by a thermostat and the support framework.
Our plans are to start putting the film on tonight at about 7pm when the sun gives us a break. We looked at the local weather website and it shows that today and tomorrow we’re having reasonable temperatures (unless you’re working in the sun as I was this morning) and reasonable winds.
We’re hoping that we can get the two sides done this evening and then we’ll tackle the ends tomorrow.
The PLAN is to unroll the large sheet, with each of us taking a corner at the front and drawing it up over the top and down to the other side. If our sheet is large enough, we should be able to put some rocks or something on one side while we work on the opposite side.
The plan is to put the edge of the film on the ground and then spread out our 19″ 1×2’s along the edge between the pvc pipe attachment places. I suggested we fold the film over the 1×2’s and put staples in-between the sticks, holding them in place. Then we can screw the rolled film and 1×2’s to the foundation boards. When the first side is finished, we’ll do the opposite side. At least, that’s the plan.
This is a big step in the greenhouse and a bit much for two old folks, but we’ve been trying to mentally prepare during the day and will hit the ground running in about an hour and a half.
I’ll share pics of what we hopefully accomplished tomorrow.
Wish us luck?
Filed under Gardening, Lewis projects
It’s exciting to be a puppy! Every day when you go out, you make new discoveries!
Today I discovered that there is a flap in the garage door that I can walk through to get into the garage. I dashed through it, only to have ‘mom’ pull on my leash until I backed out and came with her. We went around the house several times, though, so I got to go through it again and again before the walk was over.
I can go into the house by climbing the steps to the front porch, and climbing the steps to the deck and then to the porch where I stay. There is a gate that keeps me from coming into the house, but sometimes they let me through the people door to visit inside awhile! And NOW I can go through the flap in the garage door, climb the steps and hope they’ll let me into the house from the garage. My sister, Molly, barks at the doors and they magically open so she can go in. I want to do that, too!
I also discovered a small, black wisp of paper on the way to the shop. I like going to the shop because my dad gives me a cookie. He wasn’t there yet today, though. Mom said he was still in the house. When I saw the black thing I stopped dead in my tracks. What was this? I got down low to the ground, inching my way toward it. Suddenly, it moved! I jumped backwards. When it was on the ground again, I jumped at it, expecting it to leap away. It just stayed there. I slowly crept up until I was nose to nose with it. It smelled funny, so I jumped back again. Mom started laughing, telling me that they burned trash yesterday and that was a burned piece of paper. I didn’t understand ANY of those words, but mom finally got me to go on with our walk. After we looked at the garden and then walked around the shop, I remembered the black thing in the yard. I pulled hard on the leash until mom said, “No pull!” I stopped and she gave me a cookie, saying, “Good Girl!”
I LOVE it when she says that! I’m trying to train her to give me a cookie each time I pee outside, sometimes going three or four times. on one walk. She used to fall for it, but now only gives me a cookie for the first time. :0(
We started walking again and I started creeping up on the black thing again. This time I threw caution to the wind. I HAD to taste it. I bit down, but it tasted awful! Yuck! I spit it out, shaking my head. I don’t know what that was, but I won’t eat it again.
I can’t wait until our next walk…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
“Elegant Dance of Water” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
creativeartworksblog 