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Mother Nature is shaking her fist at us this morning. A tornado warning was just issued from our weather radio. I went online to find that the area in question is actually north of us. We’re just supposed to get “torrential rain” – up to 3 inches – today – or as far as I know right now. Since the rain is supposed to be pretty impressive all day, I took the doggies out to take care of things before the heavy rains start. It’s really getting dark outside now, as if it were evening turning into night time.
Today is an excellent day to have a warm, dry home. I’m talking to myself now, trying to get motivated to give our master bedroom and bath a good cleaning, since I won’t be able to do anything outside. I MAY opt to dive into the Lee Child “Jack Reacher” book I started yesterday, curled happily up under my snuggly throw in my recliner…
Cindy Basnett Thurman
“The richness of the rain made me feel safe and protected; I have always considered the rain to be healing — a blanket — the comfort of a friend. Without at least some rain in any given day, or at least a cloud or two on the horizon, I feel overwhelmed by the information of sunlight and yearn for the vital, muffling gift of falling water.” ~ Douglas Coupland
Filed under Mother Nature
We found this cute drawing on the net and decided to use our CNC setup in the shop to cut it out for a mailbox decoration next December. My husband did his magic, generating the G-code the computer uses to guide the torch on the cutting table to cut out the design from a sheet of metal. The piece is about three feet wide and about 2-1/2 feet tall.
We used an overhead project and a color transparency to mark the piece. I’m starting to paint it now. I’m doing the back side of the piece first to work out any problems. The first code I call ‘color blocking’ because the first coat on metal is so awful that it only serves to mark the areas as particular colors. The second coat enables you to finally see the design well and then put accents on.
I did the first coat on the back side yesterday. Today I’ll try to do the second coat. I’ll take some progress pictures and post them.
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, Lewis projects
Susan and Brad Whittle-AR Pics via Cindy Basnett Thurman
Filed under Arkansas, Awe-Inspiring Photography
Audrey Hepburn via GrowingBolder.com via Cathy Ruggiero
tomato plants
“It was such a pleasure to sink one’s hands into the warm earth, to feel at one’s fingertips the possibilities of the new season.” ~ Kate Morton
Raised Bed Planters – Row 1
“My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant’s point of view. ” ~ H. Fred Dale
Raised Bed Planters – Row 2
“In every gardener there is a child who believes in The Seed Fairy.” ~Robert Brault
We’re due for rain starting this afternoon – going from “Thunderstorms,” to “Heavy Rain,” to “Showers,” to “A.M. Showers,” to “Thunderstorms” through Monday of NEXT WEEK! My biggest concern now is that my sweet plants will come up out of the ground and flow out of the squares and boxes and end up on the ground below…
“You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt.” ~ Author Unknown
Clam Macaroons – Kidspot
ColorfulMummy.
KellyToups-MLA-RD-LDN via creativefunfood.com
Filed under Creativity, playing with your food?
Filed under Creativity, Watercolors I Love
Cut Out + Keep
Ginzel Jones – MTA Arts and Design
Filed under Creativity, mosaic
“White Flower Trees” – Paul Militaru Photography
“White Flowers” – Paul Militaru Photography
“White Roses” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
If I were superstitious, I might believe in the Rule of Threes – where you have to endure three things going wrong before things get back to normal. But what we’ve been experiencing lately goes FARRRRR beyond this rule. It seems that every day we have at least one thing not working properly and needing to be fixed or replaced. I’ve been gritching about this stuff to you lately, and today we just dealt with another one!
This time, it was when I was doing the laundry. I put the first load in the dryer and started the 2nd load in the washer and then took the doggies out, who were telling me they would explode if I didn’t take them out NOW! (They lied. They got distracted and didn’t pee until we had been out about 10 minutes.
Duet Washer and Dryer Combo
(This pic shows the combo we have, but ours is several years old, and our utility room is not nearly as spacious and pretty as this one.)
My husband joined us in the front yard, saying, “Something is wrong with the dryer.” When we discussed it, the problem was that the utility room was getting hot. The dryer was running, but it usually doesn’t heat up the utility room noticeably.
We had to move a BUNCH of things out before we could even isolate the problem. I moved all the stuff on top of the washer and dryer out into the dining area. Then I moved the humongous dog bed we have in there for Amber. THEN we inched the washer out from the wall until we could see behind the dryer. The large flexible vent hose had come loose from the dryer and was lying on the floor, allowing hot hair directly from the dryer to come into the utility room.
We moved the washer out further so that my husband could get behind it. He decided that he could make things hold together the way they should if he wired the two parts of the hose together. Once that was done, I did the appalling job of cleaning the floor behind the washer and dryer and sweeping the things that had collected under the big dog bed.
We got the dryer and then the washer back where they were supposed to be and then I started moving everything I had moved OUT back IN again. We’re back to what passes for normal around here now, but it’s interesting to try to figure out what will go on strike next….
Thank goodness my husband can fix most things!
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
One of the many reasons we love living on top of our ridge line outside the city limits of Greenwood, Arkansas is the privacy. We have our space without having to speak to lots of neighbors or having them look harshly at us because we don’t make sure each blade of grass is cut to the neighborhood specifications. We have created out own little world up here and we love it.
We can pretend we own all the land we can see. :0) We own about 8 acres. Our land goes down to the street in the front. Picture a hill with the top part cut off horizontally. That’s our land. We keep a small part ‘civilized’ and let the rest be natural.
We absolutely love our view from our back yard. We can watch the seasons change. We can enjoy the firework displays of our neighbors in the valley below.
If we can SEE it, it’s OURS, isn’t it? :0)
Filed under Arkansas, Favorite Things, Greenwood, Mother Nature
We are enjoying a pretty early spring here in Arkansas. It makes me feel a bit guilty, so I’m trying to send some nice spring weather in all directions.
In my trip around the yard with the doggies, I found some nice things –
Even though it’s cloudy, the redbud is till showing up nicely around the yard.
Here is a close-up view of some of the redbud blooms.
The tulip tree is fragile, already losing a lot of its petals in the gusty winds we’ve been having off and on, but it makes me smile each time I see it.
Here is a close-up of some of the blooms.
These hyacinths are in one planter beside the front porch. We have some more in the planter on the east side of the house.
I love the contrast between the lingering winter and the redbud, plus the nice greens of the iris.
The first blooming iris of the season!
Filed under Arkansas, Greenwood, Mother Nature
“Blue Forget-Me-Not” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Trendzified
Good morning!
I’m feeling happy and grateful this morning.
We’re having a nice weekend weather-wise here in Greenwood, Arkansas. The highs will be in the 70’s and no rain until tomorrow evening (although it LOOKS like it could rain today). Because rain is forecast for every day from Sunday evening through Thursday next week, I’m trying to get as much accomplished in the yard as possible. Yesterday I planted tomato plants in one of the brick planters beside the house. The wind was gusting so hard I began to wonder if I was going to be able to plant! I did finish, though, and will check on the plants again this morning.
_______________________
Things got busy around here, so an hour or so has passed.
The doggies demanded I take them out, so we walked all over the yard. We saw the veggie garden with its automatic watering –
we checked on the new tomato plants –
we took pictures, and played a bit while enjoying the really nice morning.
Just a few minutes ago my husband suggested we drive down to see if the mail had been delivered. We also took the “Rabbit and Easter Egg” mailbox decoration when we went, exchanging it for the leprechaun for St. Pat’s Day.
We drove down to the church at the end of the street to turn the truck around and met our good friend Carla, who was walking her two doggies, Nikki and Rubie. Thank goodness I still had a couple of dog treats in my pocket so we could greet them properly. (Carla said she didn’t care for one.) :0)
Today’s big project is filling the wheelbarrow with top soil and trying to fill up all the holes (or as many as I can find) that the moles, voles, and other ‘ole’s’ underneath the surface caused our doggies to dig to try to get them. We only actually saw one ‘victory’ so far. We’re not sure WHO got the ‘critter’ we found, but SOMEONE had given it a very hard time. Anyway, between the underworld critters and ours, the yard almost looks like something from a bad horror movie. I’ll try to get them filled so that the rain can make the soil sink down and stay put, and then maybe we can mow without falling into a hole or twisting an ankle.
I hope your morning has been a fun one!
“Kestrel” – David Scheirer Watercolors
My Modern Met
Filed under Creativity, Watercolors I Love
Macrame – Evgenia Garcia
Mozart Guerra Rope Art via Toxel.com.
Sisal String – artist unknown – via Alamy.com
Filed under Creativity, String Art
“Among Branches and Flowers” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
The official tree of Arkansas is the pine tree. I thought it was the Redbud, but that’s the state tree of Oklahoma, where I lived much of my childhood. We have three or four Redbuds on our property, and we carefully cut stuff away from around them, trying to encourage them to get as large as possible and have a nice show each year in the spring.
You can also see our larger propane tank and the shop here.
HAPPY SPRING!
Filed under Arkansas, Greenwood, Mother Nature
t1.gstatic.com
“At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.” ~ IMDb.com
This is a short synopsis of the movie, giving you absolutely no idea of the beauty and creativity waiting for you. My husband and I rarely agree with the Academy on which movies should be nominated, which one wins best picture, etc. In fact, we haven’t usually gotten a chance to see the movies that are vying for the award at the time the awards are given.
We saw The Shape of Water last night and I’m still touched, amazed, and pleased that it won Best Picture for 2018.
Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro was the writer, screenplay writer, director, and producer (he might have even worn more hats in this) and I will look for more movies directed by him. I can’t say enough about his talent. He won Oscars for Best Movie and Best Director for this film.
The actors were well chosen, and were nominated – if not winning – Oscars for their performances.
Sally Hawkins played the janitor. She is mute and says NOTHING the whole movie. She was nominated for Best Actress, but didn’t win. Octavia Spenser played her friend and co-worker. She was nominated for Best Supporting Role by an Actress. Michael Shannon played the creature, and did a superb job.
The story was completely unique and quite creative. I will buy it for our collection.
Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews
Tes
Leo Sewell’s “Scotty”, mixed media (photo courtesy of William Benton Museum of Art)
Filed under Art From Found Things, Creativity
Molly and Amber On Walk
Molly is learning to be patient with big, lumbering, doofus puppy Amber, even though Amber tries to ‘play’ with Molly, sending her ‘rear-end-over-tea-kettle’ a time or two while we’re out walking. I warn Amber with the sound on her collar when she’s being too rambunctious, but I don’t catch all of it in time. I want them to be able to play, but Molly is getting long in the tooth, like her owners, and can only take a little bit.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
“Red Flower Trees” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Romantic Wild Red Roses” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Velvet Rose for You” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Our spring raised bed square foot garden is off to a good start. We have six 4’x4’x8″ boxes at about my chest level in our vegetable garden. (We also have two brick planters on the other side of the house we use for our tomato plants.)
You can see the sprinklers and hoses that run over the top of the boxes on either side, making up the irrigation system. I added the timer a few days ago to the outdoor faucet, so the garden gets watered for 10 minutes each morning. There are drain holes in each box so that excess water runs out freely. I’ve planted onion sets, iceberg head lettuce, romaine lettuce, broccoli, and spinach so far. I’ll plant some radishes later, plus bring out starts of celery from the house.
This year, except for the onion sets and radishes, I decided to only plant one plant in each square. There are only two of us eating salad in our household, so 4 lettuce plants to a square is too much for us to eat and the plants grow rapidly, crowding each other. I’m experimenting to see if this spread out version works better for us.
The spindly plants around this lettuce plant are onion sets. The tops of the onions don’t look great, but I’m hoping that the actual onions are doing well. I won’t know for a long time.
Here you can see broccoli in the foreground, a spinach plant in the middle, and lettuce toward the back. I’m planning to start the tomato plants we bought very soon.
This is
White hyacinth and frog
The daffodils are starting to fade now, but the hyacinths I planted last year are bursting forth now. Such a showy, happy flower.
Purple hyacinth and kind old gentleman
New Joseph’s Coat Climbing rose birthday plant and camellias.
Purple hyacinth and hydrangea.
It’s a good thing I planted several purple hyacinths, since Amber ate one of them.
Hyacinths
glorious purple hyacinth
Filed under Arkansas, Favorite Things, Gardening, Mother Nature
My friend Kay brought me this beautiful black elephant ear plant as one of my birthday presents. (She also brought me a Joseph’s Coat climbing rose bush plant) I finally got this planted yesterday, in one of the tall brick planters beside our front porch. It will be as protected as possible from the gusty winds we have at times. It’ll get sun in the afternoons. I hope it will be happy here.
If it isn’t happy here, I’ll transplant it to one of the brick planters along the front of the house that we’re having to take down and rebuild. That may be awhile, though.
I think this is a beautiful plant and I hope it does well. I thanked her, and then Kay told me not to – that to thank someone for a plant was bad luck for the plant – or the person – I forget which. I held my mouth shut the rest of the time and will have to HOPE that I didn’t jinx one or both of us with my thank you…
Filed under Delightful Surprises, Gardening
Molly is 14 years old and weighs about 25 lbs. She is a schnauzer/cocker spaniel cross and has a HEAVY coat of fur. We let it grow out in the winter to help keep her warm.
Sheepdog Molly/Winter Molly
When the weather starts to warm up, we take her to the groomer to be sheared like a sheep. We ask them to cut it ‘short all over.’ The groomers would like to leave her bushy eyebrows, a beard, mustache, cute longer curly hair on her hips, tufted tail, maybe even ‘socks,’ but we insist on ‘short all over.’
We live on top of a ridge line on a small, woody piece of land that is a gathering place for ticks, fleas, and most of all, burrs of all shapes and sizes. Since Molly is NOT a ladylike dog, preferring to run to the nearest hole in the yard and stick her nose as far down into it as possible, trying to get whatever made the hole, ‘cute’ is a definite liability.
She runs like a mad thing all over the yard, rolling in the grass or – even better – some awful, stinky thing she finds, coming in with burrs from stem to stern. If she has a ‘cute’ haircut, I spend a half hour or more with a comb, trying to get the burrs out of her beard, mustache, eyebrows, between her toes, etc. She is NOT happy with that, so ‘short-all-over’ it is.
Sleek Molly / Spring, Summer, and Fall Molly
This is how she looks most of the year. If she finds interesting stuff outside, the burrs are whisked off pretty quickly. If needed, I can plonk her into the kitchen sink and scrub her all over. ONE towel and a short time with the hair dryer and she’s ready to be a close part of our family again.
We love both “Sheepdog” Molly and “Sleek” Molly. It’s like having two dogs in one!
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
creativeartworksblog 