9 Moons Ago

Yesterday I was out in the yard playing ball with the dogs when I noticed two flecks of brilliant red in the grass beneath the clothesline. There was movement, and the dogs seemed to be oblivious, so I decided to put them inside the house for a few minutes before they wised-up. Then I went outside again to observe the Crimson Rosellas pecking away at the ground for food. I actually got pretty close before they flew up to a nearby branch to perch. (Teefy, I thought you would especially be interested in these brightly colored “chickens”!) Pretty amazing!:

Well, my new banner is up, thanks, in part, to the delightful stripe-y pattern provided by a wonderful whimsical artist, Delphine. I’ve been smitten with her work for the past couple of days, since I stumbled upon her site, and have been checking out all the archives and soaking up inspiration.

Besides her charming illustrations on non dairy diary, and bright, hip patterns for photoshop, she has many fun crafts which you can print out and make. I jumped into the paper crane making straight away. I used to make these a lot and forgot how to, with lack of practice.

I first learned the art back at Moore College of Art when we had students from Japan visiting. They brought us gifts of chopstick holders, and cold packs with cute and funny illustrations on them, and lots of origami paper. I remember the fun we had that week, sitting around a low table in the lounge and learning how to make brightly colored cranes.

Here is my most recent family of birds, resting on top of my mac:

Took a break from gardening today..it was too chilly and wet. But we did manage to squeeze in a game of fetch with the pups! There was yummy bruschetta for lunch, and an easy roast made in the crockpot for dinner, and I think I’ll make some popcorn for a snack! Yum! See ya later….

It’s a great time of year..warmer, but not too hot. Enough rain to keep the ground damp. Not many flies or mosquitos, and the trees are looking gorgeous in their colorful finery.

It’s also officially “wet pup” season. The other night Goldie rolled in “You (don’t want to) know what” and consequently had his first Spring bath -other than his usual jumping into the outside baths used for horse troughs. Today he was just wet and muddy, so the bed was off-limits for dogs. Sometimes this kind of thing can be frustrating, but this house is wet-pup friendly with its brick & stone floors, so we’re generally tolerant of (and often even amused by) the warm-weather antics.
Gus remains the cleaner of the two, while Goldie reminds me of Harry the Dirty Dog!

I’ve been soaking up inspiration inside and out, which I’ll tell more about soon…
In the meantime, here is another sketch of blooms from one of our trees, in a nice big vase on the sill in the bathroom: