Wednesday, January 26, 2011

museum time-out, turtles & fossils, surprise package!


oh! it's wednesday again! hump day!
to be optimistic...the weekend's not far off!!

last weekend i attended "Collector's Day" 
Collector's Day. it happens once a year. you sign up in advance...
they give you a table to use...you bring your 'collection'...
and display it for all to see!
there were all kinds of collections...from the Simpsons...to swords...old microscopes...
frogs...snoopy...spatulas...old lures...beanie babies...light houses...manatees...cats...
gemstones...old wind up toys...old army stuff...you name it!!  
all kinds of weird...unusual...cool...collections!

ok...so let me start at the beginning...
have i ever mentioned that i also have a turtle collection?
yeah, besides bones, feathers, rocks, artifacts, beads, driftwood, old bottles...
i also collect turtles!  (not live ones)
if you're around my age...maybe you remember
the little green turtle we would get as a pet.
this poor little turtle was plucked out of a tank and sentenced to
  live  in a round plastic container with a little ramp leading up to a little plastic palm tree.
poor turtles!
my next turtle was a box turtle. named charlie.
then...after that...when i lived in california, i had a kiddie pool out on the porch.
this kiddie pool was home to a few koi and a diamondback terrapin.
over the years, i've rescued a few turtles...
scooping them up and moving them across the road...out of harms way...
moving them faster than their little legs would carry them!
i've picked up injured turtles and taken them home 
to nurse them back to health.

so, for as long as i can remember, i've collected little turtle figurines...
i've always been drawn to turtles. they're my totem.
a friend of mine who also collects turtles signed us up to attend 'collector's day'.
our collection.
it was pretty cool...
it was the first time i'd ever gathered up all my turtles...
and 'showed them off'. 
turns out there were over two thousand visitors that day to see the collections!

i brought MOST of my turtles.
some were just a little too shy and didn't want to be plucked
out of the garden...or off the shelf.
we had a lot of compliments, comments...and questions...
and learned there are a lot of other turtle lovers out there!

at 3pm  we packed up our turtles...
sam came by and helped load them in the car...
then we wandered around the museum!  i was looking forward to this!
all the prehistoric fossils & bones. ancient times. nature stuff. i love it!!
 
On every stem, on every leaf ... and at the root of everything that grew, 
was a professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis, 
or other expert, whose business it was to devour that particular part.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes
(go here...to read more...about the butterfly exhibit...)

and...so...that was last saturday's adventure...

i have ONE more thing to mention before i go...
this past monday...home between appointments...
i stop at the mailbox on the corner.

there's a key in there for the package bin. i thought to myself...
hmmmm, i don't remember ordering anything...
so i open it and there's a 'priority box' in there.

i look at the return address, and it's from a fellow blogger...
someone i've become friendly with.
anyway...i pick up the box...shake it...and hear the tell-tale rattling sound
of bone against bone! HUH??!

i put it in the car...took it home...opened it...
A BOX OF BONES!
yikes!  what a surprise!
a DEER!!  the skull. ribs...all the bones!!
and a note saying she found these up on the mountain while walking her dogs...
and she thought of me!!  hahahaaaa!!

SO...what about the fact that i was in someone's thoughts 
when they encountered a dead animal...a carcass...a skeleton...
ha! i guess you could be remembered for worse things!

i was glad the box didn't open up during its journey from virginia to florida!
THANKS  for making my day JP!!  visit her blog at  Home In The Hollow!!
and thanks for thinking of me, JP when you saw that pile of bones! i think! :))
no, really... i love 'em!!


have a good rest of the week...

Little by little one travels far.   ~J. R. R. Tolkien

stay cool - travel safe
laura  :]

((ps - remember the post i did about 'spelling'...
well, while watching the news the other night...all about the unusual freezing weather 
here in the US...they spelled MINNESOTA wrong!! they gave it only one N!
that's pretty bad....))

14 comments:

  1. What a nice surprise in your mail! I would like to have seen the reaction at the post office if it had opened there!!
    I think turtles are cool too, they have wise and grumpy faces...we had a couple of red-eared sliders, Baskin & Robin...my sister adopted them, and they got so big, another turtle lover adopted them. All those fresh crickets!

    I have to tell you, I am in love with that armadillo!
    Happy Humping!`stacey

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  2. I really needed to read a great post today & yours was the first! Turtles, huh? I'll have to try to remember that! And you know I was thinking of you in a good way!!! Between the preacher's wife & the clerk at the PO, I'm doomed!...:)JP

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  3. Trucking stacey T...see?!! turtle lovers everywhere! how can you NOT love turtles...those little faces...and they're so smart!! carrying their home where ever they go!! and good for your sister too! that armadillo was awesome!! huge!!

    JP's Home In The Hollow! hey...i know you had all good intentions...believe me...i love the bones! and it's just so cool that they're from out of state...a mountain deer! i'm gonna do something special with that skull!!

    thanks you 2!! i'll be catching up over at your place friday morning!!
    seeya! laura :]

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  4. Heaps of turtles! Love the turtle jewellery too. What an amazing collection between the two of you.

    You must've been in bone heaven Laura with all those exhibits there!

    It's just great when you get a lovely surprise in the mail. It happened for me too last week (not bones though!)

    Bye for now :D

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  5. that museum looks soooo cool! the woolly mammoth skeleton is sick :)

    www.thefeaturedcreature.com

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  6. Susan...yes! i WAS in bone heaven! good guess! ha...it was a fun day really...sharing all our turtles with so many people! thanks for swinging by & leaving your thoughts! :]

    CarlyB...yeah it was sooooo cool! i had only been to the museum ONCE before...since i moved here...oh, 9 years ago...i have to go more often! the bones, the skeletons...so enormous! i love it! thanks for stopping by!! :]

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  7. Boxes of bones! how cool! I love your bones, it is so fantastic what you do with them. It seems bones tell us so much about life, not just death.
    I had a dog once who found a big desert tortoise and he barked at that turtle for and hour trying to get it to come out of its shell, finally the tortoise got tired and starting walking away and the dog followed with his noise on the back of its shell for some time. It was very funny.
    thanks so much for sharing with us.

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  8. lovelight! at least you understand, and can appreciate my 'fondness for bones'...when i feel them in my hand...it makes me think...about life...as you say, not just death!
    ha! funny story about the turtle and dog! nice thing about turtles, they carry their home with them...so if turtle gets tired of barking dog again, he can just park it and close all doors! ha! and tune that dog out!!
    laura :]

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  9. I love turtles. I just bought my son a turtle shirt.
    I wanted to come check you out from Home in the Hollow - she's my neighbor and always telling me how much she loves your blog and your art!

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  10. Thanks Lisa @ Two Bears!! for taking the time to stop by! (and thanks to our mutual friend JP...) :]

    ...going to this 'collection show' at the museum...made me realize just how many people out there are turtle lovers!! yeah!!

    how can anyone NOT love turtles!!

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  11. I love the idea of collectors day, although I have to say that I am not a collector at all. I am way to organised for that, taking after my grandmother, I try and avoid collecting things as they soon become the basis for all gifts and negate my need for simplicity.

    But I love turtles. They are a symbol for mother earth and they quite often come up in my totem as well, although wolves are my main totem animal.

    Would have loved to see your collection...

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  12. Keda...sometimes i wish i wasn't such a collector...of things...but, one day...i know i will have to part with most and only keep a few of my special pieces...that's ok...

    turtles AND wolves...my animal totems also...wolves have come to be a part of me in the last 20 or so years i'd say...but turtles...for as long as i can remember...

    thanks for wandering through...as always...i enjoy hearing from you...laura :]

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  13. what a collection of turtles you have, and i loved the snail/turtle poster, a good lesson in 'perspective'

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  14. Thanks Kel! yeah...i have way too many turtles...
    and after i got home...and unpacked...i spotted a couple more i had forgotten about! ha!
    turtle overload!

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thanks for stopping by! it's always nice to hear from fellow wanderers!