...for my sister...

sometimes our blogs are our therapy.

most of the time i like to have fun with nature...

NOT MUCH is more exciting to me than wandering around...

in the yard...in the woods...and finding interesting things to take pictures of.

well...although i always have a vast number of pic's to go through

and decide which ones to post...

today is more of a deep thought day.

the first thing i did this morning...before i even got my coffee...

was to light a memorial candle for my sister.

sally was 3 years younger than me. 

she passed away after losing a long battle to breast cancer

she had a mastectomy, went through all the usual treatments...

chemo & radiation...only to find out five years later 

that her cancer was not only back, but had metastasized.

she passed away in march of  '07.

today she would have been 54.

she had ONE bumper sticker on her car...it read 

"No Wimps"

her favorite quote was

"Gratitude is the best attitude"

and so...i always seem to get a little 'down' when birthdays or days of death

roll around.  and for me...that's fairly often...having lost both parents 

and my only sister & brother.  

of course there have been many other deaths of relatives and friends...

over the years...but it's really only my sister, brother & dad 

that get to me the most.

it's only for them that i light a candle.

it's only for them, that i get a little down.

 

when i'm in the store...buying a birthday card for someone...

and notice the cards for brothers and sisters...

i stand there...trying to keep from crying...tears welling up in my eyes...

heart-ache to the max.

 

anyway...enough of all that. 

i wasn't planning on doing a post until tomorrow morning,

but decided to do a quick one today...for sally.  

to help me.  to make me feel better. 

i needed to talk.

for the most part...

people don't want to hear me go on about 'missing them'.  

i should be over it by now,  you know.

so, here i am. 

knowing you don't have to read if you don't want.

you don't have to listen.

but it makes ME feel better to write.

 

sally loved flowers.

so these are for her!

and you.

 

~rain lily~

 

~lantana~

 

~butterfly weed~

What sets sisters apart from brothers
and also from friends
is a very intimate meshing of
heart, soul and the mystical cords of memory.

 

~mimosa ground cover~

 ~tropical  sage~

 

~hydrangea~

Chance made us Sisters,
hearts made us friends.

 

~beauty berry~

 

~standing cypress~

 

~black eyed susan~

Sisters are blossoms
in the garden of life.

 

 

~pansies~

 

~dogwood tree~ 

 

~redbud tree~

 

~persian silk/mimosa tree~

 thanks for staying...

I give you this one thought to keep -

I am with you still - I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sunlight on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not think of me as gone -
I am with you still - in each new dawn.

(NATIVE AMERICAN PRAYER)

have a safe journey!

:]  laura

from my puddle to yours...

 

ribbet!

HEY there!  laura wanted me to jump in here and let you know

that she & sam are leaving ME  in charge this weekend. 

they're taking Milo, and going camping.

JUST for the weekend. Just a couple of nights.

it's raining right now...so i gotta hurry through this.

ribbet!

laura gave me a quick computer lesson and

asked if i wouldn't mind picking out a couple of pictures...

so you'll have more to see...than just ME!

ribbet!  ribbet!

 ***

this is my cousin Vinnie...trying to catch a snooze in the collard greens!

 

 ***

this is my BIG uncle Louie, trying to make himself invisible...

trying to squeeeeeze into the corner...

doesn't he know he's not gonna go 'camo' like the lizards!?

he's BIG and MEAN and GREEN...there's just no denying it!

 

 ***

here's my niece Fiorella. she may look small...dainty...as pretty as a flower...

but she sure can HOLLER...

her CROAKS have been known to wake the neighbors!

 

 ***

and this is Fiorella's little brother. yeah, my nephew. we call him 'bones'.

he eats and eats and eats...and just never seems to gain anything.

(unlike uncle Louie!  ssssshhh...don't tell him i said that...)

 

 ***

 and finally...my best bud.  the coolest dude. Demetrio.

 we've been hanging out FOREVER!

anyway...i really have to split.

it's still raining...and a frog just has to be a frog...

ribbet!

so, from my puddle to yours...

have a weekend filled with good wishes...

stay cool.

laura will be back monday...

>Ponzio

(put in a good word for me, will ya')

later!

(OH yeah, and if you leave me a note...

maybe i can hop on over to your place sometime...)

ribbet...croak...ribbet...ribbet...

surprise! it's wings & beans!

a couple of weeks ago i did a quick post

because i was so excited about the surprise one of my clients

had given me: 'my kind of surprise'

well...today, another  tuesday...i saw this same client again this morning.

and...GUESS WHAT?!

she had ANOTHER surprise waiting!

they're pretty fragile...she found them outside 

and saved them in an envelope.

 this big one is the Luna Moth

 

this smaller one is a Hackberry!

 

i save ALL the wings i find.

i use them in my 'creations'...and in the 'vial jewelry' i make.

(no no, not VILE!  it might SOUND the same...but that's not what i said...

i said VIAL...little glass vials with cork stoppers!)

 

i put all kinds of things in vials...forest treasures!

bones, feathers,  tiny acorns, stones...

and then make them into necklaces.

of course i haven't started to create anything with these new wings...

but over the weekend i did start to make a couple of window hangers 

with older wings i already had. 

 

wings, pressed flowers and grasses...

the finished piece will look similar to this one...

with heavy gauge wire wrapped & looped & ready to hang...

 

...and while i'm talking about clients...and gifts...

last week the mother of one of my clients...

who is also a good friend of mine by now, since i've been

working with her daughter for nearly 6 years!

anyway, she has a wonderful...veggie garden this year!

do you remember what happened to mine?

the deer ate the plants down to the ground!

she felt sorry for me i guess...

and she also has more beans than she knows what to do with.

have you ever seen beans like this?!!

 

FOOT LONG BEANS!!  yum!

ok, bye.

just wanted to get this out there...gotta run...

stay cool. 

:] laura

"Do, or do not. There is no try. "   

Yoda

look! up in the sky...

it's a seahorse!

You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds.  

~Henry David Thoreau 

and while looking up at the clouds...

that familiar sound of the hawk.

first, one red-shouldered hawk landed on the branch...then another.

zoom...

zoom once more...

yesterday's sky.

(PS - well, i hesitated to say...but when i first spotted that cloud,

i said to sam "LOOK! a dragon!"  and he said  "it's a sea horse!"

yeah, a sea horse! 

i didn't think anyone would see a dragon 

since it was so obviously a sea horse...

but i was wrong...'texwisgirl's' comment says she saw a dragon!

so...there ya' go...dragon...sea horse...

either way...pretty cool cloud!)

have a safe journey & enjoy the ride.

:] laura

a quickie...june sun shower

a brief sun shower.

 

a welcome afternoon rain.

at least now i don't have to drag the hose around and water everything later!

(i don't know what kind of little spider that is...on the yellow lantana...

VERY cool web! looks like he used a sewing machine...zig-zag!

i'll look him up later...
plants are hibiscus, oak leaf hydrangea leaf, marigold, false or summer poinsettia.
the butterfly's a gulf fritillary 

and the lizard is the florida Anole, on the front porch.)

(6/24) SPIDER UPDATE: 
THANKS to texwisgirl  - The Run*A*Round Ranch Report 

for IDing that spider! she calls them Zipper spiders...you can see why! 

it's a Banded or Yellow Argiope...in the Orb Weaver family...

which we have many of around here!  hey thanks for saving me the google! :)

(6/26)  ONE MORE SPIDER UPDATE from Shawn of StokesAnimalLibrary.
he  says that when you see the zig-zag on the Argiope's web...
it means that a male came to mate with her. 
he put that zig-zag pattern into her web. 
hmmmm...must be his way of 'marking' her as 'taken'...
or 'just another notch on his bedpost' !!??

(6/27)  JUST ONE MORE SPIDER UPDATE (famous last words...)
from Cindy at Bug Safari ...
 According to BugGuide: These orbweavers often place a conspicuous zigzagging 
white silk banner in their webs called the "stabilimentum" which can be used 
to identify the species. Juveniles of many species spin a spiralling stabilimentum 
from the center of the web. The function of the stabilimentum is not fully understood. 
Hypotheses are: that it stabilizes the web, 
or makes it more apparent to birds which will thus not fly into and wreck it, 
or it reflects light to attract insect prey, 
or perhaps most likely helps to camouflage the spider in the web.

~gotta run~work~bye~

:] laura

tryin' to go with the flow...

no work yesterday and today.

well, i shouldn't say that...i've been working...just no massages.

yesterday i spent ALL day on my new website for my art.

i'm glad i don't have a desk job.

i could barely stand up straight,

my shoulders & neck ached,

my eyes felt like they were popping out of my head!

so this morning...

after changing a few things i thought of during the night (on my website),

i planned to get some running around done.

went out to the car...and...

woops!  doesn't look like i'll be heading to the store soon.

so i trudged over to our...uh...veggie garden!? ha!

last year we HAD A GARDEN!

we were giving away cucumbers, peppers greens and beans.

this year...the time to plant came too quick.

we didn't till the ground. we didn't add good soil.

i just picked up a few varieties of peppers & a couple of cucumber plants.

anyway, i reached our sandy garden area...

and immediately noticed the tops of ALL the pepper plants were chewed off!

then i noticed...

deer tracks in the garden.

yeah, you're right what you're thinking...

why didn't we run a fence around it?

we did last year.

but with only about 8 plants in there THIS year...we figured...

survival of the fittest.

we got lazy.

oh well. since the plants weren't doing too good anyway...

bon appetit deer!

so i head back into the house...put up some laundry...

get back on HERE so i can get caught up with blog reading...

when i hear this loud THUD out front.

i know that sound.

a tree just fell.

i went to investigate, but it wasn't a tree...

just two big branches from a dead tree.

they landed right across the driveway!

while taking pictures of the downed branches...i started to smell something.

rotten. dead.

over there...up front...just on the other side of the fence...

poor turtle was probably trying to make it to the mud pit across the street.

(but now i have some turtle bones to save! i'll bury him.)

hopefully that's it for today.  i'm just tryin' to go with the flow...

OH! and speaking of veggies...

i do have a potted tomato plant that's producing!

the hornworm caterpillar hasn't found it yet...

like last year's tomato plant.

he devoured the entire plant over night!

oOo

one of the blogs i follow...lorna at Artymess...

had made a ROSE from a tie.

yeah. i thought...

wow! i kept a couple of my brother's ties after he passed away.

he had so many ties...NOW i wish i had kept more!

i e-mailed lorna and asked if she had instructions!

she made little videos...3 of them...with step by step instructions!

i don't have a sewing machine...i hand stitched everything...

it took me about 2 hours. here's my rose...

a memory rose for my brother.

here's the link to lorna's post  From Tie to Rose.

oOo

one last thing...

i always feel funny about 'pushing' myself on people...

i'm not good at promoting myself...

selling my art...

taking compliments...

blahblah.

BUT...

since i've put so many hours into this new website...

and am still editing things on it from hour to hour...day to day...

if you can go check it out...let me know what u think...

Jean from the blog Jackson Chronicles 

gave me so many tips...suggestions...SO MUCH to think about & absorb...

it actually made me blush as i read her email...knowing that someone

went to my 'forestwalk art store' and actually THOUGHT about what i was trying to do!

thanks Jean. :)

OK...so here's the link to my shop...

it's also on the top right sidebar of this blog!

forestwalkart.com

thanks in advance...to anyone who strolls through there...

it's still under construction, so stop back now and then.

"You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes 

were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit."   

-Gandalf to Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

~have a safe journey & enjoy the ride~

:] laura

PS - email me and i'll send the ROSE-TIE videos if you're interested.

ALSO...i went NON-word VERIFICATION  on comments!

seeya!