take a L E A P into nature.

my previous post was only two days ago...
but the 29th of february only comes once every four years...
i couldn't just let it pass by without doing something here!


today i feel like taking a leap into my heap of pictures

and picking out a few of my favorites!
well, maybe more than a few.
(these are not new pictures...i've posted them in the past.)


some may not be the BEST shots...
but they were very LUCKY shots.
be prepared for photo overload!!


just a lot of cool nature!!


~enjoy~

Bald Eagle. Lake Lochloosa, FL

Five-lined Skink

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. O'Leno State Park, FL

Alligator. La Chua trail, Paynes Prairie State Park, FL

backyard Barred Owl

this Cicada has just molted into an adult. its shell is underneath.

moon sliver & star sunset. North Beach, FL

2. 29.2012
(in numerology, add each number together in month, day, year...until you have the root number)

2+11+5=

2+2+5=

9


today should be a pretty good day because 9 is also my birth path number.
8.19.1953
8+10+18=
8+1+9=
18=
9



NINE MORE pic's...

Red-shouldered Hawk chasing away a Fox in our backyard

Anole

clouds reflecting in the Suwannee River, FL

wild horses along the Bolen Bluff trail, Paynes Prairie State Park, FL

Red-headed Woodpecker. seen for the first time in our yard last year.

Purple Passion flower

Neptune Beach, FL

Yellow Rat snake climbing tree in backyard

it's too hard to decide which pictures to post...
so here's ONE MORE set of NINE...

"It is a great art to saunter."   

~Henry David Thoreau 

Red-spotted Purple butterfly on a Fetterbush

(a surprised) Pileated Woodpecker, right outside our back door

Pileated Woodpecker on tree out back

White-tailed Deer not paying attention to the sign. she's speeding across the road. O'Leno State Park, FL.

Snowy Egret patiently waiting for a fish dinner. La Chua trail, Paynes Prairie State Pk, FL

Red-shouldered Hawk in the backyard

Gulf Fritillary butterfly

stink bug convention

(whew!  the end.)

"Little by little one travels far."

~J. R. R. Tolkien

stay cool & be safe.

laura

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

~Martin Luther King Jr.

dem bones, art & journaling, the moon.

a leaf suspended from a spider web fragment

Nature gets into our souls and opens doors to hidden parts of ourselves.  

~Pamela Heyda 

~oOo~

before you say "what the heck is that"...here's a hint:
this Barred Owl made it!

it's a cough pellet.

whatever the owl can't digest...gets coughed up as this mass.
yeah, i know...ugh...delightful.
fur & tiny bones of lizards, moles, snakes...whatever the owl has been dining on.

~oOo~

speaking of bones...
we discovered a little pile of bones - jaws & skull pieces
on the side of the road.

we go by there all the time. these bones were not there last weekend.
they look weathered...and clean.  clean, except for the dirt. there's no meat on these bones.
they're a mix of Raccoon & Opossum bones.
but why only the skull parts?  and how did they all of a sudden appear here...
like someone dumped them?!
it couldn't be from a scavenger...they'd be scattered all over the place.
of course, i gathered them up, took them home and rinsed 'em.

the skull in the upper right & the assorted bottom jaws are raccoon
the smaller skull pieces are Opossum.

~oOo~

while we're on the subject of dead things...
guess how i got THIS close to this Gulf Fritillary?

it's dead.
i spotted it on the Lantana. took a couple of pictures from afar...
moved in closer...it didn't move...moved in even closer...it still didn't move.
after i took this picture, i plucked her off and took her inside.
at some point she will be memorialized on a piece of  'art'.

~oOo~

since we're talking about art...
i started to work on a few 'tea-light champagne glass candle holders'.

 

2nd hand/thrift store bought champagne glasses,

decorated with pressed flowers and wings!

before they're finished, i'll spray coat the outside 

and wrap wire with beads to the stems.

~oOo~

...speaking of art...

(inspired by Kel at the X facta ...i've started an 'Art Journal'.

kind of...like a 'picture diary'...whatever i feel like doing on whatever day i feel like doing it..

collage. paint. marker. pencil. pastels.

stuff of my life. my mood. maybe a quote.

i shopped for a journal. yikes, they're pricey!

so i went to the art store
and picked up a sketchbook for a third of the price of a journal with a fancy cover!
 i decided to make my own cover.

i'm not much of a painter. i wish i was though...

kind of like singing...sounds great in my head, 'til i open my mouth!

i can picture what i want my painting to look like, i just can't get it to come out like that!

i love watercolors. the way they blend and bleed.

 so i dug them out...cut a piece of heavy watercolor paper to fit the sketchbook...

started by drawing a BIG 'me'...and then began to paint.
no plans. just wing it. 

hmmm...feel a little sparkly...

and something vine-like...

finished. let it dry. laminated. mounted on the sketchbook's cover.

the moon. spiraling. light into dark. dark into light. healing. glittering. me. the intricacies of me.

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - 
things I had no words for.  
~Georgia O'Keeffe 

now, if i could just decide where to start.
i know, i know...start with the first page.
but what to do ??   i'll keep you posted.

(check out Kel's  Art Journals here! amazing work!!)  

Happy Friday!  (or Happy Day!)

have a safe journey & enjoy the ride!
laura

last night's moon...

november 3. 2011.  8:27pm.

There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; 

there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

~ Matsuo Basho

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

yard critters and more of that fungus-amungus!

this past week we've had rain almost every afternoon...

which  is a little unusual. 

the towns along the coast get rain almost every day...

but not us.

even if rain is in the forecast...it doesn't always make an appearance.

we can be watching the weather scan...

and it shows big blotches of green all over us...

but...then...what happened? where did it go? did  it just split and go around us?

did it evaporate before it hit the ground?

anyway...what i'm saying is that for us to have rain every day

is not the norm.

but i love it. i love the rain. i love a good thunderstorm.

earlier in the week...one evening...sam & i heard this loud tapping sound...

on the roof.  we have a metal roof and a couple of skylights...

it sounded as if someone was throwing golf balls.

we looked at each other & instantly we knew.

with surprise and recognition...we said in unison

"HAIL!"

that was the first time I'D seen hail  since i moved to

florida in '87.  come to think of it, that was probably the first time

i'd seen hail since i left NY in '74.

 well, a year or two after i moved to florida...when i lived farther south

in the tampa area...plant city actually (the strawberry capital!)...

i  awoke one morning to this fluffy white stuff covering everything!

icicles hanging from the carport and trees!

i ran outside and started to make snow angels in the front yard.

no, i'm just kidding...there wasn't THAT much snow.

everything was frozen. even the water pipes.

but let me get back to the here and now.

i haven't had to drag the water hose around...for about a week now!

mother nature has been giving me a break.

with all this humidity & wetness...

everything is growing like crazy. 

flowers blooming. 

(purple passion flower with it's fruit just over it)

 (inside a Day Lily)

the butterflies & dragonflies are flying around 

with permanent smiles pasted on their tiny faces.

 

and if i'm happy. if the butterflies & the dragonflies are happy.

then the  lizards are happy too!

 (Anole proudly displaying his dewlap)

 (Fence lizard)

even the squirrels are elated because 

they don't have to wait for me to fill their water bowls!

besides all the little yard critters...

one of my favorite things to spot...are mushrooms, lichen, fungus, moss!

each is so unique.

i've done a few posts on these  wondrous plants...but i can never get enough!

i can't help but take pictures of all of them!

don't worry...i'm not going to upload them all.

and unless you know your mushrooms...i'd advise you not to taste any!

 

 (twins!)

 

have you had enough?  just a few more...

 (siamese twins!)

(taste tested...no, not by me...)

(pushing its way up through the ground...thanks to all the rain.)

that's it. OH yeah...

just a couple of stubborn leaves i saw on the ground...

that have just flat out refused to lose their  bright Fall colors!

(fine by me.)

thanks for wandering through...and for NOT eating the mushrooms.

~have a safe journey & enjoy the ride~

:]  laura