time to peek in...

i'm back.

where have i been?

nowhere in  particular. right here.

living life.

reading books. a lot!

taking pictures. a lot!

enjoying...

a purple passion flower

i've thought about entering blog-land...many times.

but for some reason i just couldn't get motivated to do so.

this morning

emo found a snake in the garden...right by the front steps.

fortunately he (emo) was smart enough to leave it alone!

i did pick him (emo) up and bring him indoors...just to play it safe...

while the  VENOMOUS Moccasin  moves on!

pretty, eh?

(pretty scary too!)

a snake.  

it's the year of the snake.

and i was born in a snake year too.

so i thought it an omen!??

today seemed like a good day to poke my head in and say 'hi'.

i want to ease my way in.

one of the reasons i took a blog hiatus, was i started to feel overwhelmed.

now i plan to take it slower.

less often posting...and not trying to read every post of every blog i follow!

so

come on in

and enjoy a few pictures.

tiny tree snail, out back at the edge of the woods.

a Fence lizard

the next two pictures are of STINK BUGS!

stink bug nymphs

Green stink bug

one morning in may...about 7am, i looked out the back door...

and here's what i saw!!  a Barred Owl perched on the bird feeder...looking right at me!!

a Barred Owl

this is one of my favorite dragonfly shots i've taken lately (in june)!

perched on a cactus

a Zebra Longwing - the state butterfly for florida...feeding on lantana

about dem bOnes.

of course i'm still into bones.

finding them. cleaning them. turning them into...art?  jewelry? it all depends...

a hog skull my son travis found for me! =)

another great find!

i'm pretty sure these are Opossum feet!!

ok

the end is near.

ONE more thing to mention.

emo!

he sure has grown!!

and what a personality!

he is a butterfly, dragonfly, mole & mouse chaser.

he is an expert climber,

drinks out of the sink faucet,

and still sucks on our fingers at night.

here he is...deep n thought.

and here he is...passed out in sam's lap.

“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”

~ Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, and Three Guineas

stay cool.  be safe.

laura

moon.books.bradbury quotes.'shrooms.owl.

june begins.

with a full moon.

6.3.2012   8:40pm

“Suddenly the day was gone, night came out from under each tree and spread.”   

~Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree

~time to get back in the swing of things...after a fairly rough May.~

you know i LOVE a lot of things. 

feathers, stones, bones, artifacts, turtles, wolves, the moon.

snapping pictures, creating, shades of purple, jasmine, lavender...

just to name a few...

i also LOVE to read.

always have. i get lost in a good book.

and i go through phases.

science fiction. thriller, dark & psychological. mystery. fantasy. 

and books about tarot, numerology, butterflies, natural healing, history, space, dreams...

anything but romance.

even though i LOVE the FEEL of a book.

the paper...the pages...the smell...

i folded. i gave in to a whim. i bought myself something NEW- not from the thrift store.

~a NOOK~

found it on sale for  twenty bucks less than they usually go for.

and

i

LOVE LOVE LOVE

it.

it's compact. you can change the type...make it larger...

change the font...change the line spacing.

you can look up any word in the book you're reading, by touching it.

you can highlight passages, sentences, paragraphs.

and bookmark a page by touching the upper corner of the screen.

~~

“And sometimes, I tell them, I like to put my head back, like this, and let the rain fall in my mouth. 

It tastes just like wine. Have you ever tried it?”   

~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

last night i heard that Ray Bradbury passed away.

i've read all his books. 

he will surely be remembered forever by his incredible story telling.

what an amazing & gifted man...writer.

so it seemed only fitting to mention my love for books...and segue into the nook.

~~

my mouth is healing. from an extraction and a root canal.

i found a good dentist...better than good...he was very gentle...

didn't hurt me. all the people who work there are attentive, understanding & caring.

he gave me a margarita (with salt on the rim) through an IV

and i didn't feel a thing.

and the next day...NO pain!  just a little achy.

“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. 

When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”   

~Ray Bradbury

speaking of things i love. you can add fungus to that.

not the kind that grows on cheese...or stinky sour milk...

but mushrooms. lichen.

i'm drawn to them. there are LOTS of fungi pictures on this blog.

the rain's been coming down...almost every afternoon or evening

since that tropical storm a week or so ago, off the atlantic coast.

the warm  & wet  =  fungi.

mushrooms are popping up!

"Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. 

See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. 

Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal.” 

~Ray Bradbury

yesterday i started to get caught up with my worldly travels...in cyberspace...

i spent hours jumping from blog to blog...and still have far to go.

so if you haven't seen me lately...i'm getting there...bear with me.

~~

i'm not much of a baker. 

sam & i did get across the street...to the field...to pick wild blackberries.

it's worth the scratched up arms & thorn splinters.

yum.

we picked a bunch. we freeze some...add them to drinks or ice cream...smoothies.

well, that's about it.

i was planning on heading into blogland this afternoon,

but i have to go across town, back to the dentist...

there's a sharp edge on the side of one of my teeth...

and my tongue keeps finding it...and rubbing...and getting very sore.

 “Savory...that's a swell word.  And Basil and Betel.  Capsicum.  Curry.  All great.  

But Relish, now, Relish with a capital R. No argument, that's  the best.”   

~Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

i'll leave you with a pic of the Barred Owl in the backyard...

i was lucky to get this shot as he flew away right after i snapped it!

“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. 

The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”   

~Ray Bradbury

be cool. stay safe.

laura

"Why would you clone people when you can go to bed with them and make a baby? 

C'mon, it's stupid.”

~Ray Bradbury

morphing monday (it's a hoot)

~ morphing monday - 5 ~

every monday.

one of my nature shots altered with picassa, gimp or fast stone imaging.

Barred Owl...in the back yard

There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.   

~Marshall McLuhan 

lizards. bones. and a parting moon shot.

after last weekend's FREEZE,

some critters (especially the cold-blooded ones) are thinking really hard
before they step out of their warm & safe hidey-holes.

the days have been steadily warming to the low to mid 70's (F)...

and i have spotted a few lizards lingering...soaking up the warmth...

just in case we get hit with another sudden cold spell.

they are all i've seen.  well other than a few birds and a couple of butterflies...

but this post is for the lizards.

on the front porch hand rail

on fence by the back porch

Florida's Museum of Natural History's Herpetology Dep't lists SIXTY-THREE
species of lizard in Florida.
of that 63...only TWENTY are native to florida.

a juvenile anole on the north side of the house (broom leaning)

this guy must have just changed from green to brown...

note the green around his eyes.

front porch roof

these next few shots are of a lizard on the south side of the house...

stepping out of his skin!

shedding.

he's giving me the eye.

"damn woman! can't i undress in private?!"

now he's starting to get a bit annoyed.

he would prefer to shed in peace.

solitude.

"go away. will ya'"

he tries to scare me away by displaying his dewlap

(a brightly colored flap of skin under the neck).

ok.  i go.

about this next lizard...

does anyone know how to play taps?

the lizard lament.

discovered inside an old grill

oOo

that dead lizard is my cue to move on to BoNES.

owl pellet bones.

courtesy of the Barred Owl who frequents our yard.

taken  31 Jan 2011 at 4:30pm

remember

the owl pellets i found recently?

does that jog your memory?

here are the bones after i dissected them with an x-acto knife & tweezers.

and here they are after soaking...rinsing...straining.

then repeating.

the TINIEST bOnes. 

long leg bones, scapulae, rib bones, teeth...mostly from the little mole that lives underground.

so small...the bones are coughed up in an UNDER 1.5 inch pellet...mixed with fur!

~i love bones~

oOo

""Well," said Pooh, "what I like best -- " 

and then he had to stop and think. 

Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, 

there was a moment just before you began to eat it 

which was better than when you were, 

but he didn't know what it was called." 

~Winnie the Pooh

oOo

moon shots from the morning of Feb 16th, 2012.

a little grainy...but still pretty cool i think...CRATERS!
(for inquiring minds: my camera is nothing fancy. a Canon Powershot SX120)

oOo

"Let nature take you on its journey."

~Jamake Highwater 

stay cool & be safe.
laura

NOTE ON WORD VERIFICATION
maybe you've noticed the DOUBLE words...
all scrambled...with shading and lines running through them.
yikes!
it makes commenting really difficult.
if you use them...maybe try doing without.
i haven't had word verification for over a year and only ONCE or twice
have i had to delete a 'spammy' comment.
with this new double word format, it's very frustrating.
annoying.
time consuming.
you might even notice less comments on your blog.

anyway...please consider it.  :)

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