A Hare raising tale....

As promised.... I thought it would be fun to chat about rabbits. (well, for me anyway...ha ha ) I notice everyone in Europe refers to "hares"... Here in New England we do have a Snow Shoe Hare (though i've never seen one in person, more a northern New England thing I guess?)... but down here, we have your basic Cottontail Rabbit... small and without the lanky legs; much more abundant in our area.  We have a resident one who has been frequenting our yard since the spring... I suspect he or she probably knows what became of my strawberries.... 

I was told recently by a lovely friend, that I am "prone to rabbits".  I never really thought about it like that... but I suppose perhaps I am. It looks like this started young, and has continued...

In the photo below, I am with my first rabbit, Hoppity.   I was happy to find that my Mother had provided some information on the back of the photo. 

Snappy pants huh?
 I wonder if my finger is in his cage and if he bit it?

Yeah  to people who take the time to write on photos so you know what's going on many years later!

Just a guess, but I"m thinking that this book (yes, I still have my childhood books..) is where the inspiration came from for the name...  Apparently 3 years olds don't go for orginality. :)))

Hoppity, from what i recall didn't like being captured and put back in his cage... why would he I suppose... We had him for many years....and i think he started to think of it like game of keep away.  Hiding in the rhubarb, and circling the shed, just out of reach waiting to see which way she was coming from next.  I wonder if she still has scars from the scratches once she got hold of  him....

Here we are gardening together.....

These are amoung my favorite things...
The one on the left is of course brandy new to the rabbit fleet, he has no name yet.
Beside him is "blue bunny" ~ found all alone on the floor at the "Bargineer" (a discount store back in the 1970's)  when I was probably a 5, 6, 7 ?  He's been with me a long time....
Next we have "Pewter Rabbit"....  he was purchased from the Thornton Burgess Museum in Sandwich, MA ...  he came along a few years after Blue Bunny.
and beside him is "Peter". He is from the National Trust shop at Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's house in England.  He is fairly new in the scheme of things, 1998 ~ but treasured none the less. :))))

And this is from this summer.  My beautiful sweet Sophie.
I am reading about Beatrix Potter, and as you can see she is enthralled with the story.
(the cage and the fencing save the chasing and the scratching...:))))

Of course we have lots of other creatures now... including a new mouse named Finnigan O'Squeak. (I am a bit prone to mice also... but that's a story for some other day....)

There is just something about the rabbits I guess.

  They inspire art in the form of drawings as well as clay... and now in silver....

We certainly don't need any more rabbits, or any more anything for that matter... but I still look every year in the 4-H tent at the Common Ground Fair; just in case there is a big, soft golden colored rabbit there...

a modern day Hoppity perhaps?  

Foray into Silver 'Art Clay'

I've been wanting to try "silver clay" for a while now.... It is (from what I have read), 99% silver, in some sort of binder that makes it look and act like clay.  It reminded me of "paperclay" when working with it... it starts to dry in the wink of an eye and if you add water to "rehydrate it" a bit, it turns to smoosh!

I found it very stressful to work with, not physically, but mentally.

It's sold by the gram, and I had to mortgage a small dog to get a miniscule amount of the stuff.

It's not like you can say, this isn't going well.... I don't want to play anymore when you have $5.00 worth of clay under your finger nails alone!

So... here we go.

This is what I made, they look just like paper clay right?
 What you see there used about half of my 10 grams.
(For those of you not in the US,  a dime is 17.91 mm across, or .705 of an inch.)
(* measurements according to wikipedia,  I'm not really that smart....)

The directions said to make sure the clay was dry before "firing" it. Apparently, if it's not completely dry, you run the risk of it exploding ~ and sending metal bits flying about the place...Didn't sound like much fun. So they sat in my oven for 24 hours. (it's got a pilot light always going that keeps the oven at a gentle 100 degrees or so. (may I note that when we loose power for some reason ~ the oven still works, unlike those stoves with electronic ignition, which is why i insisted on going "old school"....*cough* but i digresss) Once dry (it was noticibly heavier when dry), the stainless steel mesh was put directly on the gas stove burner.

It burns the binder off, and makes a small flame for a few seconds..and then i sort of waited and watched. It said that it would glow a peachy orange from the inside... and when i saw that glow to start timing my "firing".  (When I use the other half of the package I will be firing it at night, with the lights off. Daylight makes it near impossible to see the glow or lack there of.)  It said you couldn't fire it too long (unless it started to sweat or melt...) so I just waited... after what seemed like forever, I could see it start to look almost gray (like a charcoal briquette)... and sense a glow.  When I couldn't stand it anymore, and my face felt sun burned from my near constant inspections of it's glow... I shut the stove off, and this is what I had.

It looks just like it did when I started? Where the heck is the silver???

 Then the bunny when on the hot seat....
Same drill;  much waiting and more watching; the bunny was bigger and thicker.

So there they are, in their shiny splendor!

As you can see, I found the silver.  You have to use sandpaper, or a wire brush of some sort to remove the white clay residue (or whatever it is).... and then I used my silver jewelry polishing cloth to make them shiny. I can see now how making them smoother to begin with would be helpful.

Teeny little heart! Lopsided, just like I like them!!

And the bunny, nestled into a blossom of my lovely Geranium!

I am ridiculously proud of them.... and I don't usually say I'm proud of much I do...

But it is just SO COOOOL that I made a little silver rabbit.

He's not perfect, but who is?

 I know his ears are a bit wonky.. and his feet are a bit small; but he mostly looks like a baby bunny right?

Next post we can chat about all rabbits ~ both real and imaginary.... 

Being Creative ~ "Travel"

Welcome back!

The theme for Being Creative, for August was Travel.

Our little friend here is at the Parker Mills. station in Wareham.
  A leather suitcase in hand, worn a bit from all the places it's seen... she's heading to the station at dusk for a night time ride thru sleeping villages and dark woods in south eastern Massachusetts.
Once on the train, she will traveled to Boston on the Old Colony Railroad, and then on to Portland, Maine on the Maine Central Rail Road~ to Burnham Junction.  From there she will get on the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railway to get to her final destination; a small farm, in a small town in the hills of Maine.  

It will probably will be a long ride.

Not to worry, she's brought along a good book.

Had I been around in the early 1900's, this tiny little station would have been at the rail road crossing near our home.  The train still goes by, but it no longer carries passengers, only trash on its way to be incinerated.

The little station is long, long gone.

I like the "romance" of travel... I like the planning and the dreaming. I imagine going across bits of Europe on a train... not one of the new rocket fast trains... an old fashioned train with character and charm.

I harken back to our two trips across the pond... it seems like a million years ago.

 With our "zoo" now a days.... real travel has lost a bit of its appeal.  The reality of having to leave our furry/feathery/finned family sort of clouds the thoughts.

So I travel in my mind.... and from my corner of the couch, watching to see where Rick Steves and the "Globe Trekkers" take me next...

Sometimes i get out my collection of Beatrix Potter books and head off to the Lake District.

 I also travel via my wonderful Pen Friends, and all the great Blogger Girls I have the pleasure of meeting here in BlogLand! 

Trying to catch up!

Where does time go?  I really need to know how I can get behind with so much, so often?  I can't even keep up with reading my favorite blogs lately? Of course if I stopped adding more to my blog roll that might help... but it's not likely; I might miss something really good out there is the blogosphere!
  I think the best thing would be for the addition of a few more hours in each day.  I'd like to start this retoroactive to June 1st. Wonder who I speak to about that.....???
Let's get caught up on the month of August shall we?


He's saying fair # 2 !! :))



We'll go back to the middle of August.   This is where fair number two takes place.  The Rochester Country Fair was on Sunday, August 21st and we were there!  (I was MUCH calmer mentally with this one.)  We once again did sell a few things, and thanks to the heavy buckets of cat litter (new/clean) lashed to the legs of our tent, it didn't blow away in the wind ~ lucky, it WAS a windy day! Nice people, nice atmosphere ~ much more "fair" like.  They didn't have much in the way of animals (though there were  a few greyhounds from a rescue group ~ beautiful animals!) ~ but they make up for the lack of animals in tractors of every shape and size and they have a parade with them!

I love it that woman drive big tractors!

If you squint behind the tractor line up, you can see our tent!

This one was retrofitted with wings and a gun ~ driven by Snoopy, I mean the Red Baron!

A VERY large woodchuck.....in shorts.

Center of operations for M&S Creations!

and our view out across was the bee keepers tent!

A windblown me!



Chain saw carver guy....





This was my favorite one!  They were raffled off at the end of the day; sadly i didn't win him.  :(



And then in more recent news.... we had a visit from "Irene".  If t

Now normally I like a nice stormy day to hunker in at home and do "inside" things.

It was NOT nice at all...  While we got no rain from this weather event, we more than made up for it with wind.  We had waves and white caps in the river out front. The direction of the wind sent it straight up the river.  Our poor tree just couldn't take it. The first "arm" that broke off landed in the new neighbors yard. It settled down amoungst his fleet of small boats he had parked there, neatly slicing one of them in half.

It did miss his antique car however. 

Then the willow tree on his own lawn broke off... and covered the rest of his front yard. 

He emerged out onto his front steps, bathrobe flapping in the howling wind and said,

"I guess it's "gone with the wind".....



This is what's left of what was about a 100' tall tree.... and over the fence you can see the remains of the willow tree.



You can make out one of boats there....  That's the husband weilding his chain saw. Chainsaws seem to be a theme this post.... though i haven't seen him make anything that resembles a big green worm yet...

Two baby squirrels were also rendered homeless in the willow tree crash.  The neighbor is now running a squirrel nursery, in addition to woodlot if anyone has need of either.

All and all we were lucky. The death toll for the "Tropical Storm Irene" is up to 44 souls, and it seems a lot of Vermont has literally been washed away... ~ and there are STILL hundreds of thousands of people without power... they are hoping it will all be restored by this coming Monday. That's a long time in this modern world without electric, and for anyone with a private well, in many case this means no water either.
August has had it's ups and downs...

Let's see what September brings....  it's my favorite month. 

Coming soon to a blog near you; the "travel" theme for Being Creative!

Stay tuned! 

Summer continues.

I have no new art to share at the moment... so why don't we wander around a bit and see what's been going on here!

Our little Kippy turned a year old on August 9th!

The tea is for us... in case you were concerned. ;)

Ava seems to have one too many treats...

In the great outdoors... we have our little duck friend.  She has an injured leg, but she still manages to get around pretty well...  She had a boyfriend who was very attentive and protected her from all the other males vying for her attentions this spring.  Sadly he's not been seen in weeks...
She's very shy.... so we have to leave the food and walk away.
This was taken from across the yard, zoomed in.  :))

She flies in one or twice a day and we treat her like a Queen (as you can see she's holding court with the sparrows).

We had a big storm cloud move in one night last week....

Complete with lightening and rumblings from the north.

Isnt' that a beautiful color blue?



But when you turned around, the sky was clear and sporting a soon to be full Sturgeon Moon!
Oddly we never got one drop of rain that night....

                                                             but a few days later.....

Cricket.... after a bit of head scratching, came to a new conclusion about rain.



Smart horses stand inside when it rains.

Other than that... not a lot of news to report at present. 

It was only 64 degrees this morning... almost had a hint of "fall" in the air....

Being Creative ~ Summer !

Brandy new art for the Summer theme!

My favorite summer treats, and theirs too I say!

Fairy house in the garden.... so far no fairy footprints....

Flora and Lucy Rat going on a joy ride!

Eary stages of bloom!

Happy toes in my FAVORITE flops!

Mmmmmmmm, ice cream!

Volunteer sweet peas!

Burger anyone? 

Mornings…

This time of year the morning is still dark at 4:30… and for the most part enveloped in quiet. The light creeps up slowly from over the little hill behind our house… until the back yard slowly comes into focus. For a short time between dark and light, it almost appears to glow softly. The birds start to chirp; I rather imagine them yawning a stretching out their wings someplace inside the shrubs. Were we not the caretakers for so many, I would like to stand outside with a steaming hot cup of tea and watch the spectacle of morning unfold. Instead I keep half watch out the kitchen window while getting breakfast for everyone. It’s only when all the creatures great and small have what they need that I can eventually settle into a cup of tea… and by then dawn has officially broken and the quiet has turned to the sounds that come with daylight.

I’ve never been a “morning person”. That being said, I do like them; I just don’t want to have to talk. I like to shuffle around silently doing what needs doing, and work into the talking bit gradually. Of course growing up living with my effervescent, cheerful Mother this was not to be. She wakes up happy, while I simply wake up and am satisfied with that. Some of my most vivid childhood memories are filled with her endless, happy prattle about breakfast, and all its wonderment. Meanwhile… I was literally curled in a ball inside my robe propped in the corner on my chair mumbling. She, on the other hand was delightedly pushing a toasted English muffin under my nose, telling me about how beautiful and lovely it was… with the butter melted into the nooks and crannies… This was usually followed by a lengthy speech extolling the virtues of the prettiest glass of orange juice on earth; which was BURSTING with vitamin C and would make me the healthiest girl around. The cup of hot tea was extraordinary and just perfect for warming a chilly snout. Speaking of snouts… There is a picture of my young self sitting on the floor with a drawer of my dresser pulled out…exposing a jumble of clothes. The worst part about the picture is I’m actually sort of hanging there with one nostril hooked onto the corner of the drawer, which appears to be what is holding me up. Making decisions, such as what to wear are not my strong suit in the a.m. She found great delight in snapping my picture… and I’m sure would have a good guffaw over it if I were to put it under her snout right now.

Way back when, my Grandmother used to rent a cottage beside the ocean for the family come to stay. There were always lots of people staying, things going on; and meals were quite a scene, (but that’s a story for another time.) I found that most everyone “slept in” a bit in the morning. Everyone except my Grandfather that was. He worked in a shoe factory until he was 82 ~ so he got up very early each morning and had his breakfast quietly so as to not wake up my Grandmother, and went to work. When he finally retired he still got up early, old habits I suppose.  My Grandfather was at the top on my very short list of favorite people. I discovered that if I got out of bed verrrry quietly and slipped down the stairs that I could have breakfast with him ~ just the two of us, and enjoy the quiet of morning. After toast, and an egg for him; we would sit out on the porch side by side in companionable silence and drink our tea while the rest of the world slept. I will always count that as a favorite morning memory.

These days, mornings are filled with furry and feathery creatures milling about my ankles making various little squeaks and purrs, and wimpery noises, cackles floating in the windows; encouraging me to put something into their dishes. Most of my morning can be accomplished in silence. Just how I like it. I am very lucky to be married to a wonderful guy who gets that I simply have nothing to say in the morning. If he does have a question, he is generally smart enough to phrase it so that I can respond with a head shake or a “Mmmm.” For yes, or “Uh hmmm” for no.  Oh course my Mother does live right next door... and has been known to whip open the window at 5:30 a.m. when I'm outside delivering breakfast to the flock; to wish me an exhuberant good morning.  I usually glance up and give her a "Mmm." and carry on feeding things while she talks. I think she realizes at this point that if she wants cheerful banter in the morning... I'm NOT the girl.

 I"m sure you have all been wondering what morning was like in my world; and now you needn't wonder any longer!

This was Christmas morning.... back when it was cool and snowy.... and not humid and stuffy. *sigh.