Flying Things

Just a quick post today with some photos.  My large sage bush in the yard is in full bloom and it's really popular:





This is a snowberry clearwing moth.  It moves like a hummingbird and is colored much like the wood bees.  These are about 1 3/4 to 2 inches long.  They never stop moving so it was difficult to get any kind of good shot of them. This year is the first I have seen this moth.  It's also known as a hummingbird moth or a bee moth.  The official name is Hemaris diffinis.





This big bee on the right is a wood, or carpenter, bee.  I'm not sure what the little red one is, but it looks like some kind of bee.






I don't know what kind of caterpillar this is.  He sure didn't know what he was getting into when he crawled up the stem in the middle of the sage.  






This small unknown type bee is about the size of a honey bee.  It's black with some green iridescence on the abdomen. 





I'm not sure what this is.  It looks like a wood bee, but is much smaller, just a little bigger than a honeybee.  





This monarch butterfly visited the bush several times.





This moth visited the sage, then rested on the redbud.





Jazz was a little interested in the moths.

Spring Photo Journal 2012

Spring seemed to come early this year.  Of course, we could have a year like last year, where it snowed in March.





The flowers are blooming.

rain lily

The bees are buzzing.

bee on rosemary

The cats are courting.

Is Jazz in?

The fish are feeding.

Fish begging.

There are garage sales galore.





PS: Jazz is fixed but the boy cats don't seem to get it.

My First Tickle Me Tuesday

I've been reading some "Tickle Me Tuesday" posts, especially at My Life Under the Bus and  Yes Teacher! I decided today I would join in. 


First up are these 17 inch highway letters from SalvageNation. I can just see these on the wall or shelf.

And I wouldn't mind a couple of hearts from Menagerie Studio. Valentine jewelry, mmmmmmm.

This one, or maybe this one.

And then there's this gorgeous milagro heart pendant from Lorena Angulo of Pueblofolkart.

I've been lusting after Lorena's beautiful jewelry for some time now and one of these days I'm treating myself.

We had a couple of warm days and I got out and did some walking.  I always turn left from the drive and walk to the end of the road.  I thought I got away without being spotted but when I turned around there was my entourage.

the entourage-Jazz, Scrappy, and Nikko

Apparently I'm not allowed to walk by myself. Jazz was trotting along pretty well.  This is good since she is a hefty kitty and can use the exercise. The boys are more easily distracted.

I turned around and went back.  Jazz and Nikko stayed at the house and Scrappy accompanied me to the bridge. 

Scrappy heeling

He likes to lean on my leg when he walks with me.  Sometimes he even does it without tripping me.


Check out the other Tickle Me Tuesday posts here:

Friday iPhone Photo Fun #2 Cat Tales

I've been amusing myself editing photos with the iPhone.  There are lots of fun apps.  This week I used the Halftone app to give some pictures a comic book look.




Scrappy follows me to the pond when I feed the fish.  Everyday he's disappointed that the fish won't come out of the water.  He does like the fish food flavored pond water though.


I have a new book case.  It has a kind of 50's style, even though I think it's newer than that.  Probably I'll paint it someday.  Right now the cats are enamored with the new perch. 

The Jewelry Upcycled Winner Is...

My friend Martha experimented with getting her bird to draw the winner of her giveaway. I thought that was pretty cute so I decided to see if I could get one of the cats to draw. I used some scrap paper and numbered the slips one through ten for the ten comments. Then I presented the choices to Scrappy.



Nope, Scrappy wasn't interested.



Still not interested. Meanwhile the wind is blowing everything into a pile.

Ater replacing the slips on the sidewalk I had Stefan draw. 





He picked:



The second commentor, My Life Under the Bus, is the winner! Check your email!



Why it's sometimes hard to take pictures.

One of the other cats might do a better job next time...

And the Winner Is...

The winner of the issue of Artful Blogging in my first blog giveaway is Corrie.  Corrie has quite a few giveaways listed over on her blog, Corrie's Contest Cache. Check it out. Congratulations Corrie!

The process of selection involved the order of the posts and me telling my husband to pick a number from 1 to 5, inclusive.  He picked 2.   He never reads my blog so I figured that made him fairly neutral. 

I'll be starting a giveaway for a copy of Stephanie Lee's excellent jewelry making book, Semiprecious Salvage: Creating Found Art Jewelry,  later this week.  If that's something you might be interested in check back. 

I'll leave you with a fun picture of Pawlie and Yertle. Click for a larger view over on Flickr.




Yertle has been hanging out at our house during the warmer months for several years now. For all I know, he's wintering-over under our hedge or in the woods across the street during the winter.  He (she?) has a fondness for cat food.  Yertle wasn't sure he liked Pawlie being so close to him but it didn't stop him from chowing down.

"Nap" Time is Over

Wow, I've been a bad blogger. Despite having a list of things to blog about on my to-do list I haven't posted in over two months.


I snapped this shot with my cell phone at my vet's office. I can't remember this kitty's name, but she loves the printer. The clerks lift her hiney up and hold her with her hips suspended  while the machine prints. She doesn't even wake up. She is one of several clinic cats.

Dragonflies and Cats

There's a huge dragonfly that has been hanging around my small backyard goldfish pond. I went out with my camera and got some pics.




I had to wait a long time for him (her?) to land on this flower right in front of me.

Meanwhile....



Scrappy made this difficult.




Ouch!




I did get some good shots though, IMHO.




Here's one of the water lily. It's getting ready to put on several more blooms, hopefully all at once, so I'll be shooting more of it.




I have a lot of news so stay tuned for more frequent posts.

As always, more pics and better detail at my flickr account. Just click on the pics.

Photo Journal

Winter is ending.



The ice has melted.



The bulbs in the backyard are blooming....



as well as the rosemary by the drive.



Ralph and Pawlie are napping. Almost asleep:



Until the flash:



I love their identical expressions.

Guess who Pawlie Newman is named for?



Sugar Baby is sleeping in her favorite spot.



In the morning I spot the neighbor's geese and guineas venturing out into the yards.




Scrappy, Sugar Baby and Pawlie see them too.



It's difficult to sneak up on the geese with the cats tagging along but I manage a shot of these two goosestepping geese.



Altogether it's a good day.