Raccoons, Snakes, and Adventures in the Garden

Every year I (mostly successfully) grow some tomatoes and a few other things in our garden. The garden consists of some raised beds at the edge of our yard along the road. Our yard is mostly trees, so only the edges near the road get enough sun.

One bed is a permanent bee, hummingbird, butterfly garden. This year I also have two beds of tomatoes with a few hot banana pepper plants, and a bed of zucchini. I used to plant snow peas but the grasshoppers cured me of that. One year they ate the pea plants down to nothing in about two hours. There were so many grasshoppers on each plant that they flattened them down to the ground while they munched away.



I took these photos a while back so everything is lots bigger now.




You can't even see the zucchini bed now.




Last night some raccoons raided the tomato beds and generally made a mess while ruining several large tomatoes. These are likely the culprits. Mom raccoon brought them up in the middle of the day to munch on the cat food.



Scrappy isn't nearly as afraid of them as he should be.



I got some repellent spray and treated the wood on the beds with it. Hopefully that will work.

Stefan and I found this fellow in the yard and relocated him to the woods before Scrappy found him. He's a ringneck snake and was about ten inches long. He's in a yellow trash can which was the handiest thing to capture him in.



Our turtle is back. I can tell he's the same one that's been around in previous years because of the scar on his shell. Here's he's escaping with some cat food in his mouth.



Here's Scrappy and the turtle in 2006. Note the turtle had cat food in his mouth that time, too.



I've also had two very large snakes in the gold fish pond. I knew something was up because the fish weren't their usual happy, come-feed-me, selves. And then some of them disappeared.


The first snake was a 4.5 foot cottonmouth water moccasin. Unlike many water moccasins he wasn't territorial and wasn't aggressive toward me. He cleverly hid in a fold in the pond liner. My plan was to chase him around the pond so he would leave on his own. Mr. Snake foiled this plan by swimming into my net when I poked at him. I wasn't really expecting to catch him and wasn't prepared. The snake couldn't figure out how to get out of the net. I couldn't figure out how to get hold of anything to kill him with without him escaping.

I yelled for Stefan to bring a hoe. Obviously Stefan's practical education has been lacking because he couldn't figure out which tool was a hoe. Finally he brought me a four tined hard rake. I supposed if you could manage to hit a snake with one of the tines you could kill it, but hitting it would be a problem.

I carried the snake up the road to the big pond and let him go. Probably there are three dozen more just like him there. A few days later another big one got in the pond. Hubby was home this time and he shot it. I couldn't tell if it was a water moccasin or one of the look-alikes, but it was a shorter snake.

Click on any of the photos to go to my flickr page to see the photos in more detail.

Wirework Pendant-Bird Nest

Here's a bird nest pendant I made recently. I have read a couple of tutorials on these, but I was going for a more organic look so I just did my own thing. The major part of the nest is one long wire, coiled, and twisted on itself at intervals.




The nest is about an inch in diameter. I used a tarnish resistant 20 gauge copper wire that I got from Bally Beads, and some 26 gauge Artistic Wire to hold the eggs in place. The eggs are pale pink pearls. Now I need to make some out of sterling silver, bare copper, and maybe brass wire. I have some antiqued brass wire that would look good. I think I could use some 24 gauge wire and do earrings.

Also at the Dallas Museum of Art (King Tut, Part 3)

I'm back! Life got a little busy and I took a break.

A while back we went to see the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. While there, we also took in the Ancient America's exhibit. It was very enjoyable, and they let me take photos. Most of the photos were taken through the glass of the exhibit cases, so there's an odd reflection here and there. Click on the photos to go to my Flickr account where you can see larger, more detailed photos.

I was really impressed with some of the jewelry.





This set impressed me the most, in part for the excellent metal work, but also for the sheer size of some of the pieces. From top to bottom they are: headpiece, earspools, nose piece, large concave ear pendants, and a pectoral. The ear spools were probably about 2.75 inches in diameter and the large ear pendants must be five or so inches. I thought they were some sort of breast plate. They're the same size as the old fashioned breast plates I wore when I started fencing back in the 80's.

This set is all gold. The gold sheet appeared to be fairly thin, maybe about 24 gauge in places. Still, it's very difficult to imagine someone wearing those ear pendants.

There were some silver pieces, such as this one:



This is an outstanding piece:



Notice the mask face is "wearing" a smaller set of earspools.

Frogs seemed to be very popular, and there were several examples, ranging in size from some exquisite pieces about 3/8 of an inch to a couple of inches.



These are typical. The spiral at the frogs mouths represent bubbles.



There were also some figural jewelry pieces like this one:



This was Ralph's favorite piece:



This statue is about three feet high.





And lastly, here's a shot of me in the sculpture garden/courtyard.

King Tut, Part Two

The King Tut was very crowded. Very, very crowded. And they didn't let anyone photograph, even without flash, so I don't have any pictures from the actual exhibit.

The exhibit included many items from King Tut's tomb, some of which were very impressive. I think I was most impressed with the jewelry, and with the blue and gold coffinette. Click the link to see a picture of it. The coffinette was small, maybe 15 inches, and very ornate with fine workmanship. The Dallas Museum of Art has quite a few pictures and other info on their site here.

Here's a few photos I took before we went in.







Here's a beautiful example of Chihuly Glass (Dale Chihuly) in one of the restaurants.



I didn't see any sign or other info on this interactive art installation.



This is a tunnel of glorious color leading to a room where there is no color, only shades of white and gray. Going in was kind of the reverse of being born.

I did take quite a few pictures in the Ancient Americas Art exhibit of various jewelry and metal work. Stay tuned for part three...

King Tut, Part One

Recently we went to Dallas to see the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. We enjoyed the exhibit (more on that later). It's going on until sometime in early May, so check it out if you can.

Here are a few photos I took during the trip. I'm going to break the trip into several posts because of the number of photos. My pictures all link to my Flickr account, where you can see them in better detail. Also Blogger cuts off the right hand side of some of them so you can click to see the entire picture.

This is the Trammel Crow Center which houses the Trammel Collection of Asian Art. It's a dramatic looking building. When you see it you immediately think, "They don't build them like that anymore." This building is right next door to the museum.




This is looking up the building. This is a famous building in Dallas and one of the tallest.



Ralph and Stefan outside the building.



The door "guardians":








There is some pretty awesome art around the grounds and I snapped a few shots.



This is a Rodin, Cybele, 1889.



I think this was a Rodin too.


This sculpture was at least ten feet tall, maybe more.



Bourdelle, Ponelupe, 1917



We didn't have time to look at all the art outside the building. I could spend days looking at interesting things and taking photos in downtown Dallas, particularly the Arts District. I've already put my husband on notice that he's to accompany me someday while I take photos.

Part of the Trammell Crow Center:



Detail:



Part Two coming soon...

Canton Marketplace

I have a store on Etsy, Essential Adornment. I don't spend a lot of time on it, so I haven't had a lot of sales. Recently we started an Etsy team made up of people in the northeast region of Texas. This is morphing into Netsy art/craft guild. I'm really excited because we've opened a booth at the Canton Marketplace in Canton Texas.


Martha, of Menagerie Studio, and I will be anchoring the booth and every month during First Monday we will share the booth with two other members. Last weekend (April First Monday) was our first weekend.


Here's the booth just after we put a fresh coat of paint, with some displays that will be living at the booth.




Here's a couple of shots of the booth in action. The right side of the photos was cut off in blogger so click on them to see the full shot. We still have some decorating to do and things to tweak. We need to get a sign. The layout may well change from month to month as our stock changes with different members coming in.






We also are taking items on consignment, three or four or so from various members. April had items from Billye of Silvermoon Studio and Katie of KatherineKouture. Here's some detail shots showing how things were displayed.



Front of the booth. l to r: wire mannequin with pink resin necklace by Billye, rose necklace by Menagerie Studio; large mannequin: yellow necklace by KatherineKouture, cross necklace by Menagerie Studio; tall wire mannequin: necklace by me; front: large cross by Menagerie Studio.



l to r: necklace by me (No Stone Unstrung), Treasure Box earrings by me, necklace by Silvermoon Studio, charms (in tray) by Martha of Menagerie Studio.



Charms by Menagerie Studio and earrings and necklace by KatherineKouture.



l to r: pink necklace by Silvermoon Studio with pendant by Menagerie Studio, bracelets by KatherineKouture, earrings and large coral necklace by me, necklace by KatherineKouture.

We didn't have a lot of sales in April, but we made money. Things should pick up, especially since the Canton Marketplace is improving their signage and a winery is moving into the building in June.

For those who don't know, Canton Texas is like one big market every first Monday weekend of the month. It started with antiques, and now you can get pretty much anything you want. The Canton Market Place is just one of the many, many buildings in operation, and there are also people who set up in outdoor tents and canopies. Unlike the rest of Canton, our building is air conditioned and open until 8 pm. This should be a real advantage come summer and in rainy weather.

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.

Schmap Dallas and Austin

Recently I've had three photos accepted for inclusion in Schmap. This one, is in Schmap Dallas, and the following two are in Schmap Austin. There's no pay involved, but it's nice to have the photos recognized.



Arts District, Dallas, Texas. Click on photo for more details at Flickr.



Texas State Capitol building, Austin, Texas.


Schmap is a map alternative that can be downloaded to your phone or computer. It's a digital guide to many large cities. Check it out. Schmap has collected a lot of interesting pictures on both Dallas and Austin, as well as info on places to visit and things to do.