Butterflies

This an open Blue Morpho.

                                         This is a closed Blue Morpho on a Chihuly sculpture.

I took a three day trip down to Columbus with my girlfriend.  We went to the Columbus Botanical Garden and felt like awestruck kids in the butterfly house.   

Fossil Digging

 In Sylvania Ohio is Oleander Park which has a little place to dig through excavated soil to find fossils.  Randy and I took the grandkids there a few weeks ago.  Most of what we found were braciopods. 

 At first it seems like nothing of importance will be found.  After a few minutes of dedicated digging the eyes become adjusted to finding fossils.  Once you relized there are many bits of shards, the challenge becomes finding intact fossils.

What I noticed was the behaviors that need to be demonstrated to be successful.  Patience, concentration, endurance, persistence, focus . . . all these skills (for the most part) looked very serene and quiet to me.  I was impressed by how noisy distractions were pushed out and away by everyone there. 

Here is the trellis door I posted about on July 10th.  A nice covering of red-violet colored morning glories grew on it.   

Umbrella Bucket

I bought this umbrella can at a thrift store for $1.29.  It was army green with a decal on it, but I soaked and scrapped off the decale, painted it black, wrapped it in lace and spray painted it white.  It's not perfect, but I'm pleased with the results.
Inside the bucket is a "grabber" that I bought new in the package for $5.00 at a yard sale!

Basket Liner

With the help of Mekayla I made a liner for my bike basket.  I used an old doily for the pocket.

                                                                    It's reversable!

Garden Charms

I have a minature garden.  My friend Maripat gave me the adorable frog and mini hostas.  A volunteer hearts and honey vine put up a little blossom.  I had hard time imagining such a small vine would flower.

The Morning Glories are so vigorous that they grew up 7 feet through the garage wall to bloom in the garage.

                                  The flower boxes have never been more colorful or abundant.

SAFE! (from the landfill - for now)

So Jeff left this "thing" in my garden. I had no clue what it was, I just knew it was heavy and ugly.  I asked Randy to get rid of it, but it didn't go anywhere so I decided (in a moment of inspiration) to make it charming by spray painting it with the help of the grandkids. 

Later I was sitting there admiring the results when it dawned on me that it is a base - as in the game laid out in a diamond.  I hope Jeff wasn't sentimental about it.

On a Pedestal

Several years ago, my friend Maripat gave me this leaf shaped basin.  Recently, I found this fois bois pedestal at a thrift shop for ten dollars.  When I saw the pedestal I knew I was seeing a perfect fit for my basin. 

A Closer Look

I love my varigated Chinese Lantern with bright red lanterns.

In the morning light it is easier to see how I bent the piano wire for the Morning Glories to vine around.

Sweet Things



Randy made new flower boxes last year.  I finally got around to adding the decoration.



The ornaments are made of wooden heart cut outs and odd bits of metal I've collected.



This is my new door trellis.  The the striking piano guts were perviously here.  Although you can't see them well the piano strings were salvaged and used as supports for the climbing vines, which is morning glories. 




I've had this table a long while. I rushed to paint it so I could put my coffee cup on it while I read on the porch swing.



I got out the door I made last year and the grandkids helped put piano strings on it.  I collected the tiller wheels last year and just got around to painting them.

Not on Sabatical

 The cold winter allowed the pond behind my brother's house to freeze in time for Christmas.  It was a lot of fun to hang out on.

 Winter is museum season, but it wasn't until March that we made it to the Museum of Natural History in Ann Arbor. 

 This is my new grand puppy Griffin.  He is very good looking. 

These are the sweet things I gathered together for Valorie's May Basket. 

Where have I been?  I've been busy keeping my head above water.  I got a substitute teaching job that came with miraculous timing.  Sadly (maybe) the job didn't turn into anything long term.  This time I thought I had landed a dream job as a "called worker" and had found my "calling."  But they wanted someone who would move to Toledo.  It was up for consideration, but they never extended me a call so that I could prayerfully deliberate.   They extended a call to a young mom/wife who recently lost her job.    God Bless her.

I'm currently unemployed (again) and beginning to get anxious about finding work.  But for now I am taking time to get rid of many of my possessions.  The dirt and clutter is paralyzing my hope and trust.  Just tidying up main floor and clearing away the grime opened up some creative pathways.