Fame, Mummy and Other Babies

Eventually I'll work up to my 15 minutes of fame--I got a few more in this month.  We had a partnership day at the Museum with PBS--I got filmed with the animals and in theory I'll be used in conjunction with kid shows like the Wild Kratts to show that you can see animals right here in your home town.  I haven't watched the shows yet to find out.

I had mentioned a post or two ago that I was going to be a guest blogger for Spinning Daily (the web page associated with Spin Off Magazine).  Well, it happened, and my first post is here:

http://www.spinningdaily.com/blogs/guest/archive/2015/04/15/take-your-spindle-for-a-stroll.aspx

My third brush with fame concerned the Historic Collection (even though I'm not working there anymore).  As a student project, some students held a fundraiser for the collection, and did an interview/videotape of me talking about it.  I was really impressed with their editing--in reality I rather rambled on a bit.  But here I am:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvyYHqPD3x8&feature=youtu.be

26 views so far.  Doesn't seem to be going viral.

In other news, spring has sprung.  So have the weeds in the garden.  There are some plants in there also that we meant to have there (such as peppers and tomatoes and cotton) but we have to go find them.  Been raining, and the weeds love that.  So did the colds that Bob and I both had last week.  He's recovered.  I mostly have, except that he's had a few days of peace and quiet because I have total laryngitis.   I didn't have anyone to cover me at work yesterday to do the animal encounters, so Bob was kind enough to go along and be the Voice of Ann while I held the animals.  After three days of this it's starting to feel like we're Penn and Teller.  It's oddly isolating--things like having to go get Bob when the phone rings because I can't answer it.

We went to the annual Art in the Park this last Saturday (when I still had a voice).  Forgot to take the camera, but we enjoyed looking at all the artwork.  One piece came home with us.  For years, I've had this thing about finding a "mummy baby."  Like when opening an old trunk in the historic collection--"maybe there's a mummy baby in there."  Or seeing a dusty cardboard box in the back of a garage sale "oooo--might be a mummy baby."   (Note:  I would probably freak if I ever did find a real mummy baby)

So we're strolling along, and Bob looks over at a booth and says "Mummy Baby!"  Sure enough--there were three mummy babies hanging up on a wall.  I try not to buy stuff on impulse, so we wandered through the rest of the booths--and then I went back and got it.

There are some cuter spring babies around here.  The wrens on the back deck have hatched and started to feather out.

And my animal rehabber friend is up to her ears in baby possums, so I brought home two litters today.  One group had just come in, and are still rather skittish (don't blame them--their mother got killed by a dog)\

The other group is very much at the "are you my Mommy?" stage.  Couldn't get a good group picture because they were too busy trying to crawl into my hand and up my arm.

 

Fortunately, the second group is eating out of a dish so I only have to hand-feed the first three.  At this age they are impossibly cute.

And speaking of which--it's feeding time.

Ospreys, 1; Eagle, 0

We finally got to take the kayaks out today.  The weather has been OK lately, but windy enough to raise quite a chop and we're wimpy kayakers.

We didn't take a camera out today--in one way, a pity.  But OK--I don't think we could have caught today's wonder on film anyway.  Some things you just have to experience.

We are at the height of osprey nesting season on the lake now, so are used to many ospreys flying overhead.  But today one of them was much bigger, darker, with a blinding white head and tail.  In other words: a bald eagle.  Who was chasing an osprey that was carrying a fish.  After quite a fight (oddly silent--much thrashing of wings but no screaming or smack talk) the osprey dropped the fish.  They went their separate ways for a moment--then the eagle hit the water and tried to grab the fish.  At that point, three more ospreys joined in the fracas and the eagle finally departed.

Alas--no one got the fish  :-(

Meanwhile, back at the ranch--the Great Cottage Cleanup has continued.  No before pictures of the dye room, but here's the finished product:

Then, last of all, I tackled the closet.  During the rest of the Mad Cleanup, anything that went in the closet just got tossed in there.  The final result was this:

So all of that got dragged out (into my nice clean sewing room!), sorted, tossed, set aside to find new homes), and the remainder returned to proper places.

So the cottage is done!  I'm just waiting for inspiration to go make stuff and mess it up again.

Now if I could just do this to the house.  The cottage is only 400 square feet.  The house is filled with a lifetime of detritus.  Do not expect "after" pictures anytime soon.

Finally--we have a wren nest in the hanging bag meant for squirrels.  If you look closely at the second picture you can see some eggs.  Hard to believe that in about three weeks little birds will be flying from there.

A Day of Art

I often think of Tallahassee as being a rather nice town, but a somewhat conservative one, even with all the college students around.  But sometimes I realize that there is side that I rarely see (possibly because, as the saying goes, "we don't get out much").  So we had an Art Saturday.

We found out that there was going to be an "Alt" con--a meetup for geeks.  We wandered through tables of writers, artists, costumers, bumping into various pirates, Dr. Who's, Star Wars Storm Troopers, and a lot of characters I didn't recognize but were impressive anyway.

 

 

It was, shall we say, "different."  But fun.  Maybe we'll even dress up next year.  Although we're old-school nerds--we're good for Star Wars and Star Trek and Dr. Who, but I wouldn't recognize characters from Game of Thrones or the Avengers (the new ones--not John Stead and Mrs. Peel)

 

Then we went to a gallery showing of Linda Hall, a local artist whose work I admire (possibly because it can make me a bit uncomfortable).  Her work is striking from a distance, but then as you look closer you see all the details and embellishments.  A lot of her work is made with recycled elements, particularly old quilts.

 



. 
While I like to make stuff, I don't think I could every officially be an "artist."  I'm no good at artist statements.  And I think they can be overdone.  There was one piece (that apparently I didn't photograph but was vaguely dog-shaped) which gave me a little twist when I read "inspired by the neglected dog chained near my studio."  By the fourth or fifth piece dedicated to that dog, I have to admit that I was thinking that the dog might appreciate a bowl of food or maybe a call to the SPCA more than the artwork.  But that's just my practical side.  I still like her stuff.

 

 

 

Back home, our art is a little more practical--like Bob's garden.  We are eating a lot of greens these days--it's getting warmer and they'll bolt soon.

 



And this is just a model I made, showing how the scales on a snake's belly works (recycled Venetian blinds).  Smooth one direction, then catch in the other.

And finally, one of our own precious pieces of art, Noko Marie.  She has discovered that the modem for the TV is nice and warm.  Of course, this renders all of our remotes useless because she's blocking the receivers.  We really don't need to change channels anyway, right?

Writing--Woo Hoo!

Meant to write on the 10th--because it was March 10, five years ago, that I did my first blog entry.  I had no idea that I'd keep it up this long.

But "meant to" means it didn't happen.  I have found that out about myself.  If I say I shouldn't do something--I probably will.  If I say that I should do something--then I likely won't.  But at least I've managed to post a few times a month for five years--and I'm sort of impressed with myself.

But today I got an exciting email.  As an avid handspinner, I've written a few articles from time to time that have been published in "Spin Off" magazine (and once in "Handwoven").  Now, to keep a web presence going, Spin Off also has a blog on their website.  Awhile back I sent them an article about how I like to spin while taking my daily (more or less) walk.  They didn't accept it for the magazine, but they do want to publish in the online blog.  That's enough to make me happy (and yes, I do get paid).  And then today I get this from the publisher:

"I’m wondering if you’d be interested in writing for us on an as-needed basis going forward? You wouldn’t be obligated to write a specific number of posts in a certain amount of time; we would give you the option to write something for us with advanced notice. We could assign a topic to you, or you could come up with something on your own"

There's a part of me that's going "they like me, they really like me!"

Heck yes, I'm gonna do it.  Wheee!

[part of this is the wine talking.  Today at the museum I did 3 tours, trained two new handlers, and worked with the hawk.  I was on my feet for 7 hours.  Bob is out with friends tonight, so I made some nice shrimp and scallops in a garlic cream sauce and drank rather a lot of wine.  Maybe I'll respond tomorrow when I know what I'm really saying}

The Cleanup Continues

After I had my workroom looking so nice, I decided not to rest on my laurels but rather to tackle the sewing room.  And no--I don't have any "before" pictures.  Too embarrassing.  Piles of leftover Halloween projects on the table, piles of fabric on the floor--actually difficult to walk into the room.  Costumes and props got put back into the closet (honesty forces me to say "thrown into the closet and that, too, will get cleaned out someday).  Then I tackled the fabric.  I had something like 15 storage bins of fabric, three shelves full, and a bunch on the floor that didn't fit into either space (at least it was on the floor on top of the bins under the table so I wasn't walking on it).  In the past I have folded fabric and put it into the bins--the problem there is that when you need something that's on the bottom all the stuff on top gets messed up.  So I opted to neatly roll and tie everything.

 

That's part of one bin.  I actually did this for all 15 bins plus the floor and shelf stuff.  The next step would have been to then sort the fabrics into categories and return them to bins.  Instead--I called a sewing friend, asked her to grab a couple more sewing people, and invited them over for a stash dive.  The more they took home, the less I had to put away.  Win-win all around.  I rearranged the room a bit, moved in some more shelves, and voila!

 

 

Look down--there's a FLOOR in this room.  I hadn't see that for quite some time. 

 

And yes--that's a coffin for a bookshelf.  We had asked a friend to make a coffin for the Halloween trail.  Never ask a carpenter to make a prop--he made such a nice one that we thought it would be a shame to leave it outside (there's not much storage space inside at the Museum) so we made it into a bookshelf.

 

There is a downside to having a sewing room this neat.  I was celebrating having this onerous task done by doing some needed re-working to a blouse I made a couple of years ago.  Well, when one threads a sewing machine, it's wise to do a small sample of stitching just to be sure that everything is sewing properly.  Normally I just grab a piece of whatever is lying nearest on the floor.  But at this point THERE WASN'T A DARN SCRAP OF FABRIC ANYWHERE!  I had to get up and go to the bin labeled "misc. cottons" and dig something out.  I know, I know.  Life is hard.

 

Pictures of a clean room not really being that exciting, here are a couple more random ones.  First, one of Bob's latest models.  The cool thing here is not so much the dinosaur but the trees.

 

That's the inside of pine cones after the squirrels have finished chewing on them, topped with dried chive blossoms.  Very Jurassic, don't you think?

 

And finally--the joys of an unmade bed.

 

 

Which is looking pretty good to me as well.  Think I'll go join him.

 

And Now . . . New Shelves

I am so over painting kitty litter buckets.

Those of us with multiple cats go through a *lot* of kitty litter.  For some reason, the least expensive decent litter comes not in bags or cardboard boxes, but in nice sturdy plastic buckets.

 

Of course, the Tidy Cats label is sort of lacking, aesthetically.  Bob found out that with some acetone and a lot of scrubbing it will come off, but the yellow-and-red color scheme doesn't do anything for me.  But with spray paint and a label, you end up with a pretty decent looking storage bin. 

 

 

But I had picked up 3 cans of spray paint, figuring that one can would do about 2 buckets.  Turns out one can would do 3 1/2 buckets, so I ended up painting 10 1/2 buckets (did I mention we have a lot of cats?)

 

And then, the labels.  Arrgh.  For once, I was willing to be a consumer and not a producer.  In other word, go buy something rather than make it.  What I wanted was simple--label pockets.  Clear plastic pockets that stick to a container, and then you put in a piece of paper with the stuff listed on it.  That way, when you change out the stuff, it's easy to change out the label.  My organization magazines say simply "go to the office supply store and buy label pockets."  Hah!  They didn't know what I was talking about.  I finally found some--a packet of 5 for $4.49 which I think is a little high but I bought a pack anyway just to have some.  When I opened it, there were only four pockets in there.  That means I paid $1.10 each for a piece of plastic 3 inches by 4 inches.  And I needed at least 6 more of them.   So  . . . sigh . . .  I grabbed a plastic page protector and a hot knife, cut out the two pieces of plastic that I needed and sealed the edges.  Instant label pocket.  Free.

 

 

And all of this begs the question--why do I need a bunch of buckets with labels?  It's because the storage shelves in my cottage (aka Chez Wicca, aka The Workroom, aka "The Studio" if I'm feeling pretentious) looked like this.

 

 

Two mismatched shelves and some stacking bins.  Functional, yes, but not an efficient use of the space  (and actually the room didn't look this good--I had to move a huge stack of stuff still left over from Halloween off the worktable to take this shot).  What I wanted was one big storage unit.  And being as I seem to be unable to buy stuff, I made it.  And I'm rather proud to say that *I* made it--mostly.  Usually when I want to make something big, it means that Bob makes it for me.  This one was about 80/20 (with me being the 80)  (maybe 70/30).

 

Again--the books say "go to the hardware store and buy 6 2x4's and 12 2x2's and some wood for shelving."  They don't mention that you'll go through at least 25 of the 2x4's trying to find something reasonably straight, and the entire bin of x.2's.  And even then have to come home and sand for a couple of hours.

 

Then it all had to be painted.  As this was to be a budget job, I looked through our stash of leftover paint.  I had over a half-gallon of the fancy copper paint that we had used on the bedroom ceiling.  I hesitated--that paint had been pretty expensive, and these were just storage shelves.  But then I wondered if it was logical to let the expensive paint dry up and be thrown away rather than use it--so copper it was.  I also found some dark green and white paint and mixed them up for the shelves.

 

The only place big enough to paint in is Bob's barn, which meant moving out his precious jeep.  Then I had to find a way to stash all of the pieces so that he could get his jeep back in for the night.  The shelving went onto the ubiquitous kitty litter buckets, and I found I could stash the rest by setting out a couple of folding chairs and having three layers--across the back, across the seat, and across the bottom bar.

 

 

I was actually rather pleased with that.  The next day the jeep was moved out again so I could put it all together.  Despite the fact that the paint was supposed to be "dry to the touch" in an hour, and I had given it about 10 hours--it wasn't dry.  But I didn't have much choice--rain was predicted for the afternoon, and I had to be out of the barn so the jeep could go back in.  So I pressed on--and Bob only complained a little that his measuring tape and electric drill sort of ended up copper colored.

 

But it's together, and in, and a lot of my stuff sorted into upcycled kitty litter bins, and I have to say it looks pretty good.

 

 Not only is everything that was on the shelves originally back in place, but even a lot of stuff that was on the table and floor.  And there's still space left!  (That's not going to last . . .)

 

I allow myself a bit of admiration.

 

And now it's time to tackle the sewing room  . . .

Purge!

Many people have told us that when you retired you would really never have enough time.  Possibly it's because you go leaping into those things you were going to do "when I have the time."

Project the First:  Tidy up the butterfly garden.  While butterfly gardens should be a bit "rustic," mine was mostly dead stalks and stems.  It didn't take too long to cut/yank all that dead stuff to expose the new green plants coming up, but I had to be specially armed for the process.  I've done this before in my usual "casual home" garb, aka a sweatsuit.  But I end up covered with thousands of sticky tag-along seeds.  So this time it was jeans, boots, and a windbreaker.

 

Time for a break after that.  For Bob's birthday we headed down to the coast to enjoy a beautiful clear blue day while the rest of the country was knee-deep in snow storms.  The day didn't exactly go as planned--we were going to go to the fort at St. Marks--but it's closed on Tuesdays.  We went to the lighthouse instead and hiked around a little.  Not too many birds, but we saw a few.

 

 

 

And we hope that the alligator never got interested in the little heron that was just a little too close.

 

 

 

Then we headed to our favorite little dive for oysters and shrimp--except that it was closed on Tuesdays.

 

Sigh--went to another place--and they didn't have raw oysters.  We settled for some shrimp (poor us!)  Afterwards we went to a fun nursery that we like in the area to get some fertilizer for the fruit trees--but they are closed on Tuesdays . . . (do I sense a theme here?)

 

Project the Second:  The bathroom vanity. We sort of store everything under the vanity--and of course lose track of what's under there.  You know how it goes--you're down to a sliver of soap in the shower, so then next time you're at the store you buy some--two bars, while you're at it, so you won't run out again.  One goes in the shower, the other under the sink.  At the dentist, you get a little swag bag with a toothbrush and a little sample tube of toothpaste.  The latter is good for trips--but when you come back, the partially-used tube goes under the sink again.   And so on and so forth, and after a number of years you end up with this.

 

 

Sometimes, even though you know you have something, you go ahead and buy it because it's easier than searching under there for whatever it is.

 

So I dug it all out.  Rather embarrassing to admit that I had over 6 pounds of garbage.

 

 

 Things like very dry (and in one case, moldy--yuck) wet wipes, dried out nail polish removers, dried up samples of hand cream--you get the idea.  Got it all sorted out--including the 9 bars of soap and 30 brand-new unwrapped toothbrushes (we go to the dentist on a regular basis) (most of those--the ones still in the fresh wrappings--went to Goodwill).  8 partially used sample tubes of toothpaste (didn't toss those but we'll use them up).  And so on and so forth.

 

Of course, projects have a way of getting bigger.  There was a rack on the right that I really wanted on the left.  Bob moved it for me, and then Famous Last Words--"oh, while I'm at it I'll drain the P trap."  He quickly found out that the entire unit was being held together by corrosion.  So the project had to be put on hold for a couple of days until we could go to Lowes and pick up a new unit and install it.  But then everything was sorted out and in labeled boxes.  The item I'm really happy with is out toilet paper holder.  We simply cut one end off of a storage bin and screwed it to the door.  No more awkward fumbling trying to get some more toilet paper while one is indisposed.

 

 

So that's done.  Then I had a fire workshop to attend, and have spent the last two days putting in a *lot* of hours on Project the Third. Details to follow.