Tuesday Tails, Pretty flowers, Wolfie's raincoat, Knitting progress

Rho sent some cuter than cute dogs, and some cats, sleeping.  So,here, for your delight, I present a couple, or three, or maybe four?  Enjoy!

Protecting his food supply

Double Decker

Triple Decker

Doggie Yoga: Pretzel Pose

And of course, Wolfie, sleeping.   He turned his back on me because I had put his raincoat on him for a Photo-Op.

He does not like his Raincoat, but tolerates it because, being a feral dog who can grow extremely long, curly body hair, he remembers what it was like to be out in the rain and wet for days on end.  This, while all the hours of the day trying to convince humans to give him something to eat.  He must have been quite a sight, looking like a walking, matted, mohair wool snarl and smelling just as bad.  This wee fellow doesn't even want so much as a mist falling upon his back, and he'll not even  step one foot into a puddle.  Wolfie no longer does this but he used to lick dew off the long grass.

He hates rain and all it's permutations!

An amazing guy we know sent some flower snaps from the Rhodie garden he and his wife volunteer garden at.  The Rhododendrons and Azaleas and other spring flowers are blooming.  I don't know which this is but it's gorgeous!  Thank you's to Coz!  If you've ever seen "Raising Arizona", and watched the Biker slam to a stop to pick a flower growing in the middle of the road, you know how delightful any guy's love of the beauty of flowers can be to a female of the species.

Make it BIG and dive in!

And, some other pretty harbingers of Spring
from the same garden, same Photographer.

And a Rose from my sister's garden complex

This picture is somewhat diminished by
"Photographer's Thumb" Syndrome.
Mine, Oooops!

And, Tiny succulent blossoms from the Itty Bitty Crowd.

Teensy Succulent not sure of the type

Well, this is a real Cactus, Beaver's Tail, I thought.
Now I'm just not sure!

All the succulents and Bromies are blooming, but you've seen them enough already! Ad nauseam!  These are new.

Knitting progress...
One thing I won't present, ad nauseam, is the knitting of sweaters.  When I get each piece done, with the Fran's Ten Minute Rule, I'll post it.  After today that is....

The pink left front of Stardust, so far:

When it's off the needles, and I've started the right front, I'll post again about knitting.  It won't be long since it's a short cardi.

Have a great week!

Early up...Sunday Stealing, an apology, and here's one for the beautiful, but lowly little weeds that bloom!

Sorry I've been gone for a few days.  I holed up at my sister's house or in the RV, when two very hard working fellows were - three actually because Mr. Z was up there too - were walking around and pounding on things in the attic and using power tools.  Gah!  And, I'm sorry to be so slow to return to your blogs and read all your stuff.  I love our Sunday, Saturday, Friday Club!

Sunday Stealing:

August 9, 2014


13 Things
Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we try to credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's meme. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") Sometimes we edit the original meme, to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, to select the best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from this new meme or recently asked questions from a previously featured meme.
Let's go!!!

From Pinterest

1. Outside my window… Can't see out, it's dark. Clouds? Misty Moon?

2. I am thankful… for every little thing that inches the Earth, and it's cargo, towards the Light.

3. In the kitchen…there is a blender that helps me make my good and delicious things to eat,er, drink.

4. I am wearing…dark brown shorts and a medium blue top, one of my favorite color combos.

5. I am creating…drawings every day that I can and knitting on the Sea Ice colored socks!

6. I am going…to watch more of "Deadliest Catch" tonight.  Yay, Netflix!  There are slightly less than a billion videos but my favorite so far is one done with Sig and Jon joking back and forth.  What?  You don't know about this show?  It is a good look at what it takes to fish crab off the bottom of the Bering Sea.  Thrilling and, yes, I admit a little boring at the same time.   But, if you love the Sea, you can't help but love this show and the people who crew the boats.  
 
7. I am reading… Grain Brain, by David Perlmutter, MD, as well as Come to Grief by Dick Francis, The Street of a Thousand Blossoms, by Gail Tsukiyama, and Innocent Blood by P.D. James.  I like having Mood books to turn to.  It's a little nuts but that's the way it's always been.  Luckily I own three of them.

8. I am learning… to Listen carefully.

9. I am pondering…the meaning of all this slaughter that humans have inflicted on each other down through the centuries, and wondering if we all will just go mad someday from it.

10. A favorite quote… "The real hell of Life is that Everyone has his reasons."  Jean Renoir

11. One of my favorite things…My mother's paintbox which I will start using for some colored drawings as soon as I'm done knitting the sock.  One thing at a time......

12. A few plans for the rest of the week… Stay inside in the New Coolness!  Thank you, DH and You, too, Great Spirit!

13. A peek into my day… Held the Wolfman in my lap after dinner.  He sits up and leans into my body, like a little baby, so I kissed the top of his head.  He needs some lovin' like that every once in awhile, that adorable little pup.  

And some Flowers for you, who patiently read this far!

Tiny patch of Scarlet Pimpernel, earlier in the Spring

Wordless Wednesday

See MORE HERE ;o)

Saturday Komeekz, flowers and a Mooooooonnnnnn shot

I've been watching "Medium" and really enjoying it.
However, I made the mistake of looking up Allison Dubois!

Packed up the last of the Christmas ceramics, well, those that will fit into a box! 

So, we have almost a Half Moon, Beautiful and Glorious in the late Spring sky,

  And, I got this lovely little snap of a new succulent, blooming it's little heart out in it's funky little way.  And, we have the tiny star flowers of of mother earth.... Make it BIG!

"I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille"

The mother plant sent out this wonderful net work of stars

If your heart is aching, Look for the beauty that abounds
May you walk with Beauty all Around you.

Thankful Thursday Ketchup Day

 As promised:  And I think there ought to be a national holiday in honor of this "vegetable" so declared by a rather in over his head poly from the last century.  I decided to go to the DARK side for the so called real scoop on this controversy.

C/o THIS PLACE
and I must say, it's an incredibly clever ad, too

Tuesday Tails:

Can I have my cookie?

Wee Wolfie is fine.  He would like his fans to know this.  [Now can he have his "cookie"?]  Also, Mom has long claws and gives the best back scratches but not necessarily the best belly rubs.  [Now, please, please, can he have his "cookie"?] 

Tuesday Ceramics involves four new comers to the House of the Mad Potter (Well, ceramicist):

Ceramics 4, Knitting, nil

A small but deliciously handsome bowl for unguents.
That word was in a crossword, and I just had to show off.

Beautiful Nubian Vase with bad BAD staging (gah!  Really, the end of the ironing board?)
and sketchy flowers stuffed in---- horrors!

Dusty, "I've been digging up the garden", Real Tort (Churchy) for comparison to:

Trompe l'oeil (sort of) Tort joins Froggie in the flower bed
This one doesn't dig, and thank the Gods for that!!

Huge new species of Common Garden Snail,
recently discovered in Antarctica,
giving credence to the ancient, but disputed, theory of continental drift.

Wordless Wednesday - Zee Belly Flowers:

Scarlet Pimpernel - star of stage and screen

Blue Eyed Grass, a spy for the GIA

Early bird specials!

Thursday Thankfulness consists of being alive and well, and still running around like a human being.  I'm not sure I deserve that honor but am thankful that the Lord lets me stay here, extracting myself from the mud every morning.  The job now is to extract as many others from it as possible before I fall off the twig, yes?

Remember, we do this for Love and Love Alone...  Well, some of us also get to laugh, and so, Word of Advice: remember that no matter what, make sure you get a lot of laughing in before your dotage. 

PS.  Yes all the torts are fine, and they are wondering where the sun and nice warm weather went.  Rain should start in the wee hours,  and if it does, I am going to go out and dance in it when I wake up! 

Music Monday... Neal Diamond

This is one of three favorite Neal Diamond song performances... Enjoy ... Sweet Caroline







Painted Summer Toes, and Belly Flower darling little Daisy in the lawns at a park.

Walk with Beauty All Around You!
I love these teensy baby flowers!

Catching up a bit...ceramics,belly flowers, Birdie blah blah

I missed the cartoon for today..  sorry but I have ones from "Non Sequitur" and "Pearls Before Swine", both strips are from the GoComics.com, if you are interested in hypergrabby sites,  which I'll try to post later.

We all need to laugh!  A day without the comic pages is like a day without water.  I love the cartoonists in this life!  I'd like to be funny and good enough to make my own but I've yet to find the talent in me.

But I have some ceramics from this week on Tuesday morning before all the Drama!  The tall pumpkin Halloween thing came out truly well!  I'm so happy to have it finished.

Whew!  It made it through a glaze fire the kiln!

 And the shell left from the accident to a large snail is very pretty.   It will go on the birdbath apparatus when It's finished in sometime this Summer or Fall.  First the outside, done with Crystal glaze called Autumn Leaves (what else?).  It was done with the left over glaze from that big African Violet Pot done earlier - last year.

Outside

Flipside!  :o)

The second shell.  It's done in Duncan's Ivory Balique glaze, and it glows.

This is the second shell to go on the birdbath and be filled with water for all the birds.  We got another Hooded Oriole for the last two days that sang his song to attract back his mate.  He has been alone for a few days, so I fear the worst.  Maybe they were just too young, sporting 1st year plumage and all.  The Chipping Sparrows are still here, which is nice.  They have started staying all summer.  They flock into the giant geranium just outside my window and search out bugs.

We have a lot of birds com to the garden: two species of hummingbird, and the little daily visits from the Bush Tits, Says and Black Phoebes, and a mockingbird that has a nest nearby, the doves whose babies fledged last week, and some others I can't remember.  They are very entertaining little visitors.  We both love birds.  Here's a picture of a Cassin's Kingbird taken on the way home from Ceramics, in a parking lot, right into a bright sky.  He was right at the top of a rather tall tree.

Lucky snap!

And now, a belly flower....

I don't know for certain what this is but it looks like a Speedwell.
of some sort or other!

Another tiny belly flower from the Rec Center.  People walking by probably think I'm deranged, as I walk along the side walks looking for what I know can be a treasure trove of belly flowers.  Anytime there are wild lands close by, in a canyon, for instance, you will find that birds can carry all sorts of interesting new flowering plant seeds up to the verges of a walkway. 

I am getting better.  The meds from my Adventure have worn off, finally, and I am full of energy but must rest for one more day.  OK, actually I'm a little tired.  Need Caffeine!  hehehe

I haven't knit at all.  But I think about it a lot!  There was a very neat article in the paper today about gardening for Oldsters, written by a local expert and nursery owner.  DH needs to read it so I can then ply him with requests to get another raised bed in the side yard. 

Off I go to rest and look for new birds in the Cape Honeysuckle bushes.  Oh did I mention the Towhee pair?  It comes for baths.  I'm old, I ramble.  I hope that all the spelling and punctuation is correct, but heck, I need to eat!  Tata for now!

Saturday Komeekz, Belly Flowers, hopefully some knitting progress.

 Don't hold your breath on the blasted knitting!

As posted on Facebook....ROTFLMAO!

True, so true... *sighs*  Thank Heaven for cookies!

Belly Flowers.  Remember this little beauty found in the grass verges last year?  Well, it's back and has gained ground.  I helped it out by spreading seeds last year, and again this year.  I don't mind being the Johnny Appleseed of Blue Eyed Grasses!

Teensy Blue Eyed Grass

Well, I thought I'd found another, though larger, variety at the lake and near the water ...

Small patch of Pinks

Big Patch

They aren't blue eyed grasses but they actually might be THESE,  Muhlenberg's centaury, aka Monterey Centary, and then I will be so proud as they have finally come all the way South! Sorry for the bad pictures.  They look terrible on the netbook but so bad on the desk top so I hope you are looking at them on something bigger then  a tablet!

Bits and pieces of my life...

I'll show you my favorite brushes first.  And no, I sure the heck am not knitting at the moment.  I'm hoping for something to light that fire, and soon!  Anyway, I introduce you to my hands down favorite brushes.

These are my go to brushes for ceramic painting and for watercolor.  I have big mops for the washes and for  clear glazing but they aren't very interesting at all.  The only other brushes that I use are Chinese Calligraphy brushes that I really love, and I use those for Sumi-E painting.  It looks spectacular on ceramics as well as on paper.

Then some favorite vegetables that no one even thinks of as vegetables.  But they taste like asparagus when properly prepared by boiling and then get even better when sautéed with green onions.

Nopalitos

Here's how to make them. 

Sorry about the white letters on black.  It's a guy, what can I say?  But he doesn't do the sissy thing about heavy gloves, etc.  If you get these young enough to eat them, they have few spines and you can see what you are up against the instant you see them.  And, he cooks and serves them the proper way, meaning the way I was taught to.  He doesn't call them Nopalitos like my Aunts, but many foods have regional names.  I think it means something like 'Little Paddles" or something.  The Opuntia cactus "leaves" are called paddles in the botanical literature. 

Anyway, boiled then fried with green onions, they are delicious!  We grew these. 

And the last thing for the day is these little darlings:

Yellow flowering mammillaria elongata

They are like the pinks, same cactus but are yellow flowering.  Make everything big when looking at these flowers so you can see how enchanting they are.

Today the big ceramic piece comes out of the kiln and home.  I am going to work on it the rest of the way, here, where I have an air brush to do some shading.

I wish you a very good week, with enough of the good things like friendship, laughter, smiles, sunrises and sunsets, and enough things to eat, and a roof over your head.  You know what I mean, all the important stuff.  Blessings!  And good night!  I have to be up early!  Well, relatively speaking.

A walk in the parks on Tuesday

This is the tiniest daisy like flower I've ever seen. 
 UPDATE:  This is a Blue eyed grass, and it's in the Iris family.  So tiny and sweet!

  

White variety of Crepe Myrtle tree

Jacaranda Tree

The Pink Variety of Crepe Myrtle tree.

Sweet Paton socks

I love the colors but I was hoping for identical twins! After the Hols, I'm going to start again, and just waste the yarn it takes to get them to match better. Insane, I know.

Merry Christmas, Readers! And I wish you a much Happier, or maybe just as Happy, New Year in 2011.

Here's a "captive" cactus flower from summers past.... and a tough little "wild" daisy from the trail up Mt. Whitney.

May you walk with beauty all around you in this coming year!

Yellow Belly Flowers weed patch, today