Monday.....

 They are different colors for mums but they are pretty. The Peruvian lilies are always great to have in a bouquet. 

I finished this rock painting a week ago.  It was sitting out on the sun room table and I thought it needed to have a better photograph. 

This is a photo to remind you of what the back side of the rock looks like.  The front side in which I painted had similar textures. 

I took this to the shop one more time to work on one side piece that I had forgotten to install.  It wasn't good enough to do the repair as I had to add more to it to make it better.  The roost pole and red piece is new to the design.

I found four small loose pieces so I started a very small one.  The hole is drilled so things are in the works for house number nine.

We are warmed up today and things are melting.  It will be great to see spring coming.  I know we do have snow storms in March but I can only wish otherwise.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Sunday....

 Have a good day.  Thanks for checking in today

Saturday's Shares.....

 

I have trained goldfish.  Every morning they see me coming and all five of them gather in the corner next to the fish food container.  I am sure the container actually probably is the trainer of the fish.  I will move it today and see where they go tomorrow morning.  It reminds me of a memory of our two living dogs.  We left them for a weekend at a kennel.  When we came to pick them up, they both were outside at the corner of the outdoor fences and watching and waiting for us.  They were so excited. 

I started another with scraps from spare parts.  The white pieces of front and back were failed pieces.  I was able to use them covering up the bad saw cutting job.  Anyway, I put the whole thing together and it was all horribly assembled.  Today I took it all apart and reworked the white pieces and tried it again. The roof on it before ended up crooked and cockeyed.  It looked bad. The white pieces were not parallel.

 

This morning I worked for two hours to recheck sizes and alignments.  I was very frustrated and thought I might just toss it in the garbage bin.  With care and new processes I got the front and back squared and standing vertically and parallel to each other.  When I trial fit it, the roof pieces I could see that I did get it figured out right this time.

The roof now has the old holes remaining that show how badly it fit.  I did notice that I left out the end piece and will have to remove the one side of the roof one more time.  I think I will quit being frustrated with it after a few days.  It is kind of a nice design.

It was 8 degrees F. this morning.  We are now warmed up enough that the thin layer of snow is melting.  We can see grass again in some places. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday's Fun.......

 Big Blue is decorated with some snow again.  It wasn't as heavy of snow as was received just south of us.  It still was a nice snow to cover up all the brown grass. 

There was just enough wind to cause a sculptural form on the roof of the house.  By tomorrow we are told we will start melting. 

Our view out the window this  morning showing the bird feeder with its pile of snow. It actually snowed lightly for a very long time.

We had fun watching the sparrows brushing the snow away to get to the seed.  Snow was just flying as the wanted to get below the snow.

Thanks for stopping by today.

The Loot of the Day....

 It is snowing.  If it were raining I could call it duck weather.  Snow must mean snowman weather. I was grabbing visuals to share and the ducks and swans seemed to be a good thing to shoot. I don't know the kind of duck that it is that has the spotted chest.  

Below the ducks is the toy cupboard. My farm animals from my metal barn set are probably 65 years old now. Some have been lost through the years at my parents' home as I did have one brown horse and one brown cow. When I cleared my parents home to shut it down I brought what had survived the years in their two different moves from the farm. The cars collection is down below one shelf. 

The iron toy is one that I collected from an older couple who were closing down their house to move to town.  I am thinking that it must have been a part of a fire truck toy as there is a knob in back to hold the part that followed it.

Thanks for checking in today. 

Wednesday Night Time Post....

 This morning we were at 1 degree F. The sun did shine but it remained very cold. The birds were glad that I ventured out to refill the feeder. The colors of a sparrow really are striking and distinct. The browns and black make up a great pattern.

Painting on the rock continues.  I have worked on this more since I took this photo.  I have sea gulls on the work now and the top part has been changed a lot. 

Posting this blog late tonight.  See you tomorrow.

Two, Twenty-two, Twenty-two....

 The begonias bloom in spite of the winter weather. We have icing and a light snow right now.  Tonight our temperatures drop into the deep freeze. 

Instead of building bird houses I am painting on my found rocks.  It is a challenge as one has to paint the work around what the rock features are.  Sometime the rocks different textures helps to inspire my design.

 

This is the back of the rock.  It is a found rock along the North Shore where rocks have a lot of iron in the stone.

This is my first attempt at the composition.  It doesn't look like this anymore.  I have to paint and look at the result and then evaluate the total picture.  I can't put a light house on this rock like a lot of my rock paintings have so I am going to  have to do some strong, good paintings of seagulls on this one. 

Thanks for stopping by today.
 

Monday Mentions...

 The morning sky was busy with jet trails and lots of clouds.  I guess the cloud formation was the result of southerly winds which warmed us up again today. 

I have never seen a jet trail this close before as it was directly overhead.  I have watched them for years.

 The grand kids lineup is now on display on the mantle.  The oldest boy  turns nine years old in a few days.  The next two months the other boy turns six in a couple of days. 

On another shelf is this wooden bird with hand painted decoration.  They are the kind of thing that you like picking it up in your hand and hold it. 

Thanks for checking in today.

Sunday Off.....

 It looks like spring and it sort of feels like spring.  It is 61 degrees F. but the ground is still frozen solid. 

So, we still have drifts of snow and it isn't going away that quickly.  I have a set of Christmas lights that are laying on the ground at the bottom of the stairs.  I still can not get them out of the ice puddle. This warm day really is  not a warm day. 

I blogged about this lamp base months ago.  We finally went to the store to buy a birthday present and wandered through the lampshade department.  I shared this with my brother and he said it must be an antique.  I made the base in shop my freshman year in high school, 1965.  I was a scared kid but I found a piece of cedar that I immediately cut up into squares. I just started stacking squares to create the design. 

Fifty seven years later I am still playing with pieces of wood.  I started out with a base and created a design for a pagoda birdhouse. The house is designed to be detached from the base for clearing out the debris from bird dwelling.  When I took the photo I really didn't plan the before and after of years of woodworking experience. I should of used new cedar wood for the birdhouse just for fun. 

I am really happy with the rehab of the white birdhouse.  I know that it is so far from the house that I won't really get to appreciated except when I am out working in the yard and garden.  I am anxious to see if birds will fill it at both ends of the house.

It is a quiet Sunday afternoon.  We took the whole day off getting some rest and relaxation.  Sometimes you have to make oneself to do nothing.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Sat. Stuff....

 It is a rescued decoy that my neighbor tossed into my bin.  The guy who uses these must of lost interest or time to go duck hunting.  

After installing the refurbished bird house to the pole I had time to look over the garden.  Everything is still frozen solid in the ground but I did find some iris perking up.

The Japanese Iris leaves a mass of leaves over the winter.  It is difficult to cut them back in the spring.  You can see one stray iris sticking up out of the ground. 

Three different iris leaves are sticking up in the photo.  I am hoping that this spring they will bloom after being transplanted last year.

I found the gold ornament, angel, on the floor. It had fallen from the tree that I was putting into storage in my workroom.  I thought it looks too good to put away right now and it can keep the candle snuffer angel company for a while.

We lost a little bit of snow yesterday but the ground is frozen.  If it gets to 50 degrees it can only melt the top surface and the rest stays.   We won't get above freezing today. We went out for breakfast this morning and bought groceries.  We had to mail out a birthday present for our oldest grandson also.  We are now home warming up from being in the cold.

Thanks for checking in today.

Friday's Finds.....

 

 

 The one house is ready to be returned to its pole out by the fence.  I have plans for some of the birdhouse to be hung or set on shelves attaching to poles under our sun room.

 

 

It was windy and cold but I did get it back onto the pole.  The previous owner designed the connection which requires one to screw it onto the pole.  I turned it around and around until it seemed to be in a  good position.  I had two birds out there looking it over when I returned to photograph it.  They were sparrows of course. 

We are to warm up to 50 degrees F. today and maybe we can get rid of some more snow.  The snow was still hard and crusty as we were very cold over the night.  I didn't dress warm enough when I put up the birdhouse so now I am chilled.  

Thanks for checking in today.

Philo......

 A blurry look of the project for today.  I had a fiber optic worker here today installing more power to our internet.  I had to hang around while he was working so I set up shop transfer the old out and putting in the new.

I was tired of waiting for the old plant to restart new ones and to fill in on its own.  I just bought a new one from wally mart and switched things. The new one went in to the pot with new soil, the old soil was in bad shape.

The old plant was chopped up and placed into a jar of water.  They will start and I can pot them up in three or four months.  Some of the mysteries in life is where did that jar come from in my past.  I moved it here, I don't know why.  I think that it was a jar from my parents home, that was ten years ago. I think it had nails and bolts in it.  I don't remember emptying it out but it is perfect for starting plants. 

The pot has returned to the living room plant stand with a healthy looking plant.  It has great dignity again. 

Thanks for stopping by today.   Our internet speed is so wonderful with the new fiber optic line.  What a great deal!!!!