Sunday PM

 

 On the shores of Galilee, at a place called Tabgha, an ancient mosaic rest on the floor of a small church. It was created over 1,500 years ago. It depicts the scene of bread and fishes placed before the crowd to eat. The carving of the fish is made into a bowl of recycled olive tree wood. 

 The Armenians have a fourth section of the old city in Jerusalem and their artistic works are well known. They are predominately decorators of many items. This bowl is from there, created by their artists. Things like this can be bought from their many shops as well as from vendors on the streets.

 My wife's Christmas village is now gone. It took about three days of boxing and snow folding. We both really like it but now it is  all in storage on the shelves in the basement. It is good exercise for me to go up and down those eleven steps.

We warmed up today and my grass is starting to turn green The rains did help things out. I know we can get snowstorms yet in late March so we won't declare it being spring just yet. tThanks for checking in today.  

First Robin

 My wife saw the first robin yesterday afternoon. I took a few pictures and the bird just would not turn its head for the shot. 

 I lost one of my trees that had dried fruit in it. The one that is left over does have a few fruits on it. The robin just sits and waits until its mate arrives to the area. Our cardinal definitely has his territory marked as we hear him most every morning as he calls from our maple tree. We saw an unusual sight this morning of a small bird chasing a kestrel hawk, as it was pecking on the top of its head. I looked up the kind of birds that do that and they call it "mobbing" A lot of different birds do that. The do it  to keep them away from their territory. The kestrel really wasn't too bothered bu it did seem to fly around in a hurry. 

 The cardinal seems to find a area on the tree that is branched filled. It cuts up the view and on a dull day it blends in with the colors of the tree. 

 The female is not seen as often. I would not think they would be nest building with it still beingvery cold out there. We hit 42 degree F. this afternoon. We do finally have sunshine this afternoon after clouds for days. We got a good rain and some thunderstorms the past two days. At one time it was reported we had over and inch of rain. The weather guy said it was unusual to get that much at this time of the year but we really do need the moisture. 

I am watching a garden show right now that is of the Sonoma Desert. It is in the Tuscon area. It reminds me that I can put out humming bird feeders in a few months. Thanks for checking in today. 

Thursday's Things

 Last angel fish standing, swimming, seem to be growing larger by the days.  Notice th size of it in comparison of the guppies. No live birthed guppy survives in this tank. 

 While taking a diet pepsi break I pick out all sorts of glasses. The flamingo plastic glass has been used a lot and does look pretty worn. I do use better glasses but it is fun to use this once in a while. 

 I walked out to get photos for blogging this morning. There really is not much to take a visual. I have old salvaged brick laying around the edge of my brick patio. I have collected them from many places as I have lived at the old place and I moved them all to the new place. 

 

One in my collection is a paver. I researched the company and found the Purington company was from Illinois. It stopped production in 1974. Its history is from the 1800s and bricks are said to have been made for the streets in the Panama Canal. They also have bricks in Paris and many bricks are used on city streets in America. 

My parents lived in Osceola, Iowa and its city streets were covered with bricks around the entire courthouse square. I remember them when I was a kid, I don't remember when they removed them. I now think I got this brick from my dad's stuff and it was one of those pavers. I am sure locals collected them as it was being torn up and probably city people shipped them into ditches. 

 We did warm up a bit today. I am thinking we have thunderstorms predicted for tomorrow. I shoved off the last of my snow pile on my deck yesterday with my shovel with one swipe. We have been cloudy all day and our air pollution today is smoke from Canada. We have had two days of air quality warnings. I did not know they were having forest fires already.

Thanks for stopping by today  

Store Blooms

 

Flowers and Art

 I don't have many blooms on the inside but the hardy geranium keeps unfolding one flower at a tiem. It has been at it for so long that the cobwebs are forming in the window sill. 

 I noticed my wife's painting of tulips this morning and had to take a shot of it. We are slowly melting off our snow now and maybe we will see tulips in five or six weeks. 

 Two card paintings that lay on my desk are there for my inspiration. Chee is the watercolor artist from Duluth, Minnesota. He at one time was on staff at the college there. He is so good at capturing koi swimming in the water. 

 I have on my art desk another magazine article of an artist that paints orbs. I think that he is the one that inspired my one boat painting to have orbs in it. 

 I painted it now a long time ago when I first quit being an art teacher. I combines lots of styles that I taught to my students. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Monday Mentions

 

The sun sets in the west and as it shines over our hill. It makes the trees in the east glow. The trees that surround us all have this sunset glow. 

 I completed this frame for my wife's painting. We ran a frame shop for over 20 years in our home. Here at our new home I have to hunt up all the tools now to  get a frame job done. It is an amazing painting my wife just finished. One of the first since she had been so sick for over a year and a half. The frame is an oak one that I made from leftover wood from past frame jobs a few years ago. 

 I shoveled on this snow pile today hoping to get rid of the rest of it. I had created a path recently but our warmer days just are not hot enough to get rid of this deck snow. We may have rain tomorrow so maybe that will help to dissolve it. 

It has been a quiet Monday. I headed out to get meds and some stray groceries. It was cold out there and the high ended up being 42 degree  F. Thanks for stopping by today.  

Sunday's Shots

 

 

 

 Thanks for stopping by today.