Friday, July 30, 2010

Eggs, cactus, and sulphurs


My Easter egg plant put on a second egg this past few days. I could almost see it grow as it went from purple bloom to this.


My rescued cactus has done well this past year.  I found pieces of it tossed in the alley way by a neighbor who throws everything in the alley.  The choices things are the fish wastes from his cleaned fish.  The cactus spent the winter in my basement so it is a pretty happy plant.


When I was a kid on the farm, these yellow butterflies were very abundant.  They would line up along a muddy water area in ditches. There would be dozens of them drinking.  I really have not seen many of them for the past 20 years.  I can not get a handle on the name for this butterfly. From what I can find about the butterflies of Iowa, this may be called a sulphur.  The white one that looks similar is actually called a cabbage butterfly. I have seen the cabbage butterfly in my yard but he is flitting about too much for a pose.

We went to the art center today and had a great lunch and looked over the art.  The Iowa Artist Award Show was an interesting one that was judge by someone who liked people putting found objects together to make art.  The whole selection was too far out for me as it lacked traditional standards for art characteristics.  The lady who took 30 photographs of herself in 30 different old sweaters with shinning decorations on them is one example of work in that show. One person won a chance to bring a complete set of four of five tables full of common items, one could use to create crafty art.  You could walk in and around it all, lots of stuff, and view it without the artist being there. There were 100's of entries but these 30 or so were the winners according to this judge.

We ended up at the bookstore today and I found  one book that really fascinated me about sea glass.  I will return and look at that again.  Maybe I will even buy it.  I will give an old fashioned book report about it on a later date. If you are curious about sea glass, do your own search ahead of time to see what I found in this book.

I did buy a book about raising chickens..........yes, I know, I live in town where I can't raise chickens.  It is a neat book about all the different breeds of chickens and I think I may go into a painting frenzy, painting roosters with attitude.  Maybe I will put sunglasses on them, who knows?  

It was nice to have a day off.  I will go mow in Osceola today and am looking forward to my older brother's visit from Arizona on Sunday.  He married a local girl from Osceola so he and his wife and granddaughter will be visiting his wife's father.  I will make a few trips down to see him as it has been over a year,  maybe two since I have seen him.

Everyone have a good Friday and thanks for dropping in........

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The egg plant is so much fun! I enjoy seeing photos of it. The cactus is looking very good too. Larry & John took a lot of cactus photos on their trip; that's a plant I don't have any experience with.
Glad you had a day off to visit the art show. Sounds a little far out to me too. Atlanta's Piedmont Park has an art show every Spring and it is that way also!
I look forward to seeing your rooster paintings ~ I have a few blog friends who collect all things "rooster!" The sea glass sounds very interesting too.
Hope you have a wonderful visit with your brother and family. Enjoy the weekend.

Rae said...

The egg plant is really something. I like how it looks. Your cactus is really thriving too. It was nice of you to rescue it. Being dumped like that in an alley seems kind of sad. Enjoy the visit with your brother.

The Retired One said...

There is a huge art show here this weekend called "Art on the Rocks"...many artists all set up at the lower harbor on Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan..if you ever get the chance to come up to see it with your wife, let me know and maybe we can meet you guys!

Far Side of Fifty said...

HI Larry, Have a good visit with your brother. The butterflies are too fast for me too:)