Random Thoughts.......

 In the reworking of an art work, one has to dig out the materials. I couldn't find my big box of pastels. The simple box of pastel pencils didn't work at all. I did have to move something very heavy to get to my soft pastel sticks. 

We dropped in temperatures this afternoon and the birds want some seeds.

I made a mobile out of long strings of paper cranes. It isn't as dramatic as one that Alexander Calder would make but it looks good hanging in front of the downstairs art gallery. I am not making any more mobiles for now. 

I have been dabbling with my ancestry account.  I have an unsolved problem with my great-great- grandfather Burgus. His name is Friedrick Burgus.  He does show up in some people's family trees as J. Friedrick.  He shows up as Friedrick J. and also Friedrick W.  At the present time I have him down as Wilhelm Friedrick that another family member is going with on his family tree.  He had two different wives.  His first wife was the mother of the oldest child, Charles, as seen above. He had five children with his first wife and after she passed he remarried and had five or six  more children. I have a first cousin in her 80's and she is considered the expert on trees and she doesn't have the answer. I have the photo of his gravestone in eastern Iowa and he is just Friedrick Burgus with no front or middle initial.  From my experience with Ancestry these things do get corrected but I am still amazed that nothing shows up giving me a firm answer.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunny Day....

 The mornings look better as our days get to be longer. The sun is needed this Sunday morning to burn off the fog.

I made it to Hobby Lobby and bought some mat board. I was out of it for a long time and needed to cut mats for a bunch of things. I was a little rusty at figuring out the process again but I did pull off a few mats. My wife and I ran a frame shop out of our house for 25 years and we cut mats for hundreds of things in that period of time.  This pastel painting that I did was done many years again and just never had a formal presentation done to it.It is a painting done on the shore of Lake Superior.

As I was getting ready to cut a mat for this I decided not to do it. It was back to the drawing board for it. It had smears from being in a folder for 15 years. It had some artistic tweaking that definitely needed to be done. I am in the middle of reworking it now.

House Finch Pair......

 It was a lone bird at the feeder and at first I thought it was just a sparrow. Once I zoomed in I could see it was a female house finch.

Rarely it is that house finch pairs are away from each other. I looked out in just another moment and there was the male house finch. 

They seem to just know that they are together. The female keeps a seed in its mouth for a while then she cracks it ans swallows. 

 

 

It is a good thing to have a place to eat. They are contented in this feeder even though the supply is getting low.

It seemed warmer by numbers but I still had to wear my heavy winter coat to go to the gr ocery store. We are headed back to the deep freeze Monday and Tuesday. Winter is consistent in what it puts out for us.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Cloudy Morn......

 

 

 

The Thursday Sharing.....

 I placed my geese back out into the yard for the rest of the winter. I had moved them into the iris flower bed when I was mowing months ago and I realized I want them back into view. 

They are plastic replicas but they get the colors right on them. They are convincing as to be real if you don't stare at them. I do have a great shot of them standing in knee deep snow last winter. This morning they were getting wet from a light rain. 

As I have been sharing glass things in the past I guess I can share this footed bowl. I just took out the pine centerpiece that was in it and it sits empty. This belonged to my mom and I remember it when she served fluffy salads or fresh fruit in it for special occasions. I have other pieces like this that also cam from the family. They were inexpensive pieces that a housewife could have and feel like they were serving in special fancy ware. 

Elegant chore girl is here feeding the geese The trend for this type of ceramic pieces were a fad for a while and we would pick them up once in a while and collect them. There was a company, Lladro, that made similar styled and glaze colors on them but they were priced in the high end price range. 

I tried a new paper folding item. The swans look a lot clunky but I did figure it out.  I don't remember the steps on it so I would have to follow the internet instructions again if I wanted to make more.  I don't want to make more or need to make more.  I hung my third mobile today in the downstairs room of cranes and I won't make any more.  I did try to do another folded piece that looked like two swans facing each other. I stopped trying to do it after I realized that they skipped sharing some steps in the middle of the directions. The person sharing the process was using an Asian money bill for his paper. 

We are warmer again today. It is a winter thaw and it will turn winter again. I have relatives in Missouri with a lot of snow everywhere and blogger friends in Canada with lots of snow. We have a stray small snow pile that has yet to melt, otherwise we don't look like winter.

 

 

Wednesday's Windfall.....

 

Wednesday morning wasn't so cold as the day was going to warm up to 50 degrees F. The earth is tilting back as I can now photograph the sun and it is out from behind the house. 

 

 As I went out to the mailbox to mail a card I hear the sounds of Canadian geese. When I looked up I saw two V strands of them heading east. They travel in the winter time to different feeding grounds from our big Lake Saylorville to small lakes at banks or shopping malls.  The snow is gone so they can feed on the grassy grounds around the businesses. To my surprise I don't have a Canadian goose in my collection.  I guess they either aren't for sale or my gifter didn't think I would want one. I do have the favorite Minnesota Loon and some brown ducks. 

My mallard duck is always stretching its wings. We have a lot of these ducks in our area also but don't see them fly around so much.  I guess some times in the summer they come to visit my neighbor's swimming pool.

I did find and capture the shot of my glass plane that belonged to my mom. It has the American star symbol on its wings.  The candy would be inside the plane and there was a cardboard that was inserted to hold it into the toy. I use to think that the tail fins or this was broke but then I did see all is intact. They are just created small. 

I have a trip to make for some meds this afternoon. I will pick up a few groceries at the same time including eggs.  Eggs are so expensive right now as Iowa chicken growers had to destroy thousands of hens because of bird flu. The process to disinfect and raise new hens from chicks has a certain time frame before eggs will be produced again. So we are back to seven dollars a dozen on some brands. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday......

 

Stuffing and stowing things is another obsession of mine. I like to view my old things and a good box with shelves makes it fun.  The pottery piece with painted Indian  designs is old. It belonged to my late wife's family home where a distant cousin would send them things from New Mexico. I can't say it is along lost valuable antique even though it is old  It looks like it was a tourist trap item sold along the highways in the West. I think it is actually made from plaster. The other possibility is that it is unfired clay. 

The sleigh bell is antique for sure as it was one that would be attached to horses on straps and mounted to the sides of horses harness. The sound would be wonderful with many bells clanging. The carved bird isn't so old but one that was made in Mexico for novelty shops her in the US. Medicines were dispersed in bottles with a cork on it. I use to find them in people's burn piles. Some of these came from my father-in-law's farm burn pile that was used by two generations of owners of the farm. I have many blue Vick's jars but just don't have them displayed.

My mom had two of these glass pieces that she kept in her trunk.  I would ask her about them and she would say she got them as a kid and they were filled with small balls of candy. Her two were the phone and the car. The phone had a wooden piece that was attached by a string. It was the mouth piece to us to talk on the phone. The glass dog was given to me from my wife's cousin. We helped with the sale of her aunt's home and I hesitantly asked for it and she was so glad that I wanted it. It reminded the family of the dog that one of the Presidents of the US during his term as president. 

The train is one that I most recently acquired from the attic of my wife's family home. We were clearing the attic of any thing of valuable. It was a mess and I stepped on it among a bunch of papers and cardboard. I was so surprised to find it. Looters had already hit the attic for brass beds and who knows what else. Their is a glass airplane in the collection that I have but it doesn't fit in my display box so I didn't get it photographed. 

We went to Hobby Lobby today in our very own town's store. It opened in March and is only four miles away from where we live. My wife walked the place with great glee. It was her first venture out since being hospitalized and rehabbed in these past ten months. I bet we will be going back in a few weeks.  We hit the lower 50s F. this afternoon and it was wonderful. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday Is....

 

The figurine birds are congregating on our fireplace mantel. They are fun to hold in you hand. I remember my wife  picking up them in shops and carrying them with here hand clutching it.

 

 

The starlings were flying around as if they were in a migration mode. It seems late in the season to do that but we had hundreds of them in the back yards and this tree. They were eager to eat from the grass as there were some green blades in there for them.

 

The workspace for my paper cranes is in the spare bedroom. It is hanging from the control chain from the hanging ceiling fan. I have streams of these birds on strings and I have created a mobile with multiple balance strips. I have one more balance piece to put at the top with one last strip of birds. The photo doesn't show them in motion so it does look like a clutter of things. I have not made a single new paper crane in three days so maybe the obsession is over for now. 

We have warmed up a bit today.46 degrees F. this afternoon. The wind is blowing now and the temps are again dropping. Thanks for stopping by today.

Grandma Brooks....old things..

 

My grandmother on my mother's side had many names. She was Mabel Zella Wheeler Brown Brooks. She was born in 1897 in the Macksburg, Iowa area and died in 1973.  She lived modestly and had to work at different projects to help her income.  She was widowed from my grandfather Brown in 1937.  She remarried five or six years later taking on the Brooks name. She was widowed again in 1963. 

She and a neighbor lady saw the stuffed chicken craft at a fair. They pooled their money together, quarters and nickels I am sure, and bought it. She and her friend Mae Cook tore it apart carefully to make the pattern. Through many years my grandmother made hundreds of chickens both small and a larger size gaining profits for her income. Many of the chickens had cloth materials that she had used to also make her aprons that she wore daily. I almost forgot to mention that she sewed them on her treadle sewing machine. 

 I have many things that once belonged to her.  She gave me a solid walnut, antique table.  She made quilts and I inherited those from my mom. There are glass berry dishes with a large bowl which I use to make my jello. The small plant table has a long story behind it but I will keep it short. She attended an auction in Humeston, Iowa with here friend Mae and Mae's husband. Another older couple was with them.  She saw this table and she loved plant stands. She asked Mae's husband to bid on it but all she only had was a quarter. He bid on it for her and it sold for a quarter.  My grandmother had me paint it for her with powder blue paint.  As time passed my mom had it as a plant stand and I gladly inherited it.  It had to have that paint stripped off of it.  The feet on the table is a definite furniture style of the Federal Period.

 

You leave the iron on top of the old cast iron cook stove to heat it up, then you iron your clothes. Many times it was too hot and it scorched things. It meant that you always had to iron when the kitchen was heated up with a hot wood fire in the stove. 

My grandmother lived in a farm house with her second husband and this iron was used as a door stop. The farmhouse was so rustic, run down, and the doors swung freely mostly in the wrong way. She had a conch sea shell as a door stop also. I have that also. It was an old house and I have so many memories of it.

Things that bring back memories are fun. Sometimes one can think of the bad times for the people who owned them and other time things just make you smile. I have always been fascinated with history and items of the past help me feel closer to the past. 

Thanks for stopping by.
 

On A Saturday Afternoon....

 

 

My wife received flowers back in April for her birthday.  It was when she was in the hospital area where they would not let her have flowers in  her room  The two kind of flowers were a great variety as they have never stopped blooming since I brought them home. My wife has been able to enjoy they as they just continually boom. Kalanchoe is the name, after I gave it some thought.

This begonia was alongside of the one above and it too just keeps blooming. They must like their location in the window as both plants are a little bit different variety.

The starlings were hungry from all their flying during their migration. We were invaded by hundreds of them and not one picture can illustrate how many their were.

They would become frightened and all take flight in unison. They were on roofs of houses and then in the neighbor's yard. They then would stir and come back into our yard.  At  one time they all flew up and over our sun room making it look like we were in "The Birds" movie.

 

 My wife's swan creation is the ornament for the day. She made many of these a few years ago and sold them out of our art gallery as well as at craft shows. The material that she used was of material that reminds you of wedding dress cloth. 

It is a quiet Saturday and chores are being done. It is above freezing today and the sun is shining brightly. The height of my excitement for the day is the delivery of a new toaster oven.  We bought an inexpensive toaster over when we moved here and the one essential control dial broke. It did still sort of work but it was trial and error in setting it and one had to watch it, as the timer didn't work any more.  I had a few very well-done pieces of toast. We actually could warm dinner trays from the store in it but again we were never sure how it was going. A new appliance is always a good thing and having it delivered to the door is fun. There is an air fryer feature on it that we were sure about needing. It just seemed like we could go ahead and get it. 

I have been making mobiles again today. It will be an obsessive behavior that should die down soon. I found you can buy mobiles for sale on the internet. I am making two different kinds of them now different that the first one that I made. I am using my paper folded cranes on them because that is what I have available. Photos will come when all is done.

Thanks for checking in today.

Three....Shots.

 

 

 It did warm up today to just one degree above freezing. It is winter and I still needed my winter coat to go get groceries. It is Friday and I did get a few chores done today. Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday's Things.....

 

 While I was blogging yesterday I looked up to see a flash of red outside of my window. I haven't see a cardinal for a long time.  I did see a female cardinal this morning for lest then five seconds. It is cold and all the birds are looking for seeds to help them warm up a bit. 

He flitted about a bit and I didn't think at first that I was going to get any shot of him. He was interested in the sunflower seeds. My mix of seeds doesn't have many of them in there but I am glad he stopped to pick out the few of them. 

I couldn't figure out why my homemade feeder was cleaned out in its bottom. when I would go to fill it.  Then I took this shot of the small sparrow that was crawling into the feeder to eat. It surprised me to see it just crawl in to the slot. 

 

I reworked my design of my mobile this morning while balancing on the step ladder.  I have a poor quality video of it freely moving but I can not seem to figure out how to share the thing. We went back into the deep freeze today.  Relief is on the way with a little bit warmer temperatures. I put off on an errand today as it seemed I could just wait. It was miserable getting the mail and working the recycle bin with two trips.  Our snow didn't really happen around here but others in the state did get snow. We have full sun out there and that is not helping things a bit. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Middle of the Week......

 

My wife was a little bit sad as we put the fancy angels away for storage. Each one is beautiful. We bought some and some were gifted to her by others. Each one has such an elaborate decoration of trims and decorated materials, plus gold accents everywhere. My wife did remark that we can put them back up in about ten months.

The paper folding bandit is now displaying his wares. I bought special hooks to hang a big mobile from the sun room ceiling. I am not happy with where I placed it but I think we can live with it and see where else it would be better placed.

It is difficult to photograph so I will just show you parts of it. I had to get a step ladder to put up the hook and I will have to get it back when I make adjustments.  I think my main string from the hook to the first support wire is too long and I need to shorten it. 

I really enjoy the works of Alexander Calder and would like to find materials the were used by him for a creation by me. They have an enlarged replica of one of his mobiles hanging in the rotunda, open entry way, of the National Art Gallery in Washington D.C.

 

We have a light snow on the ground and our temps are warmer.  We are suppose to reach 32 degree F.  this afternoon and that will last for about an hour. We are facing a warming trend and that will be so great. Thanks for stopping by today.