Animal Wednesday - Epidexipteryx

National Geographic is a magazine that I dearly love. It takes me all over the world. The photos and articles keep me informed about the world.  It has articles about the natural world that I find interesting. This month is no exception. They have an article about one of my favorite things...Feathers. The evolution of feather to be exact.

In this article they had several fossils from all over of the "Beasts" that had feathers. Of course the artist's renditions of the beasts are something to behold.

My favorite is the Epidexipteryx or commonly called the Jurasic Peacock in the article. The photo above was taken of this fossil and artists rendition of the beast from the magazine.

Below is my interpretation of the fossil and the artist's rendition.  

 I would love to have a real fossil of something like this. I know I couldn't afford such a treasure.  So I did the next best thing. I made one for myself.  I had some old sculpty clay and I worked it into the below "fossil".  It isn't perfect but I sure had fun making it.

Happy Animal Wedensday to you all. For more Animal Wednesday fun pop over to Aunti Mim's here.

Blooming Tuesday - Amaryllis

My Sister sent me some pictures of her amaryllis that is blooming. I thought it a perfect subject for Blooming Tuesday. I love seeing this marvelous hot color on a cold snowy day. Happy Blooming Tuesday everyone. I hope this brings some warmth and color into your day.

Hyacinth Sketch

I hav been having fun lately watching the hyacinths coming on. 

I have three on vases and two have blooms. I can smell them when I sit at the kitchen table.

Are any of you forcing bulbs this winter?  I am so ready for  spring to arrive. How about you?

Surprise Spider

My biggest surprise this weekend was my first of the year SPIDER (outside).  We were birding at the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge. I looked down and there on the edge of the snow ran a spider. I ran back to the car to get the camera to take its picture. It tried to hide in the duff. I found him though because he was much paler than the duff. It didn't rise above 35Fdegrees all day. This seemed like such a surprise.

Striped Skunk

We had an interesting encounter with a Striped Skunk this weekend. The only thing is this skunk didn't have a stripe down its back as it should be. He must have been awfully hungry to be out foraging during the day. Of course it warmed up a lot this weekend so the pickings were easy...if it could find them.  For more about my weekend encounter go here.

Animal Wedensday - Luna in the Snow

Must I stop for a picture Mom?  We must take this opportunity to run in the snow. Happy Animal Wednesday to you all. For a couple more Luna photos in the snow and a few birds you can go here.

Cactus Monday - Cholla Rib

What you ask does this line up of feathers have to do with Cactus Monday??

 The item holding the feathers is a rib of a Saguaro  Cholla Cactus I picked up in the desert the last time we were in Arizona. 

 You can see it has these lovely holes that I can stick feathers that I pick up while out birding or in our garden and display them. If this isn't a Saguaro Rib please tell me what it is. Thank you for telling me it is probably a Cholla Rib gang. I knew someone would help me.

In the past I have hung this on the wall or just layed it on a table to display the feathers. It is that time of year when I start looking at objects in my house trying to decide how I can rearrange to make it feel a little more lively. After all I will be stuck in here a couple more months.

What I did was take a part of a brick and drilled a hole in it. Then I just stuck the end of the rib into the hole. Voile, a stand was made and I like they way the feathers appear. 

Happy Cactus Monday to all of you Cacuteers. For more Cactus fun go to Teri's Painted Daisies.

Bloomin Tuesday - Garden Journal

This is a stretch in several different ways. First of all
Blooming Tuesday. As you can see there are no blooms
in this drawing but it is the front page of my Garden
Journal for this year. I have used this type of sketchbook
for my Garden Journal for the last ten years. It works
well for me. I do the front page different every year.

As you can see I have done a couple of poems in the
Acrostic style, sort of. I am not really sure this is a
pure acrostic because I have never tried doing them
until now. This sort of just came over me. Don't
you just love it when that happens?

I wish everyone a Happy Blooming Tuesday.



 
 
Garden Time
 
Greens
Are               Thoughts
Reigning       Images
Design          Memories     
Enabling       Enchantments
Nature