Post Bloom

Our Saucer Magnolia decided to bloom again since it started raining this fall. It had quite a few blooms on it. After the blooms I found these wonderful seed pods. I thought they were so beautiful.

Happy Blooming Tuesday to everyone. I hope you are finding lovely surprises in your garden.

Mushroom hunt

I went on a mushroom walk weekend before last. I didn't realize that there are people that like to hunt  mushrooms as much I like to look for birds. It was such fun being with such a group. The leader of the group was Dr Andrew Methven from Eastern Illinois University. It was a blast.

I saw mushrooms that I have only seen in books before. Those people can really spot those mushrooms in the forest duff.

Animal Wednesday - BlackSkimmer

We were at one of our favorite birding places yesterday and discovered a rare bird in our area. A Black Skimmer. It is normally a coastal bird. There have only been 7 other sightings in Indiana.

It is such an unusual looking bird. When they feed they stick the lower mandible into the water and skim the top of the water for small prey. The poor bird must have blown on the winds of Isaac. And yes they have eyes but their eyes are very difficult to see as they are black and sit in the black feathers on their head. What you most notice is that big ole bill.

Happy Animal Wednesday.

Amanda Shelsher Sculptures

Happy Labor Day to all of you worker bees. This weekend we here in the United States celebrate all of those workers that came ahead of us. Blazing a trail to give us good working conditions and decent wages. For the most part it works for us.

I have used some extra time off to read blogs that I don't get to dwell on. Robyn at Art Propelled is one of my favorites. Not just because she is a wonderful sculptor but because when she isn't sharing her works she shares the work of people that inspire her. These other art forms run the gamut of art works.

Here I stumbled upon the work of Amanda Shelsher. She is a sculptor that lives and works in Australia. I know I could never afford her work but it moves me so that I had to try to draw some of her pieces.
You can pop over to her web site and see some of her work.

Obviously Teri at Teri's Painted Daisies is also a strong influence on my choice of medium. (Sorry Teri no cactus this Monday)

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend.