The Surefire Way to Impress Your Friends and Convince Folks You're Cool

Post pictures of bugs... Lots of bugs...

For instance, here is the luna moth that graced us with its presence this weekend.  Some people find moths creepy.  (Some of those people might be sitting a few feet away... ahem... Fin.)  However, as my one of my friends said when I posted a photo of the same moth after it landed in my hair, "No freakin' way. I have always wanted to see one of those!"  Surely, this is the way to win friends and influence people.

 

Creepy - I don't think so.  As a matter of fact, it has long been my ambition to see a luna moth fly out of our pine forest.   This is truly the stuff of dreams.

So, if 38 Facebook friends "liked" a moth in my hair then most assuredly, people will flock to my blog for a photo of the swarm of bees currently hanging thirty feet above our backyard in a pine tree.

 

Exciting, isn't it?  Some might even believe, cool.  Then again, The Finman didn't quite share my excitement. 

Oh well... I think it's exciting and after an afternoon of back breaking labor the empty top-bar hive I had on hand has been cleaned up and re-engineered.  Now,  if that teeming mass of bees will just find it before they pick out some other digs. 

What the Heck!

Here in south Mississippi, we are experiencing the most wintery winter we've had since I moved here.  Today, we have freezing temperatures and freezing rain falling from the sky.  Weird!  

As it was in the 60's yesterday, I find this taste of actual winter somewhat unsettling.  However, the nice side  is that since this weather is so freakishly out of place, I have two days off from work.  So far, despite a long list of things I want to accomplish in this bonus time at home, I've only managed to drink coffee, walk the Hound Dawg and watch the birds chowing down on the extra seed I put out.

As I was walking the Hound Dawg, I couldn't help but reflect on the birds flitting through the trees around me.  It made me wonder, if all those birds that winter here, like the American Goldfinch above(non-breeding plumage)are rethinking their migration plans for next year. 

I saw this fellow at the feeder the other day. (He won't stand still long enough for a good picture.) I haven't seen him yet today and I can just imagine him hold up in the hollow of tree somewhere with all the other goldfinches saying, "What the Heck! Fellas, this is not at all what my migration advisor described. Next, year I'm headed to south Texas or maybe even Mexico.  Yeah, that's it, Mexico."  I'm sure, that all the other goldfinches are nodding in agreement.

Show and Tell

Why yes, that is a Carolina Chickadee perching on the bird feeder I made, after a late night brainstorm, while trying to quiet the creativity flood in my brain (and failing), so I could get to sleep, so I could go do my real job the next day.   


It sure would be nice if the creativity fairy would come to visit on the weekend, when nothing else is scheduled, and the hound dawg didn't need to be walked.

Then, I Almost Died...

Last summer, I began to learn how to be a potter. This has certainly been a wonderful experience!

Who would have thought that pottery will probably be the death of me?

A few weeks ago, because my back was hurting, I decided to try something different. I stood up from  a session and found that I needed to convince my spine of it's proper place in the world. I spied my big blue balance ball nearby.  I thought, "Surely you can't sit on a balance ball and throw pottery?"  Another part of my brain reasoned, "Why not?"

So, I started balancing on my balance ball while I balanced clay on the pottery wheel. It helped my back very much. Everything's gone all right up until tonight.

Yesterday, I started a two part piece.  It would require that I throw two separate pieces and then, join them together. I was pretty tired last night.

After making the first half, I decided to wrap it up and make the second half this morning.  Things were going well. I got the second part made this morning and set both aside to firm up a little bit so I could join them together.

Tonight, I started cleaning the two separate pieces so that they could make one finished piece.  This, is where things began to go really wrong.  First, I ruined one of the pieces with a silly slip of the hand.  Not defeated I decided to remake the second piece.

I sat down on the balance ball at the pottery wheel, as I have done many times before.  I made the piece and I got it just so and then...

I stood up. Except, it wasn't exactly standing up. It was some crazy acrobatic, yoga-esque, slow motion travesty of movement made even more tragic because I realized as I was going down that the first piece of the two-part pottery project was behind me and about to be crushed under my foot. This, is when I went into save the pottery mode and forgot to save the body. 

Surprisingly, it worked. (I know you were all worried about the pottery. Or actually, in this state, it's really just mud squished into shapes.) The pottery was salvageable.  However, I wonder if I should have a safer hobby?

Watching at the Bird Feeder

 

For the record, the Hound Dawg thinks that watching birds out the window is one of the most useless things EVER.  

In some ways, he may be onto something.  My weekend mornings get sucked away before I know it.  However, today it paid off.  This is the first year that I've seen indigo buntings in our yard.  In fact, it's the first year I've seen indigo buntings.  Today, I finally got an okay view of them.  They are lovely!

Multiculturalism

 

At the feeder today... 

Great Blue Heron

These birds amaze me!  Great Blues are so silent and graceful when they fly. They are truly a joy to watch.

This fellow must be quite used to admiration.  I saw this one on a pier at the Ocean Springs Harbor and it wasn't nearly as bothered by me as most Great Blues are.  It was a least four feet tall.

What a handsome creature.