Starlight Starbright...

 Did you ever sing that little diddy as a kid?

Starlight starbright
the first star I see tonight
I wish I may 
I wish I might
Have the wish
I wish tonight...

I got an Aurora Borealis alert on my phone that said I had a 20% chance of seeing the Northern Lights last night. I knew with the overcast sky that seeing anything would be slim to none.

But I decided to walk up to the meadow the other night after putting hubby to bed and do some sky gazing.

I didn't see the Aurora, but I was surprised by Fireflies flitting through the warm air current in the meadow. The sky was overcast and the Fireflies were just floating around. I used my headlamp to light up the grass in front of me a bit.

I recorded the songs of Coyotes singing for their evening hunt. It can send chills up your spine no matter how many times you hear it.

This has been another crazy busy week. Monday was quiet. Tuesday was delivery of the hospital bed and re-organizing the room with a visit from the Social Worker.

Wednesday was our mini trip with Steve. I won't bore you with the rest of the schedule. Just enough to say, I was tired most of Thursday so I laid down to read a book and took a cat nap.

I'm looking forward to a quiet Saturday to mow the yard after doing the dump thing. 

Here are some of the candle Ent Dudes I got the other day, the first shot is with Groot, the Christmas Ornament.

I did these shots in my succulent garden. I used a little light inside to light up the glass marble eyes. I use lights in these but not candles as we have oxygen in use at home.

I can see that there are some fun possibilities with these sculptures...

I'm looking forward to a clear night over the weekend so I can get out and enjoy shooting the Milky Way.

Thanks ... giving

Nah, NO turkey for us! 

I do lasagna. I have never actually cooked a turkey. I don't even like most poultry so it is a no brainer for me.

We used to gather as a large family long ago with cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents. Us kids ate in another room. I recall we got in trouble for creating a squash, corn, and cranberry mountain on a plate in the middle of our table. I think we all added the food we disliked to the mountain with the idea we'd give the big mess to the dogs. 
We got caught and chastised. 

We put on bright colored clothing and went sledding while the adults cleaned up. 

This holiday keeps changing over the years. There was the Thanksgiving I did hotdogs with the boys. That is what they wanted. There were gatherings of our generation. 

Things changed. People went their own ways.

We will spend time at home without company. I will start working on my Christmas Projects. I made a new one this past week. 

I took my handmade 'Fairy House' Stuff and thought it would be fun to set things up on a little table. I moved the old trunk  and set a white board on it...I'll address that later.
The little table with a drawer became my project. What to do?

Well, I gathered my moss house, my mossy tree, and just messed around a bit. I gutted the mossy tree of its lights and added a puck light I could turn on with a remote.
I replaced the batteries in the fairy lights and gathered up my tiny squirrels and Groot.
I found a use for the mini decorations that had been put away for so many years.

I found a chunk of plastic ivy left over from some long ago project and viola! The table became a setting I can admire while in the kitchen doing other projects. I can also move the squirrels around or make the dinosaurs or dragons visit...OH the endless possibilities!

And in the morning before dawn, I can enjoy the lights even more as they add fun and warmth to the kitchen area.

While putting other things away, I came across some brooches I'd ordered last year. I wanted to swap out a brooch on my 'go to town' baseball cap and had ordered a little packet of them. 

I have a tiny tree ... I had the bug brooches.
And I thought...why not?

Which led me to gathering some of my mother in laws brooches I inherited to decorate the tiny tree in the kitchen [no picture...sorry]. 

There is that old trunk with the white board on it just hanging around near the back door. I kept thinking about white and about what I could come up with.

Something snowy, something fun, something different.
This piece of cardboard packing came with a humidifier, I thought I might use it to make a little snow mountain.

I used some felt and some sticky two sided tape to hold it on the cardboard. The linen tea towel is one that came from my Grandmother and Aunt's things that I inherited. I thought it might make good snow.

The jury is still out on this small creation. I can see where I will be messing with this for a bit to get it right. 

I may even scrap the whole idea, time will tell. 

The new Christmas Chair is now in the living room. It is waiting. But I am holding off on that project. There is no rush.

I got out in the afternoon for doing some Girry Adventure photography. If anyone has ever worked with a dog underfoot, perhaps they can appreciate how helpful or unhelpful a pet can be...

Here is Charlie, inspecting the Teddy named Moose just before he pushed it over. I wish I had been quick enough to capture Charlie nosing the Girry Giraffe into the creek water.

Today will be more about chilling out, relaxing, and enjoying each other's company.

What am I thankful for?

My imagination which allows me to enjoy going in so many directions at once.
My husband who constantly brings me joy and frustrations. Our home and farm.

Charlie.

Friends and family.

That old Trunk and other things

That old trunk I moved into the kitchen area happened to end up staying there. Somedays I use it for a laundry folding spot, some days I used it for...well,

this...

 I had a huge list of to-do's and some of it included the 'other' half. But just after his coffee and breakfast he went back to bed. Such can be our routine.

I thought I'd let it warm up a bit outside before I approached installing the large tank heater. If I busied myself with laundry and doing something creative, I could stay in the house and keep an eye on things.

My friend at the Farmer's Market had set aside a couple of neat gourds she thought I might like for me on Saturday. She said, "I thought of you and your pictures!"

So how could I not use them to do a bit of still life?
I admit, I don't have a studio and I don't have the fancy lighting stuff, but this will have to do for right now. I enjoyed picking out some paper to use as foreground and backround and trying to arrange things in a pleasing manner.

According to some Still Life experts, I don't follow the rules of just 3 objects, dramatic lighting, and moving from tall to short.

I have tried and tried to emulate some of those amazing and dramatic photos, but I keep coming back to just having some fun. 

I mean who can keep from smiling at Groot and a tiny wooden deer?

I have a feeling that Groot will keep showing up now and again.

Then of course, I had to clean up and organize things.

But not before just a bit more fun...

toys behaving badly....

Mice in the cupboards? 

Then I had to put things away and make lunch and tend to my mules.

The above is a sample of the odd box I found. The bottom piece is the only drawer our old kitchen had. Yes, you read that correctly. Our old kitchen had one drawer that was long and narrow. 

After tending to hubby and his lunch, I was able to find football highlights on YouTube for him to watch while I changed out the tank heater and did some in hand work with Siera. She seems a bit off in attitude with all the other mules. She is generally bossy and has been hanging out away from the others.

I have a call into the farrier for a trim anyway. He is fantastic at spotting any issues.

Finally, Charlie and I headed for the woods to collect SD cards from the cameras and have some quiet time.

Who can resist a Halloween themed photo....

Fall is....

Monday 

Fall seems to always make me feel in a bit of a rush. It makes me breathless and anxious as if I am going to 'miss' out on something. The days grow shorter and I watch the forest carefully. When the leaves begin to fall in earnest I feel more anxious.

So what is up with that? Maybe I wish Fall/Autumn with the leaves and color changes would last much longer. I want it to draw out like Spring draws itself out. Spring teases us bit by bit with little glimpses of things to come.

Fall rushes at us like a freight train.

Some days I want to run about willy nilly to try and capture everything going on. And between meals, regular duties, and daylight, there never seems as though there is enough time.

I did get out and walked around our area. I took Groot along just because this little ornament makes me smile each time I pull him out.

I can't help but find this expression infectious.

I did find fine little fungi. I have waited all year just to see these tiny fungi appear on a log in our forest. The log hosts a few different types of lichen and moss as well as these little guys.

And then there are the Wolf Farts. Well, not their real scientific names, but they are popping up all over. I imagine it is due to the heavy moisture that comes on fall nights.

The Blewits. I don't know, it almost sounds like a made up name for a neighbor that would move in next door and be very annoying.

As you can see, they are not an easy mushroom to spot in the woods. Yes, they are large but colored much like the leaves they are hiding in. True to their description, they are commonly found on a forest path. These were between several oaks and other hardwood trees.

Another interesting note. I tossed the one I brought home out into the pasture and my red mules ate it. 

Perhaps that is why I don't find any in their current pasture!

Here is the leaf press/flower press picture I was working on. Sorry, this is just a crappy shot of it with the glass reflection that doesn't really show how pretty it turned out. 

I took another photo of it on the wall. It really looks nice. Better yet, this was a frame and some paper I already had. So the cost was just my labor in gathering the items and figuring out how to preserve them.

I will probably change it up after I get bored at this layout.

Do you recall my search for the Hazelnut tree? Well when hiking with Aurora I found them!

I have to grab those photos off my aged computer yet.

The trees I thought were Hazelnut near my home? They have confounded me since August.

However!

I have them figured out now.

Today looks like a good day to sort my observations and photos of the few bushes and trees I've been photographing and watching since August.

Don't you just love curiosity?

Feeling Creative

Fall tends to bring about my creative side. I thought I'd make a Diorama type set up for ...um, whatever the reason. So I went out in the yard and grabbed some little sticks and brought them inside.

I had some extra Model Magic that was still pliable so I thought I'd make a mushroom and maybe some mini trees.

I used some medicine caps as the tree bases. I put a ball of the Model Magic in the cap with some Elmer's Glue and set it off to the side to dry.

This morning while waiting on my appointment follow up calls I got out an old pill bottle and filled it with tiny rocks for weight. It will be the base for the tree I am modeling to look like it is leaning way off to the side. 
I will  hot glue the bark to the pill bottle to make it look like a tree base.

Now the items have to dry. It will probably be about 2 days or so before I can add paint to the 'trees' I made. One method to make trees was to use foil and create a base to make a tree. That was fine, but I thought an actual branch would make more sense. And after all, I can just go pick one up in the yard.

Guess who was very happy with it so far? 

Groot! 

I love this character from Guardians of the Galaxy. I saw some of those movies while visiting this summer with my son Eddie. When I spotted this 'ornament' in the store, I grabbed it. It was on a new display and most of them were already gone. I knew his happy face would not be there next time I went in.

I set everything to the side to dry and then took the afternoon walk to check on fences, mules, and the colors of fall.

I was so surprised at a patch of Blewits???

There were so many on this old mule/deer trail between oak trees that I ended up spending a lot of time trying to photograph them.

Here is the one I brought home. It was pretty large.

Hubby said there was NO way he'd even try one. I'm not sure either quite yet. This one was nearly as large as my foot!