I can be so stupid!

It started out like any other day. 

 I did a bunch of 'stuff' after chores and then decided to take Charlie for a nice little walk down to the creek to see what the warmer temps did to spots in the creek bottom.

I took along a Lego build in a plastic container. I had some ideas that jumped into my head but hadn't figured out what I was going to do yet.

I'd just built a Mythical Creature called Qilin that is a so beautiful in its colors that I felt I needed to have it and display it. It is from a Lego kids' animated series called Monkey Kid. I did look up the series and made it through one 30 minute show. I wanted to see what it was about. Very easy. Good vs. Bad. Good always wins in the end.

Hmmm. I would like to say...why doesn't that happen in real life?

Only in Fantasy?

Anyway, I digress. I took my Mythical Creature [I like its name Qilin, I won't change that] down  to our icy creek. 

In my head the brilliant colors vs the ice would be beautiful.
It was.

I love my Lego creatures. I like dragons and mythical creatures, always have. 

I also had a Wizard and a Tetradactyl in my tote. The wizard will enter into the Princess Sara stories somehow, I just haven't thought of it yet.

I came up with this. The magic here is that the Tetradactyl has a wire attached to it which I stuck in the tree so it looks as if it is flying.

I would hesitate with that beast flying towards me, but the wizard must have it under control. I believe he is going to ride it!

Charlie and I did our rounds of the creek and stopped by the ice wall before heading up over the hill to the ridge and back home. I gave Charlie a lot of dog time to sniff and explore.

A happy dog is a dog whose owner takes time for them to enjoy themselves also.

The ice wall over the past week it has expanded quite a bit with the melting during the day from above and the freezing at night and cooler temps on a shaded hill over the cold stream.

That was the end of our morning walk, we crossed the field on the ridge and went home.

I had things to do like fold laundry, change the sheets, do some book work, and make some calls. I fixed a 'well' balanced lunch of eggs, bacon, strawberries, and oranges. 

Charlie was enjoying the warm weather on our south facing porch when I decided to make a 'walk' out of getting the mail on the ridge. 

I put on my light weight coveralls and grabbed my little backpack. I put my cell phone in a sleeve at the backpack and immediately thought. 

That is a stupid place to put it. 

OHHH, I'll be so careful!

Famous last words.

I picked up my mail and a book I ordered. 

More about this book after I do some work in it. I can see that it will be helpful to me.

Soooo. As I stuck the package into my backpack, once again I thought, that is a very stupid place to put that phone. Surely though, I can be careful, it is just a walk down the gravel road.

I walked about 50 feet from the mailbox and spotted an empty can of beer on the edge of the woods. An idea popped into my head and I decided to push my way through the brambles and pick it up.

I grabbed it and walked along the opposite edge of the road and set my idea up. 

[I use these two characters in a series of toy photos. They collect metals they find.]

Balancing the little guy was quite a feat. However after a few trials and errors, I got what I wanted. These guys are always in a grubby type setting and the dirty snow was absolutely perfect.

We walked on.

Charlie chased a 'possum which ran over to a pile of wood where it flopped to the ground. Charlie poked it with his nose and the 'possum never moved. I went to grab my cellphone to take a photo.

Um.

It was gone. IT. WAS. GONE!!!!

So I retraced all of my steps over and over and over again. For a 1/2 mile walk, I managed to do 2.5 miles to the search. No matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find it. The phone was still recording my steps so it was somewhere nearby. 

I went home and charged up my old phone and then Googled *Find my phone* Google showed me where it was located on a map. I went up and looked. 

NOPE.

Then I went back home and clicked on *ring the phone* or some such thing. I jumped in the car and drove to the general area and turned the car off.

I could hear my phone! I have a chicken ring which is loud and obnoxious. It lead me right to my phone which was exactly where I missed it in the briars just past where I picked up the beer can.

What lesson did I learn? Put the phone in a secure place! 

What an idiot.

I came, I saw, I Blewit

Starting in late August through October if we are not in a drought, it is prime time for mushrooms and a celebration of strange and colorful fungi.

Someone asked me what got me so interested in mushrooms. My simple answer was that I'd seen them and decided I'd like to photograph them.

I like being curious. When I'd find wildflowers, I'd photograph them and take them home to compare to an ID book. Mushrooms and slime molds became fun to find and fascinating to photo. It is like an alien world.

I took these with my cellphone as it seems to adjust to the light better than the camera. They are small. The one below was just emerging from the mix of dirt and sand below it. 

 

I also found what seems to be a hard plant to find. I've only found 6 in all the years I've been hiking. They are not generally seen right next to a trail. I just love their leaves and design. I've seen one in flower one time.

Rattlesnake Plantain:

I also brought along a couple of minifigs. They like to travel and hike with me of course. I found a perfect spot to place the Monkey King.

Last but not least.

I thought I found a Blewit Mushroom

Such a beautiful blue color! So different! I've found them once before in this general area and am always amazed by their color and beauty.

4 years ago in the same general area I found these. 

They are so startling. Another time I found remnants of them as someone else had walked along and kicked all of them to smithereens. 

I do wish people would just admire these beautiful mushrooms and leave them alone.

I looked into the Blewit mushroom and found that these really didn't quite fit the description. Perhaps they could be a fungi known as Indigo Inky.

So I may have blown the ID years ago, but that doesn't stop me for looking for these each year along this section of trail.

Get up and go...

What do you do when it is 90+ F outside with humidity that chokes you? Well, first off, chores have to get done when the sun is coming up. 

Later in the day any sane person would retreat from the heat, there is mowing and yard work still to do with breaks in between.

To enjoy some mindless quiet time, I get out the crafty stuff and start to imagine what I'd do with mushrooms, mosses, glue, paint, and soda bottle tops.

How about little 'flat' pretty marbles? I imagine them to be like Lily pads with little micro flowers on them. Perhaps a butterfly or two would be fun too.

So all these ideas came about when I was at the Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago and saw a lady who took pieces of wood and had glued mosses to it. She had some tiny mushrooms she'd made and painted that she attached to the little logs.

I studied it and thought it would be cute to have this for my own. Until I saw her price tag. $68 for little 12 inch 'stick' that was about 3 inches in diameter with a few bits of moss and two tiny mushrooms.

She had different sizes and prices. But I couldn't spend even the $28 for one of them. I studied it. Then I decided to use her wonderful idea and make my own decorations. 

My own decorations turned into scenes for my Lego minifigs. 
 

The morning light was too good to pass up. So I took my camera out on the porch to let it acclimate to the heat and humidity while I grabbed my old cookie sheet and made a pond.

Arranging things on a cookie sheet to do a tiny scene was so engaging.

I put it on a plastic crate for easier photographing.

I tried both my Lensbaby SOL 22 lens and my 25mm prime lens. I ended up liking the softness of the Lensbaby best.

Shooting on the porch concrete proved a bit harder to get 'the look' I wanted. But this will give you an idea of why I moved it.

I find the little cookie sheets very helpful in 'setting' up a scene. It keeps me focused on a small area which is what shooting tiny figures is all about. The porch garden provides a perfect backdrop to the items on the tray.

I needed to make this shot look as if it was in a swamp. So I picked some weeds and quack grass out of the garden and dropped it into the water on the sheet.

Glenda meets Alli along with Alli's friends. 

Most Legos are not evil...Glenda and her new found friends decide to take a tour of the swamp.

I haven't quite worked out the best angles to really do a great job, but I am enjoying the process. I can also hear Rich when he rings the bell inside the house for assistance. 

I get a bit of down time along with a bit of play-->distraction time.

What will I do with all my bits and pieces? I don't know. When I am done using them for now, I'll keep some bits out to decorate my flower table with and I'll store the rest in a tote.

I will have one tote full of bits and pieces from junk I repurposed two summers ago for scenes about space or exploring other avenues. 

Example:

[the bits and pieces are script containers and bits of CPAP tubing]

Now I can add these bits and pieces for 'natural' settings without going out into the woods and finding them.

[I'd rather be in the woods, but that is too far away from watching over hubby.]

I can't wait for another decent morning to try out some more tricks on the porch with my cookie tray.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for the 4th? We didn't do anything but we had a wonderful visit with Ariel. We heard fireworks going off on Thursday night in the surrounding area. We enjoyed a simple cookout and a lot of visiting.

Ariel and I took evening walks together after supper while hubby watched Death in Paradise. 

The yard is mowed, the laundry is hanging out to dry until the rains come again. The next two days are going to be quiet too.

Astra says...

"If you were able to fall a hundred times as a child and rise, 

you were able to fall a thousand times as an adult and soar."

~~Matshona Dhliwayo

Cookie sheets and other stuff....

I'm always searching around for new ideas to use in Photography. I found a Lego photographer on IG that used an old cookie sheet to 'make' a pond for his Legos to go swimming in. He set it in his wife's garden and shot some amazing photos that I swore were shot in a real pond.

My old sheets have been abused and marked up for years. I purchased new nice cookie sheets for the gal that loves to make hubby cookies on her Respite days.

I took the old ones and spray painted them black glossy. I would have preferred flat black, but I didn't have that.

I picked some Lily of the Valley flowers and Bleeding Hearts and stuck them in a tiny vase. I used one cookie sheet for the background. The second sheet was put flat underneath.

This is how the set up looked before I brought out the Lensbaby SOL 22 lens and shot the photo above. I actually was surprised at how much I liked the extra reflections brought about by the glossy paint.

The 3 days of cold rain, I was stuck inside which allowed me to do some indoor work. 

So. Hmmm. What if I tried to make a pond indoors for my toys to play in?

It ended up being easy to 'make' the pond and set it up. Photographing it so their were 'water reflections' was a bit harder.

But....

And of course, with the black background it seems a bit dark...but it worked!!! Now I know I can take this 'pond' out on the porch or into a flower garden to do the same thing.

But just one 'pond' shot is not enough. I had to get Glenda out in her Kayak and see if she'd like a spin through the pond.

I had to dry out the moss afterward, but gosh, it sure was a fun experiment. I could have worked harder with the lighting but I didn't do anything but use what was coming through the windows. 

I like to find the simplest way to photograph my projects. I didn't use the Lensbaby lens for these shots as I wanted most of the scenes clear and concise.

The day before it started to rain Charlie and I took a walk through my favorite forest 'next' door to see what the loggers had been up to.

I won't lie. I actually shed a tear when I saw this.

The loggers take the straight tree trunks and leave the tops lay where they fall. This particular spot is a place where I started my quest for local wildflowers in 2009. At the base of an ancient oak I found my very first Blood Root and the search began for wildflowers from March to first frost that year. All the flowers were photographed on my land or this 600 acres. 

I carefully logged the date and place I found each wild plant and flower. I spent hours studying the Wildflowers of Wisconsin and Great Lakes Region.  I did this without Google Lens and without the internet. 

That was the second year I worked as a Security Officer at an old Nuclear Facility  as it was being decommissioned.

It kept me busy on those overnight shifts and weekends when there was not much traffic in and out of the plant.

I made a photobook with notes for myself at the end of the year. It was one of the most satisfying projects I've ever done. I walked the land surrounding my cottage each day and learned to recognize places by the trees.

And now? My trees [not really my trees] have been taken down and the landscape has changed drastically.

I thought to myself, how can I use this? 

Of course, I can work it into my Princess Sara Saga. After all, most all the photos for this on and off again story occur in this forest.

Remember the Rock Monsters who stole the Magical Dragon Egg and hid it? They were going to open the egg and kill the Legendary baby dragon and steal the magic for themselves.

Princess Sara and the Forest People along with others had been assembling an army to save the Egg ....

Of course the Rock Monsters want to make things harder. So they are blowing up Trees and terrorizing the Forest to ward off Princess Sara's army.

[Well, that's how I imagine things anyway.]

The beauty of the forest may be diminished for now but with all the fallen logs and branches, I imagine new worlds of moss and fungi will grow and be out there to explore.

Even with all of the mess, I was able to find wildflowers blossoming and defying the ruin of the trees.

I'll be home for the Holiday Weekend, we don't generally go anywhere on bit holidays. We'll leave that to everyone else.

An annual activity

Uh oh! 

It is that time of the year again!

This will be the third year!

Just as dawn started to brighten the steel grey skies, concussions of gunshots rang out. Welcome to opening day of the gun deer season.

By 10am Charlie was a wet noodle of jiggling jello and anxiety. He wouldn't even let hubby go to the bathroom alone. He sat under Rich's chair in the eating area while I put away all of the stuff I'd been working on.

The mules were not bothered by the gunshots. They've been around for many hunting seasons and they just picked up their heads and glanced around then went back to eating their hay. They are up close to the house during the gun season.

I put all of my current projects away after shooting some more photos. I didn't want to put the crystal forest away, but it was time to do our annual project.

A not so nice Wizard!!!

Wanda feeds her pet dragon....

....and after lunch, we started....

I purchased this set during the summer when I saw it on discount. I thought it would be perfect for the 9 day gun season. 

Rich still gives me a bit of grief over TOYS, but as you can see, he really gets into sorting things. 

He even puts the minifigs together and anything else he can figure out. This is a huge challenge as he has essential tremors that sometimes  interfere with his eating. 

But he works at it. He delights in separating the Lego pieces by color and then separating those pieces by type.

His doctors love the fact that he gets engrossed in these projects. They feel that it helps his small motor skills, makes him think and use his brain, and it amuses him. Sometimes he studies the book to try and figure out how things go together. 

In short, he IS engaged in an activity.

I once asked the doctors if they could prescribe Legos. They laughed and said they wished they could. So each year, I try to find a project we can do together when the days are darkest for him. 

With every noise on Saturday, poor Charlie got so rattled. Eventually, he had to get in on the action by sitting on my lap while I was trying to put things together.

I usually start the Christmas Chair project right after Thanksgiving Day. But this year I'm going to wait to decorate. That 'spirit' has not struck me at all. I've already seen enough 'Christmas commercials' to make me grumpy.

Instead, we are going to take it one day at a time and enjoy this big project.

Princess Sara and the Frog's Quest

Ideas sort of start out randomly. I had this partial building that the grandkids had left me and wanted to try and do something with it.

I took out Princess Sara and her stick horse and set her in the building. I added another character and then just messed with ideas that bounced around in my head. [My husband says it is an echo chamber inside my brain!]

Some time ago, while bored, I watched a video about how you can extend a building for photography by using a mirror. I thought I'd try it. 

To create an optical illusion, I added flowers to the back where I took the wall down. If seen 'in' camera and slightly out of focus, the flowers and bricks seem to be part of the set.

The kids had left some holes in the walls of their build so I thought I'd try putting lights through them to make the scene a bit more interesting. These are some Ulanzi lights I purchased on the cheap for some other still life work.

What it looks like from above.

What it looks like from behind the camera.

I wanted to add a bit of atmosphere to the scene. There are all sorts of ways to add atmosphere. Photographer's Atmosphere [very pricey atmosphere in a spray can], fog machines [very pricey, but now they make hand held ones], and a simple battery operated face mister. The face mister has an arrow pointing to it....

To add the mist, I simply turned it on and lay it on its side next to the open space that the light was shining through.

The scene as it looked in camera.👆

I kept moving minifigs around and finally decided to have Princess Sara talking to a tiny frog. I mean all good stories have a Princess and a Frog right?

I swapped out the Acorn person for a Knight. Not just any Knight, I chose one female knight I call Joan. 
In this scene Joan holds Princess Sara's stick horse while she meets in the castle garden at night to speak to the Magical Frog.

I mean, why not? 

The mirror did its trick the castle garden seems to extend in the background forever. The lights and mist add mystery and Joan's eyes are watching over her Princess carefully.

The final shot:

For me, it was important to see Joan's eyes through her helmet. It seems silly that she is holding both an weapon and a stick horse, but that is the fun of toy photography. Anything you desire can happen.

After shooting this photo, I decided that perhaps Sara and Joan should go on the Quest that the Frog sent them on.

Do I know what their Quest is yet? Nope. I imagine if I follow them, I may figure it out eventually.