Hot Summer Daze

But first!

Not long ago, I got a surprise package delivered. Mary came to visit me and go on adventures. Immediately I had to follow her around to see what she would be up to.

She seems quite comfortable going on adventures and exploring. I even found her holding 'court' with my dinosaurs.

Mary doesn't look perturbed at all. She looks as though she has everything under control. It must be her sunny attitude they admire. One dino even brought her Forget-me-nots!

In 'other' non important news:

The heat has been exceptional. The dew point and humidity are some of the factors that make it feel so unbearable.

Of course the dogs wanted to be outside for a while. I was with them to make sure Charlie didn't overheat. He has a hard time with intense heat because of his Dachshund and Pekinese background.

Hannah isn't quite as bothered by the heat, she often goes out to lay on the gravel driveway in the sunshine.

I put my shallow stock tank out the day before and put water in it so it wouldn't be super cold for them. The water was actually warm, but it seems that they didn't mind. Hannah jumped in and out of the water while Charlie just stood there quietly.

I thought I'd do a little bit of 'work' with Hannah. She, like Charlie, is food driven. Unlike Charlie, she is extremely brave and curious. It took only a second for her to notice I put a dog treat in the Lego Robot's hand. 

We worked on 'wait' so I could try to get a photo of her taking the cookie from the Robot. Anything more than a two second 'wait' is a bit beyond her at this point, so I had to work fast.

Charlie wanted a treat too but he wasn't willing to push Hannah to the side to get it. He waited patiently. He was still soaking wet from his time in the stock tank.

I didn't know that Wednesday could get that much worse but it did. The humidity is worse and the breezes we had the past two days stopped. With that wonderful combination, the smoke from the Minnesota and  Canadian wildfires have descended on our area.

Just a couple of hours ago my son in Wausau sent me a photo looking down his street. It looked as if brown fog had descended down his street. It is about a 3 hr drive northeastward to where he lives. 

No wind. Smoke, humidity, and heat. Looks like another good day to read a book and work on crafty things. 

Sticks, glue, moss, and cardboard. Maybe a new 'forest house' for my Lego Minifigures. Hey the stuff is free out in the yard and forest, I just have to build it!

No night shots right now unless the mosquitoes let up a bit. Right after dark and just before dawn they are murderous. 

It isn't worth going out and trying to shoot stars when I'd get carried off by monster Skeeters.

Stay cool if you can. Doing chores this evening is going to be a soaker.

 

Monday Monday

Yesterday we took a short excursion into the neighbor's woods. I meant to see how far the loggers had gotten around this section of the forest.

We got part way into the new forest trails and we heard the skidder start up as well as the chain saws. That surprised us as it was Memorial Day.

Maybe not surprising as they'd lost 3 days time last week to heavy rains and rains were now predicted from Tuesday through Thursday.

Charlie and I chose a deer trail to get back to the ridge top. We passed this tree and I had to stop and look it over. I believe from the shape of the tree that it is what we call Musclewood or American Hornbeam.

I've never seen any of these trees this large before as they are very slow growing trees. It made me wonder how old it was.

The trunk was fascinating with ripples and twists in it. Charlie was in no mood with trees falling in the distance to hang around while I took photos. I'll have to go back and find it on my own so I can look up into the canopy and see what kind of leaves this tree has.

I love the shape of it, very unique.

Just before we left the forest, I couldn't resist a bit of fun from my bag of goodies. 

"Wow Hank! Look at those big tracks! Whaddya suppose they're from?"

"Hmmm, dunno. Yah think there might be some really big deer out here?"

As promised to Hubby, I decided to take the day off. I hadn't even put the mower away from the day before. I'd mowed with the zero turn and the little mower ...then spent a while weed whacking some places. 

Since we had no company planned, no visit, no ... nothing. I moved my camper cot outside on the porch and grabbed a book to read.

Charlie and I read, watched birds, watched the clouds float by, and fell asleep.

Tuesday was going to be busy enough. I'd spent Saturday re-arranging and deep cleaning the living room so we could move hubby's current bed into the living room and the hospital bed can be placed in the downstairs bedroom. 

But Monday was reserved for relaxation after chores of course.

This cot is so easy to move that I may do this again. It felt nice to recline and read a book with all the bird chatter around me and the wind whispering through the pine trees above.

Cool wildflower of the day:

Virginia Waterleaf:

Shot with the Lensbaby SOL 22.

Fun Stuff

Have you seen the size of the Skeeters in the woods lately?
Wow! 

Just kidding. It is a Tetradactyl Lego Dino, I tossed some Dinosaurs in my camera back on my early morning walk on Sunday. I was hoping to get around in the woods before the bugs woke up too much and while it was still cool outside.

I'd been working on my Lego Challenge for this month. I did some fun shots for the challenge. I really enjoyed working on doing it.
Seeing the work of other photographers really was interesting. Some shots were meh and some were just SO WOW that it took my breath away.

I have a hard time creating a backdrop out of Legos for my 'scenes'. However, I am working on it. I like to just dump some bricks in a bin and start building in no particular manner. Ideas come as I continue to build and often, I will redo one build several times before I am satisfied.

These were my latest space efforts.

This is George, he is a space Explorer who is hunting Power Crystals. In the Lego land of adventures, many of the space sets come with little 'power' crystals that are blue. I thought I'd pick up all the loose little clear red pieces and see if I could 'create' something in red.

This is what it looked like on the kitchen table. 

I wanted a more 'spacey' type scene so I suspended a girl astronaut with a blue crystal in her hand.  I wanted her to be floating.

It was another fun try at making a scene. It is okay and not spectacular. I don't consider it a flop nor a winner. But worth the time and effort to learn how to 'float' a minifig. I used floral wire to hold her up and simply erased it out of the shot.

Finally! It looks like Francine the Astronaut found the motherlode of blue power crystals!

Again, this was a practice build and not really worth submitting. Personally I had fun building the scene and making it so colorful.

I will keep trying to make something awesome even though the contest is over. I know I am much better at finding places in nature to take shots of Lego figures and it is so much easier.

I can combine it with my daily walks [while warding off monster bugs!].

I think these shots turned out much better than the above ones, but then...I am a person who loves putting the minifigures out in the woods!

The walk in the woods and the dry run where I took a shot of the Dinos:

I guess I like to struggle with making 'things' up because it is such a fun distraction of play. I have walked the same woods and trails for 28 years now and enjoy finding something new each time I am out there.

If that includes silly things like toys, then so be it.

I'm not the only one either that does this! There are a so many hobby photographers that carry a toy, a teddy bears, or rubber duckies around just to place them in interesting places! There are groups of photographers on Flickr that just photograph and collect teddy bears! Or dolls...or anything you can imagine.

I do it because it brings me joy and keeps me thinking in creative ways.

So off I go today to do my chores, check my fences, grocery shop, clean house, garden, and see if I can find some time to think of something to imagine.

I really should set aside my Legos and perhaps take a Teddy Bear for a walk.

Why not? Anything is possible with a good imagination.

It's been a while since Bear and I have been out together.

Meanwhile at the tree

Here is another shot of my Christmas Chair and tree. 

It is the light that I really love. Oh and of course all of the toys that are running about.

These are carousel horses that were given to me years ago. Funny that three different people purchased these and gave them to me. The horses match. I've always thought that was amazing. 

The horses were on the chair and I guess that made them vulnerable to the Star Wars Storm Troopers who thought they'd go for a joy ride. I don't mind, it looks like they were having a great time.

I hope my 'chair shenanigans' don't bore anyone. After all, I do it for me and not really anyone else. 

During those cold, damp, dreary, and grey December days with longer nights and shorter days...I generally need something to distract me.

On the chair. Miss LaFleur and Yvette rearrange ribbons and add an ornament to the tree. They are so happy that the chair allows them access to the branches!

Oh my! It looks like the Dinosaurs are back giving Santa a hard time. 

I wouldn't worry too much. Santa usually has these things under control. He just keeps some of Charlie's dog treats handy....

I've heard this year that the dragons wanted in on having fun at Christmas.  I also heard that they took over the space under the chair.

I understand that they are not exactly happy about the color of the string of beads.

I heard one grumble:

I thought you said there'd be gold under this place! I want gold!

Behind the scenes, the Lego elves are getting involved. This one is busy feeding one of the unicorns who jumped off the tree for a treat.

....

and not on the chair we find Rabbit and Bear. Rabbit is always kind to Bear trying to find ways to cheer him up and make him feel better.

Rabbit to Bear:

Here you go Bear, this small box represents all my love and caring for you. 

this time of the year is not easy

for everyone

remember kindness

and

love....

Stuck inside....

If you like birds and bird photography, there is a guy called David M Bird that does bird photography using characters made from acorns and sticks. I'm probably never going to be a genius like him, but he was a Lego designer who started his own photography business doing these wildly popular photos. If I am having a grumpy day, all I have to do is pop over to his site and look at his fun photos.

There is also a Flickr photographer who is doing the same thing with his Lego characters. This is fascinating in the fact that in order to do this sort of photography, one really needs to study birds and get familiar with what they like to eat and how they arrive at a feeding station.

Below is my sad attempt at a first try of putting a Lego figure on the stump with feed just outside my window.
These are study shots so I can sit at the table and watch the birds behavior. Are they afraid of the Lego figure?
They don't seem to be.
I have been putting a wee bit of feed every day this winter on this stump next to the porch so I could see which seed they liked best and which birds came to the stump.

The Tufted Titmouse will come for peanuts and some other delicious seeds.

The Junco seems a bit more skittish. They are only on the stump for a nanosecond before flying off.

The Blue Jay has no shyness at all.

I used a paper clip I bent to fit through the foot of the Lego figure and then stuck it in a crack on the edge of the stump. 

I'm going to try this again but put a hole more in the center of the stump and surround the figure with delicious seeds.

It will be a fun experiment. Hubby loves watching too. He gives me a commentary on who is visiting the stump and what they are eating as he bemoans the cost of birdseed.

I changed it up a bit and stuck my green dragon in the stump and put seeds around it. The birds were very wary of the Dragon. But by the end of the day, the seed was gone.

I had to wait for a follow up call from the eye surgeon's tech. I hate waiting. I dislike waiting inside next to the phone even more. However, we have to use a land line. Archaic I know. But cell phones don't always work in our Hollow. The land line works with 911 and the cell can't be depended on.

My one eye was still dilated and so the welcomed sunlight was a painful.

My hubby was playing Eye Guard. He told me I could NOT go out to hike or run about and that I needed to Rest that eye and let it heal.

The surgeon had said I could go back to my regular activities 24 hrs later, but I decided to keep Mr. Eye Guard happy and stay around the house except for feeding the mules.

I decided to try some Still Life. I was bored out of my gourd. I am not one to sit in the house for days on end. After two weeks of being careful and being Watched by the Ever Present Hubby, I had to engage my mind in fun projects.

My first try at the light box.
Something for Valentine's Day

That gave me another idea. This time I just tore apart things and made this ---->
I set it on the floor.

And shot straight down. The Gardener is spelling out L O V E in flowers and fence pieces.

I couldn't resist one more effort of doing something more with the Gardener ...

Surprise!
I couldn't resist having a meat eating Dilophosaurus enter the garden and offer the Gardner some flowers. [The dinosaur is a Lego knock off. The real Lego Dino is way above affordable.]

I did a lot more experimenting with the light box and by early afternoon, I decided to rest my eyes and listen to music.

This morning dawned clear and bright. As someone said: 

I can see clearly now ... the fog is gone!
Gone are the cataracts that had me blind
It's going to be a bright bright 
bright
beautiful day....

I think I'll go Exploring some ice formations!

Just for fun...

Remember Charlie's squirrel? This is how I see it...

Obviously,

this is how Charlie sees him!

Or...

Perhaps this!

 Yes, I've been doing more experimenting with Wombo Art. It actually gives me better results than more popular  DALL-E or Midnight Journey. I use the free version of Wombo and can 'play' with it on my phone while waiting on important things.

Like waiting for the water to boil while making spaghetti. Or perhaps playing with it when hubby asks me to sit and watch football [waiting for it to end!]

I don't really care for the Game Avatar look that many people put out-- sample: 

They look too 'canned' or computerized to me....

Instead I keep looking for something that really interests me.

I asked Wombo to show me a green dinosaur in a radio studio doing a late night talk show:

When you really don't know who

you are listening to

on late night radio...

I like to find fun things. What about a Dinosaur in a laboratory!

Not a good idea

to have a dinosaur

as a lab partner

Then once in a while I get curious. I love watercolor painting and I've tried every program that offered digital painting and have failed to ever get anything close to what pleases my eye.

But...

I could never have actually done this with a brush and watercolors. But I think they are really appealing to me in a way.

I worked on a few different images and came up with something that really struck me.

I like mixing images I 'create' through prompts and see if I can make something that doesn't look 'canned'.

I took this....

and this....

and layered them together to create this:

"Everything in nature invites

us constantly to be what we are."

~Gretel Ehrlich

I'm saving some of these artworks to put in a photobook so I can page through it on dark and dreary days.