Opening day blues or Let's build Legos!

Time for indoor projects.

That will include a deep cleaning of the house this coming week with washing windows and pulling off a couple of screens so I can photograph birds in the pine tree near the house when the mood strikes me.

The new Lego project was started last night. I'd purchased it last spring when I had Lego Insider Points which made it cheaper from Lego than from any other retailer.

We always started a Lego build on the eve on Deer Gun Season. It seemed to help hubby to relax and take his mind off from not being a hunter anymore.

So this is the start. I'll take progression shots as I build but I won't say what the set is. 😉

Below is my Medieval Village. This was last year's Gun Season Project along with some addition to the Christmas Village scenes.

I was excited to pull it out of the storage bin and set it up on my arts and crafts cabinet. I'm only going to have it up for a week right now. It provides some comic relief and indoor photo fun.

I took advantage of the nice weather and sanded down this chair to be my next art victim. I'm leaning towards a dark blue theme with wild colors. 

Too bad I can't practice like I did 40 years ago and add the face of a roaring lion or an elephant busting through the brush.

I had chairs like this I'd done eons ago. They were fun projects also. The kids had a huge old trunk that I repainted. The lid had my drawings of a volcano erupting [if I recall correctly and a hint of dinosaurs]. [This was in the 1980's. I also took one of their beat up dressers and dressed it up with paint was it even popular then?]

No matter, fun memories!

Pine cones are nature's gift for decorations. I'm starting to replace some of the old ones I did 20 years ago. A bit of paint and a bit of glitter glue and there you are, a basket of pretty pine cones. 

I pick them up out of the yard, let them dry and then enjoy adding colors. I need to go grab a few milkweed pods to add to a winter bouquet along with some grasses and golden rod tops.

My grandmother always gathered nature's dried gifts for her winter bouquets.

So. 

I did have to play some last night to divert my attention and enjoy some creative thinking.

King Ivar marches into town with his entourage of Barbarian warriors. You would be surprised to learn that half of his fierce warriors are female.

The Villagers watch from the Inn. 

A Bard on the street sings a song of bravery and of course, women.

 

Imagine my surprise this morning when I found that a wizard had moved from the craft cabinet to where I lit the morning candles.

Huh.

Toys can be a bit magical. I wonder what they are up too when I am sleeping.

Poor Charlie. Already he is a puppy puddle that is quivering with the first gunshots of the season. 

Music is helpful. So he is listening to music while I go out to do chores and take care of business.

Hot Hot!

Things to do when it is unbearable outside. Bring some outside into the house. Since I was having fun with the candle holders, I thought I'd expand to sticks and bark. Using glue, moss, and some funky crafty items, I got busy.

and then of course I had to imagine what would take place on this piece of bark.

and I took it a step further. 
Since my 'photo table' had to be moved out, I haven't had a good place to do indoor dioramas are creations. However I muddled through and had to avoid the concentrator and avoid stepping on the 02 lines...
but I made it work.

I ended up putting the items on a box and using a cutting board that was made from an Italian Olive Tree for the backdrop.

I kept messing around and finding more interesting ways of using my decorated sticks and roots.

I went out after the sun went down and decided to watch Fireflies. On the forest edge, they were abundant in the tall grasses.

You may have to click on the photo to see
the driveway...4 minute Livecomp
exposure.

...and on to the week of somewhat cooler temps but a lot of predicted rain....

March comes in like....

This week winter decided to come back with a vengeance in certain parts of the country. The shot below is one taken through our back door.

I love how its branches twist like old arthritic fingers. These trees are quite abundant in our forest near the house. I did hear that the CCC -- or the Civilian Conservation Corps may have planted the locust trees and pines as part of the reforestation project. I cannot prove or disprove it. The locust tree log once debarked makes a great wooden fence post. They last quiet a few years. 

The shot below is one of the Red pines that still live on our land. We have three left. When we moved here, there was a stand of Red pines where one of the sheds now resides.

These trees are old. I mean old old. I took 4 down last year that were dying and am grateful that they won't fall on the house. However, their shade when they were in their glory days was wonderful. Plus, the wind sighing through the needles make a most calming sound.

When I had to go retrieve mail in the last ice/snow storm this week, I thought I'd take the slightly longer way through the woods. It was pretty. However the gusting winds kept things creaking above my head so I returned to walking up the driveway. 

You know I had to walk Charlie and take my camera at the same time. When I got to the ridge and stopped to look, I figured out what was causing all of the creaking above me. 

We had rain that became ice before the snow hit. The trees were heavy with it. 

Since I'd left hubby napping, I didn't take much time to scout around like I usually do when I get the mail. I generally take a round about route to tour my favorite part of the forest.

However, we are trying to establish a new routine of sorts.

Sorting and resorting the medications and the medication changes are quite the chore. 

I'm also trying to master some indoor photography. I had a bit of fun. Mostly though I have been too tired from the week to do a whole lot.

Nina took her goats for a walk and had to have a dog help her keep her goats together.

[The fake foliage is actually a cheap pack of plastic fish tank plants! The green is a green fake grass mat. The rocks are what the fake plants were stuck in. How fun is that?]

I've got an idea or two to work on this week. It is so muddy and windy outside that I gave up on trying to set things up right close to the house in the yard.

Hello March. What a month you already have been!

Squatch builds a house

Do you remember poor Squatch who searched aimlessly with his friend Hobby for others like himself?

He searched for a home and built a stick house in the spring which got flattened with the first big winds.

They considered a nice Lego house at first but it was too fancy with decorations and all. So they got together and decided to get busy since it seemed that winter was officially on its way.

The Cabin looks very nice but it has to be built from the ground up!
It looks to be complicated and even has lights that are integrated into cabin! Here the friends study the first set of lights.

They decided to call in a construction crew to assist.
[Yes, their coffee breaks are very large!]

The skid steer was very helpful as was the supervisor.

By evening, step 1 had been completed and Squatch had the basement in along with the stairs to the new porch. Oh and a place for a friend!

A little pasture for a brown pony!

Everyone pitches in! Day 2:

The actual set we are doing is called FO Fun Whole Wood Cabin with 2097 pieces. It will take a while!

I love the detail I am finding in this 'build'. 

The bathroom with a tub, toilet, and sink [I fixed the spigot after
I saw this photo...]

Living Room complete 

with a record player

and a Foyer Cabinet
with drawers that work!

Seems I finally got my 'dollhouse'. I had a metal one as a kid and we played with them all of the time. Of course dolls didn't live there, any small toy animal we could find lived in our dollhouses. 

Thank goodness for Lego stuff!

Gun Season and Christmas Chair

Maybe I won't complain

....about deer hunting this year. Hubby demands that I stay out of the woods for the whole season, but I have ways I can get down into the creek and explore the dry runs. They are deep and they are like being in trenches, except they are full of mossy boulders.

Generally, this is what I call the 9 day Clean Up. I wash ceilings, walls, and take down all knick knacks and sort through the boxes in the basement. I bring out all the heavy winter stuff and hang it on hooks after washing it. I sort through gloves, mittens, and face masks. I find my winter ski goggles and brush up the snowshoes. 

I clean out the little hutch in the living room and rotate out the items on the shelves so I can put in some Holiday decorations. 

This generally only takes me a day or two to do. The benefits of living in a small cottagel

I need to decide how to set up the 'new' Christmas Chair. Am I going to use the Coal Scuttle as my 'tree of bare branches' this year? Or use parts of the old fake Christmas tree?

I don't know, I may just wing it. Clean and organize first and then figure out how to take our tiny living room and perk it up.

My old Christmas Chair's seat has finally split into two. So I went out this summer and found another derelict chair in the shed. It is a Bent Hickory Chair that was going to get a new seat at some point in its prior life. 

It was stored in a wet environment so the bottom of the legs were rotted off.

It seemed Perfect for a new project.
I sawed off the rotten part and then added pads on the bottom so the legs wouldn't scratch the new floor in the living room.

I painted the wooden seat which was supposed to be a cane seat, I guess. However the flat surface will work perfectly.

Below is Charlie showing off the whole living room on the day the ripped out the carpet and put down the new floor.

And here it is with some of the items back in place.

Over the years, I've used the corner where the concentrator now resides. It was perfect and out of the way. The old concentrator was replaced by a Huge one and it has to take up residence in a place I do not want it.

Decisions! Decisions!

What about that old trunk I disparaged over this summer? It is a great spot to fold laundry or add fun little touches in the kitchen area.

Last year's Chair/Tree was by the window. 

Oh...the anticipation!

Time to get to work....

Spooky stuff or Not

I am forever the experimenter....or is it experimentor? I like the ...or spelling better but spell check doesn't.

I wanted to try something different and new. I ran across a Seasonal Tips offered by Olympus which was fun. After all I couldn't be outside mucking about in the storms we had, so I decided to clean the basement.

You know how this works. I rearranged the tubs of clothing. I sorted the hunting clothing...I needed blaze orange for the 9 day gun season. The insulated coveralls come out of the tub and light jackets go into the tub.
Restack everything and think about getting rid of things.
Put the summer stuff under the steps in the hard to get to places.
It will be months before I get out that stuff again.

Get the winter stuff out. Oops! See the Fall decorations.
Pull them out. 
Sort.
Pull out the Halloween Stuff that the neighbor kids really loved.
Hmmm.
See the decorations for Christmas. 
Put them back. Go have coffee.
Watch the rain.

Rich gets hungry. Feed Rich. 
Storm gets worse.
Rich goes for his afternoon nap.
It is dark outside.
Sort the Halloween stuff and the Fall Stuff.
Time for Tea.

Nope, can't go out to walk.
Okay.
Get out the decorations and play with the camera.
Sounds good.

Dark and dreary. Some Still Life with plastic skulls and an old jar with marbles and lights.

In the shots below I used an Art Filter to create black and white grainy shots. This is a hanging skeleton/ghosty thing. I held it by the twine string attached to the top and shot it as it slowly turned back and forth.

Just the right amount of spooky-creepy.

And then back to the skull on the table with the lights:

I tried something I'd never done before. A long exposure of 10 seconds with moving the camera slightly during the exposure [twisting it slowly on the tripod].

The result was kind of fun.

Then one with a pumpkin.

Now a lot of folks shy away from spooky creepy stuff. Be assured that is not all that is on my mind. I just like experimenting with different ways of presenting a photo. If it creeps you out, then I did my job as a photographer. I made the viewer feel something.

So if that is not your forte...here is some other Still Life photos. I am not all Creep and Scare!

And the last photo. 

To make you laugh!

I was given my Virtual WOD for CrossFit and the coach said since I didn't have a rower, I could run one portion of my workout instead. I do have to be accountable once a week and send a photo of working out to the coach.

Here is my WOD photo of the week titled: I think I need a new rowing maching!

To which the coach replied..."I think it works better IF the water is on the outside of the boat."

Stay safe.

I'll be off to find more things to have fun with. Spooky or Not.