Poke weed

For some reason I'm always calling these “Pick weed” But its actually called “Poke weed” Not sure why again. More pics from that late fall walk I took months ago. In the same area when I took pics of those Jewish artichokes or those flowers in the same family as the sunflower.

A very nice and tantalizing looking plant with juicy and tasty looking berries. But if you find these your self some time, please don't eat them. I don't want to be responsible for what happens next. They are poisonous after all. But at least they're still tasty for the eyes.

 In other news, I entered Meetso in a cutest pet contest. I hope he wins something. ;)

Have some leftovers. They're still good.

New year but leftover photos from last year.

Hoping for a better year this year but it seems I say that every year and it only gets worse and worse. Sigh....... oh well. But still hopeful.

Yeah I have some photos yet to be shown form another one of my walks which were taken late fall if I remember correctly. And here they are. They are of some flowers that are in the same family as the sun flower. Found them in a small park with a few areas that have some brush, trees and a few backyards of some houses. The flowers are called The Jewish Artichoke. Not sure why that is because they look nothing like an artichoke. But they are edible. The root the most edible, is very much like a potato and can be eaten like one if boiled or eaten raw like a cucumber. At least that's what I saw in a foraging book. I have yet to try that.

That bit of info could come in handy someday or maybe something you wanted to know and try out of curiosity. But the best time to dig up one of these is just after a frost so you're out of luck this time. In the book they recommend to locate one in the summer then soon after the first frost dig up and then use. Sounds good to me.

When I took these pics, there were even some bumble bees still on them but very sleepy from the cold.

Even managed to save a few seeds in a bag. Going to see if I can grow some in the back yard this year. 

If your wondering what I was up to during the holidays, not much. Made a fruit cake inspired by a fruit cake I ate last year that my mom bought from church. Normally I don't like fruit cake like the majority of society because of those dried citrus peels, other crap and over all heaviness of fruit cake. But this one was the best I’ve ever eaten. So I tried to emulate it and it turned out pretty great but it just didn't have the punchlines of the other. Understandable since I didn't exactly have any real rum or bourbon on hand. I had this not even real, ancient extract of rum that's been in the cabinet for who knows how long. Mom and her love of artificial extracts. Oh well, hopefully I can get some of the real stuff next year.

Just two nuts

Boy, some people drop F-bombs like pigeons drop crap on people's heads or perfectly clean cars.

I heard that there's an app now to know where all the F-bombs are let loose in the world on digital maps and its live too.

Fascinating I know. North America seems to be the biggest culprit. No surprise there.

Anyways on a walk not so recent. Meaning that it was a few months ago when the trees still had their leaves est I found these two nuts close to where the source tree is. They were two black walnuts still with their bumpy green coverings on them. Wow black walnuts! Love those things. Been looking for some for the longest time. But unfortunately the tree is owned by someone. So I have yet to find a park with some. So after I took a few pics, I went to the garage and found a hammer. I gave it a few whacks on each nut which was no easy task and got to the tasty goodness inside.

Oh and for those who have their minds in the gutter and or who are holding on to their pants, just stop, they're just nuts. ;p

Oh look one of them has a happy face. LOL
Found a rock like that once.  ;D;p

Three strikes you're out!

So here I am, back again and hopefully the computer all sorted out. Well maybe one or two little things yet to adjust est. If your wondering why the long silence? Well this is why. My computer a few weeks ago crapped out for the last time. Well I could have yet wasted more time and temporally had my computer patched up only for it to fail weeks later. Nope! It was time to put the thing out of its misery. But the most frustrating thing was knowing that the darn thing was only 5 years old. 5 years old? I only hope that this is not a current trend for modern lap tops. Since that would really suck if I had to yet again fork out cash of which I can't afford to feed to the hungry companies. I really, really hope that these things don't have some kind of expiration date or planned obsolesces built in or something.

BTW the problem was the mother board was well a little part of it fried. So slowly like Hal from the movie, it was going.

Anyways PC Outfitters helped me get a new replacement and hopefully a good one. I think its good and at a great deal too. I was able to resell some of the old parts from the old computer to get a bit of a discount too. Always nice. Even got a free data transfer from my old computer too. So here I am getting more and more acquainted with Windows8. So far so good. 

Pic is provided by a free clip art place. Cause I needed something fast. Will have to make one of these my self eventually.

Peeping Tom?

Peeping tom or kitty on a hot plastic corrugated roof?  Too bad it wasn’t a “tin roof” but either way, there he was. 

Meetso being the goofy kitty he is, decided to go on the roof for a snooze but I wasn’t really quick enough to take it of him sleeping there. But that would have been boring any how.   Yesterday he took a snooze up on top in the Honey suckle bush. Must be nice to be a cat sometimes. But only when I want to. After all who wants to be a cat when it comes time to clean your self with your tongue. Ick! If you know what I mean?

I know its been awhile but I always seem to get sidetracked with stuff. And I though I’d get more time to do stuff after I finished the yard work of clipping bushes. No such luck.
I really need to finish that tiger illustration. Its been like forever.

Sorry about the picture quality. I wish my mom would clean her caked on bedroom window.

Meetso bird watches.

Time for some popcorn and a cup of frosty milk cause tonight's movie feature is Tasty little bites of feathery goodness. 

The Peck and Yank dove toy.

Introducing a new toy just for doves.
The Peck and Yank dove toy. The toy for doves.
I needed something new for my doves to explore but store wise  there isn’t much of an option for doves or rather nothing at all. I guess doves and pigeons are seen as dumb birds nothing more then good for a prop in a magicians magic trick. But if a bird can have the intelligence to understand a trainers command, then they do have some smarts. In fact doves are just as inquisitive and curious like any other animal. Maybe not like a parrot but the dove does use its intelligence in its own way. I designed the toy for the doves natural way of exploring the world, the love of pecking at interesting objects, the need for some things  and testing other things.  I have things it can pull, jingle and peck at interesting colorful dots.  I avoided large areas of bright colour since this would be threatening to the doves.

Here is my youngest dove enjoying the act of exploring the new object. He was the first to try out the toy followed by the rest of the flock. I have a lot of doves. ;)

If you would like to make one your self for your doves and or possibly pigeons, the instructions are available at Instructables.com Eventually the instructions will be available at my web site as well but the hobby part of that web site is currently under renovation.  Till then you know where to get it. ;)

Another one of those update posts.

Yes its another one of those “things I have been up too“ posts.
Just finished that former blanket now quilt via up-cycling.
Going to have a really nice quilt this fall/winter cuddle season.  If there are any rips on any of the squares they should be easy to fix. 

 Front

 Also front.

 Back

                                                      Also the back.


For work, still currently hunting for a new gig after the other repeat gig was canceled due to medical reasons via client a few months ago. Definitely not easy hunting down a new antelope er gig.  Murphy’s law. I only seem to have invites for gigs when I’m currently working on an active gig. Why people why? So frustrating.

I also had my first sale at Fiver.com. I sold a set of pompoms that can also be used as a cat toy. Downside can’t do it any more unless Fiver has or makes some policy changes to the “only for five dollars” thing. Just not worth sending it though the mail at above 7 dollars a pop. To make it worth my while I’ll have to charge and provide more of them to make it worth my while. In the mean time I’m selling seedlings of Mimosa, Chinese lantern tree and Wisteria vine there currently. Very beautiful flowering plants that can over winter quite well.  I’m thinking of selling my pompoms at Zibbet.com for now. A really nice place very similar to Etsy.com, only Zibbet is free. You only pay a fee if you go premium and that will get you more stuff like more selling spots other then the standard 50 with the basic registering. Already at my little Zibbet store, so far have 2 other items for sale. A tie-dye tee-shirt that glows in the dark and features a breaching or splashing dolphin. I airbrushed and tie-dyed it my self a number of years ago. Really nice for outgoing people or kids. The other thing I have is a nautical style Christmas ball. It as a net like pattern I made with twine and real shells from Florida I personally dove for and then I painted little sea stars all over in random areas. Also very nice. Can be used as I intended as a ornament for the tree or some one who has this theme in their house.
None the less I will be making more things in the future for sale on Zibbet. Like more airbrushed tee shirts pompoms of course, some special toys I’ll airbrush. Some made by me other adapted. I also try other things as well. Bonus I’ll have some new artworks for my portfolio too. Might as well take advantage of many things like downtime, making money and PR.

Over all, the last few months have been crazy. Lots of things breaking down that need to get fixed. A shed roof, doors, an old van, my poor computer, a small ladder and now our main large screen TV.  No I won’t blame gremlins but old age and obsolescence. Not counting my computer of course. Apparently a video card went ca-bluy . I never even got the blue screen thingy. It just wouldn’t boot up one night before Victoria‘s day. But now all is well……..for now.

Things I will be working on soon. Hopefully a new gig, some of my own things, picking mulberries and making lots of jam. Maybe even pickling as well.

Hoping things will improve soon.
Need to stay positive.

Springing in to spring.

Springing in to spring despite summer just being around the corner. Also what was that all about? Had a nasty cold weekend. Felt like early February. Luckily there was no damage to our early plantings in the garden. 

Oh and I caught this fluffy little guy or gall on the front lawn a few weeks ago enjoying the front yard buffet. Spotted him from the window. Lucky he/she did not get spied upon by Meetso otherwise Meetso would have enjoyed a nice hasenpfeffer.

Looking in to the mirror of Bob’s Burgers

I’ve been watching Bob’s Burgers.  Cool show. Its funny but not in a raunchy way like Family Guy (hate those family of cartoon shows) but it does contain the occasional toilet jokes which I don‘t mind but again I find funny.  I find it really reminds me of my childhood and my childhood best friends and neighbors. We use to do some of those crazy things as kids like fool around with the tape recorder and we’d take turns being obnoxious with their Casio keyboard. You know the one where you can record a noise of your making and make a musical instrument out of it. We had hours of fun with that thing. But no, no one was actually in the burger business or any relation like that. All of our fathers were in the auto industry. My father had the machine fixing trade while my neighbor’s father was working in the office. Two different worlds but at the same time the same world.  But there is a character in that show I really can relate to. It’s the character Tina. She looked a lot like me when I was 7to8 years of age although my hair was more light brown at the time. It use to be a blond in kindergarten. I think another best friend at the time was more closer in the looks department to the character Tina.  She had dark almost black hair. But we both had the ball point head hair or helmet hair. But none the less I remembered this pic I have of me at 7-8 years age. It was taken in the late spring time I think. I was wearing a red-ish dress but it looked like a skirt and a red shirt. Anyways it had a flower on it too. I also had with me my favorite school bag. It had this kangaroo on it with a chicken peaking out the pouch.  I just loved the surprised and bewildered expression on the roo which is why that bag was my favorite.  I let this girl borrow it one last day of school on good standing but apparently she thought she could keep it. When I asked for it back, which was like pulling teeth btw and she gave it back to me will all kinds of her scribbles and sigs on it. I really was disappointed, angry that someone could take advantage of my kindness and I think I held back a tear or two back. So I ended up giving up the bag to her since it was ruined anyways.
Anyways back to the photo. I was also wearing an disappointed expression because yet again I had to go back to school and the fact that summer vacation was still too far away. I hated school for obvious reasons. I might explain again in another post. So anyways I have this photo and decided to see what I would look like as an Bob’s burger character at the age of 7-8 years old just for fun. Since we both had the same look and share the same name.  And hear are the results. 

I think I would make a great cousin or friend character don’t you think?
I added the deely-boppers too even though I never wore those till about 85 coming home from a vacation in Europe. It seemed like a really popular thing during that time. Kind of like the beanie I guess.

I was pretty tall for my age but not the tallest in the class.  ;)

Wishful thinking?

Kind of hoping that's its finally spring now. It already seems to be with my doves with them all piled up in their only indoor nest. The mice outside must be busy too cause my kitty caught two of the little foolish buggers on the same day. Pretty productive for that little guy.
Must take a few spring inspired images. Now where to find them.

Is it spring yet?

Just a small peep.........

Just checking in a bit. Nothing really interesting to mention other then the fact that I’m currently working on many projects. Some paying, some that don’t and some that’s a little of both. One personal project is basically I’m recycling an old blanket in to a homemade quilt. Its nothing fancy but the different old pieces of cloth make it fancy looking enough already. But nothing like some of the professional looking quilts I have already seen at my local church offered up for raffles. But still good enough for me.  The old blanket already resembled a quilt but was apparently a simulated print. Really nice in its heyday but now full of holes. For the old patches of material, I’m using a lot of my formally favorite clothing from the past many from my child hood, such as a favorite pair of hot pink with a checker board racing stripes on the side biking shorts I had when I was little. I still have some pretty goofy pics and videos of me wearing those and playing with friends. I also have some formally favorite PJ’s and or night gowns that I just couldn’t get rid of cause I just loved the cute whimsical characters plastered all over the surface. So they’re going on my quilt too.
Here’s a recent pic of my now former blanket now quilt. Since that pic I made it to the other side of the blanket. Can’t wait to see the results when its finished. 

 Before^

After^

I wonder if any on else has a favorite bunch of clothing from the past and present that you can’t just bare to throw out. Humm I wonder if Chelly has any that she kept. Hummmm!

Animal crackers in my soup part2……

And now for the rest of those pics.

 Some penguins and their cage mates.

 Some more penguins and their cage mates.

 A sunning rhino. 

 A full grown tapir looking for stuff. 

A hidden tiger. Try to find it. 

Some zebras saying see ya later. 

Animal crackers in my soup……

Nope no soup and no crackers but a lot of sub par but fun zoo pics I took several weeks ago on a 2 day weekday vacation if you want to call it that.

On the way home it was a real zoo on the highway on account of a accident some place further down the road and a real long ways at that. Then we had to take an hour or was that more, a detour somewhere in Chatham. It was bumper to bumper with long lines of trucks and a few unfortunate cars in between. We slowly snaked our way though the country side to our proper route to continue home. It was already dark by the time we got back on track. 

Now back to the pics. A two part-r.

 A dining butterfly

Some dining butterflys

  A very bored hippo in his little pond who swims and swims around in a circle pushing a moss covered log in his mouth.

  A group of goosie friends enjoying some nice grass before they fly south for the winter. 

You could hear their happy sounds as they gobbled up the sweet green zoo grass.

  An elephant, fresh out of its house and still with the chains on its feet. Why does an elephant need jewelry?

A very polite o-rang. This ape knows how to wipe her nose with a tissue. She has more manners then some humans. ;)

D-oh!

Did you ever have one of those d-oh! Moments?
A moment where D-oh! So that’s where that was and I could have taken care of this months ago? *face embarrassed* Could have avoided a whole lot of frustration.
Well it was months ago I was looking for a certain function at a certain site I have a membership at. No its not FaceBook. I don’t use that for many reasons. Anyways, I use this web site for certain services and I looked and looked in the dashboard as may of these sites call these areas of different personalized board functions and I could not find it to no avail. Finally found it today in a little teeny tiny place hidden away that you would never think to look at. Question is why do they have to do that? Ugh! That should be part of that “dash board” functions. Oh well, now I know.

Its a stretch

Its always a good time for a big stretch, to let out an occasional bit of gas after a catnap and to see what my human is up to.

Look ma, made pickles!

Made garlic dill pickles for the first time ever last weekend. I used a recipe I found at Instructable.com. I only hope its good and crunchy like a pickle should be.  The recipe was easy to follow and assembling every thing in to a jar or two was just as easy. Just that it was a little hard to determine when to remove the jar out of the boiling water since there were no real significant bubbles to let you know of a hard boil even though I had the temp up to where you would have an ideal proper boil. And yes I gave it some time as well. Guess I’ll have to find out if I did a good job in a few weeks when I open the small jar and give it a taste.

To the watering hole

Sunday was a great day for Meetso to take a break from hunting in the great jungle that is our back yard and relax by our busy little watering hole. The water fall babbled while the light from a bright sunny day danced on the water's surface. The koi fish large and small frolicked in the water causing the new addition of water plants to move from their places. A spider's web hung like a shiny chandler just above the water probably constructed last night to catch supper for a spider.

After that I when in to the downstairs kitchen and made my last batch of strawberry jam for the year. I burnt half of my hand from a exploding jam jar. I had freshly boiled strawberry jam poured in to a jar and then when I went to screw the top on tight, it exploded on me and all over. I was burning in pain of course. So luckily I was very close to the sink. So I ran the cold water and placed my hand under the water. I then filled a near by pot with cold water and place my throbbing hand in that. Later my dad came down the stairs to see how my jam was progressing and saw me in my predicament. He handed me a ice pack from the near by freezer and I placed it in to the pot of water and stuck my hand in again. I held it there for at least 15 mins or more till the pain wasn’t that bad. Then next day things were back to normal. Thank God!. This is like the 3d time I had something searing hot fall on my skin. I healed quite quickly with no real residual effects.