Road Trips, Oddities, and Odd Happenings

We made a couple of detours the last two weekends on our way home from the condo.  Both of the places that we visited were not far off the path and they both were worth it in my book.  

The first (two weeks ago) was the Flying Pig Tavern and Tap in Bordentown.  We've been traveling to Delaware via Rt. 295 South for many years  and it was only recently that I noticed the sign for the Flying Pig Tavern and Tap on one of those "what you can find at the next exit" signs.  I'm not sure how long it was there, and honestly, most times that we pass that sign on 295 I am already dozing while HWNSNBP drives.  But I looked it up on the internet and saw that it wasn't too far off that road.  When were were planning on leaving two Saturdays ago from the condo I looked up the directions from there and found that we only had to continue on past a turn-off that we take for a bit before it was right there.  So we planned to have lunch there.

This was painted on the side of the building.

This is out in front of their outdoor dining area. 

On the hostess counter and full of little plastic piggies.

On the wall in the entry.

Those little plastic piggies (sans wings) were given to us after HWNSNBP told the waitress all about my "obsession" with flying pigs.  She brought the owner over towards the end of our lunch and we shared stories about how the restaurant came about and how I celebrated March 1st as Flying Pig Day.  HWNSNBP enjoyed telling them that I wanted to come back on 3/1 and get my picture taken with the pig out front....... a little bit of spontaneous over-sharing on his part.  We do plan on visiting again though.  They told me that at Christmas their tree is full of flying pig ornaments and you know I have to see that.

The glasses had their logo on it and HWNSNBP asked if we could purchase one...which we did.

This is his "Pig Burger", one of the house specialties with the pig snout branded on top.  The food was good and it wasn't crowded at lunch time and like I said, we'll definitely be going back.

The day before, we had made a trip down to Cape May and I saw these characters in the West End Antique Mall.  They have a mixture of old and new stuff there.  I thought these were interesting but didn't buy anything that day.  We had made our visit to the little stores that we like in that area and I picked up a couple of little whatnots which I don't currently have pictures of.  

We ate lunch as we usually do, at the Lobster Dock and had a run-in with a thieving seagull who attacked my lunch from behind, stealing my french fries and knocking my ice tea all over me.  We know to be careful of the birds there, but this one really snuck up on us.

Then, last week, when I was weeding I was attacked by a large bumble bee who chased me right into the house.  I'm a little concerned now after I read yesterday that bees can remember faces and features.  I wear a large green floppy hat when I weed and you know that I was waving that around as I was being chased because I am very much not fleet of foot.  I may have to get another hat to weed in the future.

Another oddity of the week happened when I was getting my haircut.  Several months ago I was in the chair getting my hair cut when my hairdresser's next customer arrived early and went to sit down in the chair next to me and tripped and fell backwards and hit her head on the floor.  She's in her 90's and a tiny little thing that had been telling me about how she had had polio as a child and how she dealt with that.  She didn't get knocked out, but we heard her head hit the floor and they called her family who came to get her to get checked out at the hospital.  She didn't want to call 911.  She didn't want to call her family either because she said that they've been trying to take some of her freedoms away as she's gotten older and she was afraid that they would say she couldn't go out by herself anymore.  Turned out that she was okay and my hairdresser says that she is still allowed to take some solo trips.... but not of the on the floor kind.  So, yes, I said that happened several months ago, but this week, when I was sitting in the chair, another customer who was getting a pedicure passed out while she was being worked on and there was a hubbub of commmotion as they called 911 and her husband and tried to revive her.  My hairdresser remembered that I had been there for that last emergeny which was a little freaky.

What was not freaky in that sense, but freaking awesome was getting to see this giant troll on the way home this weekend.  I had seen an article about it earlier this summer and made a note to find out how far off our trail it would be in case we wanted to take the grandson's there.  What I came to find out is that the dirt road that we had to go down to get to it was adjacent to the law office of our nextdoor neighbor at the condo.  I knew that their (father and daughter) office was in Hainesport and when the article mentioned turning at the law office I looked up the address and sure enough, that was it.  We had been past there several years ago so I knew that it wasn't going to be that far, but we were able to touch base with the girl next door to find out more.  One article said that you had to walk through the woods to get there, but she assured us that you could drive right up to it and we did.  The area is not very picturesque as it's an abandoned pottery factory, and there is a lot of graffitti there, but I thought the troll herself was awesome.  

Her name is Big Rusty and she is the first of a series of 10 in the US by Danish artist Thomas Dambo who has created, along with his team and volunteers, over 100 troll sculptures around the world.  Here is the link to an article about the series called Way of the Bird King spanning the US from NJ to Washington state.  You can find Thomas Dambo on IG and follow along with his progress.

HWNSNBP lost his phone yesterday..................in the house.  It was quite an unnerving Sunday evening trying to find it..............which we did not until we searched further this morning.  Of course, he had it on silent and did not have the flasher on either so we was dependent upon hearing it vibrate wherever it was.  He kept calling it from the house phone and kept yelling at the phone when he got no response and finally gave up and went to bed.  It was found in the cellar on the bottom shelf of a cart full of paint and he had no idea how it got there.  He had been in the cellar but not doing anything with paint so we're assuming he went to put it in his pocket and missed. This isn't the first time he's misplaced it, but it's the longest it's been unfound.  I did purchase those tracking tiles that you can use to find it, but he didn't want to use it.  I think after last night's debacle that he'll be reconsidering it.  

Well, that was pretty long-winded for a Monday and it's nice enough for me to start earlier in the day on some weeding that has been neglected.  I just have to find another hat!

In the Interim

I have been absent here for awhile taking a little blogging break after the busyness of the last month but HWNSNBP reminded me that Labor Day is right around the corner even though my wall calendar was still on the June page so I thought I'd better do some catch up.  Some of these were from earlier in the month and a few were from the last week.  I have more pictures of some of the plantings but they've filled out a lot since I took them and it's kind of a gray day here so I'll update them a little later.  In the meantime.........

I thought that I was going to do a photo challenge earlier this month with the first prompt being "morning light" - this was actually taken the day after and since I was already behind, I gave up early.  But I still liked the way the plants looked through the screening in the early morning.

Our first bean and tomato harvest.

The view towards the birdbath.

And of the back door.  (I've since pruned off some of the lower branches on the lemon tree.)

I'm hoping that leafy gray plant will overwinter.  The angelonia and blue sage in the pots really adds another level to the vinca.

It was a Sunday night after our weekend with Ryan (pics to follow soon) when I looked out the window at the end of the day to see the sunlight lighting up the crepe myrtle like a highlighter in a textbook.

Then a couple of nights ago, the sun again at the end of the day giving a glow to the yard.

The moonflower vine started to bloom this week.  You can see the size of the flowers in relation to the quarter in my hand.  They open up very late in the day and don't last long after daybreak.  They're good for the nighttime pollinators.

A couple of odd plants - this one is a pineapple lily.  The nursery that we frequent had a box of free bulbs at the checkout and this was the last one left when we were there so we grabbed it to try.  It didn't appear in the best shape so we were surprised when it actually did bloom.

And we saw this popcorn plant at Rachel's when we visited last weekend.

I'm going through pictures from the wedding and trying to organize my thoughts around that post.  The one thing that I regret is that I didn't take pictures of some of the things that I created as they were there.  I have pictures of them in our home, but I'm hoping that the photographer will have some at the venue that I can share.  

Hard to believe that this is the last weekend in August......but there is still more summer to enjoy!

ICAD Weeks 7, 8, & 9 to the End

 Yay!  Another year in the books.  I had some help towards the end you will see, and I did work ahead a little and actually finished up a few days earlier so I could have the time for the wedding prep.  Sorry that this is going to be long with 2+ weeks worth.  But here we go.......

Day 43 - Patina

I drew the pattern first in gold metallic marker and added the "patina" with my peacock blue fountain pen ink.  It's a stretch I know.

Day 44 - Wabi Sabi

I admit I have to look this word up each time I come across it.  Essentially it means finding beauty in the imperfect and I thought that this charred pine cone had that feel.  Done in watercolor pencil.

Day 45 - Repeat

The background pattern done in metallic dot markers is repeated and is the base to this one staple collage.  I also doodled the metallic flower and fussy cut around it for this.

Day 46 - Millefleur

The background on this was done previous to the beginning of this challenge and was in my stash.  I thought that it represented the millefleur theme.  I chose to add the punched circle and the pre-printed butterfly that I doctored up a bit with colored pencils to match the colors in the background.

Day 47 - Vermillion

I doodled those vermillion flowers that became water lillies in the pond for this turtle cut from a brochure.  The rest of the background was done in watercolor pencil with some actual watercolor paint added.

48 - Raindrops

It was Sunday morning on the weekend and we got up early to try to beat the forecasted heavy rains home.  We did manage to stay in front of the worst of it and I had the luxury of watching the rain on the windshield as HWNSNBP drove.  Watercolor pencils and Optimus marker.

Day 49 - Focus

I had two die cuts in a scrap pile that I thought would make a good aperture for the word focus and decided to overlap them and traced them onto the card.  After I colored them black I added some white gel pen to show how they could be layered.  I toyed with the idea of adding color in those shapes but felt I had already spent enough time on it this way. 

50 - Note To Self

It was a note to myself created with bits from the scrap box once again taking heed of what I had written to myself.  

Day 51 - Topiary

Once again relying on the scrap box and some washi tape for the background to complete this.  There was a 3-D element to this with the tissue paper that has become flattened in the pile now.

Day 52 - Weathervane

I wasn't going to do this prompt but strangely enough this ad from Home Depot for this witch weathervane showed up in my FB feed. Theirs is in copper and brass, mine is wrought iron because I didn't have any metallic markers with me at the time.  I decided to add the tangle Sand Swirl to the background to give the impression of wind.

I had some help with the next set of cards.  We had the grandsons with us on the weekend and I gave them blank cards and the choice of watercolor paint or markers to use so I could have some backgrounds ready.  They both chose the watercolors and were really into it.

Day 53 - Museum

We were putting together a 3D puzzle that my mother, their great-grandmother had given us for them.  There were two to choose from - a castle and a pirate ship.  I thought for certain they would choose the pirate ship first, but it was the castle.  There were parts of the puzzle that had to be punched out, like windows and doors, and all the little places where the tabs would be inserted so it would stand up.  I saved some of those pieces and used them on this card adding only the gel pen bricks around the openings and part of our conversation.  It could be the outside of some museum somewhere.

Day 54 - Yahtzee - Off Prompt - We didn't play Yahtzee, we played in the pool.

Day 55 - Lemon or Lime - Off Prompt

As I was cleaning up, I took some drops of the watercolors and put them on the plastic table covering and GS1 took a card and swiped them up.  He hasn't seen what I've found in those swipes yet, but you never know what you'll find in those random shapes.

Day 56 - Winter

I picked up a set of magnatiles during Prime Day to have for them to play with because I know they both love them at home.  This castle was one of the possibilities according to the directions.  Ours did not get so elaborate.  But the card holds another conversation.

Day 57 - Bird

After they were done with painting and had left the table there was one card left so I used up some of the paint.  I purposely didn't do anything while they were working because I wanted to see what they would come up with and not feel that they had to copy me.

Day 58 - Illustration

I had been saving a photo of a lace bug which is transparent, yet colorful at the same time.  The colors on this card seemed to compliment the iridescent colors of the scales.  Not every piece is colored because they all didn't have the same iridescence which I tried to capture.

Day 59 - Peaceful

I did not need to add anything to GS1's sunset to make it any more peaceful than it already is.  He told me he was going to paint a sunset and he explained every step of creating this to me.  First he was using light orange, and then he added some dark orange. Then a little red, and purple in the end.  I told him it was stunning.

Day 60 - Filigree

I used the tangle Oile to string these hearts across GS2's card, adding a little subtle shading where the lines overlap.  

Day 61 - Mosaic

I took two butterfly stickers and sliced them up before I added them to the index card leaving a grout gap between the pieces. Then drew in the other pieces of faux tile, outlined them with marker and added some watercolor pencil to each one.  

So here's the stack of all 61 cards.

And those for the month of June.

Finishing up with the month of July.