Travels and Treats

It was his idea to go.  "Let's go to the Great Swamp to see if they have any amaryllis bulbs yet."  We picked out the bulbs and then he detoured away from me while I checked out the Christmas ornament section.  I thought he was in the next aisle, but when I rounded the corner, he wasn't there.  It took me a while to find him because I actually didn't want to go into the "greenhouse" and be tempted to buy any new plants.  I'd just finished repotting all the orchids at home the last week and with bringing in the few plants we overwinter indoors, space is at a premium.  There he was, conducting business as he made himself at home near the cyclamen.  And, since he kept talking as I approached, I did decide to do some plant shopping and came home with a small cyclamen and an even smaller Christmas cactus about to bloom.  

I wanted to look closer at this mushroom garland but it was out of my reach and by the time I found the chatterbox I had forgotten about it till I uploaded my pictures.

I think I have some wooden mushrooms around here..... and some screw eyes.  Then again, it might be a wild goose chase.  Instead of going home on the highway, I convinced HWNSNBP to take the back roads home so we could enjoy the scenery.  There is a Japanese word for when the sunbeams filter through the trees - komorebi.  Thankfully it was a sunny fall day and we did get to enjoy the komorebi.

Which reminds me that I didn't post anything about our Lighthouse Challenge yet.  I won't repeat all the lighthouses that we visited, just some highlights of the days.  When we started out on that Saturday morning we got down to the end of our street and I realized that I had forgotten to put earrings on.  Not a big deal, but I feel better when I have them in so HWNSNBP turned to go back to the house and I remembered that I had a spare pair in the overnight bag, so we turned around in a driveway that was decorated as such..........

After the first two stops at Tinnicum and Finn's Point, we stopped at the Amish Market in Bridgeton and he treated me to a whoopie pie.

Thank the clouds for briefy letting the sun illuminate East Point Lighthouse for this picture.  It was way too windy for the flag apparently.  

Hereford Inlet Lighthouse is not on the official list of stops but it is on the way so we stopped to take our obligatory gazing ball picture in the front garden.

We made it through to Barnegat by the evening and woke the next day to get on the road early to make the last 4 stops.  This is a view of the ocean from the lighthouse at Sea Girt.  We did have gorgeous weather.

I loved the side of this building we passed on the way to the end.  Luckily we were stopped at a traffic light so I could reach across to take a picture.  I'm not sure what town it's in though.

We ended the challenge at the Twin Lights.

Our challenge souvenirs this year were log books.  Each sight had a page with a copy of a log entry from one of the lightkeepers over the years.  You got a stamp on each page as you completed that stop.  There were 4 additional stamps and 2 secret stamps that you had to ask about at each stop to get.  We only knew that because we are on the email list for the challenge and it was published there.  There were a couple of people who overheard HWNSNBP ask about it and were a little upset that they didn't know about it in their journey.  He got one of the committee members to take our picture in front of the lens in the museum.   

This past weekend we went to the condo on Thursday night - kind of a last minute decision - so that HWNSNBP could do some surf fishing Friday as we were planning to go to Delaware to babysit on Saturday.  I also wanted to get pictures of the full moon rising - always a toss up on that one.  He did get a picture of the sunrise on Friday morning as he headed out for his coffee.  

And he did hit up the bakery a little later in the morning and brought me back this treat.

The full moon wasn't until Saturday night, but we went up to the bay beach and waited for the almost full moon to rise as I'm pretty sure that, had the clouds not been there, it would have started out behind the lighthouse across the bay.  It wasn't this pretty when we first got there, but it was so peaceful we decided to stay a while and it was HWNSNBP who first caught a glimpse of the moon as it came out from behind the clouds.  I was so happy to get the reflection in the water.

And even happier when the swans started swimming in the pink water towards that direction.  I kept whispering to them to swim faster, swim faster, so that I could............

Get them in the moonlight before the moon disappeared again behind the clouds.  And if you look to the left you can see the lighthouse there too.

Saturday morning we left early to get to DE so that Rachel could spend some one-on-one time with GS2 while we watched GS3.  (Their daddy was at a wrestling event.)  She took him in his costume to the Delaware Children's Museum for some special Halloween activities.  We got to spend some time with this little love.  Those eyes just make my heart melt.

Naptime was short but he didn't fight it at all.  

We had lunch when they came back and then we went in two cars (no room for Grandma and Papa and 2 car seats) to the UD Creamery - a little ice cream stand on the University of Delaware campus near the football stadium run by the agriculture students.  There specialty for the holiday is the "Trick or Treat" ice cream which is French vanilla ice cream with candy.  It was another delicious treat on another beautiful day.  There were a lot of people there and we had to initially share a picnic table with a couple of students.  Luckily there wasn't a football game there that day or we wouldn't have been able to go.

I've finished my Inktober tangles and my birds which I'll be posting soon.   Yesterday I had two dr. appts. - one with a back surgeon and the other was for a vein study in these old legs that are not working like they're supposed to.  HWNSNBP came with me to the surgeon and I think he finally understood why I'm having so much difficulty.  The dr. showed us both what a normal spine looks like and what mine looks like and it was abundantly clear that mine is not normal.  Insurance doesn't let you jump to the surgery part without further tests and non-surgical intervention so, even though the doctor agreed that it looked like that was going to be the final outcome, I have to have another test and do some PT first.  As for the veins - that doctor is in such demand that I won't be able to follow up with the test results until January.  It's going to be interesting.

This has gotten quite lengthy and I really need to get up in the stamp cave to get a couple of Christmas cards done.  The JB challenge this fortnight is to use a creature on our card.  I think I've got a couple of ideas.  Happy Halloween!

Before the Frost

Picked the last of the tomatoes over a week ago and forgot to post these pictures.  These are cherry tomatoes and what was left on two plants.  I have them in the box in a sunny window and they are continuing to turn red.  

And we picked some of what is left of the flowers that are still blooming.  We were supposed to have a frost the other night but it didn't quite get there.  Still, HWNSNBP has been pulling out everything that looks tired and spent and tucking some things in here and there that just might overwinter.

View from the top.  Zinnias, dahlias, and Montauk daisies.

We also brought the lemon tree(s) in.  But first I trimmed the thorns off.  Yes, a lemon tree has thorns.  They might not look too threatening, but believe me, if you brush past it and get caught on one you'll know it.  I found that the heavy-duty nail clippers worked much better and faster than the regular clippers.  I was able to get really close to the base with that.

I believe that you call this Hen of Woods growing on the side of one of our trees.  It's about 25 feet up and not reachable.  I've read that you can forage these and cook them, and that they're supposed to be good.  If it were more accessible I might be tempted to try that.  Maybe it's good it's higher up.

This picture was taken with the zoom from the inside the house so you can see it's pretty large.

And our friendly ghost is keeping watch with his mourning dove sentinels.

The weather here has been like a roller coaster.  We were supposed to have a frost but didn't and now they're forecasting unseasonably high temps for the next couple of days.  That's fall for you.

Birdtober - Days 15-21

Three weeks of birds - some of these needed further exploration as I looked for better samples than I had pre-saved.  There are a lot more with neutral colors this round which I find challenging using the watercolor pencils.  I kept thinking that it would be easier to use my actual Prismacolor pencils with more range in the neutrals but I didn't want to switch mid-way through the challenge.  The sketchbook that I've chosen to use is watercolor paper and very textured and would not work well with the regular colored pencils.  So, if I do this next year, I think I will be changing my choice of media to work with.

Day 15 - White-naped Crane

(for bird info click here)

Day 16 - Cattle Egret (Head view because of all the white in the body)

(for bird info click here)

Day 17 - Turaco

There are so many variations of this bird it was hard to choose from.

(for bird info click here)

Day 18 - Cape Batis

(for bird info click here)

Day 19 - Pink Robin

(for bird info click here)

Day 20 - Pine Grosbeak

(for bird info click here)

Day 21 - Bluethroat (it is one word - I spelled it wrong on the page)

(for bird info click here)

My bird experience for the weekend - we were finishing up the first day of the Lighthouse Challenge (pictures to follow in a separate post).  I had found a penny on the sidewalk at one of our early stops in the day.  Heads up supposed to be good luck right?  I picked it up and we went about our day.  Fast forward to pulling in for the evening at the condo.  We noticed a plethora of birds lining the utility lines across the street.  I hesitated going up the stairs to get in while I fumbled for my phone to take a picture...........but........ before I could get it out, something spooked them and the took off in a murmuration..........overhead..........and plop.........I was the new owner of some bird poop on my hand that I had on the railing.  Being pooped on by a bird is also supposed to be good luck right?  So I wondered whether the luck of the penny had kept me from getting bombarded with poop, or whether the poop cancelled out the penny luck?  Or do I have double luck coming?  All I can tell you is I checked our lottery tickets for the weekend and we didn't win.  (And thankfully, the poop was only on the back of my hand!)

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas

The yearly pink Christmas challenge is on again at the Jingle Belles blog.  I do like this one and have tried to carve out some time to get this card done.  My inspiration came from an ad that came up in my FB feed for a piece of jewelry I thought I could do something with.

I did a rough sketch on an index card and proceeded to the stamp cave to start playing around with my punches and pink cardstock.

Here are the punches that I used on this nutcracker.

And here's my bejeweled nutcracker card.  It's a slimline card with a simple diecut sentiment.

With a close up so you can see the sparkle a little better.

Our lovely Jingle Belles, Steph and Lauren, are once again each donating $2 for every card done for this challenge.  It's so nice to see the gallery so full of pink.  You can check that out by clicking here.

Birdtober - Days 8-14

On with week two of Birdtober......

Day 8 - Pin-tailed Whydah

(for bird info click here)

Day 9 - Peregrine Falcon

(for bird info click here)

This is what happens when you're busy talking and working at the same time...... you prepare the book with the tape around the edges and start your drawing before remembering to reorient it to the right position.  I was almost done with the whydah before I realized it and decided to go with it as is.  

Day 10 - Strawberry Finch (Red Avadavat)

(for bird info click here)

Day 11 - Magnificent Frigate Bird

(for bird info click here)

Day 12 - Azure Tit

(for bird info click here)

Day 13 - Potoo

(for bird info click here)

Day 14 - Scarlet Ibis

(for bird info click here)

A lot of red this week.  Once again I included links for bird info but I must note that sometimes I found there were different species that varied in coloration and I picked ones I thought would be more easily recreated.  There's one bird coming up next week that has so many variations that it was hard to choose.  

So far, I think the scarlet ibis is my favorite.  We'll have to see if it stays in first place.

Intober Tangles +

I teased my Inktober plan in an earlier post and here it is getting started.  Working with the black paper and pastels brings with it some challenges.  I have a special glove that only has the last two fingers on it that I wear on my drawing hand so I don't smudge what I've worked on already since I am not strictly going left to right.  I also have to be careful not to touch my face and keep my hands pretty clean in general so as not to leave oil marks.  So far, so good.

Here is the first week's worth of tangles.

And then, the second.  I have numbers penciled in that correspond to the list of tangles that was provided.  I have done a bit of switching along the way as I found some patterns that were too similar next to each other.  Hopefully it will not look too chaotic.

Reading some pumpkin facts lately, I don't remember where, I knew that not all pumpkins are good for pie because my MIL used to want a specific pumpkin she called a cheese pumpkin to make her pies with.  I think it was a squatty pumpkin like the one that I've drawn, but I'm not entirely sure.  I was surprised to learn that when you use canned pumpkin puree it is recommended that you squeeze out all the liquid before adding it to your recipes.  That's an extra step I've never taken when I make my pumpkin roll in the past.  It's never seemed to affect the moisture level, but I guess it might have a more intense pumpkin flavor if it was drained first.  Anyone do this?

On the Sanntangle FB page they usually have a couple of tangles that you can do along with the instructor - here are two that I have done.  I'm doing these in a sketchbook as opposed to tiles and they are not exact replicas of theirs, but pretty close.

The first one was colored with watercolor pencils and the second was colored with pastel chalk pencils.  I had a set of 6 of those chalk pencils and decided to use what was left of an Amazon gift card I recently found that was unused to buy a larger set of 24.  They are made in the USA by General's, the same company that makes the smaller set of watercolor pencils I've been using.  It does say Made in the USA on the box, but thanks to Maryann from Magpie's Mumblings I found out how you can figure out the country of origin on a product by the bar code if it's not printed on the packaging.  She shared this graphic on her blog (and she shared her newly finished denim creation that is spectacular, just click on the link above).

Yikes, I still have to get to my pink Christmas card....................