A Mandarin Fish

Elisha sent me a photo of her art project in progress. It is a Mandarin fish. She's been working on it for weeks. No wonder. Look at the detail

Close up of detail

Merrily We Roll Along

...down the icy creek. Not a bad day for a winter paddle if one has the proper outerwear.

Enjoying the day

Along along the creek there were spectacular views

Let's go!

Icy water

Daisy Turns 10 Today

I can't believe its been 10 years since we went to the Shoe Tree Kennels in Indiana and picked out our Little Daisy. It was a 5 hour drive - Andrew and I went over in mid February and mom and I went back on March 17th while I was on spring break from the college and picked her up. She sat in mom's lap on the way home. The portable kennel I bought along for the ride home was way too big. She's been a good girl all her life. In less than a week she was house trained, and learned to ring a bell attached to the door. She's never ruined or chewed anything in the house except Andrew's brand new Leatherman tool case (and he won't let her live that down). She's doesn't know a stranger including our rabbits, the wild rabbits, and her buddies Tanner, Sugar and Cooper and she's never met a kid she didn't like. We really enjoy having her around. But I'm sure you already know that. She was quite excited today (watch her tail in the video) with her birthday hat and us singing to her. We just came back from a long walk and right now she's zonked out on the couch.

Angora Blend Roving Giveaway

That's right! One lucky reader will receive 1.8 ounces of the super soft and lovely Satin Angora/Blue Faced Leicester 50-50 blend roving -processed by Stonehedge Fiber Mill in Northern Michigan. In order that everyone can participate-non spinners may chose to receive spun yarn if they should win. All you have to do to get entered is comment on this blog post. Contest ends Friday February 4, 2011 and the winner will be chosen by a random number generator. Don't be shy-this is for fun and to encourage those readers who haven't yet posted to do so. It's also a great way to connect with other bloggers who write about topics of similar interest. A lot of the blogs on my reading list are ones I have found via someone else's blog. And here's a true story that happened to me this spring. I was on a friends blog and saw another blog that looked interesting. I looked at it and commented on a post. The author then emailed me because she recognized my city and it turns out that we have a mutual friend. The other blogger by the way lives in France. :-) How's that for a small world?

Zorro on the Deck Parts 1 & 2

Last night I took advantage of the milder weather to clean the rabbit trays. They have been neglected for some time. As I was heading toward the house at dusk I saw that Zorro (our wild bunny) was sitting on the deck with his butt against the screen door waiting for a handout. I asked him if he was waiting for his dinner and although he didn't answer (:-)directly he did a little jig and continued to wait. He scampered off to the side when I stepped up onto the deck and I went inside and got him a hand full of rabbit pellets (we've switched to Purina Show by the way). This morning at 6 am Andrew let Daisy out and a few minutes later I went to let her back inside. She was approaching the deck and Zorro was scampering up the poop path (path in the snow for the animals to walk in so they don't disappear) directly behind her. She came inside and he came up onto the deck and looked at me with an I'm starving -let's get on with breakfast expression. I managed to get a video of him up on the deck this time. Note that he looks directly back at me when he hears the door open.

Part 1: January 25th am

The video ends with Zorro jumping off the deck and into the darkness. I was able to get the footage above because of the porch light. I trimmed the video because the rest of it was too dark so what you don't get to see is Zorro stopping, sitting and waiting patiently for a handout and then greedily gobbling up his food. I got still photos of that.

Part 2: January 26th am

Perfect Powder

It was sunny and beautiful outside yesterday. At bit chilly but nothing a pair of warm ski pants and heavy coat couldn't handle. The snow was perfect for a xc ski trip alongside Clear Creek and through the woods to the "Wedding Bridge" where Andrew and I got married.
Andrew's setting the pace

View from the "Wedding Bridge".

Along the Clear Creek

Concentrating on my form...

Sun Dogs

On the way home from work Friday night Andrew pointed out to me that the sun was flanked on either side by "sun dogs". "Sun dogs are bright bursts of light that are formed when sunlight passes through ice crystals at the proper angle". They are primarily a winter phenomenon and occur, usually in pairs, on either side of the sun when it is low in the sky and cirrus clouds are present. Click here for more info.

Stinky Pig

Daisy loves her pig puppet. It's a great interactive entertainment designed to wear her out so we can get a whole night's sleep. For whatever reason she is totally fascinated by this toy, which has been around for years. The reason we call it Stinky Pig is because after she slobbers all over it-it naturally smells like her breath which is just not all that fresh. LOLThe opponents face off

And its every man for himself

Get him Daisy

All done!

Editors Note: There just isn't all that much going on around here with it being 40 below and snowing outside. hehe

Horray for Snow

We've got about 5 inches and it's still coming down. I love snow!
Daisy went outside and promptly put her face in the snow. She loves it too!

We shoveled the sidewalks on our entire walking route. That was about a 400 calorie burn.

Dog Stories Part II

Last fall in Dog Stories Happy & Sad I wrote about our neighbor losing his 12 year old Westie, Courtney. Last night I was walking Daisy in the "soup" and met up with Bob and his new companion Sugar, whom he adopted about 2 months ago. She is a little spitfire at age 2 and Bob is happy again. Daisy is not sure what to make of Sugar, who is a little has a little too much puppy still going for her taste. Daisy apprehensively greeting Sugar. (She acts like they've never seen each other when in fact they walk together a couple night a week when the weather is nice.)

More Tracks in the Snow

Deer Mouse tracks; note the interconnection of the tracks caused by the tail dragging in the snow.

close up of tracks

Redwood Bowl

Back in November you might recall that I mentioned that we stopped at a kitschy souvenir stand located on the Avenue of the Giants when we were in California. Besides having a variety of finished redwood products for sale-bird houses and other assorted yard decor-they had 6 x 6 x 4 chunks of wood for sale. Andrew bought one and drug it home in his suitcase with the intention of making a hand turned bowl. Tonight he made the bowl and it turned out really nice. Below are photos of the process.Redwood in the rough

On the lathe in the process of being shaped

Rounding off the edges

and scooping out the inside

Adding a fluted edge

Removing the bowl from the lathe

The finished product. Beautiful wood grain!

Predators

Aren't they cute?  Just kidding. These are some of the dragonfly larva that live in aquariums in our garage. Their life cycle is being studied and thus they get to have their picture taken at various stages of their development. Incidentally they have been voraciously eating over the past few weeks.  The two on the left are swamp darners, the 3rd is a cyrano darner and the 4th, which we fondly named James (some of you will get this), is a springtime darner.  Absolutely fascinating if you ask me.

Snowflake on Ice

It's really not fit outside for man nor beast today but Andrew braved the cold early this morning to see what was going on at the creek and he came back with this stunning image.

Bunny in the Snow

It's pouring down snow. We probably have 4 or 5 inches on top of what we got last week. While walking Daisy last night I spied this little bunny in the snow.

My Favorite Yarn

I love this 100 % Satin Angora yarn that I have hand spun from mixed colored combings.  There are 50 yards in this ball and I'm hoping to make a narrow scarf.  I have a more to spin so altogether I should have around 100 yards.  I like the natural colors better than dyed yarns and the varied widths plied together make it interesting looking.

Happy Lite

Winter blah's got you down?  Not me. Two years ago I bought a happy lite and this year I have also added whole food vitamin D to my regime.  Since I am in a windowless office and rarely go outside during the day during the winter I get almost zero sunlight.  The happy lite is a broad spectrum light that you use for 1/2 hour in the morning and 1/2 hour in the afternoon. It is equivelent to the RDA of sunshine.  There is a lot of research on treatments for seasonal affectiveness disorder (SAD) and this is one of them. When I first got it last year my co-workers would walk by and ask me about it and some of them would tease me about how bright it is. It is very bright. This year a few of them have asked me where I got it and they are starting to appear around elsewhere around my office suite.  It has vastly improved my mood during the winter; I use it November through April and I find that I don't leave work feeling exhausted. I bought one for my mom and SD and they both tell me it is also working for them.

Crazy Rabbits

Here's a somewhat amusing (made me laugh) video of rabbit antics at our last show. I was testing out my new camera (which has since been returned) and it's video capabilities (which were quite good). Actually the funniest part is probably when the camera turns upside down and but you'll have to watch the video to see why. Friend Lisa is the other voice you hear in the video.

After the Rain...

comes the sunshine...or at least it's trying in this case....
(Altocumulus or Mackerel Sky)

Decorated Bunny Cookies

I was inspired last year by my friend Kim who made these beautiful decorated cookies at Christmas time and I wanted to make some too. Alas I procrastinated all year knowing how much work it was going to be and not sure of what kind of cookie creation I wanted to make. After receiving a gift of a bunny cookie cutter for Christmas this year from my friend Patti; I came up with the idea of making bunny cookies to give out at our New Years Eve rabbit show. Yes they were a lot of work to make but they came out cute and tasted delicious.Baked cookies waiting to be decorated

Outline the cookie with royal icing

Flood the cookie with icing for a background

Decorate

Close up

All the big bunny cookies

Close up

All the little bunny cookies...