AN INF?

What is an inf? You can ask her, by typing the question into the dialog box. It's kind of an interesting little bit of technology. This is Suzanne Sky and she should be able to answer questions or carry on a conversation with you. And she should improve with more responses and a wider range of topics as time goes on. Try it out!

BUNNY GIRLS AND TREES

This is what I have been painting lately. Yeah. I blame Suzi Blu for my fixation on bunny girls. She offered some free printable line drawings on her blog for people to make mixed media art. I didn't print them out, but her sketch of a bunny girl stuck with me. I have been thinking of the 'tree of life' motif lately, too. I really love trees and especially like looking at the structure and arrangement of their limbs and branches. Not that this was any great depiction. I just played with it. The top one - "The Bunny Sisters Rush Spring" is postcard sized. The other one, "Another New Day" is a little larger. Both are for trade in an artist's postcard group I belong to on Yahoo.
These two bunny girls are artist trading cards size and are for a swap on Swap-Bot.

LYRIC

What a difference 25 days makes. Lyric had some serious birth issues and was rushed to Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi about an hour and a half after birth. Samantha wasn't doing too well, either, and had an extended stay in the Christus Spohn Hospital in Beeville. Andrew had to stay with Sam that night, and finish paperwork on the both of them, before heading to Driscoll first thing the next morning. Their car developed issues in the midst of all this, so I had to drive him to Corpus that next morning - he went home the next day and got their car taken care of. Lyric was hooked up to all sorts of wires and machines, with needles in her feet, hands and head. She had to stay there quite a while, but is home now and so far, so good. Things are looking well, although Andrew and Sam have to watch closely for any signs of even the slightest problem developing, and get her to the ER immediately should any fever or anything develop. But everything appears to be fine for now. We have babysat twice - once was overnight. Lyric has her days and nights mixed up, so that was quite an experience. She is beautiful with very dark wavy hair, with an auburn cast to it in the light. Her eyes are blue, and she has a dimple in her chin and on one cheek. Andrew and Samantha are loving parenthood despite the sleep deprivation.

BIRDWATCHING...SORT OF

I have a new interest now...just what I needed. *wink* Chuck moved the bird bath from the cottage and it's now situated just outside the living room window, so I can check it throughout the day, when I am not occupied elsewhere. I was surprised to find that I became very interested in this casual form of birdwatching. After a few days, I recovered an unused journal to be my "Nature Notebook" of sorts.
Almost each day, I write down what birds I saw around the birdbath, what the weather was like and anything notable about what's growing or blooming. Yesterday evening, I saw something I had never seen before, except in Viva Pinata (a video game) - a bird - mockingbird to be exact - ate a flower, completely. In three bites it completely ate a fully blooming buttercup (evening primrose, to be precise) blossom! Then it moved on to another one, and snarfed it down too, before flying off.
This is the view from the recliner. Three sparrows stopped by this afternoon. In the background, you can see a strip of yard, covered with (waning) wildflowers that I didn't let Chuck mow - yellow dandelions, that look white in this photo, buttercups, long purple flowers that I am not sure of the name, and quite a few other kinds.
To my little journal, I have also added one of Margaret Moser's columns about area wildflowers and one of Adrian Jackson's columns about the 'Angel of Goliad', from a recent Bee-Picayune newspaper. ...So, it will be sort of a 'nature-and-history' journal, I guess.
Here is the book I use for identifying (or trying to!) the birds. Most that I have noticed have been house sparrows, chirping (or maybe vesper) sparrows and mockingbirds. But Wednesday morning, there was a gorgeous golden-fronted woodpecker there for quite a while.
There are soooo many birds around our house, but most don't seem to stop at the birdbath. Maybe I should add a birdfeeder near it. Chuck is ready for hummingbirds with both of his feeders full in the front yard.

FREECYCLE AND FARMER'S MARKET

I hadn't remembered that today was the monthly Farmer's Market until I woke up this morning. Since I needed a few things from the store anyway, I decided to drink my coffee on the run and head to Beeville. I bought a nice hanging pot stuffed with four different herbs (parsley, oregano, thyme, rosemary) and then three small pots of individual herbs (varigated leaf celery, lemon balm, epizote). I guess it is too early in the season for many garden fresh vegetables to be sold, but there were carrots and spinach, there, at least in the Emma's Farm stall, where all the great herbs were sold, and the Amish stall, where they had a variety of other things too.
These chairs were ones I got from someone who posted them on Freecycle. It was 'sight unseen' but from the description, they sounded like just what I needed. It turned out that I was a little unsure of their sturdiness for sitting, so after spray painting them sunny yellow, I am using them for plant stands. I love them! On the right is the hanging pot of herbs and on the left, the larger pot has dark sweet potato vine and epizote, while the small one has a single salvia. I hope to get photos of the other recent plantings in a day or two.