This and That: A Blog

  The weather's been strange.  A few days ago it was nearly 90°, then yesterday only had a high of 60° with rain.  The evening before was so windy it blew down my peas (there weren't doing well anyway), and two panels of a sort of half fence separating the back yard from the far back yard.  The section on the left was down too, but I propped it back up to get it off the plants.    The tomatoes were loving the heat. They have grown SO much since May 18th's post !   The iris are gone and daylilies are starting to take their places.  Good, I like them better than iris, and they have a much longer bloom time.  On the left is Black-Eyed Stella, and I forget what the one on the right is.   This bee was getting some last minute nectar from the wild blackberries before the rain started in earnest.  I tried to get rid of the blackberries, and was successful for quite a few years, then they snuck in among the roses and I didn't noti...

Two from Goodwill.  I found a limited edition print by Grace Bentley-Scheck .  The technique she used is called collagraph , a print made by adhering textured materials to a plate (rigid surface), and when inked and pressed creates a print with different textures and surface levels.  Another Angle , by G. Bentley-Scheck, 7/74.  It is print 8/100.  The lower the number the closer to the artist's vision, so 8 out of 100 is a good spot.  The artist died last September, not noted in the link information.  $2.24 After reading about collagraphs and that the artist used that technique a lot, I felt (oh, don't worry, I was gentle and it's sealed in a gallery plastic wrapping on cardboard!) it and so much of it is raised.  If the price is right I like to pick up signed and numbered prints in case they are "by someone" worth selling. This is, but for now I'll enjoy it.   I also picked up this  1940s cross-stitch in frame made in the 30s or 40...

  Spintop Mango Blanketflower I bought two of these at the FFA sale last year.  I missed the sale this year, they had it earlier than usual and I didn't check their site until too late.  One lovely lettuce that snails didn't get.  Lots of Hood June-bearing strawberries.  Small but very sweet. I don't know where this foxglove came from, I've never planted any.  The photo on the right shows the hole nectar robbing bees left.  Bees to large to get to the nectar will chew holes.  Other bees are learning  that the holes make it easy to reach the nectar and using them, which skips pollination.  Some populations of foxglove and columbine have reduced numbers of seeds.  I love black cumin.  It's not a cumin at all, it's related to love-in-a-mist.  That's pretty easy to tell!   This is love-in-the-mist.  As fat as this bumblebee is, it has no trouble getting into the Dazzler penstemon blooms. 

  Q , that next to hardest letter of the alphabet ( X is the hardest).  That's the letter today for Sunday Stamps .   Q uail, a common Q .  This is the Gambel's q uail, native to the Sonoran desert of the U.S.  Or, it's  supposed to be Gambel's q uail, but it looks much more like California q uail, which I am familiar with. U.S.A. 1999, part of the Nature of America series. Q uoll, a lesser known Q animal.   Q uolls are carnivorous marsupials in Australia and New Guinea. There are six species, four in Australia, two in New Guinea. This is the Spotted-Tail q uoll, an Australian type.  I like this stamp, it looks like an underwater scene!  Australia 1997, from the Nocturnal Animals series.  I have another from the series for Y , equally looking like a tide-pool view. That's it, just the two.   Next week is R , an easier letter for me!

 Sugar Snap Pea Shadows 

  We've got Beaches today for Thursday Postcard Hunt.  Bermuda Pismo Beach, California  Cape Cod, Massachusetts  The beach and seawall at The Grand Hotel , Cabourg, France c1912-1914 Next week we'll finish up May with Forests.

 I found what I think are some nice things to share this week!   First, from St. Vincent de Paul, my first salt and pepper shakers in the nodder form.  They're the cutest shakers I've ever seen!  I was happy to pay $8 for them.   They are older than I expected, made in Japan by the Takito Company (1880-1948) between 1935 and 1945. Moving on the a Goodwill store.  A Makonde, Tanzania, carving from mpingo (African blackwood). The dark wood isn't painted or stained, it's the heartwood, the pale is the sapwood, the live outer layer under the bark. It's about 6" high and probably made in the 1960s. In the 70s they began using power tools, and this shows chisel marks. There are several different types of these carvings, this is the Binadamu, realistic human figures representing everyday people.  I only paid $3.88!  Now to the Goodwill Outlet, or Bins. A fabulous birdhouse! It's folk art, most likely done in Connecticut or upstate New York, pa...