Sunday, January 06, 2008

The road less traveled tends to be very muddy

It may be corny to invoke Thoreau, but that bit about the road less traveled is right on.
Having the house to myself, I did a butt-load of laundry and cleaning and tossing, then rewarded myself myself with a brisk walk.
Instead of heading out to a birdy area, I wanted to just walk. And I have been getting bored with my usual haunts. I decided to try out a new park.
Bass Island is just a bit down the way from Armleder. There were two choices...a nice, even, paved trail along a golf course or a gravelly, mud-filled path through the woods. You can guess which one I chose.
The term "Bass Island" should be taken lightly...this slightly raised bit of dirt is only an island when the Little Miami is almost flooded.
NO birds to speak of, really. But a lot of moths. MOTHS. In JANUARY. (It got to 60 degrees today). It was cute at first, but every corner I turned there were more and more. It became creepy.

May I show you a neat Christmas gift I received from Swami and Swamette?
An owl throw blanket.
It's too nice to put on our couch (due to cats, dogs and kids) so I hung it on the wall, like a tapestry.

Owl tapestry
So now, we can eat dinner while being disapproved of by owls.

screech, great horned snowy
Hmmmm...the screech owl is as big as the GHO and Snowy. A screech owl on steroids?
Hawk, short eared, great gray
Hmmmm...the great gray owl is smaller than the short-eared and the hawk owl? What color is the sky in this world?
Seriously, though....I love this blanket.

I snuck around the corner tonight to get this video of Isabelle. It's not like she is doing anything wrong or weird...she was painting. But she had the music turned up and she was in a zone.

I wonder if I can send her to Julie for a few years to learn about watercolor?


To end the weekend with a bang, here's a message from Queen:
Let's get this party started!!!

Let's get this party STARTED!!!!!!

7 comments:

entoto said...

Heck, can you send *me* to Julie for a few years? I'm sure my girls could raise themselves.... Isabelle is in the zone. What's she listening to?

Ohhh....we have heatlamp kitties, too. Very nice.

Kathi said...

Nice owl blanket. At least you could tell the different species, even if proportion was off. Maybe the smaller owls were digiscoped???

I walked around Bass Island recently, too. Very wet and not very birdy.

Um ... "The road less traveled"? It's Robert Frost, not Henry David Thoreau, as in:

"Two woods divereged in a yellow wood / And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler,..."

"...Two roads divered in a wood, and I /I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference."

~Kathi

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I can relate to your daughter. I sometimes crank up the music when I am painting. :)

Mary said...

We all need Julie in one way or another :o)

I like what you did with that throw. Can't have anything nice on the sofa with dogs, cats and kids.

Isabelle was in a peaceful, creative zone. The only thing that would have made the video more entertaining was to see the cat take a pouncing leap from the ottoman over to the table... I'm too damned sadistic! LOL! Woulda been great, though :o)

Susan Gets Native said...

Trixie:
You know, Whipple is a NICE PLACE TO LIVE. You could up and move there. Hint.
Isabelle was listening to 94.1. Top 40.

Kathi: Never claimed to be an English Major. I HAVE claimed to be on dope.

Lisa:
She was so in her own head. It was too cute.

Mary:
Bite your tongue. The carpet is disgusting enough without paint added. : )

The Swami said...

Susan,
Make multiple backup copies of that video of Isabelle. In a few years it will probably be as valuable as it would be to have a video of the young Rembrandt.

As it is, I think that there are only a few old, bent Polaroids of Rembrandt.

NatureWoman said...

I love the owl throw! And Isabelle painting in her zone is priceless!