Snake Skin

While working in the pasture a couple of days ago, I found a recently-shed snake skin. It was entirely intact, a perfect specimen. I thought it was so beautiful I just had to photograph it. Moments later, the neighbor's daughter, who'd been working in the pasture with me, found the actual snake. We know it's the same garter snake, because the snake skin had a wound that corresponded with the wound on the snake.

This was a big dude, over 2 feet long. When Zoey held up the snake for me to admire, I discovered the wound on its belly. He was a very handsome fellow. As Zoey held him, he flickered his red tongue at me. We carefully returned him to the pasture and wished him godspeed.

How to Make a Light Box

WHAT IS A LIGHT BOX?
Simply put, it is a photographer’s aid, a plain box with the sides and top cut out and covered with a light-diffusing fabric or translucent paper. Objects (such as this chess piece) photographed inside the box will have a clean and professional appearance with virtually no shadows.

MATERIALS

• Sturdy cardboard box
  
• Thin, white fabric (muslin, T-shirt, interfacing, old sheet, nylon) that allows light through
  
• Heavy white opaque paper (poster board, butcher paper, interfacing)
  
• Glue Stick
  
• Utility knife
  
• Scissors
  
• Marking pen
  
• Tape measure
  
• Swing-arm lamps
  
  

INSTRUCTIONS

Obtain a sturdy box, preferably with a lid. The box used for this demo was a Banker’s Box, but you can use any size box. Don’t go too small.

Cut out all 4 sides of the box with a utility knife, leaving 1½” rims. If you use a regular cardboard box, you’ll need to cut off the top flaps. If you use a Banker’s Box, it won’t have top flaps.

Line 3 sides of the box on the inside (or outside, if you’re lazy) by gluing white fabric or light-duty paper to the box. Leave 4th side open. That’s the opening where you’ll place the camera lens to shoot your pictures.

Carefully cut out the bottom lip at the FRONT of the box. You'll be inserting a long piece of paper next, and this will allow the paper to stick out the front of the box.
Cut heavy paper to fit into the bottom and back side of the box, starting at the front, and CURVING UP AND OVER the rim at the back. This will create a seamless backdrop, so be very careful not to crease or wrinkle the paper. Secure paper to the back of the box on the outside.

If using a Banker’s Box, cut out the center of the lid, leaving a 1½” rim. Cut fabric or paper to fit lid and glue to inside of lid. For regular cardboard box, just glue fabric or paper directly to top of box

Finished box. To take pictures, shine lamp through top of the box. If you need more light, shine additional lamps through the sides.

Sweet Puppies

This will be short and sweet, as I'm headed out to the pasture with my backpack sprayer of Roundup, on a mission to kill poisonous plants before my horses can get to them.

Last night my two dogs were sleeping together. As they always do when sleeping, they have to have a paw touching each other, or even better, their bodies touch. It is very endearing. So here's a cute picture of Nova and Asterisk sleeping on Nova's bed (which I made extra wide to accommodate both dogs). Isn't it just the sweetest picture?!!

Asterisk has her own crate to sleep in at nights, but during the day she is able to sleep anywhere she wants. And she almost always wants to sleep with Nova in her bed, one paw touching Nova. Or in the yard, one paw touching Nova. Or on the deck, one paw touching Nova. And so it goes.

OK, end of short post. Now I'm off to do battle with buttercups, tansy ragwort, bracken ferns, and dock.

Dog Under the Steps

The most bizarre thing happened last night. My Doberman, Nova--who never ever gets into trouble--got herself into a predicament she couldn't get out of. And it was morbidly funny. She got stuck under the steps that lead from the deck to the side yard. Somehow, Nova managed to wriggle underneath them, and then she couldn't get out.

The thing about Nova is she's a very quiet dog. She never whimpers or complains, even when she should. If I accidentally forget to bring her in after letting her outside in the rain to do her business, she will simply stand patiently at the door in a miserable huddle, waiting for me to remember her. She never utters a peep, even though she can see me through the slider, 5 feet away, sitting at the computer.

So when she got stuck under the steps, she never said a word, even though the slider was open and my desk is right by the slider. She was only 15 feet away. I could tell she'd been stuck for a long time, because you can see where she tried to dig her way out. Unfortunately, she had to dig while on her belly. There isn't room enough to stand up. Judging by how filthy she was, she'd been digging for a while!

The above picture is deceiving, because Nova is a lot larger than she looks in that shot. She has dug herself quite a deep hole, and most of her body is in it. There's also a big hole directly in front of the bottom step. I have no idea if she dug it trying to get under the step, or if the pup dug it after Nova got stuck. You can also see she knocked wood loose from the woodpile, probably while trying to get out.

All I can figure out is that somehow Nova got stuck between the gaps in the steps while trying to retrieve a tennis ball. I'd seen the bright pink ball days earlier. Should have removed it then!

The thing is, Nova is terrified of confined spaces and narrow gaps. She's lived in this house since a puppy, yet she still gets freaky about the hallway sometimes. Then she'll be stuck in the laundry room or bathroom or one of the bedrooms, because she's too afraid to come out into the hall. I have to snap the leash to her collar and lead her out. So it's a complete mystery to me how she ended up in such a wickedly confining space under the steps.

How did I get her out? I had to move the whisky tub on the left of the picture, so she could crawl out that way. Not an easy task, as the tub was full of dirt. I'll say one thing, though. That dog was mighty glad to be free of the steps! I'm still laughing over my first sight of her--me standing on the deck above the steps, and her forlorn head sticking out between the steps and looking up at me, with a pleading (and mortified) look on her face!

Leaves as Art

Yesterday at the monthly meeting of the South Sound Adobe Users Group I demonstrated how to make a light box, and then we raffled off three light boxes I'd made as give-aways. We had lots of fun, and several members had brought items to place inside the light boxes to practice photographing.

One of them, Larry Weakly, brought a most unique item: a skeletonized holly leaf that was utterly gorgeous. Being able to photograph it in a light box allowed for a nonintrusive background which highlighted the beauty of the leaf. In fact, I'm going to tromp down to the pasture later today to see if I can find any alder leaves that have been skeletonized over the past winter.










For those of you who aren't into photography, a light box is simply a box that has had the sides and top cut out, then covered with white, translucent fabric or paper (so as to allow light through). The inside is lined with white paper. Objects placed inside the box can be photographed without shadows and have a seamless background. Commercial photographers use this method to photograph jewelry, toys, etc., for advertisements.

I may be weird, but I think the skeletonized holly leaf is beautiful.

More Puppy Antics

Yesterday I spent the day with my friends, Jacquie Rogers and Judith Laik. Jacquie has an in-home theater, and we lay in recliners all day watching movies (something we do several times a year).

It was the first time I left the puppy in the fenced yard all day long without supervision. Those of you who read this blog regularly, or who follow me on Twitter will have a good idea what happened while I was gone all day. That's Asterisk above with a sock in her mouth. I was taking pictures today of the socks she'd pulled off the clothesline the day before. She grabbed one and I snapped the picture. The massacred foam pad is something else she had taken off the line. By the time I arrived home, she'd gotten into a lot more things! Notice the picture of her looking so innocent in the foreground, while in the background lie the remains of a hanging wooden planter she had destroyed, along with plastic pots for seedlings, and ivy leaves she'd yanked off the ivy vine.

Here's a partial list of what she did:

• pulled a hanging planter off the deck table (where it was sitting, prior to being hung) and dismantled the planter and spread dirt and plants all over)
  
• chewed on the deck, the steps, the gate, the porch railing, the ivy covering the railing, and probably lots of other stuff I haven't found yet


• pulled an old rubber sink mat from the garbage and chewed it up


• ripped a pair of my socks off the clotheline


• shredded a blanket.
  
• knocked over a water bucket. Knowing her propensity for this, I'd put out two water buckets, since it was a hot day. The other bucket was fine


• climbed INTO a whiskey barrel planter and flung dirt at least 50 yards away. Dead plant bodies lie all over the yard


• got into my empty pots and planters that were neatly stacked on the deck table. She scattered them all over the yard
  

The bottom two pictures show the steps she chewed on, and the rubber sink mat she demolished. You know what, though? I'm just laughing. I see the humor in what she does. It's not malicious. It's just pure puppy fun. And if you can't have a little fun in life, then what's the use of living?

Pretty, Fluffy, Green

The picture to the left is a vase of branch tips from a Douglas fir tree. I love this time of year when all the evergreens are sporting new, lime green growth. I especially love how the tips of the fir trees are this lush green and the new growth is very soft to the touch.

Don't they look pretty in the vase? See how the tips curl inward. The smell is divine. When I pick them, I strip off the needles from the stem before placing them in water. By the time I'm finished stripping off the lower part of the stems, my hands are sticky with pitch and the house is filled with the Christmas scent of evergreens.

I often put Doug fir branches in tall vases and scatter them about the house. They will last a long time as long as you don't let them run out of water. (They're thirsty and will drink half a vase of water in 24 hours)

I used to pick huge armloads of salal and stick them in a bucket of water, and then stick the bucket in a decorative basket on the floor. It looked like I had an expensive house plant, albeit a large one. I did that when I was too poor to afford house plants. Salal will last a very long time this way. I've had some last as long as 6 months in a bucket or vase of water. Every once in awhile I'd change the water completely when it got gunky, but aside from keeping the vase filled with water, that's all I did. I used to receive numerous compliments on my salal "house plant."

And because I'm in a green mode, I've tossed in a few more pictures of things green. The upper picture is a close-up of a dock leaf. The lower picture is an ivy close-up.

That's all. Just a short post because I wanted to share my pretty picture of the Doug fir tips with you. As I type this, the fir tips are on my desk, wonderful smells emanating from the vase.

Sunday Puppy Humor

This is just a "for fun" post. I enjoy humorous pictures, and have numerous shots of my dogs being silly and funny. In other words, typical dogs. Throw a puppy into the mix, and you have nonstop humor (though often seasonsed with healthy doses of exasperation!).

The Beware of Dog picture shows Asterisk with her head through the porch gate (like a cow at her stanchion, waiting to be milked!). The sign was given to me by my sister, who has my same warped sense of humor.

The next picture shows Asterisk trying to lick peanut butter off her face. She was making such contorted faces and looked so funny, despite the fact her dark, slanted eyebrows always make her look like she's scowling.

The final picture is Asterisk with a plastic water bottle. She far prefers toys that are made of plastic because they make such delightful crackly sounds when crunched.

Asterisk, the Monster Demon Annilhilator Puppy

Just look at that sweet Boxer face on the left. That's Asterisk with her big Doberman sister, Nova. Don't they look cute together? Doesn't Asterisk look innocent?

Don't let that puppy face fool you. She's at it again. Her name's Asterisk, but it should be Destructo. It's actually quite funny. She has learned the joys of ripping things off the clothesline and subjecting them to dirt, dog poop, grass stains, dog slobber, you name it.

Thankfully, today the only things on the clothesline were dog blankets and socks. I can see how she got the blankets off the line--they hung down within reach of curious doggy mouths. But the socks? She must have taken a running jump to get high enough to nab them. And she got 4 of the 5 socks off the line.

Thank goodness she isn't a destructive chewer. She never shreds the stuff she takes off the line. She just drags them around and tosses them in the air.

Time for me to get out the old shock collar. It's imperative she learn that taking things off the clothesline will have shocking consequences. (insert sound of evil laughter) How can something with such a sweet face do such diabolical things? I guess it's all part of being a puppy.

So, what's left on my clothesline? One lonely sock, which she was apparently unable to get at. Doesn't it look forlorn, all by itself?

Spring Flowers

Pat Rice posted a picture of her lovely clematis on her blog site, and lamented the fact commenters couldn't leave pictures of their own in the comments section. I agree. I would love to see other people's flower pictures! I love looking at (and smelling) flowers, so I decided to post a few of my own here. I hope you enjoy them!

The yellow picture is a perennial called Basket O' Gold that is one of the first things to bloom in the spring. It cascades over the railroad ties in my landscaping in wild abandon. Their bright yellow flowers are so cheerful. This is a hardy plant that thrives on neglect.

The purple picture is the clematis of a friend. I love how the ruffled edges of the flower remind me of the ruffle on the hem of a Regency debutante's dress.

The green picture isn't of flowers, but of bracken ferns. I liked the pattern of the ferns as well as the bright green color. In case you couldn't tell, I like doing close-ups. *g*

The single flower in the next picture is a columbine, another cheerful little perennial that is blooming in my whiskey planter tub right now.

And the last picture is yet another hardy and determined little flower, the first harbinger of spring: a primrose. These primroses have survived hail, snow, sleet, and driving rain, and don't seem adversely affected by any of it.

Oh, wait, I have one more picture to post. The pink rose is the only rose plant in my garden. I call it my Rose Stick Plant, because it is just one single stalk that sticks out of the ground and it never branches out, nor does it produce more than one single pink rose each year. Originally, it produced a single blue rose, a hybrid I bought through mail order and which I highly prized for its rarity. Then one year the goat I used to own ate the rose down below the graft point, and now all I get is the pink rose, since the stalk the blue rose was grafted to was for a pink rose. Alas.

So these are just a few of my flower pictures.

Bad Dog, Good Dog

You've heard the old bad-cop-good-cop routine. Well, apply that to dogs, if you will. I have a 4-year-old Doberman bitch that couldn't be more perfect. Nova is so well-behaved and inobtrusive that when I'm invited to visit friends and family, they tell me to bring her along.

And then there's Asterisk, my 7-month-old Boxer pup. For the past several days she has been trying my patience to the limit. If there is something to get into, she's gotten into it with a vengeance. A few days ago she flipped an entire bowl of kibbles with her foot, just like tiddly-winks, and shot kibble all over the kitchen floor. It was like someone dropped a bag of marbles. She has utterly destroyed her very expensive high density foam crate pad & cushy afghan I'd placed on top for extra comfort. That's the picture, above.

She knocked over a potted plant and it smashed to smithereens. Dirt and pottery bits all over the place. Then she had the audacity to steal the little plastic dish thing you put under plants to protect furniture (picture on left).

She has chewed a piece of plywood into oblivion, leaving it hanging in strips. She has pulled the bark off a small decorative log I was using as plant stand on my deck. She is still not housebroken, and must be let out every 15-20 minutes or I'm cleaning up accidents.

My exasperation with her is at an all-time high. And just about the time I wonder why I thought it would be fun to own a puppy again, she comes into my bedroom where I'm working at my craft table, creating cards, and lies down at my feet, just to be near me. And my heart melts as she puts her chin on my foot and sighs happily.

Puppies. They're as bad as children.

Beautiful Bounty of Flowers

This will be a short and sweet post, but I couldn't let the day go by without showing you a picture of my bouquet of lilacs and pink rhododendrens. Isn't it a pretty bouquet? (Even if I did jump the gun and pick the lilacs and rhodies before they were fully open!) I love flowers, and I'm grateful that lilacs bloom so early. This bouquet is sitting on my desk as we speak, and the scent is filling the room. Bliss. Pure bliss!

Once More, With Feeling

Once more, I am off to the paint store for more paint chips. I've decided the previous colors I narrowed my choices down to were depressing. I want something different, something to make my house stand out from the crowd. So I'm going with something radically different. I think I'll look at some powder blues and peaches. I'm leaning toward peach, as I think it will go well with the hideous brown roof. And hey, maybe I'll use powder blue accents! Now there's an idea! Lightness instead of the drab dark colors I'd been experimenting with.

Now, of course, I'll have to use several coats of paint to cover the huge swatches of dark green and brick red that I'd already tested on the house. Maybe I should just do something fun and paint each board a different color. But then the neighbors would complain. Ah well, I guess I'll stay traditional, but hopefully with a little style. No matter what I choose, it'll cost money!

So wish me luck. Here I go . . .

Decisions, Decisions!

What color to paint the house? I've been collecting paint chips from Lowe's and Home Depot for weeks, trying to find something that complements the odd redish-brown color of my new roof. Mind you, when I looked at the small roofing sample, the color looked like it would go well with my taupe house. I couldn't have been more wrong. For one thing, a small sample gives you no idea what an entire roof of the same color will actually look like. What I thought was a subtle neutralish brown with a faint red cast, is now a glaringly redish-brown roof that clashes horridly with taupe. It doesn't help that brown is not my favorite color.

So I've been agonizing over house colors. I so don't want a brown house! Thankfully, there is enough red in the roof that I can lean toward brick colors. I also tried several shades of dark hunter green. I've finally narrowed the choices down to the following:

Green: Charcoal Smoke; Gunmetal Gray, Northwest Green

Brown: Mayan Red, Rich Chocolate; Leatherbound; Wine Barrel

Of the above colors, there is only one truly perfect match: Rich Chocolate, which is a rich dark brown with a red cast to it. I'd almost call it a burgundy. The problem is, I need a second color to go with it, because of the way the house is constructed. That's an old photo above, before I had the new roof installed. As you can see, the upper half of the house has vertical boards. The lower half has horizontal boards. I think it would look weird to paint both the upper and lower parts the same color. I've tried a dark hunter green for the bottom, with Rich Chocolate for the upper part, but it looks weird. Then I tried a lighter shade of Rich Chocolate for the bottom, but it looked orange. Next, I tried a hunter green--upper half, and Rich Chocolate--bottom half. Ugh. Then Charcoal Smoke with Gunmetal Gray. Blah.

And then, of course, I have to choose a color for the trim around the windows. I have no idea what colors I'll go with, but in the meantime, the sample colors I've smeared across the front of the house give it a dilapidated patchwork appearance. And as much as I dislike brown, I'm afraid the overwhelming choice so far is Rich Chocolate. Now, to decide on the complementary colors . . .

If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Ada Lovelace, Inventor of the Computer

I've logged on every single day since my last post, trying to think of something new to post, without luck. Nothing's been happening that is blog-worthy. But today on Twitter I came across this link: http://tinyurl.com/cngrar

It is an utterly delightful comic about Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, post-Regency inventors of the computer. There are several laugh-out-loud moments. It's a fun and clever and literary comic! So that's my gift to you today. It was a gift to me, and now I'm gi

ving it to you.

Weather report: It has been raining raining raining. That's all it ever does, is rain. When oh when will we ever see some sunshine? I love rain, but this is ridiculous. I don't think I've ever seen a more rainy winter and spring.