First sightings and riddles

 Yesterday I saw the first baby rabbit of the year. Not sure if he should run or not 

So he side-eyed me a while before he ran.

And here's the first ladybug of the year, taking care of the rapidly growing hibiscus 

See how the newly moved pale green coleus is responding to outdoor light 

You can see the darker green with red streaks in the new growth.  The other flower seeds are breaking through nicely, and I'm hopeful for a flower garden this year again.

Meanwhile back indoors, I did find the name of my Corelle pattern 

I didn't realize my current plates are so old, since I got them at a thrift store.  Knowing the pattern name took me down a lovely path of finding there's probably no teapot, mainly dishes. But I found some other makes of tiny teasets, some kid size, some miniature. One pink with white dots! Oh, the temptations..

So I decided not to shop, but create a mismatch shabby chic tea tray. 

Yellow tin tray from Freecycle, teapot from Asian store, milk pitcher gift of a friend, cup you've met, batik tray cloth, round beatup Tunisian teapot holder. It's a set! Well each piece has a history, so that counts. The cup is right for my hand, nice handle design.

For people still wondering about the riddle, read on. If not, scroll past.

"Brothers and sisters have I none 

But that man's father is my father's son."

So the speaker establishes he has no brothers nor sisters. The sisters bit is just a false clue, disregard. 

Now go to the end where he says my father's son. That can only be the speaker himself. No other sons in the family. 

Then see the reference to that man's father -- he  himself is his father's son. So he must be "that man"'s father. So "that man" is his son.

Now make a cup of tea and rest your riddler!

Happy day everyone, today I'm crocheting to Rumpole, just found some audio uploads with Leo Mckern, who played Rumpole, narrating. 

Reading the rest of  Grantchester on my Kindle, and the Angela Thirkell Old Bank House. A jigsaw puzzle might happen. And a Grantchester DVD matinee. Rainy sunny chilly today.

Nerd delight, stealth art and the intersection of art and cooking

 I thought if we have any number nerds among us, you'd like this

And, before you say nobody puts the date year first, in fact people who work with big databases do. It's just a fun thing, like Pi(e) Day and May the Fourth be with you.

Earlier today I seized the day to catch the fall Japanese maple in sunshine. 

It clouded over soon after, but I made a composition here, indoors.

I like the contrast in shape and direction of the ginger foliage and the oak grain. Color too. Not that color matters here. Shapes and relationships are what this composition is about, not what it depicts. 

All my photos are carefully composed and cropped to say something beyond what they're showing.  Just a word to the sharp of eye!

Then, since some of the tips I've been getting about the little derm surgery next week, talk about soft food, to minimize chewing, the stitches being on my  face and better not disturbed, I thought soup.

The sugar pumpkin you last saw outside with the wooden cat, is now soup, along with cashews, lentils and celery, using up the vegetables before tomorrow's Misfits box arrives.

In the course of boiling it to make easy cutting and seeding, the long stem broke off and it's so pleasing a grainy shape, that I thought I'd do a bit of handmade paper molding.

I have quite a bit of cotton linters pure white paper, and I sprayed a thin sheet arranged over two bits of stem with clear water. 

It will be a few days before it dries completely, at which point I can lift it off and see how it worked. Material for future composition maybe. This is how I molded those earlier gold pieces you saw on one of the now completed figure series.

And since we're in the neighborhood of outdoor art and natural materials, here's the finished exhibited work from the rock filled cherry tree caper 

It's a triptych, said the gallery manager grandly. All framed on one backing.

Center is an ink drawing mounted on an image transfer, left and right are image transfers of my film photos of the rocky tree, left just of the tree, right the tree in context. 

And while I'm at it, here's a work to which I added bits later, designed to hang outdoors unprotected on the fence, for birds and squirrels to play with. 

Carolina wrens had a grand time climbing in it and swiping bits in spring for nest material. Squirrels climbed and yanked and chewed and had a good time. It's knitted, using several techniques, the light part parcel string, the dark part garden twine. 

It lasted about three years before weather and wildlife reduced it to rags, at which point I hung it in the woods.

And here's an indoor piece, exhibited years ago in some show or other. 

Twining, knotting with lark's head knots, a favorite, knitted using both string and copper wire, handmade beads. It's built on my late beloved cockatiel Emily Hope's swinging perch, that shape you see, a kind of shrine to her. 

So that's where we are, after I got up feeling glum, nothing to do, nothing to write about, before a nice chat with a neighbor and her dog, a brief encounter with a ladybug in the kitchen, now resident in the houseplants, and a good walk, set me up much better.