Art for My Sake

The news for the first week of this new year has been truly frightening. So I am focusing on my personal good news—I finished my big collage. This was a project I started in August, or even before that if you count the time I spent repainting the studio and reclaiming my drawing table from the basement. It was down there disassembled since we moved here in 2010.

I had a large (3' x 4') poster of apples in a bowl that was hanging on the back porch. It was so faded you could barely see that they were apples. I got this brilliant idea that I would create a collage image of Lester's Flat, and use the mounted poster as a base since the frame was still in great shape.

I started with magazine pictures and other scraps of paper, but I didn't even have enough to do the sky. Then I switched to using my photos and printed them out on good paper. Luckily it was a good time of year for taking extra photos as needed, and I needed a lot.

There were very few blog posts during this time because it was just so much fun. It was sort of like recreating the blog on paper. My kitten helper nearly destroyed it more than once, and there was some cursing involved, but I was addicted. I spent a few hours a day, every day, for a few months.

Now this masterpiece is hanging inside. It reminds me of Grandma Moses, but someone else pointed out that David Hockney did a photo collage series in a similar style. Either way, I admire them both, I am in good company.

I hope to continue creating, avoiding the real news, and making my own good news.

Snow. No snow. More snow. And the Herkimers.

We had about a foot of snow. Then it rained and went away in time for a not-white Christmas. There was enough wind to scare the scaredy girl, Jessie. Then another foot of snow, followed by more rain yesterday. Then more snow and too much wind tonight. 

This is why we love Central New York. At least the snow looks prettier here with mountains in the background. And being retired makes life a whole lot easier. Especially because I forgot to get the Kia inspected in November. It’s hiding in the garage until January 2.

And in my lazy day at home, I discovered a gentleman who posted a pic on Facebook of the house at the end of our driveway back in 1901. He is related to the Herkimers, and the house and barn and our portion of the property are all part of what used to be the Herkimer Farm. I think it goes back to the 1700s, but still checking on that.

And just a few minutes ago I discovered that the current owner of the house out front is also related to the Herkimers. Interesting!

Christmas dinner

We had goose for dinner. Husband did all the work. His goose was cooked (perfectly). And dinner was pretty good too.

Merry Birdie Christmas!

I am baling on the real Christmas cards this year. If I get the cards tomorrow, I MIGHT mail a few to my local friends, otherwise y’all are gonna have to wait until next year.

This year’s offering is my little tufted titmouse, all dried off after the rain the other day, and dressed for the holidays by my magic BirdBuddy.

Our sincere wishes to friends and family that you all have a happy holiday!

Snow, rain, and a Toulouse goose (or 2)

We had about a foot of snow until yesterday when it warmed up to 50 degrees with plenty of sunshine. Today I can see green grass for the first time in a month, if not longer…

Then a wicked rainstorm blew through this morning and got my little tufted titmouse soaked.

I still haven’t gotten the Christmas cards back from the printer, so don’t count on seeing yours until after Christmas. And since the printer is a fair distance from here and very close to our favorite tree farm, we don’t have a tree yet either. It would be my first year without a tree if we don’t get one. I don’t want to break that tradition, but it could happen this year. 

And we are having our second year of a new tradition—Husband cooking a goose for Christmas Day. We bought our Thanksgiving turkey from a nice lady whose 4H kids raise these animals for the holidays. Tomorrow I am picking up 2 Toulouse geese, a heritage French breed, one for the freezer, one for next week. She charges half of what we paid a local butcher last year, so we had to get 2!

And now it’s snowing again. Goodbye grass.

Enjoy!

 

Art, dog, chickens

These are the 3 projects that have been keeping me busy.

Art: I should have spent a lot more time in the garden during those weeks of perfect sunny weather, but no, I was having too much fun working on a collage of everything Lester’s Flat. I had to put it back in the frame yesterday to prevent me from pasting over the already pasted over parts trying to make it perfect. 

Dog: In the last 2 weeks Jessie has been increasing her in-house time so much that I thought this was real progress. She spent an entire day snoozing in the house except for a few pee breaks. On the last outing, she decided that she didn’t need to come back in, even though it was freezing, pouring rain, and extremely windy. I couldn’t get her in until my final try at 4:30 am.

Everyone including the vet is saying just leave her outside. She has a bed on the porch where she can stay out of the rain, but they don’t see her staring at me, soaked and shivering, as if I am punishing her. This pic was at 8:30 pm.

Chickens: To add to the fun, we had a chicken massacre. Mink in the chicken house. A few days of patching up all the holes in the big coop only to have him break through a new hole and kill 5 at once. 

I am retiring the big coop. I can’t bear to see any more dead chickens. My little Omlet plastic coop with 5 chickens is going to have to be enough. 

Wall art and visitors

This very bizarre and intriguing reflection appeared on my wall the other day, coming from the sun through the windows early in the morning. The vase shape is from the lamp, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not figure out where the disc was coming from. By the time I found a metal lid on the bench in the foyer, the sun had changed directions. Maybe. Who knows?

Tim's sister and her hub came to visit from Pennsy last weekend. Cousin Greg came to join the festivities. 

Peters men don't smile for photos.

 

Bees, a butterfly, and working cats

We have had at least a week of unusually beautiful weather, mostly wasted by me working inside on an art project. The weather might be wasted, but I am totally enjoying my "big collage" project. 

I'll share when I have something to share.

Summer ended this week with a good frost killing off what was left of the tomatoes and flowers, except for a few in protected areas in the backyard. But now the sun and some warmth are back.

This goldenrod was populated by 4 bumblebees, 1 honey bee, 1 wasp of some sort, and a fly all at the same time. It is growing up in the middle of the firepit that I intended to weed and fire up today, but all the bugs were so happy. And so was I, just watching them.

The monarchs used to come around all the time and enjoy our very weedy acres. Lately I have seen very few, although I did steal some more milkweed seeds from my neighbor and start spreading them for next year.

Today was my first monarch sighting in quite awhile.

And the last pic is Martin and Monkey playing upstairs in my recently repainted "studio". the ladder was set up for the electrician to install some new light fixtures to replace the Ikea versions that I quickly purchased when the builder needed things I did not have.

Light fixtures and paint colors were very quickly chosen. Most were OK. I am just getting around to changing some of the ones I was never happy with.

 

The back 40 and the Great Flying Martini

I have been taking a lot of photos of the back 40 (more like 20 but who's counting) for a collage I am working on. I finally decided to be creative after (how many?) years of being retired. Of course I get started on this project just as the weather has turned to my perfect combination—mostly sunny days in the 60s and 70s and nice cool nights perfect for sleeping.

It is also the perfect time for finding something to do with an abundance of fall fruits like the elderberries, apples, and tomatoes—but no, I think I will go upstairs and play at being a real artist for the first time in too many years of being a real graphic artist. It is too much fun and very addictive.

And speaking of addictive behaviors: After so many purchases of cat toys that no cat is interested in, I found the Kong wand toy is the way to turn an energetic kitten into the Great Flying Martini. We have to hide the toy inside the desk so that he doesn't drag it around the house trying to get someone to play with him.

 

Fog and the star kitty

Changing weather means lots of fog—and I love fog!

The second foggy photo shows the redone porch. We had all the bad trim on the house replaced last August,  including all the railings on the back porch, but that meant that my plant shelf disappeared too. So our friend Tom kindly replaced it with one of his refurbished pallets. Cousin Chris donated the basil plants.

There's that little kitten who showed up at the Coffee House on Saturday night, totally stealing the show. Thankfully she found a home other than ours!