This little cutie hangs out in our back yard. John was watering the plants this morning and disturbed all the lizards and our little toadie came out from his hiding spot on the lanai. He decided that UP was the best way to get away from the water
He lets himself in and out of the screen house and occasionally, like this morning, we had to let him out. John opened the door and he hopped out. We cracked up. It’s like letting the dogs out. He’ll go do his thing and when it gets hot he’ll bury himself in the damp soil. We find him occasionally when weeding. He gets back in the screen house on his own and the whole process begins again.
That’s the beauty of this planet. All creatures, great and small.
Every year I wonder what to get my hubby for Father’s Day. Usually he insists that we not get him anything. Like, that’s not going to happen. My daughter got him this cool power washing tool. I ordered my husband a mug from CafePress with a map of our neighborhood on it that I made for They Draw and Travel. Then I wondered what else to give him.
I picked up a few other things, but the one item that I made especially for him was a subject that he and I frequently discuss and that’s egrets and herons. We have so many egrets and herons and morphs that it is a little tough to keep up. SOOOOO, I made him a T-Shirt with egrets. (The shirt with herons will probably be a Christmas gift.)
I was looking for a way to identify egrets and herons and it can be a little confusing. We were frequently checking the internet when we see one that isn’t obvious at first. (We really got excited when we saw our first spoonbill.) The shirt is a visual reminder of which egret is which and saves on pulling out our phones, but he doesn’t wear it all the time, so then he’ll yell, “Get the Shirt Get the Shirt!” when we are out without the shirt. We’re a bit crazy.
I ordered the shirt from Cafe Press. He’s being wearing it since Father’s Day. It’s been washed many times and I noticed that it is starting to fade. The mug is amazing, however I have to give Cafe Press a FAIL for the T-Shirt. I made my husband a shirt last year from Zazzle and it hasn’t faded. I may order him another one from Zazzle.
Here is the Egrets, if you would like this on an item on Zazzle, please let me know and I will add it:
I haven’t posted these in a while. Sometimes, I put something on my page that I am not really sure that I want to share yet until I am able to follow through on that little box that could lead to something else.
A nice thing about Florida is the plants can grow year round…..However, the squirrels are also here year round. They stole a baby eggplant and buried it. John found it when he was watering the garden.
Yesterday morning, when John and I were looking at our few meager veggie plants. I looked up at the screen house and I said to hubby, “What is that in the corner of the screen house?” Earlier, two squirrels were chasing each other on top of the screen house….now we know why….one of them must have stolen a green bell pepper and left it in the corner of the screen house, or dropped it and it rolled to the corner, but there is was, in all it’s green glory, just short of being usable. Now we need to get some garden netting, brats.
This morning, I was outside doing my writing and drawing routine, and the sky started to darken. I said to hubby that I think the 20% chance of thunderstorms is going to be 100% chance. he made a comment about 20% chance usually is bad news and 80% means we’re getting nothing. Well, we got the thunderstorms at the 20% chance and they started around 9-ish and round 4 is rumbling in the distance and it is after 2. So much for the 20% chance of T-storms today.
A rare treat, the new spread for this week. I tried going back to just boxes, but they were boring.
Each month, Sketchbook Skool does a quick You Tube Live so people can get together and do a “goals” page in their sketchbooks or journals. Morgan, from Sketchbook Skool, times the sessions and she also provides some prompt ideas. It is actually a helpful 10-20 minutes a month.
Folks, I am working on putting a portfolio together and I am taking an illustrator’s workshop. My assignment this week is to take the character in the story and draw up a sheet with expressions for one of the characters. My character is a balloon named Bob.
Here is what I have so far….please, if you know my work well, suggestions are helpful. If you don’t, please scroll through my blog or Instagram to compare this to my other work. Comments would be extremely helpful. The original was done in pastel and then I tweaked it with Procreate. I have until Sunday to submit the piece but I held back to review it a little more.
Two of my grandsons saw it already and were able to guess the emotions. I guess I should have asked the 6 year old what he would add to this. LMAO
We sat in the car by the Indian River as Isaias was trekking north. I sketched this to the patter of raindrops and to “Fluffy” the comedian, being totally snarky about his show in Delhi.
We had Tropical Storm Isaias visit. It was supposed to be a hurricane but it sort of fizzled off shore for a while. We put the shutters up but we really didn’t need them. We only got a little rain.
The only interesting/frustrating thing was why couldn’t they pronounce the name correctly and why would they pick a name that was so confusing.
Living in Florida has a lot of pluses. It’s almost always sunny. It’s warm year round. You can eat outside on Christmas Day. Lots of great flora and fauna. The people are nice and friendly. The lizards are insect control so they are always welcome in our screen house.
The down side are the damn fire ants and in my part of Florida, trying to see something in the northern evening sky when there are storms every day. John and I have been trying to spot Neowise and we get wispy glimpses but we haven’t seen it like many others have. We can see Jupiter just fine every night but Neowise is in the North and it seems the north always has cloud cover.
We’ve been driving out to places where there is no light pollution. Then we get bit by mosquitoes…ok, bugs are another minus.
This is pretty much the best that we have seen it. I “winged” the whole scene…..
Playing with my character while listening to Don Henley….. The red balloon has his hair slicked back with his Wayfarers on and he’s off to join the Boys of Summer.
