Summersgate - (Egg Shell)

I feel like I've come back from the dead. I had some kind of norovirus/stomach flu that started soon after I posted yesterday morning. Yesterday, before this bug started feels like it was weeks ago. It had me thinking about how many people die of dysentery every year (looked it up - 1.1 million) and how this must be similar to that (though norovirus doesn't last as long thank goodness). What a horrible way to die. This afternoon I started to feel better, drank some bullion and ate some jello and went for a walk down back with the dogs. When I got home I tried to remember how the sun looked falling on the hills farther down the valley.


Far Hills.

Being sick really made me appreciate NOT being sick and how much I love this life I have. And how sorry I am that other people aren't getting to live their own good lives.


The daffodils are coming up. Grandma's patch down over the hill. Not a very good pic. I tried to save something of it with photoshop. Just one bud so far.

The ARC "Community" mural at the Clarion Mall as it was being worked on yesterday. That's Dave in the middle.


End of the day. Dave and I were washing brushes while Chloe was putting some last touches on it. There will be 2 more scheduled days to work on it in a couple weeks. I plan to go.


News. Sometimes I feel like the news is trying to engulf me.

My sleep is messed up. Can't sleep at night, don't get naps in the day, I'm so tired I go to bed before 8 pm but then I wake up at 1 am. I had some crazy dreams this morning. Seems too hard to try and remember how it all fit together and make any sense of them. A dog (Trixy?) that was wrapped up in a blanket and shot 10 times, I was afraid to look inside to see if he was still alive, clumps of shit on the floor, water leaks in the roof and trying to find pots and pans to put under the leaks, Mr D our childhood neighbor coming into the house without knocking and finding me topless while I was mopping the bathroom, he turned around without speaking and left before I could say anything, I was a school girl and had two friends who were in love but finding it hard to get together - they had to sneak off the schoolbus at separate places and meet in secret that way.


A bright spot. The Entity this morning. I caught it during a moment of sun that was breaking through hazy clouds.

Meds all given, everyone fed, chicken butt washed and now drying in the bathroom.


Rocky eating her breakfast. I think I'll keep her isolated in the bathroom for awhile just to keep an eye on her.

Worm Moon. The latest full moon we just had is called the worm moon. I guess because this is the time of the year that worms are waking up after hibernating through the winter. Just in time for the robins' arrival.


Dave took the potatoes from the basement outside. They're ready to quit hibernating too.


On Monday Candy and I hiked the trail beside Two Mile Run in the park. It was neat because the ground underfoot was crispy and noisy with frozen leaves.


I finished a raccoon yesterday and started an opossum. I don't have a pattern for the opossum but I think I can change the raccoon to have a pink nose and feet, black ears and put on a pink string tail and it'll be a possum.

I dreamed last night about having a little kitten that I was taking care of. We were visiting David Z's mother's house. The house was a huge old mansion that was rotting and falling in. Our feet were going through the floorboards. The living room was like a big auditorium and the stage was covered in flowers in vases.  They had a bunch of older cats that lived there and my little cat was mixing in with them somewhere in the back rooms. It was time to go and I wanted my kitten back. I called it and found it again and carried it out. Put it down on the steps outside the house. Dream over. I think it's kinda easy to see the dream's connections to Skye right now, especially since David Z died of a cancer.

Growth. A better title was Explosion.

Why am I having so many visual migraines this week - why am I stressed? Could the US starting a war with Iran be part of it? It's always something. Humans.

Blood Moon. I did this on "marker paper". Marker paper is thin but surprisingly it doesn't bleed through when you use markers on it. Watercolors don't settle into it much either. I think I will stick some in my book and experiment with it for a while. I've been thinking about the total lunar eclipse that's coming Tuesday morning. It will be in totality from around 6 am to 7 am. That sounds easy to get up for (I'm usually awake by then anyway) but I'm doubtful that we will be able to see it here - clouds and rain are forecast. It's a pretty neat thing to see. The full moon usually looks almost flat because the sunlight on it is so strong, but when it's in total shadow it looks very 3 dimensional.


Yesterday we were driving home around sunset and there was a sundog in the sky. That always feels special.

Koi. The paint and sip picture for today. I made mine a bit too fat. They are Fat Koi. Before paint and sip Jan and I walked from the Oil City boat launch to the Venango Campus gazebo and back. Got some pictures of the ice that was left behind on the banks of the Allegheny. I didn't get to see it in person last week when the water was stuffed with huge ice chunks floating down the river, though Jan said that she and Leon drove over to see it - pretty neat.( Read more... )

After paint and sip we stopped at a new store called The Fallen Shoppe. All kinds of really cool arts and crafts. If I had the money or had the space in my house I'd find so many things. Nancy, one of these days you and I are going to have to visit Oil City together.

Things in Vision. Metallic markers over metallic paint. Lately I've been trying to figure out exactly what I see when I see nothing - when I'm looking at a blank white screen. I have all kinds of stuff that obscures my vision: vibrating dots, bright squiggles that shoot through, dark veils that drift down, patterns made in negative of what I most recently was looking at.


Baby fox.

No women's group today. I think Candy and I might go hiking. The snow is pretty much all gone. Around noon it'll get above freezing and there'll be sun.

Blue Field Entopic Phenomenon. Google says this about it: "The blue field entoptic phenomenon (or Scheerer’s phenomenon) is the normal, harmless perception of white blood cells moving as tiny, bright, rapidly moving dots or "sprites" in the retinal capillaries, particularly when viewing bright blue light."  Sometimes I enjoy looking at something bright like the sky so I can try to keep my eye on them. It's hard to keep them in the center of your vision. I didn't know what it was till today when I just now looked it up. I thought it was something related to floaters but it's something different.

Jan and I were supposed to hike today but I canceled. I think she was glad I did. It's cold. 17F but with windchill it's only 7. Looking forward to a pleasant day inside with crochet and netflix. 

The Entity this morning. I got out the z5 camera for a change. I can't remember the name of the weird lens that is on it. It's meant for an old style 35 mm camera. I might remember the name later. It's not on the lens.

Hazel didn't end up coming up yesterday so I have lots of free time until Sebastian's birthday dinner tonight. We're eating at the chinese buffet so that makes it easy for me - no cooking.


Bluetit that I finished yesterday. We don't have bluetits in america and I've never seen one in person but the pattern was in the book and it's pretty cute. Next I'd like to somehow change the pattern and make the bird be colored as a nuthatch or tree sparrow for Dave. Those are his favorite birds. He seems to be taking more of a delight in these little amigurumi things than I would have ever imagined. Usually he's not that interested in my artwork or the crochet things that I make. Oh, he's supportive for sure of everything I do but he is much more animated about liking the little crocheted creatures for some reason.


Snow. Almost all the snow had melted in the last couple days and then this morning when I woke up there was snow again. About 2 to 3". I actually gasped aloud when I saw it. I was all ready for Spring to be here.