Spike Attacks!

I would be remiss if I did not do a post about Spike. He's not our cat, but we are in love with him. This juvenile cat belongs to a neighbor a couple of houses down. He has the best personality of any cat ever, and he's always hanging out in our yard. He usually makes his appearance by sneaking up and flopping his body down on your feet, and rolling over on his back to stare up at you. I never see him coming. He has this confidence about him; as if he's totally oblivious to the fact that he might not be welcome. All the neighbors love him. Even our cats like him. So this morning, he decided to attack this dead plant in the planter. I wish I'd had video, but grabbed my camera anyway.

Led

We're pretty excited around these parts -- Led Kaapana is coming to Sebastopol to do an intimate concert at the new Blue Sky Center - the electric vehicle place in the old Ford Dealership. It's coming up pretty quick - July 31, so I'm helping my friend Ross with some publicity. Hope to see you there!

Mimosa

Our Mimosa tree is in full bloom right now. I'm fascinated with the blossoms. My Dad planted this tree from a seed.

Audubon Ranch, Bolinas

There's something I love about going somewhere I've never been before; especially if it's right here in our own backyard. With that in mind, Sibyl and I have decided to make a concerted effort to get out and hike or bike a new place at least once per month. We keep a list of ideas, and figure with all the beautiful parks here in the North Bay, we'll never ever run out of places to try. Today we went to the Audubon Ranch at Bolinas Lagoon to see the baby egrets. They hatched in April, and have been nesting - all 100 or so of them - in some tall trees on the property all this time. They are now as large as the adult birds, but have not yet learned to fly. They are practicing, though! They fly up and come right back down into the tops of the trees. The moms & dads fly in with gullets full of fish, frogs, etc. that the babies fish out of their throats. There is a trail that climbs the side of the canyon, with a large wooden viewing platform up above the level of the nests. Docents are stationed there, with extra binoculars and spyglasses mounted to the ledge aimed at all the action. It was quite an amazing and beautiful experience.

Sketchcrawl 23 San Francisco

Saturday was the 23rd Worldwide Sketchcrawl. It was at the Presidio in SF, which was an amazing location. I'm guessing about 40-50 people showed up at 11am, then everyone dispersed to sketch for the day; some staying in groups, some solo. Sib and I took advantage of the opportunity to get in a little exercise,and hiked up to "Inspiration Point." We were treated to not only a great view of the bay, overlooking the Palace of Fine Arts & Alcatraz, but also an Andy Goldworthy installation, "The Spire". The trails were so beautiful and almost deserted; you could hardly tell you were in the city. The day flew by, and everyone seemed to have a good time. At the end of the day, we met up at the Starbucks in the Letterman Digital Arts Center. Man, what a gorgeous campus.




Mary and Amelia


Andy Goldworthy's "Spire"


Inspiration Point


My drawings for the day





The gathering at the end of the day. Happy group!

Feltfarm Sign

I needed a sign for my shop. OK, so I don't really have a shop, but whatever. So I made this. I'll use it for craft fairs and farmers markets or wherever I happen to be selling my stuff. I photographed it in our sunflower "forest" we have sprouting out in the front yard.



Here it is closer up



While I was out there, I noticed this pumpkin blossom. The pumpkin plant has snaked itself into the warm, humid, shady area in the sunflower forest, and is wrapping its tendrils around the sunflowers. I had to nip that one in the bud before some sunflowers got hurt.





Yesterday I saw an ad on Craigslist for old apple boxes from a farm here in Sebastopol. Dave & I drove over there with the idea that maybe we could re-purpose them into a shelving unit for our bedroom. That didn't pan out, because they were a little too rough. But we bought one anyway, because the chickens need more nesting room. Ginger took to it right away.

Henrietta Fancy-Pants

I just finished Henrietta. I started her on our road trip to Utah. (needlefelting is the BEST travel activity for long, boring stretches) I got quite a bit of her basic shape done by the time we'd crossed Nevada, and worked on her here & there almost every day of the trip after that. Working on the finishing touches has taken me till now. She is life-sized, and solid wool felt. She is extremely firmly felted, and weighs 13 ounces. 13oz is a LOT of wool. I changed her color 3 times; finally settling in on this beautiful gray Navajo Churro wool I found in Moab. I think I'll put her in the Harvest Fair.