DollsArtCats

The clumsy blue bird of happiness flew into my kitchen window Sunday, luckily not very hard, and he got moved to the brush pile while his mate scolded him. Here he is, giving me the eye: Watch where you are driving, dude! For some reason the cardinals don't hit my window here, though in New Jersey one actually started pecking the window where he saw his reflection, and I kept having to tape drawings of cats, owls, and clowns to the window to get him to stop. They are not the brightest of birds, except in color.

It turns out that the Aquascape place was just getting ready for a show yesterday, and today they were open and had polliwogs galore. Actually in Chicago they are called tadpoles, but I know a pollywog when I see one. We brought them back in a plastic bag just as if they were goldfish, got them acclimated to the pond, and then released them. Luckily it was a bit warmer today so I think they were more comfortable than they would have been--the tank they were in was nice and warm and it would have been a shock to go down 15 degrees. But they swam around pretty vigorously for the first couple of hours they were in there, and then seemed to settle down to nap on the gravel or haul themselved up on the side to contemplate evolving. (There were a couple with legs that looked about ready to go). Then Stripey noticed them so I am not sure what will come of that, but maybe she will decide they are too wet to mess with.

Easier to download link here (full size 1200 pixels across): Violets

This is the most comfortable pair of stays I have ever seen--and it just hooks in the front. If you look on the sidebar here at Kleidung um 1800, that is where the pattern and some instructions are. Look down each paragraph to the text in italics, that is the English text. This is also a great set of stays if you don't have anyone to help you get into a corset!

So this is pond number three, and instead of koi, we are going to fill it with polliwogs (J says hopefully we will fill it with water ) because at the end of the season the polliwogs, now frogs, can haul themselves out of the pond and I won't have to be there in January in a parka, checking the pond temperature and cleaning the filter. Polliwogs are available at two places locally, and when we went to look at the ones at the Aquascape place they were looking a lot like teenage polliwogs, so we realized we might have to hurry if we wanted the polliwog experience. (The polliwogs there looked a bit surly, too, like teenagers that have been grounded. They did look better than the ones at Wanamaker's, who plainly were past their sell-by date and looking quite poorly. So we are going tomorrow to get some plants and polliwogs from Aquascape. The pond should be de-chlorinated by then--I still have to order the aerator and some pond strips and install the barley bale. J did all the ...

She's so preeeety! I do need to find her a true black wig in this style--I thought it would be a bit darker than it was, though I love these soft curls. I also want it to stop raining so I can get some better photos! But I am so happy with her--Lachlana made her beautiful but kept her sweet expression!