When you’re having fun…Only a few more days of MAM posts. It went by so fast. In the blink of an eye. I’ll miss creating posts and being in touch with all of you wonderful sponsors.
My tenant’s grandma gave me this idea for a post. The boy is about to turn sixteen. He is becoming a lovely young man.
How time flies when you are watching kids grow up. Before you know it they’ve become adults.
Here’s a clip from a sappy song from Fiddler on the Roof that seemed appropriate for today’s post. Only problem is I couldn’t figure out how to turn off the loop on it so you’ll just have to turn off the clip when you are tired of hearing it over and over. I didn’t want to post the whole recording of the song because it IS SO SAPPY but you can listen to it on YouTube if you like.
Here’s a dragonfly I drew whose life is short-lived but packed full of adventure.
When not living as an underwater nymph (larva) a dragonfly’s winged aerial stage of life is usually around five weeks or less – just enough time to catch and eat thousands of bugs through their amazing feats of aerial mastery driven by the ability to move each of their four wings independently, allowing for extreme maneuverability and precision in flight. Just enough time also to mate and lay eggs (at least the females) before they die (if they don’t get eaten by their many predators first). What a life!
Long term memory, Short term memory. As I get older the long term memory function works better than the short term.
My clogged carotid arteries don’t help either.
Nope, no easy solution.
So let’s journey into the memory part of my brain.
What is he doing there? Installation in the Japan Society Museum. I thought it looked kind of like entering into a brain.
Short term memory…
Fishing for letters and words. Can’t remember a word? Just google it.
Long term memory…
Still fishing but these memories do come back more easily. Having photos doesn’t hurt. People, places, events; they’re all stored away in the brain through the senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. (Hurray for the senses!)
Sometimes I can remember my dreams. Maybe I will tonight.
Wow! Coming down the MAM home stretch. Good time for showing sunsets. So many people like to take photos of sunsets. I’ve taken a bunch as well. Here they are in a video.
And here’s a sunset picture I made with water color and paper cuts:
Father and child fishing at sunset
This is a sunset reflected on the hood of my car:
I was waiting by a field to watch the woodcocks do their mating dance which happens only right before dusk. It’ll be happening soon this Spring. I hope I get to see it this year. It’s tricky because you have to be in the right place just when the sun has set but there’s still enough light so that you can see them.
The prompt today was stained glass. Well, butterflies and moths remind me of stained glass so I’ll take it from there.
I love watching and photographing them (if I can, they’re hard to photograph because they’re always flitting about).
A butterfly in the hand is worth two in the bushOr maybe a moth…Prometheus and Cecropia.
Here are some butterflies nectaring:
Monarchs, Fritillaries, Admirals and Blues (even though this Blue is white)Love the soft colors of the Rosy Maple Moth (aptly named) and the Sphinx Moth; so delicate.
Some Victorian artists liked to make art out of butterfly wings –
I think they have a number of samples of these in the Fairbanks Museum.Here’s my version.
Or this one
More of an assemblage than a picture. I like to collect butterfly wings on the road. The butterflies are dead of course.
Or this:
Prometheus moth at my kitchen window. It would like to get out I am sure.
When butterfly collectors catch them they paralyze them and then pin them. Kind of gruesome I think but I guess if you want to preserve them…
This picture reminds me of acupuncture, yikes!
Butterflies and moths are famous for their metamorphosis, the way they change from one form into another as they mature. From egg to caterpillar, and caterpillar to pupa in a cocoon or a chrysalis depending if they’re a moth or a butterfly. In the chrysalis or cocoon, they lose their caterpillar body to overwinter until they are ready to eclose (emerge) as a butterfly or moth. I have collected monarch caterpillars and Cecropia moth cocoons and gotten to watch the metamorphosis from caterpillar to cocoon or chrysalis, to butterfly or moth. I had to stay up all night waiting or I’d miss it. Truly amazing! Here is a set of photos of the process.
These are all my photos while watching the metamorphosis except for the egg.
Here is a somewhat abstract set of photos of the same process.
The metamorphosis of a Monarch butterfly
And here is my drawing of a Monarch
In Colored pencil
Enough for now. Time for me to curl up in my cocoon and go to sleep.💤
The prompt for today was “topsy turvy”. I don’t know why I chose to use it. I have enough trouble keeping things straight in my mind to want to turn them upside down… but it does give one the chance to see things from a different perspective. I hope this doesn’t make you too dizzy.
Rides are definitely topsy turvy, up and down and round and round.
When I was a kid I loved merry go rounds. I still do. Something about being up in the air (not too high) with that gentle up and down movement to the music, so comforting. Rollercoasters are a different story… if you want a thrill that’s where you want to be. High up in a Ferris wheel gives one a different perspective though in this photo collage I’m hanging upside down which is definitely scary. Then down I go back to earth again..
Flipping my photo of a sunset made a beautiful abstract creation:
And of the moon:
Which is the sky and which the water?Daylight moon already a little topsy turvy feeling even before I turned the photo upside down.
Reflections can feel a bit disorienting too:
PortugalJapanAdamant Quarry
Clouds in an upside down sky:
Shadow reflection
Then there’s the upside down tree with its roots in the air.
The upside down trees in Kabbalah symbolize human beings whose roots are in heaven (the soul) while our branches grow down into the material world. We are tasked with bringing that divine energy to earth.
And my little acrobats:
BaaBaa likes to swing upside down from branches.Swee’pea jumps and climbs and balances though not upside down like in this photo.BaaBaa and Swee’pea are happy to be relaxing upright again..and so will I be.
I hope this little topsy turvy journey wasn’t too disconcerting and may you rest comfortably upright tonight. 💤💤💤
We’ve made it past the Equinox but no daffodils line my front path yet.
A mostly grey pallet with here and there a hint of blue.
Waiting for when the frogs, newly thawed, come hip hopping across the road to find the vernal pool behind my house in which to mate.
Colored pencil drawing. You can hear the deep muttering, stuttering ru-u-u-ummm . . . ru-u-u-ummm mating call they make in the spring and summer. The deeper and louder the better. I guess it attracts the female of their three chambered heart.
And waiting for the turtles to crawl up from the pond onto my front path, dig a hole and lay their eggs. I don’t know why they always choose to lay their eggs on my front path – it’s hardly the safest place – where egg eating snakes and chipmunks, cats and dogs abound. Some little turtles miraculously do seem to survive. That’s nature for you.
I love the little bit of red on their glossy shells and on their feet and tails.
And I shall be nestled all snug in my bed while visions of daffodils, frogs and turtles dance in my head. Does that remind you of another poem…something about sugar plums? Totally the wrong season.
Since I took the day off yesterday I’m gonna backtrack and celebrate the Vernal Equinox today.
The Earth is in perfect balance, day and night almost equal here.
It’s maple sugaring time in Vermont and time to take the bird feeders down so the bear who have awakened ravenous from their long slumber don’t get to them.
In Vermont it’s freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw. Skies are blue …when it’s not snowing. The water in the ponds’ inlets is rippling. Almost time for “ice out” when we bet on the exact day and time when there will we no more ice on the ponds.
It’s lambing season too.
I love to visit my neighbors’ farm and cuddle with those little lambs. I hope BaaBaa won’t be too jealous.
It’s the season of fertility and renewal symbolized by eggs:
Frogs eggs, birds’ eggs, moth eggs and wasp eggs on a caterpillar. They haven’t quite arrived here yet, but they will be here in no time.A colored pencil drawing I made of a nest of eggs based on a line from a Mary Oliver poem:
“This morning, in the fresh field, I came upon a hidden nest, It held four warm speckled eggs…”
The Vernal Equinox is celebrated in many traditions and cultures. There is an ancient pagan holiday called Ostara, a Persian holiday called Nowruz, a Japanese National holiday called Shunbun no Hi which is related to the Buddhist celebration called Higan…and of course there is Easter and Passover to celebrate Spring if not exactly the equinox.
So there you have it. Spring is officially here even though it’s still on its way in terms of the Vermont weather… but coming soon.
Let the candles burn bright to mark the separation of Shabbat from the rest of the week and let the Vernal Equinox mark the changing of Winter into Spring (even if we are in the midst of a Spring snow storm). Shabbat Shalom everyone. Peace be with you. Have a good rest. and a good night💤💤
coppsky 