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not gardening rocks no more!
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CritterPainter's BlogVarious ramblings of a country gal
blog-therapy
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 2:19 am whew, it's been a really stressful week, and today was just a real capper- I guess my comments onsite here have been leaning a little negative, sorry 'bout that. Won't bore anyone with the details, just lots of little things that mounded up. But today I took my little Max in for a simple neutering procedure- I'm an ardent believer in both buying only strays/pound dogs and getting them fixed right off. Max is the best dog I've ever had, really. Well, it went from being a simple inpatient visit to a complicate surgery due to one of the testes having migrated to up by his kidneys! So I'll pick him up, dazed and drugged, in the morning and he gets to spent the next week in an Elizabethan-collar (one of those cone-shape things that keep dogs from licking themselves) and being forced some rather nasty pills. Ugh, I got a male dog because I've had difficult complications from having females fixed. Major backfire there. I only hope that one of the sack of pills I'm to give him is something that will let him sleep off most of his recovery time. Awfully good thing we had time to establish a solid trust relationship before this, sigh. This blog entry has been viewed 556 times
Finished painting, bee sting
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:09 pm Couldn't get all the penwork to show up very well, but you get the idea. The tartan in the oval is a bit of the MacDougall plaid, always been a fave of mine since there is purple in it. I wrote up some of the history of the castle and printed off a map to it, both on antique-parchment-looking paper, and mounted that on the back. Hopefully this will be meaningful for Mom's birthday. 
And a closeup of the watercolor 
My Uncle is coming over soon, he apparently discovered some more information about this branch of the family- he's Really Into this stuff, I just think it's fun to fiddle with, especially when I find out almost-fairytale stuff like a castle in the family history! DS is home on leave from his work at the camp- he was out walking with several other folks, including a 1-yr-old, when a hive of very large agressive hornets took offense to them. Everyone else escaped unscathed, but the venom in the one that hit my son was so severe that he actually blacked out! It's been two days and he looks less like a cabbage-patch doll (it got him in the lip) and he's really wanting to get back to work. We shall see, I'm letting him make the call. This blog entry has been viewed 760 times
riverside picnic, chix salad recipe
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 5:45 pm DH worked Saturday, so DD and I went on a picnic! Friends hosts this every year on the back part of their family homestead. In the winter, this back part is a field that floods on a regular basis, but in August, with the help of hours of mowing, it becomes a volleyball court, picnic tables, and a spot for swimming in the river. This year someone even dragged a paddle boat down there! 
The picture is a bit overexposed, but I loved the sight of all the parents looking longingly at the fun in the river. Speaking of imperfect pics, I've worked on a pic from the parade- we were still in the process of adding daffodils at this stage 
The chicken salad I took went over so big I thought I'd share the recipe here (I tripled it for the picnic) Brush 2 large bone-in-skin-on chicken breasts with olive oil and roast in a foil-lined pan at 400 for about 35 minutes ( I sprinkled it with onion-and-garlic pepper too). Let it cool, debone it and cut into bite-size pieces. Then mix together 2 diced celery ribs, 2 green onions minced, 1 cup mayo, 1T lemon juice, 6 T golden raisins, 2 tsp. curry powder, 1T honey, and a little salt. Add the chicken and chill. This blog entry has been viewed 1128 times
I wandered lonely as a cloud...
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:24 pm I took photos of Daffodil but they didn't turn out. Real pity, that. She had silk daffodils and little flags stuck in the holes on the sides of the truck bed ( the holes meant to hold side rails, don't know the "official" name). Max and my mom's black dog, Monk were peeking adorably over the sides of the bed. My daughter and nieces, all in flowery shirts and straw hats with daffodils wired on them, were blowing bubbles and, with Grammy and I similarly clad making sure they didn't tumble out, flinging pink taffy out. OK, it wasn't a really strange dream. We took Daffodil in a parade this weekend! I'm thinking I might join the old-car-club. Daffodil is a working truck, not a spiffed-up show truck (did you know people ask upwards of 25K for a restored old car? Not even that old, I mean 60's era! Check your barn, your retirement fund may be hiding there!) but joining them in the parade was awfully fun. Haven't been in a parade in yeeeeeeeeears. And the "Awwwww"s whenever Max would peek over the bed sides was too fun! So many big-city parades don't allow candy throwing anymore, and even this parade was cautious about it. The girls had to fling the candy so it landed far from the truck- quite a feat for the littlest one! But daffodils bed is quite deep so not too much worry about them tumbling out. Good thing, our driver wasn't used to double-clutching so we lurched forward at odd times, lol! This blog entry has been viewed 866 times
A kitty, a view, historical ramblings
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 6:01 pm 
OK, enough playing with the kitty. While I was sketching her, and the mist was coming down, I kept drifting off to stare out the window. So I thought I'd share the view, since it made me feel so happy.Sorry I couldn't get the hummingbird to hold still. That's crocosmia in the foreground, and cinquefoil. Some daisies that grow wild here, and a young birch tree. Clematis crawling up the lattice, doggone stuff won't bloom! 
Whew, these image uploads take a long time on dialup! Been looking into more on Dunollie castle, and suddenly all sorts of relatives want to know what I've found out. Wow, haven't had this kind of family togetherness in, well, never! I have a cousin in Seattle who'se really into this sort of thing, and I've found out stuff even She didn't know! We've run into a big roadblock in that there's apparently no public census before 1841, so we've kinda hit a wall beyond Alexander MacDougall who emigrated in 1831- was apparently married in Achadadie, but even Google never heard of it so the records might be misspelled. Kinda fun getting to talk to relatives, though! This blog entry has been viewed 526 times
Kitty sketch, etc.
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:03 pm The power went out first thing this morning, so I turned my leftover coffee from yesterday into an iced peppermint mocha and did a sketch of my neighbors new bobcat kitty 
Several things I don't like about her so i probably won't finish the sketch, but it was a good way to waste time (it was gushing rain outside so gardening was on hold too) Spent all day yesterday working in my brothers garden in Portland. Wheeoo, that guy has some stubborn weeds! And, since my sis-in-law was a rose fanatic, my arms look like I was attacked by the kitty up there! But I gotta break it to any aunties, I do have the worlds most adorable nieces. Sorry, but there it is. They are about to turn 9 and 5 respectively. The 4-yr-old kept dipping the broom in a puddle and making me wonderful abstract paintings of her kitty. I showed how some of her work looked like Chinese calligraphy, and explained how the Mandarin word for cat is, basically, what a cat says. She thinks I'm awfully clever now, lol! This blog entry has been viewed 666 times
My Charming Visitor
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:02 am I had an unexpected visitor today. I had been in the kitchen, mixing up ingredients for an apple crisp to take to my ladies group tomorrow- I unfortunately forgot to get the apples when I was in town today. DH is working with the youth group and promised to pick up a sack on his way home. In the meantime, I went outside to move my sprinkler from the veg beds to the front garden. I bumped a plant stand on my front porch and heard a very odd *splat*. There at my feet sat a bewildered little tree frog, obviously knocked away from his evening sunbath. I apologized profusely and put him back up on the plant stand. He seemed most grateful. 
I have seen some postings here with rather large toads- for an idea of scale I included in this pic the spout of a teapot that is currently filled with caladiums (that white shiney bit is the spout) I had mentioned somewhere earlier about my waterlily blooming, but couldn't recall the post. So here it is. 
It was vying for pride of place on my desktop as wall paper, Sir Frog won this round. This blog entry has been viewed 477 times
couple more pics
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:27 pm 
The fron end of the Lady W, DH, and my little lady 
This is a local group, the Bud Bay Pirates, and their not-so-tall ship that they take to parades. It really is quite astonishing how many pirate groups we have around here, considering that this area isn't historically known for pirate activity. I highly doubt pirates would have found much interest in raiding the local shell mounds!! This blog entry has been viewed 585 times
yar, matey!
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:30 am If anyone wants to see more I can get a couple more up later. This is our famous local movie star, back in her old colors after a long stint in the movies. 
Like I mentioned, I had to use a cheapo disposable camera for these, but I'm going to have my sweetie try to tweak that first pic to sharpen it a little, to frame up as a gift to my mom who used to own a two-masted schooner until an accident made her an unwilling landlubber. This blog entry has been viewed 511 times
Oh, groan
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 4:10 am I just can't believe I forgot my camera today! We drove to Westport for the pirate festival- I've never seen so many pirates! All ages of people pirates, even the dogs were piratical! I did buy a disposable camera, though it will take a few days before I can get anything from that to put in here. I did get several good shots of our local movie star, the Lady Washington (a two-masted brigantine that starred in the Pirates of the Carribean movies). She's back in her usual paint job now, and looking much cheerier for it. She was built in a town on the way to Westport, so she was really at home today, been touring around a bit though. Oh, I hope I hope those photos turn out! This blog entry has been viewed 592 times
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