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This dunnock is a daily visitor, but what is really strange is that he visits the feeder, then flies across to the windowsill and peers in through the window. Why he does it, I have no idea. No other bird does it... perhaps he is keeping a friendly eye on me!
A glass, see through clock.
How I did it :-
There were too many shadows, even though I photographed it in a non-sunny place -(yes, the sun is shining!) - so I added a cork-board background in PicMonkey and erased the background from the clock, including behind the clock glass.
I had to change her name. it isn't always dolls that have a name when they arrive here get to keep their old name. sometimes I feel the need to chenge it.
so... used to be Mulan. now Luka.
partly named after Luke, Cool Hand Luke, partly named after the Suzanne Vega song.
and to my surprise, I have never named any of my dolls Luka before. seems to be about time as it's been on my shortlist of names forever.
Taken a few days ago, when the sun was shining and warm.
Today is cold and grey, and we are promised snow!!
Governess: *screaming* NNNNIIIIIGGGEEELLLL!!!!! This child has brought yet another dead animal into this house and this time she has dressed them all in her doll clothes!!!! Beatrix! How will we ever marry you into a good family!?!
So silliness aside I have always been a huge fan of Beatrix Potter and I remember hearing as a child that she practiced sketching from dead animals she had found. Not sure about that but thought it would make a funny pic. But I Wiki-ed her today and found the most interesting fact about her:
From Wiki:
Scientific illustrations and work in mycology[edit]
Beatrix Potter's parents did not discourage higher education. As was common in the Victorian era, women of her class were privately educated and rarely went to university.[22]
Beatrix Potter was interested in every branch of natural science save astronomy.[23] Botany was a passion for most Victorians and nature study was a popular enthusiasm. Potter was eclectic in her tastes: collecting fossils,[24] studying archeological artefacts from London excavations, and interested in entomology. In all these areas she drew and painted her specimens with increasing skill. By the 1890s her scientific interests centred on mycology. First drawn to fungi because of their colours and evanescence in nature and her delight in painting them, her interest deepened after meeting Charles McIntosh, a revered naturalist and mycologist, during a summer holiday in Dunkeld in Perthshire in 1892. He helped improve the accuracy of her illustrations, taught her taxonomy, and supplied her with live specimens to paint during the winter. Curious as to how fungi reproduced, Potter began microscopic drawings of fungus spores (the agarics) and in 1895 developed a theory of their germination.[25] Through the connections of her uncle Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, a chemist and vice-chancellor of the University of London, she consulted with botanists at Kew Gardens, convincing George Massee of her ability to germinate spores and her theory of hybridisation.[26] She did not believe in the theory of symbiosis proposed by Simon Schwendener, the German mycologist, as previously thought; rather she proposed a more independent process of reproduction.[27]
Rebuffed by William Thiselton-Dyer, the Director at Kew, because of her gender and her amateur status, Beatrix wrote up her conclusions and submitted a paper, On the Germination of the Spores of the Agaricineae, to the Linnean Society in 1897. It was introduced by Massee because, as a female, Potter could not attend proceedings or read her paper. She subsequently withdrew it, realising that some of her samples were contaminated, but continued her microscopic studies for several more years. Her paper has only recently been rediscovered, along with the rich, artistic illustrations and drawings that accompanied it. Her work is only now being properly evaluated.[28][29][30] Potter later gave her other mycological and scientific drawings to the Armitt Museum and Library in Ambleside, where mycologists still refer to them to identify fungi. There is also a collection of her fungus paintings at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery in Perth, Scotland donated by Charles McIntosh. In 1967 the mycologist W.P.K. Findlay included many of Potter's beautifully accurate fungus drawings in his Wayside & Woodland Fungi, thereby fulfilling her desire to one day have her fungus drawings published in a book.[31] In 1997 the Linnean Society issued a posthumous apology to Potter for the sexism displayed in its handling of her research.[32]
we will celebrate tomorrow my birthday and the cat's too...T2 the grey, Thomas the siamese and Il Piccolino the tabby have not a sure date of Birth, we think it could be early May....T2 is 6, Thomas 2 and Il pIccolino 1....thanks Kerri for the suggestion to use picmonkey. T2 is inside on the red couch, the others on the balcony with books and flowers (Thomas loves to eat flowers)