Mama turkey vs. barn kitten

Mama Turkey and chicks came wandering across my meadow as usual this morning. But then Mama came walking into the yard with a purposeful stride and her head cocked sideways, looking at something. It was then that I spied the barn kitten watching them from beside the ramp. (This is going to look like a flip book.)

 See the orange cat between the rails of the ramp?

 The turkeys just kept walking around to the north side of the house.

 You can faintly see the cat between the rails at the end of the ramp.

 Now he's right out among them!

 The turkeys regrouped north of the house...

 ...and then turned around to go back. See the cat under my bumper?

 Action shot! Cat and turkey in mid-air. (That's the best my camera can do, ha, ha!)

 The cat stalks around for a bit...

 ...and then heads back to the shed.

 He's the little orange dot in front of the shed. Mama's still ready for a skirmish! Poor cat. He thought he'd have enough turkey in the freezer to last all winter!

 Here are a few cloud pics I had in my camera.

 My "Autumn Leaves" ATC's are still in production. They still need some ink outlining and maybe some colored pencil to accent the watercolors.

I could sure use some sunshine. I'm very tired and not getting very rested on my weekend off. I'm off to meet dear daughter and grands at church. We'll have lunch somewhere and then she's going grocery shopping. I'm not sure if I'll tag along or just come home. Better get some breakfast! :)

Have a great Sunday and enjoy the coming of fall! Shalom.

A little Hillsong...

I just finished watching God's Not Dead. Two thumbs up! I loved it!

Afterwards I turned on TBN and watched Joseph Prince, who I like a lot. Afterwards Hillsong church came on and this song...



...which led to this song, which I hadn't heard before.



I hope they bless you as they did me. Shalom!

Just a quick post so I can get back to reading about Colored Pencils! I'm trying to get down to some actual painting/coloring instead of spending the entire evening watching YouTube videos of someone else doing art!

I just realized how many books I have piled on my coffee table and that I haven't gotten around to really looking at them. I have now read the first few pages of The Complete Colored Pencil Book! :) I've had the watercolor book for a while and have read some of it, but want to get back to it. The Little Critter books I say I bought for my grands, but I also bought them because I love to look at the illustrations, right? Oh yeah!

 

The view from my chair. I don't know if you can see the beautiful billowy clouds behind the pine trees, but they really caught my eye, so...

 

I got a closer view.

 

One of the ancient swamp willows. I don't think it has many years left, but I still love its wild beauty!

(They were ancient when we moved here 25 years ago!)

 

I started adding some watercolor to one of my ATC's on the left. The leaf on the right was a scribbly little picture I did with my Prismacolor pencils. It was fun and quick. I'll have to cut it out and stick it on a card or something!

 

My informal little painting setup. My poor little camera was having fits trying to figure out what to focus on! (Sure, it wasn't MY fault!)

 

My herd of turkeys from this morning. It was a rainy morning, but a gloriously sunny day when I got off of work. :)

That's it for now. Hope you're all enjoying the end of summer at your house!
God bless and shalom!

Pencil sketches of my next set of ATC's "Autumn Leaves"

I just finished these last night and have been watching some watercolor videos to give me some ideas about how to paint them. Should be fun!

Have a great day! I'm off to work soon. Working the evening shift, which I haven't done for a while.

Peace and joy to you all. :)

The Big House...

I'm still reading The Big House, but I was snooping around Google trying to find actual pictures. I thought for sure this was it, but found out this is a house down the road from it. But still you might find it fascinating to look at the pictures of this house because I see so much inside of it that looks like what I imagined from the book. Just click the picture to go to the site where they have lots of photos of the inside. (If I did it right!)

 

This is a picture of the actual Big House after renovations have been done.

Don't click on this photo unless you want to know how the story ended. :)

It doesn't look as sprawling as I imagined it, but if you look at the left side and how tall it is I can still see how there would be lots of floors, attics and mysterious passages. Hope this isn't a spoiler to those reading the book. I just wanted to know more!

 

Shalom!

More turkey fun!

I am so blessed to have been adopted by this turkey family! :)

As I was sitting in my favorite chair, watching my Secrets to Drawing videos, I glanced out the window and here was my little turkey family, back again! My meadow must contain many delectable things. Mama Turkey actually ventured into my yard for a moment, then got nervous and walked in her stately fashion back into the long weeds. (I think she could hear the guy narrating my video.)

 I tried to capture all of her "chicks", but it seems a couple were always in the high grass. There are 8-10 of them and they're about 3/4 of the mother's size. She's raised quite a nice brood.

 I'm having so much fun watching them. I hope and pray they are safe from the traffic on the county road that runs next to my property. The lake is on the other side. I hope they keep coming around all winter. Maybe I can spread a little grain?

 Even at their relaxed pace they cover a lot of ground. If you look right at the center of this photo you can see a few dark specks close to the edge of the woods. They have a nice place to live here. Lots of woods and grassy pasture full of seed heads. The mother was so watchful, hardly eating at all while the kiddos were busily gobbling up insects, seeds, etc.

That's what I'm up to right now on a great day off. It's overcast, which is nice because it's staying cool. All of my windows are open allowing the breeze to drift through. I'm beginning to feel a little eleven o'clock-ish (though it's actually 1:00!) so I think I'll have lunch! (I slept in until 9 this morning!! I think I was a little under the weather as well as tired from work, so it was a good thing.)

Turkey update...they came back and they're getting bolder!

See, I told you they were real! Aw, it's fun having pets. Especially wild ones with no upkeep! :)

Have a great day filled with the shalom of the Lord. :)

Art school...on a budget!

Hey, folks! I just ran across this art course while surfing through YouTube art videos. A nice young man I was watching recommended this course and, I must say, I think it's a pretty good buy. For $30 you get a whole slough (slew?) of videos (5 hours worth) covering all phases of drawing, including colored pencils, pastels, etc. I'm on video 7 and have learned about 1, 2 and 3 point perspective (mind bending!), hatching, cross hatching, stippling (which I already knew about) and am looking forward to learning some stuff I don't know! It's a good basic drawing program that I hope will fill in the blanks in my knowledge so I can draw better. If you're interested it's called The Secrets to Drawing. Doesn't cost anything to listen to the intro video! :)

A couple of photos just so this isn't all text, lol!

I've been scattering sunflower seeds on my deck. I'm seeing a lot of these little blue guys. Yesterday was a rainy, cool day, so many of them were fluffed up.

 When the sun came out later beautiful storm clouds raced across the sky.

Right now I'm watching people buy homes in exotic places via HGTV. I have no desire to be chained to a big mortgage like they are, but it's interesting to peek inside other people's houses, right? :)

This photo taken just now. Twilight. I'm off to bed to a chorus of peepers (frogs) and crickets. Lovely and cool.

Shalom, my friends. :)

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed!

I had loads of fun with Audrey and Hazel last night. Mom and Dad went out to eat, which they don't get a chance to do very often. Meanwhile, the girls got to play with Grandma's toys, which makes them seem "new"! (Wish I had taken more pictures, but they kind of stop playing when they know they're being recorded for posterity!)

One of the first activities was jumping on Grandma's bed. If my bed was up on a frame, I probably wouldn't let them do this. But it's close to the ground. I sat by the window most of the time so nobody would bump their noggin on the window sill. (Safety conscious at all times.)

 

Hazel was fascinated by all the embroidered birds on my quilt. She kept asking what kind they were. A few of them are obvious, others the embroiderer (not me) took some liberty with thread color, and so they are open to interpretation.

The girls were also interested in the sports "buttons" I have displayed on my bookshelves. Most of them are pictures of their mom from when she was in sports. They kept asking for more of them.

 

I usually keep the door to this room closed when they visit because there's so much to get into on the bookshelves, but I thought it was about time to let them explore.

They had a hard time believing that this was their mommy, and their Uncle Josh and Jordan!

 And that this was Grandma and her little brother!

Later some painting and splashing about was enjoyed.

Do you see how Audrey is painting with an old toothbrush? After a while I noticed her fiddling with it and then she asked, "How do you turn it on?" Ha, ha! Silly low-tech toothbrush!

The evening went off without a hitch. As I was visiting with their mom and dad later there was a "thunk" and a scream. After an injury-free evening, Hazel had bumped her mouth on the edge of the coffee table and was bleeding all over. Well, upon closer inspection, the injury seemed to be fairly superficial. After some time in Mama's lap she was ready to play again. Kiddos. They are very resilient!

Here is my latest ATC for the "Build Your Own Bizarre ATC" swap.

I'm looking forward to a fantastic and restful weekend off. In fact, I'm about ready for a nap now! (It's 9 a.m., but I've been up since 6, and probably should have slept longer. But, at my age, I don't really have much control over sleep. Know what I mean?)

 

This just in...mail call!

 

Faye, over at Faye's Adventures in Art , sent me an envelope full of ATC's! It was one of her recent giveaways. Isn't it just like Christmas to get this stuff in the mail!

Four pages full of miniature art from around the world!!!

 Faye's butterfly card is beautiful!

 These are my other two favorites!

Fun, fun, fun! Thanks so much, Faye! :)

 

You all have a great weekend!

Shalom!