Man Eating Crocodile

I created these two images to illustrate a point about punctuation in a future article for AzarGrammar.com, the website I manage at work. I generally don't like to work from photos, but Dan refused both to eat or to be eaten by a crocodile in the interest of creating authentic sketches from life. So I had to resort to photo references for these. 

Man eating crocodile

Man-eating crocodile

Richard Firsten is the author of the article and asked me to do the illustrations. These are his words from the article regarding the importance of the hyphen:

Punctuation marks were created to aid readers, to make phrasing clearer and more easily recognizable for readers. Here’s a case in point. If I write here Man Eating Crocodile, which picture reflects what I’ve written?

In actuality, it’s the picture on top that depicts what I’ve written, but a show entitled Dangerous Encounters on the cable network NatGeoWild (National Geographic Wild) used that title for one of its episodes. Of course they should have written Man-Eating Crocodile. That hyphen shows readers that man and eating are being used together as a single adjective to describe a ferocious crocodile. The hyphen helps readers to understand that and phrase it properly in their minds. In fact, the rules of prosody in English dictate a change in how these words should even be spoken if the hyphen is present or absent. (I’m going to use capital letters and bold face to show which words or parts of words receive more or less equal stress in the flow of speech): 

                                    man eating crocodile = MAN EATing CROCodile

                                    man-eating crocodile = MAN eating CROCodile

Stickin 'Mud' on a Shitty Wood Stove

I knew before i moved into the yurt that the woodstove was kinda moody.... it burned hot and fast - not the way you want it to burn for a long cold winter. Then when i was casually perusing the wood stove section of a Lehmans (non electric homesteading) Mag i saw this exact stove pictured....

Omgawd... the first words next to the glossy pic were "don't buy one of these cast iron stoves if you desire high quality." I laughed. and laughed. and then started to think of ways to work around it's poor quality...

While experimenting with pushing ash in the grill holes and also against the giant gap in the door, i felt like an uber genius when i thought of using a clay/ cob / -like substance to fill in the cracks and holes.

I could totally get toxic stuff to fill this in.... i could use glues and pastes and fire proof fiberglass ropes, but i hate chemicals. I hate ruining my home space with chemical stuff - because what i am looking for is to make things more comfortable, easier, healthy and pleasant.

!! Screw buying some creepy VOC goop..... cause for free i got some clay from a dug up pile of dirt on Dogget Mountain, and mixed it with rice flour. Anyone who eats gluten free knows rice flour turns to something awful and cement-ish when baked...
I mixed the clay, the rice flour and water in a bowl and started filling in the spots where air was leaking too much (causing the hot fast fires)......

and so far so good. There was some slight cracking in the clay, but i kept filling in the cracks as it shrunk and dried, making sure less air could get in the stove while the door is shut.

Now i have to do the smaller cracks.... like the cooktop and all around! and this doesn't solve the issue that the manufacturer didn't even bother to make the flue/damper fit correctly either! (lame and shame!) The only solution for that is to put a second one on there.

I am kinda glad about the cracks though, cause its fun to play with the clay... and i like experiments. :)))

XOoxOX

Post Turkey

Hubby prepared a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner just for the two of us.  A contented and well-deserved rest for the chef followed. 

Talking Turkey with Frances

Lingering at the Thanksgiving table talking (and sketching) after the dishes are cleared. By the by, everyone said it was the best turkey they've ever had. White meat was uncharacteristically moist and juicy. America's Test Kitchen recipe: Breast side down at 425 degrees for the first hour. Flip the bird over and reduce temp to 325 until done (when thigh meat reaches 175 degrees). Gobble, gobble.

Thankful

I'm feeling especially thankful for friends this Thanksgiving. Interesting headgear is just a bonus.

Thanksgiving Greetings

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Little Leaf Hopper (red and blue/grey)

Sooooo tiny. sooooo friendly..... so pretty!
I wish i could have gotten a better close up of its awesome face!...... but the red beedy eyes say it all. :))))
oOXOOxX

Everybody Wants Direct TV... EvEeeeryBoDy

XoOXoOX

More Catch-Up

Where did time go.....? Whidbey Sketchers enjoyed an

evening at the Anchor Pub in Everett to sketch the wonderful

Magnolia Big Band. This is a view of the bar below.

The Big Band in Action. Some have been with the

group since the 1980's!

At the piano!

This great line up happened as the group

arrived and was setting up.

Old dart board at the Captain Whidbey Inn.

From some random sketches these last

few months.....

Whidbey Island Winery

A small piece of Labor Day color in our yard

One of so many color spots in Sue's yard from

late summer..

A late summer moment at Mo's

Morning greeting from our local papier mache kitty...

She doesn't move much...

A Little Bit of Catch up

I've been a derelict poster.... Now it's November.

I'll begin with yesterday afternoon's Puget Sound

Group Annual Auction at the Design Center in

Seattle. Some wonderful art went for such

reasonable prices.....This group has an amazing

history and amazing talent archive.

The group has a gallery on the second floor of

the Design Center open to the public. If you are

in the area, take time for a visit.

5701 6th Ave S. , Seattle

A switch, to my Granny week with son Sam's family

in Aruba. The water is as turquoise as it looks, the

beaches white powder sand, the people very friendly

and my grandchildren adorable. This is from Baby Beach

a sheltered shallow bay at the south end of the Island.

Yurt - y - Purty

THE Yurt! not to be confused with similar words.... like YoGurt, or Burp, or Yack, or Turtle.

Because mostly when people hear i live in a yurt, they think i live in a yogurt container or a pile of exotic animal dung.

I wasn't sure how living in a yurt would really fair out.... ya know... with weather and it being a bit like a giant tent and all. This yurt has been up for some years now and it seems like brand new still - no damage, smells free of anything nasty, a real simple yet functional floor plan.

I like it. Its kinda awesome and i think people should know its a good option for housing, during economic strife (building a regular common house is WAY expensive and wasteful).

..... but i digress into my planet-y thoughts.....

let's just look at the yurt..... cause its so fuckin neato!

This one has the silver bubble wrap type insulation (stays SO warm with a woodstove, its freaky! its even sweaty!) in between layers of fabric walls (inside wall/outside wall).... the fabric of this yurt is made of synthetic weather proof stuff and it works really well. I have already sat in pouring rain, scary winds, etc.... and it weathered just fine with no leaks. The window can be zipped shut completely, or the clear part can be pealed off (Velcro) and leave a screen for fresh air.

There is a built in section with a small bathroom and kitchen, and loft on top that space to sleep (get there by ladder)...

PLUS a bubble sun & moon roof in the center!!! Talk about wacky, trippy, weird.....

you can watch the clouds go by, the rain hit, the storms blow in, the stars above, the moon move across the sky, the sun come up...... the bubble makes you connect to flow of nature outside while sleeping inside.

I really like it. Impressed, is what i am.

*** i will show more details later, when i make a video on a sunny day! ****

(this yurt is made by the Colorado Yurt Company)

XooOXO

Cat Scratches

Cats.Trying to sketch them drives me crazy. They can't hold still for 10 seconds, I swear.

The many faces of Kate

Kate x 5

Colorful Kate

Soft Kate

More Kate

Kate is Kris Wiltse's large gray velveteen-coated kitty. I don't do her justice. A big beautiful girl, but not a great model.

Captain Whidbey Inn

Dart board in the bar.

I liked this whisk broom at Captain

Whidbey Inn next to the fireplace.

MOvinG is Change, Change keeps MOvinG

I am just starting to adjust and settle down into having left the Luck Cabin.

I dream of it every night while i sleep, seeing the cabin from the outside, orbiting around its walls only in my deep subconscience mind - never really inside it. My conscience mind keeps in the present when it can - but moving has that.... ya know.... epic feeling of change. Major change that is not always easy to flow with even if ya love it, trust it and know you want it.

Its not just the cabin though. It is leaving an adventure that borderlined dangerous, an experiment i had no idea i was walking into. I thought I was going to a peaceful self sustaining place to live my life...... but what i experienced was more like an initiation into some kind of survival club i didnt even know i joined! A survival club that copied the patterns of The SHinING movie for a basic script during winter.

My last drive over Dogget mountain with my truck packed with the last of my belongings- i felt chills come over my body, i felt like that initiation was ended and made known to me all at once. I felt the mountain was smiling on me, saying i had done a good job with the shit it gave me, and now i could go back into the world slightly below.... i felt Dogget mountain was proud, and it was spitting me back out the bottom a different person..... shooting me down it's curvy snake slide like a bird pushing its babies out its nest to fly. Or maybe like a kid down a water park slide for the first time.

*Lesson I learned : Winter.... shouldnt do it alone at the top of a harsh snowy mountain.

(this radiohead song below is exactly what leaving the Luck Cabin felt like to me........)

And now....

relief.

A kind of outward breath, so different I am not really breathing out but sucking back in and accessing whats here. Am I safe now? yes. and so are the animals (as safe as farm animals can be!) We gotta make some temporary alterations to our old patterns.... until we find our permanent home....

I didn't move back into the city, or even close to that kind of life. It's still the forest, it's still rural as hell, still at the end of a road no one goes unless they live here - i still will be chopping and carrying in my logs to stay warm, cooking all my meals, hiking, exploring, discovering. It's just not on top Dogget mountain, and that says it all to anyone who's lived FULLY year round on top Dogget mountain..... and not many do.

****

With that emotional super emo crap being said.... :))))

here is what the future is more like while i look for my true home...............

(and i dont mean naked orgy... i mean FREEDOM)...

**********WARNING THIS VIDEO CONTAINS NUDITY!!!!!!!!*******************

Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook by le-pere-de-colombe

XOXoxOXOX

Neocolor II Beats the November Grays

The perfect way to combat our dreary, grey rainy November days?  Neocolor II water soluable crayons made by Swiss company Caron d'Ache.  Think of them as Crayolas with an attitude!  They produce extremely rich color and are a heck of a lot of fun. 

Here are some gray-day-busting pieces using a mixture of Neocolor II, pen and regular watercolors or Prismacolor markers.

 

Captain Whidbey Inn

It was blustery outside and cozy, comfy inside the Captain Whidbey Inn this week. Here are my attempts to capture a view towards Penn Cove, a warm corner in the Inn's main room and a quick sketch in the bar of the bear's head and dart board over swatches of gray.

Penn Cove Hedgerow Gifts

There is no limit to the number of inspiring subjects for painting along Penn Cove. This fall, the rose hips and blackberries in the hedgerow across from our house enticed me to bring them indoors as sketching subjects.

Catching Up

Interesting gentleman at Whidbey Telecom and the children's room at the Freeland Library.