As it was 14 Celsius at noon today, we decided to take a walk around our country block. This is a definite sign of spring! At the bottom corner of our property, we have a culvert that mostly just has a trickle of water in it, except in spring when it can become wild enough to drown small animals. Today, it had melted enough that there was actual water flowing out of the pipe.
A few days ago, when my daughter and I went for a walk, we saw a sort of inchworm caterpillar; today, there was an actual woolly bear, so it must be spring, right?
Inspired by nature, I took another day off from the Book Nook, and created a floral arrangement that is destined for my flower shop's autumn window.
This is based on a Pepperwood Miniatures arrangement in an old issue of Dollhouse Miniatures, from Sept.-Oct. '09. I used model railroad oranges for my bittersweet berries, and used Copic markers on a piece of computer paper for the maple leaves. The veins on the leaves were drawn in with an extremely fine artist's dip pen - one I use at work for putting numbers on museum artifacts - and white acrylic ink. The stem of the berries is left over from yesterday's silver dollars, while the stem of the leaves is brown floral wire, painted and with tea dust bark sprinkled on.
I'm happy! There was an eagle or osprey circling above us as we were walking today, and in a patch of woods down the road ther must have been a million twittering birds, likely sparrows or finches.
Yay spring! It always shows up, sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteWoolly bears actually hibernate! They can live up to 14 years as caterpillars before they finally turn into moths. They are very short-lived as moths; they mate, lay eggs, and die. https://carpenternaturecenter.org/woolly-bears-in-the-snow/
ReplyDeleteBut at this time of year, they are a sign of life! It was in the middle of the road, and we tried to move it out of the way of traffic, but it refused to climb either the stick we offered or the toe of my boot. Hope it made it to the other side of the road.
DeleteYour floral arrangement turned out so well and I Really enjoyed reading your methods for making it. I would have never guessed that tea dust would make good tree bark or that silver dollar stems for miniature bittersweet would looks so Perfect!
ReplyDeleteUse the fine dust left in the bottom of your tea caddy, and just sprinkle it on to the wet paint; enough will adhere to give a very nice bark texture to floral wire!
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