"The Silent Natural" Movie Premier

On the 2nd of this month, I did a mini 'kidnapping' of Himself.  

There was a 'world premier' (actually encore premier) in Hopkinsville, KY of an independent movie that was filmed locally.  It was about William "Dummy" Hoy, a major league baseball player in the late 1800s.   He set all sorts of records during his time in the game.

Oh... and he was deaf.

In the movie, all parts representing deaf/hearing impaired people were played by deaf actors.  The movie is subtitled so hearing and hearing impaired can follow (there are many conversations in the movie that are in sign language).

I'm not sure when it will have its national release but when it does it is worth seeing.

Baby Turtle Rescue

Back early February (the 7th to be exact) I told you about our outing to a river beach.  The day was almost hot and had been for a few days.  That was changing quickly tho... an arctic blast was heading in with those clouds you see.  For the next week temps were going to be at or below freezing.

As I walked across the middle of that beach I was looking down for small bits of drift wood for a project I'm gathering for.  Then I saw something 'different' in the sand.  Hoping I was seeing wrong I looked closer.  Yes, it was a baby turtle.  I thought the poor thing was dead and gave it a poke with my foot.  It weakly pulled in!  

I snatched 'her' up (aren't all small cute things a 'her'?) and Himself took her over to a warmish puddle to cool off.  After a bit she started reviving but was still sooo weak.  

Decision time.  

Within a few hours the temperature would be below freezing and wasn't going to improve soon.  So we put her in a container and took her home with us.  I have a lot of experience with baby turtles, dating back to my childhood.  I would raise little turtles until they were about 4" across then let them go in my step-grandfather's farm pond.  He had a lot of turtles in that pond!  LOL

I set her up an area near my computer desk on the shelf that is wintering my succulents.  A trip to PetCo secured her dinners of small meal worms.  Little piggy loved her worms!

Baby Turtle thrived (no name for her since she was only a visitor).

For 2 months she enjoyed her temporary home.

On April 9th we took her back to where we found her...well almost.  There is a really nice pond across the small road from the beach.  That is her new home.

We placed her on a stone at the edge of the pond.  She looked around a bit, looked up at us (as tho saying 'thanks'), and slid into the water.  She swam around a bit then dove out of sight.

She seemed happy.

Summer Wild Flowers

The wild flowers have been just lovely in Tennessee this summer.

Rose Mallow (in the hibiscus family)

Cone Flowers

Milkweed

OK... not a flower.  But isn't it pretty?

Taste of Scotland

  Getting back to doing my recipes from a different country each month.  Since July was 'my' month... the recipes are all Scottish!

For my meal I start with a appetizer of Scotch Eggs.

I'll have to work on getting a consistent and thin layer of sausage around the egg so it cooks evenly and quickly.

These were everywhere in Scotland.  You can even buy them pre-made.

This is the Scotch Egg I got at Smoo Cave Hotel in Durness, Scotland.  The egg is SOFT boiled.  Absolutely brilliant and I'm still trying to figure out how she did it.

Next course is Tomato and Basil Soup.

We've had an abundance of tomatoes AND basil.  This recipe is a perfect way to use them.

It is a thin soup, just right for sipping out of a cup.

It is delicious!

It is very much like the tomato soup we had at The Harbour, a restaurant on the southern part of Skye island.

Our entree is Finkadella...a beef meatball.  

Served as a main course soup.

Served as a meat selection with a gravy made from the broth.

The vegetable course has an even more fun name... Rumbledethumps!

Potatoes and cabbage with melted cheddar... Scottish comfort food, for sure!

And dessert was the light and delicious Cranachan.

Again from The Harbour restaurant on Skye, a raspberry cranachan.

Ahhhh.... wonderful memories....

First Place Surprise!

The end of January I saw the announcement for this photography contest... with the deadline being the very next day!

So I pulled "Waiting On The Tin Man" off the wall since I didn't have time to mess with printing and framing anything else.

Since it was a juried show, entering didn't mean it would be accepted.  The judges decide if it meets the criteria for acceptance and if it does, THEN it is hung in the show.

Himself and I went to the opening reception.  It was a packed house!  After I finally found the Still Life group I was happy to see it was indeed hanging!  I made the show!  Happy with that we headed on home.

Next morning I was looking over the Facebook page to see who entered and who won.

OH. My. Goodness!!!!!  First Place?  I won 1st place?

I let out a squeal that brought Himself running in.

Why didn't anyone say anything??  Why wasn't there a ribbon hanging??

The next day we were back to see.  There's still no ribbon hanging (but a lot of winners had no ribbons and one photo had its ribbon and someone else's...).

As you can imagine... I'm floating!

Wanna Swap?

As part of my plan to become more creative, I have joined up with a couple of groups that does 'small art' swaps.  I've done three so far.

The first was what is called an "Artist Trading Card".  It's a take off of baseball trading cards, the same size.  Very tiny art.  

In this swap it is a deck of cards, you make 54 cards and get the same back...all made by different people.  The theme for this swap was "Travel".    The above where the cards I made.

And here are the beautiful set of cards I got back!

The next swap was Christmas ornaments.  I made these 3 needle felted hearts...

...and received these three lovelies to hang on my tree.

The last swap I did was a post card swap.  The challenge was to use our favorite color.

This beautiful trio are what came back to me.

I'm keeping my swaps in an album so I can admire them and use them for new ideas/techniques.  (I'll put photos of my ornaments in so I can remember them).

If anyone is interested in these groups, email me and I will give you the information to hook up with them.

Red, White, and Blue Christmas Wreaths for the VA Home

We had another fun event with Team Red, White, and Blue.  This time we were being creative for someone else.  We had a social to make Christmas wreaths for the Clarksville VA Home.

We started out with some noshing.

Himself brought his 'world famous' chocolate chip cookies in both 'nutty' and 'chippy' varieties.  I contributed the stuffed eggs.

We overheard this little guy ask for a cookie.  His grandfather responded "What kind?"

His answer... "The REAL ones!"

For the wreath making we were each to bring items to decorate the provided wreaths.

Himself guarding the supplies.

Everyone spread out and got to work.

It was a wreath making palooza!

I brought a lot of items to work with... but I seem to have forgotten the most important one...

...my crafting mojo.

RWB Eagle Charles kept the kids going on making Christmas cards for the Vets.

Why not a blue Christmas tree?

Love how they wrote inside.

SO cute!

Here's just a few of the finished wreaths.

Mine is not in there.  It was so ugly that I asked (begged) that I could take it home to redo and bring it back in a few days.

Mojo back...and I finished my wreath.

A huge group from Team RWB had a decorating party at the VA Home on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I can't wait to see out it looks!