White tail deer in Quail Hollow

Seed Pod

Into the Snow

 We were Christmas shopping in Amish Country on Saturday and encountered this snowstorm.  Sunny one minute, gray and snowy the next!

Feather in the Sky

Looks like the Great Seagull of the Sky lost a feather! Cloud spotted over Frazer Elementary School this morning.

The Squirrel Tree

November sunrise

Baby Squirrel

A Walk in Hoover Park

Got Peanuts?

Psst! You got any peanuts?

Yeah! For me!

I think I'm gonna die if I don't get any soon!

I think I see some in that bag of  yours!

Yeah, raisins will do.

Wooden Ship

I made this from a $5 kit, which I bought at Michael's this week.  It's a prop for our penpal project on Shakespeare's The Tempest, which my students will be starting next fall.   My dad used to make these wooden ships, and now I know what he meant when he said the rigging was the hardest part!

Every Day in May #31: Houseplant

Every Day In May #22: A Map of Betws-y-Coed

Assignment #22 was to draw a map, so I decided to finally come to terms with Betws-y-Coed, Wales, a place that sends my internal compass completely out of whack.  Whenever I've walked there, if I feel  like I am going East, I am sure to be going West.  I think it's because I can't get used to mountains being south of me.  I grew up with them in the North.   I was happy with my map (colored pencil on tea-stained paper) up until I decided to show the forested areas by coloring them green.  Why oh why couldn't I have stopped right before then and taken a picture at least.  Is there a cure for always taking a drawing one step too far?

A Walk in Quail Hollow

Foxgloves

Summer wine in the making

Framed in fungus


Quail Hollow Herb Garden

Every Day in May #26: Corkscrew

I can remember this strange gnomish corkscrew tucked in the top drawer of the mahogany buffet in our dining room when I was growing up.  When I went away to college, I found it among the box of kitchen things my parents sent with me, where it proceeded to open many a bottle of cheap wine.  Only in drawing it today, did I notice the word "Quebec" etched in the wood.  Vague memories resurfaced...of stories they once told about a trip to Quebec--how they stayed at the Hotel Frontenac in a hot room way up under the eaves, how they toured the countryside by car and visited the Basilica of St. Anne de Beaupre, where hundreds of abandoned crutches hung in the ceiling, and everywhere, the smell of hot bread baking in hillside ovens.  All this from a little corkscrew I rediscovered today in a drawer of our own dining room cupboard!

Every Day In May Challenge #19: iPad

"Thou shalt not covet... [thy husband's iPad]." -- Exodous 20:17.  The Every Day In May Challenge for today was to draw something that doesn't belong to you.

Every Day In May Challenge #18: Left Palm

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”

― St. Francis of Assisi

Every Day in May Challenge #17: First-Aid Item

"Drinking a cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary."  Chinese Proverb.  (Every Day in May Challenge #17:  First Aid item.  Mine was herb tea.)

Every Day in May Challenge #16: Something You're Afraid Of

Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway.  -- Mary Kay Ash.  (Every Day in May Challenge #16:  "Something that scares me.")

A Walk in Hoover Park Today