Starling. Starling. STARLING.

I collect just about every starling print I run across and because I do this, I now have a wall in my living room that is covered with starling prints. It's very Alfred Hitchcock but that's fine by me because I'm probably the only one who thinks the final scene in "The Birds" would be the ideal front yard. 

Some of the prints are charming and sweet like this  hand-colored Albin etching (second quarter 18th century).

And some of them are stunningly beautiful like this hand-colored lithograph by John Gould (third quarter 19th century). 

This particular print shows the feathers from baby to adult and the transition in between. Juvenile starlings are the oddest looking birds because all their stars appear on their bodies before the stars start appearing on their heads. For a length of time that seems like forever, their baby heads sit on top of adult starling bodies. When Starlinka was going through this stage, it was very funny. Such a goofy look. But cute!

And then there are some prints that are just plain.......mystifyingly weird. I love all of them regardless of how well they're executed but this one, it really is an odd one.

If you know anything about how perspective works, the horizon line is usually at eye level (at least for one and two point perspective). Working with that concept, this artist's viewpoint was at the bird's midwing. Fine. But if that's true, that "tree" behind the bird is awfully small. If you were a six foot tall man standing in front of this bird, maybe that tree is 8 or 9 feet tall but that bird would be 12 or more feet tall. Yikes. That bird is huge. HUGE. That shadow is huge! I adore birds but not when they're this big (aiyee!).

Nature. Art.

This is another Laurie & Whittle hand-colored print dated March 18, 1795. Click on the image if you want to see a larger view.

Hey.......you take these two women, combine them into one......that's me!

Possibly, probably, almost certainly, my last post about insects for the year (no promises)

Every year at this time, I have to bring in all my plants when the night temperatures get below freezing. But then I put them all back out again when it warms up because I have no idea how I can permanently fit all those plants in the house. This happens every year and for some reason it is always a surprise. So in and out and out and in we go and with that comes a lot of confusion from the bugs that accidentally get carried indoors. 

This morning I heard a bunch of whacks coming from the kitchen and found an overly enthusiastic green stinkbug launching itself into the walls. So he got escorted out of the house.

And then there are the lacewings. Lots and lots of lacewings. What is unusual about them is that they pick just one kitchen light to congregate under. I have two identical overhead lights but just one of them works for them. When I brought them in the first time last weekend, they were green. I was a little surprised with this one who was climbing around the coffeepot all......coffee colored. So she got put outside. Look at the size of those eyes! I think the term for that is caffeination!

But I believe she is saying thank you for keeping her warm overnight. And for the coffee.

And then she launched her little latte colored self off to somewhere else (after she jumped on me and the camera....oh why do they keep doing that?).

This morning a little ladybug joined me on the computer, too lazy to tuck in her flying wings. And no spots. I guess on a Sunday morning, even ladybugs take a day off from applying their makeup.

And every year there is always one praying mantis. I'm never sure what to do. I usually escort them right back outdoors, which is what I did with this guy after I took some pictures. He seemed to be pretty fascinated with the smoothness of my glossy enamel painted kitchen walls.

I tried to get a picture of him on something more interesting but he would have none of it. He scrambled back to the wall in no time flat. He was fascinated with that wall.

I realized it was kind of weird to see a praying mantis in your kitchen, let alone play with it.

Sherry said she kept a praying mantis on her ficus tree one winter. He was good for conversation when guests came over. I might have done the same thing with this guy if I didn't recognize that expression on his face.

I get that expression from my turtles almost constantly. Add one more? That would mean three and if you have three, you have a collection. And a collection of mean faces is something I don't want to start. So out he went, even though he was resistant for some reason. 

What is this?

Monkey? Cat?      Monkeycat?

Oh it's you know who. Making himself completely at home. The bold and brazen article who is now even more so.

Last night I noticed that the gray cat that smells of cigarettes showed up for his dinner and as I was serving him his dinner...I noticed  the raccoon coming up the deck steps. I went inside, got another plate of catfood, went outside, no raccoon in sight so I set the plate down and returned to the house. And that's when a little dark hand reached out from under the glider and got hold of my jeans. Good grief! The boldness. I was a little taken aback and even more so once the raccoon managed to crawl out from under the glider and started eating the catfood that had been set down for the gray cat. The food that was right outside the back door (the raccoon's plate had been set down further down on the deck). Well, what to do? In between the open back door to my house and me was this pretty big raccoon in a pretty tight area. I couldn't walk over him and I couldn't walk around him so I waited for him to finish the plate. When he was done eating, he didn't know what he was supposed to do either. Luckily the gray cat had had enough of all this special treatment and jumped down, punched the raccoon  in the nose a couple times and then they both took off to separate parts of the deck to cool off (well, one of them took off to cool off, the other one just waddled around like John McCain at a presidential debate).

I'm glad the gray cat did that because I could now safely get back into my house.......so I could bring out even more food. Yes, I know what I'm doing is stupid but then, that's what everyone in my family dies of, we can't help it, it's in the genes.  Really, I had to tell a new doctor one time that people tend to do something stupid in my family and then die which is why my family medical history was so lacking. When my dad, at 70 or so, decided he had never bungee jumped before and wanted to try it...well, why not do it from the tallest bridge in the world? My sister and brother went to witness that when he decided to go jumping in New Zealand because someone ought to claim the body if this was going to be his final act of stupidity (it wasn't). 

Here's the raccoon working on his second plate and if you look in the background, you can see the gray cat giving him a mean look. Click on the image to see the larger version. Hmmm...maybe he's giving me a mean look.

The raccoon didn't want to get punched in the nose again so he climbed up on the bench to avoid any further confrontations.

Here he is looking small and scared and pitiful. He's a good actor. He's none of those things.

The gray cat got served his food on a ledge outside the back door so everything was peaceful again at the all-you-can-eat. 

The raccoon finished his second plate of catfood and a couple grapes, climbed up on the glider, got comfortable, and then started.......... getting...............sleepy.......

...1.........2..............3.............and he was completely passed out.

Thanksgiving's coming up and one of my traditions is to make a complete dinner for all the pets served on real plates. I love watching my birds carefully eat their mashed potatoes and gravy while I drink champagne. I wonder if the bold, brazen article will be here for the annual event. No doubt by that time he will have moved into the spare bedroom and will be helping me make dinner by peeling the potatoes. I know those little hands could learn to do it.