Witchy Woman

What is this deer so afraid of?

Me!!!! That's me standing in my childhood living room. Oh my gosh. Look at my beautiful hair. I actually had a very scary mask to go with my innocent looking costume. I think I even won a silver dollar at our small town grade school Halloween party. I only won one year. And of course I was so proud.

Flash forward a few years. I'm certainly not revealing how many. And here I am again all witched out. No more glorious locks. I'm sporting a black wig. That darn wig saw me through many a year of costumes. Starting with Cleopatra. Did you notice my feet? I put big spiders on my toes. And I wore that size 2 vintage dress every time I was a witch over a 10-15 year time frame. But lets just say that I had to stop wearing it. Hmmm. I'm not sure why that would be. But the good news is that me and the hubbs won again. I think we snagged a bottle of vino for our troubles. Blood red of course. This was the trick and be sure to stop back on Wednesday for my first installment of treats! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Creature Feature

The trail cam captured a beautiful moment in black and white. The deer is posing in such a graceful way.

And since I'm wrapping up my trail cam photos, I've added a bonus piece of art to accompany today's pick. I painted this piece back in 1998. It pairs perfectly with all the creature features that have been popping up over the last week or two. But don't forget to check in tomorrow for one more photo and a little Halloween surprise. Spooky...

A Perfect Pair

I LOVE this one. The deer are perfectly composed in the corner of the photo. And as most of you are aware it is just a lucky shot. Because the motion detection camera is all alone in the woods. Unless there are artistic spirits roaming the woods and directing cool pics. I bet that is it. Scary.

Scary?

I love Halloween. So you'd think my art archives would have wagon loads of scary stuff for http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ But all I have is a little Boo. Not a big Boo!!!

The bear essentials

The bear essentials of a forest:

1) Must have a den suitable for spending the whole Winter. No time shares.

2) Must have wild blackberry bushes covering at least 25% of the forest floor. 15% is only suitable for a late Summer snack.

3) Must have a minimum of 40 tall and climbable trees to escape dumbass hikers.

4) Groomed trails are a plus. They help to gain momentum when chasing said hikers.

5) Must have at least 10 squirrels to entertain cubs while Mom is foraging.

6)Trail cameras are an added bonus. Cubs refer to them as mobile mud bombs. Or finger/claw painting surfaces.

7) And the 4 year forest rental contract must include a delivery of honey on May 1st. In this economy it is necessary to sweeten the deal a little bit.

Let them eat cake!

The cam caught this doe mid chew. (click to enlarge) Hmmm. Acorns? Twigs? Leaves? Yuck.

I'm sooooo glad I get to eat things like this perfect Cafe Latte cupcake. I'm posting this yummy example of chocolate goodness as a teaser for next weeks recipe post. This is like an advertisement. I feel like my blog is slowly turning into an online magazine with a little bit of everything. Feel free to send me $19.95 for a 2 year subscription. But only until Nov. 29th. Then it goes up to $26.95 for 1 year. Shoot. (kidding!) But I promise there will be no cheesy Thomas Kincade Christmas ornament advertisements. No annoying scraps of paper to tear out. And no princess Kate bridal figurines to purchase. And if you choose to email one of my recipe posts to a friend you don't even have to cut off the barcode, name and address sticker. Wow! What a deal.

Deer Zombie

Actually, this deer looks more like an ornament hanging on an invisible tree. But zombies are all the rage. And I can totally envision this deer wandering around the forest on two legs looking for manison (man=venison) Hee, hee.

I'm ready for my close up!

I never thought a deer could look so ugly. I guess it happens to everyone. That certain photo that just makes us look hideous.

Well, I've been posting a photo a day for 3 weeks now. And as promised I'll be finishing out the month with trail cam photos. And maybe a little extra Halloween trick or treat. And speaking of treats. I'll be starting a new blog format next week. Something I've been brewing up for awhile now. Mondays will be devoted to photography. Fridays will stick with an art related post. And the new treat will be Wednesdays devoted to food, recipes and restaurants. I'm actually kind of excited to share my love of baking. But it took me awhile to committ (and remember to photograph) my cooking adventures. So be a dear, hang it here. Get it? That was a ring holder my Mom had hanging in our kitchen. It was a little pottery dish with a picture of a deer on it.

Fisher Cat!

After fishing through thousands of photos, a fisher cat turned up. (click to enlarge) Unfortunately these predators from the weasel family actually have a taste for house cats. Gulp. And they are tough enough to take out a porcupine. Another reason to be glad for remote photography. If you have a little time on your hands and a healthy curiosity about animals be sure to google the fisher cat. There are plenty of hair raising videos of the fisher's eerie cry. Yikes.

Plain Pretty

This one is just plain pretty. A doe and two fawns. There are a few thousand more just like this one. But don't worry. There are only a few days left in October.

You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

I had no choice but to pick Hungry Sharks for www.illustrationfriday.com and the theme of fuel. In my illustration the sharks are not pleased to discover blackened fish on the menu. Blackened by the gulf oil spill that is. "Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" said the shark.

Don't worry it is only October.

Deer, deer,deer, deer...TURKEY! It is always fun to see a new creature after thousands of deer photos. Stay tuned for more exciting surprises. Well, exciting in my neck of the woods.

What the heck is that?

This deer is obviously eager for a close up. Sometimes when we capture a bear with our trail cam they rub their dirty paws all over the lens. Or maybe they are tasting the camera. That is O.K. with me as long as I'm 100 miles away. For those of you who are unfamiliar with a trail cam it is a motion detection camera that we have mounted in our woods. Actually, we have 2 cameras out there. And we captured around 4,000 shots just since we visited last. For heaven's sake! So for the rest of the month I'll be posting SOME of the critters that wandered by. You never know what might turn up...

Light

We visited my farm in Wisconsin a couple weeks ago. And I always take a few photos while I'm there. The pompous grass has grown in this location for as long as I can remember. It grows in a circle around the yard light. But in this photo it is the Sun that lights the way.

I'm crumbling.

It has been two weeks since I started posting a photo a day. Will my resolve crumble like a ton of bricks? Did I get off to a rocky start? It's not set in stone that I continue after all...

Under the Minnesota Sun.

Another Sunday Solo photo pick.

Tuscany

Tuscany perhaps? Nope. Still Minnesota. We passed this old stone homestead on the Louisville Swamp Trail. There were several buildings dating back to 1880. But the interesting fact was that the land had been bought and sold 6 times before these structures were raised. The crumbling ruins scattered among the crispy Fall colors really was quite beautiful.

They scattered in complete terror!

The word scattered always reminds me of The Waffle House. "I'll take my hash browns scattered, smothered and covered please" Yum. But today it is the theme over at www.illustrationfriday.com And luckily it is not called Best Illustration Friday. Because this number hot off the slush pile is an oldie and not so goodie. It kind of looks unfinished. And I'm not sure what possessed me to use that weird yellow color behind the fly swatter dude. But I don't mind posting my early pieces because with a lot of practice I've come a long way. And I've been painting non stop for several years now. And it's not all bad. The fly swatter rocks!

I like my turtles with caramel, dark chocolate and cashews.

Bottoms up!





P.S. Sorry to string these posts out slower than a turtle in a Barbie pool filled with corn syrup. (a tiny pool for a tiny turtle) And NO turtle soup for me. I laughed at all of your comments.

A tiny bowl of turtle soup.

tails. And...

Painted Turtle

Heads or...

Reflection

My husband is often the star of my blog posts. Here he is reflecting on a great hike we took this Fall. The Louisville Swamp Trail includes marsh, lakes, streams, oak savannah, restored prairie, and beautiful rock formations (Previous post, Ha!) It is actually one of the top 10 rated hikes in Minnesota. But until a few weekends ago was unknown to me.

I've been posting for 7 days now. It's been fun to add a little more writing to my blog. But it is a challenge to pick just one photo. It feels stingy and a little boring. But I loved all your comments on my last post. We've all had our hills and valleys with blogging. Thanks for trudging through my marsh post!

What was I thinking?

I thought it would totally rock to do a blog post everyday for a month. Now I'm just stuck between a rock and a hard place with these darn blog posts. Hmmm. I guess I'll just do rock, paper scissors to see if I should continue with it. (moments later) Shoot I lost. See ya tomorrow.

Timber Twister

OH MY GOD! If you are ever in Duluth you have to go to Spirit Mountain and take a ride on the Timber Twister. I took this photo AFTER the ride was over and we were being pulled back up the hillside. It is a blast riding down. I was laughing the whole time. But you know how these places always take a photo of you that you can purchase. Well, I looked like I was sitting on a pine cone made of glass shards. Horrible.

Contraption

I here by interrupt my regular service of Fall photos to participate in www.illustrationfriday.com This is one of my favorite illustrations. I've posted it before. But not for illustration Friday. (I don't think) The little brown mouse in the corner is wielding a gadget, device or contraption. And don't we all wish we had a mouse to do the peeling for us. We just stocked up on Honeycrisps. 4 big bags. But I haven't made this recipe with apples yet this Fall. I made it with peaches recently. Yum. Making crepes is easier than you might think. (click on the image to enlarge directions) You can make the batter the day before and you don't need a crepe pan. Just drop a dollop of batter in a hot buttered pan, grab the handle and with a twist of the wrist spread it out to cover the bottom. Just cook briefly on each side. Easy! The only hard part is getting the mice to clean up after you!

The Surf

There is one thing you should NEVER do when visiting Iowa. Stay at the Pyramid in Clear Lake. It's a whole house rental that is one beer can short of being the dumpiest frat house on the planet. But you should visit the Surf Ballroom. Especially if you are a Buddy Holly fan. (He was a little before my time. Although that didn't stop me from loving Led Zeppelin) It is the last place that Buddy, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper performed before their plane crashed near Clear Lake in 1959. And the ballroom continues to host big bands to this day. It is a museum of rock and roll history. Just don't stay at the Pyramid. A mummy wouldn't be caught dead there!

Lets all migrate to Iowa

I laughed at the comments about the last photo being a castle in Europe. It was a cool stone tower. And the views from the top were probably about as good as it gets in Iowa. Poor Iowa. But now we're moving on to a flurry of butterflies in Costa Rica. Just kidding...still Iowa! The trees were wearing a living lace dress of butterflies. It was beautiful. Geez. Maybe Iowa isn't so bad after all.

Fall 101

I was feeling a little over whelmed about what to pick for a blog post today. We've been having lots of Fall adventures on our weekend getaways. And I've taken lots of photos. So I've decided to try something completely different. I'm going to post one new photo everyday in the month of October. This may be good news to some of you, and a big yawn to others. It would probably be more exciting if I was posting about one of our trips to Central America...but this photo is in Iowa. In fact this is the HIGHEST point in Iowa. We were hiking at a park near Clear lake. I can't remember the name and who really cares, right? It is Iowa after all.

P.S. Be sure to keep checking in this month for more photos!