a little watercolour - Rose berries
Friday, December 9, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Hypericum perforatum - Maree
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
- by Albert Einstein
St John's wort is the plant species Hypericum perforatum, and is also known as Tipton's Weed, Chase-devil, or Klamath weed and is widely known as an herbal treatment for depression. Indigenous to Europe, it has been introduced to many temperate areas of the world and grows wild in many meadows and in our South African gardens.
The flowering tops of St. John's wort are used to prepare teas, tablets, and capsules containing concentrated extracts. Liquid extracts and topical preparations are also used. Today, St. John's wort is used by some for depression, anxiety, and/or sleep disorders.
France has banned the use of St. John’s wort products. The ban appears to be based on a report issued by the French Health Product Safety Agency warning of significant interactions between St. John’s wort and some medications. Several other countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada, are in the process of including drug-herb interaction warnings on St. John’s wort products.
Read HERE how effective St John's wort is.
- by Albert Einstein
St John's wort is the plant species Hypericum perforatum, and is also known as Tipton's Weed, Chase-devil, or Klamath weed and is widely known as an herbal treatment for depression. Indigenous to Europe, it has been introduced to many temperate areas of the world and grows wild in many meadows and in our South African gardens.
The flowering tops of St. John's wort are used to prepare teas, tablets, and capsules containing concentrated extracts. Liquid extracts and topical preparations are also used. Today, St. John's wort is used by some for depression, anxiety, and/or sleep disorders.
France has banned the use of St. John’s wort products. The ban appears to be based on a report issued by the French Health Product Safety Agency warning of significant interactions between St. John’s wort and some medications. Several other countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada, are in the process of including drug-herb interaction warnings on St. John’s wort products.
Read HERE how effective St John's wort is.
Oh, rats!
The neighborhood I live in has seen a slow but steady increase in rats, mostly Roof rats (Rattus rattus). Roof rats are also called Fruit rats, Black rats and Ship rats and have been traveling alongside humans for so long that no one is exactly sure where they first lived, though it's believed they started out somewhere in southeast Asia.
Most everyone in my neighborhood can tell a horror story involving a rat so I wasn't too surprised to find one dead in someone's lawn early one Sunday morning in August. I bagged it and took it home to make some sketches and find out more about the neighbor no one wants.
Our family has had intermittent interraction with Roof rats for several years. We kept what we thought was a compost bin for a while, until we realized that we'd actually opened up a McDonald's for rats. They came to eat and party then moved into the attic above our garage. When I worked in my studio, at the back of the garage, at night or early in the morning, my soundtrack was the scritching of little feet overhead. In desperation we dismantled the compost bin and evicted the troublesome tenants. They seem to have taken up residence nearby, though. When our lemon tree has ripe fruit we can sit in the living room and watch as the occasional rat climbs the tree, neatly eats all of the rind from a fruit, leaving a perfectly peeled lemon behind. Apparently, if our tree bore oranges the rats would carefully suck the flesh out and leave a perfectly emptied peel still hanging on it's branch. They approach our apples as though they were wine connoisseur and take a bite of one fruit, then another before moving on.
With several cats in the vicinity, the population seems to stay fairly manageable and, for the most part, invisible. However, the other night I heard some familiar scritching sounds above my head as I worked in my studio so another eviction may be in order soon.
Recently, as I was wandered about one of the old rock quarries in Howarth Park I found a dead rat. I immediately assumed it was a Roof rat or maybe a Norway or brown rat, another immigrant rat from across the ocean. Looking closer, though, I saw that it didn't look much like our neighborhood rats, and decided to make some sketches to take home and help me identify it.
The large ears, long tail, ochre colored fur and the "dusky" patches on his hind feet (dark hairs) suggest that he's probably a Dusky-footed wood rat (Neotoma fuscipes), also known as a packrat. This mostly nocturnal native rodent favors brushy oak woodland and builds a large nest out of twigs, called a midden.
In a woodland area such as Howarth Park the nest might be on the ground, in a tree or in a rock crevice. I searched the area, looking for an above-ground midden, with no luck. However, there's a large opening into a rock crevice near where I found this little fellow and Chloe has always been extraordinarily interested in it, leading me to believe that might be where the packrats live.
For more about Roof rats :
Wikipedia
sfbaywildlife.info
Sacramento Press
Davis Wiki
Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management
To learn more about packrats visit these sites:
Wikipedia: Pack Rat
Wikipedia: Dusky-footed Pack Rat
California State University Stanislaus
Animal Diversity Web
Jane Goodall: Hope for Animals and Their World; Key Largo Woodrat
Camera Trap Codger: A ratty flashback
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: Neotoma fuscipes
Most everyone in my neighborhood can tell a horror story involving a rat so I wasn't too surprised to find one dead in someone's lawn early one Sunday morning in August. I bagged it and took it home to make some sketches and find out more about the neighbor no one wants.
 |
| Roof rat |
Our family has had intermittent interraction with Roof rats for several years. We kept what we thought was a compost bin for a while, until we realized that we'd actually opened up a McDonald's for rats. They came to eat and party then moved into the attic above our garage. When I worked in my studio, at the back of the garage, at night or early in the morning, my soundtrack was the scritching of little feet overhead. In desperation we dismantled the compost bin and evicted the troublesome tenants. They seem to have taken up residence nearby, though. When our lemon tree has ripe fruit we can sit in the living room and watch as the occasional rat climbs the tree, neatly eats all of the rind from a fruit, leaving a perfectly peeled lemon behind. Apparently, if our tree bore oranges the rats would carefully suck the flesh out and leave a perfectly emptied peel still hanging on it's branch. They approach our apples as though they were wine connoisseur and take a bite of one fruit, then another before moving on.
With several cats in the vicinity, the population seems to stay fairly manageable and, for the most part, invisible. However, the other night I heard some familiar scritching sounds above my head as I worked in my studio so another eviction may be in order soon.
 |
| Roof rat |
Recently, as I was wandered about one of the old rock quarries in Howarth Park I found a dead rat. I immediately assumed it was a Roof rat or maybe a Norway or brown rat, another immigrant rat from across the ocean. Looking closer, though, I saw that it didn't look much like our neighborhood rats, and decided to make some sketches to take home and help me identify it.
 |
| Dusky-footed woodrat |
The large ears, long tail, ochre colored fur and the "dusky" patches on his hind feet (dark hairs) suggest that he's probably a Dusky-footed wood rat (Neotoma fuscipes), also known as a packrat. This mostly nocturnal native rodent favors brushy oak woodland and builds a large nest out of twigs, called a midden.
In a woodland area such as Howarth Park the nest might be on the ground, in a tree or in a rock crevice. I searched the area, looking for an above-ground midden, with no luck. However, there's a large opening into a rock crevice near where I found this little fellow and Chloe has always been extraordinarily interested in it, leading me to believe that might be where the packrats live.
For more about Roof rats :
Wikipedia
sfbaywildlife.info
Sacramento Press
Davis Wiki
Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management
To learn more about packrats visit these sites:
Wikipedia: Pack Rat
Wikipedia: Dusky-footed Pack Rat
California State University Stanislaus
Animal Diversity Web
Jane Goodall: Hope for Animals and Their World; Key Largo Woodrat
Camera Trap Codger: A ratty flashback
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: Neotoma fuscipes
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
.... and crested tits
Now I'm going to color it...:-)
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
The Quarry - Maree
Life is like a quarry, out of which we are to mould and chisel and complete a character.
- Samuel Butler
About 2km from us is the Tarlton Brickyard - hectares of ground that have been dug up and soil removed for the making of bricks, leaving the earth pitted with deep holes and piles of heaped ground and smoking kilns where the bricks are being baked.
Some might say it's an eye-sore or a scar on Mother Earth's crust, and I could agree, but besides providing the building industry with the necessary raw materials for our housing needs, this quarry provides endless hours of pleasure to off-road motorbike enthusiasts who race along the holes and over steep mounds of earth, flying through the air like movie stunt men! Horse riders also like to visit, putting their steeds through their paces, using it as a cross-country course. Partridges and pheasants pass through here in great flocks early in the morning before any mining activity, we've spotted them while on early-morning out-rides, and we've often seen snakes, which worries me that they're in such close proximity to all the people here during the day. Nature seems to have this amazing ability of making use of and getting around whatever man does to her. So not all's bad that seems bad!
- Samuel Butler
W&N Watercolour in my Moleskine Folio 200gsm Nature Journal
About 2km from us is the Tarlton Brickyard - hectares of ground that have been dug up and soil removed for the making of bricks, leaving the earth pitted with deep holes and piles of heaped ground and smoking kilns where the bricks are being baked.
Some might say it's an eye-sore or a scar on Mother Earth's crust, and I could agree, but besides providing the building industry with the necessary raw materials for our housing needs, this quarry provides endless hours of pleasure to off-road motorbike enthusiasts who race along the holes and over steep mounds of earth, flying through the air like movie stunt men! Horse riders also like to visit, putting their steeds through their paces, using it as a cross-country course. Partridges and pheasants pass through here in great flocks early in the morning before any mining activity, we've spotted them while on early-morning out-rides, and we've often seen snakes, which worries me that they're in such close proximity to all the people here during the day. Nature seems to have this amazing ability of making use of and getting around whatever man does to her. So not all's bad that seems bad!
The view from my tub!- Desiree
I have a jacuzzi bathtub that sits in a corner in my bathroom under two huge corner windows. I knew it would be a wonderful area to look out onto as I soaked in my long luxurious bathes at the end of the day so I planned the landscaping carefully! The area on the eastside is the rose garden and a japanese maple which fills those windows with foliage and colorful blooms. On the southern side I planted the lawn and a Pistache tree (pistacia chinensis or chinese pistache) that I dreamed would grow and shade the window and provide a canape of color in the Fall. Flash forward into reality! Who has time to soak in a bath these days and the water waste is more than I can justify unless it is a special treat or I have to just stop and relax once in awhile. The pistache tree I bought (not during color) turned out to be such a disappointment. Known for their amazing colored leaves in the fall I has often dreamt about looking out onto shades of scarlet, crimson and orange during the fall. After 5 years of waiting and watching the tree never colored up in the fall. It would tease us by starting to look like it is going too and then drops all its leaves just about the time we were starting to get excited. I have written about this tree many times in my journals. This year my husband decided we were going to cut it down and plant another one which we will buy while they are in fall color. I think the tree overheard him because shortly afterwards there was a blast of color, not the color I expected but wonderful shades of gold, and orange and pink. I now found myself sitting on the edge of my bathtub painting in my sketchbooks and for my International postcard exchange. I had our Christmas pictures taken under it and photographed everyone sitting amongst the leaves, standing next to the branches etc. The day after I painted this we had very high powered winds and the tree that finally colored up had dropped almost every leaf onto the lawn below, the yard was a sea of gold! I did document this special occasion, through photos, paintings and journaling,its so exciting I had to share with you!
Monday, December 5, 2011
Silver maple
Christmas's Woodcock
Holly - Time to Gather the Greens - Lin Frye
9" x 12"
Arches 140#CP
Already the first days of December are behind us, and the days seem to shorten as cold returns and daylight disappears. It's after 7:00 am Eastern Standard Time before the first glimmer of sunlight breaks the cloak of dark and merely 4:00 pm EST when the sun begins its decent and evening begins to creep back. Add to this scant bit of 'day' the hustle and rush of the season.... the frenzy of preparations, decorations, purchasing, cooking, finishing up, closingup of the year ... and the days collapse into seemingly mere moments of time.
While it's true that daylight is shortening with the winter solstice is only weeks away, it seems that the FEEL of time is shortening as well. I took an incredible Anthropology class when I was an undergraduate - "The Reckoning of Time" - and how different cultures around the world sense and calculate time. Fascinating. And there's that marvel of a book "Einstein's Dreams' by Alan Lightman where ever few pages, time is being lived in different ways -- like we do - from past to future, or perhaps like in the movie Ground Hog Day - repetitive, etc. etc. Again -- fascinating and imaginative.
But think about it ... each of us lives the same 24 hours - but does every day FEEL the same way? For me, when I'm sad or disappointed, the same hour seems to DRAG and the clock click so v e r y s l o w l y. But when I'm in the flow of painting ... the same hour FLIES by! So .. time... and its reconing .. and its FEEL.
All this to say - it's that holiday "time"....
And for me it's marked with evergreens and berries. My holly trees are chockful of bright red berries and the shiny, pointed, prickly leaves that seem to mark the season. Today we 'gather in the greens' - holly, red cedar, wax myrtle, pine, cryptomeria, juniper, spruce, fir, boxwood, magnolia, ivy, hemlock, bay, boxwood, arborvitae, and pods, cones and berries such as pyracantha and holly berries, and more as we prepare for our wreath making class on Wednesday.
The time will fly as we stalk the woodlands and gardens seeking those plants that will decorate our doors. We'll be noting the wonderful fragrance of the evergreens and the bright berries that will brighten our eyes (and wreaths) with joyful color.
'Tis the season -- and time to gather the greens! But hurry --- time is aflyin'!
Lin Frye
North Carolina
Howick Falls - Maree
“A strong man and a waterfall always channel their own path.”
On my way down to Ballito on the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, I often deviate at turn-offs to have a look at some of the note-worthy sites along the route. One of those is Howick Falls, situated on the Umgeni River, and which plunges 95 meters (310 feet) down a sheer rock face, into a beautiful rock pool at the bottom. According to local legend, the pool at the bottom of the falls is the residence of the Inkanyamba, a giant serpent-like creature. According to lore, only Sangomas can safely approach the falls and then only to offer prayers and other acts of worship to the inkanyamba, ancestral spirits and the 'Great God'. The Zulu people called the falls KwaNogqaza, which means "Place of the Tall One".
Coordintes : 29°29′12″S 30°14′20″E
You can see some pics of the falls HERE
On my way down to Ballito on the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, I often deviate at turn-offs to have a look at some of the note-worthy sites along the route. One of those is Howick Falls, situated on the Umgeni River, and which plunges 95 meters (310 feet) down a sheer rock face, into a beautiful rock pool at the bottom. According to local legend, the pool at the bottom of the falls is the residence of the Inkanyamba, a giant serpent-like creature. According to lore, only Sangomas can safely approach the falls and then only to offer prayers and other acts of worship to the inkanyamba, ancestral spirits and the 'Great God'. The Zulu people called the falls KwaNogqaza, which means "Place of the Tall One".
Coordintes : 29°29′12″S 30°14′20″E
You can see some pics of the falls HERE
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Sandy Williams - December's Dried Weeds
Avian Faces - Bush-stone Curlews
With this painting I wanted to focus on the variety of different expressions that I could notice in the Bush-stone Curlew, Burhinus grallarius. The bottom right bird looks 'sad' but I wouldn't say the bird was actually sad, the way they are able to move their feathers, especially around their eyes and beak, allows them to appear different according to their mood or need to communicate with other birds. I noticed this is even truer for nocturnal birds, probably due to the bigger size of their eyes. It is amazing and surprising how quickly and suddenly birds can change their appearance.
the great beech and crested tits
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