I completed the backgrounds on Tucker’s portraits yesterday, they’re a nice neutral earth tone that will really bring out the Gold in his coat. I’ll work the underpaintings when the background is dry, and I’m hoping that will be tomorrow.

You might not be able to tell from this photo, but Copper is smiling from eyeball to eyeball about his new bowls. We took a day trip to Ikea yesterday and found these cute bowls and matching mat and just HAD to get them for Copper. When we got home and started unwrapping and unpacking things, I replaced his old generic bowls with these new fancy ones and he went crazy. He kept coming up to us and bringing us over to his new dishes and then looking up with this little twinkle in his eyes.

You might remember the braids I put in Chickeymonkey’s hair for camp. It’s been a few weeks of easy care and cleaning, but like all good things, it had to come to an end. I just had to get a shot of the de-braiding before the thorough cleansing and pony-tailing. Alotta of ‘ings, to match alotta curls.

It’s not a vegetable, it’s not a mineral.. it’s a beetle. And it brought a friend, and it wants to eat my petunias. Every time I get near, it does a few fly-by’s - it sounds like a Cicada (that’s what I thought it was, at first).

Catybug, my forward thinking little nature lover, tried to catch them with her bare hands. That didn’t work out so well (because her mom was distracting her, holding her hair back and squealing like a little girl). We had to run some errands so we stopped at the dollar store and she located a butterfly net - that worked. Now I’m hosting these two big buzzing metallic looking creatures in a little plastic habitat and I have no idea what they are, other than beetles. All I know is that she’ll find out (and if you know, do tell), and she’ll pin them to an exhibit board with the others she’s collected, for her 8th grade science project - still over a year away. And then she’ll be #1 - because #2 isn’t good enough for her. (Little overachiever. I’m so proud.)

Here’s a Cecropia Moth she acquired last month - can you see the pride in her eyes?

The Cecropia is the largest known North American moth, and it’s quite a beautiful creature. The wingspan is 5-6 inches, and considering their adult life only lasts 2 weeks, having the opportunity to even see one is really a unique experience. The adult Cecropia lives only to reproduce - and can smell a mate up to a mile away. They don’t even eat, they have no mouth or proboscis.

Just a couple of buggy facts for the weekend. You can thank me later, after the heebie-jeebies subside.

Tucker is having two portraits done, one is 8×10, one 5×7. He’s a beautiful Golden Retriever wearing an orange Syracuse University neckerchief. I’ll be working on these paintings next week.

More food from the garden for dinner lastnight - we harvested all of the beets (too early, but oh well - they’re still delish!), more broccoli, green beans and three green peppers. Our cucumbers are doing really well and they’re super tasty, three more will be ready in the next day or two. The cauliflower has finally made an appearance, I’ll get a pic of that for you because it’s really cool looking. White on top, PURPLE on the inside. Purple. Is that natures way of telling you when it’s ready- when it’s not purple anymore?

Anyway, back to work for me - it’s been a suckish work week and I’m not getting near as much done as I’d like to thanks to a goofy head cold thing that is making me feel all lightheaded and yuk. Today is a little more clear so I’d better get crackin’ while the thinkin’ is good.