Friday's Hunt v 4.09

I've been busy with a short term new work contract, so I didn't have time to get to Friday's hunt yesterday.  I am doing it on Saturday instead, which seems to be par for the course these days, although it's a bit better than doing it on Sunday.

The prompts from Eden Hills for this week are:  Starts with I, bowl, and desire.

Starts with I
Izzy starts with I.  That is our outdoor cat's name.  She has trouble with consistent use of the litter box, so that is why she is our outdoor cat.  She likes to perch on Marc's snowmobile, which has the "Arctic Cat" logo on the cover.  I don't think she would do very well in the Arctic!

Bowl
Ah, bowls!  Teresa unwittingly picked one of my favourite topics this week.  I am a tremendous fan of all sorts of different bowls.  Truth be told, I prefer my meals in a bowl, rather than on a plate.  I have no idea why that is the case.  However, you can see from my dish cupboard that I have more bowls than plates.

I like bowls of all different sizes.  I use a lot of ramekins, which are little bowls, for things like ice cream or bed-time cereal snacks.  The blue ones are Emile Henry and they are oven safe.  I bought those while living in Iowa.  The golden ones are Paderno (made in PEI) and the green ones came from World Market in Kansas City.  I forget where the white ones came from.

This is my favourite bowl for supper.  It is a shallow bowl, and works very well for pasta dishes or anything with gravy or sauce.  I love the pattern around the edge.  I bought four of these bowls when I was attending the 2-year Certified Advertising Agency Practitioner course in Toronto, back in 1999 or 2000.  I used to have to go past a shop called "Kitchen Stuff Plus" on Yonge Street in Toronto.  I looked it up on the web tonight, and it's still there!  I loved that shop!

I have some lovely triangular green bowls that I also bought there in 2 sizes.  You can see them on the top shelf of my cupboard picture, at the right.  Here is the leaf pattern on them.  I also got triangular plates that match.  I've had that set for ages and I still love it.  The lime green bowl is a more recent purchase.

These interesting bowls with the spiral design in them are a favourite for soup.  I think I bought these at Crate and Barrel in Chicago.

In particular, I seem to be drawn to bowls with fish and ocean themes.  This little set of three fish bowls are just perfect for veggie sticks or other snacks for guests.  They're really cute!

 Then I have these fish and seaweed themed bowls...which I could not resist.  Coldwater Creek sold them, when it still existed, when I lived in Iowa.

I also have this very large bowl with hand-painted fish on it.  This is in my guest bedroom.  I love the colours in it.

 Of course, it is also important to have good mixing bowls in one's kitchen.  Depending upon my mood and the requirements, I either use this set of colourful mixing bowls...

...or this heavy stoneware set of pastel pink bowls.

So yes, I think you could say I am a little bit bowl-crazy, but there is something so inviting about their round, open shape, and they can hold so many delights!

Desire
Obviously, I desire more bowls.  I didn't know what to show as a picture for this topic.  I thought about what I desire....

I desire a little more time to knit and spin and weave and enjoy my passion for fibre arts.  I just don't have enough time for that lately.

I desire a kinder, more peaceful world, less divided by things like politics and religion.  I wish we didn't have either one of those things in this world - they are both the root of much suffering and I believe we'd be better off without them, and with more acceptance and tolerance and love.

I desire ice cream, in many different flavours.  In bowls.

I desire a great-tasting pasta without calories.

I desire a long and happy life with Marc and my critters and my gardens, and the gift of good vision and use of my hands so I can create things.

I desire more time with my parents, and wish I had more time to visit with them.

I desire more time to spend watching the birds, walking in the woods, and feeling the wind in my hair and on my skin.

I desire fewer mosquitoes.

I desire a world where everyone can find their passion and make a living from it and inspire others with what they do.

I desire a bit more ice cream.

I desire more yarn, but I try to keep that desire under control.

Most of all, I desire the knowledge that I have made a difference in this world in my lifetime - that I have put a smile on someone's face, that I have given of myself when I could see that it was needed, and that somehow I have made the world a better place than it would otherwise have been.  If everybody had that desire, and lived it out, this world would be a far better place.

Friday's Hunt v 2.9

It's Friday, so that means it's time for Friday's Hunt, hosted by Eden Hills.  As usual, there are 3 topics for today:  Starts with I, Week's favourite, and Pink.

Starts with I
I have a few different things for the letter I this week, and I couldn't decide on just one, so I'm sharing all of them!

First, this week we were quite industrious.  Our new home is heated by a wood stove in the winter, which is located in the basement.  The previous owner advised us that he used about 7 cords of wood to heat the house per year, so we have recently had 4 cords delivered, with another 4 coming in late October.  Here is the wood as it was delivered outside the house.

We needed to be industrious to get the wood from the driveway into the house.  Each evening, Marc works on transporting the wood with the wheelbarrow into the garage, where he sends it down a chute into the basement wood storage room, where I, in turn, have been stacking it.  We have made good progress and are now on the 5th row of stacked wood in the basement (this picture was from a couple of days ago when there were only two rows in progress.  The rows go up to the ceiling, except for the back one because of the pipe being in the way.

Here's how much wood is left - we still have some industriousness left to go, but I am pleased with how well we have done so far!

Second, I'm sharing a photograph I took this summer of Idia americalis, a moth whose larvae feed on lichen and dead leaves. Its common name is the American Idia. The trees in my yard have a lot of lichen on them, and I'm surrounded by woods with decaying debris on the ground as is normally seen in woods, so it's not surprising that I see quite a few of these moths.

There are 18 different Idia moth species in North America that you might see if you look for them!  
An interesting Idia fact I found is that one species, Idia gopheri, lives in abandoned burrows of the gopher tortoise and feeds on its droppings. We don't have that species here because the gopher tortoise only lives in the southeastern US.

Third, I'm sharing a picture of our cat, Izzy, sitting on a hay bale.  I think she is glad that I have the sheep back and therefore have hay bales again, because she always loved sleeping on hay in my Iowa barn, and as soon as I put the bales in the garage here, she was on them!

(Hmmm.... letter J for next week.  That one might be tricky!)

Week's Favourite
This week's favourite is a photograph I took on Tuesday at the Sackville Waterfowl Park.  This young bird was scurrying about the reeds and grasses when I was there, and I was captivated by it, although it proved very difficult to photograph because it was always behind something!  When I finally downloaded my pictures that day, I sent this picture, which was the best one of the bunch, to the park staff to see if they could help me identify it.

I was quite excited when they responded quite quickly that I had managed to photograph a baby sora. This was exciting for several reasons.  Firstly, it's very late in the year for sora chicks, so seeing this one is surprising.  Secondly, sora chicks are not often seen - although the sora is a common marsh bird, it is also a secretive bird and is hard to spot, so seeing a chick is really quite rare, at least in this area! Thirdly, it's a bird I had never seen before! I'm hoping I might see it again as it grows. The sora chick starts out solid black and downy-fluffy all over.  This one is just losing its down and developing its adult feathers, which helped to identify it.

Pink
I know it's probably going to be a common choice, but I just couldn't help choosing to showcase pink blossoms for this prompt.  There were so many to choose from that I decided to put them into a couple of mosaics.  These are a variety of pink flowers from my garden this summer, as well as some pink flowers I photographed at the waterfowl park.  Pink is a bit subjective - when exactly does pink become mauve, or purple?  Opinions will vary on this matter, but hopefully we can all agree that at least some of these are pink flowers.

Clockwise from top left:  Spiraea tomentosa, unknown Geranium species, second unknown Geranium species, pink clover (Trifolium species), pink phlox (Phlox paniculata).

Clockwise from top left: Paeonia lactiflora cultivar (bi-coloured peony), Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife, bad invasive weed, but pretty), Malva moschata, daylily (with friend!), and rose (again, unknown species, although there was a tag for a John Cabot rose in the outbuilding, so I think it might be that one).

My handsome, handy hubby, and a few other bits and pieces

Today Marc installed a GFI outlet on the outside wall where the electric fence charger will be plugged in.  He doesn't like having his photograph taken, but since Timber and Izzy were there to help him out, he didn't mind so much.  That's the new plug just on the left of the picture.  Thank you, my handsome hubby!  I am so appreciative of his work in helping me get ready to have my sheep and goats come home!  He also installed the fence charging unit inside a weatherproof metal box so it can be put up on a post next to the fence.  What a lucky gal I am!

Now we just have to wait for NB Power to install the new power line so we can hook up the electric fence.  I spent some time this afternoon ripping old, rusty barbed wire fence out of the ground, because it was entering into the fenced area, and I didn't want any animal injuries resulting from it.  I dislike barbed wire very much, and hauling it out of the ground when it's been buried for years is not my idea of a good time.

I had another new daylily open up this weekend and it's a gorgeous plummy burgundy colour with a greenish-yellow centre.  This one might be my favourite!

Here's one of my favourite little neighbours - the chipmunk!  I managed to photograph him (or her) earlier this week.

I picked some more of the wild blueberries today, as well as some raspberries from our yard.  The raspberries are a big brambly tangle, and I would like to get that sorted out into an organized raspberry patch so that they are easier to pick and prune.  I found what I think are blackberries.  They are green and very far behind the current raspberry crop.  Blackberries are usually a later crop, so that's what I think I've got.  I hope so!

Here's my favourite moth from the past week - Habrosyne scripta - the lettered habrosyne moth.  I love the detailed patterns in its wings.  One day I'd like to have a proper macro lens to take even better photographs of moths like these.