Foovay’s Cauldron

Archive for the ‘writing’ Category

Indeed, spring has sprung. I offer as evidence the ground squirrel we saw on the ranch yesterday. They are so small and so fast that to get a photo to share with you I’m going to have to spend a sunny day lurking near a burrow. This is also probably true about getting a photo of one of our fascinating little rock squirrels that have begun scampering around the rocks near the lake. Certain populations of these Rock Squirrels have a genetic anomaly that, once they shed into the summer coat, causes them to be half black, and half the silvery gold agouti that is the normal color. They look as if their head and shoulders have been dipped into an inkwell! I heard a Red-winged Blackbird in town just yesterday. They don’t usually visit us at the ranch – not enough water here – but we may be treated to a fly-by visit from their cousins the Yellow-headed Blackbird. Earlier this week a huge flock of Sandhill Cranes flew over, circled a while, and left. I suspect they had hoped to stop at Jornada Lake for a snack and a rest. However, thanks to the road building and spaceport crews, this year we have no lake, even though we have had some rain and even snow.

My friend the juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk has posed for some more photos – this time sitting on top of the brush pile waiting for something small enough to eat to dash out. Now THAT’s lurking! I’ll share the full photo first so you can see how thoroughly he blends into his background when he is being still. He’s right on top of the brush pile.

And now cropped just to show the hawk:

He really outdid himself yesterday though. I went out to feed the chickens for the evening. My eyes were on the rooster – who is feeling rather crabby as I don’t let them out to free range on cloudy days so they haven’t been out for a day or two. So I didn’t even notice the young hawk was on top of the chicken pen until he took off from right above my head. I was about to say something to him about not eating my chickens when another visitor flew up from under my feet. A cottontop (Texas Scaled) Quail had been inside with the chickens. When I came in, the quail flushed out through the side of the pen – and the hawk was instantly in hot pursuit. Great – now not only does he think we are pals, he thinks I’m going to flush game for him! Glad to be of use

Speaking of cloudy days, which means a bit of spring rain now and then out here on the high desert – hubby got lucky and caught a picture of this magnificent double rainbow that arched over the far end of our ranch this week. It was a perfect complete arch, both ends touching the ground on the inner rainbow, right at sunset. It was so pretty when I went outside the horses and mule had even turned to look at it. Probably watching the fairies dancing around the end of the rainbow.

Of course, traditionally there should be a leprechaun and a pot of gold down there. Maybe I should have hopped on Moses and galloped down to see!We could use a pot of gold around here!

Dover sent me their sample this week and it was all about the Irish – irish folklore and fairy tales and leprechauns and celtic coloring stuff. Drool. I was so inspired I did a new Squidoo lens about Irish Fairy Tales and Folklore, and updated the St. Patricks Day Coloring Pages and Coloring Books, Leprechauns, and Fairy Tales.

I’ve been taking pictures of our beautiful storms and sunsets, trying to get a nice collection to chose from for my Squidoo lens devoted to the New Mexico Sky, and also Maxfield Parrish. Now they aren’t done, so those links probably don’t work right this minute – but try them later today, okay? LOL. Here’s one of the photos though:

The hubby had his surgery Thursday to install the fistula in his arm for dialysis. Everything went just great and we were even home early. They did tell him not to use the arm until it heals – and of course when it heals they’ll begin dialysis. So it is quite unlikely he is going to be able to return to work as a cook. Despite the fact he cannot work, Disability says he isn’t disabled, call AFTER he starts dialysis. *rolling eyes*

Luckily, I had already started job hunting and have gotten a call from one job already which would be only two days a week – the weekend. Actually, that is ideal since I have to drive hubby to Dr.s appointments and so forth and they’re all during the week. I also took the test to work for the Census and did well, so they are supposed to call me Monday. Until he begins dialysis I can work both – and will. We need every penny we can get.

Up until I am working, I will do my best to hang in there with the Get Cracking Lens a Day Challenge – so even if I don’t get here to the blog, you might want to check in on my New Lenses for the Get Cracking Challenge list.

Yesterday we had to drive to town for a errand, and did we luck out on the way home! A small herd of mule deer were grazing right next to the road. We got some great photos. Here’s my favorite:

When we got home and got them on the computer, we saw a deer BEHIND that mesquite bush that we had not even noticed while taking the photos – LOL!

You can click on any of these BTW and go to the Flickr page and see the bigger ones – this new camera takes huge photos. When I get time I’m going to mosey through, tag things better and license them for use.

It’s been a good week since I added any new coloring pages. Job hunting, Doctors, stress… but all things considered we are doing well. I will do my best to keep my little online empire going and growing, but it doesn’t earn enough to support us and I can no longer depend on the husbands income.

Oh! I was so gobsmacked – someone sent me a donation for the artist for use of my free public domain clipart! Not only did it make me jump up and down with joy, it made it possible for me to pay for another month of the downloadable digital coloring book shop. Thank you!!

I also updated my homepage/business card at Summer Fey Foovay.com and added a new binder at my Zazzle store. Don’t forget that the Pagan holiday ecards I used to have up at fre-ecards.com are now at my Zazzle store as paper greeting cards and stamps. Ostara is coming!

And I wanted to share my hubby’s idea of a day of “take it easy, don’t use that arm for anything” – he fixed the kitchen faucet, did the dishes, cooked dinner, trimmed some mesquite bushes that had grown into the driveway, and took those photos of the deer. All one-handed. He’s a pretty great guy, huh?

Thanks for hanging in with me. I have a lot I hope to get done today so I gotta go.

Summer Fey Foovay

The hubby has been busy this week getting some great photos like this one of a house finch. What I love about this is if you look, you can see how those streaky breast feathers blend right in with the brushy mess on the ground to provide the perfect camoflage.

He also got our best photo yet of that pretty pale Eurasian Ring-Necked Dove. I’ve begun to feel quite sorry for her as the rest of the flock clearly ostracizes her. Of course, she may as well have a target painted on her as be this pale color here in the desert. We have at least two hawks who pay daily visits to the ranch. I wonder how long she will last?

And our best photo yet of the buffalo. We always consider it a sign of good luck when we see them on the way to town.

Speaking of luck, in the last few weeks I have won five times in a row on the Lottery. Only a dollar each time – just enough to buy the next ticket – but I’m feeling pretty special! I’ve concluded that I probably ought to spend more time and effort playing the lottery since my chances of winning a big jackpot are somewhat better than the odds of getting a book published that actually makes any money! (No, really, look at the figures someday – it’s pretty unlikely that even a GOOD novel will make anything)

Never mind the odds of making money on the Internet. I had to laugh the other day at a comment on a money making article about “why isn’t my article making money?” and the writer said “Oh, you have to let them mature”. Yeah. I’ve got articles that have been maturing for almost 10 years and they are up to a few pennies a month now! LOL.

Yeah, playing the lottery is looking good.

But until I win “the big one” I’m working on some Squidoo lenses for the Get Cracking with Robin and Bonnie Challenge. The idea is to do a lens a day for…however long you can take it, I guess. Although their main thing seems to be giving prompts for ideas – and the last thing I need is more ideas since I have half a notebook full of them – I’m using it as a motivation to get all those Work In Progress lenses I have finished up and published. So far, so good – I’m four for four. Here’s my list of the new additions – everything from “I love my iPod shuffle” to “Dragonfly Watching”. Keep your eye on this space, folks!

Yesterday I got a nice surprise check from the sponsors of one of my adult sites. It’s even nicer when you think that I don’t even have a link up to them right now! Gotta love the adult biz – repeat customers rule. So I have put that on my todo list – really got to get a real website up there again someday! Besides, it’s fun. I guess you’d have to say it’s MATURED. *snicker*

Blessedbe

Summer

It’s official – I have joined the Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin Challenge on Squidoo, and here is my official list for the challenge lenses. What I really want to do is get the fifteen or so works in progress lenses – some of which are over a year old (shameful) made into real publishable lenses. I am full of great ideas – I have a whole notebook full of lenses I want to make – I just lack follow through.

Now I’m going to go lay down again. I’ve gotten a really awful stomach virus somewhere amongst all these doctor and hospital visits for the hubby. At least HE didn’t get it, for which I am very grateful. We are supposed to have rain and snow over the next few days so I don’t mind so much not feeling up to getting out and about. Maybe I can get another big batch of coloring pages drawn up as well as some Squidoo lenses done and my last bit of sewing for this winter.

I haven’t gotten a whole lot done this week it seems, other than coloring pages. Yesterday was spent in Las Cruces. We got a lot done, met the husbands surgeon, set up his surgery to install the fistula, started the process to apply for his disability and then took a nice, leisurely drive home up “the old highway” – taking photos all the way, of course.

This photo of the Organ Mountains was taken in Las Cruces. We have been chuckling for a few weeks over some directions we got from one office which stated “turn left, towards the Organ Mountains”. You would think that was a pretty safe landmark, but on the day we went to that place it was overcast and foggy, and you actually could NOT see the mountains. LOL.

Meanwhile, the signs of spring at the ranch are growing. This little fellow showed up Wednesday morning while we were out on the porch enjoying Mr. Sunbeam with our coffee.

The juvenile Sharp-Shinned Hawk has decided he is a member of the family and almost always joins us in the mornings now. Hubby snuck up for this pic:

I did get a lot of sewing done this week, and have just a bit more to do before I pack up the sewing machine for the warm months. Once it gets warm and the days are long I happily trade the sewing machine for the kayak in the storage space. My art supplies will stay out though, as I will start spending part of the day sitting outside to sketch. Now that my scanner is here and hooked up I may even share the sketches with you as they happen. We just might be without Internet for a few days towards the end of the month (can’t afford it – decided we would enjoy eating more than having Internet now that I have quit pretending I will ever make a living here) and I am thinking I may get together with a writing friend for a little marathon writing to finish Book Two of the Hunter series.

We have two whole weeks before we have to go out of town again – WHEEEE. We’re talking about perhaps doing a bit of exploring, checking out some nearby birding areas so hubby can take more photos, etc. Just depends on what he feels up to. One day at a time.

If you wanted one of my coloring books, the shop will be open about another ten days.

Sunny says “the end”

Blessedbe

Summer Fey Foovay

The things I think about…

Been a lot of activity on the Spring Coloring Pages lens for the last couple of weeks so I thought I ought to add some new coloring pages. So I asked on Twitter what people think of when they think of spring. Flowers, baby animals, rain, Easter, St. Patricks Day were some of the answers.

Here in the desert spring means the migrant birds passing though again on their way back south. The doves are cooing incessantly already for their mating season. The traditional spring bulbs don’t actually do very well here and most of the wildflowers bloom in the winter when there is water. The mesquite is the first plant to put out new leaves.

Here in America we never notice how our thinking of “how things are” or should be is influenced by the fact that the first Americans never made it past the Maxon Dixon line, and most of them are from kinder climates anyway. Places where spring is flowers and green grass and baby bunnies (which we probably won’t see here until May or June). People who move to the desert, and even many who were raised here complain about the differences as if the desert were just WRONG because spring here is not like spring in New England. My first husbands family – from New York and Pennsylvania – never stopped complaining that it never snowed in Oklahoma in the winter. Not like three feet deep stay on the ground for months snow. Look at any Christmas card – what do we think Christmas means? Winter snow on the evergreens and Cardinals in every tree, right? Not here.

But most people move to the southwest FOR the warmer, drier weather. Then complain when the seasons do not match those at home.

The desert is different. You love it, or you don’t. You accept it, or you don’t. (It doesn’t really care) But if you do open your heart and eyes to a different kind of beauty, the magic will transform you.

A roadrunner came from behind me, under the porch, and then ran out in front of me before he noticed me sitting on the porch with my coffee this morning. He stopped, turned, glared at me – then squatted and puffed up his feathers, holding his wings out beside his body to make himself about three times the bird he was a minute before. Just so I knew he was a pretty tough bird, ya know. He held that posture for a few minutes, then trotted casually off into the brush. Moments like this remind me why I love it here.

Spring means roadrunners are once again hunting their favorite foods – lizards and snakes. I’ve actually seen a lizard out running around on Christmas Day here.

You probably know that I started Color-Your-Own.com as a free line art site for players of the Orbis games. I still play, mostly at SandboxFarms where you can create animals to share with the world. Recently I created some new varieties of service dogs, including cadaver dogs, bomb sniffing dogs, arson and drug sniffing dogs, and search and rescue dogs. Long as I’m at it, I am creating coloring pages for them, too. I’ll be adding those all week so if you are interested, just check out the coloring pages blog.

I may have told you, but if not The Best Vegetarian Lasagna ever is hubbys first recipe to be shared online and on Squidoo. Check it out – it is delicious. Look forward to more as he gets out of that job and onto a new life.

Well, time to feed dinner outside. Hope you had a great Valentine’s Day and a good week ahead.

I just sat down at the computer to try and kill a few minutes before I go feed when I noticed this outside my window:

The bird on the right is a Eurasian Ring Necked Dove of which we have so many here that they are shoving the native White Winged Dove right out of their habitat. The bird on the left…well my guess is she is either a dilute color variation of the Eurasian Ring Necked Dove, or some sort of hybrid. Here’s a better look at her:

Sorry the pix are so bad – we have a storm rolling in and I was taking them through the back bedroom window at a weird angle to avoid the window frame, which included me standing on the desk. I keep getting knocked off line as I try to post this, too. Yeppers – storm coming in.

I got a great Squidoo payday today and was really excited until I discovered that everything I wanted to buy would not accept PayPal. I no longer allow PayPal to associate with my bank account – since the $300 fiasco over a $10 bill where they refused to use the PayPal balance but instead kept dunning my empty checking account until they cost me about $300 for a $10 payment, no matter how many times I called them OR the bank. So I’ve got money – yay – I just can’t touch it – LOL. Well, I could spend it shopping but I wanted to invest it in advertising (no one accepts PayPal) or go shopping at my adult toy store (PayPal closed their account since they don’t allow any adult businesses).

Speaking of being an adult, a twitter follower “threatened” me that if I did not watch what I said on Twitter she would HAVE to BLOCK me as she is a homeschooler. Well, I’m sorry, but I am an adult – and I am a Pagan – and I call it as I see it. I do not write for small children or sheltered children or children as a matter of fact, so block me and get over it.

Now I need to get out there and feed before it gets worse

Summer Fey Foovay