'Not Still Life'

My Bride has always been a talented artist. She took scientific illustration courses back in university, and loved art class all through school. But like with a lot of things, adulting seemed to get in the way for many years.

A couple of years ago, she picked up her sketchpad and started drawing again, which led to watercolors and painting.

Yesterday, she surprised me with this portrait of our two resident gobbler goofballs.

I love the capture of their curious expressions - they really are just two big old feathered weirdos, who want to know if you’ve got a treat or something interesting going on. They’re dorks - I’ve had to herd them back out of the road a few times now. When I hear horns honking and see traffic at a stop, I know they’ve been wandering a little too boldy. But they’re always glad to see me and happy to be shown the way back.

I think this is my Bride’s way of acknowledging how much she’s enjoying their company as well.

Black Walnut Farm

It’s a competition between us and the squirrels to harvest the walnuts this time of year. But we grow plenty (as the name of our home attests). And they can spare a few for us humans.

Even so, they yelled down at me as I hulled a bucket-full on the driveway, stomping on the soft outer layer to get at the nut inside. Careful: you will definitely stain your hands and anything else this touches as you pick out the inner nut.

Washed and drying in the sunroom now; there’s a pickled walnut recipe I found in Ronni Lundy‘s beautiful book ‘Victuals’ that I cant wait to try. (And if you’re at all interested in southern food stories, I *highly* recommend this book).

Wood rats

Red squirrels are a plague.

They stash walnuts in the walls of the house, and yell at me for walking across the lawn. They run laps around their fat cousins, the grey squirrels. They mock the dog from just above her height, and it took us years to figure out where they were getting into the basement, to keep them from turning it into their winter vacation home.

But they are adorable little rats, aren’t they?