The Bird and The Bees

     Hi everyone. Happy Sunday to you. I hope the new month is going well for you.

    Today I am joining Nicole for her Sunday in the Art Room and I'm also joining Gillena for her Sunday Smiles.  I'll also be linking  up my art piece to Mia's Birds challenge at Art Journal Journey.

   On this page I used various colored paints in the background. I also stenciled some leaves and added some black dots with a Sharpie. There's also some white paint pen and Sharpie dots too.  Then I added a tissue paper image, which I did not like.  But that  was an easy fix. I have my very old bird book from a college Vertebrate Zoology lab where one of the things we had to do was identify some birds. It's quite outdated in some ways (since I graduated from college in the early 1980's), so I am chopping it up for art when I need bird pictures. It seems a shame to chop up a good book, but it is now getting some use at least. 👍

   I cut out the crow and covered up the misfortune with the tissue paper. I added a piece of painted lace to give him a place to stand. And then I cut apart a paper frame and used 2 corners of it to finish off my page. I'm quite happy with the results now. 😏

   Last week one day I set up a second beehive since later this week I have another box of bees being shipped. I wanted to air out the unused  hive.  I've tried for 4 years to get a second box going, and for several various reasons, I have never had any luck or success. One year those bees in the second hive even combined with the bees I already had.

   This year I'm hoping things will work out. 👍🤞🤞🤞

  When I set up the new hive box the other day, I went into my old hive to give it a good go through.  I was surprised to find the top box was really loaded with honey. 

   Look at the capped (the white) honey on this frame.  The other side was just as full.  All 10 frames in this box were like this. Either the bees ignore this honey all winter (which I doubt) or they have been very very busy lately.

   You can also see below that the bees were expanding their combs upward. It was time for another box.

    I added another smaller honey super on top. I hope it fills up with honey so I can remove it and take the honey, and then, since it is still very early in the season, I can put another box on top for the bees. I haven't had this situation before because usually at this time of year the hive is pretty depleted. That's one thing I love about beekeeping, the bees keep throwing new situations at me, and I am always learning new things.

   Plus you might think I'm weird, but I find watching the bees very interesting and very relaxing. I don't usually even suit up anymore, but I do have to really relax completely. If I'm relaxed, the bees basically ignore me, and I can stand there and watch them for a while too.

   I'll let you know how the second box goes. Until then, I hope you have a honey of a day- grin. 

   

Second on the Second- Charleston from 3 Years Ago

    Hi everyone. Happy May 2. Today I'll be joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth for  their Second on the Second   link up. All you need to do to join in is to share a post you've already posted before.

     Since I've recently shared a couple of  posts about my latest weekend getaway to Charleston, South Carolina, and since I also visited there 3 years ago in early May, I thought I would make my second look about that city. One thing I did in 2023 when I visited with a friend was to walk around the historic downtown area. It's very beautiful there.  My friend and I took a lot of photos, and we poked around in some little stores and galleries.

      None of that interests my husband even the slightest bit, so on my visit a couple of weekends ago I did not go downtown. That is OK because we did some other things. 

       My post today has photos from a July 27, 2023 plus a few others from 2023 that I never posted and decided to include today. Warning, this is a heavy photo post. 

  Lots of photos, not a lot of writing.  Hope you enjoyed the views. Have a great first weekend in May!

Welcome May

    Hi everyone. Happy new month to you. It's May! In many places today is a holiday, but not here in the US. However it is the day that we get a new host and new theme over at Art Journal Journey . 😉

   Before I get to that, let me once again thank Gillena for being a wonderful host, and let me also thank everyone who joined us this past month. ❤ So thank you all!

    For May, we are welcoming one of our admin teamies as a host. You probably all know the creative and talented Mia. If you don't, you might recognize her blog Craftartista.

    This month Mia has chosen the theme of BIRDS.

   I had a hard time getting this first page to lay flat in my journal. You can probably see it better in the next photo.

  The background is made with blue, yellow, purple and bright green paint that I sponged onto the page with a crushed paper towel. Once dry, I added a large sticker which I thought was where I wanted to go. Then I realized it wasn't what I wanted so I sponged a little more of the bright green paint over it . It makes a good place (on the left side of the page) to add my leaves and flowers.

  The large green leaves and the flowers are made using some very old Hero Arts flower print rubber stamps. I stamped them on paper with embossing ink and then I added embossing powder to them to give them their interesting texture. Once they were heat set I then fussy cut them out and added them to my piece. The bird is fussy cut from a sheet of paper (that I think was by Graphic 45). The hello friends words along the bottom is from a sheet of Graphic 45 paper. 

   To finish my page I die cut and added a few details to the butterfly, and I stamped the quote which is from an old Allie Edwards set by Technique Tuesday. 

   Please don't forget our dreaded rules if you decide to join in. We are an art journaling challenge, so please only link an art journal page and not a card, ATC, tag or other forms of art. However, we do accept any form of art journaling and any size page.

   And just an FYI- if you link up through one of the social media platforms we may not be able to comment on your piece because we admins may  not have that particular platform or even any social media platforms.  

  Otherwise, I hope you'll be inspired by Mia's bird challenge and you'll join us at Art Journal Journey this month. I'm looking forward to seeing your creations. 

The Rest of the Charleston Garden Photos I Started Sharing Last Week

   Hi everyone.  Can you believe it's the last day of April? This past month flew by. Now that winter is gone, could we slow down things just a little big? (grin)  I'm not around much during the day today (Thursday) with a couple of appointments, so I probably won't get to stop by your blog until later this evening or tomorrow.

  I thought today I would finish the photos I started in last Thursday's post. All these photos are from when I visited Margnolia  Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina a couple of weeks ago. Here's that first post if you missed it and are interested in it: Magnolia Part 1.

  I will also be linking  up this post to Nicole's Friday Face Off and Gillena's  Friday Lunch Break    because tomorrow is the first of the new month which means I will need to  share a new page for Art Journal Journey. I have some  faces at the end of this post. 

   So let's go back to the garden.😀

  After the American Civil War when the slaves were finally freed and rice farming wasn't as advantageous, the family who owned this property needed a find a way to keep their 400 acre plantation. In the late 1800's they planted azaleas and other flowering trees and created the garden. They then  opened it up to tourists who originally would arrive by boat from the Lesley River.  I found this old postcard online and  thought it was an interesting view to the story of this garden.

   Here's the Lesley River  along the gardens now. I like to imagine what it was like when this  waterway was the main transportation route because the road (which is obviously now paved and well traveled) at that time was a dirt track through the woods. 

     Now the house and grounds are  open to the public. I had hoped (besides seeing blooming azaleas) that I could also get a house tour on the day we visited, but those were all full. In retrospect that was OK because we still managed to spend a full afternoon just walking around and enjoying the grounds. 

   I think it would be grand to have a long driveway with such a wonderful oak ceiling and leafy tunnel. Of course  in New Hampshire it would be bare branches half of the year and during winter storms branches would break and block the way so I guess it's best to leave it for the south.

There are several trails to walk, and the one we were on came out through these moss covered beauties.

The Spanish Moss is so cool.👍

      You can see another passe azalea😞 in the photo above. If I ever get back to this area, I hope the azalea's will then be in bloom. 

     Then we had a glance of the house and the more cultivated gardens around the house. Those gardens were pretty, but not as fun as the wild walk I shared last week. But I bet a couple of weeks earlier they would have been gorgeous when the azaleas were blooming.

   Even though I never made it into the house, I did enjoy checking out this wide veranda. 

And I got a few funky/weird photos when I peaked in through the windows.

  The other cool thing up around the house were the peacocks that roamed around. Here's my face for Friday Face Off. This handsome guy was sitting in the cool shade of a small table area. We had stopped at the snack bar to get a cold drink since it was 95 degrees F/35 degrees C and when we sat down we noticed him.

   This other guy was shuffling around with his huge gorgeous train. It must be quite the burden for these birds to drag around their big tales. All just to impress the ladies.

     I was quite interested in the arrangement of the tail feathers.I didn't realize the visible eyes lined up down the middle when the tail was opened. I aso spotted some tucked into the side, but they were not so visible.

  For some reason when I see peacocks I think of Flannery O'Connor's short stories. If you aren't familiar with her, she was a mid-twentieth century southern (US) writer who was very interested in birds. She thought of  male peacocks as the king of birds, which with  their gorgeous colors and that tail was an apt description. She mentions birds in her stories, but her stories are not about birds.

  Hope you enjoyed your visit to Magnolia Plantation and Garden. When I post my next trip post it will be to  visit Congaree National Park which is a couple hours inland from Charleston. Until then, have a super day.