Midweek Post- Art and Moths

   Hi everyone. I really don't know what happened to August, but we're in the last few days of the month. Since this is my month to host over at Art Journal Journey, I want to squeeze in a few more posts for that challenge. 

   Today's journal page  is one I particularly like. As you probably know by now my theme is In The Good Old Summertime. 

  I made a simple background of light blue painted lines. The line background is kind of a theme I have on several pages throughout this journal. Then I cut out this picture from the Ciao Bella Rivera book I've been using on a lot of pages. It looks like a lovely morning or evening coffee or tea, doesn't it? Sitting outside and enjoying a drink is definitely one of summer's little pleasures.

  The two little potted trees and the branch on the left are stickers from this book. To finish the branch I added some sniped off flowers from a yellow flower trim and then put a flat yellow bead in the center of each. The quote is from an Andy Skinner set by Paper Artsy, but I think it works perfectly here. 

  Yesterday  Denise over at An English Girl Rambles from 2016 to... shared a great photo of a milkweed tussock moth caterpillar. I mentioned to her that I had recently noticed a lot of little ones on a  milkweed plant in my yard. 

Here's the cluster yesterday.

   I've never seen so many in one place so I'm wondering if a whole batch of eggs hatched on the underside of this leaf. I did notice yesterday that the top of that plant is missing all its leaves, so I'm guessing they've eaten them. I didn't know all that much about this caterpillar except that it feeds on the milkweed leaves so I did some research. 

    The moths are a favorite food of bats, BUT, they give off an ultrasonic sound to keep the bats away. That is good, because since the moths were once these caterpillars, and like monarch butterfly caterpillars, fed on the milkweed. That means they contain cardiac glycosides, which are poisonous to animals who then try to eat them. When these little guys molt into their final flying stage, the cardiac glycosides has stayed with them, thus protecting them as adults. 

    Here's a couple of photos I "borrowed" from the internet showing the adult moths.

    When their wings are closed, they aren't really much to look at, are they? But I like how they look with wings fully opened. 

   Here's a link to a gardening article that I read that I thought was interesting: Milkweed Tussock Moth if you'd like to know more about these creepy crawlies.

  That's all for me today. Hope you have or are having a good one. 

A Cherry Hello

OK, a pretty bad pun on a cheery hello, but on this dark and very wet morning, let me show you the cherry blossoms on Al. They are quite cheery for a dreary moment here in New Hampshire.

Al is a weeping cherry tree in my backyard. Now I don't usually go around naming trees, but this was a gift from my co-workers when my dad passed away 6 1/2 years ago, and it was appropriate because my dad loved to work in the yard and he loved trees and shrubs, he wasn't really a gardener per say. So we named this tree after him, a memory of him, and right now he is blooming beautifully.

I suppose I should take a photo  to show you all of Al, but he's a big white bloom right now.

Got to love spring colors!

And now onto my card for the day...which has also got a tree covered in blooms-just like Al.

I used Kim Hughes/CHF stamps for this card. I started by stamping a row of the flowers across the card in a place I might add ribbon or tape. I colored them with Copics. Then I die-cut the diamon and stamped the tree on it, which I colored and also the little bee. I attached the diamond shape on and then used some fun little butterflies. Finally I stamped the saying on white paper, which is not from Kim Hughes or CHF. I actually don't know who made the stamp but it was part of a big set of stamps I won last winter on eBay and its got many encouraging saying on it. So I cut this one out of the paper and then attached it. Finally I added some lilac dots (Viva) onto the corners of the diamond.

So, on another grey morning here in New Hampshire...let me wish you a cheery (or cherry) hello.