You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2009.
This armadillo just surfaced in my messy studio. It’s an ATC (Artist Trading Card) made by Carol K. Boyer and given to me by her when we were together at a creativity retreat a few years ago.
No. 13 in Orange Series 3 by Carol K. Boyer
(The image is a little fuzzy; I have got to get me a scanner!)
This morning we had some exciting bird action in our backyard. First, we saw a huge bird across the stream from us. After digging out the binoculars and the bird guide, we realized we were looking at a pair of Ferruginous Hawks, which are prairie birds and not very common. Super cool! Unfortunately, they were too far away for our camera.
We did, however, get a picture of another unusual visitor. This American Kestrel perched on the top of one of our pine trees for a few minutes. I had to push our camera to the max and we still only got a mediocre image, but I figure it’s not bad for photography on the fly. (No pun intended.)
It’s time to introduce the smallest members of our family. Zachary and Adrian are fancy mice (not the same as the feeder mice pet stores sell to reptile owners). Zachary is the older of the two, and despite extensive training, he is not as bold as Adrian. Zach loves food and comes running to take it from me, but he does everything he can to avoid actually touching me.
Zach doing what he does best
Zach stretching for his treat instead of climbing on my hand (something he used to do)
Adrian is proving much braver than Zach although he doesn’t have Zach’s do-or-die attitude about food. It’s taken me much longer to train him to take food from my hand, but once he’s out, he becomes Adventure Mouse, and goes exploring everywhere.
Adrian climbing Mount Kit (look, Ma! No rope!)
Adrian hiding under my vest collar
Unfortunately, Zach is aggressive, so they have to live in separate cages. I regularly visit the thrift store to check for larger enclosures, and this week I scored a three-story mouse cage for $6. I’ll be moving Zach into the sky scraper, and building Adrian a larger place by combining the two cages we already have. Watch for photos of their new homes. I’ll probably post them this weekend.
It’s a Dunsmore family tradition to make gingerbread constructions when Christmas rolls around. I’m not sure when we built the first house (1993?), but once we got the hang of it, we went to town. Over the years we’ve built gingerbread versions of Stonehenge, a Buddhist Temple, Alpine chalets, and even a backwoods cabin complete with outhouse. This year we strayed even further from tradition than usual and went for trains.
My sister Cleo beats the dough into submission
Jack cuts out an engine piece
Thanks to ingenious design work by my brother-in-law Jack and my dad, we wound up with pretty convincing trains. Once the parts were glued together, we got out the candy and went to town.
Kurt's first year decorating but you'd never guess it
We made two engines and a bunch of cars, including one oil tanker. It looks like they are held up by their wheels, but if you look closely at the cars, you can see how we did it – hidden feet.
Red Engine with Licorice Car, Honey Tanker, and Peppermint Car (photo by Don Dunsmore)
The Green Train (aka the Bavarian Express)
Everyone got involved in the decorating and despite our best efforts, we still had bags of candy left over. No worries, though. We’ll use them in our next gingerbread extravaganza.
