Saturday, May 15, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
THE JOY OF JADES
Moving on from possums to plants, here are a few from my personal collection. I made the two smallest Jades for sale some time ago, but decided to keep them. I love Jade plants, but I can't grow them very well. Actually, not at all since none have survived. Sorry, the pot on the right is crooked. Don't you just want to reach in and straighten it? LOL!
When I make plants from clay, I never know what the final size will be, which tends to work out fine for scale since most plants have a range of sizes. I've grown Jades with very small leaves, and some that are much, much larger. Can you tell from the first pic how big these are? Now don't peek at the second photo!
When I make plants from clay, I never know what the final size will be, which tends to work out fine for scale since most plants have a range of sizes. I've grown Jades with very small leaves, and some that are much, much larger. Can you tell from the first pic how big these are? Now don't peek at the second photo!
Ok, now you can look. How close were you?
This is a Bunny Ears cactus. I grew some in my real garden, but I was pricked so many times that I dug them up, using heavy gloves, and trashed them. I'll stick with the miniature version, thank you very much!
Friday, May 7, 2010
PROTECT THE POOR POSSUMS
I was going to post facts about possums, like how they eat cockroaches, rotting fruit, and slugs, and how they hiss and bare their teeth when threatened (so do I), or go limp, since they have no defenses against predators. But then I found this great YouTube video called In Defense of Opossums, which does a much better job than I could.
Did you feel badly for the possums in my story? Would you have felt badly if they had been rats? No? Then please visit http://opossum.craton.net/ You can view the video there. It plays the Rocky Theme, not sure how that fits, but the video is less than three minutes, and worth the time.
Possums are a protected species in their native Australia. Do yourself a favor and find out why!
photo from http://www.opossum.org/Wednesday, May 5, 2010
A POSSUM STORY
Time for a break from plants to share a little critter I call 'Ginny'.
Ginny is a very special gift from a very special person and good friend, Kristy Taylor. Kristy makes the most awesome 'critters', as she calls them. Not your usual house pets, but those creatures that normally make a person, well, uncomfortable. If you haven't seen them, visit Kristy's website at http://www.minimenagerie.com/ and her blog at http://minimenagerie.blogspot.com/.
The story behind Ginny is sad and I won't go into it. Hold it. Reverse that. I will go into it.
Last summer I found a young, dead possum in my back yard, and a few nights later, another. At first I blamed my dog, but the possums had no injuries. After finding the second possum, which looked exactly like the first and died in the same manner, I knew something was amiss, and it was probably happening under my deck. Then I remembered that my dog chased something out of my yard one night about a week or so earlier, which I then figured was a raccoon hiding under my deck. Now I suspected the mother possum was surprised when I let my dog out that night, took off, and never came back. Unable to see anything hiding, all I could do was wait, keep my dog in at night, and hope the mother returned. I couldn't believe I was actually hoping for a possum under my deck!
Over the next several days, two more possums suffered the same fate. Then it stopped. Animal Control said they probably were not weaned yet and died from dehydration. I was so sad to think those poor little guys, who previously had repulsed me, died frightened and alone, and so close to me, yet I could do nothing. When I researched possums and found them to be totally misunderstood and given the same bad rap as raccoons, while they are docile creatures that actually are beneficial to humans, I felt even worse. I will never view a possum the same way again!
A short time later my Mother died, which was only weeks before I was being published in the September 2009 issue of American Miniaturist. Kristy, being the kind-hearted person she is, made me this precious possum, who is reading the very issue in which I appeared. So of course, her name is Ginny, my Mother's nick-name. Even though Ginny was created from losses suffered, every time I look at her, I smile.
Do I have a great friend, or what?
Ginny is a very special gift from a very special person and good friend, Kristy Taylor. Kristy makes the most awesome 'critters', as she calls them. Not your usual house pets, but those creatures that normally make a person, well, uncomfortable. If you haven't seen them, visit Kristy's website at http://www.minimenagerie.com/ and her blog at http://minimenagerie.blogspot.com/.
The story behind Ginny is sad and I won't go into it. Hold it. Reverse that. I will go into it.
Last summer I found a young, dead possum in my back yard, and a few nights later, another. At first I blamed my dog, but the possums had no injuries. After finding the second possum, which looked exactly like the first and died in the same manner, I knew something was amiss, and it was probably happening under my deck. Then I remembered that my dog chased something out of my yard one night about a week or so earlier, which I then figured was a raccoon hiding under my deck. Now I suspected the mother possum was surprised when I let my dog out that night, took off, and never came back. Unable to see anything hiding, all I could do was wait, keep my dog in at night, and hope the mother returned. I couldn't believe I was actually hoping for a possum under my deck!
Over the next several days, two more possums suffered the same fate. Then it stopped. Animal Control said they probably were not weaned yet and died from dehydration. I was so sad to think those poor little guys, who previously had repulsed me, died frightened and alone, and so close to me, yet I could do nothing. When I researched possums and found them to be totally misunderstood and given the same bad rap as raccoons, while they are docile creatures that actually are beneficial to humans, I felt even worse. I will never view a possum the same way again!
A short time later my Mother died, which was only weeks before I was being published in the September 2009 issue of American Miniaturist. Kristy, being the kind-hearted person she is, made me this precious possum, who is reading the very issue in which I appeared. So of course, her name is Ginny, my Mother's nick-name. Even though Ginny was created from losses suffered, every time I look at her, I smile.
Do I have a great friend, or what?
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