The Wee Peeple Newsletter
May 2016 Issue 111
This month the Dollmaker moved into the 21st Century:
When she switched from this phone:
to this phone:
Actually, the Dollmaker LIKED her old Nokia phone,
but the technologically swollen and burgeoning corporate entity, AT&T,
began an insidious campaign to undermine her perfectly functional (and charmingly simplistic) mobile device
by delivering an Ultimatum couched in symbolism:
"Upgrade to 4G, plebian... or else."
Discerning an effrontery in the implication that she was somehow lacking in "G's"
for several months the Dollmaker consigned these offensive mailings to the "burn bin"
until finally the lubricous AT&T offered a $100 rebate for switching
to a "Smart" Phone
(an offer which they reneged upon later)...
And so began
several weeks of research, as the Dollmaker
staggered through a data-eccentric Wilderness
of Blue Teeth, Androids, Lollipops, Hot Spots, Squares, and Byting Gigs
in order to
"Choose the Right Smart Phone"... (take a side in the Apple/Android Conflict)
"Purchase the Right Smart Phone"... (how AT&T gets to renege on their offer)
"Figure out the New Smart Phone"... (actual phone calls are merely an incidental feature)
and find the right "Service Plan" for the Smart Phone... (Get your FREE Tablet for only $10/month... huh?)
but, for the Dollmaker, there IS one really fantastic thing about her new Smart Phone...
and it's not... Texting.... (hopelessly vexing)
not accessing the Internet, playing music, games, movies, apps- what-ever
(the Dollmaker can't wait to learn how to disable most of this stuff)
and it certainly is not about making phone calls...
For the Dollmaker it is ALL about
the CAMERA!
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The LG G4 Smart Phone has a 16 Megapixel rear facing Camera that takes pretty fantastic pictures... |
A pair of Cardinals built a nest in the Seven Sisters Rose Arbor
no more than two feet from the Dollmaker's back door...
and she was able to see the baby birds clearly! Bingo!
Her first Photo Opportunity!
How great was this!
Observing and Photographing baby birds- a ringside seat!
And loving the quality of the photos (especially for a cell phone camera...)
but then... things got complicated...
One day the Dollmaker checked on them and the nest was EMPTY!
Four totally clueless Baby Cardinals
who didn't even have tails yet, could not fly, and could not feed themselves
All decided to leave the nest at once.
(not good... not good at all)
The Dollmaker saw one baby bird was with it's parents...
It was fluttering around on the ground trying to fly, with the parent Cardinals coaching it...
OH, she thought, how sweet- they are teaching it how to fly...
when a Hawk suddenly showed up, swooped down and grabbed the baby.
As the Dollmaker ran, waving her arms, screaming in horror,
she slipped and fell face-first into the mud,
the Hawk carried the baby off, killed it and ate it right there on the telephone pole.
OH-MY-GOD!
For the rest of the afternoon, dripping with mud, horrified beyond words,
the Dollmaker patrolled the yard like the King's Guard, putting herself between the
hopelessly unprepared fluttering babies on the ground
and the predator who watched closely from the branches above.
Nightfall came...
One of the remaining three babies managed to disappear into the branches of a tree
but there were two left on the ground...
the Dollmaker scooped them up and put them in her Workshop.
It poured down rain that night and she never saw the one in the tree again.
So that left Two (clueless) Babies out of the original four.
And this Dollmaker was not about to see them die.
So... to make a long story short, although she made many attempts to return the babies
to the Wild, and to the Parents, the Rains kept coming and the sodden ground was
just no place for baby birds who flipped and fluttered and bounced and
"flew" straight into things...
The Cardinal parents showed some interest between rainstorms
but soon it became obvious
that the parent birds were building another nest
in a tree with lots of other species of birds.
(They had moved to a Condo...)
oh great.
This was only supposed to be about
Nevertheless...
the Dollmaker took her new role as Bird Mother quite seriously...
She fed them cat food soaked in rainwater, and their feathers grew in.
Inside the safety of the Workshop they learned to fly, choose their perches carefully
and land without falling to the ground.
Soon they became aware of themselves and began to preen and stretch their wings...
Now, sometimes they even stand on one foot!
At this writing they both have tail feathers and
will often fly down from the lofts at feeding time, which is huge,
saving the Dollmaker from having to crawl up there after them.
The next big step is to learn how to eat by themselves
and they have already started pecking at things...
(like the Dollmaker's earrings!)
Soon they will be ready to be released
back out into the Wild to face Life's Joys and Dangers on their own.
Wish them luck!
And now for more...
Right. So, Meanwhile...
At the same time, out in front of the house, along the highway
another miracle was unfolding...
The Century Plant
(planted in 2003) (now 13 years old)
sent up a huge stalk- it was going to bloom for the first time ever!
Perfect!
Nature was providing another Photo Opportunity for the Dollmaker...
(uh-oh)
(no- no- this one didn't involve quite so much of a commitment)
That's a 10 foot landscape timber sticking up on the left.
So, the Century Plant Stalk is probably at least 25 feet tall!!!
In the picture below, one can see that the stalk is definitely
taller than the house
and about as tall as the telephone pole
As the days and weeks passed, flower stems developed...
and yes, the Century Plant (or Blue Agave)
is indeed in the Asparagus Family
Still waiting for "Full Bloom"...
Later on in the month...
...a quick visit to Colorado Bend State Park
where the Dollmaker got to shoot Rocks
(rocks are so easy- they don't blow in the wind, turn around, walk off, blink, or fly away)
which makes them just perfect for...
Travertine flowstone... bearing calcite crystals
(yes there are caves in this park)
And finally, although not much Dollmaking got done this month...
The Dollmaker did address the question of:
What to do with all those
POCKETS!
Sure, everyone knows how
those stray
Pockets
tend to accumulate around the house...
And Clothing Labels - same thing- where do they all come from?
(well, it says right on them- made in China, USA, Mexico, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, India, Guatemala, Viet Nam...)
and then add tassels, fringe, and hundreds of species of extinct rick-rack to the heap...
and Something needs to be done!
Well... it was time they all made themselves useful...
Rockin Pockets!
Tassels, Fringes, Rick-rack and Clothing Labels
also go well with Vintage Photographs
"Babydoll"
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"Still Here"
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But mostly May has been about the
Somewhere... under the carport..
Bluebirds nest..
Birds nest under the carport
We wish them all the best!
The story
of
The story of
The Story of
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and
"center">
"like music drifting through the
air- -Jack Skellington
In October and November Check out the Wee Peeple Doll Shoppe at the
Shoppe #145
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The
Story of the
Bev Taylor
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