Faces, big and small

I thought they all looked neat together so I had to take an artsy shot of these faces. The tiny ones were part of a request to simulate the larger face, which is currently in my Etsy shop, on a smaller scale. The big face is 1.75 inches tall, the small faces are 0.5 inch round.
It's funny, I've painted a gazillion faces but somehow I don't always feel I have control over how they turn out.... almost like each has a little personality fighting to show itself.

Maybe I just need a new paintbrush ;-)

The Crows

I didn't set out to feed the crows... I merely intended to feed the typical yard birds: cardinals, blue jays, titmice, chickadees, goldfinches, etc.... and those did all show up in abundance, along with a few surprises like bluebirds and indigo buntings and a lone turkey.
Well, the local crow tribe took notice of all the activity and started coming to dine at my daily seed buffet. I don't mind a bit, in fact I'm quite pleased since I find crows very fascinating and beautiful birds, and they've inspired a lot of my artwork.

They swing by at least once (that I notice) on most days, there are usually 4 or 5, sometimes joined by a 6th. Two of them are babies/juveniles.... with full feather suits grown but still have stray bits of downy fuzz, pinkness at the corners of the beaks, and are a tad ungraceful yet (which of course just increases their charm). They feed themselves but still exhibit the baby-begging behavior at times. Mom/dad seem to be pretty much done with the spoon-feeding.

It has been exceptionally hard to photograph them, they see *every* little movement. I had to wrap my face and sneak to the window like a ninja to catch these shots. Two of them still spotted me videoing and flew about 40 feet away, while the others didn't seem to notice or care.


I'm pretty sure they live in the woods behind our house because they're always around and I can often hear them calling to each other. The babies can be quite noisy!

I'm still here!

But, I've been blog-slacking..... what can I say? It's summer, it was my birthday, there were locusts, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes..... ok, maybe not all of the above. Anyway, I'll start posting some of the stuff I've been doing/seeing lately when I get organized *guffaw*.

Here's a little preview:



Hope everyone is having a good time lately!

Jewelry designs

Today I thought I'd post a couple different designs from my Spacewreck Collection of jewelry. The collection is a marriage of themes, combining the look of artifacts recovered from historical shipwrecks with the hard, cold style of futuristic cinema. The pieces are cut from sheet copper, etched, oxidized, patinated, drilled, riveted and sealed; they hang from oxidized sterling silver chains.
There are endless possibilities with this collection which I look forward to exploring for a long time.This is "Celtic Spacewreck Necklace", a fitting amulet for any celestial Celt.
I want to buy a larger punch and die set so I don't have to cut the discs by hand - faster and neater. The center one here is punched and the outer is hand cut. They're cold-connected with a copper rivet.

This is "Fleur-del-lis Spacewreck Necklace". Laissez les bons temps rouler, even in the depths of sea and space. Sometimes I like to add a couple matching accent beads on the chain to bring out the tones of the patina. Sections are cold-connected with 4 copper rivets.

Finley Cane, Bote Mtn, Lead Cove Trails loop hike

On May 25, we made a loop hike of Finley Cane, Bote Mtn, and Lead Cove trails near the entrance to Cades Cove in the Smokies. The 7.1 mile loop covers a variety of terrain. An article from Knox News describes the loop with a little history.

We started off on Finely Cane trail, which is relatively flat and shaded most of the way. It had rained heavily the days before and the trail was very muddy in areas. Not to mention horses had just been through and left some hoofy bogs and plenty-o-poop.

We saw *lots* of these millipedes along the beginning of Finley Cane. Really beautiful. As long as they don't touch me.

An amazing patch of Indian Pipe within the first mile. I believe this is the largest grouping I've seen, there were several patches in this area but this one topped them all.
Also known as Corpse Plant, Indian Pipe has no chlorophyll to make it green.

We reached the cane patch for which Finley Cane Trail is named. It is pretty narrow through this stretch. We passed a handful of ladies on horses here. They had just turned back in a wide spot ahead, so after that the trail was less stirred and muddy since they hadn't been there.

After 2.8 miles we reached the intersection of Finely Cane and Bote Mountain Trails. We debated heading over to backcountry campsite #18 (a beautiful, flat, stream-side camp) via West Prong since it was getting hot, but we've been there before and I was determined we were going to do this loop.

Ok, there are some beautiful views here and the absolute best display of mountain laurel I've ever seen, but this stretch of the Bote Mountain Trail (under sunny conditions with heat, high humidity and abundant bees) was rough. It covers a length of 2.5 miles with an elevation gain of about 1,000 feet, hardest of which is made within the first mile along the very rocky old roadbed.


We did this trail "Eco Challenge style," if you ever saw that tv show. Full-on, flat-out, don't-stop-unless-you're-gonna-die (or take a picture) mode. Note the haze in these photos caused by the film of sweat on the camera lens.
Halfway up Bote Mtn, my other half declared himself retired for the rest of summer, aside from evening firefly hikes and tubing. [Edit: 8.31.09 - we haven't even taken one weekend off from hiking this summer! So I win :-) ]


But wow, it was worth it. How beautiful is that?!

The roadway narrowed and leveled out (kinda) and became less rocky, more sandy. We followed what looked to be coyote prints along the trailbed for about 1/10 mile.



More clouds moved in with a nice breeze, a bit of cooling and welcome relief from the sun. So quiet up here.
Back and forth along the mountain ridge, a few more brief ascents.


A stunning patch of flame azalea greated us at Sandy Gap. I don't recall seeing any before, maybe I just never noticed or appreciated it..... I earned seeing it today and enjoyed it fully.


The uphills are behind us now. Here at the Gap is the intersection with Lead Cove Trail (named for the mineral mined in the area) . We met a backpacker coming up that way. He headed off toward the Appalachian Trail and we headed down Lead Cove.... almost all downhill, for 1.8 miles back down to the parking area.


The beginning of this stretch looks and feels like a tropical jungle. It was great, and it felt so wonderful to be in full, cool shade. Back into muddiness again, though.



Some nice specimens of galax along the way.









I love vine twists in the mountains and this was a great one along Lead Cove.


By this time, we were glad to be nearing the Jeep.
Made it back at 3:45pm.

We'd started out at 12:20pm, so it took us 3 hrs 25 minutes to complete the 7.1 mile loop.

Turkey time

Sunday and today I've seen the same young wild turkey in our backyard, I think it's a hen. She's a beautiful bird and a lot of fun to watch.
I keep hoping she'll drop a feather out there for me but all I found after her visit today was a few muddy footprints and some poop.
She stops to munch on the birdseed I spread out every few days. This morning she hung around the yard a long time and had to share the buffet with a blue jay, a flock of starlings, 3 of my tribe of 5 crows, and a rabbit that she chased off. I heard her vocalizing in the woods later, I considered getting out my turkey caller but I don't want to confuse her or scare her away :-)

Here's a video, at the end she saw me standing in the window:

Baskins Creek Falls hike

On May 18th we hiked out to Baskins Falls, via the east side of Roaring Fork Motor Trail. We've hiked from both sides and have concluded the east trail access is indeed the shorter, less steep route. Each way is just under 1.5 miles.... and from both ways you hike down to go in, up to get out.

At the beginning of the trail is a very picturesque cemetery.



I wonder if this section would make an awesome toboggan run in winter? We stopped just short of this area when hiking in the snow a few months ago while the road was closed.








Giant millipede in defensive coil.






A lot of mountain laurel budding and blooming along the sandy ridge portion of the trail.



After descending, there is a rock-hop crossing of Baskins Creek then another a brief ascent-then-descent to the trail junction. The unnamed footpath heading off back of the sign is the way to the falls. There's another cemetery a bit further along the trail toward Trillium Gap way.


The falls (which are part of Falls Branch and not actually on Baskins Creek) spill over a large rock ledge. The 'best' view is on the other side, of course, which means a bit more rock hopping or log scrambling.




Recent rains made for higher water. Today there was another couple leaving as we arrived, they simply waded across and soaked their shoes. I hopped over most of the way fine, then plunged one shoe in. It dried out surprisingly quick, though. Of all the hiking we've done, that was the first foot soaking I've taken. Not too shabby.
2 pm at the falls. Not the best time of day for photo lighting, better to arrive early in the morning or later in the afternoon. Still.... simply beautiful.

Here is a link to a trail map and elevation profile, though it describes the hike from the west access and it rates the trail as "easy"...... while it may be for experienced hikers, the average tourist/daytripper will more likely find it to be "moderate". We hiked in from the right side as shown on the map below.
Also, here's a brief YouTube video I took at the falls.