The Cappucino Corral

[Dot Com]

we might even get a dusting of snow but no accumulation expected. That would be good for me & my motorbike if theres no accumulation

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Brrrrr. The beginning of winter always brings out the Desert Rat in me.

I've been painting all day. I'm working in oils again and very happy with the results.

I'm starving. If a painting is going well, I forget everything, including eating. [emoji15]

In my kitchen window, this -

View attachment 33995View attachment 33996


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amazingly realistic!

Not a painting. It's a photo of a Xmas cactus in bloom in my kitchen window. Sorry for the misunderstanding.


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I knew, that we have some of those too..
I was just having some fun with you.

Smarty pants.

Good morning everyone. It is chilly outside today. We leave for the cabin in several hours and I hope to see my first flakes in the sky this weekend. I hope ya'll have a wonderful morning. Cheers!

If it snows here, I'd be more than happy to send it to you.

J/K ... I like the snow. Just don't want to shovel it or drive on ice.

I am cool with the first several snow falls but once January rolls along I really start to think spring. Its a very brief love affair. lol

the last time it snowed here was in the 1950's
however there are some week in fall /winter the temp drops to freezing ,kinda cool to see the morning sun making the frosted grass shine.

Sounds like Tucson. They get "snow" but its hardly noticeable. One year, it really snowed hard and people were pouring out to the desert to photograph it. Including me. I still have some really cool photos of snow on the cactus.

But, I lived outside Tucson and it gets really cold on the desert floor. I mean, really cold. Maybe its because its unexpected and homes aren't built for it. There are still older adobe homes that have no heating or cooling and we put central air and heating into our place.

I'm with mdk - my appreciation of snow and cold is a lot shorter than the season.

 

[Moonglow]

Suppose to snow here this weekend..time for bonfires...

 

[Luddly Neddite]

On another subject - I started the book, Cold Mountain last night. Its really excellent although, so far, it doesn't seem to really follow the movie. Or vice versa.

One description was of a soldier forgetting to remove the ramrod from his rifle and actually firing it. The ramrod ended up in the chest of his enemy.

Another book I read talked about how they could fire those rifles only about 14 times before they became too hot to hold.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

we might even get a dusting of snow but no accumulation expected. That would be good for me & my motorbike if theres no accumulation

I remember riding on icy highways and roads. Be careful.

Suppose to snow here this weekend..time for bonfires...

See my post above about indoor heating ............................................

 

[Dot Com]

I read that book many years ago.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

I just buy little pepper plants in the Spring and by the end of summer, I have more than I know what do do with. I learned my lesson to only buy one or two. Same with tomatoes. I also grow herbs and tons of annuals and perennials. Gardening is one of my favorite things to do. I love digging in the dirt. It's a good stress reliever too. And looking at a garden in bloom is so peaceful.

When you have too many tomatoes the solution is to puree then and put them into those old fashioned ice cube makers. Once frozen decant into a plastic bag. Repeat until all of the spare tomatoes are frozen. Then during the Fall and Winter you can drop them into soups and stews as "fresh" tomatoes instead of using the canned variety.

Not sure if this would work for peppers. Might be worth the experiment though.

I don't think that would work with peppers either. I just dice them up and put them in a Freezer type Zip Log bags......then I take as much as I need to put into soups and other dishes that call for bell pepper.

How well do they freeze? We grew quite an abundance of jalapeno peppers this year and we canned a bunch. But we still have quite a few more. Do you think they could be frozen as well?

We do the same with bell peppers and onions but have never tried it with hot peppers.

Mertex - Try putting a bunch of mothballs in a circle around the tree. You don't want to ruin the fruit, so make it at least 5 feet from the edge of the furthest out branch.

Mothballs - argh. I am so allergic to them. But, I've never seen bird netting work.

We had some bird netting rolled up in a big ball under our deck. Doing some cleaning out, we discovered the tail of a snake sticking out of the ball. We started cutting and clipping because the poor thing was really stuck. It was a huge black rat snake, known for being very bitey so I found his head and held onto it while we worked to cut him free.

Then, we saw that there was another black rat snake stuck in there. We suspect they were in the mood for some snake loving and somehow got stuck in all that netting.

So, we kept cutting and clipping until we got the first one free, me holding tight to his head so we didn't get bitten. His skin just hung on him but the netting hadn't broken the skin so I didn't do any doctoring. Knowing he'd likely been stuck in there for quite a while, we put him in a bucket with about about an inch of water in it so he could rest, drink and get re-hydrated and then went back to cutting the second one free.

When we got "her" free, we opened the bucket to put her in there as well and the first one, obviously feeling a bit better, came straight up out of the bucket, mouth wide open, ticked off and really wanting to bite. He missed and we put her in there with him.

We left the two of them in the bucket for a while, then turned it on its side for them to leave when they wanted to. We came back later to an empty bucket but, very cool was that the next day, I happened to be leaning over the deck railing, just sort of looking and daydreaming and what do I spy but a big black rat snake down below.

We've seen black rat snakes around the house since then and we like to think they were our rescues.

That would have freaked me out completely!

You notice I said I held on to his head. I've been bitten by snakes while trying to save them. They're just not very appreciative.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

I read that book many years ago.

What did you think of it?

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Also waiting on my kindle is the new Stephen King. I don't know why exactly but I bought Cold Mountain in an actual print book.

 

[Dot Com]

I read that book many years ago.

What did you think of it?

I liked it well enough. I also read, about that time, Michael Shaara's "Killer Angels". I highly recommend that book plus 1 or 2 others by him. Luddly Neddite

 

[daws101]

Brrrrr. The beginning of winter always brings out the Desert Rat in me.

I've been painting all day. I'm working in oils again and very happy with the results.

I'm starving. If a painting is going well, I forget everything, including eating. [emoji15]

In my kitchen window, this -

View attachment 33995View attachment 33996


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

amazingly realistic!

Not a painting. It's a photo of a Xmas cactus in bloom in my kitchen window. Sorry for the misunderstanding.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatal

I knew, that we have some of those too..
I was just having some fun with you.

Smarty pants.

Good morning everyone. It is chilly outside today. We leave for the cabin in several hours and I hope to see my first flakes in the sky this weekend. I hope ya'll have a wonderful morning. Cheers!

If it snows here, I'd be more than happy to send it to you.

J/K ... I like the snow. Just don't want to shovel it or drive on ice.

I am cool with the first several snow falls but once January rolls along I really start to think spring. Its a very brief love affair. lol

the last time it snowed here was in the 1950's
however there are some week in fall /winter the temp drops to freezing ,kinda cool to see the morning sun making the frosted grass shine.

Sounds like Tucson. They get "snow" but its hardly noticeable. One year, it really snowed hard and people were pouring out to the desert to photograph it. Including me. I still have some really cool photos of snow on the cactus.

But, I lived outside Tucson and it gets really cold on the desert floor. I mean, really cold. Maybe its because its unexpected and homes aren't built for it. There are still older adobe homes that have no heating or cooling and we put central air and heating into our place.

I'm with mdk - my appreciation of snow and cold is a lot shorter than the season.

if we want to be in the snow it's about a 20min drive to the ski resort.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Brrrrr. The beginning of winter always brings out the Desert Rat in me.

I've been painting all day. I'm working in oils again and very happy with the results.

I'm starving. If a painting is going well, I forget everything, including eating. [emoji15]

In my kitchen window, this -

View attachment 33995View attachment 33996


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

amazingly realistic!

Not a painting. It's a photo of a Xmas cactus in bloom in my kitchen window. Sorry for the misunderstanding.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatal

I knew, that we have some of those too..
I was just having some fun with you.

Smarty pants.

Good morning everyone. It is chilly outside today. We leave for the cabin in several hours and I hope to see my first flakes in the sky this weekend. I hope ya'll have a wonderful morning. Cheers!

If it snows here, I'd be more than happy to send it to you.

J/K ... I like the snow. Just don't want to shovel it or drive on ice.

I am cool with the first several snow falls but once January rolls along I really start to think spring. Its a very brief love affair. lol

the last time it snowed here was in the 1950's
however there are some week in fall /winter the temp drops to freezing ,kinda cool to see the morning sun making the frosted grass shine.

Sounds like Tucson. They get "snow" but its hardly noticeable. One year, it really snowed hard and people were pouring out to the desert to photograph it. Including me. I still have some really cool photos of snow on the cactus.

But, I lived outside Tucson and it gets really cold on the desert floor. I mean, really cold. Maybe its because its unexpected and homes aren't built for it. There are still older adobe homes that have no heating or cooling and we put central air and heating into our place.

I'm with mdk - my appreciation of snow and cold is a lot shorter than the season.

if we want to be in the snow it's about a 20min drive to the ski resort.

That's the way it was in Tucson. The city sits in the middle of four mountain ranges and there's a ski area on Mt Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains.

 

[Dajjal]

I am afraid I stopped painting about ten years ago. I just lost the spark. But I recently did a google search for an old friend who's name is Aidan Shingler and I found he has done amazing things. He has created sculptures in public places and written a book called 'one in a hundred' which is about his experiences as a schizophrenic, and how he uses them for inspiration. Do a search for him and you will see what I mean, there is a lot about him on the web.

You're right, I googled your friend's name and there are a lot of links with his name. He must be very well recognized as to have Tricia Harrison do a sculpture of him.

I feel the same way you do, I used to have a passion for painting, could spend hours doing it and now I can't get motivated to bother with it. I've done several paintings and friends think they are really good.....but the spark is gone!

I only met Aidan once at the royal college of art where he organized an exhibition of art for the mentally ill. I exhibited a painting, as I too have had schizophrenia for fifty years. I sold the painting for £350 and was quite pleased with that. I then corresponded with Aidan for a number of years before loosing touch. I did a search for him in the hope of finding him on twitter or facebook but he does not seem to have accounts with them. I wanted to compliment him on his book which is quite an achievement. He persevered with his art work, but I gave up.

 

[Dajjal]

Here is a link to my paintings, the one I sold at the royal college of art is called, 'the eclipse'

My paintings US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

 

[Derideo_Te]

The cactus now that flower has opened. I don't think it got above 30 today. I spent most of the day painting. Catsby - the real reason for a bed in the guest room. Look at those eyes. He's trouble in a fur coat.


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Cactus blooms are awesome.

Catsby looks like he needs something to keep him out of trouble.

 

[Derideo_Te]

Here is a link to my paintings, the one I sold at the royal college of art is called, 'the eclipse'

My paintings US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

You should take up painting again, Dajjal, because you are really good in my opinion.

 

[daws101]

The cactus now that flower has opened. I don't think it got above 30 today. I spent most of the day painting. Catsby - the real reason for a bed in the guest room. Look at those eyes. He's trouble in a fur coat.


View attachment 34017View attachment 34018


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cactus blooms are awesome.

Catsby looks like he needs something to keep him out of trouble.

we've had many a cat at our house over the years .
there is no need to spend lots of money on toys for them ribbon ,paper bags and a laser pointer is all you need.

 

[Derideo_Te]

Mertex - Try putting a bunch of mothballs in a circle around the tree. You don't want to ruin the fruit, so make it at least 5 feet from the edge of the furthest out branch.

I would, but we have outdoor cats and I wouldn't want them to end up eating them...... I think I'll just have to do a better job next year of attaching the net. This year I figured they weren't smart enough to take it off and I didn't fasten the ends, just kinda hooked them to the branches. Well, those critters are pretty smart!

Put the mothballs in plastic bottles and punch some holes in them. The smell gets out but the cats won't be able to eat them.

 

[Dajjal]

Here is a link to my paintings, the one I sold at the royal college of art is called, 'the eclipse'

My paintings US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

You should take up painting again, Dajjal, because you are really good in my opinion.

I was quite pleased to see my old paintings when I looked up the link to the thread I posted them on. But most of my efforts remain unfinished, and cluttering up my flat. I tend to think they are all third rate and what I was trying to do has been done far better by the likes of Burne Jones. So I don't need to add to the clutter in my flat with more unfinished works.

 

[Mertex]

Here is a link to my paintings, the one I sold at the royal college of art is called, 'the eclipse'

My paintings US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

Very nice, Dajjal......you should give painting another try!