Monday, June 13, 2022

Butternut Boy in a seed frenzy, new week new art

Yesterday. Butternut Boy and another squirrel friend, followed by a chipmunk, came over to stuff on canteloupe seeds. They could hardly jump on the fence to leave once they'd finished.  Total enjoyment of great food. They're wise 




And the human followed their lead, making this supper, eggs, sharp cheddar cheese and tomato, baked.



Served with toasted maslen bread and Vermont butter. I've rediscovered that this tastes best baked in a glass dish for some reason that escapes me. Dessert was more canteloupe and blueberries, sprinkle of ginger powder.

I did make that soup, collard greens and cooking water, stock, leeks, potatoes, lentil pasta spiced mixture, chicken bone. A powerhouse soup.



Then I decided to retire watercolor for now, in favor of drawing. That entailed putting away the painting doings and going in search of the drawing doings.

Which also resulted in finding blades I thought might work for my box cutter, which is having a harder time breaking down the Misfits boxes for recycle. It also resulted in my finding I in fact have three, count them, box cutters. One was labeled by Handsome Partner, pretty much antique. 

Then, on opening the newest looking one I found it had two spare blades already loaded in the handle. Different from the blades I'd found, which are now stored safely again.


My inner mechanic enjoyed taking apart and reassembling the cutters, so I'm now ready for any box, however large. After the picture I retracted the blades, in case you were wondering.

So that little tangent was on the way to assembling my drawing gear ready for use today. 


It was a joyful reunion with the ink stick and rubbing dish, conte crayons, pens, carpenter pencils, graphite sticks, charcoal pencils, kneaded erasers, all for future drawings.  

Some great art has been made using tools like this by far greater artists than this one, but the joy of it is available to anyone wanting to try it.
 
I had made a little painting first though



Eye doctor appointment today, and we'll see if I need a new rx and if he thinks I can wait longer on cataract surgery which is sometime in the future. We'll see.

Happy day everyone. New week, new hopes.



15 comments:

  1. That is one fine, fat squirrel. I think you must have superior squirrels in NJ. Ours all look sort of scrawny compared to yours.
    Could the glass baking dish be better because it cannot leach any metal flavor into the food? Especially since there are tomatoes in it.

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  2. I have usually used ceramic bowls for baking this dish. But maybe you're right there, too, about flavor changes.

    I think most of our local squirrels are pretty sturdy from all the great available wild and backyard food available.

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  3. You support your local wildlife with true generosity!

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  4. We don't have grey squirrels because red squirrels have chased them away. They had a fine feast indeed. I do egg bakes in cast iron, maybe I'll try glass. I'm making one tonight.

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  5. How long and at what temperature do you bake that dish?

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  6. Good luck on the eye doctor visit
    Your tray set up for art supplies is really nice.

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  7. AC I bake for about 20 minutes at 385°f. You know it's done when the eggs are firm.
    Sandra I've never done this in cast iron, because of the tomatoes. But I may try it.

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  8. I don't usually add tomatoes, but once in awhile I may. I don't think in a mixture of eggs it causes damage to the pan.

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  9. I love that Butternut Boy and his friends were able to enjoy your cantaloupe seeds. I must admit that I have never thought of giving my cantaloupe seeds to our many squirrels but I shall now start doing so!
    I look forward to seeing your newest artistic creations!

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  10. I'll have to remember to put out the seeds of this little melon I have here waiting for it to ripen.

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  11. Have any more "freeloaders" caught on? Are there any squabbles over goodies?

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  12. Butternut Boy has established first dibs, but there was a whole dish of seeds and pulp, and some rinds in the groundcover, so others did get a look in. Usually when BBoy's mouth was full. This morning the chipmunk came back to pick up the leftovers.

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  13. Can't wait to see the drawings. Do squirrels eat pumpkin seeds too? Maybe we could use seeds from our pumpkins to entice them away from our birdfeeders (i can see where this goes, feeding squirrels makes more squirrels....) xxx Mr T

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  14. They seem to like all kinds of squash seeds. Oddly, birds don't go for them. But I'm not feeding birds this time of year, plenty of wild food available and they don't come to the feeder.

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  15. Like I've often said - you never know what to expect when I came to visit with you! Always interesting though. At the moment there's a war here between a squirrel and Resident Chef. RC has had to replant his lettuce twice now after the squirrel scales the painted brick walls of the building so he can dig it up. It confounds us that when we open the door the squirrel makes a flying leap off the balcony and falls three stories only to take off running.

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