Month: March 2023

I brushed him!

On By CarynIn Cats

I managed to get five brush strokes across the back of Mr Tom’s Shadow! He still isn’t impressed, but he moves away less each time. Mr Tom loves his brushes, more than treats even, and comes up to me to demand the burrs be removed and his chin be brushed. Shadow comes up to Mr Tom to give him head bumps as I am brushing. That is when I run the brush along his back toward his tail. He moves away, but then comes back to rub against Mr Tom, and subsequently gets another brush. Here is my proof of contact; the picture below shows both white and black hair from the brush.

Black and white cat hair from the brush
Mr Tom and his Shadow getting post brushing treats

The cage in the second picture is for the female who hangs around with Mr Tom and his Shadow. She will only come up after I am out of reach and not looking. She still needs to be fixed.

Crossvine explosion

On By CarynIn Garden

Our spring rains have made for happy plants in our yard. We have two crossvine areas that have hundreds of buds and are now bursting into bloom.

Crossvine blooms on the front fence
Crossvine blooms on the chicken run enclosure (inside view)
Crossvine blooms on the chicken run enclosure (outside view)

Fancy Pillbug

On By CarynIn Wildlife
Pillbug (aka Rolly Polly)

I was fixing a leak in the watering drip system in the front garden when I spotted a rolly polly with green markings! I’ve seen the dark gray common pill bugs, I’ve even seen these terrestrial crustaceans half light gray and half dark gray, but I haven’t seen these markings before, like they were painted with ritual paint. Neat.

Strange egg shape

On By CarynIn eggs

This egg is nearly round. I’m not sure what caused my hens to lay a round egg, when I cracked it open it only had one yolk. It also happened on a day that six of the eight chickens produced an egg, which is unusual. My hatchery quality Faverolles usually lay every other day or so.

Nearly round egg

Better as a decal

On By CarynIn Craft

I bought some temporary tattoo paper actually designed for inkjet printers (see my fail post here). I still had to leave the prints out to dry overnight (the instructions said an hour, but I didn’t find that adequate), but the ink stayed where it was put. These temporary tattoos come with an adhesive sheet, which had a small learning curve, but not too bad. I tried one on my arm and … meh. Even though it is thin, it isn’t thin enough to mimic a real tattoo; it is more like a plastic bandage, wrinkles and all. Hm. I tried applying one to a glass sheet out of curiosity and tada! We have contact.

Temporary “tattoo” applied to glass

This is an intriguing use of material. The current limitation is that the surface needs to be water resistent. In order to remove the backing, it has to be dampened with water, which could potentially wreck havoc on paper items. Experiments continue.

Decal applied to glass and held up in front of a window