PrettyTiny Film Company Pic-A-Week *2024*! (#44, Oct. 28)

[Alliecat]

Among the useless, stupid, bad, and downright dangerous advice I've received along the way were a few nuggets of sense, and one was to at least get photos done so a listing could be got up quickly if necessary.  Unfortunately that means packing the clutter from half the house into the other half of the house, a half at a time.  Of course it's all unpacked again now, and thanks to a ridiculously crippling back spasm today, I'm not getting either more clearing or the shower grout job done 

Everyone's hair needed combing after their few nights in the tote tub, and Sara's was the hardest to neaten.  It was already floofy when she arrived, and its little kinks make it very hard to comb out smoothly. 
Anyway, here she is doing her nature-mama-goddess thing 

[davidd]

Nature Goddess looks adorably goddessy and green and good out there in the forest primeval... while you avoid the gruntwork of groutwork.

Caulking and grouting are my least-favorite (more accurately: most despised) home repair tasks. I don't know why, but I just don't like it AT ALL. I'll crawl under the house to work on pipes before I caulk or grout - it's honestly that "yuck" to me. So... good luck with that.

Clever idea, getting your pics taken.

Have you invited a St. Joseph statue in to your home yet?

[Alliecat]

I don't mind caulking and the grout isn't really messy, just ridiculously tedious. I haven't got back to it yet.

Made it before the end of the week this time. Only because I get one night out of the ghetto tomorrow and won't be able to take a pic.
Found a fairy in the yard.... here is Cygnie.

[davidd]

What an adorable little fairy, all sparkly and sequin-y!

Pretty cool that you can grow pancakes in your yard!

[Alliecat]

Phone snapshot time, with another tail-end-of-the-week pic. I can’t believe it. WHERE did another week go????? 


Sunsette wonders where everything has gone from the previously unuseable desk, as another round of realtor photos is planned. Thanks to all the clutter, they are being done piecemeal; I have to shift all the junk from one or two rooms into other rooms and then move it all back again. What a PITA.

[davidd]

I was going to ask what kind of desk this is that actually has a visible top? I don't know that I've ever seen such a thing outside of furniture stores!

But your eksplanation makes sense. It's an artificial and temporary phenomenon.

You know, as you shuffle stuff around, you could be boxing it up rather than just moving it back and forth.

I cleaned off a section of countertop last week and it's already buried again. 'Kay, I'm gonna go clear it off again right now, because, seriously, where did all that stuff come from? I swear, ya set down one thing to put away later and all of a sudden it morphs into a mountain of rubble.

What does Sunsette think about possibly leaving the only home she's ever known?

[Alliecat]

It would be easier -- and feel like there was a point -- boxing stuff up if I had a destination.  As it is, it's hard to know what to keep and what to purge, as there is a lot of stuff that could go either way depending on circumstances. 

What does Sunsette think about possibly leaving the only home she's ever known?

Sunsette has been to Nova Scotia, BC, Chicago twice, Texas twice, Nashville and four Hawaiian islands.  She's a traveller.  It's just another adventure.

..............

I only had 2 successful hatches this year.  Only got 4 caterpillars from the butterfly-gardening lady, and 2 died.  Maybe parasites.  I can NOT get her to understand that taking them in when she finds them, or calling me to do so, rather than leaving them in the garden, would protect more of them from parasitic wasps, and maybe even viruses.
Worst hatching season in ages.  And I didn't get any photos of the second one because he was ready to fly as soon as I took him outside.
So here's Catherine with the year's only butterfly model.

[davidd]

Your single butterfly model looks like a healthy and robust specimen! I hope it comes back to visit you next spring!
Are the butterflies maturing this late in the season?

I have not seen any monarchs here this season. Usually I see one or two passing through. I had one milkweed plant emerge uneggspectedly and reach a towering height of nearly ten inches.

The hummingbirds are already leaving here, and the pinyon jays are passing through on their way from higher elevations.

[fishy]

They're beautiful!

[Alliecat]

They're beautiful!

Thank you

Are the butterflies maturing this late in the season?

Well, um, yes, because here he is...?
He won't be back.  This generation goes south, spends the winter in Mexico, then starts north and breeds somewhere along the way, then dies.  It's their descendants -- 2 or 3 more generations -- that get up here in the summer.
I think numbers were down somewhat this year(?).  How many do you usually see?
At least your milkweed grew.  Takes them some time to get really big.
Turns out butterflygardenlady had a few more.  So now I have 2 more chrysalises.  Yay.

-------------------

I canNOT beLIEVE I am doing another tail-end-of-the-week after-midnight-Saturday post!!!  WHAT has happened to TIME??  I shot this several days ago and thought "I'll be done early this week" and then somehow still didn't manage to post.  I want to know who's messing up spacetime.  It can NOT be going this fast!!!
ANYway...

Me to me: You are NOT going to celebrate today's successful checkup by buying a doll.  Do not go to the toy section.  You do NOT need ANOTHER doll.  You do not have ROOM for another doll.  Do your errands, leave the store.
Me: Rainbow high made MINIS???!?!1!?
*promptly buys doll AND two plants*



Introducing Magenta Monroe!

[davidd]

Successful checkup = new toy! That takes me back to the days when, after a doctor or dentist visit, my mother would take me to the store and allow me to pick out a new Matchbox toy car!

I'm glad you were deemed sufficiently fit to warrant a reward! And a most adorable reward she is! I was not previously aware of Rainbow High minis!

Indoor plants, I take it, considering the change in seasons?

I'm impressed that you still have butterflies on da island. I did not see any monarchs here this year. The lizards and grasshoppers disappeared about two weeks ago, and the hummingbirds are down to two or three migrants a day.

[Alliecat]

I didn't know about the minis either until I came upon them at Walmart.  For $15, who could resist? 
I got this mini rose, which already looks like it may go the way of the last mini rose I had, with "something" on the leaves, although it looked perfectly fine when I got it.  And an orchid, which I promptly cooked the entire flower spike with a bowl of tomatoes from the garden.  I knew you couldn't leave apples near orchids.  I did not know about the tomatoes.  The entire spike is wrecked; it's not even gonna branch.  I will have to wait through a whole next growing cycle 
I think my hummingbirds are gone    It feels like they just got here.  I was so happy to see them.


Wellll... ANOTHER week gone in a dysfunctional flash and another after-midnight post.  I can't believe it.  It's been an awful week with literally earthshaking racket next door, multiple-times-disrupted sleep even in the windowless basement bunker because backhoe-jackhammering and ground compacting comes right through the rocks, whole days complete writeoffs as I struggle to get through a day, let alone accomplish anything.  I'm now waiting to see if there will be effects on my well water, AGAIN.
This effing place is trying to kill me 

I haven't sorted all the first batch of photos I took of Magenta, but in an effort to get away from the house one day, I took her for a short outing.  She is less portable than the minis because she's bigger & doesn't fit in the glasses-case that Sunsette & Scarlett can share, but she does go in a mini-Pullip box.  With that hair, she probably won't be much of a traveller.  It needed a spa day right out of the box.  Maybe some day she'll get it.

[davidd]

Good to see Magenta hitting the trails for some ex-ploring while the weather remains pleasant. She looks good out there!

What an intriguing lighthouse. Why the guy wires? I mean, for support, obviously, probably because of high winds; but are the wires original to the structure or were they added later as the tower aged? Is that an iron tower or wood? It doesn’t look like concrete or brick, at least not in this photo. Is the light still in use?

Can’t you ex-press your concerns to county authorities about the heavy hammering and pounding in a residential area? Or was that already a fail?

[Alliecat]

I ex-pect wires would have been needed pretty much from the start, 1860s. It’s a windy spot. Pretty sure all our Maritime lighthouses would be wood. This one just had a complete makeover with new Heritage-Canada-approved vinyl siding. The tower is a museum and yes, the light is still functional. It is a major aid to navigation.
“Authorities” – ha. What’s to do? He’s doing his own thing on his own property. This place is all about that – doesn’t matter who you bother. I don’t need a war with the adults as well as the children. I’m just trying to hang on until I can get out.



Getting farther behind with photos, have not got two previous batches sorted. But I got a few more chrysalises after all, so here is Poppy with another friend.

[davidd]

It is certainly fun to see the colorful summery butterfly photos continuing as winter edges rapidly closer here.

Finding that Monarch-themed dolly was certainly a perfect addition to your crew! What could be more appropriate?

"Heritage approved" vinyl siding! 'Kay, that's kind of hilarious. I'm sure it's what they would have used if they'd had it in the 1860s. Ah well, whatever it takes to maintain the original aesthetics in a cost-effective manner, I suppose.

Have you ever attempted to become a staff member at the lighthouse museum? Or is it all-volunteer? And do they still require injections?