Ariel on the porch

Today it's raining... but two days ago it was sunny and warm. I'm not complaining. I love the rain. We need as much as we can get.
But, on Wednesday, Ariel wanted to go outside.
So we took the air... on the porch.

I think she's tired of being poked and pulled and sewn into. So we both took a break and sat on the porch together. I never left her side because Carl would just love to use Ariel as a pull toy and he was right there watching her every move.
She enjoyed the warm weather and the sun on her feet. I even think she closed her eyes for a moment.

 Ariel's hair ribbon is sewn into place now. Her hair is kind of a mess for all the pulling and sewing. She needs a little brushing and some hair spray. Human hair is hard to contain in place. I'm thinking that yarn or some other ribbon, or dread locks made with wool roving, might have been a better choice. But this is my first doll, so I can always try something else down the road.
The scarf I made for her is keeping the spring breezes from her neck.

I've made her a gold Lamé jacket and a blouse out of gold chiffon fabric...
and "tutu" skirts in bright colors. I'm going to add more skirt.
Faerie's can't have enough beautiful, flowing skirts.

It was recommended, in one of the sites on doll clothes, that you burn the edges of any synthetic fabric to give it a more wild look and to keep it from unraveling. This is kind of dangerous. You must be very careful.
I used a votive candle in a glass votive holder. I held each piece of fabric with both hands and ran it quickly through the flame. It works well, but does catch on fire if you stop moving the fabric. Also if a small piece of burnt synthetic fabric falls on your hand, it will burn a nice little spot right through your skin. I know, because I did it. You have to be very careful. This takes practice, but it gives a fun, kind of ragged edge to the fabric.

I'm so proud of her little Nuno scarf. I felted it twice because I didn't have enough wool in it the first time and the pieces of sequined fabric that were cut into leaf shapes, didn't catch. I had  loose leaf ends. So I wet it again, added a bit more roving to the scarf and felted it a second time.
Now, I'm happy with it.

Ariel is happy... So happy in fact, that she got up and did a few ballet steps. Give a girl some sunshine and new clothes... that's all they need... oh, and maybe some ballet slippers.

But...She still needs her hair combed.

Wordless Wednesday: Springtime

Oh, what a beautiful morning...

Yesterday we had a wonderful day with friends across the canyon in San Andreas. They invited us to join them for a bar-b-que. We had a great time. I brought Cream cake and Tapioca Pudding. They had an Easter Egg hunt for the children. That's when I started missing my Beans, my grandkids. Didn't get together with my family this Easter. Missed them... but being with these friends and their family was a nice way to spend the day.
Today...I'm trying to walk more to help a damaged hip that keeps giving me fits... so it's down to the country road again for some exercise.

The road was lined with Chinese Lanterns. They are more productive than the Lupine right now and they are so delicately beautiful.

The first bend in the road turned into an orange wonderland.

The hills are still alive with Poppies.

I'm still having a love affair with these wonderful spring flowers.

We have a couple and their dog that are living near our creek. They seem very nice. We told them that they could stay there as long as they don't start any campfires. They are panning for gold. So far, they have been rather successful... enough to put gas in their truck. They are thinking about going to Alaska.
I told them to watch for rattlesnakes and poison oak... and to dig under tree roots.

Their four month old pup is a beautiful black lab. It was interesting talking to them. they have been all over. The Prospector told me that they were there. He met them last week and has talked to them a lot. I hope they find enough gold to seek their dreams. I wish them well.
A photographer friend stopped to say hello. He showed me some images that he had taken earlier in the day. Lovely shots of a succulent that grows right out of the rocky soil and blooms this time of the year and a beautiful globe lily image.
I found one of these succulents that didn't have anywhere near as beautiful a flower as the photo friend's flower did. I'm always amazed at the tenacity of these plants, growing in between the rocks, with very little soil, on the hillside. I think this is called a Canyon Dudleya.

Then my neighbor, heading for town, stopped me on the road. We talked and discussed the affairs of the weekend.  All in all my 20 minute walk turned into an hour or more. But that's what I love about where I live...the pace...and the people.
 Half way up our road I had to stop. I found another wildflower.

 This one is called a globe Gilia or the blue field Gilia.  It such a pretty, pale blue.

 As the day went by, the wind picked up and the clouds moved in. We may get some rain this week. I hope so, because with this heat come the snakes. I saw a racer snake in the garden a few days ago. It was rustling in one of the bushes near the composter. I heard a noise and turned around to look. It came out of the bush and whipped past me, into the grass below.
Then there was the huge gopher snake at the back door, just down the steps, one hot afternoon last week. It startled me. Our gopher snakes always seem to have markings like a rattler... but the heads are, of course, a different shape and they don't have rattles.
This one poise for me while I took a few photos. Then it moved away and into the old goat run.  It was quite a specimen.

Can the Rattlers be far behind?

She has a new name... and hair.

Now that my Fairy doll has a mouth, it seems that she want a different name. She says her name is Ariel. 

I decided to look it up, because I thought I better have another answer for people than "That's what the doll told me." That kind of answer could lead to all sorts of speculation on my sanity.

So... the name Ariel means an archangel found primarily in Jewish and Christian mysticism and Apocrypha. The name Ariel, means "Lion of God" and if you keep reading the information on Wikipedia it gets kind of heavy and religious.

 My thinking was more "Hail to thee, blithe Spirit..."or "Spirit of the air"... but the name seems to be rather powerful and filled with mysticism. In one definition she is "a governing angel with dominion over the Earth, creative forces, the North, elemental spirits, and beasts." Elemental spirits are like gnomes, undines (look that one up!) and sylphs. OK! I don't know what a sylph is, but it sounds awfully mythical to me.

I think I will stick to my "Spirit of the air" vision and go with it.

Anyway..... It's what she wants.  Really!

Ariel has hair now. (back view)

I sewed rows of it, one on top of the other... twisting it at the ends (behind the ears) so I would have one continuious row of hair and not pieces at each end. This means that I didn't cut short pieces.I wrapped it back and forth. ( My friend MJ's idea.)

Then I sewed the edges to the scalp. It went well.

The last layer was attached as a separate piece going foward over her face, so I could pull the hair to the side and in front of the ears. Elf type ears are an issue with this doll, because they stick UP and you have to work around them.

The seam between the last hank of hair and the one going foward over her face is covered up by a ribbon with bobbles attached. I only have it pinned on (Those are the tiny white balls that you see.) right now, but I will sew it down and secure it soon. The beads are wonderful. They even look like earrings and the ribbon holds back her hair on each side.

This morning I made her a Nuno scarf. Got out the bubble wrap and the soap...

Found some wool with silk in it and some really pretty fabric...

Cut out the leaves and sparkle... and made her a little neck scarf. It's drying in the kitchen window. It was fun to do something so tiny. It went fast and didn't require a lot of felting.

You will be able to see it better when Ariel is wearing it..

Now, on to the clothing. My art group was here yesterday and gave me all kinds of ideas for Ariel's pretty little body. She's taking on an attitude, so I have to get this right.

I don't want the "Lion of God" to get annoyed.

Wordless Wednesday: Globe Lily

Poppies... "a perpetual astonishment." ~Ellis Peters~

I found the poppies. 

They were all partying on a road, close to home, called Electra Rd. This road follows the Mokelumne River down through the river canyon that the Prospector and I saw last Thursday, from high above the canyon.

This is much closer to my home. So, on Sunday, in the late afternoon about 4:00 p.m., I drove over to the river without the "old man" ( He didn't want to go.) and did a poppy quest of my own.

As I drove around the bends on Highway 49 I saw the hillside and the carpet of poppies. I turned left onto Electra Rd., drove up the narrow road and then...

I saw this...

and this...

and a field of orange.

I had hit the MOTHER LODE. 

This was better than panning all day in the river.

The Poppies were everywhere ...

Cheering and waving at the cars

 sliding down the canyon walls

cascading to the edges of the roadside

and dancing with the Lupine, as if they knew this was their coming out party.

My emotions got the best of me. I really wished I had brought someone with me that would appreciate the beauty of this place and stand silently beside me in awe.
You need to share this kind of beauty.
It's a bit overwhelming.
But, there wasn't anyone to share this moment with... accept some strange men drinking beer and laughing.   Probably didn't want to share my awe with them... so I continued to drive up the road, stopping frequently to shoot these images. I waved at other folks that were enjoying the beautiful Spring day and continued on.

There flowers are called Eschscholtzia Californica, the California Poppy.
They bloom from February to September in open areas and grassy slopes. The flowers close at night and the spicy fragrance attracts beetles, which are pollinators.
That's enough textbook information. I don't want to break the spell. Suffice it to say that this amount of poppies, together in one place, makes you wonder about the order of things on this earth and what is really important.

This is the end of the road. The Electra Hydro Electric power plant is down to the right, out of the picture. The pipe line that runs up the hill and bring water down to the power plant never looked so good.

Oh!! I almost forgot about the river. The beautiful Mokelumne River is usually the movie star around here, but it's taking second, this month, because of the poppies..

Saw a couple of Canadian Geese that got caught up in the beauty of the area and forgot to fly further north.  Guess they decided to buy a few acres with river access and settle down in the California foothills this year.

Can you believe that some people walk out onto this concrete weir? Sometimes you have to save folks from themselves.

Oh, beautiful Mokelumne... how I love you. There are some folks who are working on making you a "wild and scenic" designated river, so no one can hurt you. They have your back, or bedrock, so to speak.

This is a big old tree that has rope swings hanging from it. I hope there will be more water in the river this summer to swing and jump out into it, but I doubt it. There is a drought here and it's bad.

 So, coming back down Electra Rd., it was the beauty of the River to the left and the poppies to the right. The sun was low and the shadows deeper.

 Some poppies cascading down into the river.

The Lupine was trying to compete, but this beautiful blue flower was more like an accessory to the "Oscar" winning beauty and performance of the poppies.

When I reached the main road, I stopped and took some images of the hillside along highway 49. They've made a pull out, a third lane on the east side of the highway, just for the poppies. Well.. I believe it's also for accidents, but we do treat these flowers with the respect they are due. 

It use to be that you couldn't stop without endangering your life and everyone did it anyway. So now, it's a lot easier.  On Sunday,there were other crazy people doing the same thing.

While I was hanging out of my open door window to steady my camera, someone went by and waved at me, laughed and yelled something and gave me a thumbs up. This is what the poppies do. They are the goodwill ambassadors of Amador County.
I got my Poppy fix and now I can go back to living a relatively normal life...
Until the real gold starts showing up in my pan.