how the moth story ended

First off, the moth has been identified as a Antheraea Polyphemus, or Polyphemus Moth. So, I was wrong yesterday, but pretty close.

To my extraordinary surprise, the moth not only didn't die last night but was very much alive this morning. So I let him go. He walked up my hand, flew onto my forehead (right, did I mention I'm not a bug person, don't think my heart didn't go flippy flop right then), and then was up and away into the blue yonder.

I may never see another.

Oh yeah, and those wing spots are clear! How cool is that?!

unlike any moth I've ever seen!

Okay, I am not a "bug person" by any stretch of the imagination, but this blows me away and I think it's stunningly beautiful. Just before sunset tonight I found it clinging to the corral fence just a few inches about the ground, swaying gently in the breeze like a crumpled leaf.

I didn't want to touch it, for fear of accidentally hurting it, but it was too dark to photograph it outdoors so I herded it gently into a container and carried it inside, where I set up some lights and snapped some photos.

As far as I can tell it's an Antheraea oculea, or Oculea Silkmoth. Perhaps male? I've never seen one before. The information I gathered on line suggests the adults live only about ten days, and alas if that is so then today is his tenth day. He was weak when I took him from the fence, and now is nearly dead, resting in a small box in the other room. I just didn't relish the thought of some critter eating him tonight. As I said, I'm not a bug person, but this moth transfixed me.

Still smells like rain a little bit.

It rained last night! Not a whole lot but it all came down pretty quick. Shortly after dinner the thunder and lightning started, and that kept up for a couple hours. Now it's warm and humid. The horses are getting fuzzy, and the sure sign of fall is hearing the Sandhill Cranes fly overhead. I'll have to venture down to the wildlife preserve some time and watch them when the migration really gets heavy duty.






This was a pretty fun weekend. Saturday I went to a gourd festival in Folsom and looked around. WOW. It's amazing what people can do with pyrography! There was quite an array of stuff there. I bought a couple little gourds to play around with, but I definitely don't foresee getting big-time into that aspect of the art world, I'm already doing too many other things!

Sunday morning I left here pretty early and drove 3 hours north for a surprise birthday party for J (not the same J I went to Nevada with). She was definitely surprised! :-) I'll be nice and not say how old (I mean young) she is but it's one of those milestone years that warranted a big to-do. On that note, I think I am experiencing cheesecake overdose. Not that it's a bad thing (except I'm pretty sure the "get in shape" effort is going to suffer, again...) but holy cow there's been a lot of cheesecake going on. I baked a chocolate peppermint cheesecake for the party, and got sent home not only with leftovers from that, but about a third of the OTHER cheesecake that J had. Mmmmm, cheesecake...my weakness (well, one of many!).


On the artistic front, I am of course still plugging away at chicken drawings. It's pretty much impossible now that I will finish them on time, but given the lax attitude when it comes to communication with me (ahem!), I'm thinking this might not end up being the end of world. I still need to shoot to get as many done on time as I can though.

I ordered some canvases (they were on sale) and according to the tracking they ought to arrive tomorrow. I still say I'm not a painter, but the fact is I need to get some original stuff done for the Auburn show so I can fill the wall space, and I can paint quicker than I can draw, so that's my only option.

I'm also working hard on getting an online store set up to sell my images printed on shirts, mugs, coasters, etc. It's actually quite a bit more work than I realized, just in terms of the time commitment, so I've been sitting around on my butt working on that for a really horrendous amount of time and I've barely made a dent in what I need to do. I figure I will start with maybe 4 images, and then gradually add more as it begins to be profitable. Well, hopefully it'll be profitable!

I need to go feed the horses now or they will hunt me down and stomp on me. Or not, but they do get pretty cranky if I'm late.

Random pics of the day:

Homer under the bed.



A cool bug.

Masked Men

I finally went and saw Batman Begins today! Awesome. And then this evening I watched Phantom of the Opera. Two movies about masked men in capes--what were the odds of that happening? Now I will probably have some funky dream about Batman swooping down from chandeliers and singing opera... Could be interesting. ;-)

I did some work on an etching today, which is coming along really nicely. I hadn't worked on it for quite some time (once I missed a particular show deadline, there didn't seem to be much point in hurrying). I am not sure yet when I'll print the edition, but probably some time this summer. I'm drawing Spangled Cornish now for the Standard, which is just an enormously difficult color because it is so complex and detailed!

Random pics for today:


Olin on the hammock, as seen from below (he goes on the hammock all by himself!)

Now I am NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, a "bug person." No trips to the rain forest for me, I don't care too much for bugs (there are those I like, but as a general rule--ugh). But while cleaning out the ducks' waterer this evening I found a type of scarab beetle in there, still alive. I see these things around all the time in the garden, they eat leaves and things. They are huge, at least an inch long, metallic iridescent green, and their wings buzz so loud it scares the bejeebers out of me when they are around. So I'm not a big fan of them, but from an artistic standpoint, their colors are amazing. While this one was still soggy enough to be incapacitated, I took a few photos. Of course then it dried off and flew away right in front of me and I darn near had a heart attack. So if you're not a bug person these might gross you out...