Molly Bee's Attic

Although a lot of other groovy stuff happened, the main reason for going to the Mississippi River Museum was to see the traveling DaVinci exhibit they are offering this summer. I'm a huge fan of both his genius and his art so was delighted with the treasures that were available! They took a lot of the sketches of inventions that he had created on paper and put them together in real life.  This is the uber-creepy underwater breathing system he thought up. I think the white makes it more slimming, no? The backpack mounted on the front covers a multitude of sins! did he really envision that the air bell would be a two ton heavy thing made out of wood? I swear I've seen this guy on Doctor Who! Some of the exhibits you could touch and some you couldn't. This was DaVinci's armored tank. You could get inside. I did and tried to take a picture but the resulting photo looked very confusing from that angle! I think the shape sort of looks like one of the lunar space ...

Wanna hug? This is the Pacific Octopus at The Mississippi River Museum. Isn't he a handsome fella? He was doing his morning hot laps when I arrived. He was practically running around the circle of his tank.  He would only stop to investigate that pipe you see in the lower left. At first I thought that it was a piece that had somehow come off the aquarium, but turns out it's his toy. He would stop, stick an arm in it, turn it around a little and put it back down and continue on his way. I must have stood there for 20 minutes watching his antics. Better than the Kardashians any day! I signed up to help hand feed the rays in the afternoon. This picture was taken from the second floor balcony. The kite-shaped ones are Cow Faces Sting Rays. Their noses look a lot like cow noses.  Their wingspan is probably about 3-3.5 feet. They 'fly' all around the tank, using lots of energy so they get fed twice a day. That smaller, rounder ones are Yellow Rays. They are mo...

As I was out adventuring on Sunday afternoon, I saw a sign on the highway that said 'Scenic Overlook', so I pulled off the road and into the upper parking lot. I am a sucker for 'scenic' anything and also for those markers for historic places you come across sometimes. (In Maine we call them 'rocks with writing on them' because the metal plaques are usually attached to huge, usually granite, boulders, but here in WI, they are usually in the form of an actual wooden sign.  But I digress...). I knew it had to be something really beautiful because I was in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin. The Saint Laurentide Ice Sheet never made it down this far in the last Ice Age. The area wasn't scraped clean by the rampaging berg and rushing waters, so it's all the original Cambrian seabed underneath. Lots hills and vales! I also knew, that if the powers-that-be thought it was important enough to build a groovy, and quite obviously spendy, pedestrian bridge over...

I decided that Sunday looked like a good day for adventuring, so I headed over to Governor Dodge State Park for the afternoon.  I've only lived in Wisconsin for going on 30 years so I figured it was time. I had heard that there was a waterfall in the park so of course that was my goal. Turns out, it was just down the road a piece from the front gate so it wasn't hard to find.  The path through the woods was paved, short and very pretty until you get to this part (up at the top): 'Natural Rock Staircase'...my back pockets!!! Climbing down was a lot scarier than these pictures make it look. It's all an uneven jumble of rocks to the bottom and pretty steep. Thankfully there is an iron pipe railing to hold on to or I probably wouldn't have attempted it. Some of the 'steps' are pretty far apart for those of us who are short on one end, but I made it to the bottom unscathed! I was rewarded with this bit of loveliness! Stev...

My life these days seems to have gone to the birds. Remember last summer when it was all about hawks for a while after I watched that one die on a live wire on Odana Road and took it to the police? For two weeks afterward I was inundated with close encounters with raptors. This new bird thing started when I was in Maine and a hummingbird got trapped in the garage. No amount of cajoling would entice him to fly out on his own, so I went up on a step ladder and plucked him out of the corner and took him outside. I sat with him in my open palm for a couple of minutes while he regained his composure and then he flew off. Gosh, that is the closest thing to magic there is; holding that shiny, emerald in your hand. It's like holding a fairy! When I got home from Maine, I decided to put up bird feeders for the first time. Don't tell the birds, but I put them out by the front window so the cat would have something to keep him entertained-and they certainly do! I tinkered with it a doze...

I've been tangling my brains out this spring for stress reduction. I've been ruminating on these new tangle ideas for a while, so last night I took a couple of hours and put them together for my Tangle friends who will be meeting up this Saturday. I'd love it if any of you tanglers out there would be so kind as to try one or both and see what you can do with them!

Often when I am out and about, I am a magnet for old folks, odd folks, and small children. For whatever reason, they overlook the curmudgeonly, essence of pure evil that is 'me' and actively seek out conversation.  I don't know why...but I like it. I was at the grocer's recently when a young lad (just turned three according to his mother) who was in the seat of the cart ahead of mine in line said, "Can I tell you something?" I always say 'yes' even though it's a crap shoot with the little ones as to what will be revealed. It's often something benignly obvious like, 'you have a purse', or embarrassingly obvious 'you have a boogie in your nose'.  Sometimes it's worse...'You're a doody head' is one of my all time favorites. But I steeled myself, said 'sure' and this little guy said, and I quote, "Did you know that tapirs are pachyderms, same as elephants?" Huh? Thud! That was the sound of my ja...

Last week... This week. ME. In an effort to not lose my ever-loving mind, there has been lots of knitting and drawing going on at Chez B for the last several days. Lack of sunshine and Vitamin D deficiency leads one to do many unusual things...like knit wee sweaters that won't fit anyone.  Then look at it and think..."I can make a smaller one!"  So you do...just to make sure it really doesn't fit anyone...except maybe a hamster or a gerbil. And you know that if you had one, maybe a gerbil named Stewie, you would try it on him and if it fit, you'd make him a large wardrobe of knitted goods. You contemplate obtaining a gerbil. This is the only time when impassible roads are a good thing. If not for them, you would have 75 Stewies by now.  Then you think that maybe it's not healthy to knit tiny things that won't fit anyone except maybe a gerbil named Stewie who you can't get to the store to buy, and decide to just doodle ...

I took a three and a half hour drive up to Sturgeon Bay in Door County yesterday to see Doug Mancheski in Gray's Anatomy, a monologue by the late Spaulding Gray. Doug is an amazingly talented actor and this was one of Gray's works that I wasn't already familiar with, so it was a real treat. Having only seen Doug previously is musical comedies, I was blown away by his range, which was really displayed in this one: wry humor, cynicism, love, fear, desperation, the terror of facing aging, illness and death. His delivery made me forget that I was listening to Spaulding's story. It just sounded like Doug was telling his story for the first time, not lines rehearsed and rote...truly masterful! I enjoyed it so much. If I lived closer I'd go again. For my friends in that area...run, don't walk to the Third Avenue Playhouse. Viewing it superficially in the moment as a performance observer, my emotions were pulled everywhere-in the best possible way.  Pondering...

I liked doing this week's Diva Challenge but as I looked at it when I was finished, I realized it would have looked a lot better if I hadn't extended the pattern in the index finger clear to the wrist. But my policy has always been to post the first attempt, not matter how lousy, because 'there are no mistakes in Zentangle'. I'm just thankful that it was the index, and not the middle! :-) Thanks for the great tangle challenge, Laura!

It has been a long winter in Wisconsin. Around Christmas and the New Year, I long for the quiet, dark days between January and the end of March. But then by April, I am so sick of my own company and the craft projects I was once so excited to work on when things finally slowed down, that I'm ready to climb a bell tower with a Nerf gun. I am so. over. winter. I feel kind of guilty about it since I have friends and family back home in Maine that MAY get summer on July 7th from 2:00-4:00 PM this year... IF they are  very, very lucky and the finorkin' snow. would. just. stop. But none-the-less, we (the royal we, doncha know) are neck deep in The Season of Grumpiness and Feeling Sorry for Ourselves. I thought it was over a couple of weeks ago when the temps SOARED into the 50s, my crocuses woke up, the neighbors were out running around in their shorts and flip flops. In the spirit of true disclosure, most of them wear shorts all year round, but I digress.  The dreaded snow and co...

I was going through a particularly un-arty period lately. To get the ball rolling again, I got a poster sized piece of paper, divided it into random spaces and...well...I ' Paradoxed ' the heck out of that bad boy! No thinking, no planning, just lines, lines lines! Very soothing, even if it's not very beautiful. It gave me the kick start I needed to continue on with more inspired projects. This week's Diva Challenge is a mono-tangle using  ' Paradox ' so I'm submitting it. Equinox Paradox It was recently (yesterday) brought to my attention (thanks, Mum) that I haven't updated my blog 'in forever'. I'll try to remedy that. It's actually a good thing when I'm too busy living life to document it!

Last week, I packed one of my kids off to a science conference in San Diego. While he was there, he messaged that he attended a fabulous talk about woolly mammoths. Being a huge natural-science geek, and lover of all things animal..including extinct ones, I immediately sent him a reply. Something polite and respectful I'm sure, to the effect that he should 'bring me a baby woolly mammoth or not come home at all'.  Actually that may have been the exact directive. Being a scientist, he was quick to explain that technology was not quite there yet.  Scientists aren't yet able to actually clone a mammoth and that I would have to be patient. Yeah. Right. Have you met me? I responded that be that as it may, he should just bring home a little one...one that would fit under the seat in front of him. Yes, that would be just fine. I mean, I'm nothing if not practical and thrifty.  No need to pay another bag fee for a non-existent-at-this-point-in-time mammoth for little old ...

Tis the season for soup!!! I found the basic recipe for this soup online and tinkered with it a bit. It's delish! Steak Supper Soup 3 C chopped  potatoes (I used fingerlings and pretty much just halved them. I left the skins on. You could use any potatoes.) 1.5 # good quality stew meat (not too fatty) chopped bite sized 1 sm. onion chopped 1 sm bag of frozen corn (not in original recipe-I added it.  It would be good with beans , peas or one of those bags of all three. Fresh chopped carrots would also work-I'm trying that next time.) 3 sm cans of beef broth 1 c thick brown steak sauce (not BBQ or Worcestershire sauce) 1 TBS chili powder 1 tsp cumin.  1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper if desired (I didn't) Dry parsley if desired (I didn't) Throw 'er all in the crock pot and let 'er rip for 8-10 hours on low. Doesn't get easier than that and Oh-My-Yum! Plus I forgot I made it so when I came home and smelled supper ready it was a pleasant surprise. I spr...