I found a deer skull out in the thicket behind my building, while I was walking the dog. It’s in beautiful condition.
Deer Skull
Tag: bones
Deer Bones
I did a major cleaning and rearranging project in my work room. Phase one was to empty out the closet, set up shelves inside it, sort ALL THE THINGS, then put away everything I was keeping. Phase two was getting my genealogy files into storage that was easily accessible. During that whole process, I came across a box of bones.
Instant Review: PicMonkey
If you use Flickr, you’ve probably also used Picnik to edit your photos. Picnik is closing in a couple of weeks, so Flickr has replaced it with another service called Aviary. Which I have tested and do not like one little bit. But hallelujah! The Picnik gang has a new home at PicMonkey. Most of the old Picnik actions are available there (Ortonizer lives!), some of the actions I wasn’t too impressed with have been tweaked and improved, and there are some pretty fabulous new recipes (Daguerreotype, ahoy!).
It’s not as handy, because it’s not tied directly to Flickr, but I love it so much that I do not care. Right now, everything seems to be free, but I’m guessing the service will become tiered as they gain momentum. That seems reasonable, and when that happens, I’ll be buying a subscription. I like it that much.
Mouse and Deer
Deer skull and mouse skull. (Or maybe the little one is a vole or shrew skull. I have no idea. It came from an owl pellet.)
Sacrum and Vertebrae
More of the deer bones I got from my mom. I took the photos out on my patio, and the guy one floor up and one section over was standing on his balcony, watching me. He didn’t say anything, which makes me wonder what he was thinking about the weird person playing with a pile of bones.
Look at the Bones!
Yes, more dead stuff! You can take the girl out of the goth, but apparently you cannot take the goth out of the girl.
My mom gave me two boxes of deer bones, the last time I visited, and they’ve been sitting in the back of my car ever since. I finally got them out and took a good look at them today. Or, at the skull, at least.
Horse Skull
One of my mom’s friends is a sculptor. When I was up there a few weeks ago, we went to her studio so I could meet her, look at her work, and take photos of some of her horse bones.
I’m working with a kit lens, which isn’t great in low light, even with the aperture wide open. Then again, it might have helped if I’d remembered to boost the ISO. Duh! At 200 indoors, I’m lucky anything turned out.
Bones
I think these are thoracic vertebrae, but I’m not entirely certain. There is a surprising dearth of good chicken anatomy resources available online. I found a few annotated photos and drawings, but none of them were good enough for me to make a positive ID.
Anyway! I got my car back. I always feel kind of silly taking it all the way back to Owen County to have it worked on, but it’s worth it. I called ahead and got rough estimates for everything I needed to have done: new front brakes, turn rotors, four new tires, alignment, new battery, and oil change. When I took it in, I told them that if they went over $600, they’d have to take the difference in a post-dated check, because that was my limit. It came in slightly over that, but they knocked it down to $600 (tax included). It wasn’t a huge deal, because I had a little bit of wiggle room, but I appreciate that they were willing to work with me.
Oh, and new tires? Wheee! I can feel their nubbiness. It’s a reassuring feeling, but it’s going to take some getting used to.
(Re)Photographing Old Work
There are several pieces that I’ve been meaning to re-shoot, because the original photos I took were total crap. I did a couple this afternoon. I did both straight-up versions as well as tarting them up in Photoshop. It’s kind of interesting when a piece can have two lives, both as an artwork and as a photograph.
Remembering Beatrice Stone
I got an e-mail a couple of years ago from a guy who was looking for genealogical information on Beatrice Stone. I hated to break it to him that the name was made up. Using an old college yearbook, I took a first name from column A and a last name from column B.
Epitaph for Eula Strange
Epitaph for Eula Strange
I dread for me
living one mute day every time
an allusive and subtle communication
an ever present affliction
clutching to me
an old thought to gnaw on.
I am afraid
out of worth
without words
caught and reduced and disorganized
like dreaming of sleep
and the taste of dry bones.
Fun with Filters
Shells, Bones, and Stones, Kodak EasyShare DX4530 with blue Holga SSFS-120 filter
Shells, Bones, and Stones, Kodak EasyShare DX4530 with red Holga SSFS-120 filter
Shells, Bones, and Stones, Kodak EasyShare DX4530 with grey Holga SSFS-120 filter
Letter Stamps, Kodak EasyShare DX4530 with grey Holga SSFS-120 filter
Ivy, Kodak EasyShare DX4530 and Keystone 60 Second Everflash
Duck, Kodak EasyShare DX4530 and Keystone 60 Second Everflash
Field, Kodak EasyShare DX4530 and Keystone 60 Second Everflash
You can see why I have a hard time getting my letter stamps oriented in the right direction. It might help if I put them back in the box correctly!
red paper boat 