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Easter is Coming–Make Mine Chocolate

Easter is coming and House Rabbit organizations have a campaign–Make Mine Chocolate. The purpose is to inform and the hope to prevent people from purchasing a bunny for Easter. The majority of Easter bunnies end up released or sent to shelters or worse. People need to be aware that a rabbit is at least a 10 year commitment.

If you are thinking about purchasing a cute bunny for your child, choose a plush, stuffed rabbit. Real rabbits are sensitive and fragile creatures. They do not live on carrots or cabbage or ice cream that some authors put in children’s books. Rabbits need an appropriate diet of hay and greens, not crackers and chips.

Rabbits are never to be picked up by their ears. They can startle and be harmed easily. And without proper care and veterinary check ups, rabbits can die.

It should go without saying, Never, Never, Ever release a rabbit. They can be killed by predators, hit by cars, or worse. They can starve or become wounded, and die a painful death.

This is a photo of Nora. She lived for nearly 14 years.

Nora

She had surgery after she was attacked. She had several bouts of gastrointestinal stasis that required veterinary care. Later in life she had problems with her teeth which required treatment that included anesthesia. Anytime a rabbit is given anesthesia, complications can occur. And finding a good veterinarian can be difficult.

How cute is all of that???

Buy a plush bunny. They are cute and make great companions. They do not need to be feed. Litter boxes do not need to be cleaned. They do not need to see a veterinarian. And they will not die from neglect.

Plush Bunny

Or buy a chocolate bunny. Make bunny cupcakes or cookies. But don’t buy a Real Live Rabbit. They are not toys. They are lovely sensitive creatures who should be treated with love, care, and respect.


Make Mine Chocolate!

Make Mine Chocolate, UK Rabbit Welfare

House Rabbit Society

The best rabbit veterinarian on the California Central Coast is Dr. Susan Choy at Bear Valley Animal Clinic.


Found Pods

I went to Home Depot to purchase some hardware cloth. On the way to the car I found some gorgeous seed pods just right there on the ground. A little crushed, but still beautiful.

Seed Pods

I looked around to find the source. At first I couldn’t locate the tree, but then I found loads of pods on the ground beneath a tree. Still find it odd that trees are planted in parking lots. They seem so lonely.

Seed Pods

I did a google image search to find information about the pod. Pretty sure the tree is a Brachychiton. It may be Brachychiton populneus. Need to see the tree in bloom.

Here is a little closer look at the pods.

Seed Pods

The cool thing is that I have had this pod for several years. Can’t recall where I found it. And for some reason I never identified the source of the pod.

Seed Pod

I liked the bark, boat-like pod right off. And inside there are golden seeds covered with fuzz. While reading about Brachychiton populneus, I found this information:

Wear gloves when handling the seed pods to avoid their skin-irritating fuzz.

For a few years, I was an avid gardener. Avid, as in growing most plants from seed, working in the gardens everyday and most of the weekend.

During that time I did not make much in the way of art. I kept thinking that I could not make anything as beautiful as what was growing in my gardens.

I have gotten over that. Now I spend most of my time working in the studio. My gardens have been changed, plants have been removed. And here on the California Central Coast we are still dealing with the drought.

So, how will I use the pods in my work? Don’t know. Need to spend some time with them.

Definitely, considering adding a Brachychiton populneus to my gardens. And of course I will attempt to grow one from some of the seed that I have collected.


More information about Brachychiton populneus–

Brachychiton on Wikipedia

Australian National Herbarium


Work in Progress–Accustomed to Being Invisible

Have you ever been standing in a shop looking at what is on the shelf a few feet away, suddenly someone walks in front of you, and in between you and the shelf? You step back, out of their way, because you were not seen. Have you ever walked up to an automatic door and found yourself standing there waiting for the door to open? Your presence was not recognized by a sensor. How many times have you touched your iPad screen to open an app and nothing happened? Could you be invisible?

Got to thinking about, well being invisible. And since most of the time I don’t really care if I am noticed, I started thinking about things of substance in nature that are hidden or invisible. Things that have an important function, but remain hidden to the casual viewer.

I am in the process of using plant parts that are typically hidden in my invisible series. The parts are beautiful, often with patterns imprinted on them as the result of their function in the life-cycle of the plants.

Interior Bits

These are the interior bits of Pandorea jasminoides. I collected some pods that I thought would be fun to use. When I opened the pods and removed the seeds, I found these beautiful shields.

I recently purchased a Pandorea jasminoides, specifically to harvest the pods, seeds, and other interior bits. This is the first harvested pod.

Pandorea jasminoides pod

Glycerin Mixture

The Pandorea jasminoides bits were soaked in a glycerin solution to make them more pliable and easier to stitch.

Invisible Code

Code to be used on Pandorea jasminoides bits.

Invisible Stitched

The Pandorea jasminoides bits were stitched with Alpaca Lace yarn. Each piece was stitched with a letter of the quote–accustomed to being invisible.

The current plan is to make a page with the coded pieces on one side and a bound small round mirror of the other side. I seriously thought about making knitted and fulled pages, but I am not pleased with the results, yet.

Decided to try using some embroidered pieces for the pages.

Front Page

The right side has–take notice in code. Not sure that I like it.

Back Page

Each embroidered piece is 45 squares (11.25″) wide and 58 squares (14.5″) high. The openness of the stitches is one of the reasons for using the roofing felt in between. I love roofing felt–the way it feels, smells, and looks. I started using roofing felt when I was investment casting. Some of the roofing felt that had been used in the casting process had lovely plaster stains. I liked the used roofing felt so much I used it in my Headbox series.


Blooms and Fragrance in My Gardens

Brugmansia

Blooming and Fragrant Brugmansia.

Original plant was grown from seed that I purchased from seedman.com .This plant is a cutting from the original plant. The plant needs to be pruned often because it tends to want to grow 15 feet or taller.

Solandra maxima

This is my first Solandra Maxima. It has large gorgeous flowers that smell delicious.

I have taken numerous cuttings from the plant. There are Solandra maxima growing in several locations in my gardens.

Brugmansia

Brugs in the Garden

I removed several Brugs because of water rationing. These look slightly wilted, but the majority of the time, limited watering does not seem to be a bother. A large part of the day they are in filtered light.

Bird feeder Growing

For whatever reason this bird feeder is not attracting birds. After the rain I found sprouted seeds.

Bird feeder Sprouting

The bird feed has been taken down and cleaned.