The Sketchbook Project #5

Identification-Birds

The Sketchbook Project #4

In my fourth entry, I drew a microscope and focused on 

the contained views.  On the second page, the organisms

are outside of the slides and on the loose.

The Sketchbook Project #3

For my third sketchbook entry, I illustrated a story my 
husband told me about a high school chemistry project 
gone wrong which ended with the classroom filling with 
noxious smoke and the students making a quick exit 
from the building. In my first drawing the experiment is 
set and ready to go and in the second things have 
started to go wrong.

The Sketchbook Project #2

For my second drawing I chose a dissection gone wrong 
where the frogs escape.

The Sketchbook Project #1

I decided to participate in the Sketchbook Project and 
let them choose my theme for me at random. They 
picked "science project gone wrong." A few days later, 
I received my book in the mail and today I completed 2 
pages depicting a failed terrarium project.

Custom Tea Towels

Cooperstown, The Other Days

Well, many months have passed since I started writing about our trip to Cooperstown. The Baseball Hall of Fame was pretty great. I learned a lot and got to see Felix Pie's shoes! Howe Caverns was very pretty. We were excited to go there because of the underground boat ride that they are known for. Unfortunately, there had been a whole lot of rain in the weeks prior to our visit and that part of the cavern was flooded. Howe Caverns was discovered by a farmer who realized his cows preferred standing in the bright sun in the middle of the fields. His neighbor's cows all liked to stand under trees during the day. He investigated and found a cool breeze coming up out of the land and below that were the caves. Lake Otsego was practically overflowing because of all of the rain that week. The Joseph L. Popp Butterfly Conservatory was very small, but beautiful. We had a chance to get very close to some butterflies, birds, and a turtle eating a banana! Breakfast at Stagecoach Coffee was delicious and we had a fantastic fancy dinner at the Hoffman Lane Bistro next to where we stayed. Overall, a great trip! In the future, if we go back, I would like to go in late spring or early summer because a lot of the other attractions opened the day we left (April 1st). It is a quaint, small town with very friendly people. The Cooperstown General Store was also outstanding and old fashioned. I bought some Lilies of the Valley bulbs there that have grown nicely in my garden.

Cooperstown, NY-Day1

Jason and I took a vacation to Cooperstown, New York. It was about a 5 1/2 hour drive from Baltimore. We arrived in the early evening and after walking around town, we ate dinner at the Cooperstown Diner (a small diner with great service and good sized portions). Jason had fried haddock and french fries and I had a grilled cheese with sweet potato wedges. We stayed at Visions Inn (the annex building to the Lake Front Motel--which was under renovation during our visit). While it was very close to the Baseball Hall of Fame and convenient to Main Street, it didn't quite meet the expectations raised by the following quote off of the website, "Our annex building, Visions Inn, located 1/2 block from Main Street on Hoffman Lane, once an 1800's Brewery, has been totally renovated into a luxurious modern-day Country Inn."

Little Birdbath Garden

This little birdbath garden has been a real battle to get going this summer. I think now it finally is starting to look like what I had envisioned when I dug it out in the fall. I bought some black-eyed susans and blue asters. Both are perrienials, so hopefully they will return and spread making this a fun oasis for the birds and squirrels.