Two Turkeys Tumbling

Twisting, tumbling turkeys

Falling through the air,

Twisting, turning, turning,

Slowly with great flair!

Dropping to the ground

With a gobble, gobble sound.

Dancing in the moonlight,

Strutting, strutting, strutting!

Just For Fun

I had a lot of fun making this. It's made up of my paintings, abstract photography and pixs of my pets, Mandy, Sparky and Susie - and one photo of my daughter's kitty,
Cassie. And to round it all up is a sentimental pix of my cousins Beajie and Clayton. Hope you enjoy it.

P.S. Oh, and a couple shots of DH, Roy!

donkey prints

NEW ART FROM LESSANDRA

This is some of the latest photography/art posted on my art website. If you are interested in seeing more, or purchasing a print you like, click on the picture and it will take you to my art website.

SunSuzi Designs by Lessandra

SunSuzi Designs by Lessandra

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Bunnies, bunnies

One morning this week I took the dogs out around 3:30 am for their last leak of the night/morning and I almost stepped on these two tiny bunnies nestled in the middle of the pathway right next to one of my raised garden bed. I figured the mom must have been training them in eating the fruits of another's labors! It's a miracle the dogs didn't smell or see them. Around one hour later I checked to see if they were still there - and, thank goodness, they were both gone, so Momma was probably still in the vicinity watching out for them.

Some Summer Jewels

A NEW ADVENTURE!

Things are taking off in the art business. Check out my new line of designs, SunSuzi Images, on Zazzle.com. Now I have the perfect avenue for my abstract designs which are created with my camera and computer techniques. There is a link to my Zazzle gallery on the right.

Spring is Here

The gardens are really coming along nicely! March 6th I was lamenting my failure to grow brussel sprouts - after all, I planted a six-pack on November 14th and the only thing happening was a bunch of lovely big leaves. The plant on the left outside the bed, and the far right plant in the bed are brussel sprout plants. Now, five months later they are developing little sprouts all up and down the stems!



This bed has garden peas, which I've put in several of our salads. Delicious! Then there is a crop of Cos lettuce and some mesclun coming up, a Better Boy tomato(see photo), marigolds, and (you can't see it) a tiny cantaloupe plant. some nasturtiums and chives.

This photo was taken several weeks ago and plants are twice as big now. Two Early Girl tomatoes I started from seed; three

sunflowers - I planted seeds from a mixed variety of sunflowers - can't wait to see what the flowers are going to look like! One square has beets, another has pole beans and the rest are flowers: marigolds, feather plants, cosmos, lobelia, and a margarita daisy.

Salmonella alert - Product Recalls

FDA Product Recall List

Evolving Garden

T his video shows how my container and raised gardens look so far. I have one more trellis to put up once I transplant my tomato plants into the garden. The curved PVC in two of the beds has come in handy already when I transplanted some small plants. I draped some plastic screening material just so to block the strong sun rays.

Garden Progress

Well, here it is March 6th and I've harvested my first crops of broccoli and brussel sprouts. Not too successful - plenty of brussel sprouts - but they weren't sprouts, they were more like brussel leaf flowers (I think they use the term blasted when the brussel sprouts just stay open and don't form tight sprouts). Somewhere on a garden site it said loose soil is the cause of blasted brussel sprouts. So I put two in the ground with much firmer soil, but it didn't help - they continued to grow the same way. Nevertheless, brussel sprout green are delicious! Tasted (and cooked)somewhat on the order of collard greens.

Now the broccoli was good and plentiful but the weather turned too warm for them to continue growing and the broccoli buds were starting to open into flowers. So now I have room for more tomato and pepper plants. If the tomato plants I started from seeds don't start growing a little faster I may have to buy store plants. Sometimes in June it can start hitting 100F around here and I really want some tomatoes before that happens!

My crops of lettuce, beets, radishes, and kohlrabi are coming along just fine! I've managed to put together a few small salads with our home-grown lettuce and radishes.

Maybe in another week or two the beets will be ready. There is nothing like beet greens - nothing!

MY NEW SFG!

This is my first square foot garden bed. First, I was just going to have a container garden on my patio (which is progressing nicely),

and then I was looking up something on Google and came across something called Square Foot Gardening - which peaked my interest - and upon reading more, learned there was a guy named Mel Bartholomew who had discovered a very easy way to garden and wrote a book about it called "Square Foot Gardening "in the '80s. Now he has another book out called "New Square Foot Gardening" which has his newest discoveries to make gardening easy. He makes it sound so easy that anyone can do it (even making the frames for the garden beds). So I went out and bought the lumber, hardware etc and built my first SFG box. Today I painted the wood for box #2 and #3. In Box #1 I have planted eight broccolis, eight kohlrabis, 1 brussel sprout, and 4 pansies. And today I transplanted a Big Boy tomato plant I bought in the garden shop. I have five tomato seedlings that will be ready to put in the garden in about 6-7 weeks. In the meantime I just got the brainy idea to plant radishes in the three spaces reserved for the tomatoes since they would be ready to harvest just before time to plant the tomatoes! I can't wait to get the other two boxes done!

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO MAKE OUR FOOD SAFE?

Here is an article on Food and Waterwatch.org, titled "FDA Fakes a Passing Grade" : http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/fda-fakes-a-passing-grade20081201 It ticks off all the shortcomings of the future plans of the FDA to make our food safe.

I read another article with an excerpt that reads:
"...The first FDA office will be opened Wednesday in Beijing, followed by one in Guangzhou and another in Shanghai. They will be followed by offices in India and Latin America by the end of the year as the FDA tries to globalize its presence. The staffers will inspect local facilities, provide guidance on US quality standards, and eventually train local experts to conduct inspections on behalf of the FDA.
"We are embarking on a system that will recognize the need to ensure that everything that comes to the USA has been subject to either heightened scrutiny by our regulators or has been certified as meeting our standards by someone we trust," Leavitt said...."

Can you believe that?? Train local experts to conduct inspections on the behalf of the FDA!! Doesn't the FDA understand that they cannot trust anyone in China to do the job that the U.S. is supposed to be doing - and isn't!

Please folks, let your Congressmen and Senators know you are not happy with the way our food is being inspected.

Another article I read from the AP press http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jP0C1Aoi0pUm3LIAfqDoB4Dpi8BwD9537BP80 states there are even MORE nonfood additives that are dangerous besides melamine - like boric acid and lye - that are being added to the food supply! Why does this blatant disregard of the safety of U.S. citizens have to be ignored until millions, yes millions of people are dead from ingesting deadly food. Just think, if imported food comes into this country with the assumption that it is safe, how hard would it be for terrorists to spike food ingredients that are imported into the USA and is incorporated in food products made here in the USA by our big national food companies?

THOUGHT-PROVOKING!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/29/INPD149N15.DTL

This is a great article! It really covers all the things that have been bugging me lately about this melamine fiasco. I certainly hope the American people will put their feet down now and ACT! This issue will only get worse and WORSE if consumers don't step in and express their views. We need to call our Congressmen and Senators and ask for labeling that will let the consumer know if a product has ANY ingredients in it that come from China. If enough consumers STOP buying products that include ingredients from China then our large National food companies will either put pressure on China or the FDA to clean up their act - or they will stop buying imports from China! And the FDA should not accept ANY levels of melamine in food. Melamine is a plastic and if it means using stainless steel or other safe metals to prepare food in, so be it. And food containers should not be made of materials that leach into our food either!

BOYCOTT FOOD IMPORTED FROM CHINA!

What can the American consumer do to get food imports from China banned? Melamine-laced milk injurying and killing babies by the thousands is the last straw. How horrific can you get? Last year their criminal activities reached the U.S. via melamine in our pet food products. The products may have been manufactured in the United States but some of the ingredients were from China. This was kept relatively quiet, considering the amount of pet deaths that occurred.

Now, even if this is greatly publicized, the FDA will keep this under wraps as much as possible - and will check only the obvious, ie, Chinese labelled milk products. But there are at least two National brands, Krafts and General Mills that do business with China, importing milk whey, milk protein concentrate, and other ingredients that go into their food products. So we really don't know what foods we eat which might have ingredients from China in them.

I've written to the FDA expressing my concerns, but I'd really like to see our country stop importing food entirely from China. Anyone have a plan as to how consumers can get this accomplished? Maybe a bill enacted? Massive boycotts of grocery stores?
***Here is a link on a recent article I found on this issue. What effect will the USFDA have now that they have offices in Beijing, and several other Asian locations? Will this bring better protection to U.S. citizens or will this bring an even bigger cover-up - scandalous practices in China - you know, big companies, big bucks. http://blog.nj.com/njv_linda_stamato/2008/11/toxic_milk_and_poisoned_babies.html

Silent Film - A Short

This is SO much fun! It's just taking me away from the daily stress in my life and I'm totally engrossed in producing these little dittys. Now I've got to go out and take some more pictures - hmmmm, wonder what kind of photos should I shoot? hmmmm, wonder what kind of movie I should make next?

Golden yellow sky

High above the mountain tops

God's light shining bright

GOLDEN YELLOW
Golden yellow, bright as spring,
Golden yellow, makes you sing,
Such a color!
What vibrations!
Whorling upwards to the sun,
A burst of radiance!
Glorious magnificance!
Golden rays of light!

GIVE ME A BREAK!

Who leads a debate? The debaters or the moderators?
Why can't the moderators lead the debates and stay on course by debating issues of importance to the American people? Like health care, Medicare, employment, the Iraq war, education. I feel like those with "influence" - or people that could make a difference - like the media! - are being totally irresponsible and child-like in bringing to the public not what the public needs to hear their candidates debate about but "what they think the public wants to hear". Media: Forget the money, forget what you "think" the public wants to hear. If there are people that are more interested in "tit for tat", "he said, she said" issues they really shouldn't even vote. Voters can discern for themselves as to the personalities of Clinton, Obama, and McCain; but we need to know their views on important issues that affect the people of this nation.
Grow up! Give the voters some grown up debate and not gossip, innuendoes, and finger-pointing!

Tarzan's Serenade
The rustle of the trees
Shook the quiet of the day,
When much to my surprise
Way up high in the sky
Came the mighty sound
Of swhooshing!
With a hearty high-ho!
My love came swooping

From the trees
And fell upon his knees,
Taking my hand lovingly,
Saying "Please, Fly away with me now,
I be your Tarzan
You be my Jane
Sweet music we make
While lying awake
In the treetop of love
With the sky above,
Shining stars twinkling,
Moonlight falling on your hair,
Face oh so fair!
"Then I nodded yes,
And with great finesse
He gave a wild whoop,
Grabbed hold of the vine
And away we did fly to the
Top of the sky, making love
To the tune of Cheetah's sweet croon.
L. Grimley

Seek not peace, yet seek not strife,

But be assured that all will be
As God has set forth for all destiny.
Come not looking for answers smooth
To questions of life as yet unused.
Live each day knowing that when
The time has come for things undone,
That all will unfold and all will be told,
As those of old have seen and spoken
From days long ago.
L. Grimley

Can you believe this little creature actually posed for me!? He was flying around the back yard, landed on this rope and I asked him to stay there until I got my camera. When I came back out of the house with my camera he had flown off, but as I approached, he went over to the same spot (above) as before and sat for the longest time while I clicked away taking one pix after another! The dragonfly symbolizes going past self-created illusions that limit our growing and changing. They are a symbol of the sense of self that comes with maturity. They represent positive forces, renewal and the power of life; and bring an understanding to dreams.

A day or so after seeing this little guy I woke up one morning with a dream on my mind. I was warning someone about a certain person being after them, and as I was giving the warning, I saw that person speeding by in their car; the person looked positively lost, mentally. Several days later, the dream came true - and I was warning the person I was talking to that this mentally unhinged person would continue to try and cause problems.

Southwest Artisans' Cooperative is up and running!

I've really let my blog slide in the past three months or so. Bullhead City, Arizona now has an artists' cooperative! My sister-in-law, Norma, our good friend, Richard, and myself have been working diligently for the past nine months establishing an art co-op. We figured the biggest hurdle would be to find an affordable storefront - but we found one! And in the most perfect setting, located in Get Framed, a framing and matting shop. The owner of Get Framed had just started renting out the store next to her, opened the wall dividing the two stores and started selling art supplies. Word didn't get around town that she had art supplies so she offered to rent out half the store to us. We are now set up and ready to go! So far, we have eight members: three painters, one potter/jeweler and four other jewelers. Anyone out there want to join us? We have a consignor coming in from Flagstaff and maybe one from Mohave Valley.

In the meantime, I continue working on my Art Cards - and I've discovered Inktense watercolor pencils - oooh! are they nice! Rosie, the bunny rabbit, is my third drawing with them. They add a softer, more diffused look than just plain color pencils. I'll try not to let the old blogger here get so behind again!

I'm finding out that color pencils are really fun to use for these art cards. Last night I finished two pixs of Armstrong, another one of our dearly departed pets. Armstrong was with us for eighteen years, so he was really family! When he became ill he lost half his weight yet kept his appetite till the end. I strongly suspect he may have had CJD - or at least some sort of neurological disease. Who knows, he may have had a brain tumor. He had a hard time standing, his head and neck kept twisting around backwards, and finally his legs kept getting twisted together. This is when I switched my pets to nonbeef pet food. And I quit the canned dog food sometime last fall because Iam's came out with a new formula along with their new labels. But they didn't put anywhere on the label that the formula had changed! Before the new formula if the can read chicken and rice, the first or second ingredient listed was chicken Broth. And the lamb and rice had lamb Broth. But with the new formula both the chicken and lamb formulas now contain Meat Broth, which means the broth could come from any kind of animal - even cows, which I was trying to keep out of their diets. So I stopped the canned food and started adding a small amount of scrambled egg with their dry food. So here is Armstrong:

I've been busy with my watercolor classes and creating art cards. Here is a colored pencil drawing of my sweet dog, Sushi -

Postscript - Three months after this post Sushi died unexpectedly. I've never grieved for anybody as I have for her. It is really something that, nearing the end of her life, I unknowingly, but befittingly shared and celebrated her life by drawing her picture and posting it on wetcanvas.com, and placing the most beautiful photo of her in the Wetcanvas Library of photos. My sweet Sushi!

SOPHIA

Got a late start tonight. This is Sophia, our dearly departed Abyssinian cat. I'm not quite happy with this painting, which is again gouache on 2.5x3.5-inch watercolor paper. But, practice makes purr-fect!

Second Attempt!

Here it is - time to go to bed, and yet I keep working! I brought out some gouache and brushes tonight and painted two more miniature ATCs. The paper wrinkled, so now I've got to figure how to get them out (with the help of my WetCanvas.com friends!)

LIGHT OF MY LIFE

I think I shall post a poem or a photo if there doesn't seem to be much on my mind. This poem goes back thirty-two years but is still timely:

Light of my life, light of my dreams,

How art thou to mine heart?

Thy ways evolute and so dismiss

Our quantum of love divine.

What be the answer then

To questions of eternal bliss?

We go our ways 'til death do us part,

And then for a token of toil well done,

We again unite as one.