The wonderful walls of Shaker Village and the Making of Mice

We have arrived home from exhibiting at an art show held at wonderful Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Ky.

 Oh, how I love this peaceful place!

 The art show was held along an avenue of trees in remarkably perfect weather. I had posted extensively about the Shaker Village in the past, so, today, I only concentrate on one of the most marvelous structural elements that surround this lovely piece of American History,

  Stone walls

 As a great lover of stone walls, I am always mesmerized by these stalwart and meandering masterpieces 

built between 1805 and 1910, not by the Shakers, but by the Irish.

 These walls continue for miles and miles, surrounding dwellings, ponds and running along roadsides and meadows. Shaker Village sits on 3000 heavenly acres of Kentucky land.

I don't know how many miles the stone walls cover, but I do know that the Irish were paid only $1000 per mile..

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What I would give to have stone walls like these! Some have been standing firmly for over 200 years.

The Village is home to much heritage stock, as well.

 These horses were HUGE!

They are called English Shire horses and were of such great beauty and strength as to be truly awesome.

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and now, from very large to very small.....

A study in MICE.

I had the chance, (because of my huntress cat, Claudette), to observe a rat, up close and personal. 

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 This big guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time; the barn.

Claudette deposited the "expired" rat on our back step. I donned gloves

and took the opportunity to study his little paws, feet and face. 

 It is surprising how strong those little thighs appear, the better for climbing the barn poles.

Studying his toes really helped me out in properly fashioning my mousie and ratty

feet out of wire and wool.

My materials are sheeps wool, wire,and mohair...the sum of parts in the making of a rat.

And here she is, MY soft and fuzzy rat.

 Claudette the huntress cat, pays her no mind.

Below are footsies from more little mice.

 I've become increasingly fond of making mice and have made more than 20 thus far.

 One of my motives for making the mice, is a new book character, who is part of the 3 piece book set I've been working on. You can see her in the drawing above which I created months ago.

Now, I am ready to get serious and finish those illustrations.

The mice also represent all the little rodents in my previous books as well..

all part and parcel of Hopalong Hollow

So what am I going to do with all these little  

Hopalong Hollowfolk?

They will be living in my shop and selected mice will come to the next 3 shows with me:

The Country Living Fair 

in Columbus, Ohio

  http://www.countryliving.com/fair/a4125/country-living-fair-columbus/

and

Madison Chautauqua, 

in  Madison, Indianna

http://www.madisonchautauqua.com/ 

and

  Saint James Court 

in Louisville, Ky.

http://www.stjamescourtartshow.com/

I must admit, my rodents are a bit more lovable than 

 the rat

 the cat

 brought in.

(But he did get a proper burial. )

The Solitary Bees and a Handful of mice

Part one: Solitary Bees.

We are all familiar with Honey bees and dearly love and respect them for their industriousness,  complicated and fascinating hive life, their comforting buzzing presence in our gardens, and last but not least, their HONEY. The honey bee is not a native to America but was transported by English Colonists in 1638.

 

 But there are other bees, equally interesting, and actually more productive as pollinators than honey bees. These are N. America's wild bees, our native bees. I am speaking of Solitary Bees, friends you may like to introduce into your own garden. Amazingly, there may be over 30 thousand species of Solitary bees pollinating our world! Meet the Orchard Mason Bee, a gentle little bee that doesn't even sting.

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(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)
 I first learned of these bees when I purchased a mason bee house at a country fair, and proceeded to learn all that I could about them from this little book, " The Orchard Mason Bee", by Brian L Griffin.

  Mason Bees and other solitary bees such as leaf cutter bees, bumble bees, capenter bees, and  onion bees do not produce honey nor beeswax. In the Mason bee world, all females are fertile and build their own nest inside natural tubular cavities such as hollow twigs, previously occupied beetle holes, or bored in tree stumps. You CAN also provide these bees with ready made homes, as do many gardeners.

 The female  Mason Orchard Bee chooses her own personal tube and then flits from flower to flower collecting pollen and nectar. When she has a nice "basketful" she backs into the tube, depositing the goods, and laying an egg atop the nutritional mass. She then builds a partition of mud and leaves the tube to collect more nectar, continuing the process until the tube is filled with eggs. All the female eggs are laid in the back of the tube, the males towards the front. The mother bee then blocks the tube with a mud door and goes on the find another "tube" in which to lay more eggs.

In Spring, the young bees begin to emerge from the holes as they chew through the mud daubing. The males emerge first and hover around the openings waiting for the females to venture forth. The males will mate them and then die...alas, Mother Nature can be rather sad sometimes

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 Because solitary bees have no Hive, Queen or Honey to protect, they are docile little creatures just going about their business and in so doing, pollinating nearly1600 flowers per day, as opposed to the honey bee, who visits about 700 flowers a day, pollinating only 5% of them.

 You can easily attract Mason bees to your garden by providing them with one of the many ready made bee houses available, or you can make your own bee house with a block of wood and a drill or a handful of bamboo.
DIRECTIONS for building a bee house ABOUND ON YOU TUBE.
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I purchased the above bee house is on Amazon. It is rather cute with a basket weave exterior. You can find any style to suit your garden, take a look!
 I purchased these paper mason bee tubes from "Crown Bees".
 I plan to place them securely in an old bird feeder for next years "bee nursery"

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Fellow blogger, artist and nature lover, Tammie, has built a wonderful Mason Bee house, check it out here: 
http://beautyflows.blogspot.com/search?q=mason+bee

 Although I've had a bar bee hive for 4 years (for honey bees), I have never actually FILLED it with honey bees because it seems like such a hassle to raise honey bees, and frankly, I am not all that interested in collecting honey, I just want the pollination for my garden.

 That is why I love the Solitary bees; they are so easy, so natural and they do a marvelous job in the garden; besides,they are very interesting little people.

 One day I will fill my honey bee hive, but for now, I am happy to have the Solitary Bees flitting amongst the blooms.

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Part 2: A mystery structure

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James is building something special here at the top of my slope with the wattle fence. I wonder if anyone can possibly guess what this will turn out to be? Not what you think, I bet! Take a guess, and I will show you next week when it is completed.

Many are guessing this is to be a swing... it would make a great swing, but it is not.

I will give you a hint, it is actually something for the BEES and the Birds.

Part 3: Mousies!

and little rats too.

I've been busy making rodents this week.

These little rodents will be looking for new mouse holes in which to dwell...

They will be up for adoption soon on this blog.

Introducing Dimity Doormouse

 

    Dimity Doormouse was reluctant about appearing in public.... after all, she was slightly embarrassed about being seen in  gray and white".  "Oh dear! Whatever will my pen pals think of me.... bland as a churchmouse without a lick  of color on my poor little mousy body!!" But we at the Gazette managed to snap a few candid photos of Dimity when she wasn't looking....

Here she is, stuck to the honey pot...

 And here she is licking clean her little pink tail ..... I mean grey and white tail.

and graciously accepting a thimble full of tea

 "Oh Mistress dear, won't you pleeeese, give me a bit of color today? " I am having an important visitor from the west country... I simply CANNOT be seen like this! The Mistress has pity on poor little Dimity , she obliges, and collects her paints. "Would you prefer to be a little gray mouse or a little brown mouse?" " Oh most assuredly a gray mouse, just like my great grandmother Diadame Doormouse.

She was a divine shade of pewter!"

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 "Do you mean THIS shade of grey?"

  "OH yes! This shade of grey is quite becoming.
"

"And tell me, little mouse, what color shall we paint your lovely little frock?"

 "Well, I am rather partial to blues and greens and strawberries and pinks and sunflower and rose... If that wouldn't be too much trouble"

"Not a bit of it, Dimity"

" How is this??"

  Oh my! I am indeed a lovely little mouse after all....not a bit drab!  Now I shan't be atoll ashamed to show my face to my dear penfriend, Bebe.  Did I mention that she is quite a worldly mouse, most sophisticated?! Do you think Mistress, as long as you have your paints out.... you could possibly paint my cousins Diedra and Demelza? They would be simply mortified to meet Bebe in this condition!"

   And the other members of our sewing circle????

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  "Well, states the Mistress, "I will have to get the turtle OFF the page first..."

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  SCOOT!

 AND YOU TOO!

  Here we go...

 " A bit of Blue, a little burnt sienna and...

there is one of your feathered friends, in full color."

"Oh, I do like  Demelzas rosy pink apron...perhaps you could add a bit more rosy pink to my ears?"

"Gertie is a rather plain shrew, she LOOKS BEST in brown....after all, she IS a spinster."

  "And Leona Chippy is one of our finest needlemonks,
Could you give her a stripey red and white apron, pleese?"

"We always let Diedre measure the twist, as she is quite frugal. My, have you noticed the price of twist these days?? Shameful!"

  

"Miss Miliken is quite cheerful, perhaps she could be sunny shade of yellow?"

"Oh Mistress! We are ever so grateful for the colors and in return we would be delighted to finish sewing the sampler for you!"

  "However, we will leave a few stitches  for Bebe, as she is a needlemouse extraordinaire, and has promised to show us her secrets for perfectly tiny  embroidery stitches...

 That is, after we teach her to lasso a goat,

shear a sheep

and ride a chicken...

after all, this IS Hopalong Hollow! 

 Please visit "Angelsdoor" and meet BEBE, an indomitable little " mouse in a million" as she travels far and wide on her adventures.  This week, she is going to learn about chicken herding in the Hollow.
 BEBE is the creation of the talented artist Penny White.
http://angelsdoor.blogspot.com/

P.S.

Tell me, have you ever tried painting as a little bird places her little  head in your  hand???

It AIN"T easy.

 Yes, It seems Esther is becoming quite a willing studio assistant. She is always advising me on how NOT to paint feathers.

  

The above piece of art, which you are seeing in bits and pieces , is the TITLE page of my newest book,(in the works). After Dimity, Bebe and the sewing circle finish the stitching, I will show you the page in full.

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