Thursday Art Date: Yellow and Orange

Hello Friends! :)

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date! Our theme today is Yellow and Orange. I usually love those colours in clothing, but I think Bugs Bunny's golfing attire is a bit on the eccentric side! (And I don't think Daffy appreciates being his caddy!)

I had some fun with my oil pastels too, dreaming of my home in the woods on a hot summer evening! :) Our weather is really hot and humid and the skies are a beautiful mix of yellows and oranges in the evening, it's such a beautiful area - if only we could thin out the population a little! The condos in the village center are starting to go up - oh gosh we can't get out of here soon enough!!! Next spring!! :)

Watercolour Pumpkins and Gourds. Even though I adore the summertime, autumn is on my mind these days too! :)

It's been a big week! The squirrels are on their fourth day living outside - still in the cage though. Alex set it up on crates and put a tarp over the cage to keep them from getting wet if it rains. We still bring them food and water a few times a day and they are within sight from all of our windows.

We had an audience as we took the squirrels outside!

We check on the squirrels many times throughout the day, though Alex stayed outside with them the first day when it was really muggy and I think his mosquito bite count was over 25. The dogs love to watch them, but we make them all sit and be quiet so as not to scare them too much! The triplets have to get used to other animals around, and it's not such a bad thing for them to be nervous seeing the dogs, it'll keep them safe when they're living in the woods.

They were very nervous at first, sticking together in the little cubby hole where they sleep. But eventually they ventured out and started to check out the scenery.

This is their current diet. Nuts, sunflower seeds, sweet potatoes, apple peels and I saved all of the strawberry tops from when I made the jam. I keep them in the freezer and they just love them! We also give them a steady supply of pine cones, branches and pine needles which they really love to munch on!

Next Monday we'll cut a little hole in the back of the cage so they can come and go as they please. Wish them luck! :)

Here is a little video of Spunky finishing off a pine cone.

And this is Algie chirping. Squirrels chirp as a warning of danger, that a predator is nearby. Algie started to chirp when we took the cage out before we let the dogs out - poor little thing was scared in her new environment. Fingers crossed that they are able to adjust and do well when we let them loose!

In my last blog post, I mentioned the cheeses I made last weekend. For anyone interested, I finally got the blog post up on Rainy Day Cheese Making for this Cheddar Recipe!! :) It's now sealed and aging in the cheese cave for three months! I have plans to make more each weekend so we always have a steady supply. I'd like to age one for 6 months and one for 9 months also.

I also mentioned in my last post that I had a failed Cheddar because it didn't knit together while pressing - it was too dry and fell all apart. But it worked perfectly for Poutine with ice cream sodas!

Alex and I celebrated another month together with our monthly fondue night. This month it was Smoked Cheddar and Apple Fondue. I told Alex that once we settle in our forever home next year, he'll have to build me a smoker so I can make this fondue from scratch! :)

Buttercrunch

Iceberg

Romaine

My lettuces seemed to have doubled in size overnight, so we'll be eating a lot of salad in the next week to make up for the heavy cheesy meals of late! :)

We finally waited out the sales on the sweet cherries and bought some to make Cherry Bounce and Cherry Pit Liqueur.

We found the Cherry Bounce recipe online at Imbibe Magazine. We made it a few years ago and it is SO DELICIOUS. It's made with cherries, sugar, lemon juice and rye whisky. Alex wanted to try using the pits to make a liqueur with brown sugar and rum and that also turned out well so we've made some more and they'll be ready for tasting in 3 months.

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July 25th: Next Thursday's theme is X-Ray/Negative Image. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! :)

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please don't include a link unless you participate in the art date!

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