February 29th, 2016

Happy Leap Day, everyone! It's a beautiful, sunny day today (although it looks like we'll be starting March off with storms), and my friend brought these lovely little flowers she found to class this afternoon. Aren't they cute?

February 27th, 2016

It was a beautiful day today. I spent the morning volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, and it quickly warmed up from 35⁰ to a lovely 60⁰. I'm feeling a really strong push to start delving more deeply into Shinto mythology, as I want to more closely approach Amaterasu Ōmikami, but I also don't know where to start. I may see if I can find any good websites to get a jumping-off point for more reading.

February 22nd, 2016

I actually bought this the 13th, but life being what it is, I never got around to posting a picture. This is a hanging censer from Earthbound. Usually, these are $20, but this one was on clearance for $5.60. Seeing as I cannot burn incense either at home or at school, it's a little bit of a pointless purchase, but I also think they look incredibly cool, and I've wanted one for years, so frankly I'm okay with it. We'll consider it an investment purchase.

February 21st, 2016

Leaving therapy tonight, none of the street lamps were on so it was very dark. The moon, however, is very nearly almost full, and was large and bright shining through the wispy clouds. My phone did not get a great picture of it, but it was lovely, and a little moving.

February 20th, 2016

I went back to Touch of Nature today to do some more analysis of our site with my group. It was a beautiful day, and a balmy 70° in spite of it being the middle of February.

After we'd taken measurements and dug some test holes, we all sat for a bit enjoying the sunlight. My friend also started building a little fairy house in the leaves, so I pitched in to finish it off.

We of course returned the area to its natural state before we left, but created a little house, garden, and fence. It was really cute!

Water Dragon

A few weekends ago, I felt like painting, and decided to do a dragon. However, while I've done some dragon line art, I've done very little in the realm of color, light vs. shadow, etc. Therefore, I decided to imitate another piece of work to get a better idea of how those and other elements of art apply to the draconic form.

This is my painting, but all the credit has to go to the original artist, sandara on DeviantArt. I definitely recommend checking out her gallery, she has a ton of gorgeous fantasy artwork. There's lots more dragons, bird creatures, unicorns, and other fantastical beings.

Just thought I'd share my interpretation (painted on chipboard with acrylics), because I was really happy with how it came out.

February 14th, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day, all. Sorry I haven't posted yet this month - I've been so busy with school that I haven't been able to think straight in what little free time I've had.

In spite of all that, I have managed to keep my head mostly above water, and even went hiking last weekend. Here's some pictures of the lake and trail.

My Building Tech: Woods class will be working out here, creating a learning station for participants to dip for macro-invertebrates and learn about aquatic ecosystems. It'll be really nice to go out regularly to such a lovely natural spot.

Ferns and moss growing, even in February.

A fossil of some sort of tree, just lying in the creek bed.

We sat out on this point and just meditated in the sun for a bit. It was so quiet, with only the water lapping against the rocks.

Our tour guide also demonstrated how to make red ochre paint out of local rocks containing iron ore. The thick paste has been used for thousands of years and around the world in cave paintings, dyes, and body paint. In particular, it was used by local indigenous peoples, who also used local deposits of chert for tools. The picture is me, with red ochre smeared on my cheeks.