Children & the Many Values of Art. (#1: Art as a Cure for Tears)

Daddy & Moma might be crafty, but we are by no means artists proper. Nonetheless, we believe strongly in the countless values of art -- including art for art's sake. This post is the first of four of many (I keep finding new opportunities!) in which we will share some simple ways engaging in artistic ventures has enriched our lives... more specifically, the children's lives. Please enjoy. :)

Value #1: A Cure for Tears

So sad... What do we do with sad baby?
Give him crayons!

And an easel...

and some inspiration!
(Is it the toy bin or the painting?)

Before you know it...

...he's found his groove!
(This day it was purple.)

Voila! A masterpiece! (Or something.)
And no more tears!

More Things We Were Doing While We Weren't Blogging: Phone Photos

Daddy & Moma got their first Smarty-pants phones in August. While these phones have many mind-blowing abilities, their talent for capturing images is pretty poor. Every time Moma forgets her camera, something fabulously photo-worthy happens. I looked at my batch of photos from the phone & decided to add a few of the noteworthy happenings here. (And maybe a gratuitous mushroom or two.) 

First, we had to practice with the phone by sending an image to Moma's BFF. Three people, three attempts, always someone a little out of line, but overall, I think we did alright. Besides, it's the thought that counts, right?

Not sure where the spoon came from -- 

we noticed it only after we went the picture!

We discovered the trails to the bluffs over Kincaid,

What is it with bad photos that makes them always
appear to have been taken in the seventies?

Oooh! Sandbox! Way up here even!
Let's get DIRTY!

We discovered other things in the park too...

 Creepy crawlies,

 The obligatory annual great big freaky Alaskan spider encounter!

And other creature's leftovers, 

Owl pellet! Whoah! Really?!?
Are they following us? @__@

And FUNGI (of course),

Always so cute! Amanita muscaria

And a basket of boletes: this one is 100% Boletus edulis.

And some lovely, anise-scented oysters, Pleurotus spp.

And because of Murphy's Law, sans cameras, we always had a...

MOOSEFEST!

Always lotsa Moose when you don't have your camera. Always.

There were actually THREE males this day, browsing together

because they *knew* that not one of us brought a proper camera.

I found a handful of terrible phone photos from other places too. Just to prove that we sometimes leave the forest & enjoy the pleasures of other places here are a couple: 

Whoah! A dining experience with cloth napkins?!?
Going somewhere sans chillins?!?!
A place where the waitstaff doesn't try to get you
in & out as quickly as possible because they know
children are time bombs?
I wouldn't believe it either, but for the evidence above.

Oh, those sunsets on the Cook Inlet...
so lovely, even via smartphone.

Well, that's enough of the smartphone retrospective & the blogging for today. Tune in again to see if we manage a record three days in a row of "one-a-day" blog posts focusing on all those things we did while we weren't blogging! 

Walks with Chalks. (Part of the Things We Were Doing While We Weren't Blogging Series)

"A post a day..." What folly!

But I have a post TO-day! (It helps to have Daddy at home wrangling the Changeling!)

More things we were doing while we weren't blogging: Walks with Chalks! (I'll keep the verbiage to a minimum so that this actually gets posted, ha!)

Hm, what's this?... 

Oh it needs something, let me help you with that...

Finishing touches, always more GREEN!

 Now, off to find new swaths of winding asphalt, I mean canvas...

Things We Were Doing All That Time We Weren't Blogging. Post #2

July was a big month, so this month is going to arrive here in pieces. Let's pretend it is warm & sunny again, shall we?

In early July we...

Talked with a ptarmigan

and dangled with dragonflies.

 We found our first basket of boletes,

Gratuitous fungi glamour shot.

and found ourselves fooled by some pesky forest tricksters too!

 Not a mushroom... not a mushroom either.

What silliness! Cocktail umbrellas cleverly places beneath the trees... 

here, there, everywhere!

We walked many trails,

and found fun & (real!) fungi... everywhere!

Boy, this sure doesn't look like fun...

Ah, that's better!

What will he discover?

Who knows? Only he does...

A Little Lad in his element.
Know, seek, find your bliss, young one.

The orange birch bolete, a perennial favourite!
(The red Paul Frank hoodie, also always a favourite.)

Sometimes, we even took a break from "the hunt"...

To play on the junglegyms,

Practice our "camera faces"

Nice. Real nice, kid.
(Gee, I cannot imagine who that is in the background
obsessively creating slideshows of mushrooms on the laptop...)

And work on our "supercool"...

 "Born to be Wild" shirt courtesy Craig & Suzie

of the Anchorage Harley Davidson shop.

So fitting for the supercharged Changeling.

Oh, my. There's so much more! But, let's try for one-post-a-day & see how that suits us, shall we?

Update on the Funghi Scientist

For those of you who are trying your darndest to be loyal followers of the Funghi Scientist's blog, "Big Mushroom Lab," we have an update: The Funghi Scientist has several amazing & wonderous works in progress, including a lively explanation of boletes. But.

The Funghi Scientist & his editor are having disagreements about his copy & they have now reached what we will call an impasse. Both are headstrong & opinionated. Both have their own very compelling arguments for various formatting scenarios, font sizes & whatnot. The editor has opted to wait this out with hopes that the Funghi Scientist will soon forget about certain style elements & the deadlock will thus be broken.

The "official" word is that the Funghi Scientist is on hiatus, or sabbatical, or something. So for you insiders: mum's the word.

Stay tuned.

Hey! What could possibly be more interesting
than Alaskan Golds? Elves?