April 30 We found Emkins! He's at home with his face stuffed in his food bowl not sure how much food he should have, he's not quite skin and bones but pretty close! G heard him howling around 1 pm, G was coming out to take pictures of me making beads.... pictures haven't been taken as G also broke the doorknob when he came back in the house for different footwear (so has gone off to the mainland for a new doorknob... this is the second doorknob that hasn't even lasted 6 months!)!
Emkins managed to get into the pile of lobster traps in the yard 'next door'. We found him in the middle trap in the bottom row against the fence had to move 9 traps to get at him, which is a lot harder than it sounds! G thinks he went in one end and was working his way up the row of traps... I can't really believe he spend 8 days there, so maybe he did go for a car ride last Sunday (April 22) and stopped there for a snack on his way home? The food we left on the deck was gone, so either a local stray or a sea gull had a good meal!
When I was in SJ last week I stopped for groceries and the parking lot was mostly missing... there was a huge garden center on one side and the middle of the lot still had a huge pile of dirty snow, didn't leave much room for parking! My daffodils are finally blooming and so far nobody is eating them!

April 29 Raining here in Freeport this morning, off the LL Bean to get an electronic rain gage... yes we really want to know how much rain we are getting! LL Bean is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week here, The store is slowly taking over the town! I hit Beadin Path yesterday... lots of fun pawing through all those beads! Heading north as soon as we get our rain gage! Hoping that Em will be waiting on the deck howling since the food we put out for him was likely eaten by some stray!
April 27 Cloudy here with a forecast of rain. Em hasn't come back... I'm busy remaking those 100 identical beads as the address that Paypal posted for the woman was an old address and Canada Post delivered the beads to that address, which was a valid address... beads may be on the slow boat back here, but she wants them now... and since they were delivered the insurance is gone....(So much for delivery confirmation, Express post etc...) During my discussions with CP it turns out that all they want for delivery is a valid address they are not required to look at the name on the envelope which explains all the junk you get in mailboxes these years! and you are only paying for tracking to the destination, it's just a regular no class envelope when it starts it's way back!
April 25 Emkins wandered away on Sunday morning and hasn't been seen since... I'm sure the neighbors are getting tired of me plowing through their raspberry canes yelling for him... He never misses a meal, he's not one to just sit beside his food bowl and look expectant either, he comes and sticks his claws into you and drags you into the kitchen....
As for the little glass object some form of lighting probably, Maybe the glass part of a candle holder although the hole doesn't seem right for that, the glass is 3/8 of an inch thick and the hole at the bottom (flared end is 15/16 of an inch too big for most candles... but way to small for an electric or gas fixture!)

April 22 I found this on the beach yesterday morning, I want to know what it is, please email me with any thoughts... I think it looks like something that you would put on the end of a drapery cord but it's awfully big and the hole at the 'neck' at the top is the same size as at the hole at the bottom! (So a knot would just pull through)>br>

I got 3 1 gallon paint pails of broken glass yesterday morning, we don't have enough wave action here to make it anything other than broken glass.... There's still lots down there!

April 21 Another sunny day.... the garbage is still on the beach... it was high tide when I wanted to go beach combing... will have to watch the water today! We scrounged a bunch of the bricks from the foundation of the last house fire yesterday (the house was built in 1867) .. I thought 140 year old bricks deserved to be recycled and not just buried! And yes we asked first! Just noticed it is low tide NOW si I'm off to play in the sea weed, think I'll wait til I come back to have my shower!

April 20 The sun is still shinning!!! I think all that's left on the beach is garbage... started on that yesterday will have to go down with a pail to get some of the glass... looks like it might be a nice day to go play down there! Yesterday I obviously mistook myself for a pin cushion... first I stuck myself with a brass glass tool... it came to a sharp pointy end I dropped it.. it fell point down and hit one of the holes in my crocs and embedded itself in the top of my foot.... and STUCK! much later I stuck a needle felting needle through my index finger on my left hand... it went in nicely but those needles are barbed... Today I will stay away from sharp objects... maybe I should just point out the broken glass to G and let him pick it up!

April 19 Sunny today!!!! Just noticed the mess I made of the new multi bon game, no wonder nobody saw it!
I notice a bunch of stuff on our intertidal zone yesterday morning... but of course by the time I got around to checking it out the tide had come in.... However since there was a 'flock' of salmon totes floating in the sea weed I thought I should go rescue them (think they are about 30 * 16 inches and 16" deep... plastic) I did roll up my pants but I waded in deeper than that... mmm the North Atlantic is so much fun to go wading in in April! Not quite the picture that comes to mind when you think of beach combing! I got two more this morning so the total count is 12 plus one old wooden lobster box, still need to go down and get the bottles and other garbage! The seaweed is about 8 -10 inches deep too so interesting walking! Most of the seaweed will leave as soon as the wind direction changes!



I borrowed this picture off of google images... my totes are much prettier colours than these green ones but unfortunately they didn't come complete with salmon!

April 18 Monday was a lovely day, the wind howled the rain came down in Horizontal walls and found a few new spots to sneak into the house... I was dumping buckets most of the day, and every two hours all night! The lawn has puddles all over it, usually it just gets soggy we have good drainage. Em doesn't like the weather so he's eating to compensate... he bit my foot this morning because I made the bed before I came downstairs to put food in his bowl! Today is still overcast and breezy, but the temps are so cold for this time of year! I want to see + 20 (70 F) not +4 (40 F)... and whatever it was that ate all my flowers last week better not show it's face when I'm around or it may end up in someones freezer! (Not mine I don't have a freezer... and my weapon of choice is a giant water pistol....., just what we need more water!)

April 16 The Noreaster hit last night sometime, so far all we've got is wind and rain.... Lots of both.... I spent all yesterday afternoon filing our income tax... so much fun... when I started at 2 pm G owed $1100 when I efiled at 6 he had a refund of $219!!! I however owed when I started and still owed when I was done! I think I should get a % of the $1300 I save him... In my dreams! I still have 4 free efiles left... any takers?

April 13 I think the weather today and last night was/is someone's idea of a really nasty Friday the 13th joke! It's now raining here so I don't see the 11 inches of snow that was forecast actually arriving, but there is some white slop on the ground from last night.


Three of my electroformed beads... the two darker ones were dipped in Liver of Sulpher, I think my solution was a bit strong as they ended up darker than I wanted! ...and if you were wondering what 100 identical beads looks like....


Think I'll hibernate in front of the torch today!

April 12 Today is still sort of SUNNY!!! That makes 3 days in a row! I escaped to the mainland yesterday, nice day for a ferry ride.


This years beads for "The Hope Bracelet Challenge" an American charity based in Colorado, The beads go to Ethiopia and are made into bracelets than come back to the US to be sold....
will try and round up my electroforming experiments today and see if they'll sit still long enough to have their pictures taken!

April 10 Today is SUNNY!!! Yesterdays highlite was walking to the mail box and after getting there remembering that Easter Monday is a Government holiday... so no mail! Then in the evening I tried to book a plane ticket. On Sunday the ticket was $394 (cdn), yesterday the same ticket was $598(cdn), I phoned the airline... my customer service rep stated " that the only fares they are aware of are those that are currently listed on their screens" She said she didn't know if there had been a seat sale or if there would be a seat sale.... I bought the ticket through Expedia and get too fly 30% farther for $258 US, of course I don't arrive until 11:00pm now either! Buying plane tickets used to be so easy, you phoned the airline or the travel agent and bought a ticket...seat sales were advertised so you knew when to buy the ticket...if you only wanted to go one way you threw out the return half, because a one way ticket cost a fortune!


April 9 Yesterday was sunny and cold but today the snow is once again drifting past the windows! I got an answer yesterday to "My Game" which I think gets the award for the most humorous answer I've ever received, that actually fits the clues!
Toilet water flushes clockwise.
As for beads I'm on the homestretch of an order for 100 identical beads (I did 400 last fall too...) The end is in site for this 100!

April 7 The snow is STILL drifting down past the windows..... Hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

April 6 Today is Good Friday, the snow is still drifting down past the windows.....


This is Ms. Buns wishing you all a Happy Easter & no she won't share her eggs with you... She is a very greedy little Easter Bunny! (She's made out of Lauscha Topaz!) She just looked at the picture on the web site and says that I have to take one of her surrounded by her new friends!



The approved picture! My electroformed bead snuck into it too! This is the bead that I electroformed yesterday! My first one, think I need to learn how to paint, or at least get a better quality paint brush! The class I took 13 months ago in Conneticut from Kate F-M including an electroforming demo, it's just taken me 13 months to get the equipment!


April 5 Looking out the window today you would think that it was the middle of winter! Lots of huge wet snowflakes, it's been snowing since about 6:30 am windy, yucky all round.... Enough is enough April fools was 4 days ago! I was going to go to Saint John today, but changed my mind when I saw the snow. I keep hearing these very loud crashes but it's just the snow thundering off the roof!

April 3 It started snowing around noon yesterday and still hasn't really stopped, at the moment it's all melted... Madeline has been added to my knitting felting page.
Knitting/Felting


April 2 Yesterday was sunny... I did manage to cut off last years hollyhock trunks and the rest of the dead wood on the lilies.... Wasn't really warm enough but the hollyhocks are already up 4 or 5 inches so thought I should get rid of last years 7 foot high trunks! April fools started with the fire truck going past at 1:38 problem was it went past every 15 or 20 minutes until 4:30 our house was between the fire and the water... The fire was the same family that had a total loss fire in Feb, this was the house next door to their original house that they were borrowing until their new house is built...., the front of their truck which I thought was well back got melted. Their new furniture had just been delivered earlier in the week too... Then too add to my lack of sleep my computer clock finally went onto day lite savings time... I could not figure out why I kept thinking it was so much later than it was....I finally clued in at 7:10 when I tried to watch a movie that was suppose to come on at 8 .. I was still adding the hour to the computer time... Madeline my needle felted mannequin is done (complete with a mole, multi coloured dreads and a tattoo) but this computer would not upload the pictures last night, will see if it wants to co-operate today!