Mexico or Barnum & Bailey?

As is typical, I forgot to take the "before" photo of this great $2.99 Thrift Town wooden chair. It was a purplish brown. (The spindles still are.) It had a woven grass seat but apparantly my scissors took care of that. The next thing that should have been done was to give it a white base coat. Patience is not my middle name. A cache of acrylic paints was unearthed along with a 5/8" paint brush and this is what happened. The intention was for the vibrant colors of Mexico. To me, it looks like the crazy colors of a circus and I'm half afraid that clowns will start pouring out of it. Oh the horror! A cross hammered and cut out of an old steel drum by a Hatian artist now adorns the big yellow area. The chair will probably go through several changes before it looks "right".




This evening, an old plastic "milk carton" thingie was attached with lime green zip ties. But then I discovered the large disc would fit nicely atop the seat frame, which would hold the old aluminum pan filled with succulents as well as the cool tin rooster planter that my daughter gave me for my birthday. (It contains a cute orange pot with a dandy Haworthia...I think that's what it is.) Now I'm thinking that since the origional plan was to hang the chair on the wooden fence, if the "milk carton" thingie were turned on its side, it would not only support plants in the "seat" but would also provide a place to store small garden tools underneath.
However, it still looks like a circus chair to me. Any suggestions? 

names

The sweet doggie is Phoebe. She is a "foundling" and/or rescued dog. We think that she contains the genes of a Lab and a Dingo along with a smattering of kangaroo and cutting horse. she is not the Doberman that I was looking for but is, apparantly, the dog that the fates wanted me to have. She does need a Doberman playmate. Did I mention that I LOVE Doberman's? Pages could be written about the wonderful attributes that my last Dobie, Ruby, had. She was very special. She was also a rescue dog..from the Klamath Co. pound in fact. But more about her another time.
THIS is Peabody. Peabody just showed up one morning, honking from a branch high in a Sycamore tree. At that time we didn't know if she was a peaHEN or a young peaCOCK. Last year she laid eggs. We decided that she was a girl. ;>) Since there is no peacock in the neighborhood her eggs are duds. So she is currently incubating 3 fertile banty eggs. 

Peabody the peahen

Peabody has recently made nest #2, this time under a Redbud tree instead on top of the shed roof. Still, her eggs are not fertile due to a conspicuous lack of a peacock. Not that she hasn't been looking for one! She has been crossing a very busy street looking for a "guy" for the past 2 weeks. So, because I'm small of brain but big of heart, I traded her three peafowl eggs for three very fertile Bantum eggs. (aka "banty"..those cute little jungle fowl that keep the snails at bay and which provide the neighborhood with fresh eggs.) She raised a banty baby last year and did a very fine job of it. Sweetpea still has a tiny identity issue but is currently nesting on two stone eggs and a golf ball. (Chickens can over-run a place almost as quickly as rats.) It was hilarious watching a golf ball size chick follow its hulking pea fowl mama around and it was very interesting watching mama teach the youngster how to hunt for food, fly into bushes, and then up into the trees, and to avoid the banty roosters.

At any rate, this was the most enjoyable portion of the morning. There had earlier been an attack waged upon the passion vine, which was rather enjoyable in a twisted sort of way, and then the flooding of my laundry room, the cleaning up of which was not enjoyable at all. I am not really complaining. At least it wasn't a Katrina sort of flooding and I REALLY did NEED to clean under the washer and dryer. Goodness only knows when THAT was done last. So now I can go back to doing battle with the passion vine...pictures at 11:00. 

Phoebe and Maud

Maud got new duds today but needs a refill in her Margarita glass. There is no longer a ginormous bag of plastic grocery bags taking up space on my kitchen floor since they are now plumping up Maud, and Phoebe thinks its pretty novel to have such a quiet person in the yard. The marauding deer will, of course, totally ignore her. Dang!

There IS another fawn. It is older than Spot but definately this year's model. No wonder the hydrangeas are getting smaller and smaller. (Not to mention, the Phlox, the roses, the strawberries, the Rhaphiolepis and the water hibiscus).