Ruth

@teapotrabbit

I'm tired all the time. Huge geek. Frequently talking about sewing, fountain pens, gardening, and tea. She/her

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Ruth@teapotrabbit· 19d

Every time the Cal Fire planes start going overhead I think about dragging out a camera with a real telephoto, because I could get some really cool shots from my deck. That blodge is the same Lockheed C-130H tanker plane that flew directly overhead earlier, now heading home.

Photo of green trees and clear blue sky. There is a vaguely plane-shaped smudge in the sky.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· 27d

Update:

The view inside a chicken coop, where a grey hen is extremely fluffed up and two chicks are sticking close to her while peering at the camera.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· 28d

Meet Zigzag and Chansey, who will become Thunder’s new babies tonight. Thunder is my hen that went broody. Since we don’t have a rooster the eggs she is so determinedly sitting on will never hatch, so we’re trying the old trick where you put chicks under a broody hen & hope she adopts them.

Two day-old chicks sitting on wood shavings. They are very small and fluffy. The chick on the left is darker brown-black on top. The chick on the right is lighter and more yellow.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Jun 15

OMG BOBCAT IN MY GARDEN!!!!!!!! 😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩 I heard an EXPLOSION of chicken displeasure and got to the window in time to see the bobcat go over the top of the garden fence to check the chickens out. The chickens are very displeased and wish to speak to the management, but all safe.

Photo of a rocky hillside with a fenced in garden to the right and a wire-mesh enclosed chicken run to the left. There is a light brown bobcat visible in the garden, peering hopefully into the chicken run.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Jun 13

Ma’am. Ma’am that is not where you are supposed to lay eggs.

Portrait of a grey-brown chicken with impressive red wattles and comb peering around the corner of the coop door. She is in the process of laying an egg in the most obnoxious to reach corner of the coop.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· May 27

What is going ON with these people’s clothes o_O

Ruth@teapotrabbit· May 21

Look at this cool moth I just found! iNaturalist suggests it’s a Bilobed Looper Moth, which seems about right going by the other photos.

A cool brown moth on dirty window. The moth is head-down. It is mostly dark brown and black, with wavy brown bits around the head and a striking white blobby patch on its wings. It looks like it is mimicking dead wood or leaves.

The same moth, shot from below so you can see its pointy little face.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· May 5

Welp, the fickle printer gods heard me and cursed me to have my wish granted 🤣 Time to wash my print plate and try again.

Photo of a 3D printer showing the print plate strewn with a mess of tangled filament bits. The print did not adhere to the print plate correctly and the printer made plastic spaghetti.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 29

It’s hard to photograph soup but believe me, this soup was SO GOOD. Beef broth with egg flowers and spinach (from my mama’s garden!), spicy pork, and sizzling rice. Seriously delicious. (And I made that bowl!)

A bowl of soup on a multicolored place mat. The soup has green vegetables and a pile of brown meat in the middle. Golden brown crispy rice clusters surround the meat. The soup bowl has drippy sage green glaze around the edge and pale brown glaze in the middle.

Closeup of pork and crispy rice bits in the middle of the soup.

Photo of the broth in the soup pot; because the egg flowers and spinach looked pretty.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 19

It had been forty-five minutes since I took the first photos. The big guys have changed location slightly but are still sunbathing together.

Two big fat fence lizards, now sunbathing on a different bit of the deck. The are facing each other now.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 19

When I walked by again later, the big chonkers were snuggling?!? Seriously the chillest I have ever seen fence lizards when in close company.

The same deck and the same two big fat fence lizards. This time they are roughly perpendicular, with one resting its head on the other’s midsection. They are still pancaked.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 19

There are four lizards in this photo.

Photo of a wooden deck. The two fence lizards from the previous photo are still hanging out, but in this wider shot you can see two more smaller lizards also sunbathing. The smaller ones are difficult to see.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 19

The lizards are pancaked. Usually when I see fence lizards together they’re chasing each other so it was pretty fun to see them just chilling like this.

Photo of two western fence lizards sunbathing on a wooden deck. They have made themselves as flat as possible, presumably to maximize sun absorption. They look a little like someone gently flattened them.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 12

Why print a boat or something else boring to make sure everything is working when you can print a minuscule howling coyote.

A tiny figure of a seated coyote with its head thrown back, howling. The figure was 3D printed in shimmery black filament and is held in the palm of a hand. It is very small.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 10

I love it when one looks at ancient ceramics and it’s identical to something we use today, like this thousand year old flower pot that would be at home in any garden center. (What en excellent octopus, by the way.)

A flower pot in a museum display case. The flower pot is maroon on the outside and blue on the inside, with a six-sided shape. It looks like something you would find in a vaguely Asian upscale garden center.

Museum display tag that reads:
[Chinese text I cant’t transcribe]
Six-petal flower pot with five drainage holes
Approx. 1100-1127
China; Yuxian, Henan province
Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)
Stoneware with glaze (Jun ware)
The Avery Brundage Collection, B6OP18+

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 8

We got a full rainbow this morning! 🤩 this was very exciting. There was even a bit of a second arc! We almost never see rainbows from our house because of the angle of the sun, so to get a full one like this was extra special.

The view out over a valley. The sky is blue with thin clouds, and a full rainbow arcs across it. There is a partial second rainbow on the right.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 8

So many flowers!

Photo of an extremely enthusiastic clump of Douglas irises. Purple flowers grow in profusion.

Another shot of enthusiastic irises, this time yellow, with a second clump of purple in the background.

Closeup of beautiful purple iris flowers.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 5

And a western swallowtail butterfly!

A large yellow and black striped swallowtail butterfly on a lilac bush, its wings open wide.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 5

We have been visited by a California pipevine swallowtail! 🤩

A black swallowtail butterfly visiting lilac flowers. It has some yellowish spots along the edges of its wings and metallic teal patches on its hind wings.

Another shot of the same black swallowtail, wings now folded, showing a bit of its underwings.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Apr 4

Ended up with two bowls of roughly the same size so I decorated them for the kids. Unfortunately the studio’s coral glaze is not pink enough and daughter told me she hated it. Alas. Maybe I should let her throw it off the porch 🤪

Two ceramic bowls. The insides are glazed in a speckled whitish-tan glaze and there is sage green glaze along their rims. The bowl on the left has blue stripes dripping down from the rim and the bowl on the right has pinkish-brown stripes dripping down from the rim.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Mar 31

Down at the end of the orchard there is a sea of forget me nots

An old apple tree surrounded by pale forget me nots. It the background there are tall narrow fir trees.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Mar 31

I was getting worried because usually I see more of our native bumblebees around the apple blossoms, but this year it seemed to be only honey bees. And then I saw this absolute unit of a bumblefriend, bumbling about the apple blossoms with great determination.

A branch covered in clusters of apple blossoms with a HUGE black and yellow bumblebee in the cluster about halfway up the branch.

The same bee and branch from the previous photo, from a slightly different angle. The bumblebee is hovering.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Mar 31

Apple blossoms! And bees!

A spray of apple blossoms with a honeybee busy at work.

A half-open apple blossom surrounded by a halo of pink buds and fresh green leaves.

A lush spray of white apple blossoms and pink buds.

A cluster of apple blossoms with a honey bee with ENORMOUS pollen baskets.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Mar 31

My father cleared out around my favorite apple tree! Everything year for close to a decade I’ve been thinking “man I really need to get out here and get rid of the blackberries and poison oak,” but I never did 😅 Now you can really see that it’s an old tree that fell over & re-rooted!

An old apple tree that fell over long ago. It is still growing, though rather more horizontally now. The dirt around it is churned up from using a tractor to drag out the vines that were choking the tree.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Mar 31

I missed peak blossom time in the orchard but it is still a magical place.

Photo of an old apple orchard, looking down the rows of old trees. Everything is green.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Mar 29

Went to my local No Kings protest today, which included a giant acorn woodpecker flying above the crowd (why? No idea) and a huge cat puppet with a “King of Clowns” crown. Big crowd, with speakers and music and a generally festive feeling.

A giant acorn woodpecker puppet “flying” (being carried) over a crowd of protestors. There are Palestinian flags and American flags flying around it. Someone holds a sign reading “are we great yet? ‘cause I just feel embarrassed”

A huge cat marionette wearing a suit with a crown that says “king of clowns” surrounded by protestors carrying signs. The puppet is about twice as tall as the surrounding people.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Mar 21

B3 also makes a giant mess and stained my hands XD

Awkward photo of the side of my hand, showing where it has been stained orange.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Mar 21

Did ceramics this morning. Glazed two bowls, trimmed the nicest bowl from my last session & ruined it (SIL is going to turn it into a planter,) decided two more bowls from last time were two wonky to save, and then threw three new bowls. A mixed bag of a day.

Bottom side of a thrown ceramic bowl partway through being trimmed. There is a hole all the way through the bowl.

Three freshly thrown bowls of dark brown clay lined up on a table, with a ceramic studio and half-used bags of clay behind them.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Mar 20

I have acquired a NEMESIS BIRD. I keep hearing the blasted creature but it’s never loud enough for Merlin to ID it. If there are any birders out there familiar with nightcalling birds of Northern California, you can hear it at around the 7 and 14 second mark in this video.

Ruth@teapotrabbit· Mar 16

The magnolia syrup is done! It is interesting - gingery, floral, and a bit plant-y. The syrup turned out pretty watery, which I think is because the water in the petals diluted the 1:1 sugar syrup in which the recipe had me steep the petals.