Merry go round - Photo of interest

It's the last Friday of the month, so join us on our merry go round for a quick spin.  The merry go round is where a group of 11 artists/craftwomen link together around the world and tell you a little about their art and craft, through blogging on the same topic.


This month's topic is to choose a photo that interests us - either taken personally or by someone else and explain what attracts us to it.

The photo I've chosen was emailed to me this week by a friend, Janet and to me, it symbolizes "Hope". Here's the photo:

The story that came with the photo was that in January of this year, the weather was so cold in St. Louis, Missouri that bald eagles could not access fish in the river. This was because the temperature of the water was so cold that the fish had all gone to the bottom of the river and it was too deep for the birds to catch them.  The eages were seen flying over homes, looking for food to eat.

Some local residents decided to help them out so that they would survive the cold spell and so started feeding the eagles with fish.

When they started, there were just a handful of eagles, but more and more came and enjoyed their free meal.

The photo is so full of hope for me as it wasn't long ago that the Bald Eagle was an endangered species in the US.  It was 1967 that the Bald Eagle was officially named an endangered species in the whole of the US. In 2007 it finally came off the endangered species list.   If we hadn't done something then - and continued caring, like these locals did in January, no photo like this would have been possible.

I hope you'll take the time to see what photos other members of the merry go round selected by clicking on the links below.  Next month for our merry go round we'll be using these photos as inspiration to create something.   We all live in different places around the world, so time differences may impact when we all get our blog post up.

Samantha at Vintage is for lovers - http://www.vintageisforlovers.com/
Jen at Painted Fish Studio - http://paintedfishstudio.com/
Bethany at Dirksen Dabbles - http://www.dirksendabbles.com/
Laura at Blue Terracotta -  http://blueterracotta.com/
Monika at Red2White - http://red2white.wordpress.com/
Mitsy at ArtMind - http://artmind-etcetera.blogspot.com
Kim at Vilt a la Kim - http://viltalakim.com/blog/
Sara at Crafts of Texture - http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com
Mariana at Florcita - http://florcita.eu/wordpress/
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent - http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com
Ruth at Birdland Creations - http://insidetheartisan.blogspot.com

Or else you can click on the blog hop below.  If you are a merry go round participant, please add your link if it's not already included. You can then copy the code and put it on your blog post too.

Bird Signs - Migration with an Eagle

Time to go back to my "bird signs" book and cards this week.  Today, when it came to selecting a card - I actually selected two.  Both of them seemed to be asking to be picked and I didn't know what that meant, but chose both anyhow.

The first card I turned over was "Migration - Journey". 

Photo by krystian_o

The book says that choosing this card means I am ready to begin a new journey.  This trip may entail a physical journey or a spiritual journey to find your life's path or the road to inner knowing and spiritual growth.  The journey may appear long or short, expected or unexpected and I may not know about this journey until I choose the card.  I don't have a physical journey planned so ......

The book also says that the destination is not as important as the journey itself.  It suggests that I can ask a bird to accompany on my journey.....and so at this time, I turned over my second card.  This was the Eagle  - Freedom.

Photo by EDD07

With the eagle accompanying me on my journey, this means that my intuitive powers are at their peak and these powers can be used to find life's purpose.

Gosh, looks like both cards are suggesting I find my life's path and purpose.  Could be a busy time!  I'll let you know what happens with these cards in mind this week.

Top Ten wild birds

I've been thinking about the different birds I use in my jewelry, from Quentin quail .... to Clair de Loon ...... to Orlando the swan...., and wondering what other birds I should be trying. So I thought I'd come up with a list of what seems to me to be the most popular wild birds. The list is highly unscientific - just my thoughts based on what designs we see, photographs, news....a whole variety of things. Here are the top 10 - in no particular order

• penguin
• owl
• swan
• bald eagle
• northern cardinal
• blue jay
• bluebird
• woodpecker
• hummingbird
• flamingo

So what do you think? Have I missed out something obvious? What is your favorite?

What about my runners up: ostrich...kiwi....nightingale....magpie.....mockingbird.....pelicans... herons....Should they be on there? And what about Quentin??? What about a type of duck...


From the list I've made a penguin, a woodpecker, a hummingbird, an owl and a swan..... What next?

Bird tracks

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've made a bird tracks bracelet, similar to the animal tracks one for all those bird lover, birders, twitchers. This is more difficult to guess the tracks as birds are not as diverse in their feet as mammals - so no competition for this one!!!


The birds from left to right are as follows:

Northern Flicker; Raven; Snipe; Duck; Bald Eagle; Canada Goose; Wild Turkey; Great Blue Heron; Sandpiper.