Framed

Remember the glittery hyacinth bulbs we got for Christmas in 2020? Well, some of them are still surviving, although a few were dug up and carried away by squirrels. I planted four or five between some snapdragons in a planter on our front porch. I thought we'd enjoy the snapdragons over the summer, and then they'd die back and reveal the hyacinths the following spring -- but our winter has been so mild that the snapdragons are still thick as thieves and the hyacinths barely visible.

That's a tiny snail on that blossom above, in case you're wondering.

I learned something new from my commenters on yesterday's post. I had no idea that woodpeckers pound on loud surfaces to attract a mate. Thanks for that little bit of info! About a week ago I heard one pecking on a metal TV aerial down the street and wondered why on earth it would do such a thing. (There's no way even a bird with a tiny brain would mistake a TV aerial for a tree.) In fact it might have been the same bird.

Over the weekend I went to the frame shop and picked up our finished items. I'll show you how they turned out.

This is a painting on papyrus that we bought in Cairo a couple of years ago, largely out of a sense of obligation. It's been rolled up in a closet ever since and I figured, why not display it? Now that it's framed I think it looks pretty good.

This is the sampler made by Dave's grandmother when he was born. Apparently his sisters and cousins all got one too. Dave was not as enthusiastic about my reframing of this item as I'd hoped he would be. His response was, "You framed that?" But still -- we're going to hang it up somewhere because I spent money on it, goshdarnit.

And finally, here are Vivian's portraits of Olga.

I think everything came out really well. We haven't hung them yet because we're still trying to figure out what to put where.