Link-O-Rama

Drone disguised as hummingbird captures incredible footage of monarch butterfly swarm.

Yes, giant technicolor squirrels actually roam the forests of southern India.

Major beer company begins using biodegradable 6-pack rings that feed fish.

Impossibly tiny doodles fill sketchbook pages with surreal optical illusions.

Japanese artist transforms old Amazon cardboard boxes into amazing sculptures.

It’s like a Little Free Library, but there’s art inside. People are flocking to it, tiny art in hand.

A shift in American family values is fueling estrangement.

How a former neo-Nazi makes amends for the past.

Watch a rare film featuring Monet, Renoir, Rodin, and Degas.

How Norway turns criminals into good neighbors.

Meet the woman who is a paid professional panda sitter.

Link-O-Rama

These infrared images show just how alive butterflies’ wings are.

Seven reasons why I’m a Christian against abortion who doesn’t vote pro-life.

10 university art classes you can take for free online.

Free patterns showing you how you can crochet your own feather-shaped bookmarks.

Everyday things with hidden features we didn’t know the purpose of.

The wonderful 3D diorama art of old View-Master reels.

You can now download over 300,000 books from the New York Public Library for free.

Remembering the class that actually mattered in the long run: typing class.

Hear the only playable Stradivarius guitar left in the world: The Sabionari made in 1679.

This is what English sounded like over 500 years ago.

Guggenheim Museum releases over 200 modern art books online for free.

Link-O-Rama

Photographer shoots an epic battle between a fox and an eagle over a rabbit.

FDR proposed a second Bill of Rights, including a decent job, education, and health care.

Transform an old log into a DIY backyard planter.

Funny advertisement on vehicles fails.

Rare portraits immortalize Siberia’s Indigenous people in danger of extinction.

The car cassette adapter was an unsung hero at the dawn of the digital age.

The kind of Christian I refuse to be.

250 Amish men lift barn with their bare hands and carry it across Ohio farm to its new spot.

All it took to clean up this beach was a fish sculpture named Goby.

Entire alphabet found of the wing patterns of butterflies.

Walking in two worlds: Canada’s “two-spirit” doctor guides trans teenagers.

The Drawings of Summer Day Six: Butterflies

For this latest drawing in my Drawings of Summer series I decided to draw a butterfly because they are among the things that are synonymous with summer. I found this free drawing tutorial on WikiHow that shows two different methods of drawing a butterfly. I couldn’t decide which method to use so I decided to draw two butterflies using each method. Here’s the result.

Having used both methods, I can’t really say which one was better. I found both to be easy to follow and they basically result in different patterns on butterfly wings.

Tye-Dye T-Shirt Workshop, July 6, 2019

A couple of days after the Fourth of July holiday I headed over to a tye-dye workshop that was held at The Space, a makerspace located inside of Beltway Plaza in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Everyone poured dye over t-shirts that were bound in rubber bands.

Once the dyeing process was finished, the shirts were put inside of plastic bags where they would be kept for 24 hours.

While I was there I took this shot of these newly created toy figurines that someone made. That person was obviously inspired by Forky and Knifey from Toy Story 4.

The following day I unwrapped my t-shirt and washed it in the washing machine. I also made my own addition. I found this really cool glitter t-shirt transfer featuring butterflies that I found at Jo-Ann’s Fabrics & Crafts. I thought it would be cool to add that to my t-shirt. Here is what the front of the t-shirt now looks like after being dyed then having the transfer ironed on.

Here’s a close-up of the transfer as set against the the-dyed background.

Here’s the back of the t-shirt.

And here’s me modeling that shirt. I really loved the results.

Lit House on Grant Street in Takoma Park, Maryland, March 7, 2019

One night when I was returning to my car after working at my day job I noticed this house had its lights on.

At first I thought that the people living in that house had simply never gotten around to taking down the Christmas lights until I got a closer look at it.

Upon closer inspection I realized that the house didn’t have Christmas images on the outside.

The house was decked out with butterflies (complete with animated wings) and a dragonfly.

Topping that display was an owl that was located outside of what looks like the attic of the house.

I have to admit that display is different. It’s also seasonal since spring is starting to arrive.

Greenbelt Labor Day Parade and the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival, September 7, 2015

Last year I participated in the annual Greenbelt Labor Day Parade for the first time and I still remembered that it was a very hot and humid day. I did it on behalf of the Greenbelt Cooperative Initiative, which is trying to start a few worker-owned cooperatives. (At the time I was tasked with potentially starting a thrift store. When I had problems with finding affordable space, the group suggested that I try running a flea market instead. I not only found difficulty with finding an open space that people can easily access by car or bike or walking, but I would’ve had to deal with two layers of bureaucracy–mainly filling out tons of paperwork on both the local and county levels. I was working on my own to begin with and starting a weekly flea market was way too daunting a task to do alone. Plus I’m dealing with other issues in my life so I decided to resign.)

So this year I didn’t have any parade-related responsibilities. There were a few groups who invited me to march with them but I ended up declining because the memories of the high heat and high humidity were still too fresh in my mind. So this year I brought a folding chair to the parade route and set it up in a shaded area. It wasn’t too bad in the shade at first but, by the end of the parade, the heat had shot up (it ultimately climbed to the high 80’s) so I was very happy that I didn’t participate this year.

The parade consisted of different types of participants. There’s, Solange Hess, who was named as this year’s Greenbelt’s Outstanding Citizen.

There are the police, firefighters, and military units (including ROTC). Some of them march carrying flags, some march playing musical instruments (like bagpipes), and some ride in the latest vehicles.

Then there were the beauty pageant winners. Not only were there people from the Miss Greenbelt pageant but there were also others from another pageant that took place in nearby College Park.

Then there are the various local businesses and community groups, such as the Greenbelt Elementary School PTA.

Greenbelt chapter of the Toastmasters.

Greenbelt Animal Control.

Local Girl Scouts troop.

Local Cub Scouts troop.

Greenbelt Boys and Girls Club.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club.

The Greenbelt Interfaith Leaders Association.

The Mishkan Torah congregation.

Radio Communications.

The New Deal Cafe, which is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The Greenbelt Theater and the Greenbelt Museum marched together.

The Greenbelt Food Bank.

The Greenbelt Arts Center

Wells Ice Rink, located in nearby College Park.

Members of the Greenbelt Climate Action Network (GCAN) and the Chesapeake Education, Arts, and Research Society (CHEARS) dressed up as butterflies and bees in order to raise awareness on the importance of pollinators. Other participants held signs announcing the various programs that GCAN and CHEARS run on a regular basis, such as the Greenbelt Time Bank, the Reel and Meal movie series, and various recycling programs.

There were even a fleet of electric cars in the parade, who were there to demonstrate green transportation.

There was a robot demonstration by members of the Eleanor Roosevelt High School Robotics Club.

Makerspace 125 had a float shaped like a steam engine in order to show its commitment to the STEAM movement.

St. George’s Episcopal Church of Glenn Dale, Maryland marched in the parade.

There was an anti-abortion group.

The local anti-poverty activist group RESULTS participated.

The Communication Workers of America made a statement about its ongoing negotiations with Verizon.

The National Park Service participated.

Even the local Sunoco gas station participated.

The local realtors, Town Center Realty & Associates, Inc.

Then there were the various performers who were intent on putting on a good show all along the parade route.

Since next year is an election year, the candidates running for public office were out in full force. There was Donna Edwards, who is running for Senator.

There was Chris Van Hollen, who is also running for Senator.

There was Paul Pinsky’s re-election campaign as Maryland State Senator.

There’s Brian Frosh, who’s running for Maryland State Attorney General.

There’s U.S. Congressman Steny Hoyer, who’s running for re-election.

There’s Congressman Hoyer’s rival, Kristin Beck, who hopes to unseat him in the Democratic Primaries next year.

There’s Maryland House Delegate Anne Healey, who’s running for re-election.

There’s Maryland House Delegate Alonzo T. Washington, who’s also running for re-election.

There’s Sydney J. Harrison, who’s running for re-election to the Prince George’s County’s Clerk of the Circuit Court.

There’s Angela Alsobrooks, who’s running for re-election as State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County.

There’s Todd M. Turner, who’s running for re-election to the Prince George’s County Council.

This trio of cars signified the end of the Greenbelt Labor Day Parade.

Once the parade ended at noon, the last day of the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival started. I hung around the festival grounds after the parade ended because I needed to pick up my watercolor that I submitted to the Art Show but I had to wait until that show formally ended at 4 p.m. So I basically ate lunch, did some web surfing with the laptop that I brought with me, and uploaded a bunch of photos on my various social media account. A craft show was held on that final day so I browsed that as well while I took these photos.

Butterfly Exhibit, Brookside Gardens, Wheaton, Maryland, July 25, 2015

Recently I went with members of the Women’s Group at my church on an early Saturday morning outing to the Wings of Fancy butterfly exhibit at Brookside Gardens. This exhibit is very popular and, on top of it, Brookside Gardens is currently renovating its parking lots so there is less parking than before. So we decided to meet in the parking lot at church then carpool over to Wheaton. It was a good thing too because what little parking exists began to fill up so the drivers (we rode in two separate cars) ended up dropping all of us off at the front entrance to the exhibit while we waited for the drivers to find parking further away then make the relatively long walk to the entrance.

I once went to a butterfly exhibit with my then-husband and late mother-in-law at the Botanical Gardens in Tempe, Arizona a few years earlier. I found the Brookside Gardens exhibit to be quite similar in structure to the one in Tempe but I still enjoyed it anyway because it’s such a photographer’s paradise. (I saw lots of people with cameras when I was there.) There was a special $8 admission fee for adults but I found it to be quite worth it because of all the butterflies that I was able to shoot with my smartphone camera.

The area leading to the front entrance had a butterfly garden planted, which included all kinds of colorful flowers in full bloom.

The next two photos show the arch leading to the front entrance to the exhibit.

We eventually reached a large greenhouse. Outside the entrance there was an exhibit featuring live caterpillars who were busy eating the leaves of the plants they were crawling on.

Past the caterpillar exhibit there were the front doors with a plastic curtain that one had to walk through. (The other butterfly exhibit in Tempe also had plastic curtains placed in all of the doors.) Once you enter, you get to see butterflies literally flying and landing everywhere.

One had to be really careful while viewing the butterflies themselves since they tended to land everywhere because it would’ve been so easy to accidentally step on one or sit down and squash one on your behind. Aside from that, it was really such a lovely display of butterflies landing on blooming flowers that provided lots of pretty pictures.

Some butterflies preferred to feed off of overripe fruit instead of flowers so there were plates full of fruit to accommodate them.

There was a glass enclosure full of chrysalises that had real caterpillars making the metamorphosis into butterflies.

During my visit there was a butterfly that was newly emerged from a chrysalis but its wings were still folded up. A volunteer said that it takes several hours before a newly emerged butterfly can even muster the strength to start flapping its wings. That butterfly will eventually join the others in the greenhouse.

There were plenty of places where people could sit and just admire the scenery (as long as you carefully look at your seat to make sure a butterfly isn’t resting there). There was one bench that was shaped like a butterfly.

When it was time for us to leave, we had to exit through another set of doors that also had plastic curtains that we had to walk through. Then there was another enclosed checkpoint with two mirrors where we could check ourselves to make sure that there were no butterflies clinging to us before going out the last exit door into the outside world.