Happy Mother's Day Weekend

Hope your weekend is filled with special events that leave a rosy impression on your heart.

google image Cezanne Rose, Ideezine layout

Western Scrub-Jay...oh how cute!

The Western Scrub Jay is a species of scrub jay native to western North America. It ranges from southern Washington to central Texas and central Mexico.

The Western Scrub Jay is nonmigratory and can be found in urban areas, where it can become tame and will come to bird feeders.

In recent years, the California Scrub Jay has expanded its range into the Puget Sound region of Washington.

Description: The Western Scrub Jay is medium-sized, 27-31 cm (11.5 in) in length, with a 39 cm (15 in) wingspan, and about 80g in weight.  Coastal Pacific birds tend to be brighter in coloration than those of the interior, but all patterned in blue, white and gray.  This species has a blue head, wings, and tail, a gray-brown back, and grayish underparts. The throat is whitish with a blue neckline. Their call sound is described as "harsh and scratchy".

Every Spring I experience Western Scrub Jays in my backyard and have counted 10 at once. They like to play and get close to you, (in my experience), especially when your day is dedicated to gardening.  They'll fly low under my patio cover and land close to me and watch as I trim, rake, and sweep outside.

Habitat: Scrub Jays inhabit areas of low scrub such as pinon-juniper forests, oak woods, edges of mixed evergreen forests and sometimes mesquite bosques. The coastal population also inhabits suburban gardens. They're very common west of the Rocky Mountains, and can be found in scrub-brush, boreal forests, temperate forests, coastal regions, and suburban areas.

Foraging: Scrub Jays usually forage in pairs, family groups, or small non-kin groups, outside of the breeding season. They feed on small animals, such as frogs an lizards, eggs and young of other birds, insects, and (in winter) grains, nuts, and berries.  They can be aggressive towards other birds, for example, they have been known to steal hoarded acorns from Acorn Woodpecker granary trees. They also eat fruit and vegetables growing in your backyard gardens.

Food storing: Scrub Jays exploit ephemeral surpluses by storing food in scattered caches within their territories. They rely on highly accurate and complex memories to recover the hidden caches, often after long periods of time. They also:

• Plan ahead to store food
• Accurate observational spatial memories
• Strategies to reduce risk of food theft
• Mischievous streak, not above theft
• Secretive about food cache locations

Intelligence: Research has suggested that Scrub Jays are among the most intelligent of animals. Scrub Jays are the only non-primate shown to plan ahead for the future, which was previously thought of as a uniquely human trait....I thought so! 

Studies have shown that they can remember locations of over 200 food caches, as well as food item in each cache and its rate of decay. They also summon others to screech over the body of a dead jay.  The birds' cacophonous (screeching sounds) "funerals" can last for up to half an hour.

Nesting: The chicks start off covered in gray. The older they get, the more blue covers them. Chicks tend to have a red crest upon their heads that resembles a comb and will lose its crest at day seven. Nests are built low in trees or bushes, above the ground, primarily by the female, while the male guards her efforts.

Nests are sturdy, constructed on a platform of twigs with moss and dry grasses lined with fine roots and hair. They lay eggs (four to six) from March through July.   Shell color variations: pale green with irregular olive-colored spots or markings, and pale grayish white to green with a reddish-brow.  The female incubates the eggs for about 16 days, the young leave the nest about 18 days after hatching.

Life span: The life span of wild Western Scrub Jays is approximately 9 years.  The oldest known Western Scrub Jay was found in Castasic, CA in 1991 and raised in captivity. "Aaron" lived to be 19 years, 8 months old...WOW!

Scrub jays are a joy to watch and they're very cleaver if you get a chance to observe them you'll see just how smart they really are, especially, when a cat  is present.  They tease, play, and chase them with the confidence rarely noticed in our fine feathered friends.

Have you seen a Western Scrub Jay in action?


google images, wiki

Spring Cleaning Your Computers

It's Spring cleaning time again and there are numerous tips online to help you be efficient and not miss a spot for areas of our homes, garages, offices, and cars. Just finished my spring cleaning inside...next up the garden.  Maybe you haven't thought about it much but...Don't forget about your computers and smartphones!

Here's a link to learn more. Our computers get a lot of use and at times abuse. Spring is a great time to give back to the devices that partner with us daily. We never think about the needs of our computer devices until they crash.

• Back ups (photos, files, data)
• Update operating system
• Antivirus software
• Change passwords
• Upgrade memory
• Soft clean and gentle dry keyboards and screens

Smartphone care is just as critical and follows some of the same guidelines as a laptop or desktop.

• Do system backups and syncing on your computer
• Clear out/delete unwanted photos, apps, data and music
• Updating contacts as well as your ICE (In Case of Emergency contacts)
• Wipe down screen and cover

Time is never wasted when you take care of the devices that take care of so much of the data we live with and rely on all the time. So show some appreciation for your tools in life and assist them in living longer as well. Stand back, admire the shine, and feel the excitement of being organized.

Do you think about Spring cleaning your devices?

Have you done it before?

google images, checklist by Leader-Post

Happy Springtime...Happy Easter!

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Art History as a Hunting Guide for Art

As a designer and art history enthusiast I enjoy the "hunt" for the right art piece or painting. 

Art has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts:

genre
design 
format and
style

Which includes the "major" arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as the "minor" arts of:

ceramics
furniture and
decorative objects

Art History aka (History of Art) encompasses several methods of studying the  visual arts in common usage referring to works of art and architecture.  Aspects of the discipline overlap. 

As a discipline, art history is distinguished from art criticism, which is concerned with establishing a relative artistic value upon individual works with respect to others of comparable style, or sanctioning an entire style or movement; and art theory or "philosophy of art", which is concerned with fundamental nature of art.

One branch of this area of study is aesthetics, which includes investigating the enigma of there sublime and determining the essence of beauty.  Art history is not only a biographical endeavor.  Art historians often root their studies in the scrutiny of individual objects.  They thus attempt to answer in the historically specific ways, questions such as: 

What are key features of this style?

What meaning did this object convey?

How does it function visually? 

Did the artist meet their goals well?

What symbols are involved?

Does it function discursively? 

Media and digital technology introduced possibilities of visual, spatial and      experiential analyses. The reverent forms, including virtual environments, augmented environments, situated media, and networked media.  

Which are active development and promise to include qualitative approaches that can emphasize narrative, dramatic, emotional and ludic characteristics of history and art.

The study of visual art as described, can be a practice that involves  understanding context, form, and social significance. With a little bit of know-how "hunting" down some great art is as simple: 

following a bit of art history
distinguish what resonates with you, (artist) and
having fun with it!

So now you can relax and enjoy some hunting and gathering for great art and   feel totally equipped to do so.

Do you do any art research?

Does it help you to figure out what you really want from art before you purchase it?

Google image, wiki

Signs of Spring...

Have you seen signs of Spring in your area? 

Spring is a life for both plants and animals being born. Spring is one of the four conventional temperate seasons, that follows winter and before summer.  Springs timing varies according to local climate, cultures and customs. 

At the spring equinox, days are close to 12 hours long with day length increasing as the season progresses.  Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and also to ideas:

rebirth
rejuvenation
renewal
resurrection and 
regrowth

Spring is also a time of clearing out living spaces (home and garden) cleaning: rooms, closets, cabinets, garages, gardens.  Rejuvenate to live lighter and feel open to "more good" with less clutter, as I like to say,...Stay tuned...Spring is just around the corner!

Do you plan (in tune with nature) to "Spring" clean and clear out items every year?

google image of snowbell

Spring Forward!

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