Ladybug, Ladybird, don't fly away!My decision to write about Alice, Artist, Goddess of Nature has made my blog so much more fun for me! And as Alice is so prolific it has given me a ton of material to write about.

Every year Alice entrusts me with a nest of baby ladybugs (in England these insects are called ladybirds which I like a lot more). They literally crawl out of the woodwork near the window in my office and cling precariously to the screen.

(I wondered what that strange noise was, it's the sound of rain falling on my roof... yippeeeeeeee!)

I have to get my ladybug catcher... an old prescription bottle... coax them into the bottle, and release them on a hibiscus plant on the deck. Some fly off immediately. But some stay around for days as there is a veritable feast of aphids (which I believe they eat) on the flowers.

Above is a photo of one of those ladies who chose to hang around for a while... along with a visiting cricket.

Of course, ladybugs are a symbol of good luck, so I feel especially lucky to be in charge of these beautiful little creatures. Did you know their red coloring actually scares off predators?

If memory serves me, the ladybugs usually arrive in the spring. But here they are in January. There were only about a dozen over a period of several days, whereas in the spring I have to transport that many in a day over a week. So perhaps this was just a trial run.

(photo copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Alice Paints the Sky

I was going to start a new blog but I decided it was really part of this one. I am a stalker, yes, I have come out of the closet to admit it. No, this isn't like when the original Star Trek first hit TV and my friend and I discovered Leonard Nimoy lived in our neighborhood and we sat outside his house for hours and hours and hours evening after evening after evening waiting for just a glimpse of those pointy ears in the window... (Of course, I was just in diapers then and had to crawl there on my hands and knees). Oh, am I really admitting this, yes, I must come clean so I can move on with my life!

Okay, so now I stalk the Goddess of Nature. Or more particularly, her artwork. I can't reveal her real name as that would be an invasion of privacy. She has been known by various pseudonyms throughout the eons of her existence. I am going to call her Alice, after an aunt. I don't why this struck me as appropriate, especially as my aunt changed her name decades ago for reasons I don't understand. But I just like the idea of the Goddess of Nature being named Alice. Her business card will now read Alice, Artist, Goddess of Nature. Yes, that sounds good!

So what artwork does Alice have to show us today? Of course, you've already seen it... the moon over Culver City. I'm grateful to Alice and the universe for my roof deck. The night after the full moon the sky was really spectacular. I was out on the deck about 8:00pm. It was like somebody turned on all the Christmas lights in the sky, the stars were so bright. Then from the northwest I saw a line of planes coming into LAX all heading towards the moon like moths to a flame. I could have grabbed my camera and shot a movie but it wouldn't have been the same. But it will live in my mind, and maybe some day, a painting?

(Photo copyright roslyn m wilkins)