Ode to a Smell

I was going to call this post "Ode to an Odor,"  but I thought that sounded a little obvious.  What do you think?

Anyway, yesterday, I went to work on a Saturday.  >>>>GASP<<< I know.  I never do this.  But I did.  Several reasons.  It was Jordan's birthday on Friday, and he really wanted to go shooting.  I like to go shooting, too, but when Jordan and I go together with Bob, it becomes an argument with who wants to shoot which gun next, and I didn't feel it was worth it (they had a good time without me, and when I got home late in the afternoon, they had guns taken apart and were happily cleaning them together as a necessary male bonding ritual).  I love my menfolk!

Another reason I wanted to go to work is because lots of people in the area have bugged me about not being open on Saturday.  So I was.  But I guess they weren't bugging me because they wanted to actually stop in and see me, because, for the most part, I was alone.  That was okay, because of my next reason for really wanting to go to work.

Listen to me:  "really wanting to go to work."  Those words never used to appear in my vocabulary, at least not in that exact order. But being creative is so much fun!!!  I am having so much fun with copper these days.  I made Bob and Jordan each a bracelet for Father's Day and Birthday, respectively, and I think they turned out neat.

Jordan's and Bob's

I now have a big selection of pendants, brooches, rings, earrings,

some of the latest 

and my current personal favorite: Doodads!  I want to start to do something that could be, but doesn't have to be, jewelry.  My first attempt at that were to make Hummingbees.

I think they're much cuter in person

  They are a cross (nicest possible combination of the two) between, of course, a bee and a hummingbird.  What are they good for?  Smiles...that's it.  They can just sit on their perch, or perch on your hand, and make you a little happier than before you had a Hummingbee.  That's all.

Saturday, I was inspired to make Fishies.

well....I think they are cute

I had these assorted gemstone beads that didn't match up with anything or each other, but they make cute fish.  So, what are they good for?  I really don't know. I just know from personal experience that creative people are happy people, so by the time I had strung up 16 or so Fishies,

there's a song about little fishies, but I can't remember it

I was a bunch more happy.  Easily amused am I.  Never doubt it.

The third reason I wanted to go to work on Saturday was because the weather was BEEOOTEEFULL.  I rolled down my window and leaned my head out and took pics and SMELLED the smells.  I don't know if it is the buttercups,

or the daisies

or the lupines

or what that makes it smell so good around here.  It's a subtle smell, but it is lovely.  I would like it for my cologne.  Anyway, it would just have to smell good around here, with as many flowers as there are blooming like crazy everywhere.  Lately, the biggies are the ones I said, plus more, including lots of hawkweed (both nice native yellow and naughty invasive but beautiful orange stuff),

good morning, young sir

dewy, dewy, dew

not invasive

columbine

and birdsfoot trefoil,

which makes the most delicious honey I've ever tasted (thanks to our few-miles-away neighbor, Leslie McBean). There are other things blooming, too, depending on where you are, like blackberry

bushes teasing about a late summer haul of berries to come, and boggy plants like wild calla lilies and irises.

Of course, even with all this beauty, I never stop looking for BIRDS.  The bubbly bobolinks continue,

and savannah sparrows are feeding babies lots of yumminess (if you are a bird).

Bluebirds are rarer, but pop up here and there,

kingbirds survey their territory and guard it from any intruder (and they can back up that claim in a second, I've seen them fight off crows and eagles and hawks viciously).

not a kingbird...do you have a guess?

Anyway, with a drive like that to and from work, who wouldn't want to go?

I already have plans to go to work next Saturday!  It's the first annual Copperfest in Ontonagon, and just maybe there could be a few people who feel the need to leave town with some copper jewelry to commemorate their day.  Or a Hummingbee.  Who knows.  I know where they can find one.

picture by Audrey J.

Happy almost-officially-summer to you!