You Ain't Seen Scary 'til You've Seen Mad Llamas.

I think I've mentioned that we have cows occasionally. In fact, the punks ate my strawberries the last time that they were wandering through our yard. Cows seem to want try everything -- tree leaves, bramble stalks, and yes, strawberries. ((Sighs.)) But hey, strawberries are tenacious, and they're starting to come back, but I suspect I won't get fruit this year.

We also have a rather good sized pack of llamas that live in the field with the cows. We don't see them often, as that field is VERY VERY LARGE, but they come be periodically, I suspect to tour the territory.

They've never been friendly beasties. The pack leader is very quick to make motions that suggest power spitting if I don't stay very clear of the fence when we go walking. But lately? Lately he's been in a mood. He charges the fence no matter how far we are from it when it spots us. And hisses and stomps and throws his head around. And ... damn, but he's a scary bugger! And often, he's backed up by a few... er, "second in commands?" who stand behind him and glare at you too.

We'd been wondering why. And found out yesterday, as we were driving into town. Out there, in the the meadow, no longer blocked by brush was the llama pack. Now sporting several new baby llamas. Heh!

So, I guess I can understand the crankiness.

I'm cold.

After several hot days in the 80s and 90s, and many weeks in the high 70s, Forks Wa has decided to drop back down to the 50s.

Yeek! I'm FREEZING! But I absolutely refuse to use the woodstove in Summer to heat the house. No. Nope. No way! And, how in the heck did I lose my adaption to cool weather in just a handful of days? I am ... so ashamed.

In other news, Forks had 16,000 Twilight visitors last month. Which was twice June's numbers and almost as much as all of last year's Twilight Tourists. And since Forks sports only about 3500 citizens, it's been interesting.

Gah, went to go re-read the article from yesterday to verify this on the Fork's Forum newspaper, but the article seems lost. But I can say for certainty, that it did seem EXTREMELY busy in town these last few weeks. Our one traffic light was quite over-whelmed. And I suspect we might really need a second one. My cousin Jatina, however, counter-suspects that the town will riot if anyone suggests another one.

Well, yes. She may have a point. We Forksters like our tiny, teeny towny. And two traffic lights is far too ... ahem "Southern California".

Pots and Plants, Deer and Eagles

I grew up in the lowland deserts of Southern California. In a parched dry little town that never saw snow, broiled in the summer, and gathered to it's breast very little rainfall. It was a flat, hot, and mostly treeless place. And I used to dream of forests and cloud covered skies, where things would be green and cool and vibrantly alive.

And so I find myself here in Forks, Washington. Where instead of a couple of inches of rain a year, I can get that in a week. Even stranger, as I told my cousin just the other day, I've adapted so neatly that I would have sworn that last month only had an inch or less of rain ... when it actually had 5.6 inches.

How the heck did I miss 5.6 inches of rain? And here I thought it'd been a rainless, sunny-full month. Jeepers -- don't I even consider it rainy until we have a full foot these days? Gah!

When I first moved here, I found the rain nearly mind numbing in it's continuity. I remember thinking that it NEVER STOPPED. That out there, somewhere, surely someone was building an Ark.

But that wasn't an unusually rainy year at all. That was just Forks. And now ... I hardly notice the rain at all. I don't even use an umbrella. Isn't that just bizarre?

In other news, I was quite excited to see several bald eagles in the last few days, and many many deer. The deer are even a bit cheeky. Refusing to run from my car as I slow down to look at them eating leaves and grass by the side of the road. I have even had to, on occasion, stop my car and get out, to coax the little buggers out of the street, when they decide to just stop in front of my car, probably chuckling silently to their little deer selves. Stinkers.

And, I have one new pot out at the Twilight, "Cullens' Baseball Field". It's nothing earth shattering. Just a pot painted black with a red apple on it, sporting a cherry red petunia. I plan to start on two new pots in about a week, of Alice and Jasper, to add to my slowly growing stash of Twilight plant pots out there. It may take a while to get them all, but eventually I'll have a full set. Maybe even Jacob, in his own little pot, sitting a bit off to the side and looking forelorn and lonely. Poor wee wolfy.

And lastly, I have many more bookmarks up now in my gallery. Which you can find HERE.

Best wishes, and have a wonderful day!
- Resa

Happy Happy Cows

Because I know the person who owns the land just next to where the (Twilight) "Cullen's Baseball Field" is supposed to be, I have good reason to be out there fairly often.

And I was out there again yesterday to see how my Edward and Bella plant pots were doing. I am happy to report that both Edward and Bella's painted faces are holding up quite well under Fork's rainfall so far. However, as I drove up, I realized that the "baseball" field was occupied. Not by sparkly vampires, but by escapee cows.

Now these cows are royal, little stinkers. It's a rare day in spring that they don't fly their coop, and wander all about the area, sneaking into people's yards far and wide, sampling strange, new grasses. And this time, they had their new babies with them, and I couldn't help calling out to them, calling them "sweeties" when I got out of the car. Because hey, fuzzy baby cows. How could I not?

They turned to look at me as I did so. Watching me as I wandered over to my pots to groom out the dead flowers. Then suddenly, one cow seemed to become terribly taken with me. It was a lady cow, a big ol'girl, with a very pregnant tummy. She turned joyfully, seeming to practically dance on her tip toes, while making tiny, happy moos at me -- before dashing in my direction, like some gigantic, treat-expectant puppy, seemingly over-joyed to see me.

Now, I don't know a heck of lot about cows. But I do know that they weigh about the same as a small car. And this small car was on a collision course. Would she crash into me? Was I misinterpreting territorial aggression for "joy"? And even if I was right, could she stop in time? How graceful is a cow when her tummy is so large that it's wobbling on each side as she ran?

I paused and considered my options. I had wandered a fair pace from my car. Should I dash behind one of the trees? They are quite big enough to stop a car, and keep standing. This was a possible plan.

Luckily, Cow-Lady seemed to take notice of my fast back-peddling toward my leafy barrier, and stopped. She looked at me with confused brown eyes for a moment, then threw her head up and made three long, loud, mournful sounding moos. And cows came out from behind everything. And then, she turned, and went down the road toward home, with her fellows trotting behind her.

Whoo -- I have my first thing up on Ebay!

I've used Ebay in the past to buy stuff -- usually used books. As I love collecting books. Particularly hard backs. But this is the first time I've ever tried to sell anything, so yay! It's now official. Now up on Ebay is my Twlight Print and Post Card set! Whoo!

I'd hoped for a "Buy Now!", set price auction. But you're not allowed to use that until you've sold several items, and you've proved yourself to be a honest seller. So, I've set up a Print/Post Card set with a starting bid of $10, and free shipping. Which is considerably less than the price now listed on my website. On my website, just the print is going for $13 -- postage included. So hopefully, I'll get a bite.

And, here we go. I figure, even if it doesn't sell, it should at least draw more attention to my website and art gallery online. And that's always good.

In other news: It's raining here in Forks, Washington.
I bet you're so surprised. Heh.

Yay!

Today was fun for me. I was out at the "Cullen's Baseball Field" (it's next to a piece of land someone I know owns) just in time to see a car drive up, and people ooo and ahhh over the new Edward and Bella plant pots.

I stayed discreetly away while they took several pictures of the pots. Close ups, far shots, shots with them in the pictures, and even a couple of the "Caution!" sign too. Heh! I loved that!! After they left, I did a small victory dance in my head, and pondered what else I can put out there later on. It's just such a rush to see people get so excited over something you've painted.

You know, it really is fun living in a town that's hip-deep in a fantasy novel. And it's been kind of a kick seeing what other people have done or crafted to take advantage of this. Like the Forks outfitters selling official employee name tags with Bella's name on it -- I thought that was terribly clever. Or how now, on the road leading out to the La Push, Quileute Indian Reservation and First Beach, there is a warning sign stating that "No Vampires Beyond This Point". Hah!

It just tickles me! I mean, I loved Forks, WA long before it was anything but a small blip on a map. And now, everybody loves it.

Heh.

-- Resa