Happy #EarthDay from some my favourite corners of the Earth near(ish) to where I live. I know everything is dark and overwhelming these days, but I hope this can bring you a little light and a reminder of the incredible beauty we share this planet with.

Thank you. I hope some borb finds it interesting even if I cannot go to the tips of trees and branches to place it high and on very thin branches' ends.

This metal ladder isn't as tall, but once a person is on that last platform up there, it's too high. I spent a good amount of time making four platforms from rocks and bricks to stabilise the wobbly thing on an uneven soft ground.

The diamond shaped nesting box with wooden railing on the entry side and a full plank on the other side is now installed in the crooked spruce tree. I also placed dry moss and grass in it. A look through branches from below. The sun is shining on its front side.

And as I found out there is a nest in that crooked spruce tree and a cracked open egg laid under it. It spilled into the soil. It's windy too, so this fresh new egg went rolling (probably). So I placed the bird house as high as I could climb (not as high as the nest).

A countertop is covered with a cardboard sheet and littered with tools, paints and a diamond shaped bird house of open concept I am making from a dismantled drawer from the water damaged furniture. There are a lot of angles and the only power tool I have is a rechargeable screwdriver - drill, so it took until morning to finish that and apply the first layer of dark brown paint. Here the house sits on the eide, a long silver screw is waiting to be screwed in the roof and the side wall. It also has a straight floor inside so the angled wood planks create a bowl. On the front and back side are other planks and it's for securing whatever will be in it from tumbling out. Still there is a little space for rainwater to seep through the structure.

Here are three projects propped up on boxes on the terrace. The sun is shining and on the right is a tree shadow. From the left: a house shaped wooden bird feeder with brown roof and sheer varnish on the rest of it, in the middle is the diamond nest box, on the right is a platform that was white and I used it in a kitchen cabinet as a shelf. Now it's painted dark brown too and I plan it for my surviving carnivorous plant sarracenia.

A bird feeder and a nest box back on the kitchen counter.

I have spent circa 14 hours pendling between a makeshift workshop on the kitchen counter and a bathroom due to sickness from prescribed meds I no longer take as per doctor's advice. Anyway in between sessions I built an open nest box to test the design and today applied more paint on the projects.

Common blackbirds vacuuming up the dried mealworms. Birds also got three kinds of suet, so I expect them to wait till the sun melts it 🤦‍♀️.

😊😁

American values are under attack. H.R. 1897 is scheduled to be voted on by the end of tomorrow. The ESA has saved 99% of listed species from extinction, but if H.R. 1897 passes, your favorite animals could be gone forever.

📣Urge your Reps to vote NO on this un-American bill: https://bit.ly/4tlqJZh

Yup, today I planted myself in several layers of fluffiness on an adjustable garden chair, watching birds and falling asleep circa 1000 times. Sore throat and tiredness all around me. But I feel the urge to try and make a nest box for doves specifically now, still asleep ofc.

So far it's been put or tossed aside. Maybe some other borb notice as the grasshoppers are giant compared to mealworms 😇.

A female blackbird sits on a spruce tree branch after the male dove chases away a pair of wood pigeons and a male blackbird. Because there is a dove nest one level up. It's a blurry over-exposured tablet photo, but there she sits, looking away. She also pretty much ignored all the commotion and male dove too.

We have this crooked spruce tree with most of the branches on one side as it grows into the cherry tree. And it wasn't removed, because doves like it. Today a pair of blackbirds and also wood pigeons landed in it. The dove escorted most of them away, only letting a female blackbird sit there. #birds

Poor sparrows, they are so easily scared. Their Halloween probably consists of a lot of worm costumes. It took a long time to feed all the worms to some enthusiastic gourmet. The blackbirds visits are new this year, so I bought the worms again. And added a huge challenge - big grasshoppers 😇.

Oh, that's cool to learn about that. Silly birbs don't want to lose their know-how. Unlike food, they vacuumed up dried mealworms in no time. Last year it was laying around indefinitely, doves were horrified, other birbs were like wtf is that? Is it even edible? They learned eventually what to do 😁.

Thanks 😊

Two animal figurines, one of a black horse with white fluffy 'socks' and one of a male stag beetle. Smaller than what I remember them to be. These are on the left, and a white mug with colourful European bee-eaters painting print all over it on the right. All on top of a light green table cloth.

Curio cabinet's top level. Two of my dioramas in the deep black frames by the back wall. Plastic, wooden, resin and glass figurines of birds are in the front middle. I will name a few: pigeons, a swan, chickadees, kingfisher, ravens, a nuthatch et cetera.

Below the birdy level is Hannibal's and company Mads Mikkelsen figurine with Le Chiffre doll in his lap. Will Graham's house was made by me. Tiny wooden hut with tinier outhouse. A pen holder from a coffee can with layered paper diorama of mushrooms, ferns, hissing cockroaches, vines, leaves on a deteriorating Laudanum label. A pencil drawing of Mr. Graham and Hannibal whispering to Will's ear from Alessia Pelonzi. And a cute little bird with a crocheted white winter hat, Mads sports pink one, praying mantis, tarantula, white mouse, a group of hedgehogs, trilobite and a few rocks under Mads' bum.

The lowest level is also filled with all kinds of dust collectors. There is Prince Vlad performed by Gary Oldman under a glass bell, Sally from the Nightmare before Christmas, three lovely horses, a horseshoe crab, wooden hut, wooden trees and two brown wooden mushrooms. There are also orthoceras on top of the roof and ammonite by the door to the wooden house. Two artificial candles, one slim and tall, one thick and shorter are glowing in the bottom level.

New dust collector additions to the group I have in the curio cabinet for now.

A big woven basket full of moss is being overlooked, even if placed nearby the nesting area or if I gather some material and leave it there. It's like 'no, thanks, I am going to drill through your pots and fences', a blackbird's thought probably. It's OK. Just funny to witness the wrestling.

We are looking at a bug house from the ground perspective. It's on Bug Island 2.0. The house is the rectangular box with inset door wall and with roof on hinges. It sits on a brick between twigs, moss, leafy litter and below two big chunks of old tree trunk. The brick itself is propped up on pebbles. I managed to find a thick orange plastic sheet, so I placed it on the roof. It's not aesthetic or level, but there it might attract some bugs. I don't know if it will be used. But the chances are higher.

Yesterday I made these stairs from found and dug out material, like bricks, pieces of bricks, twigs, rocks. It goes up the little sloped area under the terrace. The base of the slope is secured with old planks, that got deformed over time of storing them in the basement, and spikes on both sides to hold it in place. Filling consists of various twigs, branches, leaves, chunks of hard soil and all that garden litter I use for making things. No tossing away. There is also a wide thick plank going from the stairs on the left to the right, where the terrace corner is. It's fully eaten by wood-worm, but still holds some shape, so it's better than the deep mud valley. So the three little steps go up to the pebble swirl I made some time ago. There are lavenders planted on both sides of the stairs in little terraces made of black rock. It's an ongoing project for kids that love to make better worlds from a pile of mud, rocks and sticks.

Further to the right from the terrace is this rocky slope with a dug out path that follows the base of the terrace on the left and a stairs to the basement on the right. On the left side of the slope is Bug Island 3.1. Yellow blooming mahonia shrubs are covering most of it. Then to the right are organically shaped stairs made of rocks, pebbles and bricks that start in the circle made of lime rocks and edged with bigger black rocks I found in the garden. To the further right is a terraced piece of land where I sowed some seed mixes and created rock piles filled with leaves. In the upper half of the image is the newer Bug island with logs, rocks, flowers and all, edged with twigs and rocks. A pine tree where chickadees live. To the right of the tall tree shrubs with blackbirds' nest. To the left the wooden sticks and branches intertwined into a low wooden fence for bugs to have more space to live. In front of this woody pile are replanted shrubs and flower bushes.

By the front yard's garage entry runs the wild embankment made of branches, leaves, moss, grass, dirt. On the taller side on the left is a new reinforcement with a lot of little terraces in between the twigs. The other end with a lilac tree got some better soil and edges are defined with rocks. Then there runs a path with thick concrete tiles for stepping stones. And this is where the sloping hill was originally. There wasn't enough ground to walk around the corner of the house. Red blooming tulips and yellow blooming mahonia shrubs fill the area beyond the path.

I have been in the garden lately every day until 10 PM. It's raining today (I am happy about that) and I feel like I caught something when grocery shopping or it's the weather, one day warm like summer, the other day temp drops to zero degrees Celsius. 🤧🌱

A female blackbird stands above the ball of moss she made of the material I had in my planters. We are on the terrace and seeing the opposite corner of it from behind the window. There is a black plastic tray with water and floating fountain, and a bunch of planters mostly with plants from around the garden or seeds from garden beds in the city.

She is shaking off excess dirt from a moss ball.

She is trying to pack as much moss in her beak as possible, turning to the right in the new nest direction.

Another pair of blackbirds building their nest atop the evergreen bush, it is a tall tree now. And yes, birds are foraging for moss, dry grass, good sticks and twigs, removing the stuff from my planters and garden, here is a culprit blackbird female having a beak full of nesting material #birds

Sparrows land one by one at the balcony floor edge. The female stays vigilant, taking a good look around, then tippity tips along the edge and hops in for a sunflower seed. Beware of loud chirps. We can hear a dove, magpie, blackbird in the background #birds #sparrows

A big plastic dinosaur, raptor, is being well scrubbed in the bathtub, but as he isn't a fan of hygiene he snaps the steel wool like sponge in his mouth full of sharp teeth. He is also missing a finger.

Drying the dino was also challenging, so the towel around his head and waist is missing a piece that's again being chewed on.

After some days I finished applying metallic black spray paint, gold acrylic pen I used for details, gold watercolour for bigger areas. I applied the gold shine with a sponge and it was as dry as possible. The last layer is clear varnish. Here he stands on the table with a light green table cloth, the sun is shining, there is a tiny purple water can with pink flowers in it and half of an agate rock on the right. The rock has white brown and gray horizontal lines in the bottom half and an arc from yellow and gray layers, it looks like a sunset. The outer layer is more brown and orange.

A close-up of dino's head with golden highlights.

I have found this dino when crawling through shrubs to see some birds. He wasn't having it in the bathtub, but now sports metallic black with gold. I was thinking of a garden gnome, but now I don't want to put him outside.

This little fairywren is looking better now with some fluffed up feathers! #fairywren #bird #birdart #painting

Meet my box of tits.

5 little needle felted sculptures of British tit species, all handmade with 100% wool.

Each bird is approx 5cm tall and are solid wool sculptures taking around 5 hours each to make.

£130 plus P&P

mademe.co.uk/product/box-...

#birds #sciart

A bad photo of a fuzzy brown sider right below the terrace door by the cranny under the wooden threshold. She managed to escape all preying eyes and went directly back. Oh, well.

OMG, after light rain she crossed the terrace and went straight back to the house. So, I have this pile of wood in the garage where I try to place her. #spider #invertebrates The other spood left the planter earlier and I wonder if he is back too.

I am not interested in being a person on Instagram, doing collaborative posts with people or filming myself talking to the camera. I want to be a person who fucks off away from the noise and works hard and writes better and better books for the rest of his life and then dies. Why is that not ok?

Two fuzzy brown spiders chilling in a terracotta flower pot. The smaller one sits on the wall, the bigger one sits on the bottom next to the drainage hole.

Smaller brown fuzzy spider in detail. I didn't do any proper photoshoot, even if they don't run in all directions I don't want them to fall out via my clumsiness.

The detail of the bigger spider, as he has a very judging look. Sorry bud. I don't want to step on you. They can run testerically right into my shoe, where the leg of a hooman is present at the moment.

It's a moving day. Two big ones, one light green one. The brown fuzzy spider looks like the big one's GF. She was found by the plank in the kitchen and I thought I flattened her with it, and the male's cobweb is in a spot where he isn't catching anything unless I bring some. #spider #invertebrates

Also, if anyone in the midwest US has a mature male, I'd love to introduce them! She has already created an egg sac in the past just from sitting in the enclosure next to a mature male psalmopoeus cambridgei. She carried that empty egg sac for months before giving up on it. She'll be a great mom!

A miniature diorama: ruined hewn stones lay stacked and toppled, moss-covered in the darkening forest. A little coyote person sits in front of a campfire between some stones. in the back, there's a small stack of firewood. A small cup of soup and a spear sit by the fire as well.

#RepostYourArt Challenge Day 9: Light
"Back to Camp" 2022
It's a diorama built into a side table drawer.
I'd love to have the time to goof around with miniatures again one day!

Oh, those little jokers! 👀

Haha. I swear they jump dimensions for a second to cause confusion. 😂

I noticed a bumblebee on the ground and in the shade. Here she is in a stand-by position on a bare patch of soil.

Next time she managed to tumble down into the drink. I had to dilute the sweet water so she won't end up sticky. Once the solid ground was under her feet and not the other way around, she made a few circles drinking from it and shook the drops off of her

On the white rock and in the warm sun the bumblebee scratched her belly over the rock surface to remove additional dirt. She is facing to the right in this photo with a middle leg from her other side in the air as she performs more preening.

Now the bumblebee hangs from the side edge of the brown shelf using gravity in further maintenance. As she fell down to the flower pot below I scooped her up again, propping her on a big planter plant. And as I stuck there a flowering branch, her foraging instinct kicked in and she buried her nose in the first pink flower, and before I got back with additional blooming twig she left.

And tired bumblebee in a shaded patch. Got a good sip (after jumping just right in the puddle, so I had to introduce clean water), washed herself thoroughly and once dry left off. #invertebrates #bumblebee 🐝

Yeah. It may help.. My brain cell does its thing and I am looking for something I just held in my hand and is now hidden who knows where. Or I selectively don't see the thing that's just there all the time.