black mondo grass and copper leaf
black mondo grass and copper leaf
…is “to change in appearance or form, especially strangely or grotesquely; transform.”
And one of our instructions this week for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is to”create a gallery, with a series of photos showing a metamorphosis in progress.”
Well, I haven’t shared my beautiful (or maybe grotesque…eye of the beholder and all) BUGS for a while. You can read about them here:
https://chosenperspectives.com/2016/07/16/chosenperspectives-on-details-for-wpc/ and here
But for today’s topic, here is a slideshow showing their transformation. (By the way, the featured image at the top of the page is of a pile of eggs. They are not normally on my carpet but this photo is of the remains of the one and only unsupervised encounter between my bugs and my cats. Even though it is Halloween I won’t torture you with details of how those eggs got from the laden belly of the mature female bug onto the rug…oh wait, maybe I just did!)
Here’s another photo to show the range of growth I get to witness.
And here is a reaction of some family members to one of the less pleasant consequences of having Giant Spiny Australian Leaf Bugs around.
Tiny poops but they are very dry and have no smell…
These creatures MOLT three times during their lives. It took me many years to actually witness the process and it is amazing! What they leave behind after the second and third molting is the opposite of transmogrifying. (You don’t want to know about the first molting. Oh wait. I keep forgetting it’s Halloween! They EAT IT!!!)
The molted skins are PERFECT in every detail, right down to the tiny claws, spikes and antennae!
an empty skin
I guess you could say my experience of having these bugs as members of our pet family has Transmogrified ME! I have gone from that stereotypical image of squealing in terror while running for the nearest table to climb on over a tiny house spider or a beetle …to writing this post.
I’m supposed to write about Tiny but I’m much better off showing you how Tiny figures into my life!
I am an addicted collector and I think I figured out very young that if I collected tiny things, I would have room for MORE of them than if I collected, oh, say CARS! I am also a Psychotherapist and I know a hobby like this, that originates in childhood and borders on obsession, has a lot more backstory to it than I can possibly fit into one Post. But think about words like scarcity, control, abuse and isolation.
AND, my collections were the one thing I never had to share, give up or pass on to my younger sisters.
It started with Cobalt glass. I wrote about that here:
Then I got hooked on glass animals and saved babysitting money to buy a new one every few months. My best finds were at the Hobby Shop or at the San Diego Zoo, where you could actually watch the glass artist make tiny lions, tigers or bears…oh my.
This is a truly tiny sample of my animals collection. Most of the other hundreds have been recently wrapped up and packed away due to our huge household downsizing project. My animals are mostly blown glass, bone china or carved marble.
Somewhere in my adolescence, I discovered little wooden trains. They are also packed away but I did find this one photo.
I think I have more trains than anything else but when we got our youngest cats, the trains had to be put away also…not that I minded them playing with the trains, but Lucy, the miracle kitten, had a little bit of the disease called Pica and would eat bits off the trains..wheels, smokestacks, etc. She has also eaten my camera strap, three times. Almost all the trains are wooden and very small but for my birthday one year my best friend found (and hand-painted for me) the world’s SMALLEST TRAIN!! It is metal. Here’s a photo.
I am going to stop pretty soon now, even though I could go on and on. See, I also collect shells, socks, fans, concert ticket stubs, photographs, vintage Christmas Cards, and some might even say BUGS, but if you have seen them here before, you know they are anything but TINY! I do have one more thing to show you though, mainly because it is my favorite Tiny Ensemble.
Share Your World – 2016 Week 42
This is my first time sharing my world. Does this mean I have to make up for the whole 42 weeks I missed??
Anyway, here are the questions we are to answer.
If you wanted to de-clutter where you live, what room / space would you start with? (And why, if you’re feel like admitting to it.)
I’d start with the “living room”. It used to be the only guaranteed “clean” room in the house…my pretty blue and white oriental rug, all my Cobalt glass, nice furniture to sit on for guests. But now, with our packed household (son, two grandsons, two men renting rooms, and 3 indoor cats who have had their cavorting space dramatically reduced), James pretty much has his “office” and sports/TV viewing area in our living room…and all that cat hair drives me crazy!
If you want to remember something important, how do you do it (sticky note on the fridge, string around your finger, etc.), and does it work?
I keep running lists, in categories like errands, phone calls, sessions, books and music to remember, etc. (still on paper because if I write it down it helps kinesthetically, better than a phone app or computer calendar!) But the absolutely Must Remember things go on a sticky note in the center of my computer screen.
If you could create a one room retreat just for yourself, what would be the most important sense to emphasize: sight (bright natural light, dim light, etc.), hearing (silence, music, fountain, etc.), smell (candles, incense, etc), touch (wood, stone, soft fabrics, etc.), or taste (herbal tea, fresh fruit, etc.)?
My current sanctuary…my office/group room. It has all the above listed elements. I wrote about it here in a post called
If you could interview one of your great-great-great grandparents, who would it be (if you know their name) and what would you ask?
Her last name was “Young”, as in Brigham Young, but I can never remember what her wife-number was. She was one of 16 or 26 or 55 wives, depending on where you read about Latter Day Saints history. I was NOT raised Mormon so my information is mostly from Google, but one story I heard from older relatives was that she was married to Mr. Young, after he married her sister, and I believe their name was Decker. If I could speak to her, I wouldn’t ask her about polygamy because I think I mostly understand the beliefs they held at the time, but I am definitely curious about actual sisters (not “sister wives”) being married to the same man.
And I would ask if she could tell me anything about all the lace doilies and hankies I have used in the decorating of my room (referred to above)…if she made any of them herself…
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I am surprisingly grateful for all these great men I live with, especially my number one guy! (Michael and James, you can duke it out to decide who you think that is! This is really just a test to see if you actually read my blog!)
I enjoyed their passion yesterday over the bizarre ending to the Seahawks football game.
But that was also a LOT of angry yelling and testosterone in my precious blue and white living room…I think I may need to smudge with some sage today…
This week I am blank as to looking forward. The here and now is really pulling at me.
(Photo at the top is of our hand-made Sock Monkeys that James and I take turns positioning to demonstrate our current experience of our relationship. They live in the Living Room, amongst all the blue and white…and I had to train the cats to not stalk them as prey!)
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/20902465/posts/1197241712
This week’s challenge– our theme for Song Lyric Sunday is to post a song that helps pull you out of a dark place.
I too am completely affected by music. I believe in its power. I assign music to my clients all the time. I use it myself to calm down, to wake up, to get moving, to release, to exercise, to entertain myself, to love more deeply, to remember my own power, and on and on!
WAY too many songs came to mind when I read this week’s theme but the one that I woke up this morning is below. I had heard this song for a long time without listening to the lyrics and found it just so-so. Then a couple of years ago I had the privilege of attending an “adopted” nephew’s amazing graduation ceremony…and the whole class sang this song!! How perfect for their launch into adulthood.
I have since adopted it as my anthem, a reminder of the blank page of every single day of my life! (It helps me get unblocked when trying to WRITE also!!)
A great one to sing loudly, standing up while looking in a mirror! Hoaky I know, but try it!
It will be hard to remain in the dark if you do!
I am unwritten
Can’t read my mind
I’m undefined
I’m just beginning
The pen’s in my hand
Ending unplanned
Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
Oh, oh, oh
I break tradition
Sometimes my tries are outside the lines
We’ve been conditioned to not make mistakes
But I can’t live that way
Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
The rest is still unwritten
The rest is still unwritten
Oh, yeah, yeah
A beginning slide show because I have too many SHINE photos!!
These just appeared one morning on my daily walk. Hmmm. Kids with chalk??
Then I saw what they were pointing to so it has to be the city or something.
I see someone else already had a similar reaction to the word Shine. I lost all my old photos or I would be posting one taken with an old instamatic in (probably) 1975 or 76 at a Pink Floyd concert in Los Angeles…I’ll post actual Shine photos next, I promise…