Monarch on an Emu Egg

Wow, was it cold today in Chatham. I was going to go to the Y this morning to Aqua-fit but when the alarm went off I heard "it will feel like -24" -CLICK! Forget it. No way was I going to swimming, even indoors, when it's -24 degrees outside. I did have to go out later on and I didn't think it was much warmer but the sister-in-law is still in the hospital so a visit was in order. Well, actually, this is Wednesday and a bunch of us have lunch together every Wednesday so it was lunch and then a visit at the hospital.

Before I show you my Monarch on an Emu egg I want to tell you about one smart bird we have around our house. We have 4 bird feeders out so we have a huge selection of birds- cardinals, juncos, sparrows, nuthatches, woodpeckers, morning doves, purple finches, chickadees, house wrens and goldfinches (oh, and "that hawk" as Joe calls him). There can be as many as 75 birds in the back yard at one time. Last summer the robins built a nest in the corner of our car port and Joe never got around to taking it down. He noticed a couple of weeks ago that it looked like a bird was in there at night so we started watching more closely. Sure enough, of all the birds that visit our back yard, one Junco found the abandoned nest and he snuggles in every night about 5:30 and gets up about 8:00 in the morning.

OK, back to the emu egg. Several years ago I was browsing thru Shelly's Painted Treasurers (formerly past Wall-Mart now in Dresden) and saw a Emu egg with a monarch butterfly painted on it. I love Monarchs so I signed up for the course. Shelly is an excellent tole painter and teacher. I was pretty happy how it turned out. Sorry about the glare from the camera. This was taken on my old camera and it's not the best picture.