Home of the Innocents, the ice storm

I have added more clay to the second sculpture for the Home of the Innocents which is entitled "Metamorphosis" The sticks you see are wooden skewers which secure foam which makes up

the inner part of the sculpture. After I pack the clay on I use a rake tool to smooth it out.

In the last blog I showed pictures of Don and me walking back to the studio in the freezing rain to feed the birds. That night we lost power as there was about an inch of ice on everything. And then we had several inches of snow on top of that.

These conditions are really hard on the birds and I really wanted to get to the studio so I could

put seed out for the birds. We couldn't get out as the roads hadn't been plowed yet, so our neighbor Steve Mcmillen (former manager of Yellowbank Wildlife Management Area) drove us

up - thanks Steve!

This is the view from Steve's truck about 1/4 mile from the drive to the studio. He dropped us off at the gate and came back in an hour to pick us up.

The road was unrecognizable. Trees were bent down from both sides of the road. As we walked back we could see the track of some creature that walked down the road before us. Both subsequent snowfall made identification of the tracks impossible. Fox, maybe?

The trail continues

and continues....

This is a cypress trees bent by the ice.

I don't know if these are seed pods or buds, or what kind of plant, I just thought it was pretty...

One of the many reasons I walk back to put out seed...

When Steve picked us up from our snowy walk, he said he had seen an otter slide on the creek, so I went down to take this shot. Steve fixed us dinner that night - a steak, potatoes and corn. Really great food. Thanks again, Steve!

When we got back to the house we had to restart the fire. The wood had ice on it and I thought it looked kind of cool and I had the camera so.....