Opium, anyone?

This is "supposed" to be a Chinese opium snuff box I received as a free gift when I purchased a lot of (what else) fish knives. It may be real or it may be tourist junk. The workmanship ain't great, but I guess if you're a tweaker you can't expect miracles. It's jade, or jadeite, or something. I use it to keep a few heirloom seeds in. From some very special tomato plants. Heirlooms.

It's Fossil Friday #10

This one is not much to look at, but it represents a fossil in the making. This is the umbos and hinge of a bivalve mollusk, found on the shores of Ocean City, MD. The shell is nearly, but not completely mineralized, and the void is filled with packed mud that is nearly completely cemented and almost, but not quite, rock.

Arrrgh!

It's the old cast iron pirate doorstop. It's also a fairly effective anti-toe weapon if you are unfortunate enough to drop it from a height onto your unprotected tarsals. At which point, you will be heard to exclaim: "Arrrgh!"

More dead animals?

In keeping with the dead animal theme, here's a collection of native Delaware animal skulls mounted on a driftwood door panel. We have: fox, seagull, deer, beaver, and muskrat. All were found in my travels to natural places (except the fox, who evidently fell into a shallow bunker at Cape Henlopen and died of thirst/starvation).

Stealth Attack Gull

A partner in crime of the Caribbean Death Otter. No, just kidding. This is a taxidermied (taxidermed?) ring-billed gull in a Plexiglas display case. Another State of Delaware rescuee. It call to mind Anton Chekov, no?

Kalimba 3

Here's a homemade kalimba using a coconut body, luan sounding board, an electrician's grounding bar as the bridge, and garden rake tines as the, uh, tines. The "buzzies" are from an old vegetable steamer.

In other news, I have to admit that I am winding down. I am frankly scraping the bottom of the barrel for goodies to blog about, and I'm afraid I won't make it until August (365 days). I've learned that 365 days of anything is a lot of things. I will continue on for a few more weeks, and I have a couple of interesting goodies left to show, but the end is near, dear readers.

I intend for my last post to be a panoramic image of the room I call "Flintlock's Arsenal", where most of my goodies are housed. When that day arrives, I shall also announce my next blog project, which will be quite different from, yet keeping with the aesthetic of, this one.

Another Djembe

A modern, mass produced one, but with great tonality and depth.