A dragon for Dragonsinger

Dragonsinger's new Household Guardian :)

My private broom .....

Our latest assignment for Madam Jak is to describe what we would like for our own private broom.

My private broom, like my Quiddith team broom, would be made of Australian Curly Cypress. I have two pieces of this in my private wood stash - unfortunately they are flat pieces, not suitable for a broom. But the soft honey color and the beautiful curly grain in the deeper honey tones make this one of the most beautiful woods I have ever seen. The wood needs no more than an oil finish to look as magical as a 'real' broom might.

I would magically manipulate the wood's own natural growth patterns and twine the resulting branches into a comfortable seat and back rest, since I require both to be able to sit for long periods. The seat and back rest would also help my riding abilities and equilibrium as it would enhance my balance.

The same process would be used to create a platform area behind the rider where either another rider or 'packages' could be accommodated. The platform would be magicked to hold whatever was placed on it firmly in place to avoid accidents.

Like the Quidditch brooms, my own broom would be magicked to control weather in its immediate vicinity to help keep me warm and dry during rainstorms or snowfall or other inclement weather and to keep me from overheating during hot weather. It would be custom-crafted to me so as to enhance my equilibrium, balance and riding abilities as much as possible. It would also, like the Quidditch brooms, be spelled to respond to magick being used against the broom or rider by flashing of the twigs. Such flashing would not stop until the magick was no longer be used against the broom or rider.

Flat cats...........

Well, the latest assignment for Magical Creatures is to create a cat. Since we are already owned by nine of the creatures around here, when I sat down to craft the spell I kept muttering 'no more fat cats' ........ meaning that this time, the cat was going to need to be useful. Love our cats .... but .... enough is enough, you know?

By the way, 4 of them are kittens, 1 of those a rescue who was left outdoors when her previous owners couldn't take her with them ..... I won't comment, because it would only get me in trouble with someone ....... Cuddles is a sweet, lovable marmalade ..... that makes 3 orange marmalades here ...... and 2 of them own me!!

About an hour later, some very upset owls descended upon me with a ..... flat cat. And a *lot* of dire mutterings about what was going to happen if they found any flat *owls* in the Owlery (which is where they found the flat cat).

I can only presume that while muttering to myself, I somehow stumbled over my words just as the spell took effect ........ I promptly checked all the felines belonging to this house and they are all well, safe and ...... fat. So I'm not quite sure where this one came from. But I know where he's going ... right on the table to keep hot things safely away from the table surface.

Woke up this morning to find a whole pile of wiggly things on my crafting desk. After some research, I discovered that these are a variety of Flobber worms, commonly known as Rainbow Flobber Worms. Thus far, apparently, no one has discovered where they come from, what they eat, or when they sleep. Their eyes always seem to be open. The only thing that has been discovered about them is that they love to keep your place in a book.

Altho the idea of making Rainbow Flobber Worms is my own, you'll find the pattern I used for to create them here:
http://www.knitlist.com/98gift/crochetworm.htm

I used to make these back when my now-grown children were very young. Now my grandkids play with them. I think the pattern I used back then came from a magazine called Workbasket, which is now out of print.

Apparation class assignment

Our Apparation Professor has assigned us a quiz .... to make a cozy. So, since I couldn't seem to stay asleep last night, I decided she might be right. A cup of tea would suit just fine .... but I didn't have a cozy for it. So I found some patterns on Ravelry, chose one & knitted it up. Here's a scan of it. Not the greatest, but you can see the cozy. Some day, I'll get a digital camera with a macro program & perhaps even learn how to use it.

Snowy Owls

The Snowy Owl was first classified in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish Swedish naturalist who developed binomial nomenclature to classify and organize plants and animals. The Snowy Owl is a large, diurnal white Owl that has a rounded head, yellow eyes and black bill. The feet are heavily feathered. A distinctive white Owl, their overall plumage is variably barred or speckled with thin, black, horizontal bars or spots. Females and juveniles are more heavily marked than males - adult males may be almost pure white, although they have up to three tail bands. Adult females are distinctly barred throughout, and have from four to six tail bands. Immatures are very heavily barred throughout, and dark spotting may co-dominate or dominate the overall plumage. Intensity of dark spotting varies with the sex of the immatures, females being the darkest. Juveniles are uniformly brown with scattered white tips of down. Snowy Owls are active during the daytime, from dawn to dusk. They have a direct, strong, and steady flight with deliberate, powerful down strokes and quick upstrokes. They make short flights, close to the ground, from perch to perch, and usually perches on the ground or a low post. During hot weather, they can thermoregulate by panting and spreading their wings. Snowy Owls are very aggressive when defending their nest. The Snowy Owl is a bird of Arctic tundra or open grasslands and fields. They rarely venture into forested areas. During southward movements they appear along lake shores, marine coastlines, marshes, and even roost on buildings in cities and towns. In the Arctic, they normally roost on pingaluks (rises in the tundra) and breed from low valley floors up to mountain slopes and plateaus over 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) in elevation. When wintering in the Arctic, they frequent wind-swept tundra with little snow or ice accumulation. At more southern latitudes they typically frequents agricultural areas.

Information found at: http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Bubo&species=scandiacus

HLBOE extra credit assignment

WHEEEEEE!!!!

I've learned how to add pictures to my blog!! Over there <~~~ you can see 'my' picture. Well, it isn't *really* me .... I mean, that isn't what I really look like ... but I don't wanna scare anyone by posting a 'real' pic, so I found one that looks like what I *wish* I looked like ... and it has a katt, er, cat, too, so it's perfect! If you click on the picture, you'll be magically transported over to the site where I found the picture ... full of the most wonderful art that the artist offers free to the public for personal, non-commercial use. Please don't abuse her generosity, but do feel free to browse her art and maybe use it on your personal site.

And then you'll see a little wizard guy over there, too. He's from my newest group, where I'm doing this marvelous swap. Click on him, and he'll magically transport you over to the group's site so you can see what I'm involved in. Well, one of the things I'm involved in, anyhow!

If my spoilee is reading this ......

Green, green, I see something green .......
something sharp and shiny ........
something long but tiny ......
lean, mean, green machine ......
what's this thing that I have seen?

nope, not gonna tell ya! nyah, nyah, nyah!!! :::snickers:::