A Different Spin

Designer Web


Scientists have added a spider gene to goats that produces silk in their milk. They say spider farms for the silk don't work out, because the spiders tend to eat each other.

View From The Dollar Store

Mount Lassen with bird. 5/5/1o

While on a trip to the nearby Dollar Store, I was glad I had the Lumix TX1 with me. Although there was a light haze, Mount Lassen looked magnificent from the parking lot. This prompted me to drive around behind the Dollar Store to find more scenic items to image.

Still Snow Capped

Shasta Bally from near the Dollar Store. 5/5/10

There is still snow on the mountains surrounding Redding. Shasta Bally still sports a frosty cover of the white stuff.

From The Treehouse

Mount Shasta from the 2nd floor landing. 5/5/10

The flowers around the Treehouse continue to delight those who wish to gaze upon their colorful splendor. I had the opportunity to compliment Ed, (our maintenance department), on the beautiful landscaping here, when I provided him with the perfect card for his mother. He and his family are putting on a big breakfast at a local restaurant, and he hadn't had time to get a card. I just happened to have some that he could choose from. Thank you Ed.

More Flowers

Roses reaching to the sky. 5/5/10

Earlier in the Day, Sandi selected a couple of cards from my one of a kind, suitable for framing, quality Mother's Day cards. Thank you, Sandi.

Lovely color roses at the Treehouse. 5/5/10

I went out later in the afternoon to see what was ready to be photographed on this Cinco De Mayo, (I didn't see any mustard).

Lassen from the Treehouse parking lot. 5/5/10

Mount Lassen was even prettier than it was in the morning.

Looking Northwest

View from 2nd floor landing. 5/5/10

There are 2 second floor, outside, semi-enclosed staircases on 'A' building. The one on the east has a view of Lassen and Shasta. The one on the west has a view of Shasta Bally and the hills and mountains that stretch out to the northwest. The northwest view in the picture is now possible since the cottonwood tree was removed. The smokestack belongs to the Knopf insulation plant.

As The Sun Shines

Squinty Phil in the late afternoon sunshine. 5/5/10

I hope you enjoyed the story about silk from a goats udder. Someone already made a silk purse from a sows ear;

A Silk Purse From a Sow's Ear
1921

Taking up Swift's challenge

Massachusetts industrialist Arthur D. Little liked a challenge. In 1921, after hearing someone quote Jonathan Swift's adage, "You can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear," Little decided to try to do just that. From a meat-packer he obtained a form of glue made from the skin and gristle of sows' ears. Taking an amount roughly equivalent to one sow's ear, he had it filtered and forced through a spinneret into a mixture of formaldehyde and acetone. The glue emerged as 16 fine, colorless streams that hardened and then combined to form a single composite fiber. Little soaked the fiber in dyed glycerin. Then he wove the resulting thread into cloth on a handloom-and fashioned the cloth into the elegant purse shown here, the kind of item carried by ladies of the Middle Ages.Story and picture from HistoryWired.

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Coquette - Django Reinhardt

Everywhere I Look