I’ll be blogging over here from now on:
http://www.thesuzabox.net.
Please update your blogroll/links, thanks.

My livejournal feed ‘feed_annsuza’ has been updated with a new feed URL so if you’re subscribed to my LJ-feed there’s no need to change anything.

For my pigeon loving readers on wordpress, here is Charlie – the 3rd pigeon to have been born on our balcony since April ‘07 – with a nice set of feathers, taken last monday where he (or she) is probably around 3 weeks and 3 or so days old, catching some.. color in the sun – click the pics for enlargement:

Startled by my presence, Charlie hid behind the flower pot for a bit, and came back out again for another pose (he did that 2 or 3 times, so either Charlie’s a very curious pigeon, or was so scared he didn’t know what to do – after all, he’s only seen me 2 or three times):

I don’t think Charlie’s parents are the same as Frankie’s, I haven’t recognized either of them, so I think it’s a different couple altogether.

There are more pictures I’ve taken around the neighborhood this past week in my Harderwijk – July 11-16, 2008 set on my Flickr account, they’re not spectacular, but it was my first week leaving the apartment again since mid-April so everything is new to me, haha.

Look what dad and I found on our balcony last wednesday! That’s right, a wee little baby pigeon! Last thing I expected to find there in the end of June, but there it was, a little baby pigeon! His, or her, name is Charlie (my friend Ticara came up with the name.) Full name is Charlie Bourbon Borgesius, and he/she looks exactly like Frankie did! Haha.
Comparing several photos of Frankie with this one, I think Charlie is about 9 to 11 days old. You can click the picture for enlargement.

How about that? I wasn’t even aware of the fact there was a new egg, I haven’t checked the balcony a lot lately, apart from the fact that the last several months a few new pigeons found our balcony suitable to hang out, so I have no idea which of these pigeons are Charlie’s parents.

It’s done, finally! It’s a bit sloppy in some places but the whole idea was to be somewhat more playful and less of a perfectionist so there you are, plus it’s in keeping with the theme so I wasn’t all that bothered with it, but now I am a little bit. Anyway, the final product (until one day I decide to perfect the rough edges when nobody’s looking,) just click for an enlargement:

Acrylics, linen on panel 30×24 cm.

Look closer, a bloody stump made out of rolling paper! I think it looks rather convincing, don’t you?

And to enhance the evil/insane bear’s insanity with some 3D-foam-at-the-mouth, guess what I used? Rolling paper!

The girl’s earrings and skirt were also helped with rolling paper, as well as the beheaded bear’s head in the river, and for the ax blade I used a piece of cardboard, but the close-ups bit.

My “A Pink Bicycle’s Nightmare” painting is not yet completed, but last Saturday I stood here in my bedroom holding a beer in one hand and in the other, well, nothing, staring at my dull, empty, orange walls.
So I took a sip of my beer and a thought hit me right in the head “This wall would look great with Clint Eastwood on it, giving a thumbs up.” Luckily, I already had a little sketch of that somewhere – well not just somewhere, I knew exactly where I put it – so without any further hesitation, I went at it.

And one thing lead to another, and all of a sudden I found myself working on getting Angelina Jolie on my wall as well, though it wasn’t as sudden as I make it out to be; I couldn’t get Clint’s face to stop looking like Sly Stallone and I wanted to move on to something else for a while.

The blood smudges on the Clint side will probably get painted over with something else, after 7 beers I thought it was a nice touch, a stroke of genius, but it’s not so much.

And then Jolie was giving me a hard time so last night I started on incorporating a lion in there. But why stop there? I will probably add more stuff as I go along.
It’s the first mural I’m doing and it’s also a first that I’m working on something on this scale. The pieces of paper hanging on either side are regular A4 format so that gives you an idea of how big the painting is so far.
Everything still needs tons of work and correcting, but I’m excited about it so I thought I’d share what I’ve been doing 8 hours a day for the past week.

Been working on this for the last 2 weeks and as the title implies it’s still a work in progress.
I’m having fun sticking stuff onto the painting, something I haven’t done before, but after completing my latest painting I realised it’s really fun to be playful with your art.
So, I took some of my rolling paper, crumpled or balled up and stuck it on (girl’s earrings + skirt, beheaded bear’s bloody stump, evil red bear’s foaming mouth – I’ll try to take some decent close-up pics of it once it’s finished.)

Anyway, on to the progression’s picture, just click it to enlarge.

The picture isn’t of great quality because I used the flash, but the final product will get a decent treatment in that respect.

Finally some Frankie news! The last 2 weeks it has been impossible to take a decent look at Frankie let alone a picture what with all his (or her) hiding, but since this weekend I’ve seen Frankie outside his hiding place near the nest, walking around on the balcony and I’ve seen him fly, though I have no photographic evidence of that. ALAS!
But I did snap some photos of Frankie today, sunbathing on the balcony ledge with his/her dad in the afternoon (click to enlarge):

And a little later this evening when I dropped in to say hello, Frankie was wandering near the balcony door but when he/she saw me he quickly flew onto the safe balcony ledge again (click to enlarge):

On a little separate note, if you see my name changing a couple of times; I’m trying to decide on a new one that fits. I had for the most part made my decision but someone made me doubt it, haha.

At last, I’ve finished that painting I’ve been working on since March.
It just sat there on top of my currently non-functioning speakers for the last few weeks waiting for me to finish the dreadful details and yesterday I finally got it done.

The story sort of goes like “FIRE! I go out the window, you take the teddy bear and the fire escape!”

I don’t know what happens to the spiders, I don’t even know what they’re doing in the painting, just a scare-factor I guess, and they probably burn at the end of the story.

Acrylics on aquarel paper, 30×40 centimeters. Simply click it for an enlargement.

As for Frankie related news, the little pigeon is 3 weeks old now and I’m a bit worried. He doesn’t seem to be very active. I mean, Bailey (the baby pigeon from 2007) seemed a very healthy and alert pigeon when he was about 3 weeks old; when he’d spot me, he would stand up, hiss and try to get away without leaving the nest.
You know, a nervous, alert little pigeon, which has always – to me – been the description of a healthy pigeon.

But I worry about Frankie, because he doesn’t flinch at all when he sees me, nor does he hiss at me or stand up to get away, he just sits there, sometimes he looks up at me, but that’s about as active as he gets upon seeing me. I’ve never pet him or picked him up – I’m too scared his parents will abandon him or something.
So I don’t really think he’s gotten used to my presence; I do check on him every day and spend around 5-10 minutes near him to take pictures at least twice a day, (I did that with Bailey once a day, and he never got used to me.)
But, I wonder if Frankie’s okay – I don’t even know if he ever walks around on the balcony, between 3 and 8 pm he doesn’t, that’s when I check on him – I’m asleep from 6am to 2pm, so I don’t know what happens during those hours – but I’m a little worried if this is normal behavior for a 3 week old pigeon. Maybe I’m worried for nothing and maybe he is somewhat used to me, but I don’t know a lot about pigeons, so if anyone has any pigeon wisdom, please do share!

Who is the lucky lady who is proud to present her personal best pigeon-in-flight photo yet? That’s right, a lot of ladies, but this is my blog so today it’s me!;)

This was the result of my attempt at communicating with Carlos today but I don’t think I did it right, unless this means “Follow me, I know a rooftop where we can talk more!”:

I bring new pictures, only not of Frankie because the last few (rather sunny) days he has been sitting in such a well covered spot, that I can only see a bit of his side and tail feathers.
Well, only if I get on all fours and am almost lying on the concrete, so that ’s not gonna be a picture you’d want to see.

But I did get to hang out a bit with Carlos, his dad. For the past week Carlos had been awfully quick to fly away whenever I would show up, but today he allowed me to get so close I could almost touch him. He’s surprised with it himself, see?
All pictures have a larger view when you click ‘em.

And this is from Tuesday, Carlos taking off when my presence suddenly reminded him of some errands he needed to run:

My Mom’s 17-and-a-half year old cat, taken on April 7th:

My Mom’s other and younger cat, Mickey, having a little nap on March 31st:

How about that, cats and birds in one post.

Not a lot to report on Frankie today, except that for a moment I thought someone had stolen him when I didn’t find him sitting in the spot he’d been sitting the past 2 weeks. See, what else is a girl to think? Makes perfect sense that I thought someone had climbed six floors up, lifted Frankie from the nest and climbed back down.
Anyway, when I came closer I saw he was sitting in the shades, hiding from the sun.

So, Frankie and I had fun today; I made fun of his hair, he just looked at me; I told him how I have a dentist appointment this Wednesday; he just looked at me and after that we sat together in silence for a while.
Either he’s a good listener or he’s just very bored with me, he hardly moves a muscle when he spots me.

How cute is that, Frankie tilting his head to look up at me, before he got bored with me (bigger & better pic):

Of course we need a close-up! (bigger & better)

It’s all good and well that he’s looking cute, but how are those feathers coming along? After dinner I realized I didn’t really get a good photo of how his feathers are progressing, so after dinner I went back for that. But see, he’s gotten bored by now. (see a little better)

I don’t think it’s right to assume he’s gotten used to me a little, but he doesn’t startle as much at my presence like he used to, which would be awesome, I don’t like scaring tiny things.

I didn’t think Frankie had changed this much since yesterday’s post, but his feathers have grown considerably since then, from a hint of such to something you can actually call feathers. And he’s starting to lose more and more of that yellow fuzz.

Hey look at that, Frankie is starting to look less like a Beatle. I’m not completely satisfied with this photo, I tried various lenses and settings but I just couldn’t get the shot I wanted, but at least it shows the 10th day, where his feathers are starting to make a small appearance, after the 13th or so day it’ll go fast.

Taking pictures was easier with Bailey, he was always sitting in a more visibly accessible spot and not facing the wall so often.

Frankie tried to stand up today, I assume to try and get away from me. Can’t blame him, if I was as tiny as a pigeon’s foot I’d want to run, too. But his legs couldn’t hold him for more than a second.

Original size here.

He was facing the wall, so unfortunately I couldn’t snap a picture of his cute little face.