Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

The weather is cooling off and the bird activity is heating up!   More birds are coming to the feeder and luckily we have black sunflower seeds ready!   I want to share today’s birds with you.   Two Mountain Chickadees came to visit today and since we have not seen them for quite a while, I was excited!    They have white eyebrows which differentiates them from other chickadees.   I love to look for those field marks and they are very handsome!   Remember, the details make the difference!   These birds are tiny and flit through the high branches of our pine trees looking for seeds from cones.   They often hang upside down to gather insects and seeds – very acrobatic!   This winter they may also eat suet and peanut butter so I’m getting ready.   It is very funny to watch them shell a sunflower seed.   They usually hold it between their feet and hammer it apart with their beak!   Not to be outdone, the White Breasted Nuthatch also visited.   Talk about handsome with the sun hitting his w

Who isn’t drawn to fall leaves?   Colors changing, shapes drying, and there is a certain fragrance in the air.   As a kid, I remember jumping into a huge pile of leaves enjoying that crunching sound they made.   So when I walked along our sidewalk and looked right at a group of dried leaves hanging on the tree, I had to pick them.   They were perfectly grouped and hung together gracefully.   What a lovely necklace they would make! The stages of a leaf Studying the leaves, I noticed the variation in sizes and the variation in twists and turns.   I noticed the way they were attached to the center stem.   They sat on my desk for a couple of weeks and I would pick them up and look carefully at them trying to decide the best way to create them in copper.   Finally I made patterns of 3 sizes of leaves.   I cut them out of a copper sheet. Then I experimented with annealing (running the copper through a torch flame until the metal was cherry red and cooling them in water) and I loved the re

I miss my Bobcats!   After living in Tucson AZ for 25 years, Bobcats were just part of my yard.   A wash (slightly depressed path where water ran when it rained very hard) ran behind my house with no fencing and was a corridor for a lot of wildlife.   On hot summer days just after I watered down the flagstone patio, a mother Bobcat would bring her cubs and cool off.   Somedays, she would come to drink from the small pools in the stone and stretch out by the back steps.   I loved watching from inside my enclosed Arizona room while I created jewelry.   These are wild animals that seldom bother humans and in Arizona we’ve learned to coexist!       Bobcats are found at all elevations, especially in rimrock and chaparral areas, and in the outskirts of urban areas where food is generally available.   My house was in the Catalina foothills and a perfect place for them to visit.          They can jump 12 ft. high and are often heard walking on the flat rooftops of the houses or curled