Coastline Treasures

With both parents working, spending time with the children can be a struggle. That means that parents must make time for their kids. Kids who get more attention at home are more likely to become successful and productive adults.

There are many activities that parents can do to increase the bonding time they have with their children. One way to do this is to build model sailboats together. Building a wooden model ship takes an extended period of time and concentration. Working so closely with your child on such a project will bring the two of you closer together.

The most difficult area of taxidermy is mounting fish.  As fish dry, the scales turn brown leaving little color.  The taxidermist not only has to recreate the anatomy of the fish but to also color all over the fish.  Fish taxidermists are artists with skill in drawing, painting, coloring, and sculpting.  Not all these skills are necessary for other types of taxidermists.

Depending on whether your fish lives in warm water, cold water or salt water will determine how it is mounted.  Warm water fish that have tough skins and large scales are able to be skin mounted; the fish is skinned preserving the skin and mounted over a manikin or the fish’s body filled with material that hardens to form its shape.  Cold water fish have thin, smooth skin with fine scales making mounting more difficult; they are usually mounted over manikins.  Most salt water fish are entirely recreated with synthetic materials; cast in a mold and recreated in coloration to appear like a real fish.  Fiberglass reproductions can last for years.  No matter what method you use to display your catch, your fishing décor will certainly make a statement and be the center of conversation.

There are many ways to transform a garden into a warm, inviting outdoor living space. A garden must have its own personality. This can be created by choosing the plants and flowers you want to grow. The décor and garden furniture must be chosen carefully as well.

A hammock can be perfect for that lazy afternoon retreat. An arbor, the most common of which are cedar arbors, can bring magic to the garden. Flowering vines can complete an arbor’s look. A bench can be attached to the harbor for it to be a cozy place to read a book or meditate.

One can easily take the humdrum yard and make it exhilarating.  Take a few minutes and examine your yard.  When entering your yard, what do you see first?  What’s next?  Do you have any accent items such as stepping stones, benches, birdhouses?  Do they make an impact?  Are they too small or too big where they are placed?  These are just a few questions you should ask while exploring your yard.  Once you take inventory you can create a plan to make changes.

Sometimes it is best to remove the items that you have and start over or you may choose a few items to keep and discard the rest.  Be sure that where ever you place your items, they can be seen and make an impact on the area. Things to consider are; their size in relationship to the plants, competition with other decorative items such as stones, water elements, pots and so on.  Groupings will make an impact as long as they have elements in common such as texture or color.  A favorite item to include is metal yard art as its texture lends a nice contrast to plants.  Whether you like shiny metal or rustic aged metal; both will look spectacular when transforming your yard.

While on a trip to Savannah Georgia we went on a bay cruise.  We cruised along the shoreline watching the pelicans diving for food and the pods of dolphins swimming frantically.  There was a shrimp boat in the bay casting off some of its days catch into the waters.  These dolphin figurines were such a delight to watch against the beautiful sparkling waters and skyline.

The dolphins raced around the boat jumping up into the air trying to seize these delicacies.  They showed off their physical abilities while prowling for this food; jumping, twisting and turning to be the first one.  They were not afraid of the fishermen or the boat as they had come to know them quite well.  I wondered if this was a daily occurrence for these playful sea mammals.