No time to blog...

Well, I thought of going back in my time machine to post additional blogs, seeing as though it has been such a long time since you have heard me speak, but I am too busy for that. This will have to do, for a while anyway.

This is the month that, since my "neighborhood" will be filled with cars and music, I will have the opportunity to slip unnoticed among the crowd to enjoy the festivities. Beaker has already expressed that he is too frightened that he may get stepped on, so he will stay at the workshop and view visitors from his usual hidden vantage spots. I am trying to get him acclimated to masses of people, but he takes my lead and keeps his distance. One-on-one communication always seems to be our favorite...

My adventures in fossil-digging were extraordinary and I plan to share my discoveries with you, possibly in May. Please visit www.pennypickles.org to see what special events I have planned. For those of you who entered our little guessing contest as to where I was, you will be receiving an email soon.

Don't forget to visit my workshop! Beaker and I will be looking for you...

Painting parasols

I understand that last weekend's parasol-painting event at my workshop was hugely fun and successful... I'm so very sorry I missed it.

My very good friend, Miss Eve Craig, performed admirably as the hostess.

Since I am in New Zealand at the moment, attending the Waikato Hot Air Balloon Festival, my mind is filled with other things... I have been acting as a crew member and have been very busy. Writing will have to wait...

Eggs at the workshop

For some reason I can't stop pondering on the perfectness of the egg.

Eggs have been around forever, maybe before. They comprise the very beginnings of life. Eggs come in colors. You can eat them.

I just keep finding myself thinking about eggs.

Recently I conducted some experiments with the whites (or albumen) of eggs. Did you know that if you beat the albumen vigorously, it foams and increases in volume 6 to 8 times. That is what makes cakes like sponge cake and angel food cake rise and taste so delicious. (Beaker and I are getting hungry just thinking about it. We have what you call "a sweet tooth", meaning we sure love sweets!)

I love the feeling of an egg in my hand. It fits very nicely in my palm. Not the easiest thing to carry around, as I discovered when I slipped it into my lab coat pocket and leaned over my microscope. That's what made me decide to find egg shapes made of other materials... something not quite so breakable.

When you visit my home workshop, look in my little gift shop to find my choices.

You can purchase some of your very own...

P.S. Ask Debbi in the gift shop about some remarkable "magic eggs" that are sold for your pleasure. They are fascinating!

Random thoughts of the day...

As I was making my breakfast this afternoon (I was too busy this morning, of course), I became fascinated with the oval smoothness of the deep brown egg in my hand. Naturally I needed to explore colors of many eggs, so I began my search...

The shell's color comes from pigments in the outer layer of the shell, and, in various breeds of hens, may range in color from white to brown. The breed of hen determines the color of the shell. Breeds with white feathers and ear lobes lay white eggs (you DID know that hens have ear lobes, didn't you?), and breeds with red feathers and ear lobes lay brown eggs. The Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire, and Plymouth Rock are breeds of hens that lay brown eggs. Brown egg-layers tend to be larger than white egg-layers and they require more food, so brown eggs are usually more expensive than white eggs.

I will be writing more on this subject, and will probably bring some experiments and demonstrations into the workshop for my visitors to enjoy... perhaps in March??? You'll just have to check back....

Too busy tonight...

I would love to have the time this evening to write my thoughts, but I am in the middle of my time-light-photon experiment right now... perhaps I will more fully explain the concept in a future post.

Web logs...a new thing for me to test...

Well, now...these web logs (blogs) seem to be right up my alley! Can't wait to play with this....