Turns out the dragon and his rider are friends, not foes.

I'd borrowed Marianne's 'Gnome on Dragon' in the hopes of taking some photos of it with my gang at the Ruins Garden. So yesterday, even though I wasn't feeling especially well, we packed everyone up and headed off to to Guildwood. 

The Ruins garden is full of beautiful flower gardens, all of which I wanted to avoid in my photos, so I was on the lookout for something a bit 'woodsy'. Well, I found the perfect spot with the amphitheatre pillars in the background, set up my dolls, and got down to take some photos.

Suddenly I started to feel burning stings all over!  Seemed I'd laid down on a red ant colony! Usually I roughly pose my dolls where I want them, go lay down some distance away, and direct Jan to do the final positioning. But this time I wasn't going to wait. Who cares if Milo was weirdly posed, or Ringo's clothes were all bunched up, or Nami's headband had fallen down over her eyes, I wasn't prepared to stay there and get even more stings, so there's just this one photo...

With arms burning from the ant bites, we moved to a different spot, 
and took a couple of group shots with the pillars. First the girls....

....then the boys.....

I had wanted to photograph a little story about meeting the gnome on the dragon, 
but ended up just taking a few more single shots.

A few more photos from this week's short photo shoot, before we were rained out...

The mice invited Smuzhka to their home, where they threw a 'Welcome' feast in his honour.

Smuzhka couldn't believe his eyes!  So many wonderful things to eat!

"I told you, we are civilized here."

Mr. Ropuha, the Toad, couldn't decide what to have next....

He decided on some juicy watermelon....

Smuzhka was so happy. "I will never need to go scrounging through garbage again!"

Yesterday is was overcast, and perfect to try some doll photos at the Ruins Gardens, so after lunch we headed over, hoping the rain would hold off long enough to take some photos. We found a nice deserted spot at the base of an old bank facade, and set up my little troupe.

 Nami had volunteered to take on the role of little 'Celtic Maiden', 
replacing Elin who was heading off to the spa.

The park's 'resident cat' came over to see what we were doing, and after a quick glance 
at my little group, and realizing we didn't have anything for him to eat, he left.

I managed a few more shots, but then it started to spit, so we quickly put the dolls 
back in their boxes.  Then the skies opened up and we were thoroughly drenched 
by the time we made it back to the car.

Smuzhka was hungry after his long trip, and being a raccoon, he did what raccoons usually 
do - he went to check out the garbage to see if there was anything good to eat....

The mice found him knee-deep in kitchen waste. "What in the world do you think you 
are doing? We don't go through the garbage here! We are civilized creatures!!"

"But I'm so very hungry!"

So they invited him to dinner at their house.

Well, reno number two for this summer is finally underway. 
This time it's our 'Family Room', where I do all my sewing

 The room has been emptied, but that means every other room is full. Upstairs looks like a hoarder's paradise. The main floor isn't too bad.  All the plants in the kitchen went outside, so I could use the space for my sewing, with windowsills piled high with supplies.....

My computer/doll room, which was redone last month, now serves as a temporary 
'living room' with TV, so we don't have to do without for weeks. We've decided to 
wait with having the furniture reupholstered, until we go away on holidays.

My collection of 'Zeedo Zoo' birds ended up on a kitchen window sill, where I spotted them having a conversation with the two parrots who live there. It looked too funny, so I had to take a photo.

Of course, all this means I'll be majorly distracted from any real sewing or creativity for 
the next while. Maybe it will be a good time to catch up with photos and computer work.

The children and other critters gathered to welcome Smuzhka home. 
They had been waiting for so long, and now he was finally here!

Byuri presented him with a beautiful bouquet of flowers from her garden....

He came with 14 mm glass eyes, which completely filled his eye holes. I like a bit of white showing, so I switched down to a 12 mm pair, which was almost the exact same colour. He looks like he's been air-brushed, and some of the black on his hands is already coming off. One of these days he needs a more realistic paint job.  In fact, all my little animals do. He's not very pose able, and his tail keeps falling off. I think the magnet is too small for such a heavy tail. But at least his face stays put, and doesn't pop off like it always does on the Toad and Mice.  Even so, I think he's rather cute.

I'm going to have to give some thought to a name, since his Russian one is a tad hard to spell.

The girls came over this morning. Teagan brought one of her dolls, as well as her doll tent and camping gear.  Natalya brought her doll and ponies.  And Rachel brought some of her play food.

We decided to have the dolls set up a campsite in the backyard. Teagan's doll got busy trying to set up the tent, but Natalya's doll was being lazy.......probably didn't get enough sleep last night...

Teagan's doll was struggling with the tent, while Natalya's doll decided she wanted a snack....

"How about you help me with the tent?  There will be plenty of time for snacks later."

Setting up the tent went a lot better with the two of them, and soon they had it all set up. 
Then all the ponies arrived and made themselves at home.

The ponies especially enjoyed Rachel's watermelon....