Less Is More Week 71 ~ One Layer Flourished Card

Wishing you a Sense-A-Tional Sunday #2!

As some of you know, I treated myself to a new box of Prismacolor Precious Pencils.  I couldn't wait to use them and this is the card I made.  I am entering it in The Chrissie And Mandie Simply Less Is More Week 71 challenge, which is to make a one-layer card and use a flourish.  With relish.

It may be more grapes than flourish, but there is flourish.  Ish.  And it does make a perfect one layer card.  And it was a good image for practicing pencils.  If you haven't yet linked a card for this challenge, check it out.  It's always a fun one!

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I know you've been wondering how Lizzie is.  I don't know.  I haven't seen her since she was spotted without her tail and scurried off.  I need to ask Mrs. Google how long it takes to grow a tail.  I hope she's fine and just off in the vinca, tail-growing.  Not Mrs. Google, Lizzie.

Lest you think the backyard is now boring, ah ha, you would be wrong.  There is a family of white-tailed kites in the neighbor's tall evergreen that I haven't told you about.  They've entertained us for years.  They can be quite noisy at times with their squawking, but they are amazingly beautiful creatures.  Can you call a bird a creature?  Maybe you can when they are members of the hawk/raptor family.  Here's a nice picture from the Inter Net, because I don't have a camera that can get this up close and personal.

Isn't that stunning?  That picture was taken in Minnesota, but it looks like the ones we have here.  Below are pictures I took.  In the first picture, you can see the roof of my playhouse in the foreground and the tiny white dot in the top of the tree is a kite.

 

They are so spectacular when they take off swooping from the tree top!  Or when you get a straight-on view with binoculars of their black-rimmed red eyes and sharp beak!

When we first became aware of the kites, they were nesting in the evergreen across the street.  I'm not sure if they'd been there for years and we hadn't been paying attention or if they were new to the neighborhood.  It happened to be the same month that our only child went away to college.  Talk about symbolic!  As our nest emptied, we became aware of, and enchanted with, a pair of kites who were filling theirs! 

We could see their nest with binoculars from the deck in our back yard.  Mister can tell you that I would sit for an hour or more watching them every day after work as four little birds appeared.  Luckily we have fences so the neighbors across the street couldn't see me sitting there and think I was staring into their house!  (When I think back, it's a wonder I never fell off the deck, given my propensation for falling.  The legs of my chair had to be at the very edge in order for me to see around the corner of our house and up into the tree across the street.)

Two months later, I came home from work to find the neighbors had cut down the evergreen.  I was devastated. 

It took six long years, but the kites finally came back to where they are now, on this side of the street, and I'm enchanted all over again. 

There's always something awesome going on naturally.  I mean as regards to nature. 

Please enjoy ~ and, as always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Paper:  PTI white

Stamp:  Mostly Animals, Grape Vine 970-S9

Ink:  Memento tuxedo black;

  Prismacolor Pencils

Corner chomper