TROTTIN' ABOUT TOWN WITH HAIRY TROTTER

Guess who went to Railroad Park Dog Park on Labor Day? Check out Charlotte and her pals around the water cooler! People and pets had a great day at the park!

Since it was a little cooler, I found a frisky little squirrel eating away on a sweetgum seed ball. I took several pictures of him choo-choo-chooing away! The fallen fruits are also called ankle biters, burr balls, cuckoo birs, pinkelponkers, and sticky balls! The sweetgum tree has five-pointed star-shaped leaves and its wood is used is used for lumber, furniture, and railroad ties!  Its seeds are eaten by birds, mice, rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks.  Sweetgum trees produce a fragrant gum resin, also called liquid amber because of its golden sap, and is a relative of witch hazel, the medicinal plant.

Hey, Hamilton, I think your mother is whistling for you! I love to rib my porky pal! The oil painting Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother, famously known as Whistler's Mother, was painted by American-born painter James McNeill Whistler in 1871. Anna McNeill Whistler posed for the painting while living in London with her son. There are several  stories surrounding the making of the painting itself; one is that Anna Whistler acted as a replacement for another model who couldn't make the appointment. Another is that Whistler originally envisioned painting the model standing up, but that his mother was too uncomfortable to pose standing for an extended period.

In 1997, Whistler`s Mother had a leading role in the comedy movie, Bean - The Ultimate Disaster Movie. Mr. Bean is a well-meaning, but clumsy and destructive guard at the Britain's Royal National Gallery in London. To get rid of Mr. Bean at their gallery, his employers send him to the United States to handle the transfer of the painting to a Los Angeles gallery. When he arrives at the gallery, he happens to sneeze on the painting. He then tries to wipe the spray off the face of Whistler's Mother, but he isn't aware that his handkerchief is full of blue ink. Now the face of Whistler's Mother is covered with blue ink. After a second try to remove the ink with some chemicals, the face of the Mother vanishes from the painting and is just a big white spot. To cover this up, Bean uses a poster of the painting, glued to the frame with some gum. At the official opening, it now looks like nothing really happened to the face of Whistler's Mother and nobody knows that Bean destroyed the valuable painting! Let's watch:

Like I always say, "whistle while you work" and it will make the day go by faster (maybe one short and two long whistles, just to be different!)