zasu

this is a "Daily Deviation" meaning, featured photo of the day at DeviantART today.

when i was in sweden, i actually photographed other children being left alone in their strollers or prams on the sidewalk while their parents sat in cafes or went shopping.

it was shocking to me, but some of the commentators at dA seem to think it's just us wussy americans who are overly concerned about children's safety.

i know that when my husband's niece and her family visited us in the mountains, at the lodge with olympic sized, outdoor swimming pool where we used to live and work, she, my husband and i went out one evening to the bar. i assumed she had left her 2 small daughters, age 5 and 3, in the house with her parents (my husband's sister and brother-in-law), until petra and herbert showed up at the bar, and i asked with surprise, "but where are the kids?"

my SIL and BIL shrugged their shoulders, and the niece said, "at home in the cabin. why do you ask?"

when i said that was dangerous! they just shrugged their shoulders again and looked confused.

i insisted on going home, at which point, we discovered the kids had gotten out of bed, gotten dressed, and were wandering out in the snow, out there in the wilderness where we lived, crying and looking for their mother or their grandparents.

anyway, here is the link to the dA photo in question: http://www.deviantart.com/view/28611702/ be sure to read the photographer's description beneath it.

convo thread on deviant art between me and fangfingers, after i had commented on a comment of his in someone else's account, and, when he jokingly asked if i was stalking him, i told him "apparently we run in the same circles:

OMG... i may have just won a painting from a really good artist on devArt, who works in encaustic - a style i've been really attracted to lately (seeing it in galleries and in magazines).

as long as he accepts my "proof" that i was the 2,000th visitor to his site.

he usually sells his painting for between $200 for very small ones (4 inches by 6 inches), to 4 thousand dollars. the prize is a very small one, but i don't care... it will be the first time i win anything!

well, actually, i won an irrigation system worth a couple thousand dollars once in a boy scout raffle, but the irrigation guy died in a car accident before i could collect the prize. :(

hope nothing bad happens to this guy, though he did report burning himself with encaustic (hot wax and paint) yesterday, and having to go to the emergency room because of it.

uh... well... anyway, hope nothing really bad happens to him :)