Happy Monday and new week! We had a neat and rare occurrence on Saturday. We had some fog in our area which created Hoar frost! It wasn't as large as some I have seen in the past but it made for some nice photos of a few things. This is some Bittersweet that I captured in my yard that looks like it is sugar coated. This is a focus stack of 2 images to get more detail.
It's an interesting number date today. 😀 It's also Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! Today's image goes back to October and Abilene Kansas. On October 7, I was in Abilene helping out at the Heritage Days Festival and the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad was operating it's steam locomotive 3415. It's a former Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Pacific type locomotive which means it has a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement. It was operating for it's last weekend before it has to undergo it's 15 year boiler rebuild as required by the FRA. This is it on the way back to the station when the locomotive is pulling the train. When it heads out it is on the front of the train and then moves around to the rear for the return trip.
We had a snow last weekend that was the most snow we have had at one time for quite some time and was quite a surprise due to it coming in November. We ended up with almost 7 inches of it. Most was kind of crappy and broken or rimey but I did get to capture a few that were nice. This is one that I processed out of 4 images that turned out fairly well even though it had a bunch of rime on it.
Happy December 1st! Happy Friday as well, TGIF! Today's image is one that I got while I was at the in-laws in Missouri. They have Blue Jays that visit for peanuts and water. The Bradford Pear tree provides a lovely backdrop with some great bokeh. Sharing this image today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!
It's the last day of November, only 25 days until Christmas! For today's picture, I saw this guy about two and a half weeks ago on a bike ride. It was sitting across the road from a fairly large pond. It may have been coming from a pond a little way behind it. It was nice and bright and fairly large and kind of surprising to see at this time of year. It's a Painted Turtle.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! In my area I usually only see Heath Asters around. While out riding one day in October, these caught my eye as I rode past due to their purple color. These are Aromatic Asters. They bloom in September and October normally. These were very short due to growing along a sidewalk and being mowed fairly often. They normally are 6 to 18 inches tall and these were only about 2 and spread out. They spread by creeping rhizomes.
Today's image is of my first Kestrel sighting for this season. I was very happy to see one back in our area. I have heard that they are having issues and could become very endangered soon.
