Thursday, March 31, 2016

3/31/16

Well, they took all our rain out of the forecast except for a tiny possibility today.  Drizzly this morning.  Dreary too.  Anyway, on to the image.  I decided to share another from the archives from a trip to West Virginia.  This is Elekara No. 204 in the Blackwater Falls region.  It was quite lovely and I did a long exposure image to get this look.  It was shady which helped as I had forgotten my filter on the trip.


Wednesday, March 30, 2016

3/30/16

Warm but dreary day and also windy since it's warm.  Sigh.  I decided on something from the archives today.  Here is a cute little Chipmunk that I was able to see and get photographs of as he stopped along his route to pose for me.  I saw this little guy in Rocky Mountain National Park.  



3/28/16

Wow, somehow I missed posting on Monday.  Oops.  Ironic too for those who know the significance of that day.  I was busy that day but my bad.  :-)

Anyway, I wanted to post this image I was able to capture of a  Black Capped Chickadee that sat still in my in-law's Ornamental Pear tree long enough for a photograph.  I thought the blooms made it look framed rather lovely.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

3/29/16

I have had this image for a while and decided to share it today.  It's of a lovely grass that some friends of ours have in Lawrence.  I hope to find some of this to buy when I go plant shopping this year, it's quite lovely I think.  It's called Sea Oat Grass and I darkened up the background on it to make the seed heads stand out better.


Sunday, March 27, 2016

3/27/16

Well, another cold morning that's stressing everything that bloomed so early due to the exceptionally warm weather.  This image warms me up by thinking of warm locomotives and warmer days.  :-)  This is our train on one of our trips to the Cumbres & Toltec railroad stopped at Osier station for lunch.  Lunch is included in the ticket and is always quite good.  I hurry through it though to get back outside to take images of the train.  Our train was headed to Chama, New Mexico and pretty soon the train to Antonito, would be pulling in.  I shared an image a while back of the next train headed to Chama and the Antonito one sitting at opposite ends of the station.  They were small in the vast landscape.


Saturday, March 26, 2016

3/26/16

Posting a bit late today as I was busy and then my computer did not want to wake up.  Guess it was lazy.  Anyway, this is a cool fungus I saw out in PA.  Actually the hubster spotted it first.  It was really this bright yellow looking, I did not do anything to it.  It was clinging to a broken branch of a tree lying on the ground.



Friday, March 25, 2016

3/25/16

I am posting early because I have a day off today.  So far a cold but sunny morning.  Calling for rain but I shall believe it when I see it.  We need it very badly though.  The snow did not help much.  My image for today is a lovely group of Daffodils under the River Birch tree in the yard.  I played around with the image a bit in a new processing program I have.  


Thursday, March 24, 2016

3/24/16

Well this morning did not feel like Spring.  We had about an inch of snow on everything.  I started out my day by wiping out on the sidewalk.  Sigh.  This is an older shot and not sure if we will see visions like this since the Lilac buds were covered in snow.  This is a Dusky Wing Butterfly that was enjoying a Lilac bloom.  These types of butterflies are cool and seem to shimmer in certain light.  I don't see them very often.


Wednesday, March 23, 2016

3/23/16

Continuing on with my Spring celebration even though it feels more like summer out there.  :-)  I took this photo out in Pennsylvania last week while on a walk.  I think I got Poison Ivy on my wrist from taking this image as well.  It was the only time I remember any possibility of it and as there were no leaves to tell it was there, easy to do.  Anyway, these are the blooms of some Wild Strawberries.  I loved the pink highlights in them.


Tuesday, March 22, 2016

3/22/16

I'm celebrating Spring this week though today will seem more like Summer as we are supposed to be in the mid 80s.  Sheesh.  One extreme to the other.  This image is of a Hyacinth bloom from a gift from my mom-in-law.  I shot it on a black Background in the sun.  My Hyacinths are blooming in the yard already as well.  I was going through photos the other day and saw that the first Daffodils didn't bloom last year until the 25th so we are quite early this year as I had one open on the 11th.


Monday, March 21, 2016

3/21/16

Happy Spring!  We finally made it officially!  Today is supposed to be nice and warm as well so it's definitely Spring like.  My image for today is of a Goldfinch looking quite cute and like it's saying hello that I captured yesterday.  It appears to be a male that is changing back into his bright yellow colors now that Spring is here.


Sunday, March 20, 2016

3/20/16

Another more typical winter day.  Quite the frosty morning.  My Daffodils seem to be taking the cold OK.  Not sure about the Apricots.  Sigh.  Anyway, thinking warm, steamy thoughts.  This image comes from the Durango & Silverton Railroad in southwestern Colorado.  The D&S is a sister railroad to the Cumbres & Toltec in that it is part of the original Denver and Rio Grande Western line and it's remaining locomotives were divided between the 2 railroads.  The D&S runs through very picturesque scenery along the Los Animas river and I caught this image of the train as it very slowly headed onto the Highline high above the river.  The Highline was made famous in an image from William henry Jackson that I hope to re-create someday.  His was taken from down by the river.  I spotted a possible path when we were there but did not take the time to do it.


Saturday, March 19, 2016

3/19/16

Back home to what is probably more normal temperatures for this time of year but not good as things are budding and blooming.  My Daffodils looked a bit sad in the 20 degree temps.  :-(  Hopefully they will still be lovely.  This is another flower of Spring but one that is not yet in bloom.  I got to photograph these because they were part of a gift.


Friday, March 18, 2016

3/18/16

Traveling today so this is posting while I am on the road.  I mentioned I would probably share more from the Magnolia tree on the Geary County Historical Society property and here is one.  I liked the flowers against the bark of the tree.  The rough texture behind the smooth flowers made for an interesting contrast.


Thursday, March 17, 2016

3/17/16

This is an image I was able to get last year, the third in a series of Honey Bees enjoying Apricot blossoms.  It's supposed to get pretty cold at night and the Apricots are blooming.  I hope they are set on enough that there will still be fruit.  This spring has been too wacky.  


Wednesday, March 16, 2016

3/16/16

Posting late today, I've been busy and visiting.  This is a photo I took a while back of a small waterfall near my dad's house in Carlisle, PA.  This waterfall comes from a stream that runs under a street and down into the river.


Tuesday, March 15, 2016

3/15/16

Spring has really sprung in my town.  Our Historical Society has a Magnolia tree on the property by a historic home it owns.  It was in full bloom last week while I was there for a meeting so I took some photos of it.  This is obviously one of the whole tree.  I imagine I will be sharing one or two of just the blooms.  :-)


Monday, March 14, 2016

3/14/16

My sister-in-law got me a lovely gift this year of 3 months of flower bulbs.  The last set is here and blooming.  It's been so warm out some of the flowers are blooming outside already as well.  Anyway, the last set is a mix of several different bulbs.  This is a macro image of one of the Tulips.  I had no idea what color they would turn out to be but they turned out a beautiful yellow with red accents.


Sunday, March 13, 2016

3/13/16

Today's image goes back to my friend in Minnesota and his large scale steam engine.  He has a 12 inch scale Operation and some beautiful locomotives.  This one is modeled after the William Crooks which is on display in Duluth Minnesota.  It was built by the same person who built his other 2 locomotives and is quite beautiful and detailed.  He runs his locomotives on wood and they smell so nice when running.



Saturday, March 12, 2016

3/12/16

Since it has been so warm out I felt that I could share something from a very cold day.  I took this image a while back of some Holly Berries covered in frost.  I liked that the frost made them look like they were coated with sugar.  Reminded me of little red candies.  :-)



Friday, March 11, 2016

3/11/16

So I'm back to my spring flowers.  I shot this image this past week.  My Crocus is blooming like crazy already.  This was one of the bigger groups that I captured.  I liked the creamy bokeh behind of the blah dry plant stuff and dirt and then the pop of purple.


Thursday, March 10, 2016

3/10/16

Spring has really sprung around the area here but I decided to share a photo from last summer.  This is a Sulphur butterfly on a Maximilian Sunflower bloom.  Sights like this are going to be hard to find around my home as there is a lot of road construction going on that has destroyed a lot of the natural habitat for them.  Very sad, the Bee balm and Fleabanes have been bulldozed away.  I intend to plant more things than usual this year to try and give them things to feed on.  Hopefully they will find it and I can get some photos.  


Wednesday, March 9, 2016

3/9/16

Well that was sad watching the rain move north yesterday and dissolve into nothing by the time it got here.  Now our next best chance is Friday but not holding my breath.  I am taking a break from Spring flowers to share one from back when we got rain.  The new development of houses behind me opened up one nice feature, a lovely natural limestone waterfall.  There is a small pond behind the limestone step feature that fills up when it rains and then produces a lovely waterfall.


Tuesday, March 8, 2016

3/8/16

Well, no sign of winter returning, right now anyway.  It's not even supposed to get below the 40s for the foreseeable future,  Just crazy.  So the flowers are rapidly on the rise.  This spring flower was actually a gift.  It was a bulb in a vase of water only which was a lovely idea until it started to really bloom and then got very top heavy. I had to take this photo of it while it was lying down on a piece of black felt.  :-)  I love flowers on black and thought this one worked perfectly for that.


Monday, March 7, 2016

3/7/15

Wow it was warm this morning!  Crazy for so early in March.  Wish we could get some rain since it's all dreary anyway.  Sigh.  I am in a monochrome mood again.  This is one of my Crocus that is already up and blooming.  Crazy early Spring.  Anyway, I decided to process in monochrome and I liked how it turned out so here you go.


Sunday, March 6, 2016

3/6/16

Today is Steamy Sunday on Google + and almost literally for here as it is still winter and going to be in the mid 70s!  Our chances for rain have dropped quite a bit too.  Not as many now so not holding my breath that one will actually produce.  
Warm weather makes me wish for days of doing train stuff like heading out to my favorite tourist railroad, the Cumbres & Toltec in Colorado and New Mexico.This is an image from one of the trips there of locomotive 483 in front of the oldest wooden coal tipple in the US as it was moving around the yard to prep for the next days runs.


Saturday, March 5, 2016

3/5/16

Another beautiful day in-store today.  Some chances for rain next week as well.  They are not big chances but hopefully one of them at least will provide some.  I think it's only due to the lack of rain that flowers aren't up fully already.  It's been so warm and they are rising pretty quickly even without moisture.  This tulip bloom is from last year and is a macro shot of one of my mini tulips in full bloom called Little Red Riding Hoods.  They are fairly old in my garden and don't always come up and bloom.  I got a couple last year and will see what happens this year.


Friday, March 4, 2016

3/4/16

Well, another warm day but still SO dry.  When the wind is blowing it is like the old Dust Bowl days of Kansas.  Allergies are even kicking in for people due to this.  My image is from this past summer of one of my Mandevilla blooms.  I loved how this turned out with the muted color background, almost looks B&W but I did not do any special processing.  I have this plant inside for the winter and it is shooting out new vine growth that is climbing up the door it is near and sometimes seems to reach out to try and grab me as i walk by it as well.  The vines are following the light I am sure but makes it seem alive.  :-)


Thursday, March 3, 2016

3/3/16

I am so disappointed that we couldn't even get a drop of rain.  It's bad enough we can't get snow but sucks that no rain either.  I'm just feeling blah and uninspired as well and too darn busy everywhere.  My mood is putting me in a monochrome type of mood I think.  I do love this image though.  I took this in West Virginia in Babcock State Park of the Glade Creek Grist Mill.  I thought this view of it worked quite well in B&W.  It's a very picturesque place.


Wednesday, March 2, 2016

3/2/16

Well, nice weather for the foreseeable future.  Keeping fingers crossed that Spring Break week is the same.  This image today comes from last summer and is of a Cabbage Worm Butterfly enjoying the Salvia I have planted.  Salvia seems pretty popular with the butterflies.  There almost always seems to be a butterfly of some kind on it which is a nice thing to see.


Tuesday, March 1, 2016

3/1/16

Well, it's the first day of March and more normal weather now so is this "in like a lion or lamb"?  :-)  Anyway, my image today goes back to my trip to Mount Evans in Colorado and the Bristle-cone Pine Forest located there.  These cool, very old trees have such neat twisting shapes with lines of color in them.  They are quite beautiful and interesting to photograph.  They are very determined as well because they only grow at very high altitudes, almost at the tree line on mountainsides.