Thursday, May 31, 2018

5/31/18

This is an image of a new to me variety of Lilacs.  It has very small flowers that smell very strongly.  I am hoping they are the type that re-blooms.  The leaves look right to me from photos I have seen.  


Wednesday, May 30, 2018

5/30/18

Have you heard of Chip and Dale?  How about Chip and Rail.  😄  A cute little Chipmunk that was running between some rails and popping up between.


Tuesday, May 29, 2018

5/29/18

I captured this image last night in not the best conditions.  It was essentially into the sun.  After doing some work to it, I liked the Hi Key effect.  This is a Magpie in a Pine Tree.


Monday, May 28, 2018

5/28/18

Posting a bit late today.  I photographed these Poppies this morning and thought them appropriate for the day.  Today is Memorial Day and the Poppy has been a symbol of remembrance, especially for WWI.  I wish my Poppies would bloom like this but we have no Spring and they don't like the heat.


Sunday, May 27, 2018

5/27/18

I liked the look of this pot steaming over an open flame during an event at the Spring Valley Historical site.   It was Ham and Beans but I didn't get to have any.


Saturday, May 26, 2018

5/26/18

Sharing some tiny little mushrooms I captured a while back.  If they were an inch tall, that was a lot.  All they needed was a tiny toad.  


Friday, May 25, 2018

5/25/18

The Baltimore Orioles have been back and visiting the Grape Jelly feeder quite a lot.  There are at least 4 males and 2 females.  Hard to tell exactly because I don't see them all at one time.  I captured this male on the pole for the Hummingbird feeder and I liked the bokeh behind him.  


Thursday, May 24, 2018

5/24/18

The new land has a new pond and I have been working on cleaning it up and restoring it.  I have spent many hours and pulled out overgrown Cattail debris by the Bobcat bucket load.  I did leave a few because I do enjoy them and think they add to a pond.  One reed was being enjoyed by the first Damselfly I saw of the year.  


Wednesday, May 23, 2018

5/23/18

I took this image just a couple days ago.  The Missouri Evening Primroses are blooming like crazy in my area of Kansas.  It's so lovely to see the pops of bright yellow.  I captured this lovely group of 4 and in the background is a Coneflower preparing to bloom as well.


Tuesday, May 22, 2018

5/22/18

This is an older image from the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan.  I have so much to share from there if I want because that place was just filled with very neat displays of all kinds of steam engines and transportation and just Americana type items.  I love old gas pumps and thought this display was very neat with the sleek gas truck in it as well.


Monday, May 21, 2018

5/21/18

So yesterday and into today was rather gloomy so I decided to start the week with a nice bright photo.  I shot my Hibiscus which is a Double Frilly type against the window last week for a high key effect.  It is actually a stack of 2 images for better focus.


Sunday, May 20, 2018

5/20/18

I have a miniature Lilac in my Garden Railway and it was in bloom this last week.  I shot my Live Steam Accucraft C-21 locomotive near it for a spring train photo.



Saturday, May 19, 2018

5/19/18

Woohoo, we finally got a decent rain last night, an inch and it didn't come too horribly fast.  We needed it so badly I was beginning to forget what rain was like.  I took this image last week of a sunset out over our new land.  If you look closely, clicking on the image to enlarge it helps, you can see the very top of the Gazebo we acquired with the land.


Friday, May 18, 2018

5/18/18

On the new land there are a couple of Lilac bushes that are a bit different, smaller leaves and the blooms are smaller but more abundant and smell wonderful.  From what I can find, they may be a type that re-blooms throughout the growing season.  That would be wonderful.  I captured my second butterfly of the season enjoying them as well one evening.  This is a beautiful male Tiger Swallowtail.  


Thursday, May 17, 2018

5/17/18

This is an older image I found and thought I would share.  I captured it a while back while out on a walk at Konza Prairie.  Not the best capture as I couldn't get very close but clear.  This is the state bird of Kansas singing it's heart out on the prairie one evening in early June.  It's a Western Meadowlark.



Wednesday, May 16, 2018

5/16/18

Happy Hump Day.  This week is flying because I have lots to do and not enough time to do it in.  Sigh.  With the harsh very early Spring freezing temps and little rain we didn't get a lot of Tulips producing in my yard.  This is a shot of some lovely yellow ones with red accents that were able to bloom.


Tuesday, May 15, 2018

5/15/18

This past Labor Day at the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion, someone had this beautifully restored Indian motorcycle there.  My dream is to own a vintage Indian someday.  The only drawback...price.  They are incredibly expensive.  It's nice to dream though and admire others.  


Monday, May 14, 2018

5/14/18

I know I just shared a Lilac photo recently but I really liked how this one turned out so you get another.  This is of a variety on the new land.  I like how the petals of the flowers curl backwards.  The Lilacs are a reminder that it is still Spring even if the temps say it is summer.  


Sunday, May 13, 2018

5/13/18

My image today goes back to Silverton Colorado and my trip on the Durango & Silverton Railway.  I took this from the train I was riding on just before we pulled out to head back to Durango.  The locomotive is from the last train of the day and one of it's crew was posing for someone with a huge smile on his face.  Great people running the railroad and beautiful scenery so a great ride to take if you ever get the chance.



Saturday, May 12, 2018

5/12/18

Posting late today because I was out doing some steamy stuff in this early summer heat.  91 F in mid May.  Sigh  This is a sunset from late last summer of the State Lake near me. 


Friday, May 11, 2018

5/11/18

It's hard to remember it's still just spring when we are having temperatures of 90 F and even a bit higher these days.  The Lilacs made it through our late extreme deep freeze amazingly and are blooming but the blooms don't last long due to the heat and then no rain either.  They are pretty and smell great while they are there though.


Thursday, May 10, 2018

5/10/18

The Salvia is up and blooming.  If you want an easy to care for plant that really attracts bees and butterflies, Salvia is a very good one.  I shot this image the other day of a Bumblebee living up to the reputation of Busy As a Bee.


Wednesday, May 9, 2018

5/9/18

We are still experiencing summer temps, makes me worried about what July will be like.  I captured this image on a cool spring day in Missouri.  A male Goldfinch in an Ornamental Pear tree just starting to get his bright colors back after the dull ones they have for winter.


Tuesday, May 8, 2018

5/8/18

I mentioned last week that I was hosting Transport Tuesday over on Google +.  I found this shot that I forgot I had from my trip to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan.  This is one of the original Wiener Mobiles.  They have a Hot Dog Stand there in the museum and had this on display in front of it.  Not sure I would have wanted to drive this as the visibility looks pretty bad with it but a fun piece of history.


Monday, May 7, 2018

5/7/18

I found I have two Crabapple Trees on my new land.  They were budding when the deep freeze hit and I was afraid they wouldn't bloom.  They proved me wrong and were hardier than I expected.  The blooms did not last long because we have gone right into summer with 85 F degree days but they were lovely while they lasted.


Sunday, May 6, 2018

5/6/18

My image today goes back to last summer and my trip to Colorado and the Durango & Silverton Railway.  The train was at Silverton waiting for passengers to re-board.  You can get off and visit the town but I chose to watch and photograph the trains coming and going.


Saturday, May 5, 2018

5/5/18

The Baltimore Orioles are back.  I put out my jelly feeder that a friend made for me on Wednesday evening and I saw my first visitors this morning.  I have at least 2 males and 1 female coming for jelly so far.  I captured this male as he was leaving after his grape jelly snack.


Friday, May 4, 2018

5/4/18

We acquired some new land this past winter.  I had been looking forward to spring to see what all was growing on it.  I discovered there is a Maple tree and I captured these baby Maple leaves in the evening sunlight. 


Thursday, May 3, 2018

5/3/18

I visited a friend last week who has quite the green thumb when it comes to Orchids.  He has several that will re-bloom for him and they are all quite pretty.  They were all blooming and I was able to get some photos.  This is a lovely vibrant pink one.


Wednesday, May 2, 2018

5/2/18

My image today is of a Loon on a lake in Minnesota that I was able to capture this past summer.  It was the closest I had ever been to one, and only the third time I had ever seen one in real life.  It swam around rather lazily and let me photograph it for a while one evening.


Tuesday, May 1, 2018

5/1/18

I am the new host of Transport Tuesday over on Google + so there I will be sharing transport related posts on Tuesday.  I probably won't share that type on this blog every time but I thought this one was a rather interesting subject.  The Railway Express Agency was the UPS or Fed Ex of it's day.  It operated from 1918 to 1975 when airplane transportation of packages finally forced it out of business.  This was a beautifully restored REA truck that I saw at the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion last year and had to photograph.