12/31/18

Well, we have reached the end of 2018.  Not the best year for me personally and I am glad to see it go.  Hopefully the upcoming year will be better.  We always hope that but lately does not seem to be the case.  I guess we shall see though.  I thought this image was fitting.  I realized I have shared a very similar one but still thought it was fitting.  A sunset on Konza Prairie from this past June.

12/30/18

The year is almost over.  I decided to share my favorite railway once again for the last Sunday of the year.  This is the Cumbres & Toltec train heading back to Chama New Mexico.  I captured it here just coming off the Lobato Trestle.  This trestle had to be repaired a couple of years ago as there was a fire on it possibly started by fireworks.  Not sure they ever found the exact cause.  It had to undergo some major repair work but they kept the original look of it while strengthening it up to more modern standards. 

12/29/18

This is another image from the beautiful snow we had in November.  If it always snowed like that I wouldn't mind it so much.  It clung to the trees very beautifully but did not stick on the roads.

12/28/18

It's the last Friday of the year.  I like sharing an image with good bokeh on Fridays and images of butterflies are some of my favorites to shoot so I thought this was a perfect image for today.  This is a Monarch that was visiting my Echinacea or Cone Flower on the first day of July this past year.  I love the creamy, dreamy background the bokeh created.

12/27/18

Just a shot of a female Cardinal that I liked sitting in the Mulberry tree from a while back for today.

12/26/18

This is a lovely Serrated Evening Primrose I found growing near where I live this summer.

12/25/18

An image I created for today.  Hope all who celebrate have a .....

12/24/18

Happy Christmas Eve to all who celebrate!  I was taking photos of my Christmas Village.  When looking at the images, I thought with a little tweaking it appeared as though it was a village on the water like a lake.  

12/23/18

My image today goes back to Rollag Minnesota and the large scale 14 inch Wagner locomotive that I get to play with a couple times a year.  This was after one of the days run and we had put it to bed in it's new roundhouse home.  The area was all nice and cleaned up as well so I decided to take this image from the turntable looking in.

12/22/18

Happy day after the Winter Solstice!  I was bad and forgot about it yesterday.  We are on an uphill climb with light for the next 6 months now. Our weather has been weird this year, bitter cold and snow in autumn and lately in the 40s and 50s.  This is an image of a stream near where I work that I shot on the way home during a very clingy snow in early November.  It made lovely winter wonderland scenes like this.

12/21/18

I like to share photos with great bokeh on Fridays so I thought this was appropriate.  I was playing around with my Poinsettia and got this image.  Only 3 days to Christmas Eve and I still have lots to do.  Hope you are more prepared!  😅

12/20/18

Yikes, only 5 days to Christmas!  Time is flying.  I am not even done with cards yet!  Anyway, my image today is another capture of a Blue Jay I was able to get in Minnesota over Thanksgiving break.  Sometimes they pause just long enough before coming to get food that I can catch a shot.  I am lucky when it's clear.  😁

12/19/18

I haven't shared a waterfall in a while.  I visited a couple in Colorado late in May of this year.  This one is called Treasure Falls and is located outside and east of Pagosa Springs.  It's an easy one to get to as it is not far off the main road.  It has a nice easy walk to it.

12/18/18

My image today goes back to the Air Show at Great Bend Kansas.  The main show was over and these planes were sitting On the Flight Line waiting to move out again to do a flight demonstration for the veterans who were attending.  In the row are the P-40 Warhawk, the P-51 Mustang, the C-45 Expeditor and, I think, a Thunderbolt.

12/17/18

Only 1 week to Christmas Eve!  Yikes time is flying.  My image today is a 2 image focus stack to bring out detail in this angle macro.  This is a bloom of my Gazania flower.  I am trying to over winter these indoors.  They bloom almost constantly if kept well watered.  Gives some nice color to winter.

12/16/18

Today's image of the Cumbres and Toltec train relates to Wednesday's wild Iris image.  The area I was waiting for the train with the wildflowers was above the railroad grade and had a nice long view of the train.  While waiting to get this image I was taking pictures of the wild Iris growing in this spot.  I captured the train as it was coming around the bend to start heading north up the grade to Cumbres Pass.

12/15/18

Well, it's going to be like spring for several days.  Temps in the 50s.  I already saw some Daffodils coming up in a spot by my pond from another warm snap.  Not good.  I like the warmer weather though.  So the photo.  I had seen these signs on several trips but had never taken the time to stop and photograph it.  I like the old style look of them.  I was able to capture a bit of the beautiful scenery I was viewing as well on the way.  I was actually heading back to New Mexico when I got this image after a day of visiting waterfalls.  It looks fairly sunny and nice but not long before this I had driven through some torrential rain and wind.  They have been having some crazy weather as well.  I did get a shot of the NM sign as well but this one has more character.

12/14/18

Last year we had quite the explosion of Painted Lady butterflies.  I am not sure where they all were this year but I did not see very many at all.  I did see and capture this one in early September as it visited the new Echinaceas or Cone Flowers I had planted. 

12/13/18

This image is actually a manipulation.  It's a composite of 2 images that I took and put together.  I put the Hummingbird together with the Hibiscus flower and thought it worked rather well.

12/12/18

There's only about 8 or 9 more shopping days till Christmas!  Yikes.  I seem to be into flowers this week.  My image today is of a wild Iris or Mountain Iris that I captured in New Mexico in late May while I was chasing the Cumbres & Toltec Train.  There were large groups of these in the area where I was waiting for the train so I grabbed some shots of them.  They were lovely to see from the train as well.

12/11/18

A nice day today and tomorrow.  Weird weather lately.  Of course I have things to do so I miss the nice weather but still glad to have it.  My image today is of some lovely 4 O'Clocks blooming  that I had growing in a pot.  I love how the light seems to make the centers of them glow.

12/10/18

It's been nice to see the sun these days and that the days are a bit warmer.  I was playing with this Orchid image yesterday instead of doing Christmas things.  😁  I changed the background to a black one because I think it shows off the flowers better.

12/9/18

My image for today is from the morning of my train ride on the Cumbres & Toltec Railway back at the end if May.  This was only the third day the railroad had been in operation for the year and it was a beautiful, clear day for a train ride.  This image is at the Chama New Mexico station.  They were prepping the locomotive to move and hook on to the train that would pull us to Antonito Colorado.

12/8/18

Here is a view of the Sunflower field I found in late August still in lovely bloom.  When I was looking through the images I captured I found that this one had a couple of insects in it as well.  There is a bee and also what is likely a small butterfly as I saw a few sitting on the heads while walking around.

12/7/18

Yikes, what a week.  Very glad it's Friday.  We have seen the sun a bit this week so that has been a plus at least.  I captured this image in Missouri while there for Thanksgiving.  I love watching the Blue-jays and trying to capture them.  They do not sit still very long when they are close up.  I have seen them sit for a long time far away.  They seem quite camera shy, so I count myself lucky when I can get a good shot of them.

12/6/18

I felt like something summery because it is just cold out and mostly dreary.  This is a Bumblebee on my Salvia from this past May.

12/5/18

We finally saw the sun today, a week later.  Now it will be gone again for awhile.  Sigh.  Nice while it lasted.  These are some white Asters that are on my property blooming this autumn.  Usually you see the pink/purple variety so it was nice to find these.  They are a wildflower found her in Kansas.

12/4/18

Posting late, sigh.  An image from the Great Bend Air Show I went to this past September.  One of my favorite WWII airplanes making a fly by of the crowd, a P51 Mustang fighter plane.

12/3/18

We have had such dreary weather for several days now, it's getting old.  I want to see the sun.  I decided to share something bright and colorful since it is so dreary.  This is a Monarch butterfly visiting a Zinnia flower in my garden this past summer.  

12/2/18

Today's image goes back to a much warmer day in late May once again.  I was riding through the New Mexico landscape on the way to Colorado aboard the Cumbres & Toltec Railway.  

12/1/18

It's the first day of December and we are having rain.  Interesting weather this autumn.  We have had more snow already this autumn then we had all last year.  I think Mother Nature is making up for our drought this summer.  I took this image during the lovely clingy snow we had in early November.  This is another view of my pond in snow with, what I thought were, some interesting reflections in the water.