Today's image is another that I did of a tree I had seen in Hershey Park Botanical Garden in Pennsylvania. I was inspired by a poster I had seen in an Extension Agent's office. This has an infrared treatment done to it, along with black and white. I really liked how it turned out, hope you enjoy it as well. 😁
It's Friday, TGIF! Friday's Are Bokehlicious as well so I chose this image for today. I thought the wall behind created an interesting bokeh. This is a Painted Lady Butterfly visiting my Sedum this past September with a bug of some sort incoming as well.
Today's image is one I hope I get to see again this year. I grow Milkweed that is the Monarch Butterfly's main source of food for it's young. I had several caterpillars this year which was very cool. I hope they grew into the Monarchs I saw in my yard later on. I have yet to find a cocoon.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! Today's flower is one I enjoy finding, Fringe Leaf Ruellia. It can grow very low to the ground so often is hidden by taller vegetation, I think I see it most where it has been mowed, usual height is 4 to 20 inches. They usually bloom June through September. It is also known as a Prairie Petunia and is very drought hardy. Livestock will eat it as well.
This bird is one that I always enjoy seeing because it means summer has come to our area. This is a Dickcissel named for their call. They are colored similar to Meadowlarks but are smaller and chunkier. When they migrate, they assemble into very large flocks. It's classified as part of the Cardinal family but is actually difficult to determine it's closest relatives.
Happy Monday and happy new week! It's also a double digit day today! 😁 Today's image is the last flake that I took images of during a snow on the 28th of December. The snow was beginning to break up very badly as it was windy and that made it difficult to take images because it was moving the flakes around as well so this is not my best effort but I thought it turned out fairly well. Hopefully I will have had another opportunity over the weekend for other images as we were supposed to get snow as I type this. This image is a 6 image stack.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! I have a very steamy image for today. This is my Accucraft Live Steam locomotive after it had been repaired this past year for leaky cylinders. I was operating it on a friend's layout during his steam up event. The steam out of the smokestack showed up very well against the sun setting sky.
I was out for a walk recently and there was a spectacular sunset that was wonderful to watch it change and lasted longer than I thought it would. It began with lovely light hues of orange and yellow but ended up with these vibrant reds and oranges. I was lucky to be in a good spot for this color without a lot of houses around. I thought the clouds kind of gave this image a 3D effect.
It's Friday, TGIF! Today is supposed to be bitterly cold, a high of only 15 F so I wanted something that would warm me up and this image I took of my Rudbeckias this past summer does the trick. I had first seen this variety of them at a Transportation museum in St Louis and loved them so I was very happy I was able to get some seeds to grow and flower. This image also has some lovely bubbly bokeh so is perfect for today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious here on the Blog!
I always look for these guys when I bike ride in their area. There are a couple of very large limestone rocks at the end of a driveway and in the summer, I can usually find at least one of them sunning on it. I got really lucky this past year and was able to capture both the male and female Collared Lizard. The a bit brighter green male is on the right. I look forward to seeing them this year.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! Today's flower is another of my very favorite wildflowers, Queen Anne's Lace. It is named for the red spot that is usually found in the center. For some reason, my group of them did not have a very prominent spot this past year. It is in the Parsley family and usually blooms June to September. I find them very photogenic.
Today's image is of another bird I enjoy capturing. This is a Killdeer, named for the sound they make. They are fun to watch as they run along the ground and will sometimes play injured to draw you away from their nest. On this day it was just hanging out in some weeds near a stream on a day in March.
Happy Monday and happy new week! While I was looking at photos from Hershey Gardens in Pennsylvania for yesterday's image I found I had a number of butterfly images from there that I never shared. This is one of them, a beautiful Common Banded Peacock Swallowtail Butterfly. These are found in eastern and southern parts of India.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog. Today's image goes back to last May and playing Live Steam trains at a friend's home. He had a get together and this locomotive is owned and operated by one of the people who were in town to play as well. It's a lovely black paint scheme of Southern Pacific locomotive 4449 which is also known as The Daylight. This is a G scale train.
I was at a meeting with a Kansas Extension Agent last week and saw this beautiful photograph in her office and was inspired. This is my version of that photo which is actually fairly close to how the tree was captured in the photo. This is a tree from Hershey Gardens in Pennsylvania with a few treatments on it including an infrared one.
It's Friday, TGIF! Friday's Are Bokehlicious and I have a very lovely bubbly bokeh picture for today. This is an image of my neighbor's Lily in bloom from this past June as well as yesterday's image.
Thinking back to summer days and sightings of Dragonflies. This is a Common Whitetail Dragonfly I captured on a bike ride in late June. I like the wing patterns and shadow it made.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! Still starting off the year with my favorites so today's flower is Sulphur Cinquefoil. It usually blooms in May and June. This one I have successfully gotten to grow in my yard. It can grow to 30 inches tall, this one was only about 15 inches tall or so. Deer like it so I have it protected with a cage around it.
Starting off the new year again with another of my favorite birds to capture in the wild, the Great Blue Heron. I enjoy capturing these birds partially because they are just interesting birds but also because they are such a challenge, at least in my area. This is how I normally get to capture them, they are flying away from me. 😏
Happy Monday and happy new week! Today's image is another of the snowflakes I was able to capture during a short snow last month. This is a 7 image stack.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! Today's image is another from my trip to the Cumbres & Toltec last summer. I quick took this picture when we were in Antonito, Colorado, the final stop on our trip. I was going to get on the bus for the trip back to Chama, New Mexico. The train ride and lunch stop takes about 6 hours and the bus ride back is only about 40 minutes. The train ride is much more fun and scenic.
I felt like revisiting some summery scenery today. Looking forward to it being warm all the time again. This is from my trip on the Cumbres & Toltec Rwy. We were coming up from Chama New Mexico towards Osier Station in Colorado to have lunch. This is one of the lovely views of southern Colorado you experience from the train.
It's Friday, TGIF! Today's image is of a couple of Bumblebees that were enjoying my Cosmos flowers. There is a bit of my favorite bubbly bokeh behind them so sharing for today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!
I felt for a butterfly today and what could be better than a couple of Monarchs. 😊 These were visiting my Autumn Sedum in mid September.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog, the first one of the new year! I want to start off the year with one of my favorites. This is Nipple Cactus, named for the small bud like parts of the main cactus. It normally blooms in May and June. It likes dry rocky soil so I hope mine survives again this winter as I need to move it. Where I have it planted has become a depressed area for some reason and several plants have grown taller and block much of the sunlight. I love the flowers it gets.
On my bike ride on the last day of December and 2025, I was able to see and capture an American Kestrel. I had thought I had seen one every now and then but was glad to know that there actually is still at least one around. I captured it as it took off from it's perch on an electrical wire.
Happy first Monday of 2026 and happy new week! We had a couple of light snows in December that didn't amount to much but were good for capturing snowflakes that were fairly good to photograph. I captured this one on the 13th and it is a 4 image stack. I could have used more but it turned out fairly well I thought. I was figuring out my settings for the best results and the flakes didn't last long.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog and the first one of 2026! I always have to start the year off with my favorite railroad, the Cumbres & Toltec which I got to ride on again last summer. I took this image at Windy Point, the highest point on the railroad. This was the day after our ride while I was chasing the train for photos. They stop here on the way up from Chama to rest a bit and usually fill with water as the train and crew have been working hard up in elevation most of the way. During this time they were having to use a water tower a bit further on as the stand pipe here was not functioning.
I was able to end the year with a bike ride. The weather has been so crazy, one day snow, the next it's in the high 50s F. Another oddity, the elk was back in her pasture. I wish I knew the story behind her being there. The fences are not high enough to keep her in and how she ended up there in the first place. A while back she was out across the road in a field and I had been worried that possibly a pack of coyotes would take her out or something but there she was, safe and sound.
It's Friday!, TGIF! It's basically the end of my vacation. 😒 It's been a nice 2 weeks. Starting off the years first bokeh Friday with an image of my lovely Fuchsia that was blooming in October with some nice bubbly bokeh behind it. Friday's Are Bokehlicious here on the Blog!
Happy New Year! Hope this year is better than the last. It's a double digit day today as well. 😁 I'm starting off the new year with a beautiful sunrise from mid December. I want to start the year off with some beauty.
