12/24/25

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog and it is also Christmas Eve if you celebrate.  Today's wildflower is not native to Kansas but is very Prevalent in pots during the Christmas Season.  The plant grows wild in Central America and Mexico.  The red leaves are not the flower, the flower is the small yellow centers that develop.  The red leaves are actually Bracts as well and not true leaves.  Natural colors for Poinsettias are red, pink and white or mottled colors of these.  The other colors you may see, like blue, the petals have been dyed.

12/25/24

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  It's also Christmas today if you celebrate.  Today's image is of one that is a wildflower but not here in my area, but grow wild in Mexico and Central America.  A lot of times people thing the flower is the red but those are actually just leaves as well as the green.  The flower on this plant is just starting to emerge in the center of the main red leaves of this image.  This is a Poinsettia that I purchased last year and kept throughout the year.  It goes outside during the summer and then I bring it back in when it gets cold out and set it in a sunny window and it turns back red and re-blooms for me.  Another easy care plant.

                                            Merry Christmas!

12/24/24

 It's a double digit day today!  😁  It's also Christmas Eve for all those who celebrate.  Sharing another of my Christmas ornaments.  This is one I got from my mom which she painted as well.  Has 2 of hers and mine favorite things, Christmas and a cat.  

12/20/24

 It's Friday, TGIF!  Tis the season so I was doing some artsy pics with my Christmas decorations.  This is an image of one of my Nutcracker soldiers and a rocking horse.  The horse is one of the very first decorations I ever bought for myself so it is about 40 years old now.  The Christmas tree lights provided some lovely bokeh so perfect for today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!

12/25/23

 Happy Monday and happy new week!  Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, it's Christmas day!  Today's image is looking back towards the entrance to the Grand Plaza where the light show was.  It was all quite beautiful and magical looking with all the lights and decorations.  

12/24/23

 Happy Christmas Eve to those who celebrate!  It's also Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Sharing something a bit different for the day.  High above your head in the KC Union Station near the model trains that were on display and over the vintage train ride that was available for children was a Christmas train.  It had Santa sitting in it and waiving and he was animatronic but looked incredibly lifelike which didn't really come through in the photo, I don't think.  Anyway, the train was a nice looking realistic steam train I thought.

12/23/23

 It's a double digit day today!  😀  Today's image is one that I took on the way home from Union Station.  We stopped in Lawrence KS to visit with some friends and on the way to their house we stopped and saw the Santa Fe train in the park.  It was nicely lit for Christmas to appear as though it is moving and the smoke was flowing.  The locomotive is one that will probably never run again but it is kept looking nice with paint so the rust is kept more at bay and makes for a nice display.  I have a very short video of it HERE.

12/21/23

 Out in the main area at Union Station, it was quite decorated up for Christmas as well.  This was a group of trees that greeted you as you enter with Mickey Mouse dressed as a railroad engineer.

12/20/23

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  I am going to do something a bit different since it is the Christmas Season and highlight a different area's wildflower.  The Poinsettia grows natively in Mexico and South America and it grows in moist ravines as a shrub on rocky hillsides.  It was named for Joel R Poinsett who popularized it while working as a minister to Mexico in the late 1820s.  Many people unfortunately, throw away their plants after the holiday season is over but they can be kept for quite some time.  They supposedly need special care to return to their red state but I have never done anything special with mine and they have always turned back red for me and re-flowered.  The flowers are the very small yellow parts, the red are actually the leaves.

12/19/23

 When you are in the light show at Union Station there is a water fountain show.  They have quite a number of fountain spouts that shoot up jets of water in different amounts and directions in time to Christmas music.  It's pretty impressive and was quite lovely to watch.  I have a short video here where you can see a bit of the show.  Wish I had caught a bit more of the end.  Ah well.  It can be seen HERE.

12/18/23

 Happy Monday and new week!.  It's the week leading up to Christmas if you celebrate and hope you have your Christmas shopping done.  😅  I am going to celebrate the season by sharing some images I took on a visit to Union Station in Kansas City last week to view their light show and model railroads.  This first image is as you entered the light show.  It reminded of walking through a stargate if you were a fan of that show.  

 

12/30/22

 It's the last Friday of the year, wow, it flew by.  Because Friday's Are Bokehlicious, I am sharing this photo for today.  Since it is still the season, these are a couple of my Christmas decorations that I have had, almost since I was out on my own more years ago than I would like to think.  😂  They have some lovely bubbly bokeh behind them created by the Christmas tree lights.

12/24/22

 Happy Christmas Eve to all who celebrate!  Happy Saturday to everyone else.  😊  This is an image of a lovely Santa that I have on the tree from my mom. Hope you have been good and Santa comes to visit you tonight. This image has some great bokeh in it as well and it's not Friday but bokeh is good any day!

12/23/22

 It's Friday, woohoo, TGIF!  It's been a wild couple of weeks and it is now the start of my vacation.  Today's image is of one of the locomotive Christmas Ornaments that have been made and given to me by a friend of mine.  I chose this image for today because of the season and, well, trains, and also because of the lovely bubbly bokeh.  Friday's Are Bokehlicious!

12/25/21

 Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!  Happy Saturday!  Today's image is the last one for my holiday bokeh theme and an appropriate one for me.  Another of my mom's ornaments of Santa with a cat.  A lot of people don't appreciate cats and, no, they are not like dogs, but they do appreciate you and show affection.  Ours is sometimes too affectionate, almost needy in her old age but I am thankful to still have her around.  Hope you all got what you hoped Santa would bring and have a joyous and safe holiday.

12/24/21

 Happy Christmas Eve to those that celebrate!  It's on Friday this year and Friday's Are Bokehlicious even though this has been a bokeh filled week of posts.  Today's image is a whimsical Santa just ready to pop down your chimney with lots of bubbly bokeh.

12/23/21

 I love Nut Crackers.  I have a few that are larger free standing ones.  These are a trio that were my mom's.  I love the short one with the wild hair.  The tradition of Christmas Nutcrackers started in Europe quite early and came to be more the type we know in the 15th & 16th Century.  In German tradition, they are symbols of good luck and protect the home.  These 3 are on the door side of my tree protecting my house.  😀

12/21/21

 It's a double digit day!  😊  Today's ornaments contain one I have had for quite some time and then another that was my mom's with a cat.  I was given the one on the left as a gift from a friend, it's a German one and is somewhat representative of my profession.  The other one I just think is cute.  

12/20/21

 It's Christmas week so I am going to do something a bit different this week.  This week is going to be a week of whimsy and bokeh and Christmas.  I always say Friday's Are Bokehlicious but bokeh is good any day.  To start the week off is a whimsical cat ornament.  I have a lot of ornaments from my mom and this is one.  We both shared a love of cats.  Cats are in quite a number of the ornaments on my tree.

12/31/20

 Happy New Years Eve!  It's been a long and weird year.  It's been very stressful as well and a lot of times we probably felt like we needed what is in the photo.  It's been a sad year too with the loss of so many, I have now lost 2 friends to the virus.  The photo is to represent a toast to the new year coming in though, not as a reminder of what we have been through.  I very much hope that it is a better one for us all and that we can get back to a bit of normalcy and fun.