10/7/23

 We have been in a fairly bad drought for a while now and it has gotten much worse in the last few months.  My garden didn't do well at all this year due to the heat and dry conditions even though I watered it ever day.  Just nothing like rain.  I kept saying we were going to turn into the Dust Bowl again and when I saw this situation while out bike riding this past week I just had to stop and get a pic.  They were harvesting soybeans and creating quite the dust cloud.  Ironically we got a rain that night for the first time in weeks.  We need a lot more though.

10/6/23

 Happy Friday, TGIF!  To tell you how this week has been, I almost forgot to post this, so TGIF indeed.  Today's image is another of the Monarchs that were visiting the Goldenrod in my yard.   There were 5 of them around and I was able to capture 3 at one time.  The lovely bubbly bokeh in the background made this photo perfect for today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!  Not sure how many flowers or butterflies will still be around after tonight as it is supposed to get near freezing.  Not ready for that.

10/5/23

 One of my favorite grasses is in it's prime right now.  This is an image of my Sea Oats Grass.  In late summer the seed heads turn a golden/brownish color and look lovely when backlit by the sun.  This image is from the group I planted by my Gazebo pond but I also had a surprise this year and I have a group of Sea Oats right in one of the beds in front of my deck that must have been planted by a bird as it is no where near close enough to have been the wind.

10/4/23

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  Today's flower is one of my favorites and it is blooming right now.  I believe this is Hairy Aster.  It is identified by hairs on it's stem which I did not capture in this image.  Correction:  I double checked and this is actually Heath Aster.   There are several types of Aster in our area and you have to look close to tell which one it is.  Hairy Asters bloom in September and October.  Heath Asters bloom during the same time, usually to only 3 feet. They can grow to 5 feet tall.  I find them very photogenic.

10/3/23

 Forgot to set the time for this to post when I created it.  Sorry it was late.

This is an older image, from late this spring of a Baltimore Oriole.  This is a female and she had come to enjoy the grape jelly we put out for them.  There are days that we can fill these 3 times when they are really hungry.  Plus this past year we had, at least, 3 pairs.  They are fairly difficult to get a picture of, this was photographed through the door.

10/2/23

 Happy Monday!  I love the new Zinnia varieties.  They used to be just solid colors as far as I remember anyway but lately they have these striped or flecked varieties.  They remind me of candies.

10/1/23

 It's October, wow the year is flying by!  It's also Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image is another that I took with my drone at the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion of locomotive 353 and it's train.  There is a companion video on YouTube HERE which is a continuation of last weeks video.  We change shifts here at this depot.  To the upper right, just out of the photo is where they are loading and unloading passengers as well.