1/31/17

Well, we finally made it to the last day of January.  It has been a long kind of sad month.  I hope the rest of the year goes better than it has started off.  On a happier note, this is an image of the Sea Oats Grass I was growing in a pot this year.  I couldn't decide where to plant it permanently.  I am going to make a new mostly native plants area by our driveway now that the road construction is done and put it there.  I just love it's bowed stems and the seed heads it produces.  When it catches the light, it's very photogenic.  

1/30/17

So today's image ties in with Saturday's a bit as they were both taken on the same day.  It was a great outing to Konza Prairie and the Bison were quite cooperative at being seen and photographed.  The Bison are fenced in but it is more to keep people out and safe than for the Bison.  They respect the fence and never have issues with it, it does not have to be and is not electrified.  On this day they were grazing very close to the fence and made for great photos.  This image is a fairly good example of the difference between females and males as well.  The females, the two in the foreground with young, have horns that curve in towards their head, the males curve outward away from their head like the one seen off to the right of the image almost out of frame.

1/29/17

So one of my favorite subjects today, trains.  This is the beautifully restored and maintained 4-4-0 American Type locomotive Number 7.  I took this image as it was making it's way around the grounds of the Henry Ford Greenfield Village.  This locomotive operates on coal but you can hardly tell as it is fired so carefully it barely smokes at all as it runs.  There is not much of a grade so that helps as it never has to work very hard.

1/28/17

I was in the archives today and rediscovered some images I had taken a few years back when I had the opportunity to escort a photographer from the Netherlands, Philip Friskorn, on Konza prairie in some research areas not generally open to the public.  It was a great day, the weather cooperated and the Bison did as well.  Sometimes you can go out and not see one Bison but we saw quite a few and some were up much closer than this.  I chose this image because it shows the landscape of the Flint Hills off fairly well and also shows the results after a Spring burn of the prairie.  This was taken in May and the grass was returning quite well.

Note:  A pet peeve of mine is to call them Buffalo, they are not.  The settlers thought they resembled them when they saw them but they have no connection to a true Buffalo.  When publications still refer to them incorrectly it's just laziness and continues the bad information.  I am glad to see more and more referring to them by their actual name of bison.  Rant over.

1/27/17

I felt like sharing a summer shot today.  It's been a long week so I wanted to enjoy some happy Daisies.  These were growing beside my pond early this summer.  They spread like crazy but I enjoy them so that's a good thing.  It would be a pain if I didn't because they escaped out of the actual garden to grow beside the pond like this.  😉  I liked the bokeh that the Lily pads produced in this image.

1/26/17

This is an older image.  We had an Orchid in our office for several years that was cared for by a great guy who knew what he was doing.  He would bring it by when it was starting to send up flower buds, we would enjoy it while it bloomed and then he took it back home and cared for it till it was ready to bloom again.  This is the last big bloom from it and it was quite the burst of beautiful flowers.

1/25/17

This is an older shot that I never shared.  It's kind of creepy and cool at the same time.  This is a nest of spider babies that I had spotted while walking through the yard one day.  I was amazed at how perfectly round the hole was and then also at how many little spiders there were too.  I have no idea what type they are.  I am amazed I got this close to take a photo as I am not fond of spiders to say the least!  😄