Rain (149/365)

TIME: 7:58 PM
PLACE: Front porch looking west
SUBJECT: Sky & power lines

We received a pretty hard down pour just now.

It’s still light out and the sky looks pretty cool.

Summer Fountain (141/365)

TIME: 9:18 PM
PLACE: Downtown
SUBJECT: Veteran’s Memorial Fountain

I love the way our city’s fountain looks in the summer evenings.

Fence and Trees (123/365)

TIME: 8:04 PM
PLACE: Around town
SUBJECT: Sunset

It was still light out after my meeting was over…I love this time of year.

Evening Clouds (037/365)

TIME: 4:45 PM
PLACE: Highway 55
SUBJECT: Clouds

To round out yesterday’s morning sky photo, here is photo of the cloud formations seen in the evening sky on the drive home.

Supposedly snow shall be on the ground for tomorrow morning’s commute.

Crossing fingers that it won’t happen!

View From My Seat (023/365)

TIME: 12:35 PM & 1:39 PM
PLACE: Highway 40, North Carolina
SUBJECT: Smoky Mountains

We (HH, me, StellaDella and my dad) left today for Fort Jackson to see MonkeyBoy graduate from Army Basic Training.

The Husband did all of the driving – I did a lot of sleeping.

I did manage to stay awake through the Smoky Mountains. I wish it wasn’t winter, bet it’s beautiful all in green.

Pink (014/365)

TIME: 12:59 PM
PLACE: Poinsettia Wonderland Open House, Millstadt Gardens
SUBJECT: Poinsettia

HH and I attended this last year; this year we brought StellaDella and my dad along for the viewing.

There were many plants to see…

And also a few snow covered Rosemary trees…

Christmas will be here before you know it!

Camping–Day 1 (136/365)

“It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent.”
― Dave Barry

TIME:  10:32 AM to
PLACE:  Camp Butterfly, Farmington MO
SUBJECT: Scenes from Camp

Stella and I went camping with the Girl Scouts.
It was raining when we arrived.
And it rained off and on pretty much all day.


Stella found this guy in the bathhouse.


During one of the breaks in the rain, it stopped long enough for the girls to go canoeing.
Stella and her friend Devin paddled while I rode in the middle.

After we returned to shore, they gathered clay and mud from the shallow water.


Stella gave my feet a mud treatment.

Stormy (135/365)

“If there was a terrible storm outside, but somehow this dog lived through the storm, and he showed up at your door when the storm was finally over, I think a good name for him would be Carl.”
Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

TIME:  2:35 PM
PLACE:  Work
SUBJECT:  The weather

We had a big storm blow in this afternoon.
The wind blew strongly, it rained heavily and in about 30 minutes it was over.
It’s supposed to rain all weekend.

Painted Sky (002/365)

TIME:  5:02 PM
PLACE:  Target parking lot
SUBJECT:  Sunset sky

It was tough going back to work.  I’ve had about 10 hours of sleep combined the last couple of days and I am ashamed to admit that I did some head-bobbing at my desk.  But I made it through the day and had to stop by Target to pick up some kitty litter and some shelves to help organize my kitchen cabinets on the way home.  When I left the store I was treated to this view. 


TIME:  5:09 PM
PLACE:  Frontage road
SUBJECT:  Trees against the sky

I turned the car around so I could go back and take this shot.  A very pretty way to start the new year.

Christmas Craft (345/366)

TIME:  9:54 PM
PLACE:  Kitchen
SUBJECT:  Tonight’s Brownie craft

I took the easy way out this evening for our Brownie meeting.  Instead of working on a badge requirement that would have entailed work on my part, I just had the girls paint wooden trees and snowmen, then decorate them with Perler beads and sequins.  ‘Tis the season!
~*~*~*~
Yes, I am way behind on my daily postings.  I have the photos, but need to do the blogging part.  Or maybe I won’t.  I might just do my catching-up off the blog while putting together my annual book of photos.   Not sure, yet, but I know this right now…I’m going to bed.

Apple Picking (253/366)

StellaDella and I went apple picking with the Girl Scouts today.


Even DramaQueen came along.

The summer drought was hard on this tree.


But most were loaded with apples.


We took the tractor back to the main building.


There we saw a turkey.


And pigs with curly tails. (SD got to throw an apple in their pen to feed them.)


But I think picking the apples was the best part.

No Rain (208/366)

“And I don't understand why I sleep all day
And I start to complain that there's no rain.”

Blind Melon. "No Rain." Blind Melon. Shannon Hoon. Capitol, Seattle, 1992

TIME:  8:17 PM
PLACE:  Front yard
SUBJECT:  Western sky

The ubiquitous “they” said we had a good chance of rain today.  Well, “they” were wrong.  It’s still dry.

Forest (173/366)

“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.”

Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish Essayist, Poet and Author of fiction and travel books, 1850-1894)

TIME:  5:57 PM
PLACE:  Boy Scout Camp
SUBJECT:  Woods

MB has been at Boy Scout camp this week.  Tonight was Parent Night.  HH had a ball game to coach so it was just me.  I left straight from work in  the Miata.  When I arrived I found out that earlier in the day, while MB was chopping wood, he had suffered heat exhaustion.  They cooled him down and replenish his fluids and he recovered just fine.  In fact, if they didn’t tell me about it I wouldn’t have guessed that he had issues earlier.

 
TIME:  7:56 PM
PLACE:  The road
SUBJECT:  View from the car

I left and enjoyed my drive home with the top down.  I head back on Saturday to pick up him and his gear – I’m going to have to use the Jeep for that, so I have to take “top-down” time while I can.

Leaves, They Are A Changin’ (258/365)

“Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.”

~Robert C. Gallagher

TIME:  6:14 PM
PLACE:  East end of town
SUBJECT:  Tree with changing leaves

On my way to StellaDella’s soccer practice after dropping MonkeyBoy off at his, and DramaQueen at a friends (just call me Mom’s shuttle service), I saw something that made me stop in my tracks…this.  The leaves are beginning to change.  And it’s the middle of September.  Already.  Crap.

Which Way Is Up? (184/365)

“The eye sees not itself
But by reflection.”
 
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Brutus, in Julius Caesar, act 1, sc. 2, l. 52-3.

TIME:  9:30 AM
PLACE:  Foley Park
SUBJECT:  Lake shoreline

StellaDella wanted to go fishing this weekend, so HandsomeHusband bought her a fishing pole and this morning, MonkeyBoy and I went with them to fish.  It. was. hot.  And as you can see, the lake was extremely still.  I didn’t think it would be a good morning for fishing and it wasn’t.  They had a few nibbles, but no bites.  SD was upset that we didn’t catch anything, but we told her that she would go again.  She asked if we could go again tomorrow.  Not that soon sweetie.
~*~*~
Did you guess correctly?  The bottom picture is right-side up.

Flying Saucer Cloud (176/365)

Bugs Bunny: Hey, doc! Do you happen to know anybody that's interested in buying a slightly used, uh, flying saucer? It's only got three billion miles on it.

The Hasty Hare. Perf. Mel Blanc. 1952. Warner Bros. Pictures. DVD.

TIME:  8:00 PM
PLACE:  6900 block of West Main St., looking west
SUBJECT: Clouds

I took StellaDella and MonkeyBoy to see Cars 2 at the early afternoon matinee today.  There I introduced SD to the joys of eating Milk Duds and popcorn at the same time.  She thinks I’m a genius. ~*~*~  Our oven is on the fritz, so it was a good excuse to go out to eat for dinner.  We ate at a local restaurant and while walking back to the car, we saw this cloud formation…”Look! A flying saucer cloud.” was what SD said.  That’s a pretty good description of it.

Project Zwolf Revisited (038/365)

“I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work”

Thomas Alva Edison (American Inventor who, singly or jointly, held a world record 1.093 patents. In addition, he created the world's first industrial research laboratory, 1847-1931)

TIME:  8:43 AM
PLACE:  Work
SUBJECT:  View in the parking lot

No exciting pictures today.  I’m trying something similar to the Zwolf2010 from last year.  While I don’t consider my attempt last year a failure, I will admit that I wasn’t pleased with how my project turned out.  So, I’m adjusting - this time, instead of a monthly photo, I’m taking a weekly photo.  My subject will be this view at my office parking lot.  I think a weekly photo will capture the changes during the year better than a monthly photo.  I’m going to wait until I have about a quarter of the year done before attempting to post it anywhere…that is, if it turns out half-way decent this time.

I Love Autumn (307/365)

"I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colours are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and its content."|

Lin Yutang (Chinese writer and inventor, 1895–1976)

TIME:  5:39 PM
PLACE:  Neighbor’s yard
SUBJECT:  Leaves

Why must the colorful fall leaves only hang around for such a short period of time?  I love the variety of hues that autumn brings and wish they could stick around much longer than they do.  All too soon the only thing we will see are the bare branches reaching for the sky.

Striped Fields (289/365)

 
“To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. Nature, ch. 3 (1836, revised and repr. 1849)

TIME:  6:10 PM
PLACE:  Mine Haul Road
SUBJECT:  Cleared field

The new refrigerator arrived today…it is a whole 2 cubic feet larger than our old one.  It also feels larger because I tossed out all the fuzzy, green, rancid items when transferring food from the old fridge to the new one.  Always a good way to make more room in the refrigerator!  I couldn’t get an interesting photo of the new appliance, so after supper, I went for a drive to see what there was to photograph.  I drove some back country roads and found this field.  I liked the tracks that were left on the ground after the harvest.

Scout Camp (190/365)

 
“A lot of parents pack up their troubles and send them off to summer camp.”

Raymond Duncan

TIME:  5:18 & 6:13 PM
PLACE:  Boy Scout Camp
SUBJECT:  MonkeyBoy at his tent and the Lake

Well, he survived the week.  And it wasn’t until Thursday night that he was homesick enough to have to borrow a leader’s cell phone and call home.  Tonight was Family Night ~ I ended up going by myself and was able to spend some time alone with my boy.  He said he had a good time while at camp ~ he swam, canoed, did archery, rifle shooting, kayaking and earned several merit badges.  We had the option of taking our camper home this evening.  To avoid driving back tomorrow (and due to the number of things we have going on Saturday morning), MB ended up coming home with me tonight after the ceremonial campfire ended ~ around 9:45pm.  He was so tired.  He told me that he didn’t sleep well all week; he kept waking up at night because he wasn’t in his bed and missed me and HH.  He quickly fell asleep in the car, but woke up when I pulled into Mickey D’s for some ice cream.  After eating said dairy dessert, he went back to sleep and slept until we arrived home.  He stumbled out of the Jeep, retrieved his pillow from the back and went straight upstairs to his bed.  Unpacking will have to wait until tomorrow.