Ruby Tuesday

At a local museum is this 1952 Crosley electric car. It was owned by a man who drove it every day. With today's gas prices, he would have been laughing all the way to the bank!
Happy Ruby Tuesday and thanks so much to Mary/the teach for keeping this great meme going.
Click on over to her site http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com to see lots more RED.

Macro Monday

It's Macro Monday again, and I haven't posted any Orchids for a while. This tiny flower is an Oncidium orchid. It has stems about 8" long and is filled with little flowers that are only 1/2" or less across. This one is white and yellow with a red center, but they can come in all colors, and there are about 500 species make up this genus. This particular one has the fragrance of baby powder..
Thanks so much to Lisa for hosting this meme and to keeping it going.
Click on her site http://lisaschaos.com/ to see lots more close-ups.

We were gone all day Saturday, and I didn't take any pictures outside, so I'll post some from last Thursday and Friday. They are all on my morning walk on the Creek trail. I wore a bright green sweatshirt, and didn't see any hunters.
This first shot is of the Tundra Swans. I heard their kwooo, kwooo calling way before I saw them. This picture has been cropped, so you can see just how very high they fly. They were headed Southeast to their winter grounds along the Atlantic shores of Virginia and the Carolina's. It had been raining earlier that morning, and the water droplets hung from all the branches.

As I walked the sun came up, and turned the color of the trees orange against the dark sky over Lake Erie. The lake is probably 25 miles away to the West of us.

Then the clouds moved in and that beautiful bright orange color was gone.

This is the end of the trail, and here is the Beaver dam. It survived the high water we had last week.

I hope everyone has a very pleasant rest of the week-end.

Weekend Reflections

On our way to town we pass this pond. On this day the water was so still. There are Snapping turtles in this pond, so we never see any ducks...
Thanks to James for hosting this cool meme.
Click on http://newtowndailyphoto.blogspot.com/ to see lots more reflections.

Skywatch Friday

After a cloudy, wet, and cold morning we did have a few hours of sun. There were also some interesting big cumulus clouds. I thought this one had a profile look of a Grizzly bear.
Happy Skywatch Friday everyone and thanks to all who keep this meme going. Just click on over to http://skyley.blogspot.com to see tons more sky shots from all over the world.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Look whose getting along...

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

The longer we live the more we realize the blessings that lie in everyday living. To name a few... the marvel of good health, the dearness of home and loved ones, the little treasures that money can't buy, the wonder of the world of nature, freedom under God, and the bounty which we enjoy in this good land.

Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate these and many other blessings. It is also a way of life.

Let us greet each day of the year in the spirit of thankfulness.

Ester Baldwin York.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Have a wonderful day and if you drive stay safe.

Watery Wednesday

This shot actually was taken the summer of 2008. It's not been a very nice day weather wise, so I thought it best to find something more interesting. I still am not going on our trails due to the deer hunting season still in progress.
Happy Watery Wednesday everyone, and a big thanks to 2sweetnsaxy for hosting this site.
Click on her site http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com to see lots more water photos.

Ruby Tuesday

I bought this Amaryllis at Wal-Mart for $2.50! I couldn't believe it. It has 2 buds already open, and many more yet to come. I might just have to go back and get more. I needed some new color in the greenhouse since it's sort of blah right now.
Thanks so much to mary/the teach for keeping this meme going.
Click on her site http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/ to see tons more RED shots.

Macro Monday

Meet Frosty. She is 8 weeks old, and a birthday gift for our rescue dog Tauqua. A kitty was on his list...
Just kidding, but we did get her to keep Tauqua company when we are gone a while.
Thanks to Lisa for hosting this meme. Just click on http://lisaschaos.com to see lots more macro shots.

This is For the Birds

OK, this is all about the Ringed-billed Gull and a lunch stop on Chautauqua Lake. On this particular day there were 100's of them everywhere. As soon as we stopped this fellow landed right on the van hood and began begging.. The sign says "Do NOT Feed the Ducks", but says nothing about not feeding the Gulls, and they know it! He kept an eye on us for quite a while.

As soon as he saw we didn't have any food he looked around for any more folks to beg from.

Some were bathing, some were preening, and some just flying around.

In the middle of this group there was a much larger Gull. I'm not at all sure what kind it is. There are so many breeds and all the juveniles look so much different. from the adults. Anyway he is bigger.

Coming in for a landing.

Mid air collision!

Talk about ugly feet...

Of course when we left they all took off.

The end.

Fruitful Friday

I took so many pictures Friday, and if I don't post some of them now , I'll forget! I hope you all don't get bored.
I discovered this cute little lavender flower growing around the base of our Norway Maple tree. I must have planted it last summer, but I don't know what it is.
EG of http://eastgwillimburywow.blogspot.com/ has said this is Lamium. THANKS EG!
Some moss that was growing on a rock in the same location. Moss is very interesting if you get up close and personal. It might look like a miniature forest.
This is a shelf fungus on a stump on our Llama trail. The tree had been cut down years ago by the beavers.

I'm going to tell you a short story, I hope, about the Goldenrod Gall fly. The Goldenrod Gall fly is a parasite that lives exclusively on Goldenrod plants. The fly's entire life and death is centered on Goldenrod. The females lay their eggs in the spring on the plant's stem.. After about 10 days the eggs hatch. The larvae create saliva that has a chemical in which causes the plant to grow abnormally forming a "gall" that the larvae live in. In the Fall the gall turns brown and the larvae will dig an escape tunnel to leave the following Spring. BUT Downey woodpeckers, and Chick-a-dees are 2 birds who seek out galls to break them open and get the larvae out for a tasty meal.

On my afternoon walk I also found a couple Buttercups in bloom. Brave little flowers they are, since I've heard that 4 letter "S" word mentioned for next week.

This shelf Fungus is as big as a dinner plate. I'd really like to paint on it, but it's not on our property.

A close look at some Lichen that was covering a fallen branch.

Remember earlier this week I posted the Beaver dam out on the creek behind our house, and mentioned that if we had any rain that raised the creek, that the dam probably would wash away. Yesterday we had 1" of rain, and already the water is over the top. Will it hold or not? Stay tuned for more up-dates.

Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal. I believe these 2 are babies from this year. They show up every day at dawn and dusk.

The Mrs. checking out something on the ground.

Burdock. My poor old cat Maggie has Burdock in the fur on her back. She'll need a haircut!

On a trip to Chautauqua Lake the other day, we saw some Northern Shoveler ducks. They are new for me, and probably were migrating through the area. I had to take these through the van window, so they might not be that clear but I couldn't pass it up.

Most of the males were snoozing. I think there were 6 males.

This juvenile male came a little closer.

Another week-end is upon us. I hope everyone stays safe and has a restful few days. Hope your weather is great too.

Be sure to check out my post for Week-end Reflections BELOW.

Week-end Reflections

This picture actually was taken last Spring on a walk we took at the local elementary school. They have a very nice trail, and a beautiful little pond with plenty of tree reflections.
Thanks to James of http://newtowndailyphoto.blogspot.com for keeping this fun meme going. Click on over to his site to see lots more reflections.

Skywatch Friday

Hey everybody, it's Friday again. This week I have two photos to post. Both taken at the same exact time at 7 o'clock in the morning.
The first picture shows the Eastern sky. I turned around and took this shot facing West.
Happy Skywatch . Thanks to all who take part in hosting this meme. Just click on http://skyley.blogspot.com to see lots more sky shots.

JUST STUFF

Just more catching up from here and there in the past 2 weeks.
On the creek trail, I surprised a pair of Mallard ducks. Last Sunday all of us went to Kraynack's in Hermitage, Penna. There is a large greenhouse there that is transformed at Christmas, and Easter time with toys, toys, and trees. For Christmas they have about 10-15 "rooms" decorated with all kinds of Christmas trees, and animated figures. This was a player piano with Christmas songs to entertain you as you viewed the trees. In the upcoming weeks I'll be posting lots more of them so stay tuned...

One of the greenhouses is filled with beautiful plants and gifts. Lots of bird houses too.

These are 2 tugs along with several barges dredging sand up from the Lake Erie bottom.

Then we have a large herd of Belted Galloway cattle, better known as the "Oreo cow", a rare breed of cattle originating from Galloway in Southwest Scotland. They are primarily raised for their marbled beef.

This one seemed friendly. I'd like to take her home!

A mama and baby

I also saw this American Coot. A new sighting for me. Actually I've seen them at a distance, but never photographed one before. This one was way out, and kept diving. Difficult to get good pictures.

Another beautiful Fall day. Maybe they cancelled winter... Do ya think?

Take care everyone.