Only a memory......

The windstorm that passed through the other night broke off a dead limb from the maple tree.  That dead line destroyed this garden figure.  He is no more.  Again I am using an archived photo of two winters ago.

Life gets tough........

when all the spring promises have started to diminish.  The dropping of leaves like fallen butterflies create a mood of disappearance. The white will come and the forms of soft peace will pace themselves between cold and wind.  Winter is not to be sadness but life can be, until a release of the weary facts and the days continue on unwanted but unstopped.

Bike......

My son says  he is coming back to Iowa from Maine to get his bike.  I have had it for quite a while now but I will put it back into the basement. I had planned to toss it with it's bad tires and no pedals. At one time I was going to ride it but the cost to put into the purchase of two new tires and pedals seemed more than just going to buy a lesser two wheeled bike.  I offered to buy him a new one but I guess it is his first mountain bike.  There are memories that come with this one.

Butterflies are free...........

A perfect form caught by the camera as the butterfly is readying itself to close up the wings and rest.

Seeing White

I succeeded in having my white flower garden on my porch with this and another container of white impatiens plants.  It is getting colder each night and I will  have to decide if I will bring them inside for awhile to get another month of bloom off of them.  Eventually the heating system is too dry to keep them going.

Downtown.......

Des Moines, Iowa

The city has a diverse set of styles of architecture.  The foreground building it the Polk County Courthouse.  It is an interesting building with keystones above many of the arches filled with cast faces of unusual gargoyle like creatures.  It has murals in it and is really has become outdated as the only courtrooms in Polk county.

Yellow rose...........

This is a late bloom of my yellow knockout rose. They are a kind of rose that  you know the bud and bloom will last for only a few days. I fortunately have a few more buds to go.  The cool weather seems to be encouraging them to bloom as if it is spring again.

Returning to Maine.......

From the top of Cadillac Mountain sightseers are viewing the ocean and distant islands along the Maine coastline.

At the bottom of the mountain is the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean.  This particular area is treeless as the weather must be tough on the living plants at this point on the shore.  One dead tree is hanging in there to remind us of the forest of the past.  To the left of this area one can hear the buoy ringing its bell warning people of emerging rock formations along the shore.  The bell sound is sort of a lonely sound as it never ceases as the waves keep it constantly warning of what lies below.  One wonders how many ships have hit that area and sunk because of the lack of a warning system in the past.

Rosebush finally blooms.......

I moved this rose bush to my home exactly a year ago and it got very cold.  I was concerned about it surviving and had placed in in a large terracotta pot.  Then I  became brave and went ahead and planted it in the grown under advisement from others who live north of me.  I was so glad it survived the winter but it never put out a single branch for blooming. When it finally put out a late branch and a bud the past few weeks, it rained on the opening bud and almost ruined the single bloom.

It was windy and hot today and it did bloom out to look perfect.  It has some weathered petals underneaath but it is looking great.  I assumed it needed the whole summer to reestablish it's roots.  I will trim it down to the ground in another month. I do not know the name of it as I had purchased it for my mom so many years ago. It bloomed profusely in southern Iowa and I hope it will do the same next summer.

Turbulence.........

On our trip home on the plane I captured a bit of some turbulence.  It was a pretty smooth flight, all of the flihgts were out and back, but when arriving to Minneapolis there  was a wind of 25 mph that was giving the pilot grief.  The landing at that airport was so unbelievable as the closer we got to the ground the more the plane shook.  I truly believe that if we had not had seat belts on that we would have been tossed into the air out into the aisles.  When the plane wheels hit the ground, the plane wings were rocking up and down making us rock back and forth.  It probably was ten seconds of terror but all of a sudden gravity took over and we were down and rolling smoothly. I took this photo as we were nearing the airport.

Gourd vine is out of control...........

I planted these gourds just to fill up the trellis but they didn't take off until August.  Now they have vines hanging down in the walk way and blooms are everywhere.  The frost will get them before any gourds form.

It is almost to windy and cold now for it to open completely.  It has a great sculptural form and the white is beautiful.

Saturday stills...........

A moment among the zinnia's while the mosquitoes are biting the photographer.  Have a good weekend.

Blue Friday........

Have a great Friday.  The weekend is coming.

Antiques.......

These two houses were turned into antique stores at Bar Harbor, Maine.  The lady on the porch said she lives  in the upstairs of her purple house.  The houses were packed full of items and all the rooms were left as they were originally used.  The displays just fit in and around the kitchen sink.  The stairs of the one had merchandise for sale on the steps.

Beauty is in the eye........

of the beholder.  Fall is starting to kick in taking away some of the more purer forms of beauty and creating sculptural forms of slow decay. Decay can also be beautiful as we study it's form and color.   The yellow flowers that are still holding on to the dead seed head seem unaffected to what is about to happen to the rest of the bloom.

Dessert Table........

I am really wishing I had something sweet to eat right now but that isn't going to happen.  This was a view of what was displayed at my son and his wife's party.  There were a lot of cheesecakes there also and I don't know why they aren't in the photo.

Where's the boat?

This is at the Bar Harbor dock with a strong looking device to tie up a big ship.

Lily pads.....

This was taken along the highway on Mr. Desert Island.  It was private property on the other side of a fence so we stood outside the fence and took pictures.  The Atlantic ocean is behind us and  this is a body of fresh water retained probably by the building of the highway.  There is a heron fishing in the background if  you click on the photo for an enlargement.  I am planning to make a painting out of this when I get some painting time for myself.

Three weathered dead trees..........

A sculptural form contrasts to the rocks on the Atlantic shoreline.

Another set of weathered ones among the rocks.  I don't think the weather in winter is as harsh along the Atlantic as it is on the North Shore of Lake Superior.  On the Minnesota shore line many a  tree is so effected by the cold and snow where in Maine the trees sit back further from the water and there are just not that many.  Perhaps the waves are stronger and the tree growth is just inhibited from growing that near the water.

Jordan Pond.......

A smaller fresh water lake on Mt. Desert Island, Acadia National Park, Maine.  It is a smaller one with unique mountain features around it.

Shallow water around the lake gave off interesting patterns with the rocks in the water.

Windy day.......

Across my street you can see the trees bending in the wind.  The hay has been baled again and the corn is still green but starting to turn yellow.  First cutting of hay produced 7 bales of hay. The second cutting produced 9 bales of hay.  This last cutting, because of all the rain, produced enough foliage for 12 bales of hay.

More Monarchs.........

Tuesday was a windy day and the night before was cold but not freezing.  I was concerned about them as we also had a short rain shower.  When I went out this morning  a lot of them had moved on and later I realized that had moved into areas where the sun was shining. They knew that they needed to warm up before they moved on.  A few were feeding on my zinnia patch but not in great numbers  As I mowed the yard they were warming up and starting to scatter into the  air. 

This is an amazing photo as to how many of them there were.  They selected parts of a tree and gathered and rested. When I first bought this house in 1976,  I noticed a migration the very first year.  Then throughout the past different years there have been large groups but not like this year.  One of my former students wrote and said her trees were just covered and she thought she was caught in a Nature PBS program in Mexico. If you check their routes they are headed on a path down through Texas.

Switch to flowers one more time.......

The cool weather has caused my roses to set on one last set of flowers. The rains keep coming but just not as much as most of the summer. Most of my flowers are dead from the excess of rain or they are weathered so much that they have lost any of their great looks.

When the above bud opens this is what you see.  It is so rich in color.  I know that it won't be long for them all to just shut down but for now I really appreciate their last burst of energy.

Monarch Migration......

On their way to Mexico

I have written about it numerous times but I couldn't prove it until today.  We came home from church  and besides all of the butterflies that we had seen on the road as we drove home we found them all over our apple trees.  I think probably some years we just don't notice and so they quietly come by, rest and move on without our noticing them.

This year they were very prominent in color in large groups in the trees. We had to bundle up to protect oneself from mosquitoes to get any shots. I am glad we both took the shots when we did as a rain and wind came up about an hour later.  I could see them hanging tough but they moved to the south side of the bushes and trees. I was about ready to throw my point and shoot into the pond, but I did get ten percent of them to look great.  My wife's camera got some good shots as she can zoom in with her camera.

They didn't hit my coneflowers or the flowering sedum plants.  They just landed and rested peacefully.  When a new butterfly would land among a group of them all of them would open their wings all at the same time then close them back up again.  I could not get that photo but I sure tried.

Doors and windows.......

Our son and his wife had a first anniversary party for all the relatives and friends near Bar Harbor.  It was in a building built in 1906.  I won't reveal anymore details at this point except to let you see the beauty of the doorway and the wonderful set of double windows, double hung with may individual panes.

Refecting lake.........

Along the Atlantic Ocean on Mt. Desert Island

This is actually a body of water that does connect to the ocean.  It is a backwater area that is separated from the ocean by a road way.  There is a bridge close to here that allows the  water to exchange with the ocean.

Dink's Taxi.......

A restaurant in Bar Harbor, Maine.  It is a real car and the building sits at the back of the alley.  It possibly was never a church but was a building created to look like one.  Then again, it could have been a church but I don't understand how it got built in by stores on all sides. We didn't have time to eat there but maybe another year. They are real stained glass windows and the fancy brackets are real.

Lobster and more lobster........

We went to Maine to help celebrate our son and his wife's first anniversary wedding party.  They sort of eloped and so this  year invited all the families in to eat a lobster feast, great desserts and then dance the night away.  I ate my first lobster there that was hot and delicious, and not the cold stuff from The Red Lobster.  More stories and photos of the party to come soon.

Cadillac Mountain........

Acadia National Park sports a mountain that allows you to see many wonderful views.  This particular spot is considered the first place that anyone in the United States can see the first sunrise.  The fences are there to discourage people from getting off the trails and trampling out the fauna.