Monday, November 30, 2015

Monday.........




This sums up what it looks like outside.  Things are coated in ice again and the vegetation is coated. We have a light mist this morning and maybe it will warm up enough to melt it.  If it gets colder we will have trouble.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

A Pink Mood......


I am sharing an abstract composition of color. Shapes seem to melt into one another making it appear to be a painting by a famous painter.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Roots......


A hardy geranium stem broke off while I was transporting it to the basement.  I placed  it with the blooms on it into the vase like a cut flower.  Clear glass makes them root quickly.  I will plant this in a spare pot of dirt as I don't like to kill plants that want to grow so readily.

Friday, November 27, 2015

A Slice of Ice.......


We did have some freezing rain last evening.  The forecast was exaggerated and we did not get too much precipitation.

Things are coated but we have had many of worse storms than this with branches breaking off and evergreen shrubs being brought down to the ground. We did not get the snow on top of it either.  We did fare well.  I took a very ice covered garbage bin to the streetside this morning and I made sure that the lid could be opened as they would need that for them to take away our garbage.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Thankful for Suet.....


The downy woodpecker is grateful for the suet that I put out early in the season.  One downy does come to the feeder everyday and I have no way of knowing if it is the same one or if there are different ones. Some do not have the red marking on their heads so if I see some of those I will know that there is more than one.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Doomed......


Those of the city who apparently know more about these things than me are taking this tree.  Small city government is always out there making decisions to better our city.  I have two of these old trees marked and one 10 year old red maple that seems to offend them.  They all will be removed at the city's expense. History doesn't really matter much anymore and the leaves from these trees are detrimental to the flow of the water in their ditch.  The sign of the times in this town is trees really don't matter. 

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

The Pose......


I was concerned that I wasn't going to get a good shot and then it happened. He lifted up his head and looked my way and snap.  This guy loves to eat as he was out there in the almost dark picking through the seeds.  With our snow now melting the visitors to the feeder are less. I will be off school for a while and they can be fed more often. I have yet to get any goldfinches to my feeder at the window.  I think they have always been at my neighbors feeder and they must like that location better.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Warming Up......


We have had the snow and the cold, but now it is warming up.  By late afternoon Sunday this snow on the fence was history.  It still looks pretty on the digital photo.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Where's Some Food?


The snow brought the birds back to my feeders.  There were four of these Eurasian ringneck doves hanging around the feeder.  Only one at a time would feed so it took them a while to get everyone fed. I was surprised to see a cardinal and bluejay at the feeder also today.  I had seen bluejays earlier but have not seen any cardinals for quite some time.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

First One...........



The first snow for the season was yesterday.  It was a flexible measurement of 6 inches with the little drifts here and there being more or less. It is starting to turn cold now and stay cold reaching in low single digits. I did use to like snow but I just am not in the mood for it right now.  I guess I get a few days of it I will be adjusted and quit whining.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Donutland.........


Just in case you don't like doughnuts they can decorated them to make them look a whole lot better. There is so much candy on them that you have to look closely to see what the flavor of the frosting is on the round piece of dough.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Mskeshift Sawhorse.......


It was cold and wet. I needed to saw boards into proper lengths. It is just easier to find available items to make it happen. By the time  I was done the light was getting to be low so the camera struggled to get a true focus.  It is the best I could do when I am cold in every manner and it is getting dark.  I did get my job done.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Junkyard.....


Earlier this year I took a photo of my junk pile and weeds.  That is what it is.   I now have all the milk cans stored in the shed and the weeds have been mowed.   I still have a few things to get moved out by the shed and that may happen after the first snow. 

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

A Fall Shot.......


I shared this photo a few weeks ago on my Creative Zone.   I put it on my other blog thinking it was just a good filler photo but as I reviewed it today it is a great shot.  The leaves on these trees are less but they do seem to be hanging on longer than most.

Monday, November 16, 2015

A Monday Moment........Secluded.



In seclusion the angel awaits the oncoming rainfall. The leaves of the burning bush were mostly striped off the branches with the high winds and the continue mild winds for three days. I like the view when looking through the branches of this bush but having a focal point on the other side is  a great bonus.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Blasting to the Past......


I shared sepia style photos of the balloons at at festival.  We haven't attended it for quite a few years.  I shared these on my Sepia Saturday site yesterday.






The sepia transformation seems to give them a different interesting feeling.  We love balloons because of their colors but we also really like them because of their shape.







Color is a necessity though and I shared the other side of the coin, so to speak.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Open and Latch..........


Once I figured out the operation, I had to use trial and error to get it installed.  The instructions and template, when it was new, was tossed a few years back.  I could have broken down and gone on the internet.  I am sure there was someone out there that made a tutorial for it.  I would have had less problems but I decided to change the direction in which the gate was to open. The carpenter had a reversal problem and probably still does.

Friday, November 13, 2015

A Forest Floor......


The title sounds good but really it is just an area under my burning bush where all the leaves are collecting.  Our strong winds took out a lot of dead sticks from the trees and also helped to strip off the leaves of the burning bush's weakest.

There are leaves still on the shrub but they are a lot thinner and the lighter colored leaves seem to still be hanging on to the branches. They look like pink burning bushes.  We had a good freeze last night so I suspect they will be dropping the next few days.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Waiting and Wondering.........


I also wonder why the rock is sitting there. I suppose I picked it up from the soil when I was planing over there.  The winds of furious strength did not blow this guy off of his bench.  The other angle did take a topple but she is unhurt.  I carried her towards the basement door and she will be nice and warm soon. I will take this angel inside probably on a day when it is snowing.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

White Shadow........


The neighbor's cat escaped through their back porch and joined me while I worked in the backyard.  She is tame to her family but we don't get to pet her. While I was working on the patio I turned and there she sat.  She stayed close yesterday while she was with me but she still didn't walk up to me.  You can see she was bored with the project and had to catch a few winks.

She comes over for a free snack of dry cat food whenever she does venture outside so she should be getting use to us by now.

Monday, November 9, 2015

Monday with Color...........

 The volunteer wild vine is staying warm being next to the back door.  The rest of the vine has lost its leaves.  I am glad that I let it grow this year as normally I chop it off to about a foot high below the deck and treat it like a weed, which it is.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Crescent Moon.......and Venus.


The crescent moon is hanging around the one star, probably a planet.  I took the shot on Saturday early morning.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

A Tired Bouquet........



I had to chop them off because of workmen laying fiber optic cable in the area.  They kept for a while and then they morph into this.  I don't know if the seed will be viable from these dead blooms as they were not attached to the plant for a while.  Maybe the seed matured while getting water from the vase.


I had to dig to find this photo of the "before" look of the vase of flowers.  If I worked hard enough I probably could find out the exact date that the cable people were here threatening my flower garden. I did work hard and found the photo was put into my picasa storage on Oct. 8th.  The old bouquet has been around for a while.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Two Shots........


A blurry expression of a daylily as it dodges the camera lens with its swaying motion.  Rather than holding it with my hand I took a few of trial and errors and I liked this one. It is kind of playing "peek a boo" witht he camera.








A perfect photo was taken though and it does show a flower that wants to bloom all the way to the first snow.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Green Leaves.........


The only hardy geranium that is outside sits close to the back door.  As the days shorten and the cold winds blow the leaves are turning into deep green colors.  The leaf usually turns instantly yellow when it gets frozen.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

It's Complicated.......


I don't always have perfect photos on my photo a day and this is no exception. It isn't a good photo but it is a complicated composition.  The one branch actually looks like a birch tree in the photo. The yellow on the neighbor's tree is one of the nicest one's in this neighborhood. The dark bark of the red maple is in shadow so it gives a totally different color than in real daylight.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Shiny Bright........


The pear tree has a different type of leaf than a lot of the other trees on my property.  The smooth shine on the leaf allows the colors to be richer than on a textured leaf. It is different for each leaf to be changed at different stages and the green ones that are still their original green. The mixture of different colors makes for a pleasant natural color scheme. When looking closer the individual leaves have a great mixture of colors on them too.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Windmill.........








I  normally don't take the shot from this side of the windmill as the neighbor's house is in view.  But this time I had to do it because the sunlight was shining through the leaves. The wild grapevine has been great for me as if I had planted it there on purpose.  I will leave it along and maybe next spring it will be back.







Taking the shot with the sun to my back does make for a good photo. The windmill leans a lot and I didn't have the strength to make right again.  I will have to take a spade and dig around its legs to get standing vertical again.  I have fence post wired to it to keep it from falling over completely.  The last time it took a great tumble was when the tornado came through the area. That is why some of the blades are gone from it.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Bright Rays of.........Sun.


The sun was shining and it was casting bright light into the kitchen.  The hardy geranium got broken off by me or the dog and I have it in the vase.  I don't really care if it starts but I like seeing the bloom. This old window held the window air conditioner all summer and we are really enjoying the view from inside looking out.

Blurry Blue Cup Day.....

 It is Monday and I am a little blurry eyed today. It is fitting then my blue cup is blurred a little because it is in low light. I was too ...