Monday, October 31, 2016

Monday........


It seems to be a busy day for me today so I will share a photo from last week.  We have been having pink sunrises but they are so subtle that the camera won't pick up the color.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Steam Engine......


This photo of an old steam engine comes from the same file of train shots from the museum visit. I now see that it is only on display as its tracks do not connect to anything,  Our country tended to scrap a lot of our old locomotives and to see one that is intact today is special. I don't know anything about the history of it. It maybe was never used in the museums schedule of train trips but one they found to display.

I do remember these traveling down the tracks when I was a kid.  The highway 34 was parallel to the train tracks.  We could see the smoke stacks and smoke as we traveled along the highway. When I was in my teens they were being fazed out and one doesn't even notice that they are gone until a period of time passes. The stream-lined engines and then the boxy looking engines were common for a while and we saw less and less of the locomotive.

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Old Engine....


I discover this morning that I haven't downloaded all of my photos from my camera of the visit to the train museum.  I guess things have been busy for me and I just downloaded some of them.  This car looks like it could be an engine but I don't really see wheels that would give it power. I don't have the whole picture but I can tell it is an older piece that isn't used today on the track.

Friday, October 28, 2016

Fall Bloom.......


I walked into the alley to look back at the property. I wanted to see if I could find some different views of the place.  While taking the photo shown at left I noticed a bright red color up next to the garden shed.  The William Baffen surprises me one more time with this bloom.

The view of the river birch also shows the raspberries in the foreground and the apple and ash trees in the back. The old tiller is in view to the left. 

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Making the Connection......



As the row of green cars are backed into the row of faded orange cars there is a thud sound made as they connect. It is designed to automatically connect as the one hub slides into the other, interlocking the two.  The connection is a good connection and yet the cars are allowed to bump up and down as the joint is loose vertically. 

As we rode along on the orange car we could see the green car bounce up and down not really affecting the our car.  As I thought about it I wondered if it was our car that really was traveling up and down over bumps and the green car was not the one bouncing.  Maybe you will already know my next comment.  I bet they both were taking turns bouncing, one was going up when the other was going down as we hit the connections of the old rails.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

The Last to Fall......




All that is left to do is to mulch the leaves that are all now on the ground.  Over the weekend both the birch and silver maple were recreating a rainfall of leaves. They just kept falling to the ground in large bunches.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

A Rustic Retreat.......


A zinnia continues to hold its own as the beauty isn't effected with a few aged spots showing here and there.

Monday, October 24, 2016

In a Cornfield......


The corn plants have been dead for quite a while.  The tops of the stocks have broken off and the corn is ready to be picked.  The corn seed has its dents in it meaning that they are hard and dry.  The plants really do have an gray-brown look of death with the stalks barely holding up each of its ear of corn.


The grass is still green as it leads up to the edge of the cornfield. Evidence of animals making paths through the corn means maybe the deer are helping themselves to it in the nitght.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Sunday's Blooms.....












They just keep blooming. The vines are partially dead but must have enough going on in its vines to keep them going. I am so surprised to see the different ones in bloom after we have had a frost.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Mums........


Nothing speaks fall any more than this flower.  I don't have any planted in the ground but this one will be planted before the snow falls. The prices dropped quickly and I may go back and get another one to plant.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Early Morning........


I can see now that the sun is coming up to the right side of the neighbor's roof.  I remember a couple of months ago sharing a shot of the sun coming up way past that flag pole on the far left.  "The earth is titling," shouts Chicken Little.  It will stop tilting in that direction on December 21st and then we will start the earth axis changing back the opposite way.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Seeing Yellow......



I miss seeing this era of train and engine.  I remember them specifically as we would wait for the train to pass at the track in the middle of town in Murray, Iowa.  I was a kid that was fascinated with the design of the engine.  Back in those times they didn't keep them very clean as they were the workhorses of the train industry pulling freight and people across the United States.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Minnesota Birch.......


It is a mature birch tree with such a large trunk.  The color of the birch bark can reflect the colors around it. 


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

The Neighbor's Tree on the Corner......


The neighbor's tree on the corner looking east towards all the other houses in our area. Three different styles of house as you make comparisons of them.


It is a beautiful maple tree.  Our house can be seen in the background.  You can also see down the street going south on Cedar Street.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Graveyard......


My wife shot this photo with my camera as we passed by the train graveyard.  It does make the train museum more interesting when you see older models of cars and engine sitting around in view as we travel along our journey. I bet they do take in older parts of trains and discover that they are not restorable.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

New Engine.....Old Desgn.


We visited the "Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad" on Saturday at Boone, Iowa.  It is a train museum with many old parts of trains and old engines too.  This engine pulled our train both ways as we took a ride through the scenic valley of the area crossing creeks and large rivers.  The engine is new, meaning they bought it 15 to 20 years ago from China.  They still make steam engines and the organization bought it and had it shipped to the United States. The stack for the smoke is a modern looking one and the whistle is as authentic as it can be.   It was a great place to visit and to ride in a very rickety old passenger car.  There were 11 passenger cars on this trip and they add and subtract the number of cars depending on the number of tickets that are sold.  This one photo is the tip of the iceberg as I took 130 photos today. I will be sharing many photos on both of my blogs for a long time.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Brass Bells.......


The garden bells were held together by a strong string.  The string did weather and I found these on the ground a month later.   I have one single bell still hanging there.  I really like the sound of bells when they are made of brass.  I am assuming they were made in India.  I have a personal challenge to take them in and use some cleaner on them to make them shine.  They never had a shine on them but air does turn brass to this color quite easily.

Friday, October 14, 2016

It Begins.........the Sky is Falling.


My neighbor's leaves are all in my yard.  I like these landing in my yard and I pick them up and press them in a book.  The colors for this tree are so perfect.  Other trees around the area are not going to be this bright and colorful.  Our grass is still very green so they look great against the green background.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Mystery Shot......


My wheel barrow catches rain water for me as it sits under the eave of the garden shed.  I have still been watering a few things out there.  I found an antique canning jar to use to dip water and then water the plants nearby. I am watering a newly planted shrub every other day and I have had to keep the flower box watered that is holding the morning glory vines next to the shed.  With the freeze I can quit watering the morning glories.  I will still have to keep the soil moist for the shrub.

The jar is a Boyd jar made for the Mason Jar company. The reflection of a tree is in the photo and the leaves add more to the mystery shot.


Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Birch Checkup...


The leaves do not appear to be the kind that will be bright yellow this year.  The have a more textured dried out  look.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Fall Blooms.....


The white morning glory that grows along the fence row of dog pen is still blooming in the evening.  It has vines with multiple buds ready to bloom in the next few days.  I really didn't know that the vine was growing there until this evening. It is a volunteer plant from last years planter and up to now only red morning glories have been blooming from the pot.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Bluejay Day.......


The sun shining on my window glass gave me a difficult time getting a good shot of the bluejay.  It made all of the photos that I attempted to turn gray.  I had to manipulate all of editing options to get it to look like the real colors.

This guy was moving up and down to get seed and I didn't get a great capture but it gives you the view that I saw.  There were three of the bluejays out there at the one time looking for the sunflower seeds.  They looked like younger birds as their coloring seemed to be not filled in yet.

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Blue Beauty.......


The cold is either keeping the blue flower from closing or the morning glory never quite made it open. It just seems it needs warmer weather to bloom correctly in early morning.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Little Red Wagon,,,,,,,


A quick shot of an outdoor sight next to my shed.  The wagon belonged to my youngest son.  I think my dad had retrieved it from the dump, back when people were allowed to go there and salvage things. My youngest son is approaching the age of 38 in January, so the wagon has been around for a while.  I use it to throw tools or garden stuff into it and haul to the work site.  The "work site" sounds important but the statement just means that I am too lazy to make three trips to get the tools that I need to do the job.  I actually use my new wheel barrow for that but I like having that wagon around to remind me that I once was a young father.  A tiller is covered with a tarp and the wagon is being used to help deflect the weather elements from the machine.

Friday, October 7, 2016

Friday's Framed Statue.........


The angel withstands all of the different kinds of weather in Iowa but the hostas are ready to shut down.  He does get to come inside during the winter while the hostas' roots regroup for the next spring.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Crowded Sky.........


The fall weather begins and everyday it is a different kind of day.  The clouds above seem to be like scramble eggs as the changing temps and wind blow them into so many shapes.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Before and After.........


Early morning and the sunrise looked like this.  Not really so much color with all of the glow being low along the horizon.


Fifteen minutes later as I had taken a glance of the view out a window, I had to return to capture a much different scene. The way that our weather had been the past weeks with cloudy weather, I didn't think I would ever see a good sunrise until spring.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

White White..........


My white morning glory is a volunteer vine from last year's seed. It surprised me last evening as no other morning glories were in bloom.  I am thinking that it is warmer as it grows next to the house. So I either get white blooms or blue blooms this late in the season. 

Monday, October 3, 2016

Monday.........


The vine of the morning glory keeps growing but the temperatures seem to be too cold for it to bloom.  My Japanese gate entrance leans just a little but it seems to be holding up well in all of our changing weather.


It is warmer next to the house and the vines there seem to put out a few blooms sporadically. This was blooming Sunday afternoon.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Two Grandsons......



Both boys were caught in a quiet moment of their day. The youngest is so sincere as he listens to the words that are spoken to him.  The bear that was a gift to Teddy is being checked out by his older brother AJ. He figured out the five minutes of sweet music for slumber time use.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Eye to Eye......


A little blurry in appearance but the eyes tells it all. Feed me now as I am starved.  The indoor goldfish would beg continually all day to get food.  They would easily overeat or have the water become too polluted from too much leftover food if I fed them every time they begged for something to eat. .

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 ...