Lucy Atwell......

Two figurines that belong to my wife. They sit over in the cabinet and look out at you.  My wife had a few Precious Moments and I could tell she didn't want many more of them, so I started and finished her collection of two.  These figures were created from illustrations by Lucy Atwell and I am sure they thought they could get people hooked on them. They didn't  as they were not on the marked very long, only a couple of  years back in early 90's.

Sepia Saturday...His boys

My dad has come home from the war.  It is 1945 in the summer.  My oldest brother Ron is on the right and Rex is on the left. The next two boys were born in '47 and '50. The photo was taken in the back yard of my grandmothers' in Murray, Iowa. I am assuming it was one of those box camera's and my mom didn't get it into focus by stepping forward or backward.

My dad was stationed in Washington D. C. the first part of the war, so when he was home for a visit, he had time to have another son.  He already had the first son born before he went into the service.  They were the prewar babies. I and my brother were the post war babies.


In many ways the war change him.  His sisters said he wasn't the same personality the rest of his life.  He may have just grown up from being an Iowan farm boy that dropped out of school at eighth grade.  Whatever the change, I didn't have anything to compare.

I know that his memories often haunted him in his daily life. He remembered and relived so much verbally with more people than our family would have liked.  He had to talk about it.  The person was still a very sensitive man who cared for others, worried about failure, worked so very hard, and was proud of his four boys. He died in 2000 at the age of 82.  He was able then to leave the war memories behind.


Others of a blog group are also participating in Sepia Saturday. Check them out at Kat's blog.

Color folly.....

A lot of my photos are just discovery through accidental observation. I flipped the bowl over to check it's middle bottom design and ka pow,  the red place mat below added color to the glass.  It almost looks like paint clinging to it's different  grooves.  I did find out that this bowl was called a Stellar design and  it was made in 1914 by the Imperial Glass company.

A wooden pump shows a sample of the last red paint job on the barn. I built this to circulate the water through into the koi tank.  This wood was scrap leftover from the neighbors barn that was totally destroyed by a tornado. It was flattened and I salvaged some of the wood. The neighbor asked me to make a frame from it. That barn was in her backyard, a half of block from here, where she lost actually three buildings, a camper, but not her house.


Hey, how many people are willing to show your pictures of a pooper scooper?  I see I didn't get it brought in for the winter.  I guess it is hiding over there waiting for spring.  Oh well, be yourself,  I guess.  Thanks for stopping in, Friday is here and stay warm.

Red ribbon day......

Old Christmas decorations that are ready to be taken downstairs can still function for one last good picture. I have three stray things to take to the basement and I will do it soon. I promise it will be soon.

Note the reflection on the cheap plastic ribbon. I can see the tree in the window outside.

Have a good Thursday.  Maybe I will venture outside tomorrow and snap something new, that isn't white. As my friend in Paris says,  Awww Tomorrow!

Wednesday, in the middle......

I had a sluggish day today so I didn't get anything new on the camera. I posted this photo on a previous blog months ago.  I took the photo many years ago at the Des Moines Botanical Center with a student group that was touring the place.  It was in March and I am not sure if they hang lanterns like this all the time, but I really liked how they looked.


It is a pleasant place with koi swimming in the water features and parakeets and zebra finches flying freely from tree to tree.  Orchids are always in bloom and the sound of the water fall is pleasant. It is a great place to visit in the winter time.

A smiggin of snow.....

It just keeps reflecting it's viewer no matter what. You can see me squatting down to take this macro while I was out with Barnie. It looks like an alien creature shooting you with a red-brown camera. We are getting a very light snow as you can see by it's collecting white on top of the gazing ball.

Old Trees.......

I don't know the exact age of the tree but the house was built in  1903.  There were five old silver maples on the property when I bought it 34 years ago. I have lost two of them and there was evidence where the one that fell on the kitchen before I move in found in the back yard.

My neighbors house is a twin reversed sister of my house and they have only two silver maples left in their yard.

When I first bought the property, my dad pointed out the free growing ash tree in my bushes.  I transplanted it 33 years ago and it never stopped growing.  Fifteen years ago, it split and I had to wire it  together. The left side is actually  the main sprouting of the main tree, and it grew a branch out to balance it.