Monday, December 31, 2018

The Parade.....


I keep my dinosaurs in the basement.  They sit out to remind me that the grandkids were here once last summer. These plastic guys do look like they are trudging towards a warmer climate.

Sunday, December 30, 2018

You have to decide to get on......


The toys trains of Christmas have given great joy to children for years.  Those models of trains that we remember depend on when you’re born.  An old engine like this would go through our small town of Murray and the smoke would spew all over the area as cars waited to cross the track.  Once in a while one could see a Hobo sitting on the top of one of the cars letting the air blow through him to cool him off.  An older train, pictured below, would not be around for me to see.  It was before my time.


Saturday, December 29, 2018

Welcome Red Bird......


I saw him in a distance and zoomed in on him.  I haven’t had a cardinal in the back yard for a very long time. Snow cover will bring them in and the more snow we have the more I will see.


He never did make it to my feeders but he did land below in the grass to pick up fallen seed.

Friday, December 28, 2018

Colors with Shine.......


The amaryllis sits in a beautiful red metal pot.  That sits in a glass bowl to keep me from destroying the dining room table accidentally.  The old, weathered glass Christmas balls help to decorate the bowl and pot. The photo turned out great with all the reflective color.

The amaryllis has a week or so to go with those last three blooms on the stem.  I have cut off two blooms and another will be clipped off today.

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Life is just like a Merry Go Round......



A new miniature for my wife’s collection is this carousel.  It plays music as it moves and has special little lights of different colors illuminating the display of horses and lions.

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Better Photos Maybe.......



A new gift tripod helps me to catch a photo easier.  The lights reflect off as a blur but I sure do have a great photo of that chair and flower pot.  It will take some doing to keep using the tripod but the slight shake that I get from hand holding the camera could be diminishes.

Monday, December 24, 2018

The Glow......


The morning was pretty clear with the sun just coming up while the moon was just going down at the opposite end of the sky.  I just noticed that the big tree lost its dead branch over the summer. I suppose a good windstorm took it out.  It did hang on for a year before it fell.

Saturday, December 22, 2018

Sun or Moon ??????


Sitting in my chair in the living room and it is late afternoon. I look out the window and it looks like the sun is coming up. It is the moon rising up in the afternoon. The clouds in front of it makes it look more like the sun. It comes up early afternoon and can go down by ten in the evening. It became cloudy in a couple of hours and the moon was not to be seen the rest of the day.

Thursday, December 20, 2018

Shepherds and Wisemen.....


The ornamental piece, created in a style of wood carved sculpture, can share the birth of Christ while it is on display. You can turn the rim and see all who were a part of the message.


.....and the angel that announced His birth is also there. 

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

A Piece of History.....


I could never throw this shirt away.  I bought it at the Mall of America in my much younger years. I still have it and now wear it as an everyday work shirt.  Scooby Do is the one of a kind dog from past cartoons. He seems to always be smiling.

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Old Wreath......


We are still using an old wreath from the old place.   It has two fake birds that look like cardinals.  This one looks like an Angry Bird but the wreath still works for our new front door.  The story that  comes with the wreath is that a cardinal at the old place would attack the two birds thinking they were in his territory. One night the town cop stopped by and while he waited for us to answer the door the cardinal was attacking the wreath and him.

Monday, December 17, 2018

The Lineup.....


A tradition includes the display of the nutcrackers and the antique canning jars. The display seems to fit great underneath the basement railing. The jars are full of the old ornaments that are in bad shape with flaking colors.  Some of them are shiny bites and others are of the same age but of a different company.

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Alternate Color.....


A newly purchased amaryllis.  It was suppose to be a red one if you look at the box. It  put out a single bloom for two days and a second one then opened on Saturday.  It isn’t red and I think this was a great mistake. Instead of multiple stems, it is on stem with multiple buds on three sides.

Saturday, December 15, 2018

Craters Again......


I will cut back now on the posting of moon shots.  It just came out as a better picture than I have taken before now.

Thursday, December 13, 2018

Bottles in the Basement.....


There are more things besides bottles in the photo.  Things get  put there for storage as there is not a place elsewhere to put them. Maybe a new shelving unit can be created to display them better than in a work room. Can you spot the egg crate, Vicks jar, glass flue, and antique medicine bottle?

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Reflections.....


There is plenty of shine when the container is made of plastic.  There is more shine when the ornaments are also plastic with a bright shine. I used these on my outside tree but they haven’t been put on the tree yet this year. I know when plastic was first invented that it was said that plastic is better.  I am not sure that it is so easily reduced in the landfill.  It these were glass they would be outstanding but plastic is a good fake glass.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Finding the Moon.....



It is hard to see from my house.  We were returning home in the evening and first saw it to our left up in the sky while being on a straight east/west road.  By the time we drove up the curved street to our house. I couldn’t find it in the sky. Then I realized it was straight out from our driveway and was just peaking up over the neighbor’s house.  As time went by it was so low in the sky that it went behind the neighbor’s house. I can now understand why I don’t see it as it goes up and over behind my horizon view of houses.

Monday, December 10, 2018

Morning View on Monday.....


All is quiet on the Christmas tree front. Santa seems to be in charge of this corner of the room. A village is yet to be placed out and displayed. Ir stays on display for a long time past the holidays so we aren’t in a big hurry with that. Can you spot the ornament that came from Maine?

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Agapanthus.....


I have two agapanthus plants growing in big pots.  I move them in over winter and they make a great foliage plant in the summer.  I have never seen them bloom.  I picked up a bouquet at the grocery store a couple of days ago and they had a stem with buds in the mix. They are wonderful blooms that do grow in California like a wild plant in a garden.  They grow from a form of rhizome or root and I learned that the more crowded they are in the pot the better they are. I sent a sample of roots to a blogger friend who lives in Georgia.  I will be anxious to see how it all turns out for her.

Saturday, December 8, 2018

No Parking in the Sky....


The clouds were looking more summer-like but it was actually very cold out there. I took a few shots because it was so nice and bright out there.


Again, it looks warmer here outside than it really is. My tree is still holding on to some of its leaves.

Friday, December 7, 2018

Squirrel !!!!!!!!



In our old neighborhood, our friend Judy had lost her precious dog Penny.  Within days after the loss another neighbor lady insisted she adopt another dog. I was able to get a shot of this guy earlier this week. He is young and full of a lot of energy. There has plenty of room for behavioral improvement but he just loves to be petted.  Here he is watching for squirrels.  I noticed when I arrived at the house that there are places at the windows set up so Pipper can see outside.

Thursday, December 6, 2018

Sycamore Trees........


This tree sits across the street in our old town.  There are scatterings of these trees in the timbers of Iowa but they are spotty.  I don’t think I have ever seen a large growth of sycamores but usually just one or two. These two were probably planted here by the owners years back.  I was visiting at the old place and as I backed out of my neighbors drive I had to roll the window down and talk a photo of them. I do see a tree like this about a quarter mile south of us in an old housing development. I have always liked the color of their bark and their large leaves in the spring.

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Double Images.....




The sliver of a moon was in view.  The camera picked up a double image as the lens remained open to pick up that second shot. I now know that a tripod would have solved the problem but the image really is a bonus and not a problem at all.







Some of you know that glowing, star-like, object actually is a planet.  I never tried to get an image of it before but it is close to the earth right now.  I see it  out there near the moon sometimes but sometimes a distance horizontally from the moon.  One of my Canadian friends told me it was probably Mars.  I have never seen it as a full shape and would not have without the camera pulling it in with its lens.

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Real Shine.....


In our days of time nothing is what it seems.  The brass bells are not brass.  The larger bell is beautiful but it too is fake.  The clapper is a real metal bell but really can’t ring agains a plastic bell. It is a combination of two different decorations that do ring when I slide the deck patio doors open and when closed.

Monday, December 3, 2018

Country Farm Geese....


Two country geese have been some of my favorites for Christmas display. The shapes of the geese and the textures of the feathers are so great to see. I notice now that the one goose has a bow on its neck and the other does not. The little horse probably could be hung on the tree but it has no string on it to make it happen. As a kid on the farm I remember a farmer and his wife who kept large flocks of country brown geese.  It was fascinating to ride by their place and see them all walking in a row walking around the pond.  Sometimes they would all be in the water and other times they would be feeding, eating grass along the shoreline.

Sunday, December 2, 2018

A Completed Tradition ......




It is finished.  Our decorating has evolved in the past with few ornaments until 35 years later with a a combined collection of many ornaments. In many ways it is a memory tree of things from people who have passed or are out of our lives.  It is a memorial to pets as we hang ornaments representing our pets of the past. Joyful ornaments from blog friends and others which are surprise discounted after Christmas sales.  Many Christian ornaments combine with fish and fisherman. Classic ones of shiny brites and indent ornaments of the past. With all the old past ornaments are four new golden acorns, added this year from a past sale. It seems to be a lot of work but yet my wife and I are crazy about the lights, the color and the tradition.

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Barricaded...


The faces look out from behind the next set of boxes of ornaments. The angel tree is done with the dolls in front looking out from the base of the tree. The boxes were found, each one opened to be sure I have the right ones for the big tree, before I carry it up our long basement stairs.

Christmas Tradition......


A cactus that blooms for us during the holiday seasons.  It almost seems magical as a plant like this will put out blooms in our climate of the interior of a home rather than being in a dryer outside climate.

Friday, November 30, 2018

Friday’s Start of the Day....


This is the end of a very pink sunrise.  I keep posting shots that would have been greater if I had been able to take it 20 minutes earlier. I am out with Barney in the front of the house again and it was changed by the time I got back into get the camera.

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Fluffy Clouds......


It doesn’t take a large amount of clouds to get a good looking sky scene.  The day had been warming and the clouds were affected by that temperature change.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

First One for the Season......


I was too lazy to plug in the lights so I will have to take another later to show it lighted.  The stuff animals have a lot of history and the majority are bears. Rabbits, raccoons and dogs have blended in to the originally themed teddy bear tree.

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Camouflage.......


I needed a place to temporarily store this old iron wheel.  It worked great to lean it among the vines and it worked like a trellis.  Now after the hard freezes the dead vines and wheel seem to blend together. I had stored iron wheels and milk cans for my brother-in-law until he could find a place to put them at his house.  Nothing happened in which he still has not come to take his share of them back to his house, so I have moved them all to the new house.  I have milk cans stashed here and there and two wheels out in the garden area.  One wagon wheel sits in the garage.

Monday, November 26, 2018

Man on the Roof......


A seasonal photo is one of seeing men on their house putting up lights for Christmas decoration. I didn’t get shots of the other guys on their roof peaks but this one seemed to be too easy not to take. The house has Iowa State colors of lights, red and gold, that are all over the house.

Big and Small...

 The miniature daffodils are so petite compared to the normal sized daffodil. I don't think I have ever brought the small ones inside be...