When I was a kid we piled in the car in NJ and drove to Illinois every summer. This is the route we took.
I drove it home to Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago on my way back from Columbus.
Route 40 The National Road. I pulled over to catch the autumn hues in the background hills along the way.
There were interesting and quirky scenes but this is the one that stayed with me for the time since I drove along this highway instead of the interstate.
I saw this plant in my daughter-in-law’s garden last weekend.
The sunflower’s petals gone, the flower head heavy and bent over with the spiraling pattern of seeds- Fibonnaci numbers((0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, … etc, each number is the sum of the two numbers before it) found in nature. My mother was always talking about Fibonnaci.
A mathematical miracle AND a squirrel’s delight.
Not sure how much a squirrel would need to store for the long winter but this one sunflower’s seeds looks like a good start.
Murphy sat on the back porch before bed. When I went to let him in, I saw a popcorn looking sky from the moon and the glow of the porch motion light- on and off, on and off- as he turned his head. The deck wood looked red.
No time to get a remote cable and eliminate camera shake.
A deep breath as I propped the camera against the edge of the sliding glass door. Depressed the shutter button while I held my breath. No worries that WordPress forgot to issue their weekly photo challenge.
This is what the sky looked like as we made our way down the midway to the van.
Then the rain started. We’d been at the Ohio State Fair about two hours. The photos are not enhanced, that’s the color of the sky!
A deluge. The view from the van shows the lightning. Shortly after four in the afternoon. It got dark as night. When we got home, the power was out so we
went to eat dinner at House of Japan. Thanks to the Kroger booth people at the fair for sheltering me and the kids while Erika ran and got the van and the nice State Trooper who guided us to the van as the wind blew and the rain fell. No hail today, thank goodness. We got pretty wet and it came up fast but all is well.
The first photo of the fair is a small combo at the entrance gate playing Life is a Cabaret. They were good musicians and set the mood.
As we listened to the music we saw this gentleman approach the exit.
His name is John and he blew an eleven inch bubble to win the bubble gum machine and the trophy. He was a good sport and allowed me to photograph him.
The nice woman with the mini-dachshund, Pickle ( 1 yr), let the children pet the sheep and Michael had fun feeding one. Thanks Carrie.
William , originally from Wheeling, was one of the men running the Model Railroad display.
And that is Dave in the PETA shirt in the Sheep Pavilion.
I asked one of the men how they judge the sheep in the competition. He said, they’re choosing the ones who will look best on the table. Some of you know that two out of my three kids are veg, but the one said to me, “Ma, ask that man if you can photograph his shirt!”
Thanks for graciously allowing me to post your photos on the blog today. It was good to talk with everyone we met.
The sunflowers are a gift from a friend.
This photograph was taken in the art room today on my iPhone. Most of the middle schoolers were on a trip. After lunch I had a few who didn’t get to attend. This wonderful painting was created by a young man named Scott. He painted the sunflowers a friend had brought me.
I didn’t want to leave the flowers at home alone so took them with me to school. They were so vibrant and summery.
Oh, the unexpected surprise of the gift of flowers from a good friend.
Friday after school, I put the bouquet on the front seatand when I arrived at my son and DIL’s home and took them out of the car, my granddaughter ran down the hill of the front yard to greet me and said excitedly when she saw them, “Oh we studied that artist! ” Later in the craft store she picked up a Starry Night Umbrella and told me it was the same artist as the Sunflowers. She’s 8 1/2 and just completed second grade Tuesday.
Thanks for the flowers, friend. I thought it would cheer you to see them in Scott’s painting.
(And that eyeball glaring from the chair is from the cover of a book that belongs to Scott’s classmate and friend, J, who told me he has checked out the photos on this blog! Cool. )
To see other responses to the weekly photo challenge click here
from my friend Shuey in Niceville, Florida. He emailed this photo to me and I asked if I he’d allow me to post it and he said yes! I thought it was exceptionally cool to see an owl closeup. The site he sent said ” sometimes the Barred Owl sounds crazed”
Nice shot and thanks for guest blogging!
“This was my 3rd try at getting some pics of one of our neighbors – a Barred Owl. It’s half of a nesting pair who live in the woods behind our house and this one likes to rest in some trees next to our house in mid to late afternoon on nice days. They can be heard in the mornings, about an hour before dawn hooting behind the house. The first time I heard them I thought they were dogs and another time I heard a commotion and think it may have gotten a small cat . . . hopefully not someone’s pet.
It was very tolerant today and let me move around below him for quite a while before moving off to another nearby tree. This is their nesting season and hopefully I’ll be able to see some young owls in early April.
If you want to hear one, go to this site, and scroll down to the Barred Owl, then click on the arrow in the center of the video picture.
http://doloresmonet.hubpages.com/hub/OwlsoftheUS-AWhosWhoofOwlsOwlCallsIdentificationandCulturalSigificance
Three is the answer.
Steve says he is glad he is not a deer. These are woods IN the city.
At night I waited for the moonrise and the cloud cover was thick and the air cold. During the day we attempted the 4 kids-simultaneous-smiles for the Christmas card. There were the miniature horses in the field next door, sunlight streaming through their visible breath and the late afternoon light on the stunning flowering pears holding onto their golden and scarlet leaves, then releasing them when the wind blew. But I went out in my robe and clogs in the mid-thirties to catch the flock of Turkey Vultures (I had been calling them buzzards until I looked them up) as they circled and waited in the trees. Fascinating- a bit repugnant at the same time.
National Geographic photographers do this much better but thought I would try. The hummingbirds dart around really fast. We sat in chairs outside and David called it watching Hummingbird TV. A great show.
