Blueberries

There is a U-Pick blueberry place down the road from us, the berries are lovely and plentiful. I braved 90 degrees, god knows what humidity, rain and other fun stuff, but picked 6 pounds in about two hours.

Home #11

I took Lizzy for a walk to the rarely used, but well maintained park yesterday and finally remembered to bring the camera.

These berries are all over. I can't help but suspect they are poison.

I think this scene will be prettier in the snow.

Exposaroonie Weekly Challenge

Yesterday, Stef (who finds some of the craziest things on the web) pointed out Exposaroonie, which hosts a weekly photo challenge. I'm all about being a sheep (in this case, of the blindly following variety, rather than the pre-sweater variety) and duly submitted this picture:

This must have been taken at the end of the session from the other day, in the moments before sunset in the opposite direction of this picture, which is facing southeast.

Safety Zone

This is at the end of a road I drive down on my way to work.

I remember hearing a story some years ago about these roadside memorials. As I recall, the tradition of marking the scene of a loved one's death began in Mexico and was brought to the U.S. by immigrants. Amazingly, I found the story in NPR's archive. I don't notice these in cities, but there are quite a number of them where we live. This one is just down the road a bit from the above picture; I think there is another, smaller cross hidden in the grass, which makes me wonder if two people died here and if it was in the same accident.

Home #10

It's been a while since I did one of these. The snow hasn't been exactly inspiring, but I stopped yesterday and captured this.

Frozen Wolf Lake

Home #9

I stopped to take some pictures on my way to work today -- one of the less fun things about the time change is that it is now too dark to take pictures on my way home, which means being late. Obviously, I could leave a little earlier, but, let's face it, that isn't going to happen. The yellow tree picture would have benefited from a tripod, at this size it is fine, but it's kind of fuzzy in larger incarnations.

Yellow Tree

Sunrise on Norvell

Home #8

One of my favorite things about both this part of the country and this time of year is the changing color of soybean fields. Overnight they seem to change from deep green to sunny yellow; eventually they will dry up and become a deep burnt orange.

Home #7

Home #6

I took these yesterday morning. Photoshop is a wonderful thing.

I had to work at getting the colors back into this one (taking a picture into even a hazed over sun will do that). I put a grainy filter on, which tones down the harshness of the light.

This is a small portion of a much bigger picture. I used a Photoshop filter to smooth out the pixeliness, I love that it also enhances the haziness of the morning.

Fourth of July Parade!

"On the stairs I smoke a cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shootin' fireworks below
Hey baby, it's the Fourth of July
Hey baby, Baby take a walk outside"
-- X

What's the Fourth of July without a little John Doe (whose voice makes me melt) and X? A little late, but still.

My mom and I went to Grass Lake's Fourth of July Parade. I'm such a sucker for antique tractors and old cars: about halfway through the parade, I filled up my memory card and kept having to frantically delete old John Deere and Farmall tractors. I'm such a dork.

Kid gets candy

I haven't been to a parade in a very long time. Apparently the big thing is to throw candy to the kids who have brought bags for the event. They don't actually watch the parade, they watch for flying candy (then again, antique tractors and old cars are maybe not the most exciting subject matter for the little buggers).

But what's not to love? This one looks like a cartoon character.

Isn't this gorgeous? So curvy and graceful. I like that these farm machines combined great style with practicality: just because something is used every day to work a field, why shouldn't it look good?

Design over function

Ok. No more being a crank. For me anyway:

This kid was not pleased by the role she had in the parade. She was scowling at the crowd as she buzzed by. Since she had no candy to throw, I don't think she got much sympathy.

One more:

Does this help or hurt librarians' cause not be seen as total nerds?

Home #5

This is about 2 miles from where I live. I love how the color of the hay changes from season to season. In late fall to early winter it is the palest of green and was my inspiration for the very pale green in the fair isle cardigan.

Home #4

Swan

This is a view from a park about a half mile from our house. It isn't visible from the road, you have to walk up into the park.

Home #3

I see this every day driving to work. Worth risking a broken axle for, don't you think?

Home #2

This contraption raises and lowers the windows in the roof of our greenhouse. We have a greenhouse. Which would be useful if were above freezing. Or sunny.

A New Series

Back in March and April of last year I did a couple of series, one on spam e-mails (which quickly ran out of steam, since they are so repetitive) and one tracking the blooming of an amaryllis, which would have been much more attractive had my camera been, well, not crappy (it was crappy in a bad way, not in a good, artistic way).

I've been thinking for awhile about doing another series, but a more deliberate and ongoing one. I love where I live and while I can be a bit of a complainer, often cranky, and depressed, the colors and textures of the country rarely fail to bring me joy. As I've thought about how to convey this place, the way I am seeing it has been changing, I'm seeing more detail and more color. I think the first days of Spring is an appropriate time to begin, so here is the first in an occasional, as-yet-to-be-titled series:

I live 35 miles from where I work. There a couple of ways to get there, one is the highway which has the advantage of speed but the disadvantage of Traffic. The other is The Back Way. It's slower and has about 3 miles of dirt road which, before it is graded in the spring threatens to take out my tiny little Escort. But it is so pretty and there is much less traffic than the highway. When we moved out there, I thought I would hate the commute. I don't, I love the drive.