Wednesday Words: Bloom

Sharing some words and a photo ..thanks to Muddy Boots Jen. ...check her out! :) Ok I am a day early..obviously auto post is NOT working correctly:(

Sunday Stills : Things With Wings

The Sunday Stills Challenge this week was Things With Wings. I chose bees! I am allergic to them, I do not like them very much, one at a time they are okay..more than a couple buzzing around make me nervous.

A big old bumble bee on the Lupine.

A wasp?? on a Centaurea 'Montana Blue' bloom... a perennial Bachelor's Button that all things with wings and stingers just love.
I believe this is a honey bee?? He is on a Wild Geranium ..can they overdose on pollen? He was very lethargic and was covered in pollen, he did move a bit..but not much...safer for me that way:)

Round Robin Photo Challenge : Wildlife

Wildlife! This challenge was suggested by both Nancy and Gina for the Round Robin Photo Challenge. I decided to go out on a limb with this one and show you a rookery. These photos are from May 10, 2009.

We visited a local rookery back in May. Great Blue Herons nest in colonies called a heronry or a rookery. They construct their nests high in the trees, away from predators.

Males build the nest of sticks and line it with reeds, moss and grass. They will refurbish and use old nests. They are sloppy haphazard builders. Most often they choose dead trees to build their nests in.

Once the eggs are laid, both parents incubate the eggs. Three to seven eggs are laid per nest, but only one or two chicks will survive. They only feed the strongest chicks, and the others starve to death. ( I know, I know, sad isn't it, survival of the fittest.) Herons mate for life, but they only spend the nesting season together, when they head south for the winter, they go alone..kind of like separate vacations.

I took this photo on June 20, 2009 a Great Blue Heron was standing on a submerged log fishing:)

Click on photo's to enlarge!

Color Carnival: A Flag

I really need to work on this theme, I have such a hard time finding colorful things to photograph..this week I chose the flag just outside my front door. I just need to find my comfort zone.. and I have not found it yet. Maybe I am looking too hard.. I don't know..suggestions? I love to photograph things of just one color.. but that is not the challenge is it..Color Carnival should just inspire color, many colors:)

Sunday Stills: Tri-Color

The Sunday Stills Challenge this week was lots of color. I tend to photograph simple things, of just one or two colors..so it is an area I do need to work on. These were taken this week in my WILD Gardens:)

Lupine

Veronica with Lupines in the background

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads!! :)

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot: Playing in the Water

Carly assigned playing in the water, something that Chance enjoys! It was a lovely evening, on June 2oth when went down to the lake. The Loons were calling, and a Great Blue Heron was fishing. Chance splashed along the shoreline, and ventured out and tried to bite a lily pad. It moved in the water, so he backed off, seeking the safety of the shore. The water is still cold...I noticed this when Chance shook droplets of water all over me. The evening air was heavy with the smell of dead fish, a smell very familiar to me. I used to patrol this very shoreline, every morning in the summer for dead floating fish that would eventually be washed ashore for my dogs to roll in...:)

Sunday Stills : Silos

The Sunday Stills Challenge this week was silos or water towers. I chose silos. We have a number of them in the area. Many not being used, I call them the sad silos.. they are disappearing from our landscape just like the old barns.. from this born and raised on a family farm girl I find it sad.

This one is on the farm where I grew up. This is not the silo we had, our silo always had silage in it, we fed it to our cows in the winter time. Silage was made by cutting up the entire corn plant, and putting it into the silo. The silo was filled in the fall, there was a wooden door that you used to open up and you would take a fork and remove some silage for the cows. Silage smells sweet and the cows loved it. Late in the winter as the silo became emptier, the silage would freeze in huge clumps, my dad would crawl in and use a pick ax to bust them up so they would fit through the door. The frozen clumps thawed out in the barn. Men were the only ones allowed in a silo, and whenever anyone went in, someone stood watch just incase the silo gas was bad. We were told if Dad stopped talking to us, that we should run to the house and call for help. So we would stand there, and keep asking him if he was ok..luckily he always was. Some farmers have died either from the nitrogen dioxide or silo gas, or from the lack of oxygen in a silo.

This is from my archives, I took this back in April of 2009, a very old silo on a very old farm.

An old farmstead at sunset.

Round Robins: Looking UP!

The flowering crabs have been just beautiful this year, I always have a great time looking up! Check out the other Robins and see what they found for this looking up challenge:)

Color Carnival : Iris

These Large Bearded Iris are beautiful, I photographed these at my sisters farm on Saturday, June 06. 2009 Perfect for Martha's Color Carnival! :)

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot # 41: Clouds

Carly wants clouds! Easy, I love clouds and photograph them all the time. This photo was taken June 03, 2009 we were out for an evening drive:)

Sunday Stills: Silhouettes

Dinosaurs on the prairie..perhaps a Grainosaurus?

Silhouettes are the Sunday Stills challenge this week. I found a farmyard monster, these old threshing/thrashing machines are part of the landscape here in Minnesota. Quite the implement in their time..now they are just photo opportunities and landmarks:)