Oct 23 2011 Gazing Ball

Oct 22 2011 Mushrooms

These mushrooms look like perfect round white knobs!

Oct 21 2011 A Perfect Dahlia

Oct 20 2011 More Fungus

Oct 19 2011 Fungus

The last 2 weeks of Sept. the weather here was cloudy and rainy.  Dreary.  I don't remember seeing the sun!  All sorts of weird fungus and mushrooms were growing under trees in the park.

Oct 18 2011 Monarch Butterfly

Butterfly bushes really do attract the butterflies.  I had to get in REALLY close to take these pictures.  The butterflies were so fascinated with the flowers that they didn't even notice me!

Dahlia Oct 17 2011

Mexican Sage Oct 16 2011

It is worth waiting all summer for these beautiful spikes to bloom.  I love the velvety texture!

Sept 25 2011 Blue Green Mushroom

Sept 13 2011 Waterfall

I have not been able to blog for months because I couldn't sign on to Google.  I finally figured out that my firewall in my security software has been blocking Google, Facebook, etc.  I have many of my 365 days to catch up on!
My friend and I went back to TN this summer and I took 106 pictures of that beautiful state.  Here is one of the waterfalls

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts"
-Rachel Carson

Columbine

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars
come out of you."

A True Duck Story

By Judy Carrazzino

This was posted on my bead chat.  I thought it was a wonderful story.  Is this man available?  I'd like to marry him!!

Subject: A True Duck Story from Edmonton

Something really cute happened in downtown Edmonton this week.
Michael R. is an accounting clerk at the Bank and works there in a
second story office. Several weeks ago, he watched a mother
duck choose the concrete awning outside his window as the unlikely
place to build a nest above the sidewalk. The mallard laid ten eggs
in a nest in the corner of the planter that is perched over 10 feet
in the air. She dutifully kept the eggs warm for
weeks, and Monday afternoon all of her ten ducklings hatched.

Michael worried all night how the momma duck was going to get those
babies safely off their perch in a busy, downtown, urban
environment to take to water, which typically happens in the first
48 hours of a duck hatching.

Tuesday morning, Michael watched the mother duck encourage her
babies to the edge of the perch with the intent to show them how to
jump off. Office work came to a standstill as everyone
gathered to watch.

The mother flew down below and started quacking to her babies
above. In disbelief Michael watched as the first fuzzy
newborn trustingly toddled to the edge and astonishingly leapt
into thin air, crashing onto the cement below. Michael couldn't
stand to watch this risky effort nine more times! He dashed
out of his office and ran down the stairs to the sidewalk
where the first obedient duckling, near its mother,
was resting in a stupor after the near-fatal
fall. Michael stood out of sight under the awning-planter,
ready to help.

As the second one took the plunge, Michael jumped forward and
caught it with his bare hands before it hit the concrete. Safe
and sound, he set it down it by its momma and the other
stunned sibling, still recovering from that painful
leap. (The momma must have sensed that Michael was
trying to help her babies.)

One by one the babies continued to jump. Each time Michael hid
under the awning just to reach out in the nick of time as the
duckling made its free fall. At the scene the busy
downtown sidewalk traffic came to a
standstill. Time after time, Michael was able to catch
the remaining eight and set them by their approving mother.

At this point Michael realized the duck family had only made part
of its dangerous journey. They had two full blocks to walk
across traffic, crosswalks, curbs and past pedestrians to get
to the closest open water, the River , site of the famed
"River Walk." The on looking office secretaries and
several Edmonton police officers
joined in. An empty copy-paper box was brought to
collect the babies.

They carefully corralled them, with the mother's approval, and
loaded them in the container. Michael held the box low enough for
the mom to see her brood. He then slowly navigated through the
downtown streets toward the River the mother waddled behind and kept her babies in sight,
all the way.

As they reached the river, the mother took over and passed him,
jumping in the river and quacking loudly.

At the water's edge, Michael tipped the box and helped shepherd
the babies toward the water and to the waiting mother after
their adventurous ride.

All ten darling ducklings safely made it into the water and paddled
up snugly to momma. Michael said the mom swam in circles, looking
back toward the beaming bank bookkeeper, and proudly quacking.

At last, all present and accounted for: "We're all
together again. We're here! We're here!"

And here's a family portrait before they head outward to
further adventures.. .

Like all of us in the big times of our life, they never could have
made it alone without lots of helping hands.

I think it gives the name of the famous "River Walk" a whole new
meaning! Maybe you will want to share this story with
others. It's too good to lose!

 

 

 

May 2 2011 Daffodil

May 1 2011 Color Me Pink

April 30 2011 Pansies and Frog







April 29 2011 Can You Smell the Lilacs?

The lilac bush in our yard has grown quite large over the years.  It is packed with fragrant flowers.

April 17 2011 Another Tree

Here is another gorgeous flowering tree, a giant:  this one lives 3 doors down from me.  I don't know what kind of tree it is.  The trees here are just beautiful this year.  So lovely after a hard cold winter.

April 16 2011 Magnolia Tree

In the past week, all the flowering trees here have burst into bloom.  Our little post office in Groveport has the most magnificent magnolia tree that I have ever seen.  It is huge...covered with, it must be, thousands of gigantic blossoms.  I walked underneath it and it was like being in a fairy world.

April 6 2011

"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves
of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the
ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass themselves by
without wondering." -- St. Augustine, 354-430 A.D.

March 12 2011 Hello Spring

the crocuses have bloomed!

 



March 8 2011 A Quote I Like

"Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value." Albert Einstein

March 6 2011 Frozen Spring Flowers







Winter is hanging on here in central Ohio, although my crocus buds have popped up, ahead of even Cincinnati, which is 2 hours south!  I visited there last weekend, where crocus and daffodil leaves were visible, but not blooming yet.

Here are my crocus blooms, braving the snow.

This pansy made it through the winter, although it is frozen solid.



February 20 2011 Sunrise

Red sky in morning

Feb 10 2011

One good thing about the very cold days here, is that the sun comes out.  Most winter days we have heavy cloud cover, my brother calls it "the gray helmet."

Here is the beautiful sunrise that greeted me after the freezing night.

Feb 9 2011

It's been very cold here in central Ohio.  Yesterday morning I was sitting here at my computer, looking outside, and noticed the beautiful ice crystals that had formed on my window.

February 6 2011

My mom and I went to see a documentary last night at the Wexner Center for The Arts, on OSU campus; "Wasteland".  It's nominated for an Academy Award.  It's about a Brazilan artist, Victor Muniz.  He made it as an artist and wanted to give something back to the world.  He went back to Brazil to this giant landfill the Jardim Gramacho, where 3,000 people work daily, picking recycleable materials out of the trash.  Trucks come and dump giant piles and the people are waiting there, before the truck even leaves they are crawling over the trash looking for items that can be re-used.  Some people even live there in a shantytown created from the trash.  They even pick their food from the landfill.  Victor chose a few of the pickers and took their pictures.  He blew them up into giant sizes that covered the floor of a warehouse.  Then he stood above on a cat walk and directed the pickers in where to place items of trash on the potraits to enhance them.  He took photos of these giant creations and sold the prints.  $250,000 was raised, which he gave to the pickers' association. One potrait was sold at auction for $50,000. They documented the lives of some of the pickers.  It was so moving. When the pickers saw their potraits, they cried. One of the pickers said "When I look at myself I seem so small, but others look at me and see me as so big and so beautiful."

Jan 14 2011

Ok, I've been really bad, and I took a month off!  I don't get out as much in the winter...hard to get photos and stay inspired.  But I am going to try and start up again.  Today I have a quote from my positive Christianity newsletter that I love.

"Faith is a bird that feels dawn breaking and sings
while it is still dark."  Rabindranath Tagore