Tag: photography

Chicken Secrets

Leave a comment

~*~

The girls can often be found out on the yard, head to head, telling secrets.  Perhaps they were discussing where to find the best morsels and treats to peck, or more likely, Henrietta was whispering the latest gossip into Little Red’s ear?

Henrietta:  “Hey Lil’ Red have you heard that latest about Bertha over there?  Don’t look, keep pecking, or she’ll know we’re talking about her again!”

Lil’ Red:  “Do tell!  I haven’t had a good cackle in a while!”

Well, I never caught the whole conversation, but it sounded like something about “wrinkled eggs.”  Aww, poor Bertha.

By the way,  for those wondering about the old crocks in the background, well, they’re Goose toys.  Rain or shine, in or out of the pool, they are good goose and gander fun…  and best of all?   They’re indestructible and thus provide hours of *dibbling  fun and enjoyment!

*Dibbling = chewing

 

Epilogue

10 Comments

Now some of you know that I was planning to drive to Nebraska to visit my long-lost cousin Karen.  Understand dear reader, that no matter how badly I wanted to get there, it just wasn’t going to happen.  I called her and told her I would like to fly in to Omaha, Nebraska, but that I just couldn’t bear the drive… It would be another whole day there, and then two days to get back from Omaha to Home.

And so it was that the next morning I packed all my things into my truck, walked about taking a few last impressions with my camera, and then I just had to get going.  Jayme had given me Ibuprofen for my back and I went out and got the engine started.  I sat for a moment while the engine warmed, thinking about my stay and the long journey ahead of me.  I was glad to have come, but eager to be home again.

Backing out of the drive I heard the gravel crunch under my truck’s wheels took one last look at Jayme’s home… and there she was in the window waving good-by!

I turned into the road and drove off the sound of NUVIna’s admonishing voice…

“Recalculating route!”

It was going to be a LONG way home…

~*~*~*~

I would like to share with you some of the photos that would not fit into the previous posts.

A side note: Jayme, Glenco and I watched a special on Chihuly the famous ‘glass blower.’  Weeeelll… it turns out that he does not actually BLOW the glass himself but designs and then directs master glass blowers to turn out what he wants to make.

So now you’ll ask:  “So what’s your point?”

My point is that Aaron wanted to try out a camera like mine so I let him.  I told him what I wanted to see and then gave him cart blanche to snap away.  He took hundreds of photos and then I went through and edited them down to what I was looking for.  So, in a way I am to Aaron’s photos as Chihuly is to mouth blown glass sculpture… yes?

~*~*~*~

Here are some of my favorites Aaron took for me at the lake

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

Sand in the making.

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

Liquid Steel

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

At the end of the day.

~*~*~*~

Again, a special thank you to Aaron for catching this loveliness for me to Chihuly-ize.

~*~*~*~

And these photos are mine from the trip home.

~*~*~*~

They all told me I had missed the fall beauty.

Their eyes were shut.

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

I once read an old folk tale wherein a poor fisherman is offered three wishes by a magic fish…

I politely told him,  “No thank you.”  And went my own way.

~*~

(Bob told me he could not see the fish… It is the stones, look again!)

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

A little chapel ca. 1850 on the Tippecanoe Battle grounds…

~*~*~*~

 

~*~*~*~

Arriving too late for the sermon, I nonetheless found the message inspiring…

~*~*~*~

The Battle ground Memorial of Tippecanoe was the only stop I allowed myself on the way home.  As I pulled up into the parking lot I had to fight the urge not to cry.  Some would blame it on being hormonal, others might think me far to sensitive… I have no explanation for my reaction, not really… but feeling the way I did made this memorial icon seem dreadfully huge and out of place.

I do not wish to offend anyone.   I am only trying to put words to how I felt at that moment.

I could not go in.

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

Back on the road and making yet another pit stop, I was suddenly impressed with how much Highway 65 resembles a gun barrel.

We all drove it at 70 + miles an hour, hurtling ourselves towards our destination, whilst multi-ton trucks did the same…

all jockeyed for position.

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

It was a death trap that I survived to get home in time for

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

Fall!

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

And in the morning I let out the geese.  All were pouting save Polly…

and she honored me with a dance!

~*~*~*~

 

~*~  Fin  ~*~

 

There, with the grace of God, went I: part III of III

3 Comments

Wherein I explore a very big lake and discover I am ready to go home…

Having spent Saturday at the Bantam show, and on the road, I was glad for a lazy morning on Sunday.  But in no time at all we were back on the road with Jayme’s sister escorting us, and we had her nephew in tow.

Poor guy thought he was going to be home doing the normal boy in charge, teenager home alone shenanigans, and suddenly there was a carload of old ladies down in the parking lot demanding his presence!  (As seen through the 14 yr. old’s perspective.)

He has that effect on you.  You just want him around because he is so spontaneous and fun!

~*~*~*~

Deja Vu?  No, you’ve seen this before… Jayme borrowed my cake picture, and I borrowed one of hers.. Turnabout is fair play they say!

~*~*~*~

And then we were off to the Dunes, with a side trip to a very ancient barn complete with …

~*~*~*~

Barn cats

~*~*~*~

A carload of other old ladies showed up with a trunk load of cat food to feed them all.  I wondered at the time if this wasn’t the place where everyone came to dump unwanted kitties… lots of kitties…

I have this love of old barns.  I discovered them when I was eighteen and traveling from Southern California to my first duty station in Pensacola Florida.  As I entered the southern states they started popping up in the fields here and there and I wanted to draw every one of them.  Sadly, they are slowly being torn down and the wood repurposed for other projects like tables and shelving…

~*~*~*~

I liked how the light came in through the window and lit up the angles on these beams.

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

Old Barns Have Character

~*~*~*~

It makes me sad to think of them no longer existing in their proper form as… barns.

Interesting observation here, the barns in Kentucky were for the most part painted a very dark charcoal black, and the barns in Indiana are mostly painted white.  Why is that? (A rhetorical question, but if you know the answer do tell!)

~*~*~*~

Milking Room Deep Down Below

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

Underneath it all there was a milking room.  I would have dearly loved to get inside to take pictures, but could not figure out how to get in there.  So we will all have to be content with pictures through a broken window… for which I gingerly got down on all fours in broken glass and balanced my camera on the ledge to get.  Be satisfied with the results, as they were the best to be had under these conditions.

~*~*~*~

On the way to the dunes I saw this one and made poor Jayme’s sister pull over so I could get a picture of it…  I’m hating the blue tarp covered something on the side, but the sky and the whole effect are really beautiful.  It was just such a day!

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

The Dunes, as they are called, is a beach on Lake Michigan.  Honey if you are from anywhere else in the country and you see the Great Lakes on a map, well you think “Yeah, wow, big lakes alright.”  But then you  get there and it’s like looking at the ocean… with the sun setting all wrong…

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

Massive…

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

It is a surrealistic sensation, causing introspection and a feeling of aloneness, yet comforting in a strange way…

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

And then suddenly, all too soon,  our day was drawing to a close.  The sun was setting …

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

And we were on the way back to The Coop Keeper’s  home.

My visit was almost over and I felt sad to think it.  Jayme had cared enough to open her home to me, a stranger.   She took me to see chickens in Ohio, and a Great Lake.  We went antique and thrift shopping (which my husband just will not do).  We talked, laughed, shared and did all the things that best friends do, and it was like we had known each other for years.

~*~*~*~

I’d had a wonderful stay, and in the morning it would be time to go home.

~*~*~*~

End Part III

~*~*~*~

The Epilogue posts  tomorrow…