Cutting room floor.

A couple more pictures I took for Art of the Land photo contest.

I just went back to look at them all again and liked these two:

Here is a link to the photo entries: HERE (takes you to video of link.)

Fall Night and Dark Pets.

Dark Night and Fall Pets would work too.

Saturday night Clint and Chad stopped
by for a visit. Holly too (a little later).

Drinks in the driveway with
a fire keeping the chill off. Nice night.

Thanks Clint for bringing beer.
Thanks Chad for only bringing
lemonade for your mixed drinks. 
Bastard.

I later took this picture of
Cubbie (the lab) and Teddy (the cat).


Cubbie never likes looking at the camera
(thinking it might steal his soul?)


Teddy never photographs well
because he's so black.


I set the camera to b/w mode and
used the flash - since it was pretty dark.

I like it overall except for the leaves.

With the black and grays,
they almost look like layers of burnt ashes.

An illuminating fall.

I usually associate fall with bright autumn colors and shorter days.

This should brighten (and lighten) things up;

Moon flower pods and Chinese lanterns.

Straight from the garden.

I picked as I was cleaning up brush so I could find and dig up my dahlia bulbs.

As much as I try to keep order, by end of summer my dahlias are entwined with moon flowers,
morning glories, and new this year, thunbergia vines.

Save the rows.

High winds through the midwest blows.

Corns ready for harvest. Save the rows.

We had really strong winds on Tues and Wed, October 26-27, 2010.
I took this on the edge of town just after work.
Can't see the wind and the clouds were more ominous the day before (26th) but I like the low light and winding country road.

Faeries.

"Every time a child says, 'I don't believe in Fairies,'
there is a Fairy somewhere that falls down dead."
~ Peter Pan

Signs.

Theme is signs. First thing I thought of was M. Night Shyamalans' movie, Signs; well filmed with a quaint farm and it's occupants surrounded but not protected by a corn field. Great looking farm. I would rate the movie supernatural lite. Loved the visuals.

Back when Mel was only an actor,

And Phoenix not yet a rapper,

a Culkin, not Macaulay,

played an asthmatic son.

It was Bo the daughter,

who turns out at the end,

had left clues all over,

and who would have guessed,

They looked quite invincible

but that wasn't the case,

turns out the alien's weakness

was something home based:

WATER...

(I love the baseball reference. Ha, you had to watch it to understand.)

Taken tonight, edge of backyard. Cornfield.

From Butterflies 07-11-10.

From 2010-07-30corn-etc

Pronounally vague.

I love Sundays in the summer. The light is great for reading. (I hardly need my reading glasses in the bright sun.)

I like to have NPR on in the background, a cold drink on a table beside my lawn chair, and my feet propped up on the picnic table. Heaven.

I'm currently reading Stephen King's Under the Dome. Quite a long book with countless characters and plot lines. There is a descriptive map and who's who list at the beginning of the book. I find myself going back to look things or people up.

I read at a leisurely pace, taking time out for cool off breaks with the hose or frig (drink refills).

Last Sunday I ran across a curious phrase that interested me enough to make note of the page number. It was 719.

(I have a pretty good memory so I do things like that for later reference.)


Page 719

Jackie: …if he came across Jim Rennie flaming in the street, he wouldn’t piss on him to put him out.
...

Piper: "Pronounally vague but otherwise colorful."


(I take it to mean Jackie's he's and him's could have been better chosen and used more sparingly. The sentence was confusing but made sense. )

Anyway, a couple days later I was thinking about the book and googled "Under the Dome 719".

I was surprised to see this came up: LINK HERE

Pronounally ambiguous was the subject and the bits of dialogue that I thought interesting were being discussed by a few people (obviously Stephen King fans.)

Made me feel good I noticed the strangeness of the phrase and wasn't alone in doing it.

Mudding on the 4th weekend.

4th of July 2010 (actually Saturday July 3rd.)
Party at Clint and Jenni's.

Lots of good music, drink, and later fireworks.
A common theme all through the day was the 4-wheeling mudding in the adjoining flooded field.



Above is Clint in his Toyota.
There were a lot of people walking around with muddy arms and / or legs by the end of the night.



Clint above taking a break.


Above: Some friends of Clint took what I thought to be an almost stock Jeep through the mud.

Made it.

Clint and Matt taking laps around the pond.

Later that night they had an almost surreal look because all you could make out were the headlight(s) moving slowly through the darkness.

(Reminded me a bit of Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid where they couldn't shake their trackers - they could see them in the distance carrying torches).

HERE is a link to Marseilles, Illinois for the off-road track they visit many times a year.

In the dark.

Uprooted.

Last Sunday I was gardening and accidentally pulled up these buttercups. I felt sorry for them, so I put them in water and took some pictures. It was rainy out - these are real raindrops, not hose water.

Wet.

I like the enamel like texture of the flowers but just below they look more crepe paperish.

Below you can see the enamel like texture of the flowers

Way-Back Road.

Way Back Road

filled with turns and

lasting memories.

During school years

I rode our school bus

under this bridge...

...spanning the

border of states

Illinois and Wisconsin.

It looks no older.

It looks no worse.

Like it's been cast

a timeless curse.