Red Vines

Here’s some more photos taken during my drive last Saturday.  

I braked several times for colorful red vines.

The tree in the next photo had lots of them, though they’re a little hard to see.

Skywatch

Photo taken last weekend in northeast Iowa…

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Flicker

Much to my surprise the other day, a Flicker showed up at the birdbath.  It was late afternoon and the lighting was very bad, but I zoomed and shot anyway.  I had to crop out most of the photo for this close-up look at his markings:

Here’s another view of him, too: 

Chickadee

Near the parking area at Montauk are these ornamental cherry trees:

We saw a bird in one of the trees but couldn’t tell what it was.  Its in this next photo and looks like a Chickadee.  I’ve actually never seen one before. 

(Go to the third blogpost before this one to see more photos from Montauk.)

Dusty Harvest

Yesterday our neighbor was combining soybeans, kicking up lots of dust…

Later in the day, another neighbor was combining in a nearby cornfield.  The two combines appeared to be having a dust-blowing contest…

 

I zoomed the camera quite a bit to get these shots and didn’t mind a bit.  That meant I was plenty far away from all that dust!

Barn Charm

I found this barn during my drive on Saturday.  I think its made of hollow tile that from a distance looks like brick.  An inscription between the upper two front windows reads “1920”.

Thanks for stopping by!  Visit Bluff Area Daily for this week’s Barn Charm.

Montauk

Here’s where we stopped on our drive yesterday.  It’s Montauk, the home of William Larrabee, governor of Iowa from 1886 to 1890.  It sits on a hill above the town of Clermont.

We didn’t have time for a tour of the house on this trip, but we did walk around the grounds.

There are several bronze statues there---this one is of General Sherman:

And, this one of Admiral Farragut watches over the surrounding countryside:

We toured the house as a family one time when our children were young and I’ve been here on their school field trips, too.  I hope to go on a house tour again sometime. 

Colorful Trees

On Saturday I had a chance to take a drive---my husband needed some farm supplies picked up about an hour away.  He told me to go ahead and check out the fall scenery, too, and take some pictures.  How about that!

 

The morning sky was somewhat overcast, but by later in the afternoon the clouds had moved on to another area.  I know of some backroads that usually have colorful trees.  There wasn’t much traffic and I was able to stop here and there to take pictures.  Very enjoyable!

Then, lo and behold, after church on Sunday my husband announced that he wanted us to take a drive!  He wanted to relax and be the passenger, however, so I had to be the driver and couldn’t stop to take photos like I did the day before.  That was ok, but I had trouble keeping my foot away from the brake pedal sometimes.  We did stop at a historical site and walk around and there will be pictures of that here on the blog soon. 

Skywatch

As our weather has been transitioning from summer to fall, we’ve seen some fluffy clouds.  This photo was taken a couple days ago.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Visit Skywatch Friday to find photos from around the world.

Yesterday (Again)

(I like blogging photos from yesterday because then its easy to come up with a title for the blogpost.)  Yesterday morning I was about ready to start catching up on blog reading when my husband hollered that he needed me to rake hay.  I didn’t mind, but it was a bit chilly out so I really had to bundle up since I would be using the cab-less old John Deere.  Later in the day, the hay was chopped for silage. 

There was a brisk wind blowing most of the day.  I wanted to take a photo of the wind, but of course that is impossible---you have to take a photo of something that is being blown about by the wind.  I chose leaves.

Yesterday

  Yesterday’s weather was much cooler, but still very pleasant.

It was perfect for taking a walk in the field…

 

…with a sky full of pretty clouds overhead. 

In the afternoon, our neighbor arrived to harvest our soybeans. 

It was a very good day!

Saturday

We haven’t had blue jays around for several years, but lately we’ve been hearing some, and even saw this one in the birdbath Saturday morning for a few seconds:

My husband and I drove to town and I, of course, took the camera along.  Was hoping to get some photos of farm machinery in the fields and did.  I’d never seen or even heard of a Lexion combine before:

My eye is always seems to be drawn to trees, especially solitary ones out in the fields:

Barn Charm

When I took this hasty drive-by shot earlier this month I figured it wouldn’t turn out, but then ended up being pleasantly surprised by the clearly focused barn.

Thanks for stopping by!  Visit Bluff Area Daily for this week’s Barn Charm.

Your Sunday Best

I took this photo last evening because I really liked the dark green trees, the golden soybean field, and the subtle pink of the sky.  When I brightened it a little, the sky got those patches of digitalization or whatever it is and I got mad and slapped the speckled grain effect from Photoshop onto it.  I don’t know very much about cameras---I’m guessing my photos don’t have a high enough resolution or enough pixels or something. 

Visit A Rural Journal for Your Sunday Best.

Weekly Top Shot

Photo taken in late afternoon.  I liked the hazy view in the distance to add dimension to the scene.

Visit The View From Right Here to find Weekly Top Shot.

 

Road Ditch Update

Yesterday afternoon I was out hunting for a photo for Skywatch and realized I’d been ignoring the road ditch lately.  Here’s some photos from there…

This is plant I see every year but have no idea what its name is:

Not sure, but this might be Jerusalem Artichoke:

Goatsbeard seedheads have shiny gold fibers that to me look unnatural:

 

There also were many tiny white Asters blooming right along the edge of the road.  Thanks, county, for not mowing along the roads the last couple of months, allowing more wildflowers to bloom! 

Skywatch

A photo from this afternoon…

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Today

This morning I took a photo from somewhere I’ve never taken one before---from an upstairs window of our house.  It was about 7:00 a.m. 

My husband seeded some winter wheat today, for the first time ever.  We’ll chop it in the spring for silage---“wheatlage” we’ll probably call it.

 

Our soybeans have now lost their golden color and I miss it.

This morning was warm and summerlike, but about midafternoon a chilly north wind kicked up and autumn made its arrival, I do believe.

Shadows

Late afternoon shadows on an old brick building in Pella…

Barn Charm

This is the one and only clear drive-by shot I got during my more than two hours of driving to Pella the other day.  Whenever I spotted something I wanted to take a photo of, there was usually lots of oncoming traffic and I either didn’t take a shot or I aimed the camera without looking.  Those turned out to be mostly blurry or contained only sky and the car doorframe.  Oh, well, better than being the cause of a news headline such as “Fiery Crash Blamed on Woman Taking Photo for Blog” with the subtitle of “Legislature To Consider Banning Drive-by Photography” with a possible further subtitle of “Blogging To Be Investigated”! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Click HERE to go to Bluff Area Daily for this week’s “Barn Charm”.

More Hay to Make

There’ll be more hay to make later this week.  My husband cut this field yesterday:

Flower Garden

Yesterday I spent the day with my other granddaughter.  In downtown Pella, we walked through the Scholte Gardens, which are located behind the Scholte House Museum.  The sunlight through the trees was so bright---sometimes it seems the sunshine of September is the brightest of the whole year.

We saw lots of Impatiens there.  When I was a kid I believed their name was “Impatience” and thought that was a really strange name for a flower.

We saw some ornamental peppers…

 

We laughed at these robins on the water fountain…

 

There was a blue jay up in a tree…

These blue-purple flowers were there but I don’t know their name…

As you leave the Gardens, the sign bids you Bedankt, which is Dutch for “thank you”.