we didn't need a little birdie to tell us...

we already knew it...Happy Birthday, Bessarie

the Educator

Elise, the red-tailed hawk, one of the education birds that visits school kids as part of the Black Hills Raptor Center's outreach program. She has been to over 1000 classrooms throughout the region so far. She was ruffling a few feathers and causing birdy freak-outs among some fellows at a bird show hosted by my favorite greenhouse. Stay tuned

boots and Stirrups

If you have this many styles of stirrups to choose from...

you better have plenty of different kinds of boots to fit them!

Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo

 

End of January every year the Civic Center and other venues are taken over by the annual Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo. We welcome hundreds of cattlemen and women, rodeo contestants, horses, cattle, bison, baby farm animals, sheepdogs and spectators. It is an a huge event and a welcome break from winter time ranch chores for people.

Today was the first day for events, featuring a large horse sale and auction. A few photos from the sale when I checked in after school.

3 horses waiting

3 cowboys watching

3 + 4 Palomino braids showing

on a winter Day

a summer Porch

summer Pincushion

Just looking through my photos for a bit of summer, Blue Butterfly scabiosa, AKA pincushion flower.

Click on the photo and see the pins in the cushion.

storefront Main Street

What era favored turquoise like this?

We are looking at 1950s decor here, not retro, but the genuine article.

This seems to have been the thing for kitchen appliances  at that time as well, although my mother had a pink stove and refrigerator for years. I think that had something to do with a "heck of a buy" on a double oven range and a huge bottom freezer in the frig. It was pretty exotic, nobody else's kitchen had pink appliances!

just wondering...

exactly what are we locking up here ???

a little bit of Color

A little corner of Art Alley

miss Liberty?

I think this gentleman might be working for a local tax preparation firm, at least I hope so. They have "wavers" outside their seasonal tax offices around town in several places, but I have never seen one walking down Art Alley before.

do they ever get cold Feet?

"A duck foot is mostly tendons with very little muscle, the muscles that help them move are located further from the feet and better insulated, so there is less need for blood flow to the feet to keep them warm. Ducks also have a very unique circulation system, where warm blood going down to the feet goes closely past the cold blood coming back from the feet. This is called a counter-current heat exchange as heat is exchanged from the hot blood to the cold, meaning that the birds do not lose too much heat through their feet."

from www.borrowedfreedom.org

shadow Play

Organic and inorganic

composition by Ma Nature

dear Daffodils,

What are you thinking?? It is the middle of January, it is 15 degrees, it is snow flaking! What in the world are you doing out of bed so early!!

a different kind of Work

Note to whoever opened the store for the day on December 1, 1820, "Solomon Rosevelt left 14 baskets of corn in the ear we put it in the west bin where Abraham Lebo's corn was"

A gill of rum  is 4 oz. and was part of the daily rations of the Continental Army, apparently that was also something you could buy at a general store in the 1820s as well.

Matthew Sax, one of my ancestors, moved west from Vermont to the New York shore of Lake Champlain looking for opportunity in the early 19th century. An ambitious man, he built the steamboat wharf and a general store at what became known as the Landing, or Saxe's Landing. A small community grew around it with a boarding house, inn, and various other businesses. The property remains in our family to this day, my mother being a direct descendent of Matthew, she has the  ledgers and daybooks from the Store dating back to the  1820's. Fascinating reading when you can decipher the penmanship of the day.

Alternately spelled Saxe, depending on who was spelling it.

at Work

Sitta canadensis   Red-breasted Nuthatch

Nuthatch-mid-14c., probably is so called from its habit of breaking open and eating nuts; from nut + second element related to hack (v.) and hatchet.

just a sip and back to Work

Whole mob of chickadees and nuthatches busy lowering the seed level in the feeders today.

sunshine and Shadow

Triangle, rectangle, trapezoid

paper as Paint

collage [kəˈlɑːʒ kɒ- (French) kɔlaʒ]

n

1. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Art Terms) an art form in which compositions are made out of pieces of paper, cloth, photographs, and other miscellaneous objects, juxtaposed and pasted on a dry ground

2. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Art Terms) a composition made in this way

3. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Art Terms) any work, such as a piece of music, created by combining unrelated styles

[French, from coller to stick, from colle glue, from Greek kolla]

collagist  n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

Art 9 2-D

what a Bargain!

A 60F day outside, a new camera lens to experiment with, and a treasure from a bargain bin. I just love amaryllis in the dead of winter when they can go outside in the sunshine on the deck and pose for their portrait.

sleepy eyed Goldeneyes

Canyon Lake is our local hangout for winter ducks. Migrants stop by and stay for the winter, wigeons, goldeneyes, mallards, gadwalls and  others are usually found doing duck things any time of day.

We have had unseasonalbly warm weather lately, so the ice cover on the lake is minimal and open water keeps them scattered. The local mallard crowd is so used to people you can just about walk up and pat them on their little feathered heads. Not so the travelers from farther north, these guys appeared to be snoozing, but I could see golden eyes peeking at me, and this was as close as I was going to get, thank you.

They really are lovely ducks on the water, and what the folks in northern NY where I grew up call "Whistlers". One fly by over your head and it is pretty obvious why.

random glance of Summer

Did he fly, or was he a bird's breakfast? Just wondering.

now you see him, now you Don't

Bucephala albeola    

Bufflehead pair in breeding plumage, they be divers!

a bit of blue Ribbon

Just a little bit of blue ribbon fancies up a Lady's dress clothes!

bark up a different Tree

Ma Nature clothes her children in fabrics of many textures, not just the leafy green dresses of summer.

Happy 2012!

click to enjoy the rainbow colors of Meleagris gallipavo

Step out into the sunshine of a New Year with all its colors and variations just waiting to show themselves. May yours be one of peace, good fortune and good health.

looking forward, looking Back

Heading East on I-90, looking back West in the mirror. Seems apropos for the last day of 2011, looking back to the Old Year passed, and into the New Year to come.

sunrise Cows

Curiosity is supposed to "kill the cat", but there isn't anything much more curious than a herd of cows. They were wondering why I stuck the camera out the window as I drove by on my way to school. Their backs were still snowy, so well insulated are the bovines that it hadn't even melted off even after several hours.

tigers and monkeys and Parrots

This has to be one of the coolest mailbox posts on the Planet! It is on a gravel road, among corn and soybean fields in a lovely corner of Cottonwood County, MN. 

I kid you not, the folks who live here also raise cattle and own a real, live GIRAFFE!

Your neighbors may have wandering cats and barking dogs, but our grandkids have a giraffe for a neighbor.

here be Dragons

Christmas dragons from the creative brain of Daughter #1

Back after spending Christmas with Daughters #1, #2, #3, Son-in-law #1, Son-in-law #2, grandchildren #1 and #2 in Minnesota. A good time had by all! Hope yours was warm and friendly and memory filled, too.
 We are hard on the heels of 2012, hard to believe New Year's has come so fast.

the Easter Bunny

Greeting the Sun at the Winter Solstice, wearing his best Winter fur coat.

"Solstice Sun, Shining Bright!
Shortest Day & Longest Night.
Solstice Wish of Hope & Cheer:
Peace on Earth, throughout the Year!"

by Selena Fox

a grandfather Tree

Ma Nature sure knows how to build a cottonwood tree!

prairie sunrise December

Sunrise on the short grass prairie, Audubon Christmas Bird Count, looking for the sharp-tailed grouse. They, of course, chose to be in the cottonwood trees eating the buds, instead of being picturesque in the grass. Then again, the grass and alfalfa was picturesque on its own.

tiny little Pots

Little bitty baubles for tiny poinsettias in mini 2"pots.

Wouldn't a bright red poinsettia baby be a screamer in a flashy purple pot or an acid green one!

Audubon CBC/Rapid City, SD

The Early Bird

 Morning Watchman

We weren't the only ones walking along the Creek

 Tangerine Toes!

a break from santa claus Things...

CARWASH!