I Got One!

      I like blogs with good photography. I particularly like photos of birds, animals, plants, insects ,scenery and lots more.

     Now I try to take pictures of  things from the list above. Well , I've not been very successful. I'm too impatient. I don't want to sit quietly and wait for the subject to pose for me.

    Now the other day a golden opportunity came my way. It was a cool day and I found a dragonfly on my shed door. I raced in for my camera. Yep, he was still there when I got back. I took some quick photos and took my camera back in the house. When I came back out the dragonfly was gone, so I took a photo of a living dragonfly.

    Now here's where I really suck. I'm not able to identify and dragonflies. I'm looking for people who will identify my dragonfly.

My Zinnias Perform Well

    Well, I think they're Zinnias. I could stand to be corrected. If I'm wrong, I know people will very kindly correct me.

    This is the first year I grew zinnias. Gardens and plants around here are short in variety. How come I grew zinnias?

     Well, I've only grown white petunias in my carport planter and this year I planned to grow petunias in the carport planter. In fact, I bought some petunias as bedding plants.

     One day in the spring my neighbor came over and asked me if I wanted some seeds. His sister is a seed distributor and had given him some out of date seeds. Neighbor didn't have any use for him. These were the type of seeds that are implanted on a piece of fabric and all you had to do was lay the strip on the ground and carefully cover it with the correct depth of soil. He gave me Alyssum and another variety of seed. I planted all the seeds in the one variety and threw the package away. I didn't expect any of them to grow. I watered the carport planter very well. I didn't water the Alyssum that much. The seeds I didn't know the name of germinated and grew well. None of the Alyssum germinated. They have been blooming for three weeks and they are zinnias. 

     Now the big surprise is that the micro manager really likes the variety of colors of the zinnias.  Now she wants to plant zinnias again next year. Fine by me.

    But the next time somebody gives me some seeds to plant , I'll keep the package.

Do Your Research , Red

      In my previous post about the fish, I was missing some information. That information was supplied very quickly after I posted  My former colleague, Rae informed me that this was a combination art and science project. It's called artist in residence. For the whole week this artist takes over the art and science classes. At the end of the week they have many colorful fish and have learned about water and fish.

     Schools here are on a school based budget.They have money for special projects so they bring people or groups in for  week for a special project.

     My son's very best girl told me there was one of these projects at a school she is familiar with and another person reported seeing a streams mural on a school fence.

     So the next time I had better do more research when I post on one of my discoveries or I could just say that I learned much more by doing the post.

    Now do some of you have a Streams mural at your school?

Surprising What is There When You Look

      A few weeks ago someone posted about a mural on a fence. Aha, I said. I know where there's something similar beside me.

       About 3 or 4 years ago an interesting art piece was placed on my neighborhood school fence. For about a 100 m a pattern of fish were attached to the fence. I thought, "Well, that looks nice but I wonder what it is." Well, I kept driving by the school 5 or 6 times a week. I always noticed the fish.

       Now the fish were bright colors and many shapes. From the road it looked like they were ceramics. I was impressed.

      I could only think that it was a very interesting school art project. So with the post a few weeks ago I decided I had to take a look at the fence mural. One afternoon I took my camera to take a look.

      I was impressed. It was a project to teach kids about fish conservation. I'm sure the kids learned about different kinds of fish and fish habitat. They probably learned about fish anatomy. And the art project was a big part. I'm sure the kids will remember what they learned for a long, long time.

      Someone cut out basic fish shapes from plywood. It looks like there were 5 or 6 different shapes and I'm sure each kid would get one of each pattern to paint. Some kids tried to paint a realistic fish such as speckled trout. Some were very, very good. Others had some very imaginary patterns.

      So I've been driving by an interesting project for three or four years missing out on it's significance. How many other people have been passing by and not investigated?

       So hats off the the kids, teachers and school for creating a very interesting project.

   

Tell Tale Signs

     I had a couple of mysterious callers at my place the last few weeks. They both left evidence that explained what was going on.

     I live on a corner. It's a handy shortcut for all kinds of reasons.  Kids cut across with their bikes. The odd car has cut across. I'm sure many people walk across and I never see them. Then all kinds of critters take advantage of a good short cut.

     A couple of weeks ago we had one of those nights with lots of thunder, lightning and rain. I went for the paper early in the morning. I noticed there was black material on my drive way right by the corner of the house. I thought it was mud but didn't know why it would be there. I went out. Yes, it was mud. Somebody was going across my yard and accidentally stepped in the flower bed. There was a petunia thrown on the grass. I wondered where it came from. I couldn't see any petunias that were missing. After a long time it hit me. It came from a hanging pot.

     Yesterday I looked out the front window and there was more black stuff. This time it was lighter and I was sure the stuff was deer poop.    So I went out to check and sure enough some deer was crossing my yard in the night and just had to leave a deposit at that place.
   
    So no problem. somebody took a shortcut across my yard. What got into his head to pull the petunia  out, I don't know. Many deer are in the area in the winter. I was surprised the deer were around in the summer. The sneaky devils always prowl around at night.

    So I had two unseen visitors that left some evidence to tell a story.

Photo by Bonnie Mullin

Some Touch up on My House

      I have lived in my house since 1970. The house was built in 1963 so it's been around a while.

      I've been able to work at maintenance and keep it in good condition.

      The house is brick with wood trim. I've been able to paint the trim and keep it in good condition. However, the time has come to stay off ladders as much as possible. The wood and eave troughs have lived their life and it was time something major was done.

      We decided to replace the eave troughs cover the gable ends and  fascia with aluminum. We had the roof redone several months ago.

      So it's done and we are quite happy with it. We wish we'd done it ten years ago when we talked about it. It really improves the look of the house.

The eave trough guys were fast

A 65 ish Clifford was very slow but careful and thorough. He did a fine job.

Super Paper Delivery

     Ron has delivered my daily paper for at least 10 years. I couldn't have had better delivery even if I delivered them myself. 

     Ron has some challenges in this life. Physically his walking is labored and his strength is limited. That doesn't stop Ron. 

     Ron has done 3 or 4 routes at a time. With his short slow steps this takes a long time. Rain or shine my paper is delivered. At times it's not delivered on time because he has so many papers to deliver.

     Over the years Ron has always used a shopping cart to haul his papers. Papers are very heavy . The shopping cart is very hard to push through snow and is awkward to maneuver around driveway approaches. Sometimes he puts maximum effort into pushing through snow. Sometimes people steal his shopping cart.

     When Ron first started delivering my house number was on my paper. Ron's wife would go through each route and write the house number on the paper. This way papers were delivered accurately . Now he remembers all places to deliver. You get notes everyday as to new drops , cancelled subscriptions or people being away.

      To add to Ron's challenge, he packs groceries at one of the grocery stores. That's how he gets the shopping cart.

      Now Ron has fun doing papers. He likes to dress up for special days. So for most of Dec. he wears a Santa Claus hat. Have any of your paper boys worn a Santa Claus hat? So St. Patrick's he finds a green hat. Sometimes it's a flamboyant scarf!

      Ron likes a visit and is always sharp with a kibitz. He tells me when the deer visit my house.

      A few years ago the paper went to a night or early morning delivery where the routes would be much longer and vehicles would be used. Delivery people would pick their papers up from a central point. Good bye Ron. Ron doesn't have a car. However , Ron protested and insisted he be given a route. Well, they couldn't deny Ron. He picks papers up about 1:00AM. He delivers to my house around 2:00Am. Now that's a challenge. He has a short sleep and then he's off to pack groceries.

     How do I know all this stuff about papers? I delivered papers for a couple of years in my retirement. It was a fun job...lots of good visits.

     So , for somebody with handicaps. Ron does a super job. If more people were as persistent as Ron they'd be better off.