Poinsettia Leaf

Poinsettia Leaf

Poinsettia Leaf

I love the deep red of poinsettia leaves. I also love the little flowers, but you have to admit, it’s the leaves that you really notice. This picture is basically a picture of the color red.

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Lectern Eagle’s Talons

Lectern Eagle's Talons

Lectern Eagle’s Talons

Did you ever notice in the opening scene in Chariots of Fire, in the church, there is a lectern in the shape of an eagle? Eagle lecterns are quite common in English churches and I quite like them. What is a little less common is for there to be one in someone’s dining room. My father-in-law bought this one in the early 1980s and it’s been a fixture in the dining room ever since, so much so that we pretty much take it for granted now. Still, as I said, I quite like it and was taking pictures of little details of it today. This picture is of the eagle’s feet, obviously, which I think are marvelously carved.

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Dorothy and Riley

Dorothy and Riley

Dorothy and Riley

Dorothy loves to visit her friend Julia and I can’t say I blame her. The whole family is just fun to be with. On this occasion, they had an extra dog staying with them and today’s picture is of Dorothy and Riley.

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Ducks In Flight

Ducks In Flight

Ducks In Flight

I love watching birds fly. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s an eagle, hawk, or vulture soaring high in the sky, a sparrow, finch, or wren flitting between bushes, or a duck, goose, or heron taking off from a pond. Their flights are different but they share a beauty found no where else.

Seeing birds in flight, particularly ducks and geese, for some reason, makes me think of Psalm 139:9–10, “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”

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Sycamores

Sycamore Tree

Sycamore Tree

I think if I had to pick one tree that I love to see against a deep blue sky, the sycamore tree would have to be a contender. The white and grey bark are set off so well against the blue of a winter sky.

Sycamore is a name that has been applied to three types of tree. First, there is the sycamore of the Bible, the sycamore fig, Ficus sycomorus. Then, Acer pseudoplatanus, the sycamore maple of Britain and Ireland. Finally, three species of the Platanus, the sycamores of North America, known as plane trees in Europe. The American sycamore is Platanus occidentalis, and that is what I have pictured here.

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Anna-Gabrielle

Anna-Gabrielle

Anna-Gabrielle

Our lovely friend, Erin stopped by today with three of her four equally lovely children. We were fortunate enough to be allowed to watch the three kids while Erin visited her brother and sister-in-law in the hospital along with their new-born baby, Fritz.

This is Anna-Gabrielle, the youngest of Erin’s children, and a lovely little girl she is, too (it helps to win the genetic lottery and have parents as good looking as Erin and David).

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Muddy Pond

Muddy Pond

Muddy Pond

It was such a beautiful day today that I went outside for a little break from work. It was cool but the sky was clear and it was lovely. I haven’t been going out much lately, partly because of the weather but also I think I’m a little bored with the empty lot next to my office. So, I crossed the little stream and walked up to the higher ground on the other side.

There are a few small ponds up there that were filled with muddy water, which is what this picture shows. Not a great picture but it was a very nice diversion for me. I like the color of the grass and the color of the water, both in the foreground where it is a sort of milky, blue color and in the top of the picture where it’s a rich, earthy tone, reflecting the pale grass on the far bank.

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Rat’s Nest

Rat's Nest

Rat’s Nest

I told Dorothy this evening that I was thinking of skipping taking a picture today. It’s been over two years that I’ve been taking a picture every day and I figured I could miss one day without ruining anyone’s life. She said I should take one, that I could take a picture of her, if I wanted. I picked up my camera and took this, along with a few others, of her hair. It’s not as tangled as it might appear, actually.

So, the photo-streak continues.

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More Colors

Colored Pens and Pencils

Colored Pens and Pencils

Two days ago I posted a picture of colored pencils. We have a lot of colored pencils, pens and markers around the house. Dorothy does a fair amount of drawing and so they are never really put away. As I was looking for something to photograph today I saw this basket full of markers and pencils and took a few pictures of it.

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Subway Lights

Subway Lights

Subway Lights

I was going to pick up Dorothy this evening and it was raining fairly hard. The lights of cars were reflecting in the water on the pavement but of course I couldn’t exactly get my camera out while I was driving and get it set up for pictures. So, before I got where I was going I pulled into a shopping center and took a few pictures of the shop lights reflecting off of the wet pavement. This happens to be a Subway sub shop.

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Colored Pencils

Colored Pencils

Colored Pencils

I was looking around for something to photograph this evening and I saw the box of colored pencils. I didn’t want them to be just lying there in their box, so I made a little split-rail fence with them. I like the colors, even if the photo is a little blah.

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Phalaenopsis Orchid

Phalaenopsis Orchid

Phalaenopsis Orchid

We stopped by Johnson’s this afternoon. It’s nice to go into a greenhouse and see so much green and to smell the earthy aroma. There isn’t a lot, even in their greenhouse, this time of year, but it was still worth the time.

I need to repot a few of our orchids but wasn’t in the mood to buy pots today. We were just looking (actually, we did buy something). In addition to the orchids, there were cacti and lots of different house plants. Relatively quiet, though.

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Reflections

Reflected Sky

Reflected Sky

Reflected Sky

Reflected Sky

Dorothy and I went for a nice walk in the neighborhood this afternoon. I carried my camera, as I usually do on walks, but didn’t take all that many photographs. It’s not like there are beautiful vistas in our corner of suburbia. The houses are nice but nothing you’re going to want to see pictures of. There are not very many flowers this time of year. Most of the plants are dormant and leafless. So, what’s left?

We’ve had a bit of rain lately and the ground is quite wet. There were puddles along our walk, sometimes in the drainage ditch (or jewie, as we call it) along the road, sometimes on the road itself. The first of these shows the blue sky through tree branches in water in the jewie, with grass on either side. The other is on the street and has the added interest of a little cloud colored by the setting sun.

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Grey

Grey

Grey

Simple title for a simple picture for a grey day. It was pretty dreary out all day, with a grey sky and not a lot of color. That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot of beauty in a grey day. This is the view out my office window late in the afternoon when it started getting darker. Black and grey.

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Beacon Of Hope

Beacon of Hope

Beacon of Hope

I went to pick up Dorothy from band practice this evening and there was a little fog, which made the light from the church steeple very pretty. I took a series of pictures with the camera sitting on the roof of the car, braced in various ways against the roof rack. This is the one that turned out the best, I think. I also like the sky in this picture.

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“Inside Painted” Sniff Bottle

"Inside Painted" Snuff Bottles

“Inside Painted” Sniff Bottle

Snuff was in widespread use in China during the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century. Rather than putting snuff in a small box, bottles were used and the old bottles are quite collectable, I understand. In the 19th century bottles painted on the inside were made and continued to be made up to the present. I was given this bottle by my in-laws quite a few years ago. I don’t really know much about it but have always liked it quite well.

On the front it has a painting of an old man resting under a tree. On the back are mountains and more trees. The brush work is quite remarkable, especially when you realize that the opening through which the brush was inserted is less than a quarter of an inch in diameter. If someone can read the characters on the bottle and tell me what they say, that would be terrific.

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Orion

Orion

Orion

I don’t have much to say about this picture. It is the constellation Orion but the sky was not as clear as it was a little while earlier or again about a half hour later. I do wish we could see the stars more clearly here. Or perhaps I wish we were somewhere we could see the stars more clearly. Not really the same thing at all.

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Teasel (Dipsacus sp.)

Teasel (Dipsacus sp.)

Teasel (Dipsacus sp.)

It was a chilly but very pretty day outside today and I took the opportunity to get out of my office for fifteen minutes and wander a little while in the woods next to my building. Toward the other end of the empty lot is a clearing that is filled with teasels. So, today you get a picture of one against the blue sky.

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The Black Menace

The Black Menace

The Black Menace

It wasn’t too many years ago that the crow population around here was seriously diminished by West Nile virus. They seem to have made a pretty decent recovery since then and I see great flocks of them now. Recently there has been a flock moving around in our neighborhood, sometimes in our yard. When they come they are impossible to ignore completely, making such a racket.

On the way home today I saw them at the local elementary school. I pulled into the parking lot and took a few pictures, including this one of “The Black Menace.” If you’ve seen the 1948 movie, Bill and Coo you should get the reference.

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ICC Tunnel

ICC Tunnel

ICC Tunnel

I took some pictures with my dashboard mounted camera this evening, including this one in the tunnel where the ICC goes under Olde Mill Run. Turned out pretty nicely, I think.

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