Monthly Archives: February 2021

CMMC – February Pick a Topic

Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge the third Wednesday of February is to use her picture to pick a topic (or two or more!) for your pictures. Click here to see her picture; it shows yard/gardening tools as well as a portable outhouse on a trailer with trees in the background.

Abandoned Outhouse. Neumann Ranch Dump, Montana. August 2008.

In my search for a picture (just one!) with a garden tool, I discovered photos of an old outhouse that had been hauled to the ranch dump. Tipped on its side, it’s definitely no longer in use!

Besides just general messing around with a camera in hand that day, Dad intended to dig a few potatoes. So here’s a picture of a shovel in use.

Digging Potatoes. Garden at Neuman Ranch, Montana. August 2008.

Same ranch, same characters, same intent and maybe the same shovel four years later. This time with trees in the background.

Dad Digging Taters. Garden at Neuman Ranch, Montana. August 2012.

Switching things up, I remembered an outdoor cleanup day at a church that might show some tools. To my delight, I found a photo that shows a bit of fun while getting the work done with a rake.

Caleen with Rake. Muscatine, Iowa. November 2012.

Finally, for a little winter work, here’s a broom and a snow shovel being put to good use.

John and Don Clearing the Deck. Muscatine, Iowa. December 2007.

Challenge: Stack

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Stack of Round Hay Bales. Neumann Ranch, Montana. August 2012.

The scale of a stack of round bales is tough to fathom so I left the front of Weenie Truck – Dad’s name for his small pick-up – in the frame when cropping the first picture to share for Frank’s stack challenge.

Here’s a different angle – two bales high and who knows how many bales long.

One last picture, showing my nephew – then about six feet tall – checking out the stacked bales.

CMMC: February Color – Blue Green

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Blue Flower, Morton Arboretum, Illinois. June 2013.

Blue-Green was the February color for Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge. I gathered the pictures and had them uploaded to share on a blogpost, but did not get around to finishing it. (Sigh.) Though more than a week behind, here it is.

Blue Hydrangea, Missouri Botanical Garden. June 2012.

Remembering Baptism, St. John UCC, Melbourne, Iowa. January 2019.

Panoramic Awareness Pavilion by artist Olafur Eliasson, Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Des Moines, Iowa. January 2021.

National Balloon Classic, Indianola, Iowa. August 2013.

FPJ Photo Challenge: Assemble

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Thinking about the photo challenge “Assemble” and with every good intention (and we know about that) to join the challenge, I took pictures while I made Valentine’s Day cookies for my neighbors. It’s past the deadline, but I thought I could still share my pictures of making sour cream sugar cookies!

Wishing I could send you each a plate of cookies!

CMMC – February Close-up or Macro

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It was a cold and foggy morning in central Iowa. Since Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge today is Macro or Close-up, I put on my winter boots, warmest coat, hat and gloves before heading outside with the camera to attempt to digitally capture the frost.

These are my three favorite pictures of the morning (2/3/2021). And I didn’t even have to leave the yard!

Hope the temperature is just right wherever you are! (Indoors, with a quilt and a hot chai latte.)

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2/3/2021: Just learned that the white stuff on the trees this morning was not frost. It was rime ice. There’s a difference that has to do with how it formed. Since it formed from freezing fog (think water droplets), it’s rime ice.

CMMC: Alphabet – Letter W at the End of the Word

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Window. Rocky Mountain College Campus, Billings, Montana. Photo: TLClark, 12/2020.

In her post for Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge: Alphabet – Word that Ends in W, Cee included a photo of a window with a shadow that made me think of my first picture in response to the challenge. Being able to see things through the window as well as seeing the tree reflected in the window caught my attention.

Snow. Shiloh Nature Preserve, Billings, Montana. Photo: TLClark, 11/2020.

Two pictures of snow, both taken while out walking.

Snow. Ankeny, Iowa. Photo: TLClark, 1/2021.

There’s plenty of snow to photograph in central Iowa if you don’t mind being out in the cold. We finally had a day with enough sunshine to create a shadow on the snow.

Shadow on Snow. Ankeny, Iowa. Photo: TLClark, 1/2021.

As much as I like snow – and I do as long as it doesn’t interfere with safe driving – it needs balanced with a little color. Here at home, I walk by this row quilt every day. Each row in the quilt was a free pattern from a different local quilt shop. The theme was “Home Sweet Home” and the way the designers at each store chose to interpret home still makes me smile!

Another LQQK

shift focus, see further, gaze deeper