Our Last Week in Pictures

 

     We are having absolutly gorgeous fall weather this week. We're soaking up all the sunshine we can, winter is not far away. It's actully rather unusual to have such nice weather this late in the year.

      It's a good feeling to have our gardening and harvest over and mostly put up for the year. Sometime I think it would be fun to do a Harvest Celebration, and have everyone bring something they've raised.

     Here are a few hooligans enjoying a pile of leaves. :)  They had a big pile raked up, and were jumping off a tree branch into the pile. I'm not actually sure how many peoples are in there; five maybe?

      We've been frantically working on outdoor projects while the weather is nice. Here Benny is trying his hand at planing. 

     We took a flying trip out to NE last weekend. It was soybean harvest time, so we got to see a little bit of that operation. I think I like NE best in the fall. We had a lovely, fun time there. 

 

     And finally a few pictures of my super-cute, way-too-grown up kiddo. He's been loving this weather, and likes nothing better then when I let him play on the deck. I'm not sure what he's going to do when the weather gets cold. I'm afraid we shall both suffer. He's a neat freak; bits of stray papers are promptly thrown in the trash can, as well as the occasional toy and sippy cup. He hates having sticky hands too. Both traits inherited from his father. And he has discovered the joys of books (inherited from his mother), and thinks I have nothing better to do with my time then show him a book. He says a few words, and is discovering animal sounds, his favorites being "rowrr", "moo", and a snorting sound for a pig.  He loved playing with Gabe's cat and dog when we were in NE. 

     Here are a few more pictures.

Weekend in Pictures

This came rolling in Friday evening.  Thankfully only the edge caught us, it was much worse north-west of us.

Saturday we took the youth to Potato River Falls.

Then Sunday we headed for the North Shore. The lupines are blooming there right now. Brag alert ahead, I took this picture. :)

At the cabin. It was quiet and lovely. We needed the get away.

Grandma came up with us.

Benny and Grammy

Grandma telling Emily stories of when she was a girl.

It takes the whole family to build an outhouse.

Dad and Mom enjoying the fruit of their labors. I'll let mom show the pictures of the projects they did.

Mother and son  at the cook stove.

Mudding anyone? Unintentional that is.

Lots of wildflowers.

It was hot, so we went down to the shore for an hour to play. The water was COLD.

Mother & Son

Watched fireworks in Silver Bay. I was impressed with how nice a display it was for a small community.

On the way home, all tired out. He loved the cabin.

     Well, that was easier then writing a 12,000 word essay.  More pictures here and here. 
     Oh and know what happens when the Minnesota Government shuts down the state parks because of a lack of budget? Everyone just parks along the road and walks in to enjoy the park anyway. How does that help a budget crisis I wonder?
--Charlotte

A Few Pictures And Notes

Current summer table-scape.

    It is summer. Only 58 degrees doesn't qualify today as a summer day though. I did the calculations this morning, and figured out that from now through the end of August we only have three free Saturdays. Busyness!! But we are glad to have friends and busy summer schedules. I asked Clark when we are going fishing....he sighed and said he didn't know. On our "free" Saturdays perhaps?
    The peonies in the above picture are from my flower garden. I planted them two years ago, and have lots of big beautiful blossoms this year. I didn't know peonies smelled so fragrant. Makes me happy to begin reaping some rewards for the time I've put into that bed.

Cutest kid in the world, of course!

     Benny is more little boy then baby. Sigh! I was one of these good moms and plugged off my electrical outlets so he couldn't hurt himself. Well, he's figured out how to dig the plugs out. Hmm. Wonder what the experts would say about that! The other day I walked into the kitchen and discovered he had somehow managed to take the lid off of the large, new jug of olive oil. Fortunately  I hadn't opened it yet, so the foil seal was preventing disaster. But, yeah, we still love him to bits. We have also discovered he has a talent for "singing" on key with whatever music happens to be playing at the moment. We're looking forward to when he's older and we can cultivate that.
     Recently heard the song "Holy Art Thou, Lord God Almighty", from Handel's Largo.  I'd love to sing that with a choir. One of my dreams is to sing in a choir someday. I have good memories of chorus at SMBI.
     And now I must finish supper preparations. Chuck roast, oven fries, and sauteed broccoli (I get the broccoli to myself). Yummy!

From Our House To Yours

 

Merry Christmas!

God Bless Us Every One!! -- Charles Dickens 

Pictures from Anniversary Trip

Hi Folks,
             These coming humble photos are from our recent anniversary trip. I would say more about the trip but I don't think I am going to. I will say this, it was very relaxing and worth it.        
             To start things off, I thought I would begin with a series of shots of a particular rock on the beach. I can't decide which one I like better. By the way Gabe, I did try f8 vs f22 at a very wide angle and there is a difference. For the rest of you, it is lingo for aperture values on cameras. It is the equivalent to the iris in your eye. 

The complicated version, I like it, but I think it has to many distractions.

This is the simple version, which I like better. Your eyes are drawn to the tip of the rock and the clouds, which is what I wanted.

Maybe some one will like this version.

My wife and I still are not sure what kind of a tree or bush this blossom is from. 

I just pulled up and snapped. I didn't spend much time with this one. I kind of wish I had spent more time. My wife liked it though so here it is. 

Long exposure made the waves blur.

Just the setting sun and some driftwood.

I laid down in wait for a really big splash on that rock. Which didn't happen like I wanted it to. 

That is all for now!! 

Oh, maybe you would like to see the updated Picture of the Week.

Photos from Nebraska Trip

Hi,
The long awaited Nebraska post is finally here. I wasn't sure what angle to portray, whether I should tell about what we did in NE or if I should simply post some of my favorite photos and some photos that I am trying to decide if I like or not.
I guess you will have to follow along and decide for yourself which angle I took.
The above photo was taken on purpose, but I am still trying to decide if I like it or not. I purposely lined up the rows in the field to project them selves toward the horizon at the approximate center of the photo. This also lends to a symmetrical effect on the photo. My problem is those nasty trees on the horizon. Just one tree would have been perfect, but there are several and it leaves you wondering what you are supposed to be seeing. Any way it does tell us something about Nebraska, there are lots of fields.

Friday evening we went down to a very old grave yard and that was interesting. I will confess I was too busy taking pictures to actually read some of the stuff on the stones there. I used a long lens to make the sun look so big on the tip of the grave stone.



More photo shop simply because I wanted it Black and White. Is adding a touch of sharpening cheating too? I think this photo speaks for it self. I saw this on a Saturday afternoon cruise with our Nebraska friends.

What we really went to see Saturday afternoon were sand hill cranes. We saw lots and lots of them. This is one of my favorite shots. (Cropped by the way) I think it was doing some sort of courtship dance and was looking for something to throw into the air.

At sunset we went down by bridge to watch the cranes come in for the night. This is about my favorite of all the pictures I took at the bridge.
Anyway before this post gets long and rambling.... Just one more picture.


A precious little daffodil in Jenny's flower Garden. I hope you enjoyed reading this post.

Till later.

To Bug Clark and Gabe....

A church along I-80 in NE. I've always liked this church, and have wanted to get a picture of it ever since I saw it the first time. So when we were coming home Monday, I grabbed the camera. I'm rather proud of how it turned out, can you tell? I took this riding in a car going 80 mph. It was taken through a window. I didn't really know what I was doing. No, I don't know what ISO I used. No, I don't know what aperture it is. No, I don't know what kind of camera I used. No I don't know anything about the lens other then that it was automatic. No, I don't know what the zoom was set at. Actually, I didn't use a zoom at all. The top picture is cropped from the original, which appears below (see, I show my mistakes instead of pretending they didn't happen). And Clark says the cropped picture could still be blown up to a 11x16. I just set the camera to continuous shoot and held the trigger. I do know that the lighting is kind of harsh, but beggars can't be choosers, esp. not at 9:30 am. Anyway, this goes to show that anyone can take a good picture without knowing anything at all about ISO's and apertures and other way-over-my-head techie terms that certain people throw around all the time. Sometimes, something will just have an emotion with out all the other stuff (no, I guess I won't ponder the emotion of this picture right here right now). So, there you have it!

Btw, these pictures are copyrighted.

Cattails and Feathered Friends.

Hi,

I found another favorite swamp!! I went by this morning and saw some interesting things, so take a look and see for yourself.

Some Cattails.

And a goose.

Same goose, different pose.

This is a red wing blackbird, a sure sign of summer.

There I cropped it. Is that better?

This is cropped too, I couldn't get very close. I think this is a wood duck.

That's all for now!!

--Clark Graber--