Recent Photos

The Ninebark is a common shrub in our parks.  There are many varieties and I have photographed a few. 
This is a new one for me. 

This is the Ninebark - Dart's Gold.  A nice cluster of white flowers with pink stamens.  As you can see the leaf is yellow green  where as the others I've seen have darker foliage.

I was lucky enough to get an ant as a bonus in this photo.

Beautiful shrub and it must be hardy as there are many around this area.

On my drive home from a visit wit Mom & Dad for Father's day I stopped to take pictures of fences for a new group I joined.

An low and behold if this Brown Headed Cowbird showed up to find out what I was up to!  This is the female.  I have photographed the male which is much darker. 

These birds are parasitic in that they lay their eggs in host bird nests.  Some of the hosts recognize the imposter and oust the egg from their nest.  Others incubate the egg to hatching but are not suitable mothers for the youngsters. 

Very interesting that there are unwilling parents in the bird world.

I finished this book this week.  My last Kate Morton book.  I have now read all 6 of her books. 

This story is centers around the Milderhurst Castle in Kent, the three Blythe sisters (Percy, Saffy & Juniper), their father Robert Blythe an author and Edie Burchill whose mother was evacuated from London during WWII and lived at the castle with the sisters.

Raymond, author of the 1918 children’s classic The True History of the Mud Man was a tortured man and isolated himself in the castle after the death of his wife.  He exerts power over the girls beyond the grave.

Juniper Blythe was a special child, given all license by her father to be creative, and when she abandoned by her fiancee in 1941 leaves her mentally unstable.  She is cared for by her sister for the remainder of her life lived in Milderhurst Castle.

Another wonderfully multilayered story and so well told by Kate.

I have heard the buzz song of this bird for years but did not know what he looked like.  

I had a chat with a bicyclist on the trail the other day who shared with me that it is a Clay-colored Sparrow!  Now I knew what to look for.

And here he is!  Of course, high in the trees the angle is not great.  I tried a different angle but then could not find him in the leaves.  That is the way it goes. 

A new bird for my list.

I had to replace a toilet seat this week.  A first for me.  The other was loose and had to be tightened regularly.  The pin on the seat finally broke so now I really needed a new one.  Probably should not have put up with the hassle of a loose one for so long.

With the help of the internet I learned what I needed, headed to the store and for a small sum of $12 came home with a replacement.  

Getting all the pieces of the old one was more challenging.  Of course the loose side came off very easily.  The other has been secured there for many years.  It was more relunctant to release.  I used WD40 in hopes of making the nut and bolt let go of each other.  No luck!  I had to use the hack saw and utility knife to break apart the remaining plastic piece of the hinge.  Being VERY CAREFUL not to break the porcelain toilet seat I worked at it in small increments until it came away.  I was very fortunate that the bolt head just fell through the hole in the porcelain. 

It was quick to install the new one once all they porcelain had been cleaned! 

I am grateful for good tools.  The blue tools in the photo are by TomBoy which were sold at home parties and I acquired a few while my sister was a rep. 

The Flickr Macro Monday challenge this week was Curves - I chose to design my own to photograph.

I used white card stock strips which were pressed against a smooth tool to turn them into circles.  These were glued together inside each other to create this shape. I used photo gels on 2 lights to change the colors.  It was set up in my photo box. 
 
This was a lot of fun.  You can check out my photo stream to see the one I submitted.

Sharing with Angie at Letting Go the Bay Leaf who hosts Mosaic Monday #32.
Mersad who hosts Through My Lens #192