Five Fs

fireworks

Friday night fireworks at a June Reds baseball game

 

feet

detail of sculpture: The Birth of Venus by Robert Laurent placed inside the Showalter Fountain on the campus of Indiana University

 

flowers

 

I planted bush beans in pots on my deck this year!  These are the flowers of a purple variety.

 

fur

On the Indiana University campus, this squirrel ran up a small tree and kindly posed for me.  He has a very long tail.  I believe this is an Indiana fox squirrel (Sciurus niger).

famous foliage

two tower trees:  In the 1870s a tree was noticed growing from the Greensburg, Indiana Courthouse.  Over the years a series of trees have sprouted, thrived, and subsequently died.  No definitive explanation exists as to how the seeds have germinated in the tower.  No one knows how the trees have survived 110 feet above the ground.  The current large tree has been identified as a mulberry.

LINK:
Greensburg's Famous Tower Tree 

Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny, is so much fun!  This week our letter is "F." Come visit others' submissions HERE and join in the fun! 

 
photos by me © 2013   all rights reserved

hello!

Wordless Wednesday--where I linked up:

The Art and Tree Chatter of Aquariann

Create With Joy

  

 

 Pictimilitude

photo by me © 2013  all rights reserved
 

Eager Oliver

Eagerly, Oliver awaits the opportunity to Elucidate his Elan for life...

His Enthusiasm for Edibles runs quite high.

Did you say "kitty crunchies?!!"

He becomes quite Elated when it's feather time. 

Here he is on his sentinel post, Efficiently centrally located.

 
Oliver is Ebullient about helping.

Here he is helping me keep my tie dye orders straight.

And here he is Entertaining me while helping to keep the papers I'm sorting from flying away.


Oliver is an Excellent snoozer.  He Especially loves sun puddles.

LINK:

a previous POST in which Eager Earnest wishes to Edify you in regards to the letter E.

Oliver is quite Enthusiastic about the letter "E."  He was Elated to Explain some of his favorite Es.
 Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny, is so much fun!  This week our letter is "E." Come visit others' submissions HERE and join in the fun! 

photos by me © 2012 and 2013   all rights reserved

raindrops

lots of rain throughout last night 

Wordless Wednesday--where I linked up:

The Art and Tree Chatter of Aquariann

Create With Joy

 

Flower/Plant Guide:
lily
lily
stella d'oro
Missouri primrose
St John's wort
lily

photos by me © 2013  all rights reserved

Desert Dwelling

Mesa Verde is tucked away high up into tall cliffs near the top of a mesa in Colorado.

Dwellings of several stories fill the rock alcoves that tower 2,000 feet above Montezuma Valley.  There are approximately 600 dwellings discovered within Mesa Verde dating from about A.D. 550 to 1300.  The Ancestral Pueblo people crafted their dwellings of sandstone, wooden beams, and mortar.

The structures range in size from one-room storage units to villages of more than 150 rooms. 

The Ancestral Pueblo people subsisted by growing crops on nearby mesas, mostly corn.  Water for farming was provided by summer rains, winter snowfall, and seeps and springs nearby.  The men hunted as well. The women are famous for their beautiful baskets.

All photos here are of Spruce Tree House, the third largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde.  To visit here, we had to have a guided tour.  

This dwelling was constructed in the early to mid 1200s.  There are about 130 rooms and 8 kivas.  It is believed to have been home for about 60 to 80 people. 
This photo and the one below were taken at a distance.

Yes, we did climb up this ladder!  Here is our intrepid guide Denise.

view from across the canyon  (See the ladder?  just below the dwellings on the right)


Mesa Verde (means Green Table) is located in the high plateau country of southwestern Colorado. The park itself lies atop a high mesa that rises from the canyon cut by the Mancos River.

a few facts:

∎ The park was created in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt.
∎ Mesa Verde National Park encompasses 52,122 acres (81 square miles).  
∎ Elevation on Mesa Verde varies between 6,000 and 8,500 feet.
∎ Mesa Verde is also recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  This link will take you to a world wide list.
∎ The climate is semi-arid. 
∎ Spruce Tree House was built into a natural alcove measuring 216 feet (66 meters) at its greatest width and 89 feet (27 meters) at its greatest depth.


LINKS:
∎ National Park website 
∎ National Geographic 
∎ National Park information about Spruce Tree House
∎ Maps of Mesa Verde @ Desert USA
∎ travelog- a family visits Mesa Verde @ Abingdon Outdoors
∎ maps and information about North American deserts @ Desert USA with links

Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny, is so much fun!  This week our letter is "D." Come visit others' submissions HERE and join in the fun! 

 

photos by me © 2007   all rights reserved

luscious strawberries

fresh picked luscious ripe organic strawberries from Finn Meadows Farm.

LINKS:
The Farm:
∎ Finn Meadows Farm 
∎ Finn Meadows Farm blog--these stories may be incorporated into a book one day

Why organic?
∎ short blurb about organic/pesticided strawberries by Stonyfield Farm
∎ Mother Jones' article about organic strawberries 
∎ chart--Enviromental Working Group's annual list of the "Dirty Dozen Plus" and the "Clean Fifteen"--the worst and safest fruits and vegetables to eat as far as pesticides go--Scroll down the page to see the list.

Wordless Wednesday--where I linked up:

The Art and Tree Chatter of Aquariann

Create With Joy

 

Pictimilitude







photo by me © 2012  all rights reserved

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

DISHES 

a stack of dishes in a cabinet



FAVORITE COLOR 

I love green.  But I love blue, too.  After taking photos of a number of things, this is the one that made my post.  It is an echinacea flower bud.  (I started echinaceas a long time ago from seed and have kept these plants and their progeny for many years.)



SUNFLARE

It was to the archives for this one, taken during a hike on Whiteside Mountain near Highlands, NC, in October, 2012.  (There's even a tiny rainbow--middle left.)



EXPRESSION 

Have you ever tried to get a cat to pose?  yeah, right!  I tried enticing Oliver with several things.  Was he interested?  Did he hold still?  It was finally the screwdriver that captivated him.  See, he's intently reaching for it.



STICKY

Flower pollen is very sticky.  


Thank you, Linda, for encouraging me to post this week!  Linda just participated in SHS for the first time!

This is a very fun meme hostessed by Ashley Sisk in which 5 prompts are given and one must then take a photo to illustrate each one.  Come see how others have interpreted these words HERE!  You have till Tuesday, June 11 at midnight EST to join in.
 
Next week's words are:  

1. Summer
2. Dance
3. Laughter
4. Helper
5. Water

photos by me © 2013    all rights reserved

cats...sleeping pose expertise

in which two cats demonstrate their sleeping pose expertise...

Oliver loves to sleep in his "dragon" pose.

Stretching out on the comfy corkboard is wonderful, too!

aaaaahhh....sun puddle snoozing 

 

Curling up on the pink towel that Earnest was wrapped in on his last day is a great way to remember his best buddy. 

                        

One of Earnest's favorite spots was that lovely corkboard.

What is better than napping away on the stairs?!

so as not to miss any excitement (should any occur!)

Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny, is so much fun!  This week our letter is "C." Come visit others' submissions HERE and join in the fun! 


 
photos by me © 2009-2013 all rights reserved