New header picture

I took the shot as the dog and I were walking back on the point this morning.  I was tired of looking at all the snow every time I visited my blog, so here's a header picture with some green in it, thanks to the fact that some farmer planted winter wheat last fall.  

Here's the original picture before I cropped the grapevines out of it.  Perhaps if you click on this picture you may be able to see the Missouri River behind the line of trees... or maybe not.  I spent a lot of time riding my horse, Blue, down there.  

It looks as though Clyde is dead here, but he's only resting.  

Assorted pictures

I'm glad I don't have to have a theme to each entry; I blog the same way I plant flowers, a little bit of this and that all mixed up.  I know my flowerbeds drive a lot of gardeners crazy.  I'm not the type to grovel and beg and ask my readers what sort of stuff they want to read here; to quote Rick Nelson, "You can't please everyone, so you gotta please yourself."  This time you're going to get some totally unrelated photos... not photoshopped, of course; because I'm too lazy for that.

Every once in awhile a hummingbird ends up in our garage.  They're liable to buzz around for hours before they find their way out.  Can you see him up there in the center, his busy little wings a blur?

This was taken Tuesday, a rare sunny day.  I was busy washing lettuce from the garden, and Iris kept bringing her squeaky toy over in hopes I'd play with her.  Unfortunately, that's the day Cliff got the stomach virus, so I appreciated the wilted lettuce all by myself.  Oh, Cliff ate some; he just didn't keep it down long.

There's a trundle bed right behind my chair here at the computer desk.  Iris somehow manages to get most of her body under there, a remarkable thing when you realize there's very little "underneath" to this bed; the second bed is under it.

I got a new pole on which to hang feeders and put it where Cliff and I can see it from our recliners.  When the orioles had to come to the porch to eat, the only way you could see them was to sneak slowly over to the door and hope they didn't see you.  Now we can watch them easily.   Now they won't be pooping on the chair on the porch.  You can click on this picture to make it larger.  There's a female on the hummingbird feeder and a male admiring the slice of orange at the oriole feeder.

The lost is found!

This is so strange! I have a folder on my desktop called "Pictures for blog". When I got home yesterday, I moved this picture from my camera card and placed it in that folder.

If I double-click on the folder to look at the pictures in it, this one doesn't show. However, when I decided to import some pictures from that folder to Iphoto, it showed up and I was able to move it.

I know, this is Greek to most of my readers. But just imagine my confusion: first it's not there, then it is. Evidently I need to put all my pictures in Iphoto first, without bypassing it. Whew. I'm glad I learned that before losing some pictures that are really valuable to me!

So now you get to see Cliff getting his flu shot.

Some of you wondered what the horses are looking at in my new header: Sunday morning Cliff's sister's husband and our son-in-law went to the pasture to do some target-shooting. The horses saw them moving around back there in the distance and stood riveted to the spot, not taking their eyes off them the whole time they were back there. I missed out on the best picture: they were all three standing in a row side by side, ears forward and alert; but by the time I got out there, the moment was lost and the picture on the header is all I got.

Beauty is as beauty does

I won't even try to guess how many blogs I read... some on a daily basis, some hit-and-miss. When I've read somebody's thoughts regularly and interacted with them online, whether through blogs or message boards, I start to feel as though I know them. Of course I don't really know them, because none of us reveals everything about ourselves. But it feels as though I do.

One of the things I'm always curious about is what each person looks like. If they're like me, it's no problem. Because I pretty much splash my face on the Internet at any excuse. Believe me, it isn't because I think I'm beautiful. It's just that I really don't mind my readers knowing what I look like. Of course, I'm careful not to smile too big since I recently had a tooth pulled; because the space does show in a broad smile. So I must posses a certain amount of vanity, right? But I digress.

I've noticed that if a person hasn't ever shared a photograph of himself, after a certain amount of time I get a mental image of what I think he looks like. Years ago I haunted an AOL chat room and met my first real online friend, Lona; she reminded me of my sister in the way she worded things, and because of her wisdom and good nature. So I found myself picturing her as looking similar to my sister.

When she finally sent me a picture of herself with her husband, she looked nothing at all like I had imagined. It took me a long time to get the false image I had of her out of my head. In fact, I don't think I successfully managed it until I met her face to face.

So, if I read your blog, or read your words on a message board on a regular basis and you've never posted a picture of yourself... rest assured I have a mental image of you. If you seem friendly and kind on the Internet, the picture I have of you is probably a pleasant one. You are most likely handsome and slim-and-trim, with a full head of hair. For some reason, women post pictures of themselves freely; men, not so much. So it's mostly men that I have to guess at. I suppose that would be a good reason for most of us to never show our likenesses on the Internet, but to be very careful to show kindness to all. Hmmm.

Online, my mom's old saying rings true: Beauty is as beauty does.

Google maps

I've learned a lot by reading blogs; here's something I've seen mentioned on more than one Kansas City blog: Google maps now has pictures!

Just what I needed, another Internet time-waster. Yes, Google maps now gives you pictures of various locations in the big cities. For instance, that's my old alma mater. North Kansas City High School.

Here's my husband's place of employment: You can use all the little arrows on the Google pictures to turn and look in a different direction until you find what you're looking for.

Is this not amazing? Right now you can only find larger cities having images (I believe Kansas City was only recently added), but I'm sure it's just a matter of time until Google will have photographs of the whole world.

Pictures from around the countryside

As long as we get an occasional rain, there should be some blackberries in July, as evidenced by these blossoms. Berries will be welcomed, since so much of this year's local fruit crop was wiped out by several nights of hard freezing.

The new stray and Sadie enjoy an occasional game of tug-of-war. My daughter is going to take Stray for a trial visit this weekend. If she proves to be house-broken, they'll keep her. I have to say, she's a much nicer dog than Sadie. She isn't very wise when it comes to motorized vehicles, though. If she ends up staying here, she's liable to get run over.

One morning she followed the granddaughters on the school bus. How embarrassing.

This picture was taken May 9, when the Missouri River was at it's highest flood stage.


This is the same area a day later. The road on the near side of the bridge is now dry.

This big black snake was crossing the road last night when I went for a horseback ride. He was about six feet long.


Can you see the River otter sticking his head up, a little above the center of the picture? This is on the back of our place, which is usually dry land.

I clipped the picture to give a better view of the otter; now you can make him out. I mistook him for a beaver, but more knowledgeable people pointed out my mistake. There were four of these critters showing off, but they moved so fast, this was the only picture I was able to get of any of them.

The same area today. The base of the tree that was under water two days ago is back on dry land.

Our back fence had all been under water, but today I could see the tops of the posts.

round pen pictures

Stopping to turn in the other direction


When I drop my arm and the whip, she turns toward me. When I start walking, she follows.