Bonfire Scare

The picture is only a re-enactment. The real thing was much scarier.

We had a lot of people over for a bonfire and there were many kids. They were running around and screaming and having a good time.

So I had to ruin it. I wore this getup and a big black cape and ran around roaring and waving my arms menacingly.

This was not my finest moment.

Catch and Release

This little bird smacked into the window on the back porch. There was a cat on the porch and she immediately ran over, grabbed the bird and ran inside. When she set the bird down to look at it, it flew around the room.

I had to rescue it, but surprisingly, that involved recapturing it about 5 times before I could get it outside, where it flew away without any problems.

Sand Hill Plum Jelly

Sand Hill Plums are wild fruits that grow on bushes we find out in the countryside and on the prairie. My Aunt Bobbie likes to make jelly from the plums.

I remember getting stung by a wasp when I was little and taken out to pick the plums. I noticed that when they burn off the fields, the patches of plum bushes don't seem to be hurt. It's like they are some kind of miracle plant.

Lucky Clovers

I found a patch of four (and five and six) leafed clovers in the front yard. If you pick them and put them in water, they root. I've never tried to replant them after that, but that would be cool to have a whole patch of lucky clovers.

Spider II?

Last year I had a friendly spider that rode along with me for weeks. Maybe we'll have a repeat this year.

Maggot

I don't know what to think about this guy.

I wonder if he knows karate with all that oriental script?

I like that scene (don't remember the movie) with the guy with the Japanese tattoo and he says that it means something like "Courage of a tiger" and some old lady laughs and says it means crying little girl.

Longhorn Baby

This little calf was next to the road on the way home. Here's hoping that we'll continue to see the longhorns. I'm glad to see the next generation coming along.

Swimming Prohibited

I hope no one really needs a sign to discourage them from swimming here.

Point System

During the height of the 9/11 generated patriotism, there seemed to be a lot of ribbon magnets. I found this irritating, because the implication was that if you didn't have a ribbon magnet, you were a filthy godless terrorist. We developed a point system to track the phenomenon. There was supposed to be a correlation between bad driving and some of the marks we gave points for. It might not have been that they were necessarily bad drivers, just that it was no fun being stuck in traffic with someone's opinions staring you in the face.

We gave a point for each ribbon or bumper sticker. For each pair of things put on the car, you gave them an extra point. We also counted the religious fish symbols, personalized license plates, flags on the antenna, and dreamcatchers hanging from the rear view mirror. Of particular interest were Nascar numbers and anything with a peeing Calvin.

I seem to remember being particularly pleased about finding a 14 pointer one day.

This car is on the opposite end of the political spectrum. I think it's worth 19 points, but I can't tell what's hanging from the rear view mirror. It might be a 20 pointer.

Airport Dinosaurs

Chicago O'Hare has a dinosaur right outside of the walkway to Terminal C.

I do not think that Dinosaurs were bothered by airport security in their days. If you think about it, a dinosaur wouldn't need to take weapons on a plane. A dinosaur was a weapon.

They Live

This is not the 1988 film about Aliens that are amongst us that can only be seen by special sunglasses. At least not as far as I know.

Kentucky Derby

I did not know that people wore floppy hats when they watched the Kentucky Derby. Not all people, just women, and women that want to pretend to be classy.

Optical Illusion

The man is not on fire. The fountain in front of him has a gas flame in it.

No old people were harmed in the making of this blog.

Sprint Center

I like this reflection of Matt and Cole in the Sprint Center.

Guitar Hero

This is my Nephew Matt. He plays the guitar. He wants to be a rocker and a snowboarder. This was his School of Rock performance at The Studio Restaurant & Bar.

Full Pond

Don't blink or you'll miss it!

We "fixed" the pond in 2002 and then there was a severe drought the rest of the year. Unfortunately, the drought was so long and hard that huge cracks formed in the pond, and it never did hold water well after that. For a couple of years, it seemed that it might hold water for a while, but it never has lasted.

Favorite Flowering Trees

We have a place just down the road where three trees are flowering. They are beautiful. In one yard is a redbud and a dogwood, and there is a very pretty pink flowering tree in the yard next to it. I'm not sure what the pink one is.

Standoff

We have a big black & white cat that likes to terrorize the other cats.

This live action shot shows the victim's-eye-view of the situation.

Fearless Robins

I've noticed this year more than others that Robins aren't particularly fearful of people. Does this happen because they've been around people for so long, or is it that they like to eat worms and it's easiest to get them in nice mowed lawns?

Blurry Bunny

Every once in a great while, I take my camera along when I run. This day, a big storm was headed our way, so I took a camera and a baggie out on my run so I could take some pictures. That day, a tornado hit about 20 miles north of us and flattened about 200 homes.

The weather was noticably strange. At one point, there was a rabbit on the road about 20 yards in front of me. While he did jump off the road into the grass, he did not run away. The light was too low to get a good clear picture, but he stayed there while I snapped about 5 pictures and then ran on.

Lush Spring

This year is wet here. This doesn't always happen, we've had some very droughty springs in the last 3 years, but this one was very wet for a few weeks there.

When that happens, everything greens up really fast. It always surprises me each year how far into May it takes for all the trees to leaf out completely.

Severe Weather

During the first week in May, I heard many reports that this would be the worst month of the worst year for tornadoes in a long time. It doesn't seem to have worked out that way.

Surprise Tulips

The fun thing about planting bulbs in the fall is either forgetting that you did it and being surprised by the results, or having the tulip not look like the picture when you bought it.

I don't remember buying pink tulips, but they were beautiful.

The Water Park Cometh

The first I knew about the fact that Lee's Summit was going to put in a massive water park was when I saw it being built. Now I read about it all the time. I'm there.

Volunteer Asparagus

I tried to get some asparagus going several years ago. Every once and a while, you still see a spear or two coming up.

White Violets

We have a genetic mutation in our violets. We have some white ones. There are pure white ones, white ones with purple vains, and every shade of light purple in between.

Violets up close

Check it out. Violets are just beautiful They only last 2 weeks, then that's it until next year.

Squishy Bed Jealousy

Cuppy loves this little squishy bed. I think Eddy is coveting it, too.

Cats & Concrete

What is it about concrete that cats like so much? They all go out and roll around on their backs like it's some kind of special treat. I wish I felt that way about the patio.

Purple Spring

I never read Silent Spring, but I know it's a book that was widely read in the early 60's that showed an alternate future where we killed off all the birds with pesticides. It's part of why I don't ever use pesticides. How can you say something that kills all the insects is not going to effect other parts of the food chain. Right now, there is a disease killing off bees, and they also just found one killing off bats, that some scientists think may be connected to the overuse of pesticides. So I never use them and I don't use herbicides, either. I can't imagine that all the good pollinators are happy to simply have grass to feed off of.

I let the clover grow in patches in my yard and we have wild honeybees. We also get deer eating the clover. We have bats, too.

Another added bonus is when the violets bloom in the spring. It looks like some kind of mountain alpine meadow.

My old neighbor used to explain to me very patiently how I was supposed to spray diazanon or pre-emergent or some such other poison all over my yard. How in the world would I get any violets if I sprayed them. Some people don't know what they are missing.

City Hall

Lee's Summit built a new city hall. There were a lot of complaints about the old one because it had an ugly annex and this mess of trailers next to it. They even had multiple sites around town where the rest of their workers officed. So they tore down the ugly annex and now there's a hole in the ground where it used to be, just filling up with rain.

The old City Hall was really pretty. I wonder what they are going to do with it.

Vinca

I love the purple vinca that comes back each spring on the south side of our house. One of the things I always notice about the flowers is that they have 5 petals and a little star shape in the middle.

Lucky & Bones II

Here we are with a second installment featuring Lucky and bones. This time, Steve gave him a rawhide bone as a present. He promptly buried it in the corner. You always hear about dogs burying bones, and I always thought it was a made up story, but now I have witnessed it first hand.

Night Golf

What happens when you visit your cousin's house and go golfing at night after drinking a few beers.

The answer is: you get excellent pictures of his house with the moon behind it and you lose several golf balls.

Climb or eat Ice Cream?

This picture is proof that Cole would rather climb a tree than eat ice cream. Where did we go wrong?

Mildcats

K-State's mascot is the Wildcat. I used to think that it was the same thing as a bobcat, but apparently not. The wildcat is native to Europe, Asia, and Africa and is thought to be the source that all domestic cats originally came from. They think all domestic cats can be traced back to the wildcat from 10,000 years ago.

These bronze statues are over in the corner of a courtyard in front of the greenhouses. The Wildcat is supposed to be a shy animal, and you almost don't notice these, or their little kittens.

The Stone Barns

When I was at K-State, we walked about a block away from the ROTC building and practiced "Drill & Ceremonies", which is how to march around in formation, in a big field in front of an old stone barn.

Now they have fixed up the barns and made a nice courtyard with a fountain in it. No more marching.

K-State Redbuds

Here are some blooming redbud trees in front of the old Engineering hall at K-State. I remember being completely unaware of flowers and trees blooming in the spring until the semester at K-State when I first got a camera. I remember finding that the redbuds took on a special beauty that year, and they were a point where I started noticing the wonderful things in the natural world.

Dunkin' Students

Cole nailed this guy in the dunk tank right away. Then repeated the performance. Don't mess with the Cole Train!

Psyche Lab Rats

Cole was hoping that the rats in the psyche lab display were handouts. He wanted to take them home.

Amazon Wildcats

These powerful Wildcat co-eds where towering over us. Those legs go all the way up.

Neon Butterfly

This butterfly was in a display case in the Entomology Department at K-State. I used to see these in the jungle of Panama. The bright neon blue wings were only on the top side. On the bottom side, the wings were pretty plain. When the wings would flap, you would see a bright blue flash, like some kind of floating strobe light. They were really enchanting.

Big Bugs

This beetle in the upper right corner of the display case is like the ones that I used to see in Costa Rica. We used to catch these beetles and another one about the same size whose horn looked like a little Rhinocerous horn. You can't tell how big this is, but from tip of horn to tail it's probably about 6".

Old Water Tower

This water tower in Manhattan is very old. It looks like a castle turret and has a spiral staircase that wraps around it to the top. I'm not sure if they are still using it.

Water Tower with a view

This water tower was across the street from our fraternity house in Manhattan. Someone in the house cut the lock off the tower and replaced it with their own. The key was hanging in their room. This old style water tower had a locked door at the base of one of those big ribs. Inside the rib was a ladder going to the top. At the top, there is a little cupola that you can see out of, like a view port. Inside the cupola was an opening where you could see down into the water supply. It was not very secure, but those were simpler times.

Statue Siren

This statue that was in the Manhattan Cemetary across the street from the Beta House that I lived in at K-State. We used to go over at night and stare at it in the dark. It was supposed to turn and look at you, and possibly look like it was reaching out to you. Of course, whatever you tell yourself in a cemetary in the dark is probably going to seem true right before you run screaming from the area.

Cemetary Civil War Cannon

The cannon in the Manhattan Cemetary is one of the favorite attractions of my Nephews. Check out Matt. He's on fire. Sorry Nick. Didn't mean to cut you off like that.