A Bit Of The Great Outdoors!

I went out again to where the Herons are nesting, hoping to get a better shot of one. No such luck! They pretty much stayed in and behind the trees. I did, however, have the good fortune of a Red-tail Hawk flying overhead. Actually, there were two of them, but only one got close enough to get any decent pictures.
I thought they turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself! LOL
Sooner or later, I'm going to get a good shot of one of the Blue Herons!
Yesterday, I was out and about again, just not out as far. I only went a couple of miles out into the country northeast of here. The pic above is a male Mallard Duck flying. I didn't get a good enough shot, so I cropped it and played around with the shadowing to get this effect. It kinda looks like a painting.
There were some Canadian Geese out on the same pond. I got them as they were flying away.
A couple more miles northeast of the waterfowl shots, I found these horses. I see them all the time, but they are usually up close to the barn, so I can never get any good shots of them. There were three females and one male. The small one in the roundpen is a female. The Paint horse is the male.
The male was really irritating this female. I don't know if she was the only one in heat, or simply that she was much smaller than all the others.
I got a few shots of her back kicking at him.
And in these two, he found it necessary to bite her on the butt! I would have kicked him too!
And she did!
He just absolutely refused to leave her alone!
She started to walk away, but I think he must have been taunting her again.
So, she rared up at him and kicked at him that way.
Then, he decided that two could play that game. She finally walked away to where he couldn't get to her.
After I got home, I was out in the back yard shooting birds and squirrels. I left the back door open so Salem could be his usual nosey self. He wanted out bad! He is not allowed outside.
This pretty little Purple Finch was up in my cherry tree just singing away. He has a very pretty song.
This Gray Squirrel was in one of my Maple trees. Not exactly sure what he was eating. There aren't any oak trees in the near vicinity.
While I was out at the pond, on my way home, I noticed several of these black globs attached to blades of grass or other vegetation. It is frog eggs.
There should be thousands of tadpoles very soon.
Before I went out on my mini safari, I saw a bird that really shocked me for being in this area. I took pictures, but it was simply too far away to get a recognizable picture. It was some kind of gull. I tried to look it up in my book, but not being able to see much of the bird, I couldn't identify it. It was all white, with the tips of the wings being black. I couldn't see the color of the head or the feet. I'm pretty sure the tail was all white as well.
I'm gonna get off here for now. Chuck will be home tonight. He wasn't originally supposed to be,as he was supposed to be hauling a load of paper from Canton, NC to Franklin, OH, but when he got to Canton, he found out that his trailer was leaking rain water, so they refused to load him. So, he has to come back empty, then pick up a trailer and head back down to Johnson City, TN.
Everybody have a great rest of the week.
TTYL
Love Ya
Lisa

Spring Is Finally Here!

Tomorrow starts spring break for our school district. At least the weather is nice for it. Not quite shorts weather, but coats aren't necessary, either. I was going to go out on a photo safari today, but I'm just too tired! I haven't slept well for the past two nights. My wonderful hubby was snoring terribly both nights! I tried to just get up and sleep in the recliner, but that didn't work either. Oh well, tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so I'll go out on safari then. There is a steel bridge the next county to the north that I want to go photograph. I've never seen it before, but it's out near a place called Five Points. There's an old school house out there as well. I've seen some pictures of it, but never been there.
I'm pretty sure I've put a picture of this old school house on my blog before. It's five miles north and seven miles east of Hartford City. The inside of it has pretty much completely fallen apart.
I know I've put a shot or two of this old farm on a previous post, probably late summer. It was used in WWII as a work farm for German prisoners. It is also on 5 miles north, but just short of nine miles east. Nine miles east is the Blackford-Jay county line road.
I had gone out to this area because a friend told me that there are always Herons nesting out in this area because the river runs by this road for a short while. I got a shot of this Turkey Vulture flying overhead while I was waiting, trying to get shots of the Herons.
I apologize that this Heron picture is not very good. I had to take the pictures from the road, as the field between the road and the nesting tree was still very muddy. I'm going to try to get back out there when it's dry, before the trees have all their foliage.
This was just along the side of the road, where the river crossed under the road.
These geese were swimming on a bit of flooded farmland on 200 North. I was on my way home from Montpelier on Tuesday, which was St. Patrick's Day. No, I wasn't wearing any green! LOL
This is Chuck standing in front of his truck. I had gone to Montpelier to take him some sandwiches because he was back in town just long enough to drop his empty trailer and pick up a full one and head back down to Johnson City, Tennessee.
I already have flowers blooming! These are in the flower under the computer room windows. Mom had planted these Daffodils and some Hyacinths when she still lived in this house. They are just starting to open up today, but I haven't taken any pictures of them yet.
I have a lot of woodpeckers around this house. I rarely saw any at the old house. This is a Red-bellied woodpecker. I'm not sure, but I believe it's a female. I think the males have a lot more red on their heads than the females. Salem loves it when I have the blinds open on the computer room windows. He sits on top of my drop-front desk and watches the birds and squirrels out back. If I don't open them immediately after getting up in the morning, he is sitting up there batting his paw against the pull cord of the blinds, trying to figure out how to open them himself. I'm surprised he doesn't just grab the cord in his teeth and jump off the desk at the same time! At least he knows that it's the cord that opens the blinds. LOL
I'm going to get off here for now. I hope everybody has a great week.
TTYL
Love Ya
Lisa

Taking The Scenic Route

Surprise! It's only been two days since my last post and I'm already posting again! LOL
I went to Portland to Walmart again Tuesday. I made so many detours for pictures, it took me two hours to get home. If I go straight up SR 26, it's about 20 miles, but I went the long way out SR 27 to SR 18 through Bryant (no relation), then through Fiat, then Montpelier, then finally home. I saw some more Amish farms along the way. The picture above is in Montpelier. It is the Salamonie River.
This is actually the bottom of a tree stump. I put it on Photoshop and did the "invert" filter, which is basically the same as a negative.
This little guy was across the road from the river. He was soaked from the earlier rain.
This farming implement was just sitting out in the middle of a field near our family farmland in Montpelier.
It was the first day that I had seen the Red-winged Blackbirds. I always have a hard time getting good shots of these guys!
While I was still in Jay County, I went up a gravel road looking for barns and saw this guy in the road. I stopped and got out to take some pictures, then I picked him up from the road and put him in the grass on the side of the road, hoping he wouldn't get run over.
Finally, back to our back yard. A sparrow in the cherry tree.
I found this cocoon in one of the maple trees in the back yard when I was out cleaning up the yard this past weekend. Not sure what is in it. It is actually on old leaf that it used.
One day last week, my Aunt Pat called me out to her house and told me that the neighbor's dog had treed a young raccoon. We didn't think that it was a raccoon because of his paws. They almost looked like dog paws.
I had called Lyle and he went out there after I had left. He called the conservation officer and he's the one who confirmed that it was a variation of a raccoon. He was adorable!
Gonna get off here and get my tired carcass in bed.
Take care
Love Ya

A Bit Of A Teasing

Another week has gone by without me posting anything! I am getting so bad about that. It's not like I work or anything. I've just not really been in the mood for some reason. Last Sunday, I went to Portland to go to Walmart. I bought the frames and mattes for my pictures and did my grocery shopping. I went home the long way, so I could get some pictures of some of the old barns along the way. Well, instead of turning west on State Road 18 and heading home, I continued north on S.R. 27 and ended up in Berne, Indiana. I had never been there and wanted to see it. It has a lot of Amish living in the area. It is also Swiss. So, I drove around Berne, out in the country and took some pictures of the Amish homes, as well as the Amish out in horse and buggy, having to use umbrellas as wind shields because it was very blustery.
The top picture is at the Swiss Village. It was closed when I went past.

This is one of the Amish farms. I used the "old photo" filter from Photoshop.

The same with this one.

On Monday, I went back over to Berne with Lori. She goes over there to buy her horse feed. This picture is the remains of an old train tressel over the river. The top pic was done with the "reticulation" filter.

I believe this is the "old paper" filter.

This was out in my back yard. We have had a lot of Starlings around here lately. This Red-bellied Woodpecker was on the ground eating a chunk of a suet cake. She was guarding her food from the Starling. The Starling finally got the hint and left, but not until he had circled the woodpecker a couple of times to try to find a different angle to get to the suet.

This is where the woodpecker was scolding the starling.

This one as well.

This one was after she achieved her victory over the starling! LOL

This is just a couple of sparrows on the suet feeder.

Yesterday was really pretty. We had the windows open all day. I went out and cleaned out the flower bed in the back of the house. There are already some flowers coming up, but I'm not sure what they are. We cooked out on the grill. Michael spent the night at a friend's house for a birthday party. Chuck and I stayed up until 4:00 this morning playing Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune on Playstation 3. I fell asleep on him because I had taken Tylenol P.M. because my hips were really bothering me.

The Hartford City Art Show was today. Lori and I both have photos in the show.

I'm going to get off here and go to bed.

Everybody take care and have a great week.

Love Ya

Lisa