Sunday's Showing........

I had to look up today to see the subtle beauty of the fluff of clouds. Sometimes it seems things can be missed if you don't look in all directions. I was not expecting to see much as everything was  happening on the horizon.

The two have a distant relationship that makes  me want to crop one out to just emphasize the other. The neighbors maple tree seems to always give me that perfect foreground of solid shape to help my distant sky look better. It was foggy today and the cell phone did pick it up.

I traveled to southern Iowa for a cousin's funeral on Saturday. I wanted to take shots before arriving and my timing seemed crowded.  I was almost late so I didn't stop to take pictures along the highway. On the way back from Osceola, Iowa I did snap a few shots from the car windows.  I waited until all traffic was cleared around me so I could shoot things without distraction.  I didn't look in the view finder but just snapped like a wild guy. My wife had stayed home to take care of our elderly little dog so it had to happen the way that I did it.

The glaciers left northern Iowa  pretty flat and where I live there is more hills and dales.  In southern Iowa there are rolling hills.  I won't share all the photos today as I want to study them a little before I write about them.  I did take a couple of shots of the farm fields in the area where I live and the land formations are drastically different. If I were an industrious kind of guy I could see a book of photos being published taken of southern Iowa hills in the different seasons. I lived down there all my young life and took for granted the roller coaster hills and gravel roads near our farm. I can still visualize my dad driving his Farmall tractor up and down those hills taking away harvested corn or hay bales from the fields. When farming them you drive around them to help prevent erosion of the soil.

It was like a family reunion as we gathered to remember the life one of my cousin.  Jerry was 77 years old. I have two older first cousins still living in their 80s. All of the rest of them are younger. There are seven more.

Three of the first cousins I have never met. One died of agent orange. The two remaining are older than me and are out there. They are not included due to a divorce of my Uncle back in the 50's. Some cousins have met them and I think the one woman did come to a family reunion once. I am the very youngest of all of the cousins on the side of dad's family of 10 brothers and sisters. I don't think it really gives me an advantage over anything.

My brother was visiting his one daughter in Kansas City, and drove up for the funeral. We had a little time to reconnect. He has five kids living all over the United States.  The two that are farther away are KC and in Ohio.  He went to Ohio to visit earlier this summer. We both helped each other remember the faces at the funeral.  

Here is a surprise I was met with this morning on my porch.  I will sneak on one photo to let you know that I just don't have white morning glories.

Thank you for stopping by today.