Past Photos....and Descriptions.

My earliest of photos from our visits to Grand Marais, Minnesota is one of the junk yard northwest of town.  I doubt that it is even there anymore. The visit was in late July and the wildflowers and the character of the cars drew me in for a photo.

I use to put up headers once in a while with the title printed on them.  When blogspot and google photos became friends I lost the ability to easily do it.  I stopped and never put out the effort to put up headers with identifications.

Old things are still of interest for me to photograph. I took a lot of photos of these albums and share the photos in them on another one of my blogs. That blog continues but I have lost my way to being able to post on the blog of past times themes.

My nephew was so young in this photo showing a family group of my grandfather and his 12 brothers and sister. The framed photo was lent to my father and I never got a good shot of it. Today probably 20 years later, and the aunt who owned it a died, The girl cousin lives in Colorado and I know she has it. I have now a clear good shot of the same picture shipped out on the internet.One of my oldest cousins got it from one of the third generation kids of one of the sisters of my grandpa.

The nephew spent time in the minor leagues of baseball, being a pitcher.  He is a grown man now, married with two kids, living in Oregon or Washington.  I saw a photo of him on his business page on the net and I would not recognize him easily as he has changed so much.

A tangle of shots that can show the many past photos of many.  I have inherited my parents box of oldies that tell so many stories. The baby Christmas picture of Terri, a second cousin, can be dated as to be 68 years ago. It is signed "Jack, Joan, and Terri Callison. The picture of my parents sitting in a beat up rocker was taken in the old farmhouse. It had to be 1950's as the house was torn down in 1958 so a new one could be built. In two other shots are Aunt Doris and Aunt Eva. They are all gone now.

A colorful shot of Bar Harbor, Maine. Standing on Cadillac Mountain gives you this view of that city.  They will be partially shutting down now with the tourists going home. My son and his wife live north of this harbor in a neat house in the woods. They are a mile from the Atlantic Ocean.

My photos archives are so large having blogged for a long time. I didn't have photos and yet I had stories and shots today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Weekend Freeze....

We did get our hard freeze last night but I don't think it lasted for very long. I was forced to go out and pick the last of the zinnias and also the t omatores.

We are getting tired of tomates but we will have to wait for awhile to be able to eat these. I know bringing them into the house will ripen them.

I still had a lot of these even though they are not ripe. I will probably spread them out on a tray to help them ripen. I think I have some larger ones under this pile.

I ended up with two nice bouquet.  It was good that I cut them as this morning everything is now brown. I had a good set of blooms this year but i think my last years crop was better. This years had such a slow start in germination so there were not so many blooms.

We drove to the old place this morning to get the furnace turned on for the winter.  I will run it at a low heat but I hadn't done so yet because it was warm when I was up there on Wednesday. It was not so cold in the house but I did leave it at 51 degrees F. to keep the pipes from freezing.

The cold weather brought a crowd to the mall today where the bookstore is located.  We tried to do some walking there and it was filled with a lot of people who wanted in from the cold.  I hope all is well with you.  Thanks for checking in today.

Friday's Weather.......

It was 37 degrees F. this morning and tomorrow it will be frost on the pumkin for sure.  We are cold but sometime today I have to go out and pick the last of the tomatoes.

 As a kid, I would see dozens of these at a time drinking from water puddles. They don't seem to be so plentiful any more.

If it were not so cold, I could start taking down the zinnias. I hope I am right that we will have some warm days yet in October. I really will need to work fast when it does warm up.  Tomato vines are not so hard to do but zinnias are harder to get rid of.  I did get a notice yesterday that I can burn in the daytime on certain dates.  That will help me in getting rid of yard waste.

My yellow pear tomatoes plants did get a lot of them ripened before the frost.  I will just have to go pick them all ripe or not ripe and bring them in today.  It was two volunteer vines in the one flower bed and I am glad it keeps coming back each year.

My body is not ready for cold weather. It is said that we have to adjust to it for a couple of days and then our bodies won't react so much. Our neighbors have the right idea as they just left for Arizona.

I had a lot of plans for projects today but I don't think that it will happen now. Our fall has hit quickly and predicted snow fall tomorrow. I hope all my blogger friends have received the rain that they needed.  I have been watching the radar for them and I think it must be raining somewhere around in Tennessee and Georgia.  Thanks to all for checking in today.

Thursday's Things......

This is blurry impressionism.  It was low light and trying to rain so the shot was bad. I really just wanted to share the color changes going on in that tree and it is the one that is changing the most in our neighborhood. The tree is one property lot away along the street of the next block east.

The front planters are looking good with the knock out roses and the mums in the front. The yard is so green this time of the year.  Last year it was brown at this time.

We had rain early morning and also during the morning daytime. We got rained on while leaving the mall of course.

The big tree up the valley from us has not started turning to fall colors at this time. I am glad that I don't have to rake those leaves. The small maple tree planted last summer is starting to turn. I am glad to see people planting trees. I planted a red bud tree last fall an it is doing well.

My short little dahlia is blooming again.  I will dig it and take it inside this late fall. Maybe it can grow bigger this next spring.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Wednesday's Wanderings......

The mums are crowding out the hosta.  It makes a great arrangement. I did trim the mums in July and they are coming back thicker.

The knock out roses are looking good but there are a lot less blooms this fall. The rains did keep them going longer this summer.

I did not know that the varigated dogwood also has the red twig branches.  They turned red sooner than the big ones that I have in the backyard. I mowed at the old place today.  It was shaggy but not very thick.  I can roll through the mowing faster and actually have to almost rush to keep up with the self-propelled mower. Leaves are not falling up there yet and I am glad. I usually mulch them with the mower.  That will take more trips to the place more often to get that done.

The circle area where the sidewalks wind around the garage now has a full batch of mums filling in the area.  Other plants are there but the mum fills in on top of it all.

I never did get together with my older brother, Ron, this past week.  He and his wife were up in Osceola, Iowa, helping family empty a large farmhouse of all items so the house could be put up for sale. I called them again yesterday and they were on their last day. They were ready to go home today.  I guess we can get together in another lifetime. Ron's birthday is today and he will get a phone call this evening.  They are headed home to Mesa, Arizona.

I may have shared this photo earlier. There are a couple monarchs still hanging around.  It will be getting cold the next few days and snow may be falling from the sky while they exit farther south.

I am adjusting to the new hearing aids.  It will take a while.  My wife and I read through the directions a couple of times and I now have them under control with my cell phone.  The little buttons really are too small for one to use while wearing them.  I can also take a phone call from the cell phone that will be broadcast to my devices. I am hearing things in my life that I have not heard in years. The tv doesn't have to be so loud now either.

Rain is on our way again tomorrow.  I am checking weather maps and I think my blogger friends in the deep south have been getting some much needed moisture. I hope I am right about that. Everyone  have a good rest of the day.  I hope all of you are well.

Checking In.......

The clouds in the sky at night have kept me from seeing any phase changes of the moon.  I knew it was up there but last night I saw it from my front door steps. We are having colder nights and it will be time for a full moon, a harvest moon, with the crackle of leaves under feet.

I went to a local business yesterday and came back with a renewed skill of hearing.  I knew I was not hearing things but it has been a gradual change. I can now hear the turn signals in the car and coffee water falling into the carafe as it is being made. I have been missing so many sounds that are taken for granted.  We went out to eat and we live in a noisy town with all that traffic. I did live in a quiet world. 

We lost a friend, former sister-in-law, yesterday from cancer. Ellen was my age and married my brother in the early 70's.  They lived in Arizona and early on had a baby boy named Chad.  Chad had been diagnosed with leukemia and died at the age of two years old.  His loss destroyed their lives and Ellen and my brother divorced a couple of years later. Ellen remained a part of the family on the fringe the past many years even through the loss of my brother in 2008.  I am happy that the past few years that Ellen remarried a wonderful guy and had such a great life living in New York hills in the summers and back in Arizona in winters. She loved dogs and kept track of our two boys watching them growing up.  I feel badly that we could not be a part of her last year of life except only through facebook.  I did see that both my boys were friends on Fb even though they had never met her. I have so many photos but really just felt that I couldn't share them.

Our son who visited for a couple of days, going to the Iowa State game, is back at work today. Air flight is so magical to get people too and from in this country.  I am glad we hooked up for that while.

I have two yards to mow and I am choosing to mow the easier one here at home first.  It will be cold out there but usually it warms up while I work. I have an older brother in the area now and will try to get a chance to see him this week.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday.....

The scene shows the tomatoes in the background havee lost their leavees. The flowers will be gone as soon as we get a hard freeze.  I could start clearing this but I sill have some tomatoes ripeining on the vine.

 

This photo of the morning glory from last year shows the color of the flower.  It was growing in a window box on the old deck. Today I am enjoying the same flowers from the seeds that it dropped down below before the deck was removed.

We took our son to the airport this morning so he could head home in Maine. He has a day of flights to get back to Bangor, Maine. We sure enjoyed having him around.  Thanks for stopping by today.