Thursday's Things

 Last angel fish standing, swimming, seem to be growing larger by the days.  Notice th size of it in comparison of the guppies. No live birthed guppy survives in this tank. 

 While taking a diet pepsi break I pick out all sorts of glasses. The flamingo plastic glass has been used a lot and does look pretty worn. I do use better glasses but it is fun to use this once in a while. 

 I walked out to get photos for blogging this morning. There really is not much to take a visual. I have old salvaged brick laying around the edge of my brick patio. I have collected them from many places as I have lived at the old place and I moved them all to the new place. 

 

One in my collection is a paver. I researched the company and found the Purington company was from Illinois. It stopped production in 1974. Its history is from the 1800s and bricks are said to have been made for the streets in the Panama Canal. They also have bricks in Paris and many bricks are used on city streets in America. 

My parents lived in Osceola, Iowa and its city streets were covered with bricks around the entire courthouse square. I remember them when I was a kid, I don't remember when they removed them. I now think I got this brick from my dad's stuff and it was one of those pavers. I am sure locals collected them as it was being torn up and probably city people shipped them into ditches. 

 We did warm up a bit today. I am thinking we have thunderstorms predicted for tomorrow. I shoved off the last of my snow pile on my deck yesterday with my shovel with one swipe. We have been cloudy all day and our air pollution today is smoke from Canada. We have had two days of air quality warnings. I did not know they were having forest fires already.

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Store Blooms

 

Flowers and Art

 I don't have many blooms on the inside but the hardy geranium keeps unfolding one flower at a tiem. It has been at it for so long that the cobwebs are forming in the window sill. 

 I noticed my wife's painting of tulips this morning and had to take a shot of it. We are slowly melting off our snow now and maybe we will see tulips in five or six weeks. 

 Two card paintings that lay on my desk are there for my inspiration. Chee is the watercolor artist from Duluth, Minnesota. He at one time was on staff at the college there. He is so good at capturing koi swimming in the water. 

 I have on my art desk another magazine article of an artist that paints orbs. I think that he is the one that inspired my one boat painting to have orbs in it. 

 I painted it now a long time ago when I first quit being an art teacher. I combines lots of styles that I taught to my students. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Monday Mentions

 

The sun sets in the west and as it shines over our hill. It makes the trees in the east glow. The trees that surround us all have this sunset glow. 

 I completed this frame for my wife's painting. We ran a frame shop for over 20 years in our home. Here at our new home I have to hunt up all the tools now to  get a frame job done. It is an amazing painting my wife just finished. One of the first since she had been so sick for over a year and a half. The frame is an oak one that I made from leftover wood from past frame jobs a few years ago. 

 I shoveled on this snow pile today hoping to get rid of the rest of it. I had created a path recently but our warmer days just are not hot enough to get rid of this deck snow. We may have rain tomorrow so maybe that will help to dissolve it. 

It has been a quiet Monday. I headed out to get meds and some stray groceries. It was cold out there and the high ended up being 42 degree  F. Thanks for stopping by today.  

Sunday's Shots

 

 

 

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A Calling Bird

 He called so often daily and finally he found a mate. It seems to be too cold for them to nest but I hope they stay in our territory. 

 She is actually larger than him but she has great subtle colors instead of the bright red. 

 They took turns sitting in out maple tree. He calls yet even though she is here right in the same tree. 

 

 

We do still have snow everywhere. It did melt off some yesterday, out in the open, where the snow was thin. I shoveled off the heaviest of snow off my deck and it help speed up things a bit. We didn't get too far below freezing last night. It still is not a warm day today. I went for meds and groceries this morning and I am glad I wore my winter coat. 

This is the last day of the month. I can't believe things went so quickly. Both of us spent a couple of weeks sick with the flu. I am now over it and my wife is a few days from being at the end of it. It last so many days and the sore throat is the last to go.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

 

No Snow Blowing

 We reached 62 degree F. today. Our snow is melting. It isnt such a quick melt but it is nice to see some of it going away.

 Looking down the hill I can see our brown grass. We caught up n our needed snowfall but we missed out on the last one all together.

 I dug out a path on my deck to get a path to the bird feeders. If is stays warm tomorrow I will do a better job of clearing it. The winds really pile up a lot of snow on the northeast side of the house. 

 Looking down the back stairs I was surprised to seed how much snow was still there. I don't have a need to shovel it out.  I am looking forward to spring to see what the tulips will look like along the railing there.

. Did I mention tulips in the last line. There they are coming up in the front yard. It isn't unusual for this time of the year.

 

The two garden spots in front of the garage have the first tulips showing up in the spring. I didn't plant new tulips last fall but I have plenty that will come up and bloom. 

Thanks for stopping by today.