Awards From Friends

My friend Gaelyn from Geogypsy sent me this award. I am supposed to tell 10 things I love. Gaelyn always does a great job of sharing her travels as a park ranger and her off time in Arizona.

 1. My family, wife/children/grandchildren.

 2. My family, brother/sister and their families.

 3. My wife's family, sisters/brother and their families.

 4. Fishing/Boating.

 5. Photography/Nature.

 6. Golfing.

 7. My local friends and my blog friends.

 8. Life, living it to the fullest.

 9. Gardening.

10. Time spent blogging.

Then I'm supposed to pass this along award to 10 blogs I truly enjoy reading. I highly recommend these plus the other blogs on my sidebar for a neat experience. Please don’t feel obligated to do anything except acknowledge your greatness. So I'm passing this on to the following blogs from my sidebar:

1. Ruth from Canada

2. Betsy from TN

3. George from TN

4. Bhavesh from India

5. Sylvia from WA

6. Carletta from WV

7. Joann from VA

8. Mary from IN

9. Warren from England

10. Nicole from Egypt (the world traveler)

My friend Bhavesh from India also sent me an award. Thanks so much for your kindness.

I'm sending this off to Tipper from NC and Becky from SC who always tell a great story.

An Award from Pietro

I received this award from Pietro from Italy a while ago and it slipped my mind. Since this was a work of his art I feel badly I forgot it. It is special when an award comes from a friend. His site shows his art and photography talents.

I would like to pass it on to:
1. Sylvia from the state of Washington for all her work on SWF.
2. Darla from Florida for her neat flower site.

What Is It - XXII Answers & An Award

#1 is a drain cover made from diamond pattern steel plate. There were a lot of great guesses on this one. Craver definitely had the idea with automotive steel but Craig came through with diamond plate. Craver had a neat experience going back old school without power. Craig has a White Peacock Butterfly on his site. I have passed you an award below.
#2 Is a hanging wind mobile. This one I thought no-one would get until my 9 year old grandson got it in in 30 seconds. Darla had two guesses but hit it correctly. She has her garden blooming with wonderful flowers but she just had a bad rain. Check below for the award.

Bharat gave me the Uber Amazing Blog Award. He has amazing views of India from his travels. Thanks for your kindness in thinking of me.

Uber (synonym to Super) Amazing Blog Award is a blog award given to sites who:

1. ~ inspires you

2. ~ makes you smile and laugh

3. ~ or maybe gives amazing information

4. ~ a great read

5. ~ has an amazing design

6. ~ and any other reasons you can think of that makes them Uber amazing!

THE RULES:

1. Put this logo in your blog posting.


2. Invite people to take this award


3. Do not forget to link back the web blog owned


4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog


5. Share the love to those who get this award.

So I will choose Craver / Craig / Darla from above.

The others will be:

Joan from South Africa. - Wonderful photos from a neat country.

Pietro from Italy. - Northern Italy at its finest.

Becky from South Carolina. - Stories from the heart.

Tipper from North Carolina. - Stories from the Smokie Mountains.

Thomas from India - Photos of the animals of India, simply amazing photography.

A Special Award From a Far Away Land

Susie of Jeddah Daily Photo gave me an award. Susie has a neat site and she is located in Saudi Arabia so there are a lot of neat views of that area of the world. The Van Gogh’s Ear Award is for Outstanding Artistic Achievement in art, photography, writing, philosophy, comedy, and/or blogging. Since Van Gogh cut off his ear, it can be passed around. Thank you Susie for the honor. I would like to pass this on to:

1. Jo from Texas even though she doesn't post award because of her neat art blog. Maybe she will like this one because of the artist.

2. Michele from British Columbia for her wonderful photo blog.

3. Tina from PA for her neat bird photos.

4. Becky from South Carolina for her neat writing blog.


This was a artistic sky I took on 1/1/09. I did nothing with the colors and this is what the camera saw. You can see the blue in the sky at the bottom left of the photo. I remember a grey sky.

Wednesday Potpourri

For my Wednesday Potpourri I am going to offer you three different animals. The first is a group of horses that were feeding in a snow covered field. My daughter loved the trees in the background.
Here is a horse that goes by the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. You can see the fence just above him.
I see Mallard Ducks and a few Mergansers so when I saw this duck I said something strange is migrating through. The best I can tell it is a female Bufflehead Duck that stopped at the pond for one day. It wasn't into smiling for the camera.

I had what was a small four point buck in my back yard so even though it was an ugly day I captured this head on shot. There is obviously a bigger buck in the neighborhood from the broken antler.

I did a little work on the antlers and turned him into a little 6 pointer.

I received an award from another friend.

I received an BFF Award from Kostas of foto seasons and Bee foto Blog. He is an excellent photographer and has so much to offer from Greece.

-Here are the rules for the award:

1. Only five people allowed 2. Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog. 3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world. 4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award

So here is who I choose:

1. Dot from Georgia for starting SWF and for the interesting posts on her site.

2. Tipper from North Carolina a fine Appalachian site and her neat stories of mountain life.

3. Becky from South Carolina for a great story site. She always has something interesting to say.

4. Klaus from Florida of Virtua Gallery - You can talk about touching your senses with a photo.

5. Ivar from Norway who is another excellent photographer.

Wednesday Potpourri and an Award

I wish all my friends a Happy Thanksgiving Day in the USA. One of my friends Carolyn has written an outstanding post on a gift given for Thanksgiving. Take the time to read through this one.
http://ncmountainwoman.blogspot.com/2008/11/its-about-more-than-turkey.html

Here are some varied photos from the year:
This is a shot at the golf course from the day when my 13 year old grand son beat me golfing. This shot was to 10 foot from the pin. It was over a lake that came up next to the green. I put it at 12 feet and was able to win this hole with the putt. He had me eight down with eight holes to play and I was able to cut it to four down by the end of the round but I was easily defeated. Oh, the agony of defeat with a smile on your face. How can you be disappointed when they play well.
How do you like the form he is showing on this swing. This is his 10 year old cousin, number three grandson, who is learning the game. We road together on the cart and had a good time. He showed me the Cicada in the tree that did a neat job for the camera.
This is Soccer Boy as he cleaned off the deck last week. We had 12" of snow last week.

He works hard and even worked on the railing.

He moved down to the boat and climbed on top and worked on the snow.

That kick cleared a lot of snow. He enjoys fishing and also this fun stuff.

I got an award last week that I'm posting.

Ms. Hays has given my site the "Hot Blog Award" - I thank her so much for visiting my site, and for passing this award to me. I enjoy her site and so the award is an added bonus. She has joined several of the Meme's in which I am contributing.

I pass it along to the following Hot Blogs.

1. Carolyn for her neat bird blog and interesting posts.

2. Betsy for her neat stories of life.

3. Thomas for his neat photographic site from India- a must see to believe.

4. Amila for photogray of the animal life from Sri Lanka - check out this site.

5. Becky for her neat stories.

Wednesday Potpourri # 5 and an Award

My Wednesday Potpourri will consist of shots that I have taken in my back yard over the Summer and Fall.

This is a dragonfly from two weeks ago. I was cutting the grass and it landed on my block for a rest. I never disturbed it as I took some shots. I tried to look up the type but was not successful. It had an unusual color with some red in the brown. Check out the little spider to the bottom right.

It had an unusual tail so I thought it was some type of a club tail. It was an Autumn Meadowhawk, Tom of Ohio Nature let me know.

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny grazed in my yard one day in the Summer.

This bunny was by the garden eating a dandelion. It is near my fish cleaning bench.

The final animal was my nemesis the Groundhog. I was lucky and they never broke through my fence this year. This was in the Fall and the tomatoes were done. I do hope you enjoyed my photo journey through the back yard.

I received this award from Chrissy's photo blog this past week. She does the Meme's that I participate in so we have gotten to enjoy each others sites. I think it is a neat award.
1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you
3. Nominate other blogs for this award (it said 10 but I don't think that quantity is as important as quality).
4. Add links to those blogs
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs
6. Give a reason why you consider their blogs cool.

I am passing it on to the following cool blogs.

1. Shelly for her neat shots of birds.

2. Leedra for all the posts on the animals of her area.

3. TommyV for the photo's of Colorado wildlife.

4. Joann and Jack for their neat stories of Virginia.

5. Willard for his interests in the wildlife of Pennsylvania.

6. Warren and his faithfulness to his Kent, England birds.
7. Tina and her all the bird photos.

8. Mary and her many bird photos.

Wednesday Potpourri # 4 / Just Catching Up

My Wednesday Potpourri will consist of shots that I have taken along the Cuyahoga River and have wanted to share.

I would think this a Circular part is from the canal which was built in a round shape of brickwork. Click to see it better. This rock in the river reminded me of a big turtles head rising out of the river.

We had some problems under the Main Street bridge when a railroad car was too tall. It scrapped the bottom of the bridge and took out the AT&T fiber optic cable then dragged the cable and broke of this telephone pole like it was a tooth pick. This is the case of an unstoppable object against an immovable object. The momentum of the unstoppable object wins every time.

Here is one of dry moss shot in the Spring. I guess I like moss and rocks.

Awards

I received two awards from Darla, who has a neat site from Florida with flora and fauna. The one is the Million Dollar Friend Award which I had already had received but this one is new called the Premio Dardes (High Standards) Award. It acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values everyday.

I would like to pass it on to these neat sites.

1. Marcos Santos - A wonderful photographic site from Brazil.

2. Luiz Ramos - A member of Sky Watch/Today's Flowers and My World from Brazil.

3. Denise BC - One of the leaders of Today's Flowers from Brazil.

4. Salty of Country Capture from Pennsylvania for his views on nature.

5. Ivar for showing his homeland of Norway and his work on Sky Watch and My World.

6. Lawstude for his showing us so much of the Philippines.

7. Carolyn from North Carolina and her Appalachian Mountain photography.

Today's Flowers # 14

My friends Luiz, Denise and Pupo run the Today's Flowers Meme, check it out. Come and join with your flower photos. Sunday at 7GMT is the post time.

I have received an award from these great people at Today's Flowers. I am so happy to have received the award from these really neat people whom I consider my friends. It is Sunflower Award 2008 for my dedication and the faithful participation in Today's Flowers. I am honored to post it today.

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Today as my flower I share with you my bed of Calla Lilies (Zantedeschia). The bed is about 10 foot by 3 foot in size at the rear corner of my house. I mulch the bed with leaves in the winter and the bulbs will winter over even in our cold environment. I remove the mulch when spring arrives and the plants send up shoots when it reaches a suitable temperature. This area near the house receives no frost so all I worry about is a late freeze.

The plants bloom beautifully. I have both White and Pink Calla Lilies.
The White Calla Lillie have a sharp all green leaf and the Pink Callie Lilies have a variegated white and green wide arrow shaped leaf to add color to the bed.
I love the shape of the flower and the sutler pink of the flower.
Here is a white bloom and you can see the shade of green on the bottom frnt of the bloom. I enjoy seeing the bugs help with the pollinating so I share a little bug on the white bloom.

Calla Lilies are a symbol of love, I feel because of the way the flower envelopes itself.

Awards I Need To Mention.

Leedra of Photography by Leedra gave me this award. She has a sight which shows the nature in the Appalachian Mountains. I do enjoy my visits with her as a friend. I really appreciate getting this award.

You pass it on to good friends. I have many in my blog life. A friend is worth a million dollars to in your life. Here is a list of some of my friends.

Luiz Santilli of Today's Flower He is a wonderful friend from Brazil.

Joann and Jack from Virginia - We share a special friendship.

Tipper from NC and her wonderful way of sharing .

Michele from BC, Canada and her neat photo site.

Louise from NM and her wonderful site and part of the SWF/MW team.

Klaus of Virtua Gallery from Florida - Head of the SWF/MW team

Abe Lincoln of Brookville, Ohio and his great sites.

Misty Words and Camera Critter - She came from NE Ohio so we had a connection.

Sherry Kaye of Sherry K Photography gave me this award a while back. She has a neat photographic site but has been away.

Paz of New York Minute also passed this award to me. She has a neat sight of her travels around NYC. Check out her photographs.

There are some rules so here they are:

I am supposed to list 6 things that make me happy and send this award on to 6 bloggers.

1. I love to be out on my boat.

2. I really enjoy my blog.

3. I always have fun with the grand kids.

4. My family means so much to me.

5. I love to golf with my Brother and his sons.

6. I love the knowledge that my retirement is near.

Now, to send this on to 6 creative blogs I enjoy reading:

1. David's Author Blog from Australia - I enjoy each visit.

2. Vaggelis and his look at the Greek Islands.

3. Lacy at Razor Family Farms and her look at farm life.

4. Becky and the neat way she handled the Halloween story.

5. Gina of Tasmania and her creative cards

6. Tipper and her view of Appalachian life.

Potpourri and Award

I was going fishing last weekend and the same balloon I saw a while back took off over my head. It was rising as it crossed the road.
I took a few shots before I headed to the lake to launch my boat.
The lake was ablaze with colors.

There were some areas that weren't as far along but just as beautiful.
This back bay was very special because I was pursuing a Great Blue Heron.
The Sun gave a nice reflective shot to the lake in the boat bay.

The Lady Di Award comes from Lisa at Raccoon Lover blog. Lisa is a friend I visit and has some great photos of a Civil War re-enactment.

I would like to pass it on to some other neat sites:

Shelly -Birding in Michigan

Becky- With her great stories

Darla - Florida photos

Lacy - Farm life

Carolyn - NC Mountains

Luke - Great photos

Luiz - Neat photos and Today's Flowers Meme

Here is the prize I made for my first anniversary (9/10/08) of my blog. I said earlier in the month that I had a gift for a random visitor to my blog in honor of my first anniversary.

Here is the gift I made, It is a photo of my Ohio Buckeye Tree and a poem that was posted in its honor. Joann gave me permission to use the poem. It honors both of the Ohio Buckeyes, the tree and the football team.

The random date that was chosen is September 30Th and the first visitor to post a comment was the winner. The winner is Becky of Twisted Fencepost. She has really had a lucky streak because after she had been chosen I saw that she also won a random drawing at Tipper's Blind Pig and the Acorn. I guess luck was on her side and she let me know she was born this month.

I was doing this post and getting links when I saw I had won one of Pap's CD's at Tippers site, I guess I'm also lucky to have the friends in the blogging world. Thanks Tipper for this neat prize.

I also made one of these for Joann of Joann and Jack because she composed the poem and shared it with me and you.

Aftermath of Ike and Award

The Ohio are got hit by the remnants of Hurricane Ike on Sunday. There were some places getting 80 MPH gusts of wind and 2 million people lost electricity. A wind that strong can blow down trees and take out power lines and the results can be devastating. What I'm showing are the results but no major damage. Here is a large tree on the way to work. The tree rot caused it to became weak and fall. It was a large tree but it didn't do damage to the house.We had one large tree fall down in our development across a street and it had to be cut up with chain saws to allow passage. We have underground wiring and so had no outage
The damage to some trees was minimal, just a branch.
Other trees received major damage and this tree may have to come down.
Then there were the trees that came down from a stand of similar trees. This was the tallest of the bunch.
I has taken a week and we hope is everyone is back with power by Sunday.


The Award I received this week "I Love Your Excellent Blog".

What a cool award from my friend Kostas from Greece. He honored me with this neat award for my blog. I am happy to receive it from his really neat site which has such detailed photos.

The rule is for me to give this award to other blog that gave me big moments with their marvellous posts, their beautiful photographs, and also their informative comments.

My friends who I pass it on to are:

Carletta for her photos and stories of WV.

Michele for her excellent photos of the Rocky Mountains.

Ivar for his beautiful views of Norway.

Louise for her stories and photos.

Darla from Florida for her great photos.

Leedra and the Appalachian Mountain animals and more.