Today's Flowers #4

My friend Luiz Santilli Jr. has started a Today's Flowers Meme, check it out. Come and join with your flower photos. You can get in on the start. Sunday night is the post time.

Today I would like to offer you a spring flower you may not have knowledge of, my Ohio Buckeye Tree.
This is my favorite bee photo on the bloom and if you click on it you can see the orange from the flower through the bee's wing.
This are the buckeyes growing on the tree and soon the squirrels will have a meal and a nut to bury for later. I end up with a lot of little buckeye trees in the Spring from the squirrels hiding the nuts and leaving them for the next year.
I do hope you enjoyed the Ohio Buckeye Tree from my front yard.

Camera Critter #21

Camera Critters by Misty Dawn, go here to see who's participating.

I thought I saw a moth on my family room window so I ran and got my camera. I took one shot and moved in for a close-up. I had done this before with a small moth and thought it was neat. When I got closer I said,"Funny looking moth".
So I got in even closer.
It was a rainy evening but I went outside to get the other side. My red light from the camera bothered the little frog and he jumped on the window seal.
I decided to use my flash and show you the little green frog. I have never seen him again so I feel I seized a camera moment.
He is a cute little guy in his best colors.

Sky Watch Friday 8-29-08

I thank anyone who commented on my opening and post last week, I tried to get to each site but there were a lot of friends to visit.

Sky Watch Friday now has a new home and a life of it's own. Please check out the new sight and link in if you wish to participate. There were 378 people last week with beautiful Sky photos. You can link in from my side bar or above.

The family made a trip to central Ohio to go on a canoeing trip down a river. Most of the family went down in two cars. It was a fun trip with some great scenery. There were 7 adults and 6 kids on two rafts and a canoe. The country is really nice in central Ohio. There was a set of silos that I thought gave a fun sky shot.
As you go south in Ohio you start to get closer to the Appalachian Mountains and you get into the foothills with the rolling countryside.
If you put your camera in a plastic bag on the raft while you are going down the river you can get this kind of sky shot. Yes, we did get really wet. I don't recommend this method but the camera dried out and so did I.

Birds That Missed the Cut

Sometimes you take photos and aren't sure if they are good enough ti post. When you look back you say why not try. Edit them some and see if they are liked. I cropped and on some adjusted brightness and contrast.

I liked the way the Crow hid in the Pine Tree.
A female Mallard Duck swimming away.
This one was showing her colors on the pond edge.
This fancy stepping male Mallard Duck was in full colors.
I cropped him out of the pair shot, which one do you like best.
A Great Blue Heron in bright sun that wasn't real co-operative but I got this shot of the skinny bird.

This Great Blue Heron at a pond with some ducks.
A Red-Tailed Hawk on a dead tree, a long way out but it was an opportunity.
An American Goldfinch that landed when I was shooting some flower. I seized the moment with my camera.
The is a Killdeer hiding deep in the grass.
I do hope you enjoyed this trip through the birds that were missed.

Blog Award - Must See Blog

This is the week that Brad Paisley comes to town on Friday. His show includes Juliann Hough, Chuck Wicks and Jewel. I always told Jedijawa that Brad was his cousin because of a distant relationship. Maybe he claims Brad now that he's back in WV, their home state.



It's National Dog Day so here is Jake, my Pomeranian, spruced up with a fresh haircut and looking good. Everyone calls him a cute puppy but he's 14 years old (people years not dog years). He was being a little stingy with the pose.
I received a Must See Blog award from Lawstude of Lawstude's Journeys in the Philippians a great photography/travel site. I have several must see sight I'd like to honor.

Dot of Strolling of Through Georgia - The originator of SWF. She has a great photographic sight.

Tom of The Ohio Nature Blog - A wonderful view of Ohio nature photos.

Helen of Wings and Things - Unbelievable shots of nature that you'll grow to love.

Shionge of So Shiok - A look at Singapore and its customs that's worth a look see.

Lacy of Razor Family Farms - A wonderful look at life on the farm. Lacy keeps it fun

Check them out, I'm sure you will enjoy them, I do.

Fishing Stayed Really Hot.

Fishing has remained extremely hot, I have caught fish on every trip out. I took a vacation day on Thursday and picked up 30 Crappie and two Large Mouth Bass. The bass where returned unharmed. My friend Klaus asked me what I did with all the fish. I double bag them in a quart freezer bag first and the smaller bags go into a gallon freezer bag. This keeps a double protective layer over the fish and they can stay good for 9 month with no problem. Here is a fish and I'm going to show the results of filleting without being very graphic. I have a five inch Rapala Fillet Knife that I use for all my filleting. I have done a 5# Walleye very easily with the knife.
I have already filleted this Crappie and you can see I fillet without removing the skin from the fish. I fillet along the backbone to the rib cage and cut the fillet loose except at the head. I then flip the fish over and take the fillet off the skin so there is no scaling or mess involved. There are just two delicious pieces of white meat ready to cook. I love to bread and fry them and I gave a recipe for Italian Crappie earlier in one of my blogs. I had a fish fry last Tuesday of a quart of Crappie fillets that I hadn't frozen along with a fresh zucchini out of the garden and it lasted me two suppers and one lunch. They were delicious.
Here is part of the 20 fish I got on Saturday. Here is part of the 28 Crappies I got on Sunday. A total of over 160 fish or 320 fillets in a five day fishing period. That end one was 11 1/2" and was a really good fighter.
I love Crappie fishing and Crappie eating also.

Today's Flowers #3

My friend Luiz Santilli Jr. has started a Today's Flowers Meme, check it out. Come and join with your flower photos. You can get in on the start. Sunday night is the post time.

This is my Cornflower, a fancy bloom that comes back strong every year. I've also seen them called Bachelor Buttons.
This is the fancy colored bloom. Do you see a visitor? Click to get a better view. Yes the Black Ants must have a relationship with this flower.
Here is the mature bloom a pretty blue color.
When it's a youngster it has a purple shade to it.

Camera Critters #20

Camera Critters by Misty Dawn, go here to see who's participating.

I stop at a little pond to capture some female Mallard Ducks swimming on the pond.
They co-operated fairly well posing for pictures.
They were even doing some preening.

Try your darnedest to get both sides.
It was a hard job to get right.
Then something magical happened. The Green Heron I've seen at the fishing lake, with no opportunity to captured, showed up and landed in a tree with a red bobber hanging from it. Is that fate or what? Click to see it better.
I zoomed in to get a better look.

He decided to check this Fishing Guy out also.
Okay, he's harmless, let's do some preening on one leg.
How does that look for the picture?
I'll even turn around for you to get a better look, still on one leg.
Seize the moment no matter how fleeting and this one payed back two fold, my first Green Heron pictures.

Sky Watch Friday 5

I love to participate in Sky Watch and am humbled to be honored in the link. I try to be here each week. Sky Watch Friday has a new home and a life of it's own. Please check out the new sight and link in if you wish to participate. There were 375 people last week with beautiful Sky photos. You can link in from my side bar or above

This is the view across Lake Hodgson my fishing lake at sunrise from my car. Click on any photo to get a closer look. The view even got more spectacular as I drove to work and the Sun rose into the clouds.
Last weekend was a beautiful two days on the lake with a wonderful Sky. The fishing was also really good if you look at previous posts.
I even caught a Seagull aloft over the lake in the beautiful Sky. This cloud has an animal shape with the and I think it is Dumbo the flying elephant. This is my front yard yesterday morning with the Ohio Buckeye Tree set against the morning Full Moon. Those are the fast growing Buckeye from my home state tree.
This was a trip with me around the wonderful State of Ohio.