27 Jan., 2010 -- Ring around the moon

There was a rainbow around the moon tonight,
I just couldn't capture all the color. Ice crystals
in the air... forecast is for sleet tomorrow.

Yesterday, there was sunshine in Oklahoma, and sunshine here! Made one trip out and back,
fighting fierce headwinds, but I made the first nibble of 10 on the project of 55 mine sites in Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.
Bleak landscapes in the wintertime, but they do make interesting patterns.
I like those big evil spider-like cranes!

These mines are reclaimed after all the digging and scraping, and lots of them become wildlife habitat, or pasture, usually better land than before they were mined. It has been an interesting project seeing the progress of these mines, as I've been photographing some of them two or three times a year for about 10 years.

25 Jan., 2010 -- Gray and blustery, skiff of snow

There they go again... scud-runnin'... Not for me! I'm still
waiting for clear weather to go shoot. Pictures, that is.

These mamas and young-uns bedded down in the neighbor's
pasture a couple of evenings ago.

23 Jan., 2010 -- fsanders got the whats-it

Fsanders probably has one of these in her yard, too. Or else she consulted
with Jan & Jamie who had to be led to it! It's not turned in the correct
direction to tell the time of day, but then, the sun's not shining today anyhow,
it's raining cats & dogs, and maybe frogs.
She said "Nope, I had no help. Just thought it looked like a frosty eyeball of a frog!"

Blackbrt emailed me, afraid to come around the house... but he didn't even
venture a guess. I'll bet Ms Blackbrt has one like this somewhere outside.
Maybe he's afraid to snoop around outside her house, too!

22 Jan., 2010 -- Whats-it?

You'll never get this one. (unless you come snooping around outside our house).

21 January, 2010 -- BIG mistake

Long story. Stay with me here. Bowling on women's league this morning.
Theresa's hubby Mike was in town to run errands. Partner Gail and I teased him when I put
a little red gift bow on his ball cap, and Theresa handed him a cutesy little purse containing
the safe deposit key to carry to the bank. Oh, Mike, you're soooo cute! Tease, tease.
Then, I spied him jerking his hand out of my seat after I was up to bowl. Ok, Mike, where is it?
The bow was missing off the table, and off his ball cap. Uh oh. I swept my hand around under my fanny and back, but didn't find the bow. Ok, Mike ran off to town to do his errands.
Here's where the big mistake came in. I left my camera sitting on the table. BIG mistake.
After bowling two more frames, the ladies couldn't contain themselves any more, and three tables of conspiratorial blue-haired ladies roared at my expense. "Check the pictures on your camera, Henny!" Our bowling games fell apart for a few minutes.
I guess I deserved it for teasing him. And he looked so innocent when he came back from errands. Nevertheless; he will pay .

This evening, I drove to West Plains to a Mo Pilots meeting, and stopped to geocache at a couple of places. At the "International Cash Cache", I left this colorful Brazilian bank note and a coin minted in 1953, from my old limited coin collection from the 1970's.


Later after dark I found a container downtown West Plains, with a loose lid and lots of moisture. I rescued the American Flag, will wash and clean it up, put it in another cache sometime.

17 Jan., 2010 -- See? January can be nice.

See those clouds in the distance? Well, That's where I wanted to be to shoot pictures.
Fog, low clouds, everywhere in Kansas and Oklahoma, even Springfield. We had sunshine all day!


See those fuzzy trees? See that airplane? Well, luckily, those
starlings were behind it. There must be a gazillion of those messy birds.

See what HE did this morning? There has been so much thawing,
now everything's turning to mud. It would be better if it stayed cold for awhile.

See what I did today?



See? It really was a beautiful day!

15 Jan., 2010 -- Murphy has hair!!!

Murphy's the local barber. I'll bet he wishes he had trimmed
Lloyd's beard when he trimmed his hair recently. We were
at Junction Store having catfish & country music, it's Friday
night, ya know!

11 Jan., 2010 -- Whoa! Em R some honkin' 'cicles!

Somebody decorated the icicles along Hwy. 5 between Mansfield & Ava.
Had to turn around and go back for another look!

9 Jan., 2010 -- A "handy" place to meet & eat

First, we talk (lie?) about airplanes.
Then we eat.

Then we talk about airplanes some more.



These guys really did fly this morning!
There were four of them; just rumbled on by.