Favorites from the year...

Other bloggers sometimes post their favorite shots from the year.  Since I enjoy running across those posts, I thought I would see what I could come up with from the past year's photos/posts.

January

I was so very lucky...I got to photograph a group of turkeys 3 or 4 times, just a few blocks away.

February

This is one of many hawks we have seen the past year.

March

I am sorry, but I picked two for March.

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Of all the months, I really did not have much to choose from in November.  A dozen photos at most.  I did choose photos that had been taken this year, and I think all had been posted....some may have been on my other blog. 

Little country church

I didn't know then if it was still being used when I took this pic.

On a winter's day....

Another photo, taken basically the same time as yesterday's post.

Photo from 2011

It has been a good while since this shot was taken...I wish I could find this place again.  This farm had a lot of interesting buildings and the snow showed them off to perfection.

A golden oldie...

From 2009....can't you just feel the warm sun?

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Bubbie has been in fine form these past few days.  In case you cannot tell he was having a ball in the above photo.  Notice that his tail is just a blur.  He was seriously considering attacking the ornaments but we yelled at him before he could do any damage.    But I have not looked closely at the tree skirt.  I had made the mistake of straightening it out a little bit.

Cheep-cheep

When the girls were young, everyone knew how they were with animals.  So here came someone with this robin.  It was much smaller, not flying when they brought it to them.  We raised it on night crawlers.  The girls would run a dog bowl with some water in it, and it would get in it and have a fun time...and they would use a handkerchief to dry it off.  I always called it a 'him,' but I really don't know which it was. 

By the time it was flying we had our vacation planned...and had a neighborhood kid to take care of the animals.  Well, someone let him out...not sure what happened to him.  But he could fly...he had done been loose and up to the top of the big old cottonwoods next door.  So I have always hoped it survived.

A pair

As we were coming home from Paris, Illinois Friday, we spotted this pair of Bald Eagles in a tree maybe a hundred yards off the road.  The tree was in fence line between two farm fields.

I want it!

We pulled up behind this at a stoplight yesterday or the day before.  My camera was handy so I was able to snag this one single shot.  Notice the 'tailgate'....

mmm-mmm Good!

We had a big tree cut down several years ago,  and then a guy came a long and ground the stump up.  A couple years later, we had two or three of these grow up in that area!  That was the one and only time,

Listen to the Moo-sic.....

A middle of the day shot...but I still love it.  Love all the cows looking at me expectantly.

Red doors...

I am always drawn to red doors...always want to take a picture of them if given the opportunity.

Snow from another year...

I so wanted to get out and go for a walk, or go for a drive, but after all that has happened to us in the past 2 or 3 years I don't want Roger out when it is very slick at all.  I fear him falling and hitting his head.  So, I ran across this one and will post it instead.  I love when snow clings to everything and weighs it down.

Its Bubbie time!

I cannot keep a the tree skirt straight, soon as I straighten it, he goes and messes it up.

From somewhere in Illinois...I think

I am almost positive that this is from somewhere in Illinois, northwest of here....

An old scanned slide...

This is from pre-digital...at least for me.  From 1995.

From the archives....

From November 11, 2005 ...

A bit of whimsy

Some people are so creative...

These were taken at a shop in Shipshewana, Indiana a few years ago.

I really love this one....

Look what we saw today....

This handsome bird was in a tree beside the highway...these I show you are taken while I sat in the Rav4...

None of the shots are cropped...

I got out and walked across the road to see if I could get a better view without all the twigs in front of her/him but it was even worse.  S/he just watched me.  I wasn't right under him, but I was sure not far away.  I went and got back in the Rav4 and there were two or three cars passed right after and it finally flew away.

Peaches

If I had a bag of these, I could eat every single one.  I love peaches.....and good peaches are hard to find in the summer.

Black barn...

A barn from October, from over in Illinois.  Of barn colors, black is my least favorite color.  I don't know what my favorite color would be.  Probably either unpainted or red.

A shot from the archives...

From autumn days...

Handsome hawk...

I never tire of seeing hawks and love to have the opportunity to photograph them.

Not great pics, etc...but have to show anyway....

These are from today...

I only tried a few times to capture them in flight..

The above is a cropped version of the pic...notice the pair of Snow Geese at the lower left .

I know this pic is a mess, but it gives the feel of watching them.  There was a lot of White-fronted geese, too.

If that is not enough, watch this.  It is an even bigger mess....and turn your volume down.  There is constant beeping is because I left the keys in the car but had the door open.

This below is really making me wish I had a better way of recording things like this.

Walk this way....

I am sorry, I cannot help it...this makes me think of that song.  I have photos of  two Whooping Cranes, but I prefer this one of the one Whooping Crane followed by the Sandhill Cranes.

Swans

Along with the Snow Geese, shown in the video in THIS post, we saw a few swans...

The one and only...

I took a couple photos of this sail boat...I think it is the only sailboat I have ever photographed.

From Mackinac Island....

This is from the archives...2008 to be exact.

Morning sky....

Normally, Bubbie stays outside at night if it is not freezing cold...but even if not cold, he wants in first thing.  (Then eats a bite and wants right back out most days)  Anyway, when I let him in this morn this was the sky.  The above is  a cropped portion of the photo below.

If you click to expand, you can see the the sky beginning to lighten on the horizon in a couple places.