Lotus blossom

 I am hoping to get back out to the pond before they are all gone but at the same time I am wondering if this will be the last time photographing them this year.

From a home improvement store...

 I was with one of my daughters earlier this month at one of the home improvement stores.  I could not resist taking a photo of this orchid.

Milo...

 Some of the land in the strip area is being farmed.  There is a big field of milo...I want to go back again and try a photo of the field from a different viewpoint.  It is just beautiful.  

Quilt from 2012

 This is from several years ago...I was in the process of free motion quilting this quilt in the above photo...

The above is the front side of the finished quilt.  It looks darker than it was in real life.  And below is the back.  

Busy bumblebee

 Taken with my Samsung Note 8...as long as something is relatively still, I have been amazed at the photos it takes.  

Lily pad

 I call them lily pads, but is that the correct name for them if they are from Lotus flowers.  Thankfully I don't have to drive an hour now to see them...these are about 10 minutes away...

Drive-by

 

I cannot tell where this was at for sure, but think it was near Albion, Indiana.  

Long gone...

 

This barn has been gone for several years now.  I know it needed work, but it never seemed like it was that close to coming down.  I don't know if it was torn down, or if storm took it down.  We usually passed it several times in a year.  There was not a trace of it left.  

Monarch Chrysalis

 

This is a scan of an old photo, taken in our garden in 1994.

Remember the vultures?

 

I thought I would give a reminder...and show you what they were dining on...

It was a nice sized buck.  I cropped it quite a bit.

Smile for the camera!

 

I always seem to get a few good pics anytime we go this swamp area.

This is when we were there two weeks ago.  As you can see,  it is covered by duckweed.  A guy came by on a gator type vehicle.  I don't know what the real name is.  Our neighbor calls them a side by side 4-wheeler.  He grew up in the area and said the swamp extends about two miles in each direction and said he used to wade it from the road to the end as a kid.

It's a golden world...

 

I love autumn days like this one from 2015...where I feel like I am living in a golden glow.

From the playground...

 

I am not sure what the real name of these spiders are, but we call them jumping spiders.  

Days like this....

 

In these pics of our granddaughter she was half as old as she is now.   Now if we go fishing, she wants us to go to the creek.  She does not fish, but catches crawdads, turtles and whatever else she can find.   Days like this are golden...

One of the Susans...

 

I have been looking trying to figure out whether this is a Black-eyed Susan or a Brown-eye Susan and so far having no luck. I had thought maybe they were different names for the same plant but when you look at their Latin names, Rudbeckia hirta is the Black-eyed Susan. Rudbeckia triloba is the Brown-eyed Susan. I am thinking this is the former, because of the size.

Great Blue Heron

 

We went to Green Valley the other day....I wanted to go see the turtles...people were already back where I have to go to see them.  So I did not get to see if they were there.   But I did see this Great Blue Heron, plus a few others over across the the lake.  (If you click the above link, there is also a photo or the lake/old strip pit)

He went that way!

 

Turkey vultures waiting for us to drive on past.

Turkey vulture...

 

This was one of several that was feasting on a dead deer.

Chartreuse wth a hint of red....

 

The color reminds me of fishing lure colors...the yellow green we call chartreuse.  

From the swamp area...

 Another day....

Another photo.  This time Wood Ducks.

First Monarch photo

 This is the first Monarch Butterfly  I have photographed this year.

To be truthful, I have not seen many.

Dragonfly + need help with flower identiy.

 I thought about what photo to use in this post.

so first, I will share another dragonfly shot from last week.

Can anyone identify the above?  I have not not seen it before.  I wondered was it Pink Loosestrife.

Update, Michael Rawluk's wife was the first to identify this as Persicaria and I see several of you agree.  Thank you all so much. 

A bit more color

 

Yes, it is poison ivy. And while it always gets so colorful, I don't think I have ever seen it quite the color this was.  Almost a dull copper color.  

Almost missed it

 

I wish I had thought to take a photo without zooming in.  It was so camouflaged I really almost missed it.

I could not get the snake to move.  I tried rattling one of the tall grasses that went down right beside it but it paid no attention.  It was about 8 ft down to it.

At last....

I had been wanting to go up to the Heron Park for several months.  For a long time all parks in Illinois was closed.  Then with the heat I was avoiding getting Roger out in it.

But this week has been a week of lovely temps and lovely breezes so we drove up there a couple days ago.  I was so glad to see all the Lotus still blooming.  

The bad side of all these, they are so tall and so many, I did not see one Great Blue Heron nor any of the swans or egrets we normally see up there.

Aphid tower...

When I took the above photo, I did not notice the aphids..

nor the bees. The bee below is a different from the one above.

The above of the bees is a cropped portion of another shot  of the same flower.

From today

One of four turtles I saw today at the Heron Viewing Park...or whatever they call it.  

Up close and personal from a different angle.

Posing...

Thank God for auto-focus...I could not have gotten these otherwise.

 

Roof art/shingle art

I have posted both the following photos before...maybe more than once.  These are drive-bys taken on the way home from Shipshewana. I think I confused some people and they thought the tractor was painted on the roof in the post a couple or three days ago.  As you can see, the picture is made by using different colored shingles.  Sorry for the length but thought you might enjoy seeing them.

I could almost design a quilt from this.   Can you imagine keeping your wits about you enough to get all the shingles in the right place.

I wish I could have got a better shot of this.  I have another view but it is very blurry.

The above is simple, and was taken on the way north...but still someone was very talented to do this....

The following are from google earth...the first one of the horse I saw from a distance...much too far away and through trees...I only caught a glimpse of it....

Isn't it marvelous?  It is the one that led me to looking on google earth/maps.

I did not see the one above or the one below....

We actually passed the rainbow/unicorn one, but I just missed it.  

Old is beautiful

From Shipshewana...right now I cannot think of the name of the place.  It was not a huge place, but we sure enjoyed seeing the cars they had.