Post 119. Meet Pete the Dinosaur.

I have been in Iowa all week auditing, and as I drove through Coon Rapids this morning I passed a glorious assortment of sculptures.  Sculptures are my bliss.

The first one I passed was this enormous set of three cages with geometric shapes in them.  Then I came upon a park where I fell in love with Pete the dinosaur.

I had to come back at the end of the day to photograph everything.  Too bad it was a gray and gloomy day, but the photos still turned out.

Say Hi to Pete.

Here is the neat sculpture that first caught my eye.

Here is a cool praying mantis and a golf club windmill.  Awesomeness.  Total awesomeness.

See on.
Julee

Post 118. Swarm.

You've probably heard of the monster mosquitoes from Minnesota.  Well, apparently they have migrated to South Dakota.  As my husband and I were out driving out on Sunday we came upon this neat, isolated lake.  We pulled up right to the edge and we could see the car was just surrounded by giant mosquitoes.  I debated for a few minutes, but finally decided I would get out and see if I could get a few shots of ducks.

No.

What I heard when I stepped out of the car was terrifying.  Bzzzzz, bzzzzz, bzzzzz, bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  It was so loud.  I lasted about 3 seconds outside before ducking back into the car.  I truly could not believe how uncomfortable the sound was.  Had I been camping I surely would have gone crazy from not being able to escape.

So I totally had to get a picture.

From the safety of the car.

 
YUCK!

Oddly, several other small lakes had no mosquitoes.  And I'm happy to report that I had no bites!

See on,
Julee

Post 117. The pelicans are back.

I was excited to see that the pelicans are finally back.  These huge, prehistoric birds are some of my favorite wildlife.  Today I was lucky enough to catch them and a crane in the same shots.

See on,
Julee

Post 116. City Dump.

We are lucky enough to have a city that gives us a couple of weekends of free drop off at the city dump.  The caveat is that the load must be covered in order for drop off to be free.  Our first year we diligently tied up some construction waste in a borrowed trailer and drove the dump.  As we went to check out my husband was told he had to pay.  Not only pay, but pay twice the normal drop of price  because the load was not covered with a tarp.   All the ad in the paper said was free drop off, the ad did not state loads had to be covered to quality for free drop off.  (As an engineer, my husband made sure the load was tied very securely, but it was explained that tied up and covered are not the same thing.)

Not awesome.  Thanks city.

But we learned our lesson.  This year's trek to the dump was free.  And since it was kind of our highlight for the day, I'm posting the few shots I got.  (I wasn't totally sure they would approve of me taking pictures, so I kind of took them covertly, hence they're not very good.)

First up the giant garbage pushers.  No, I don't know their technical name, but there were two of them and they were monstrous.

My husband finally discarded a number of old computer bodies, monitors, and keyboards he had been holding onto for years with the thought that one day he would put them all together to make one super computer.  But he realized that even all put together they wouldn't be as big as today's computers, so maybe his computer would not be that super after all.  (Plus 10 keyboards, really?  We had 10 old keyboards.  That is just weird.)  Here is the dumpster and the computers.  And in my husband's defense, he is very pro-recycling and for items that can be recycled or contain hazardous components that shouldn't be in landfills, like computers, he wants to ensure recyclables and hazardous items of his are properly discarded and he did not know until this year that our city indeed had a separate e-waste disposal process. 

Here is a blurry example of the sign that told us where to go.  The few times I've been to the dump, I'm always kind of impressed that it is so neat and tidy.  Each type of waste has it's own tidy pile.

See on,
Julee

Post 115. A large drop of sun.

“A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going. And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath    

 

 

See on,
Julee

Post 114. The majesty of spring in South Dakota.

I think I've got a winner for you today .

It was a gorgeous May day.  My husband and I headed out to the lake to walk at 7:30 pm.  Between the calm of the lake, and the chatter of birds and frogs, I was just in heaven.  Our path was along the lake through a camping ground, along a bike trail passing part of the airport, then the bike trail veered back towards the lake.  The far end of our walk was the bird sanctuary where I've walked before. 

There is a grass, circular walking path around this wild area with a couple of ponds.  (One day I'm going to put on some waders and go in knee deep until I find some good frog shots.)  But for today we walked and chatted and I watched for photo ops.

As we turned the final curve the view was absolutely perfect.  The water was mirror calm with this awesome semi-circle tree formation with the trees mirrored in the pond and the lake behind it all.

I'll have to see how this one looks printed on photo paper, maybe it won't give me the same WOW it did on my camera screen, but I'm really happy with what I captured.  (Do you see the wooden birdhouse on the leftmost tree trunk?)

See on,
Julee

Post 113. Community gardens in May.

One of my walking routes during the spring and summer months passes by a community garden.  This is one of my favorite places to take pictures since lots of people plant flowers along with their vegetables. 

I've heard it's a neat photographic study to take a photo from as same spot the seasons changes, and I thought in addition to photographing lots of flowers and bugs, it might be fun to track changes in the community garden as the summer passes.

So first is my 'artsy' shot of one of the watering hoses.

And here is the community garden on May 14th.  My goal is to have photos from this same spot from now until mid-September. 

I am looking forward to the coming plants and flowers.

See on,
Julee