Kathman at Rest

My cat, Kathman(du), at rest with his best buddy, Ted (no, I couldn't get any more imaginative than that for naming my cat's toy...!).

Dead, baby, Dead.......

Well, the curse of the black thumb has returned. I've tried treating these lilly of the valley plants with whatever the horticulture guy at the plant store suggested, and watering them - to no avail. Here is a link to what they *should* (or at least, used to) look like...

Photo Tuesdays: Money!!

Intentionally without flash/tripod.....

Photo Tuesday post: CARS!

I just stumbled on a new photo site, Tuesday's Photos. I know, it's Saturday.....but the theme for the last Tuesday submittal was "Cars", so I couldn't help myself but to join in. I dug out an old scan of one of my greatest loves - my 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL, aka, the Green Beast, may she rest in peace. This photo is from around 1996 or so, taken on the Sabine Street bridge just west of downtown Houston. Things that don't look the same anymore: the skyline (pre-Enron new builds), the bridge (has undergone 'gentrification and beautification'), and me (I've evolved). But it's a favorite old photo, even if poor in quality and degraded even further by scanning on what was a great scanner in the mid-90s. (Also no longer with me.)

Photo Friday.......Common

Today's Photo Friday category was "Common", so I opted to post some common graffiti. The bonus: it includes the word "common".....

Aww, Kryptonite!!

Well, jkirlin, I tried my best, but just couldn't do it. I brought my heaviweight Minolta and my handy pocket Sony along with me on a weekend trip to a city - for a mind-feed visit to art galleries, ecclectic shops, in search of live music, and general exploration. I had every intent to shot hoardes of "city shots" - and had no shortage of materials. But, I felt so......conspicuous shooting landscapes with people in them, so for the most part, the cameras stayed in the backpack. I did manage to find this shot, though - complete with people - sort of. This is a shot of one of many mural parodies in the Short North arts district, just north of downtown Columbus, OH. I'll have to make another trip to photo the others - especially the Mona Lisa parody for Patricia!

Last shot of Columbus......

Well, I did manage to snap a photo of the Book Loft, a great (if clausterphobic) independently-owned bookstore in the old historic Germantown section of Columbus. The 32 rooms of books was an accurate claim, the only problem being that some of the 'rooms' were closet-sized, and god help you if there was another person in there browsing. You'd have to tango to retrieve a book from the shelf. Or worse, if you were trying to find the exit, had to walk through a closet-sized room that was already occupied by a shopper! But I managed to pick up yet another stack of books to read.

July Traffic Jam in Rural Ohio

Isn't the grass always greener on some other side? I suppse it's not typically the closest side..... 

I know you've all been waiting for this. It's my new Air Conditioner......Yay!!!!!!! 

Paradise kitty. 

Close-up of a coneflower. I kept trying to see how close I could get to take the photo; I think I may have over done it with this one.....the head of the flower is made up of these wonderfully orange, stiff little spikes...which is what I was hoping to get the sharp focus on, but I may have been too close. I like it anyway. 

Detail of some bottle-brush looking flowers on a bush out front. I'd assumed the bush was dead through most of the spring - just a dead, twiggy clump. Then, recently, it started to green up. And just yesterday it started to blossom. There is a faint smell - they're not as fragrant as some spring-blooming bottle brushes I've strolled by on my way to and from work. But, they add a well-needed splash of color in the front yard. 

Close-up of a flower in the wildflower patch. I don't know what these are - all 3 bags (60,000 seeds worth) were supposed to be seeds indigenous to NW Ohio. What looks like green petals leading in to the center are actually not - the pink petals taper and narrow to show the underlying green beneath the flower bud. There are only 3 of these in the wildflower patch. 

The wildflower patch today. It seems to undergo some level of color evolution on a daily basis. 

Kyle got everyone started on a flower-sniffing campaign one morning.... 

Casey in the wildflower patch when the kids visited over July 4th. 

There are a few isolated spots of lillies in the yard - some are yellow, yellow-orange, and now these pink-ish purple-ish ones. I think they look kind of sickly. I guess I should be surprised that they came up at all - earlier in the year, when I was eager to mow the grass (I'm over that), I ran over all of the lilly patches several times. Maybe they're blooming in mid-summer because they had to regrow throughout the spring! 

Now, just a week or so there were only the flowering penta plants I had here. Out of nowhere this heart-shaped leafy vine started growing. I guess it's another late starter.  

Parting group shot en route back to the airport. 

Cold sprinkler fun -... 

...but after a minute or two, I think it became more fun than cold! 

And, I don't know where he got this pose, but Kyle cracked everyone up with it. 

Great photo cutouts at the Toledo Zoo. Kyle, Casey, and Mom..... 

...and we took photos at every single one! 

There were lots of these great cutout boards at the zoo.... 

Siblings of the corn.....that doesn't have the same ring to it as..... 

Children of the Corn!!! 

Another playground visit.....