Cattails and Periwinkle Blues!

It always amazes me how the buttery yellows of the faded and bleached cattails, grasses and stubble can dance against the periwinkle and deep, ever changing blues found as the snow melts into the sloughs and dugouts across the prairie!

Grey Day

Our frost, fog and grey days are trying to hang on!  

Seasonal Discord

Friday, April 25, 2014:

So, things have been looking pretty good these past few days!  The Killdeer have returned, along with more shorebirds and more migratory birds, the bees are buzzing, the land is brown but slowly 'waking up,' the aspen trees look optimistic, the magpies are cheeky and our Ri-dog has water to swim in!!!  Spring really seems to be taking hold!

Saturday, April 26, 2014:

A quick compilation of star trails and faint aurora borealis.  It was such a beautiful night ... yes, Spring is here!

"Scrreeeeeeech"  "HOLD THAT THOUGHT!"

Somewhere between enjoying a beautiful starlit night sky and morning ... fog, clouds, and drizzle turned to bits of 'white stuff!'

As the evening went on ... more and more of that white stuff fell!  

Sunday, April 27, 2014:

Spring eh?  It would appear we woke up to winter once again!

Despite the contention between Winter and Spring ... our boys made the best of the situation!  Hopefully it was the LAST run with their snowracers!  By the afternoon, the sunshine returned and the snow was gone!

With May knocking on our doorstep ... lets hope Spring and RAIN win any future arguments with Old Man Winter!  

Snow Cones?

Perhaps frozen shish kabobs?  Either way, cattails are definitely not a plant you would think of consuming but did you know you can actually eat Cattails?  Who Knew?  'They' always say "don't knock it until you've tried it" but I think I'll pass ...

Swaying in the Wind

A quick snapshot today.  It was a beauty of a day temperature-wise but the wind had a bite to it!  Although, I guess one should NOT complain ... this time last year the 'white stuff' was here and it was here to stay!

A Lack of Spring ...

Another mainly overcast and cool day.  Spring weather has certainly been lacking these days!  However, the forecast shows a 'possibility' of almost warm-like, double digit temperatures by the weekend!  Could it be true?  *sigh* ... only time will tell.  I hope so!  I am ready for fresh, green cattails ... for that matter, I am just ready for spring!

Winter Cattails

I love the 'poof' of cattails in the winter!

Cattails!

I love cattails!  Especially at this time of the year.  Some are bursting, sending their seeds everywhere, others flop over as their stalks dry and bend in the fall winds.  My grandmother always had a display of them in her house!  I believe she would dip them in a light coating of wax to prevent them from 'bursting!'  I like to gather them in the fall and place them in the old milk can my grandmother once had for display by my front door!

Number 365!!!!!! (Cattails on Ice)

Woot!  Woot!  I Actually Made It!!

Wow ... 365 posts!  CRAZY!  It's hard to believe a year ago, this time, I contemplated the crazy idea of doing a 365 photo journey ... and in a blink of an eye ... FINITO!  I have to admit ... I'm kinda proud of myself ... I DID IT!!!  I committed to sharing a photo daily and other than a couple of 'techno/internet' problems, I kept my end of the deal!  Were the pictures always okay/great???  Definitely not!!!  I will not tell a lie ... making a commitment to take a photo daily and sharing it ... IS HARD!!!  And, I am certain, you can see via my photos I've struggled at times (especially these last few weeks).  However, I learned some amazing things about myself and the lil' ole world around me.  I have a wonderful ability for retaining latin names about birds and plants (yikes ...), a learned a great deal about my camera gear and photography and the fact that I STILL have MUCH, MUCH MORE to learn, and gained a HUGE admiration for my little plot on the earth! 

There are so many things we see/don't see daily that are right in our own backyards.  I've become fascinated with all aspects of the world around me during each of the four seasons!  It's amazing to see sunrises, sunsets, birds, bugs, snow, wind, green, brown, GREY ... lately I've struggled with the grey ... but hey!!!  Capturing just a 'snipit' of the world 'out there' has definitely turned me into a photography 'junkie' ... to the point that I actually hunger for more but BETTER.  I want to know more, learn more and be able to capture it exactly how my eyes see it and don't necessarily see it!!!  

With all of that 'rambling' said ... YES, I will still be blogging and still be taking photos ... UGH ... do I dare say DAILY?  Since I've driven my kids and husband 'around the bend mad' hauling my camera everywhere, yelling "stop the truck" ... "just one more shot" ... "I should've brought my camera, can we go back and get it" ... I asked my crew if they wanted me to continue and it was a unanimous decision that I continue 'driving them crazy!' SO ... starting with the spring equinox on March 20th, 2012 ... Seasons 365 YEAR TWO will start ALL over again!  Don't worry ... I'm sure I will be snapping photos over the next few days as well ... so there will likely still be posts.  But if I miss just ONE day ... please forgive me!!  

I also wanted to THANK ALL of YOU for following along!  I greatly appreciate your viewing eyes and kind comments and I really, really hope you will tag along for another year! 

Cheers Everyone!  

Terri

Bursting Cattails!

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, 

of gathering together.  

For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.  

~Edwin Way Teale

The prairie pothole sloughs are drying up.  The birds such as the the Red-winged Blackbirds and Marsh Wrens that call these little wetlands home for the summer have headed south.  And, as the cattails ripen ... they burst, sending plumes of white 'cotton balls' floating in the air!  My 'Mama' always had dried cattails in her home ... I should've asked how she kept them from bursting!  I love cattails ...