Upside Ann

 

 These are a month old.  I took them prior to embarking on our westward journey but did not get them posted.  The tiger lilies have invaded the fence row.  They are spreading recklessly throughout the side flower bed but last year they jumped the fence - and a bit of lawn - to run free.  I suspect I "seeded" this area by discarding the chopped off stems over the fence during autumn garden clean-up.  I am amused.  (Note: This spring there were about a dozen plants over there but my cousin and I dug up a selection for him to take home to SC... where they are, no doubt, planning to take over the southern United States.)  I like them OK - but not as much as the field lilies- which, ironically, have much better manners.  And, for the record, I am TIRED of my Stella del Oro daylilies.  Yawn.  I'm sure I read they are supposed to be repeat bloomers.  My girls have not read the same manual.

  Chicago, 2026 Zupe with Canadian smoke What do I like about this photograph? The way his long legs mirror the skyscrapers around him.

 as was the smoke from the Canadian wildfires.

 un-Anned. Much to do but now we are back with hundreds of new photos and stories to tell.  Looking forward to the last month of summer - but not so much to going to the grocery this afternoon or folding the laundry.  A vacation will only do so much for a person.

   "...so why does England call?..." I LOVE this entire album.  So many of the songs feel like they were born in a corner of my own heart.  I've been in paradise - and missed the grey and dismal days of an Ohio February.  

 

  FYI - Things are going to be getting busy here and the blog will likely, once again, be un-Anned.  See you sporadically until August.

 2025 - post sitting for a photo....

  Monument Rocks was SO MUCH FUN.  It is on private property in Western Kansas and requires driving on dirt roads with a boatload of dirt and dust trailing you and covering everything about and in your car.  But the roads are easily traversed even with a little Ford Fusion.  We got there early in the morning and had the place to ourselves. 2025

 Monument Rocks, July 2025  My shoes were new.  Didn't really look that way after.

Going to take on love of home for a few Fridays. There were days back in Brisbane when I'd sing this song and miss my home in Carolina.  This performance not only honors Carolina, but is filmed at Blossom Music.  Cleveland.  Another of my favorite places.

You might have thought that I would have heard this - our beloved crabapple tree ripping itself in two - or being torn apart by some force super- or some-other natural - but it came as a great surprise when I went out on Tuesday to find an enormous and outwardly healthy limb lying across the backyard and peeking into my bedroom window. Obviously, it wasn't inwardly healthy.  Still, unlike a significant portion of its brethren, it still had a full leaf complement and tiny crabapples (crabapplettes?) Gosh.  Another of my mother's tree companions.  I remember watching my grandparents planting this tree when our home was new.   I'm going to have to find someone to take the entire tree down soon.  I'm not ready to face that today.   In honor of her beauty - I'm sharing photos I've taken over the last 8 years here on Harrison.  Spring, Fall, Winter.   As viewed from my mother's room upstairs.  Her canopy of flowers filled the courtya...

  Saturday night, you will recall, was the 4th of July.  I watched a couple - ok, 3 - episodes of The Bear and went to bed just before 10.  That's when they started.  Folks all around town started shooting off fireworks.  Boom.  Boom.  POP POP POP.  After listening while lying in bed for a bit, I got up to look out my window.  Wow! Firebursts of red flowers.  Quick grab the camera.  Here's the shot! The booms.  The pop pop pops continued but nothing overcame the tree line again.  Just ominous glowing behind the landscape.  (You can see that on my camera's live function images - those mini videos.  But I haven't figured out how/if I can post them.) Happy Independence Day from and to Versailles.

  July 3, 2026

  Last summer I dragged Kevin to multiple dinosaur related sites in Colorado and Utah including Dinosaur, Colorado (the town), Dinosaur National Monument, Fruita Dinosaur Journey Museum, Dinosaur Ridge (but we didn't get to actually SEE the exhibit- They were having technical problems with the bus and Zupe was not patient.)  Even the Indianapolis Children's Museum had a banger of a dinosaur exhibit.  I don't have any reasonable fossil photos to share.  Haven't figured out how to capture something of that size- especially when there is so much competing and uninteresting stuff around the skeleton.   Photos 1.  Crossroad in Dinosaur.  You cannot read the full name of both streets, but I think the silhouette atop the street signs will help you put together the missing letters.  (Unless you were woefully deprived of dinosaur education as a child.) 2.  Welcome to Utah!  Life Elevated.  Not sure I see how that describes the image.......

  Another summer at the pool.  Once again, I'm on my own.  No Zupe.  No Landon.  Come jump off the board with me.  Please.

from our home to yours...  

  Evening Primrose -  bienniel.  Looking at this blossom, I'm now understanding why/how it spreads throughout my bed and across the yard into the fence row.  Now, you might be saying, "Well, Ann.  It is a pretty yellow ...  but why here?"  And the answer cannot be captured in a still shot.  You need to watch the video below.  Really.  This is NOT time-lapse.  People I know have brought our their lawn chairs to watch the show...  You can watch NOW from your kitchen.

 with apologies to Bullseye.