Dancers

This humorous piece is in a local cafe. I keep wondering why the lady in the center only has a striped stocking on her right leg.

Or - Keep Our Air Plain

Eagle Sculpture at Dillon Nature Center

In the close-up he looks seriously fierce.

Same trees as last year

We have very few red trees on our block but these two are in our front yard.  It seems in the picture they are not as red as they look in "real" life.  I enjoy them until they all fall off and L. has to use the mower to pick them all up.

Sunset

This was taken on the drive home from Wichita last night. At first glance, I thought that was L. driving. Then I remembered; I drove home.


Is it true that after 59 years of living together, people start to look alike - at least in profile?

Boat House

This is the limestone boat house in Carey Park. Sadly the cement dock is crumbling away so of course, the city wants to tear it down.
Instead of taking care of repairs early, the city hasn't done much to preserve it. We have lost some historic buildings here; the Bisonte Hotel and the Wolcott building. We are doing better  - the restoration of Grace Hospital into apartments and many of the buildings on South Main have been put to new uses.
I don't know when this boat house was built. We bought Pepsi Cola from this spot during the '40's when it was near the swimming pool. I wonder if it was a WPA project.
I hope they can save it.  Just look at that stonework!

Turtles at the Zoo

This was the last day to see the big turtles being fed at the zoo. When the high temperature is below 70 degrees, the turtles are put into a warm building.

For a small fee, one could feed a lettuce leaf to the turtles. (Wash hands before and after feeding.) The leaf was held by a plastic clothes pin held by a kid. Very safe conditions I would say.

Sunday was a perfect day for being outside and the park was full of people. These warm days won't last much longer and we  could use some rain!

Happy Halloween

I realize it's still a week and a day until Halloween but since they have started broadcasting commercials for Christmas, I'd better put up some October greetings before the day gets buried in Jingle Bells

This is in front of a hardware store. There is chain just behind the steering wheel and in front of the center seat so I think it must be some type of swing. We could see no other chain for hanging. I would like to see this in use somewhere. It looks like six kids could have a great time playing "airplane." On the lower panel the parts of an airplane are shown. Educational for future pilots!

Baked Potato with beef

Notice the knife. This big potato will be split in two to feed L. and me!

99 bottles?

Where could these bottles be? Looks like the top of a bar.

No. This is at the public library where you can now buy flavored coffee, soup and wraps.

How nice!  It used to be "NO drinks" and now we can buy them there. 

Time marches on.

Patterns in Wood

I somehow hope they never paint this shed. The wood patterns are so lovely. It's in our neighborhood.

Firepower

These tanks are near the site of yesterday's post. They are labeled "flame shield" and I wonder if that is possible.

Perhaps they store propane. Is it possible to have something like this protected from flames?

As I took the photo, I felt like they were aimed in my direction.

White Tower

An example of our skyscrapers on the prairie.

Autumn

This is the time of year when people buy pumpkins and dead corn shocks to decorate their houses. Totally unnecessary but very ornamental.
It looks like one little pumpkin is on his way to the gutter and a quick escape.

Crock pot pepper steak

Speaking of cooking when it's cool, we love this supper served on rice. (I know; most places it's "dinner" but not out here in the sticks.) I didn't forget an ingredient - can of stewed tomatoes - just didn't have any on hand.  Quick trip to Dillons by L. saved the day and it was added after this picture.  Very good eatin.

Apple Dumplings

When it gets cooler, I feel more like cooking. This recipe was on the blogosphere under the Southern Lady Cooks. The pie dough was easy to make with canola oil but instead of whole apples inside, the method was to peel, core and slice the apples. I believe that any apple dumpling I met before had a whole apple baked inside. This is like a piece of apple pie enclosed in a ball of dough with a sugary, buttery, vanilla sauce baked over it.

As usual I forgot one ingredient. In this case, the brown sugar. They were "ok" but the dough was not light and flaky. Did I read somewhere not to overhandle pie dough?

An Orchid

We were assured by the clerk that the only care this beautiful, strange plant needs is 3 ice cubes once a week.

We'll see.

A Motto to Remember

I keep this in mind as I get ready to mop my kitchen floor.

No duct tape?

We parked next to this well used Buick this morning. In addition to holding the hood down and the bumper up, there was more tape around the rear passenger window.

It is actually less noticeable than the usual duct tape - this lets the color of the car shine through.

Lovely Fog

Fog means moisture and we had almost an inch and a half of rain over two days. So thankful for the slow, steady way it came down.
The sun is out and the rest of the week looks glorious.

Rain and K-State is 5 and 0

A quiet day with some actual water falling from the clouds; a nap and a K-State win.

Another exciting day.. ., ..

Morning Glories

Will they cover the strings before the first frost?
At the rate they are going, it is possible. And the fact that it was 70 degrees this morning at 7:15 may help -
Clouds have arrived. The weather liars have been saying "scattered showers" and "isolated showers"since Wednesday night. I don't know what the difference is between those two terms.

Maybe today we'll get some rain  since "scattered and isolated"  missed us yesterday.

Favorite Photo

We have had a boring couple of days around here. Lots of wind, still hot and no rain. Trips to doctor appointments and infusion sites are also boring. They just seem to be what goes on at this stage of life!

So now for something adorable; a picture from a few years ago of our two sons. My favorite picture taken with a Sawyer twins reflex camera, film size 127 (we think.)

If we had never owned any cameras or bought any film, we might be rich today.

The age typed on the edge of the photo refers to the younger guy and the other young man was 28 months older.

Gender terms

This Monday morning I had coffee with three women friends. This evening I read an article about what women don't like to be called.  Among the terms were girl, ma'm, lady, ya'll (mainly in Texas) and guys. The latter seemed the most offensive to most of the women quoted. I find none of the words offensive.

I guess I never thought much about what people called me - for instance when the waiter approaches and says, "How are you girls this evening?" To say, "How are you women this evening?" seems rather odd. The only gender neutral term seems to be ya'll.

One of the nicest things I heard when working with the public was "dear heart." Of course, this customer called all the clerks that so it was nothing special.
Maybe next Monday I can find out what the other three think.


As my mom used to say, "I don't care what you call me, just call me in time for supper."

Ready for Winter

L. finished enclosing the back porch with plastic. After our first year here when we  had a big snow storm that filled our deck/porch with drifts of snow, we decided that blocking the north side would be a good thing.
That idea sort of grew to include all three sides which makes for a warm spot to have morning coffee when it's 32 degrees outside!
So we are all plastiqued in.
Wait. That may not be the right term.
Yep, the dictionary says plastique is form of explosive.

We are simply enclosed by plastic.