Thursday Postcard Hunt  Rivers  My river, Rogue River.  Just a few minutes drive and I get this view!   Looking across the Salzach River in Salzburg, Austria towards the Old Bishop-Town.   My only memory of being in Salzburg at age 13?  Being locked in a Chevron service station restroom.  On purpose.  By the manager.  Being Americans we were used to service station restrooms being available to travelers, so we pulled up to the side and parked.  My mother used it, then I went in. Couldn't get out.  Oh, my dad was furious I ..read more

 Here are too many photos of purple tansy, or lacy phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia)!  Purple tansy is not in the same family as the invasive perennial, common tansy.  Purple tansy is a lovely bee magnet annual.   Most of mine grows in the compost pile.  Large carpenter bee in flight.  They are warier than other bees, and don't linger on individual flowers long enough for good photos! Caught one! A series of close-ups. I'm no bee expert, but going by the shiny abdomen, this is also a large carpenter bee (large is part of their name, there ar ..read more

Ok, this is not just an out-of-season thrifting post (it's Christmas themed), but posted on the "wrong" day!  But, I couldn't resist, these two are such incredible finds!    Some of the most amazing stuff never makes it into the retail stores.  I don't blame the employees, they get too many donations to get them all out on the shelves.  This isn't a large community either, I can only imagine how much is sent directly to the Bins in large cities. Once the bins are rolled off the floor, there is still a lot of salvage value though, it all doesn't just get trashed! www.se ..read more

It's quite a while until mid-month's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  I have lots of flowers now!  Here are some.   My favorite bearded iris, Discovered Treasure.  Fortunately the neighbor's leak that kept this area soggy didn't kill the iris.  They are shorter plants, which may or may not be a result of that.  Two Below:  Morning light hits the front yard.  The weed removal is coming along nicely.  Slowly, but there is progress! Discovered Treasure, Autumn Tryst, Red Riding Hood penstemon, onion chives in bloom.   Diant ..read more

 Sunday Stamps Industry  Okay, I'm really excited by the stamps I found I had (the first three) in my vast number of rummage sale stamps for Industry! First these three from Romania.  1957 (a very good year, the year of my birth!) for the centenary of the petroleum industry.   Sticking with the petroleum theme, this is a 1982 Qatar featuring an oil refinery.  In 2019 Kazakhstan had a series of stamps, Heavy Industry.  This is one.    Speaking of the rummage sale stamps, I am up to stamps from 163  countries since I added in my mea ..read more

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 Skywatch Friday It's May, but these are some miscellaneous April Skies.  I think honey locusts at the park are pretty ugly trees most of the year, however their new yellow leaves do look nice against a blue sky. There's a local woman who owns a former military jet (I don't know how else to describe it, I don't know anything about them to say what it is!) that takes it out on nice days.  I've been attempting to get her on camera, but the sound and the plane aren't in the same place, so I usually mess up! Not a sky, but something I like.  There were sky puddle refle ..read more

Time for the post A to Z posts post.  That doesn't sound right, but that's what it is.  After the A to Z there is a prompt from the A to Z team called "Reflections."  I think it's important to participate in this, as the team works hard to bring us this annual April event.   Below are the questions they want to know the answers to, with my answers in blue.  I have two blogs, and participated in the A to Z with both.  I will post this on both. Reflections is an additional bloghop connected to the challenge. It is a chance to tell the team and the world your th ..read more

 Water is the theme for May's Thursday Postcard Hunt. This first week is Waterfalls. I have five linen postcards from Niagara Falls, all views from Ontario, Canada.  This first has a note on the back  Sat. Aug 21, 1954Niagara Falls Canada   I can only guess they were all bought on the same visit. Next week is Rivers on postcards, which I did here!  I have other rivers to share.  ..read more

April Showers brought May flowers!   This is the current state of the front yard.  There are still lots of weeds to deal with, but enough growth and blooms now to sort of hide them! This hardy geranium was bought with some others bareroot in 2022... I think.  It was transplanted into the front yard after growing in a container, and languished since then.  Until this year!  It's a nice plant with white flowers now!  It's the same batch from the Butterfly Garden, Breeders Mix.  I don't remember where I got them.  Online, out of season, cheap from a ch ..read more