May 28 - We went to the park

We went to the park tonight and roasted beef franks. After we ate, the boys went out and tossed the baseball. We went to the park last weekend too. Skyler could not catch that ball! He was pretty scared of it and spent a whole lot of time chasing it down.

Today when his dad tossed it to him, he caught it more often than not! My oldest son and daughter joined us. What a gorgeous day! The sun was shining and there was a nice light wind blowing. We did see one skeeter while there. Not sure how many we didn't see.

Skyler ran and ran and ran. At one point he got my son, Mark, to chase him. Mark has been able to run lighting fast since he learned to walk. Skyler got to giggling so hard all he could do was fall to the ground in surrender! As you can see, there were lots of trees to hide behind and have fun with.

He comes back from his moms for the weekend of Fathers Day. He's already asked if we can go to the park and go fishing! LOL

May 27 - tiny ducklings! (I'm all caught up!!)

Awwww how cute are they??!!

Look at those tiny little babies! I mentioned before how many ducks and geese there are this year, and there usually are. However, this year there seems to be twice as many as usual!

Whew, I got a bit behind on my photo a day blog, but spent the time and got it all caught up.

I will try to get over and post on the other blogs over the weekend.

May 26 - Recipe Album

This is the project I made with my scrapbooking group last week. We make 6x6 recipe layouts and then exchange/swap them. I didn't know what to do with all of the layouts.

I made these fun little albums to hold the recipe layouts. To see more examples and the instructions, visit my scrapbooking blog.

May 25 - Watching

This tree is so funny! Like a sentinel watching over the park.

May 24 - Bears

Oh look what I found outside my door!

Okay... they were out my door and a 40 minute drive south to the Chahinkapa Zoo in Whapeton, ND! I had to shoot through dirty plexiglass, but I think it turned out pretty well despite that!

These guys are eating very large, very frozen fish.

May 23 - No bees....

I went all over today to try and get a photo of a bee. I couldn't find even one! So, guess you'll have to look at more flowers.

I'm on a mission to find a bee though.

May 22 - Bird Condo

And somehow.... I've managed to find yet more birds to photograph!!! ;)

May 21 - Everything is blooming!

MMMMM can you smell that???

May 20 - Peacocks

Wow, I don't think any explanation is needed here! What amazingly beautiful creatures.

May 19 - Ducks

And you thought I was done with duck photos! Nope.... here are a few more :)

May 18 - Nesting

This photo kind of makes me think of those 'Where's Waldo' books!

This is a duck nesting in some dense underbrush. Can you see her?

(The orange thing at the bottom is where someone has thrown her a hamburger bun)

May 17 - More blossoms!

You should see the burst of color that has erupted everywhere! We went from blinding white snow to brown muddy river water and now to this!

It wakes up the soul and everything around here is chirping and bursting with life!

May 16 - Blossoms!!! (132/365)

We had a blizzard just a month ago! The weather here can be so extreme. It is one of the things I love about this area. It keeps things exciting and constantly changing.

The air is ripe with the scent of all of the blossoms! I can't help but stand and inhale deeply every time I step outside. It is so beautiful!

The greens are so green! The blue sky goes on forever and the rainbow of color is astonishing. What a beautiful area I live in.

May 15 - Turkeys

Within a mile of my house there are two ponds and a river. I live in a fairly large city, however, I'm kind of on the outskirts. Not as far into the country as I'd like to be, but far enough out that I get to see wildlife like this!

There is a herd of turkeys that live south of I-94 and tend to hang out on Cheyenne street. I'd like to get some pics of the tom all strutting his stuff. Every time I see him out there all ruffled up, I don't have my camera with me!

May 14 - Goose

Tired of the geese and ducks yet? I saw a deer yesterday, but she was way too quick for me to get a photo of. So, I guess you're stuck with more geese!

This one made me laugh. He was very curious and I think it really shows in this photo.

(PS The water behind him isn't blue because the water here isn't blue! LOL It is all a muddy brown. It's odd to those of us that grew up with the amazing clear water of the Rockies!)

May 13 - Birds

Well, it's been a long winter and now spring has finally arrived. This little guy swooped in and was stealing bread crumbs lol

May 12 - Lamp Post

Once again I was drawn to the Main Avenue bridge (also known as Veterans Memorial Bridge). The flooding is so apparent and startling there.

The first photo here I took around April 28th at the height of the flooding. As you can see, the top of the street lamps is barely visible over the water. Yes, those are actual street lamps. There is a road 30 feet down!!

There is a really nice bike path down there too.

The water as begun to recede and now you can see that lamp post again. The flood waters have caused it to lean. This is the same lamp as the first photo! You can now see the sidewalk that goes from the bridge down to the road and bike path below. Before, all of this was under water so you couldn't really see it.

You also can't see the inches of gooey, smelly silt that has been left behind. Even as much as the water has gone down, we are still at flood stage. You still can't see the road that is normally there.

May 11 - Flood waters are receding

Wow, what a difference! I posted a few weeks back with a photo from the Main Avenue bridge looking over towards the Fargo Tower (Big brown building). At that time the water was over 40 feet deep and way past flood stage. (See photo 1) As you can see the water is up to the stairs and they have built a dike to help hold the water back. You can't really tell in the first photo where the dike is, because you don't know what isn't normally there.

However, if you look at todays photo, you can really tell. See the pick up truck in the second photo? That road was closed in the first photo as there was a huge wall of dirt there to help hold back the water. You'll also notice that the stairs are once again visible.

Photos just can't do it justice. The mind boggling amount of water that flows through here is very difficult to describe.... even with photographs. The photos just can't seems to really grasp the immense amount of water and the power behind it.

May 10 - Happy Mothers Day! (126/365)

As close to a self portrait as I'll ever get! Isn't he just the cutest little guy ever??? LOL Okay, so I'm a little biased ;)

May 9 - Green!

The rivers here are a muddy, soupy brown color. It took a while to get used to them as I grew up in the Rockies where the rivers are crystal clear, ice cold and run VERY fast.

Here, they are lazy little things that meander along.... until spring thaw that is! Then they grow to be little monsters that take over the land.

There are a couple of positive things I've noticed from this. One, it brings in an amazing amount of water creatures. Everything from frogs to pelicans. The second thing is, it desposits nutrient rich river bottom in a fine layer over all of the farmland. That, combined with the rich soil/clay here seems to really be a key ingredient to the fantastic crops all around.

Just look at this.... it's breath taking in person. Such rich, fertile soil and vibrant green.

(north of Whapeton on the old county road)

May 7 - That silly goose

Remember the landing goose? Well here it is flying up to that nest I was telling you about.

I think I'll try to go back there with my zoom and see what I can see IN the nest!

May 7 - Budding!!!

BUDS!!!!! Finally! I was so thrilled to see these tiny, tiny little green buds on the tree. I didn't think winter was ever going to let go of us this year.


Ahhhh spring is finally here!!!

May 6 Landing

This goose has a large nest built on the beam of a very, very busy bridge. If you know the Main Ave bridge in Fargo that connects Fargo, ND and Moorhead, MN - look at the east side beam on the north side of the bridge. Everywhere you look you'll see tracks where she has wandered around in the silt left from the receding flood waters.

May 5 Goose (121/365)

I love watching the birds on the water. It doesn't matter that I saw the same ones yesterday, I seem to be able to watch them over and over and over with the same amount of joy ;)

It is still pretty wet and muddy here, so rather than post more flood photos, I thought I would take more bird photos! lol

May 4 - Ducks

One good thing about all of this flood water..... there is so much wildlife about! I've never seen so many ducks, geese and other types of water foul. It's quite amazing.

May 3 - Awww Babies!

Awww look at the babies! We love to go to the little park and watch the geese, ducks, and squirrels. People will often throw bread and duck food down for them.

May 2 - Peacock

There is a family of peacocks near my house. I live near some very busy roads so I always watch for them when I drive by. It was great to see they made it through the winter!

May 1 - Grandson (117/365)

I can not believe how quickly this little guy has grown! He is already talking and trying to walk - hence the bruise on his forehead. He has stunning blue eyes just like his sister.

Apr 30 - Easter Egg!!??

Imagine my surprise as I was cleaning today when I realized that the oval shadow in this plant was.... yep, you guessed it! An Easter Egg!!!!!

Can you see it? Obviously, the Easter Bunny did a great job hiding them this year lol

April 29 - Little Thief (115/365)

After a bitter winter and all of this flooding, it looks like this little guy has learned to be creative! He just stole some bread!

April 28 - Flooding

I took this as we were driving so it is a bit blurry, but I had to show you what the flooding still looks like around here.

That is river water that has moved up and out of the banks and across the land to threaten homes, farms and outbuildings. The white around the house is not sandbags. It is a large inflatable balloon really. They fill it with water and it holds back the water! This house had water all the way around it. I sure hope the new gadget works for them.

Apr 27 - Gorgeous Bird

This little guy is new to the feeders. I don't know what he is, but he's gorgeous! He is definitely more cautious than the other birds. Any move at all by anyone and he was gone.

Apr 26 - Birds are back!

It never really seems like winter is over until Mom gets out her many bird feeders! This little guy couldn't wait to take advantage of the bounty.

She also has humming bird feeders and it gets many visitors once the weather is warmer. It is pretty amazing when so many locals claim there aren't humming birds around here lol