Life Through My Windows

Photos and/or descriptions of what I see through my windows.

A week in the life . . .

by Lizl Bennefeld

I was together enough to write a WeekendCoffeeShare post, this week, for my Stray Coffee Breaks blog, but still have to write a haiku for RonovanWrites.

Flower Fly, California Poppy
The Scampers at Play
Flower Fly and Poppy
Showy White
Dew on the Grass

Playing a little bit of catch-up, having been sidetracked on household chores. My online photography workshop began on Monday (a 6-week course), and I am trying to decide how to approach the material and assignments. In the meanwhile, I also am sorting through fifteen years of photo archives, looking for examples of work that…I am pulling some of it from my Facebook download and using my JPGMag account as a quick index for locating other pieces.

In the meanwhile, these are a few of the photographs that I’ve taken since my last post.

I think that I will eat a sandwich, and then settle in to put together a post to the interactive closed workshop group. Such fun! (I imagine that I am the oldest person in the class, but still am waiting for the rest to post.

In other news, I learned that Al’s last aunt, Patricia, died in the middle of the night. Pat and her late husband, children, and grandchildren are centered in the Twin Cities and the Chicago area. I believe that one of Al’s sisters will be in the vicinity and able to attend the funeral, assuming that they can make arrangements for the coming weekend. With the respiratory problems and allergy season, it’s a given that I cannot make the trek south. I need a good, hard frost or two before the pollens are gone until spring.

I have not yet gotten through the first (17-page) course outline and discussion, so I am going to have an interesting night.

Best wishes for your week!
Lizl

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Morning Photos | Saturday, 11 August 2018

by Lizl Bennefeld
Discarded
Daisy in Waiting
Wild Flax Close-up
Wild Flax

This morning, I decided to water the back garden before the sun gets high and the temperature, hot. These photos were taken in the south-facing side garden. As usual, the Scampers barked and tried to get through the gate (or, at least, get to what I was trying to photograph).

puppy, trying to get through the fencing to eat a tiny coreopsis flower
Eek! Scamper Attack!

I’ve been having so much fun, I’ve forgotten to eat, which is not a good thing. We still have smoky haze, and it looks as though the temperature will be in the low 90s F. Once again, the five top cities for pollen count, according to Pollen (dot) com, are in North and South Dakota. That’s me, folks! Whoopy!

Imagine I’m going to entertain myself again today by practicing arpeggios instead of pedaling my exercise bike, which is in the backyard gazebo.

New Day, New Flowers

by Lizl Bennefeld

 

Wild Flax
Hidden
Flowers at the Gate
Poppy in the Garden

dawn’s deep shadows
lighten as breezes flow
clouds fade away

the dogs have overslept and
now the rabbit takes his nap

Copyright © 2018-07-29, by Elizabeth W. Bennefeld.

I expect to be in the back yard, again, this second day of the Air Show, waiting for the Blue Angels to fly overhead. During their rehearsal on Friday, they came right over the house. The joys of living in an airport’s flight path. The rattling windows!

And the skies cleared…

by Lizl Bennefeld
Coreopsis lanceolata

The sky was cloudy, and there was a mist of rain carried by gusty winds, until into the early afternoon.  Then the winds died down and the sky cleared. Throughout the afternoon, I listened to the sounds of the airplanes going past as pilots timed and rehearsed their acts for the air show, this weekend. Too many mosquitoes, today, for me to sit outside and watch for the jets speeding past. They’ve another day for practicing, and so I might get out there tomorrow. Or wait for the shows on the weekend days. Normally we (our house) are close to the flight paths, so we have good views. (I dug out the weather-spotting binoculars, a few weeks ago.)

These photographs were taken just before the Scampers’ five o’clock dinner. I (unfortunately) frightened the resident rabbit away from the side garden (which has not managed to produce flowers, this summer).  Thadd only took notice as the rabbit’s hind feet disappearing around the corner of the neighbor’s garage. After the dogs ate, we went outside, again, and I managed three and a half miles on the exercise bike in the gazebo. Far short of yesterday’s sixteen miles; perhaps I will have opportunity after the Scampers are in their kennels for the night.

yellows and oranges
rays of the sun soon to set
backlit petals glow

next after last, days go by
their glow passes…petals drop

Copyright © 2018-07-26, by Elizabeth W. Bennefeld.

After the storms

by Lizl Bennefeld

We had a number of thunderstorms. (I slept through two Code Red storm alert calls, the phone within 30 inches of my head.) Tuesday night’s took out most of the Sweet Williams and in the early morning, a lot of the day’s new blooms. The rain has, however, encouraged some new flowers. The pollinators were also in evidence.

Some of my favorites from the past few days, now. Clicking on the photo and likewise on the attachment page should bring you to a larger version of the picture.

4 July 2018

Coreopsis tinctoria (golden tickseed)
Bee, another Coreopsis Lanceolata
Bee and Coreopsis Lanceolata
Bllue Wild Flax

5 July 2018

Blue Wild Flax & Hoverfly
Coreopsis tinctoria & Bees
California Poppy
Blue Wild Flax
Coreopsis tinctoria
Blue Wild Flax, Morning Light

3 July 2018

California Poppies
Monday’s Thunderstorm
Storm Clouds
California Poppies

While the U.S. Independence Day fireworks (illegal, but omnipresent) were loud, including someone shooting off the stuff on the street in front of our house, the Scampers and I weathered the noise. I put on some opera music (mostly tenor arias and operatic songs), and the dogs soon fell to sleep. I later switched to Mozart symphonies, and they napped until it was time for their last snack and outing and into their kennels for the night. I am quite happy that the celebration is over for another year.

Our dogs are accustomed to joining us in the gazebo for thunderstorms, and so the loud noises do not upset them. I jump when the strikes are too close. When we were children, we lived in a large house on a double lot that had ten or more gigantic cottonwood trees that inevitably drew lightning strikes. And we would be out in it, since the water buildup in the basement window wells (we started out living in a “basement house”, the main floor not added until the ’50s), with our little buckets, bailing out the water before the windows could pop open and send the water into the living room, bathroom, and bedrooms. Such fun!

A Photo a Week Challenge: From Below

by Lizl Bennefeld
The Gathering
Decisions, Decisions
Homing In
Settling In to Natter

The crows were unusually quiet, this morning, before they’d settled on a treetop to gather in. It is not often that they settle in a tree this close to our house.

Best wishes for your week!

A thank-you to Nancy Merrill for A Photo a Week Challenge: From Below.

And there was a thunderstorm…

by Lizl Bennefeld

And so the garden was wet and windblown when I got outside with the Scampers, this morning.

Yesterday evening with the Scampers:

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I was awakened by a Weather Warning alert via my cell phone, a little after 4:00 this morning. Looked at the weather radar and decided that I would not be able to stay awake for the entire show, and so unplugged the electronics and crawled back into bed. I think I got another three hours of sleep before it was time (for the Scampers) to wake up.

Raindrops
Shiny
California Poppy
“Wet” Williams
Blue Wild Flax

Forecast for this afternoon is “30% chance of severe thunderstorms”. I am waiting inside until UPS delivers my book order (Red Waters Rising, by L. A. Gilman). The current temperature is 77°F, headed for 89°.

I am hopeful that I will get more seeds planted tonight, before the next rain showers move through. This evening, I can read some of the second issue of the Tanka Society of America’s Ribbons. I received the first issue for the year earlier and put it aside where I could read a little bit each evening. It disappeared before I ever got to it, that day. I have searched everywhere without finding it again.