June 30

My sister and I went for lunch and an appointment today. We were driving in the area we grew up in, when we saw this old barn which appears to have seen better days! I like it anyway - it has character!

June 29

It was another beautiful day today, just perfect for walking. As I was walking I saw this milkweed plant in bloom. I have heard monarch butterflies are attracted to milkweeds, and sure enough - there was one there.
I've never really noticed milkweed plants flowering before. I usually see the seed pods. The flower is quite pretty though and of course, the butterfly is too!

June 28

What a gorgeous day today! The sun is shining, the sky is blue. It's hot but not overwhelming. This fence is down the road from our house. Look how tall the weeds in the ditches are growing.

July 27

My husband loves woodworking and has collected some old tools. This is part of his collection of old planes. They were were used to shave rough edges down. Planes are still used today, but the new ones are metal. I like to see these old tools and imagine the hands that used them and what they were used to make.

June 26

This plant is called moneyplant, or Lunaria. It is growing wild in the wooded area around our house. The reason for that name is that in the fall the seed pods look like little pale gold coins. People often take the dried paper like shell off from the discs and are left with a translucent circle that can be used in dried flower arrangements.
In the meantime, it's nice to see all these splashes of purple in the trees. In the fall I'll have to show you what the dried part looks like.

June 25

Our Hardy Blue Geranium is blooming! It's a perennial and I love the color. It has shades of blue and purple in it. I enjoy seeing the splash of color when I look into the backyard.

June 24

I have mentioned before that it amazes me how new things are always popping up along the road when I am walking. Today I was surprised to see this wild rose growing along an old broken down fence. There were all kinds of blooms, where none had been the day before!

Here is a close up of one of these pretty flowers. In a strange coincidence, after I had walked and taken these pictures, I sat down to check out some of your photos and was surprised to see that Vicki had posted a picture of one of these also. She had researched it and found that it is called a Pasture Rose. So Vicki - I guess it grows in Michigan as well as Indiana!

June 23

This is a tree I walk past frequently. I have heard that some types of vines can be really hard on trees, but this one doesn't seem to be doing any damage yet. I think it looks pretty against the bark of the tree.

June 22

Look at this cool weed I found growing along our road. The bud is quite large. When the flower opens, if you look closely you can see there all around it are green parts sticking out. When it goes to seed it resembles a dandelion, but it's bigger and fluffier.
Before I started this 365 challenge, I walked right past these kinds of things and never noticed them. It's amazing how much beauty is out there, if you just look around!

June 21

The sun is shining and it is hot here today. This afternoon the temperature hit 90 degrees. It doesn't seem to bother the horses down the street, though. They were grazing peacefully when I walked past them.
Hope all you Dad's out there had a great Fathers Day!

June 20

We had a huge storm here last night. It was raining cats and dogs, and maybe a few frogs! Things are flooded all around us. This morning the sun was shining and it's a gorgeous day. As I went on my walk, I noticed a lot of mud puddles. This frog looked quite content in the middle of one of them.

June 19

It's been raining off and on the last few days. Today started off quite sunny, but things changed this afternoon. These clouds were filling the sky and I thought the different points of light shining through were interesting.

June 18

Look at this little caterpiller I found crawling around on one of our bushes. I don't know what kind of caterpiller he is, but there seems to be more than usual around this year.

June 17

Our iris flowers are nearly done for the season. We have a few clumps of them throughout the yard and these are the last ones. I love seeing them for the few weeks they bloom!

June 16

Our neighbors are haying this week. I always enjoy seeing the big bales out in the field and smelling the hay when it's freshly cut. I grew up on a farm and that smell takes me back to my childhood. Of course, I would probably not enjoy it so much if I was the one out there doing all that work!

June 15

"Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day,
I've got a beautiful feeling, everythings going my way!"

I left a little earlier than usual for work this morning because I needed to get things ready for the Dr who would be there quite early. I was blessed with a beautiful drive going in.
The sun was just up and it was a little misty, so the trees in the distance weren't clear. I enjoyed my short drive in, taking notice of the beauty God created.
I had a nice day at work too!

June 14

This chipmunk is a frequent visitor to our yard. Our old cat was often tormented by him, as he sat within view but out of reach. The kitten is too busy playing to pay attention, but I'm sure he will soon notice this little critter, just on the other side of the glass!

June 13

My neighbor has this rose bush that she started with a clipping from a friends bush. The friend got it from her Grandma, so it's an old variety. It seems the older roses have a stronger sweeter smell. This one was covered with blooms and smelled wonderful!

June 12

There are a lot of different pine trees along my road. I noticed recently that there are little pine cones growing on many of them and thought they made a neat photo.

June 11

Here's another type of those flowering weeds that are growing along the side of the road right now. I remember picking these as a kid and giving them to my Mom. Aren't they unusual looking?

June 10

You may remember this post, from not too long ago where I told you about having to put our cat to sleep. We had told our kids that whenever that cat was gone we were done with pets. We've run the gamut, from fish to dogs and several other varieties in between.
Well, Heather is the only one home yet, and she has been really sad without her Cleo. So we caved - and you know what? We both missed having a pet around too!
This is Oliver. He is 6 weeks old, very friendly and is a snuggler. We've been enjoying him already and I have a feeling you will be seeing more pictures of him!

* For those that asked - Bob came up with the name Oliver.

June 9

We had a crazy weather day yesterday. When I got to work in the morning in was pouring. Of course my umbrella was in the back seat of our van so I made a dash through the parking lot and got pretty wet. All day it alternated between sunshine and dark clouds with rain.
After supper I decided to run to the grocery store. When I saw this rainbow I pulled over to take a picture.

"I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth." Genesis 9:13

June 8

This is what is left of an allium after the flower petals blew away. Doesn't it have an interesting look?

June 7

I was talking to my neighbor the other night when she asked me to come in so she could show me something.
Surprise! Look what she wanted to show me - a baby skunk!
She is a Physical Therapist and when she was at her office, 2 girls from an adjoining office asked her to come see what they had outside. This baby skunk was stumbling around. 2 other skunks had been removed from the property earlier that week and possible one was the mother. This one was too young to live on it's own, so my neighbor took it home with her. She found a place that would take care of it until it was old enough and then would release it back into the wild. It was only spending one night with them before going to the wildlife release place.
I must admit that it was quite cute, and when she reassured me that it was too young to spray, I even held it!

June 6

We had a beautiful day today for a sale at our church. In the yard there was a big garage sale going on to benefit a short term mission trip to Kentucky. They had collected a lot of things to sell, the biggest of which was a sail boat!
In the parking lot, the youth were doing a car wash. You can see by the line that they were keeping quite busy. I thought it was pretty nice of the neighboring township to support us by sending over a fire truck to be washed!

June 5

So last night we were sitting at home, relaxing at about 9:20 pm when I noticed the sky outside our living room window had a pink hue to it. This window is on the east side of the house, and I thought if it looked pink in that direction the sunset must be beautiful! We have too many trees around our house to see the sunset from our yard, so I jumped into my car and drove down the road to find this gorgeous sunset. It looked even better in real life!

June 4

This little path leads to the state property I often walk on. There are a few maple trees near it and the path is filled with little maple seeds. When I was young we called them "helicopter seeds" because of the way they spun in circles when they came off the tree.

June 3

I walked back into the state property near our house today. This was a big mistake because the mosquitoes nearly carried me away! I did see this neat fungus growing off one of the trees though and snapped a picture to show you.

June 2

Isn't this a cool flower? It's from a Viburnum bush we have growing in our back yard. I love the way the outer ring opens up before the rest of them. When the inner buds open, they are tiny blossoms.
*In answer to Renee's question, there isn't much of a fragrance.

June 1

There is a field near my house that is filled with these dandelions. If the wind picks up it could look different in a hurry!

Award

I was given this sweet award by dd of Flickr Project. It is the Renee award and was created to honor this Renee.
I'm supposed to pass it on choosing blogs to pass it to. Instead I'm going to pass it to those of you who follow my blog. Thanks to each of you and thanks to dd!