September 30

After two days of cloudy, rainy weather, the sun came out. It's cool though and didn't even make it to 60 degrees. We are seeing some change in the leaves; that little touch of color that will only increase in the next few weeks. I enjoy it from beginning to end!

September 29

Here's another shot of wind, whipped Lake Michigan yesterday. These surfers were enjoying the waves.
I didn't edit this at all. I liked the way the sand and rain blurred much of the picture, making the surfers stand out.

September 28

It's been a wild day here. The wind has been blowing, with gusts of up to 58 mph registered. After work today, a friend and I drove to Grand Haven to see what was happening at Lake Michigan. We had a hard time even getting pictures, because it was raining and the wind was blowing the rain and sand so hard, it was difficult to walk.
We managed to snap a few pictures although we came home soaked and covered with sand.

September 27

This is another entry in the art competition I went to. The moose is amazing as a sculpture but you need to know that the whole thing is made of nails. If you click on it you should be able to see some of the details.

September 26

I live on the outskirts of Grand Rapids Michigan where there is an international art competition happening. There are 1,262 artists from 15 countries competing in 159 areas throughout the city. A friend and I spent the day walking around and looking at many of them.
This one has received a lot of attention. We have our own Loch Ness Monster in our Grand River!

*we couldn't tell what it was made of, but it didn't look like wood when we were closer to it.

September 25

We have had such a beautiful week! The weather is supposed to change, getting cooler and raining over the weekend so I'm enjoying this.
We had a gorgeous sunrise this morning. What a great start to a fun day!

September 24

My husbands Mom and step dad stopped over last night to deliver a few pumpkins to us. This one was a new type they grew this year. Don't you love all those warts?

September 23

I was at work late today, so we went out for supper at a new Mexican restaurant in our town. This picture was taken from the parking lot of the restaurant.
I took it because it shows what my town is like. This is on the main street through town. Behind the tree you can see silo's and fields from a farm and next to it is an apartment, which is student housing for the State University that is just a short distance away. I find the mix of buildings quite interesting.

September 22

Another sign that Fall is on the way! It is 79 degrees here today and most of the leaves are green, but my walkway tells another story. We have lots of oak trees, and most of the leaves stay until late Fall and even winter, but there are a few coming down. The acorns are another story. They have been falling like crazy. We hear them bouncing off the roof on a regular basis.

September 21

Aren't these unusual Mums? I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work and they had quite a few pots lines up, so I stopped and took a picture of them. Such a pretty color!

September 20

What a crazy cat! Our Oliver has taken a liking to sitting in the waste basket in our half bath. This is how I found him, sitting in the dark. I took the picture and about 5 minutes later he came out. There is usually nothing in that waste basket, so I can't figure out why he would want to be in it!

September 19

We have a hydrangea tree in our back yard that is always beautiful at this time of year. It's loaded with flowers, that show up in the middle of the summer. They are pure white all summer, but begin to turn this pink color and continues to darken to a dark mauve through the Fall. Most of the flower heads fall off, but there are always a few that hang on into winter.

Award

Thanks to Joanna from The Fifty Factor for passing on the Splash award to me.
The Splash award is given to alluring, bewitching, impressive and inspiring blogs.

I'm honored that she thought of me! Thanks Joanna!

When you receive this award, you must:* Put the logo on your blog/post.* Nominate & link up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.* Let them know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.* Remember to link to the person from whom you received your Splash Award.

I'm going to pass this on to 9 other photo blogs. Each of these blogs inspires me by their photo's and what they have to say about these pictures. Here's my nine:

Sara at A Year of my Life
Luann at Daily Blessings
Dot at Dots Photoadayspot
Darla at Heartshare
Sujomi at Project 365
Cindy at Monkeyboy311
Renee at The view from my window
Iona from Iona's Homepage
SaraG from One Photo a Day for a Year

September 18

I drove past this field today and liked the look of the crates stacked up and ready for the harvest. The field is full of pumpkins, which will soon be placed in those crates and shipped off to stores.

September 17

This is a plant we have in our yard that looks really pretty in the Fall. It's called Autumn Joy Sedum. Most of the year the flowers are a pale white, but in the fall they start turning a rosy color and become almost burgundy before they die back. As you can see from the picture, the bees are enjoying them now too!

September 16

Every year our Junior High youth group at church does a fun raiser to start the year. It's called Johnny's Drive In. The girls who are taking orders and bringing out the food wear these poodle skirts (Sorry - wrong angle to see the poodles here) and they use roller blades as they serve people in their cars. You can see the smoke from the hamburgers and hot dogs being grilled. They also have root beer floats and lemonade. To add to the 50's feel, there is 50's music playing and people come with their old cars. It's a fun thing to do and it helps the kids get funds for their year!

August 15

We continue to be blessed with beautiful weather! We had another misty sunrise today. This is a farm near our house. I love the way the silos and trees look, shrouded in the mist.

September 14

I always hate to see summer come to an end, mostly because I know that means winter is coming. At the same time, I like the changing seasons. I think I appreciate the beauty in each one a little more, because I know it won't last.
It still looks like summer around here, except for the occasional tree that has a little color in it. Today while I was walking, I noticed this one little red leaf in the middle of the green. I guess Fall is really coming!

September 13

What a beautiful day! The sun was shining, the sky was clear. I was able to take a nice leisurely walk after church this morning. I went into the woods near our house, and it was completely quiet except for the birds singing.
As I walked in that quiet shady place, I noticed the way the sun was shining in through the canopy of leaves above, like a few spotlights set above me.

September 12

I had the day off, yesterday so my sister and I decided to have some fun. Every fall we go to a well known orchard in our area. They have a little restaurant where you can get soup and a sandwich, served with an apple and cider. They also have a fun gift shop.
We had a nice lunch there, followed by a little shopping. Before we left, we had to go back to the orchard store to get some apples and cider to bring home!
This apple is about 12 feet tall and it's been around a while. We have pictures of our kids standing by it when they were young. Most people from our area would know the name of this orchard, just by looking at the apple!

September 11

Today is September 11, a day that we in the United States will never forget. I have had the events of that day on my mind today, so as I thought of what to photograph, the flag in our front yard came to mind.

September 10

I enjoy summer and the flowers and hate to think of winter coming. So - although our zinnias are not as picture perfect as they were earlier in the summer, I still enjoy looking at them!

September 9

Our neighbor has these stone pillars at the end of his driveway. I don't know what kind of flowers these are, but I liked the way they looked against the stone.

September 8

We have been having some beautiful mornings around here lately. It's been quite cool at night, which gives us this light fog in the morning. On top of that, the sunrises have been so colorful. This morning, I got both the light fog and the colorful sunrise!

September 7

I think this is the last picture I have to post from my Colorado vacation. I hope you didn't get too sick of this. I took so many pictures while I was there.
This is another picture from the area around the cabin. I noticed that this pine tree had both mature and young cones on it, which made an interesting shot.

September 6

The sunsets over the mountains were so beautiful! This one was so brilliant, it looked like there was a fire!

September 5

Isn't this cool grass? There was a lot of it on the mountain side near the cabin. It always had the appearance of being blown in the wind, even on calm days.

September 4

This is another shot from the abandoned gold mine we visited. This fenced in trail was over 2 miles long and went all over the mine.

September 3

This is an abandoned cabin near one of the ghost towns we went to visit in Colorado. Isn't it a pretty sight on the mountain side?

September 2

I've got few vacation shots to post yet. This is one I took in the field near the cabin we stayed at. I thought there was something so serene about the little pile of rocks against the dark sky.

September 1

This is a picture I took as we were traveling. We were in Nebraska and saw a sign to stop and see an original Pony Express building. This is the front door of the building with a candle holder that would light the door.