Sunday, July 7, 2013

2013 Project 365 – Week Twenty-Seven

As I promised last week there are a lot of pictures this week. And there would have been twice as many if Dr. M had not used a bunch in his own post from today. We took a short trip up to Lake Erie for the 4th and naturally took a bluemillion pictures (except that my camera died Thursday night – the horror! – so there aren’t as many pictures as there could have been - & only one of Dr. M).
We saw a lot of different birds on our trip – barn swallows, red winged black birds, egrets, herons, ducks, geese, swans… If you want to see those pictures go to Dr. M’s post.
Sunday, June 30th
Dr. M & I enjoyed our annual church picnic. It’s held at the lake-side home of two church members. Nice!


Monday, July 1st  
Daylily – I wonder if the novelty of having our very own lilies will ever wear off?


I went to flip my calendar to July & saw something very strange.


Can you see it now? Since when is there a 31st of June? I was afraid that the numbering of all the remaining months would be off, but July started on a Monday like it was supposed to. Ha!

Tuesday, July 2nd           
Dr. M passes fields like this all the time – ditch lilies & corn :)


Why, it’s a robin taking a bath!


Papa cardinal looks like he’s trying to remember where he left something…


Wednesday, July 3rd   
We drove up to Port Clinton, Ohio today – it’s about 3 ½ hours north of where we live. On the way we listened to Jimi Hendrix & I worked on a new shawl.


The condos next to our motel had the prettiest flowers along the fence.


We stayed at the Travelodge – very economical. The room was huge, and I loved that we were able to park right outside the door. It’s not a Four Star joint by any stretch, but suited us to a T.


Plus, this was our view!




Thursday, July 4th    
We drove out to Fort Meigs today. It's the site of a War of 1812 battle. Every year they reenact the July 4, 1813 celebration. They have an 18 gun salute (for the then 18 states) and 18 toasts. We wanted to be there for the 200th anniversary & were thrilled that it did NOT rain while we were there – score!




This was one of the three toastmasters. That’s tea in his glass – not sherry – so he gets a minus point for historical accuracy. Ha! But doesn’t he look dapper? Here’s an example of one of the toasts: “To the Day of our Freedom – Its blessings to all the world. It should admonish our ancient and inveterate enemy, Great Britain, that what was purchased by the blood of our fathers their sons will be ever ready to maintain.” No offense to my British readers :)


Dr. M enjoyed all the cannon fire.


I also “enjoyed” it. Heh.


As we were leaving Dr. M took pictures of some of the flowers near the visitor’s center – lovely!


That evening we ate perch dinners at a local tavern & then I had the strawberry shortcake – delicious!


Friday, July 5th   
Today we took the ferry out to Kelley’s Island.



We watched one of our favorite mainland lighthouses on our way out – Marblehead Lighthouse.


The island is the site of some glacial grooves which are pretty interesting.


If you look closely in this picture you can see the shorts I was wearing – I got quite a number of looks with these babies on. They’re actually Dr. M’s swim trunks. When we were packing I realized that I only had one pair of shorts to take on the trip & I was NOT going to go shopping at that late date. I really have reached the age where I just don’t care what other people think – ha! (Although I did take the trouble to find a shirt that matched.)


We drove around the island quite a bit – passed this house several times. I think the flowers are gorgeous! Kelley’s Island always has a lot of nice flowers.


One of the things we did was to rent bicycles! It’s on my 50x50 list (I promise to update you on that soon!) – glad to check that off. I had a blast. Unfortunately there aren’t any pictures because my camera battery had died the night before – and we weren’t going to lug the big one along on a bike ride! So instead, here’s this picture of me on the ferry as we’re headed back to Port Clinton. I was one sweaty chick!


Sunset on our last night there.


Saturday, July 6th     
On our way home we stopped for dinner. I nearly fell asleep before the food arrived! The State of the Bug - blissed out!


We were glad to find that apparently our flowers continue to grow just fine in our absence. Whew!


[Note: I haven’t read any blogs since Tuesday. It might be a while before I get caught up!]

Go to Mamma Fran’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants. Have a great week!


Most of our photos are taken with a 12 megapixel Nikon D5000 DSLR, using a 55-200mm zoom lens. This is the camera that Dr. M takes with him most days. He also takes pictures with our old reliable 7 megapixel Canon Powershot A710.  The Bug uses our new Nikon Coolpix S6200 most of the time. If you’re interested in which camera was used for a particular shot, just ask! 

18 comments:

  1. Your camera died...permanently? Or is it something that can be fixed? I would cry!

    Love all your pictures, especially your view from the hotel and the sunsets.

    LOL at the calendar goof! That's what happens when all the proofreaders get laid off.

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    1. Oh no no no - just the battery. I forgot the cable to charge it. I was pretty darn annoyed!

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    2. We still had the DSLR. Funny, really...one of the reasons her battery died is because I forgot to stick my fresh battery in before we went into Fort Meigs. I was shooting short videos of some of the toasts and cannon fire, and my battery died, so I started using hers. Later that night, hers died. I had a fresh battery and a charger for mine, but we forgot her charger. What it really meant was a lack of candid photos of me and, maybe, a photo of her on the bike :-)

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  2. The two sunsets are glorious! And the papa cardinal, I'm sure, is saying, "Funny, I don't remember there being 31 days in June."

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  3. Your pictures are amazing! Y'all sure did pack a lot in that weekend!

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    1. Thank you! We had a great time and, despite all the pics, we spent a fair amount of it sitting on our back sides and relaxing, letting the serenity of the lake soak in. Even the drive to the lake and back was relaxing...two-lane roads through vast fields of corn and soy beans. I love rural and small town Ohio.

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  4. That looks like an incredible place!! The sunset was amazing!!!! And I think that would be such a cool way to spend the 4th. Love, love all the flowers and that you take the time to notice them. I think that's one of the fringe benefits to having a camera in your hand (and blogging!)

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    1. Thanks! Neither of us likes to leave the house without a camera in hand. Blogging, esp. P365, really has enriched our lives in so many ways. We've learned to slow down, to stop, smell, then photograph the roses :-)

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  5. Just love your blissed-out expression. I wish I could remember what made ME look that way.

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    1. I would say Chicago style pizza pie, but it hadn't even been served! We had such a lovely trip.

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  6. NEO does have some pretty lovely lakeside sunsets in the summertime. This weekend in Canada, I saw some black hollyhocks. Very unusual and so dramatically lovely.

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    1. A Facebook friend was telling us he used to sail from Erie, PA, down to Port Clinton. I can imagine some amazing sunsets on such a trip! I've heard of black hollyhocks! I like the idea of something, or someone, being dramatically lovely.

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  7. Oh, my goodness. That cardinal is a hoot.

    I immediately googled a Travel Lodge near Dad. Thanks so much for the tip. I've never stayed there, but now I have that in my arsenal in case one of my relatives needs a place to stay near my father's house. Thanks.

    Why does Dr. M always remind me of Hemingway? Are they related? :)

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    1. Ha! In some ways I am not fit to hold Papa's mojito glass...but I am a more decent human being. Thank you for that...I take it as a compliment. Oh, and Wyndham Hotels group now owns Travelodge and a number of other low-end hotels. Don't expect too much, but our room was clean and they had basics for breakfast, meaning decent coffee, hard-boiled egg and toast for us, along with donuts. They also had cereal, bagels and cream cheese, peanut butter, jelly, jam, instant oatmeal, orange juice, hot tea, etc. We've paid more for less...let's put it that way.

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  8. sorry i'm a bit late to the party this week - the sunset shots are spectacular, i like both the war reenactment and glacial grooves - but my favourite is the little flower poking through the fence, which i love

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  9. They were so pretty and bold, poking through the fence! I loved them at first sight.

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  10. You look so relaxed.
    Glad you had such a wonderful getaway.
    Love the hollyhocks. Why are they called black?
    A great variety of pics without leaving out your favorites: birds, flowers, moon, Bug...
    Sweet pic of Dr. M & his love-bug :)

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Thanks for stopping by - I'd love to hear what you have to say!

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