Our lives are brought together by the things we have in common. We share friendships that have no boundaries. We see things that are truly unique, and things that are the same. Here we will knit together the strands we share...
Here is my addition to "Home of the Giant..."
One of the Giant Pandas, who call the San Diego Zoo their home. This gal is just a baby, I believe she is Su Lin. I took this picture in August 0f 2006, right around her first birthday. . . You can read more about them, and watch the Panda Cam HERE.
Sorry for two pics. Where I am from, Circleville, Ohio, we grow some of the largest pumpkins you've ever seen. We also have the world's largest pumpkin pie. I took these pics a couple of years ago as my hands were too busy with a newborn to take pictures this year but the pie has now grown to 14 feet from the dinky 3 feet in the pic above. The numbers on the pumpkins are the weights of the pumpkins.
The Pumpkin Show is near and dear to my heart as it is a yearly tradition for my hometown and even the schools close. I planned my wedding around it in fact.
Just because it's Winter, and the lawn ornaments have migrated to the basement, doesn't mean you can't enjoy that Perpetual Pinkness! I found this:
PINK FLAMINGO MINI PLANT ORNAMENT | � |
| Mini Lawn Ornament for Your Potted Plants |
Lawn icons like the Garden Gnome, Lawn Jockey, and the ever-popular Gardener's Tush have graced America's front yards for decades. But why should your garden have all the fun?
The solution - all of your favorite lawn icons scaled down to fit in your houseplants. It's a humble idea, sorta like sliced bread or pop tarts.
Perfect for livening up that dull plant in your office cube!
Fancy Plants are reinforced polystone figurines with spiked bases that allow you to nestle them alongside all your houseplants. Each is approximately 3.5" high plus base.
Although I am not from Blue Earth, Minnesota, I do have the somewhat dubious honor of once having stood, as a very young and impressionable girl, right underneath ol' Jolly Green, much as the woman in this photo is doing.
Alas, my suburban 'hood is not one to find either a plastic pink flamingo in winter (although there are TONS in the summer, including a local prank where a randomly picked yard is filled with dozens of them in an overnight 'pink flamingo raid') NOR something of gargantuan proportions, I am at least able to say my home state has many of these giant things.
Baudette, MN on the Canadian border is home to the World's Most Giant Walleye, but I couldn't find a photo.
Vegetables, anyone?
Yay! New Blogger finally let me make the crossover so I can play! This is me this morning, late for work. Computer bag? Check. Purse? Check. Commuter coffee mug? Check. Keys? Check. Late because you stayed up too late casting on a new pair of socks when you should have turned in for a good night's sleep? Check.
Ok, I am a little slow with these, but this is my Camera Shy. Damned if I will ever find a Pink Flamingo here in the winter of Chicago.
I play basketball--and have played for several years--with this group of folks. The group has been together for around 15 yrs and we meet every saturday -- summer in the park, winter at the Y. Its great, not too competitive, usually a good mix of girls/guys.
How many of us live in a place that is "Home of the Giant ****"?
To date, the cheesiest one that I have ever seen was northeast of the town I grew up in. Then again, I haven't seen much of Wisconsin...
I started my pursuit of the near-extinct Plastic Flamingo (flamingus plasticus) early on Saturday morning. We found this, this and even this, but alas, no Flamingo.
On too much coffee and with kids shouting "there's one" when I'm pretty sure they have no idea what a plastic flamingo is, I trolled the street of town, in search of a rare glimpse.
After what seemed like an eternity, we came upon this wonderful specimen. I chased it in the snow and freezing cold, but was only able to snap this shot with my telephoto lens. I dared not get too close for my Flamingo had taken refuge... and I had heard stories of horror regarding the dangerous behavior of startled Plastic Geese.
I meant to post this a few days ago but since we were having a birthday party for my oldest, we had to clean house, get party preps, yadda, yadda, yadda.
I give you a flock of headless flamingos. Actually, they weren't awake yet. My friend and I took our now two oldest boys to the zoo here in Columbus to see the animals and since the flamingos are the first stop and it was morning, they were still snoozing.
This is Crissy Field along the San Francisco Bay. Its just a couple blocks from our apartment so my husband & I like to go for walks here. He held the camera for me but used the timer to take the picture.
Bezzie catching up here! (Even though for some reason I didn't sign up for this blog under than name...but whatever).
We went to the zoo today and I had a chance to do both Camera Shy and Flamingos!
First up camera shy. I cheated and had my husband take the picture:
That's a road that I think the San Antonio River flows over back behind the zoo. Don't be fooled, it's only six inches there in the middle. But if I had fallen off to the other side, well yeah that's pretty deep.
And I also give you not one but TWO types of flamingos!
First "normal" flamingos:
And then "lesser flamingos," they're a bit smaller and a different shade of pink but still pretty cool:
It's good to be a flamingo in Texas. Yesterday was 75 degrees and sunny. Today only about 60, but still sunny!
I was initially concerned that I wouldn't find a flamingo to photograph, but today, I spied a fine specimen of the elusive Giant Snow Flamingo (Phoenicopterus hugeplantericus).
Unlike its southern cousins, the Giant Snow Flamingo's usually has its legs tucked underneath its body. Why? Well, in addition to the change in pigmentation, there has been another significant environmental adaptation; its lower limbs are covered in a dense fur to avoid frostbite. And the Giant Snow Flamingo is a bit sensitive about having hairy legs.
So I had to 'improvise'. This is a pic I snapped of a webpage where I found this adorable, trash-tastic Pink Flamingo Margarita set that I would absolutely love to have!
You can see the real, better version at Glassafrass.com.
. . . coming courtesy of one of my collection of Richard Scarry books that I just can't seem to part with from my childhood:
Whoa, I just checked the National Zoo web site and, not only can I adopt a flamingo (you can too), there's a Flamingo Cam! Alright, I'll get my butt over there for a real flamingo picture asap.I managed to extract my butt from the chesterfield today and go cross country skiing. I took my camera with me.
My friendly neighborhood stop sign at 11 AM:
2 hours later:
We get all kind of wacky cloud/fog action around here because of the "valley effect".
I decided I'd try skiing away from the camera. There's not alot of flat surfaces on the trail that I can sit my camera on, so I headed over to the biathlon range.
I wasn't sure how quickly I could ski away from the camera, so the first time I really hauled @ss. My exhuberance combined with the haze made for a not so great shot. So I decided to adjust the camera settings and change the direction I was skiing in:
Un, yeah, quite the change in direction - DOWN! I caught an edge when I hit the deep snow at the side of the groomed trail. Thank goodness I was doing this at noon on a weekday...
Here I am doing my best impression of a heroine in a bad horror film....running away from the monster in the bathtub!
Please note that the protagonist in the shot is wearing appropriate "I was caught unawares" clothing. However, also note that in true hollywood non-reality, the bathrobe is a matching purple to the pj's!
This is Franco (named after Franco Harris the former Steeler. They have the same eyes!). He's my felted friend. I made him last summer as a destressing exercise. He is from a Fiber Trends Debbie Radtke pattern. My LYS took him to Stitches East in November and where he met Debbie in person. I love him dearly and though he was supposed to be a gift, I couldn't give him up. I'll be knitting another in the next month or so.
This is not the stop sign nearest my home, but is the stop sign right outside the coffeeshop that I haunt during the work day.
Instead of lunch, I sit in the coffee shop there to the right, drink tea or a breve and knit while I listen to an audio book.
Makes for a decent break in the work day.
This is an alley on a really busy cross street. I can't believe I caught it with no traffic!
Hello! This is just so awesome! I am loving that you all are loving this. I can tell. Even though it's yer back and yer running away, I know there's a smile on your face!
Check out the suggestion below from Nessie. Sounds like the next assignment is up!
I also had a quick idea. How about using your name as a label? That way when folks are browsing, they can look at all the stop signs, for instance, or look at everything a certain person has posted??
Waddya think?
BWT Nessie, there is snow and cold and not a lot of flamingos in these parts! Thanks for the challenge!
I was thinking maybe one of the items we could be hunting for could be a flamingo. Like the kind you find stuck in the grass, or maybe even a live one. Depending on where you live will decide the molecuar make up of your subject matter.
And while I am posting, here is the stop sign on my street ....
I set the camera on my desk and aimed at the one thing I could fully focus on....the stairs. I pushed the button and waited.......the beeps counted down and I took off.
From my desk to the stairs, avoiding the cat and trying not to slip on the wood floor, off I went.
Four tries later, I actually had a photo that did not have my head cut off. That might have looked bad.
I have searched all over this small flat land for a stop sign and they just don't seem to exist anymore. There are traffic lights and roundabouts but mostly on the smaller intersections people obey the rule of the right (directionally speaking, of course) -- the person on the right side has right of way. A 4-lane major road will have to yield to a tiny blind entrance if it's on the right. This rule is also valid for bikes, as I found out once to my chagrin. This stop light is on my intersection, I live about 10 meters behind where I stood to take this photo.
P.S. I actually did see one stop sign, but it was at a gas station on the interstate and we flew by it so I didn't think I could beg to go back.
With all the ice on the sidewalks, I decided, for safety's sake, it would be best to take a run inside. My friend Steve took this shot for me in a hallway in the office. This was the second try. I got further away on the first attempt, but it was because the flash took forever, so I felt like I was cheating on the 2 second rule.
allright, so it's not the CLOSEST stop sign to my house, but it was definitely the most picturesque. . . This shot was taken this afternoon, a beautiful clear day (not to mention a comfortable 62 degrees!). In the background - the Oceanside pier.
This is the stop sign at the end of my street, 3 houses down from mine. It's on the small side at about 4 feet tall, not quite sure of the reasoning behind that one.
Ok, I am finally officially in. This is my nearest stop sign. RunAway/CameraShy coming soon.
Oh, details? This stopsign is a block away from my house. It is under the RedLine Morse El stop a block and a half from the Lake. Chicago has many wonderful murals. Someday I would love to make a collection photographing them. Someday...
It's snowing today for the first time this year in DC. Well, there have been a few flakes (according to others, I haven't seen any), but this is the first time we've actually had to dust off the car before heading out.
I took the picture before heading to the store to buy groceries for a dinner party I am having this Wednesday. You don't know me, but if you did (and you will), you'd know that making dinner for people with active taste buds is an anxiety provoking idea. But I'm feeling hopeful.
here I am hopping through the freshly fallen snow! I love my back yard, in any weather! I better get some sledding in now, while the kids are taking their naps!! I don't like to share the sled...
I have been blogging for a year now and I don't think in that whole time I have posted a picture of myself. So the Camera Shy theme was perfect for me.
The setup was my drive way today. It is very cold and was just beginning to rain. But Sherman, my dog, is always ready to play along. He was the inspiration for the title of the post. He thought the whole thing was a great game!
Here is the stop sign on the corner near my apartment building in the Cow Hollow neighborhood of San Francisco. Where you see the street end in the distance is where is stops because the hill is too steep.
Stacie's trolling for subjects we can photograph. I don't know if this will work well or not, but here's my thought. All of us have cameras, right? Right. (No, I'm not going to suggest taking a photo of your camera. Hold on.) And those cameras have photographers to push their buttons, right? Right. Also, we've probably all experienced moments of feeling camera shy, right? Well, I have. So, the point is, I'm trying to turn us into the ordinary things that are in our own neighborhoods. But I'm not suggesting regular self-portraits. I think it would be fun to borrow this guy's idea and run from our cameras while they're taking pictures of us. It may mean that some of us have to dust off our owner's manuals and read up on how to set those timers on our cameras, but hey, it's always good to keep learning. Brain stays supple and all that. Stacie, is this a good enough fit, or too much of a stretch?
So the rules are easy. Set your camera's timer for 2 seconds then run as far away from your camera as you can. I think a good name for this subject is CAMERA SHY.
It's been bitterly cold for many days here in our lovely Deseret . . . so much so that my brain activity is beginning to slow down and the world is starting to feel a bit surreal. Does this neighborhood look odd to you, or is it just me?
Therefore,
