50/100 - Half Way

This grasshopper is halfway up on the blade of grass, hiding. Right after I took the picture, it jumped away.
 

Today I am halfway through the 100 Days of Summer posts. Tomorrow I hope to post my reflections on the project so far. Unless I go hiding.

49/100 - On the Vine

Here are some of our grapes.

These are in our backyard, not the ones up on Römerstein. Those are much younger but starting to produce.

48/100 - Looking Down

From the "Römerstein" we can overlook the village of Michelau.

Long ago these hills were vineyard. Now there are only two small plots of land with grapes growing--ours and one other.

47/100 - Home

In my last post I shared a photo of a neighboring town. The picture below shows the train station that marks the border of our town.

Welcome to Michelau!

46/100 - On the Way Home

This picture was taken in Schlechtbach, one of our neighboring towns, on the way home from a bicycle ride with my husband.

Schlechtbach, Germany

It is almost hard to believe that just last year we had flooding in this area.

45/100 - Summer Surprises

This year birds planted sunflower seeds right in the middle of our garden. They are so pretty I decided to leave them there sandwiched between the carrots, herbs, and zucchini, with cucumber vines weaving their way around it.

Every evening, the honeybees and bumble bees come to have a tasty snack. And in the morning, the birds pick at the seeds.

 

One night I tried to take a photo of a lone honeybee feasting. I didn't get one good shot. The problem was

  that the honeybee was so covered in yellow pollen that it blended in with the sunflower.

I guess other people like sunflowers so much that they always have one with them. Here is a dashboard sunflower I saw in Welzheim this week. If you look closely at the photo, you will also see its reflection on the car.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend, and I wish you a happy SUN(flower)DAY.

44/100 - Bird with Cigar

While walking through Ulm, I saw this red bird on a building. It reminded me of my mother and my friend Laurie, because they both love cardinals. So I took this photo for them. The funny thing is that only after I took the shot did I notice that the bird is holding a cigar in its beak. (It was located above a tobacco shop). Later I learned that birds are the city symbol. There are many different painted birds throughout the town. 

Visit one of Laurie's blogs here.

43/100 - Orange

 

No matter what effect I tried, they just seemed to take the attention away from the flower. Though the above picture is certainly interesting, it is a bit dark and the flower seems to lose a bit of its beauty (I think).

Here is the original. I like the softer color and the green background.

photo taken in May in Ulm, Germany

I guess they each just  have a different "feel" to them. Which do you prefer?

42/100 - Purple

I love the color purple.  It is so vibrant. It has a richness to it that can't go unnoticed. Whether it be the first purple crocuses of springtime or dried lavender in autumn, shades of purple always look nice. There are so many flowers colored purple-- heliotropes, orchards, lilac, hyacinths, phlox, even the tops of thistles in bloom are a shade of purple. What's your favorite thing that is purple? A flower? An amethyst? Grapes? A sea urchin? Or perhaps those rare occasions when the night sky isn't pink or red but a wonderful shade of purple?

taken at the garden show in Nagold, Germany 2012

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.
             Alice Walker

41/100 - Blue/Red

BLUE

Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid.
                                                                 Jules Feiffer


RED

40/100 - Brown

When I think of brown, I think of soil and chocolate, tree trunks and wooden furniture. But I didn't have any pictures of those things in my photo files. I did, however, find this photo that I took a while ago. This snake has several shades of brown.

Remember to be gentle with yourself and others. We are all children of chance and none can say why some fields will blossom while others lay brown beneath the August sun.
                    Kent Nerburn

39/100 - Yellow

The color yellow. For some it is associated with cowardice. To others, like myself, it makes one think of happy things like sunshine and fields full of vibrant flowers or even... dandelions.

This photo was taken in my backyard.

I really just want to be a warm yellow light that pours over everyone I love.
            Conor Oberst

38/100 - Red

Last year during our trip "out West" we saw these at a market in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It reminded me of a restaurant in Hugary that had a string of dried chili peppers hanging about the door.

Red is one of the strongest colors, it's blood, it has a power with the eye. That's why traffic lights are red I guess, and stop signs as well... In fact I use red in all of my paintings.
                          Keith Haring

37/100 - Green

Since the expression "caught red handed" is one of the themes this week for 100 Days of Summer blog posts, I decided to do a few days of color prompts.

During a trip to Maine a few years ago, we were lucky enough to have some hikers tell us about a little chapel hidden deep in the woods. We set off to find it, which we did, and also found a pond with this cute little frog sunning himself. Isn't he adorable!

Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.
             Pedro Calderon de la Barca

36/100 - Namaste

In my last post I showed you chairs in an art gallery in Lido di Jesolo. Here is another photo from that trip. It was taken at an old monastery.  I thought purple and white tones (like the third eye or crown chakras) would be fitting. What do you think?

35/100 - Cracks in the Chairs

We saw these chairs a few years ago in the window of an art gallery in Lido di Jesolo, Italy. Not only do they look comfortable, but one will always look shapely in them. I wish I'd written down the name of the artist (though I don't really remember if the name was even visible from the window and they were closed at the time).

I really think they should make a bench or bookends with this design. They could call them the booty bench and the booty bookends. Haha.

Have you ever seen anything original and interesting while travelling?

34/100 - There's No Place

There's no place...

                                  like OOOHM.

me striking a pose in the woods

 

33/100 - BIG!

"Boy, is that BIG!" I said to my husband. He looked down and said, "Yep. That sure is big."

We were


                 in the


                                     woods.












 
And that mushroom was gigantic!

my foot and giant mushroom

What did you think I was talking about?

32/100 Friends

Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends ~ Henry Ward Beecher

31/100 Watching clouds go by

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. ~ John Lubbock

30/100 poppy

 

That we find a crystal or a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone, that we are more deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life would lead us to believe  ~  John Berger

 

29/100 Content

He that has a good harvest must be content with a few thistles ~ 
                             Spanish Proverb

28/100 Time

Time sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a snail; but a man is happiest when he does not even notice whether it passes swiftly or slowly.  ~ Ivan Turgenev

a Weinbergschnecke crossing my path

27/100 - Name, please

Today while walking in a wooded area, I came across this insect. I asked my husband if he knew what it was called in German, but he didn't. He'd never seen one of these before. I would look it up in the online translator but, unfortunately, I've also never seen one before and have no idea what it is called in English.

I looks like some sort of fly but is much larger than a house fly, about the size of a bumble bee. It was calm, just sitting there, and didn't bother us at all. We passed a few others along the way who were also sitting on these white flowers/weeds that grew along the side of the path. I wish I'd seen one of them fly.

If you have any idea what the name of this is, please let me know. I'm curious.

Thanks!

26/100 - Blue Spheres

Every year I look forward to the blossoming of these beautiful, blue flowers.

25/100 - a place to escape

For Paula

This used to be my place, my little escape when I needed a pick me up. Alone, just me and my thoughts. Then I shared it with you, this wonderful garden by the old oil mill with hundreds of bees busily buzzing from one big blue globe flower to the next, pollinating. Now when I come here, I still reflect, find peace, but I am never alone. You are here in spirit, and I think of you, my friend, so far away, and hope that you are peaceful and happy at that moment, too.

24/100 - One More Day

One More Day

summer along the train tracks in Michelau

Though she wasn't five anymore, she couldn't resist. He was 18 and going off to college to study medicine while she had two more years of school. He promised to come home as often as possible, to call, write, but he was always the one with dreamer eyes, the one to see ideals instead of the way things really were. She'd always been a realist, calculating the odds and never expecting more than life could deliver. But when she saw those puffs of dried thistle, a long row of them, it reminded her of how she and Daddy would pull them and set them free into the wind, making silly wishes. So there she sat near the old train tracks, pulling each and every last seed and blowing it away, whispering let him love me one more day...and another day...and another day...and another... until the sun set.  She figured that would give her another year, maybe two. By then she'd be off to college herself, either finding her way closer to him or drifting in another direction, searching for a new place to grow. 

23/100 Days of Summer - Intrusion

Forgive me. I didn't mean to intrude. From the corner of my eye, a spot of red caught my attention. Leaning in for a closer look, I found you there. I couldn't help but take your picture. It was your beauty, not the act, that made me capture you on film. So many tiny creatures go unnoticed every day, but you are also wonderful, just like the birds that sing, the butterflies that float about the fields, the bees that make honey. You, too, have a purpose in nature's grand scheme. And you, too, must ensure that your kind lives on.

 

Okay, perhaps that's not what they are doing but it sure looks that way.

Does anybody know what type of bugs they are?

22/Guess what it is

 

Do you know what it is?