I call this a sampler because I have a little bit of everything here today. A sunrise, some sunsets and some inside-scapes as well.

It's amazing to me how a "dust up" with a friend can affect you. I don't know if I got sick because of it, or I was sick before but I really hate how I've been feeling. So I decided to get outside and try to remedy the mood. Somehow seeing the sunset in all it's glory always seems to help. So finally after a week I believe I'm on the mend. Hopefully I can clear the dust too! Anyway, I offer my  sunsets for all to enjoy, hope it lifts your spirits too!

Hello friends! I'm posting some sunsets from the end of last year and the beginning of this year today. I have had some really wonderful times viewing and trying to capture the glorious colors of our Ozarks sky, and even though it's turned off cold, leaves have fallen from the trees, and some nights there are no clouds in the sky, I believe every sunset I watch is special. I can only hope I've done them justice.

We went on our annual drive to search out Christmas light displays this week and instead of hitting the same ones here,  we drove to a nearby town to see what they had to offer. We weren't disappointed, although there weren't as many folks putting out lights, the one's we saw were quite nice.

As it turns out my Sister, her husband and I have done this now for about 5 years now, and we always have lots of fun. We go to dinner and then off to find the "lights". This year we drove about 25 miles west of our town to Marionville, Mo. I had read about a home that has 130,000 lights that cycle to synchronized music. It takes them around 4 months and lots of help to assemble, they even have a fan page!

It was another great night for viewing outdoor lighting, and if the lights  could talk they would say, Merry Christmas everyone!

When I was out to see the Christmas parade last weekend, I also toured the square to capture some of the sites. The future History Museum had a display of old pictures  and then I captured some of the buildings there now. The old pictures weren't dated so I had to guess, but I thought they were interesting none the less. I titled this with "new" because they just finished remodeling the public areas of the square this fall. That's why all the trees you see are new. Too bad they didn't just work around the old one's, I hate to see them take out existing trees. Hopefully these will grow soon.

I attended our annual Christmas parade last Saturday and tried to capture it on film. The theme for the parade was "Rockin' Around the Square" which I thought was appropriate considering some of the floats entered. It was a lovely cool day with lots of sun and of course tons of fun!

Here is a sample of some of my pictures.

Maybe I should have added that "yes, I know my windows are dirty" to the title, rest assured it's on the list as soon as it warms up. No sunsets this week, just some images of my bird feeders and all the visitors I've had lately. Mostly Northern Cardinals, House finch, and Mourning Doves but I have seen the Tufted Titmouse a few times too.

It's been a while since I've had any sunsets to share, so I decided to show you what we have been seeing around here lately. It looks like it's going to turn off cold here pretty quick, but at least we haven't had any snow yet.

I just received an email from a Newsviner that needs our support. Bonnie-1034943, hasn't been able to comment on Newsvine for some time, she's having computer problems. She is able to access and read, but not comment. She has had a devastating loss recently and would like to reach out to her friends here for support. If you can, contact her via the Contact button on her home page and show her you care! If not, please leave a comment here and I'm sure she'll see it. I'm including the note she sent me, (with her permission) so you can know what's going on.

Dear Rottlady, I need my friends from NV. My computer is not working so that I can post on newsvine, but I can read stories, etc...and emails would be welcome! My son Charles passed away Friday. He was 34 years old. He overdosed on something and by the time the ambulance got him to the hospital and onto the table he was gone. My heart is shattered!!!!!!!! I am in agony for my boy. My sunshine. I love him so much!!! Charles has been mentally ill for many years. He was schizophrenic although on medicine he was doing well. He stopped taking his meds and used illicit drugs because he felt better than on the meds the doctor gave him. I did what I could to help him...it was not enough. I need my friends from newsvine. I have gotten to know so many wonderful people on nv, but when my computer stopped allowing me to post I was not able to talk to anyone. It helps me to write, but facebook is so hard right now because everyone has pictures posted of my son, and it is ripping me apart... Charles left behind me and his two brothers. John and Joshua. He also has his dad, 4 children and his partner of 12 years, Amber. We don't know how to cope with this loss. We are trying to get funeral plans together, but I have never walked this way before, it is all so much at once...(I edited out a small portion here) ....Please would you tell my friends, and would you let them know I need them all now more than ever? If they would just send me emails since I cannot post anything back to them until I get another computer... Thank you so much!!!!!!!! Love Bonnie

Bonnie lives away form a lot of her family so if you can contact her via email I know it would be appreciated!

This month's challenge was Simplicity, which turned out to be a fun one to try to accomplish. I tried to find something original to capture, but not so sure I did that. However, I was able to get some I liked.

Simple Steeple

© 2011 by Rottlady

I took a short walk this last weekend down the street and found some nice fall flowers to show today. It was a nice sunny day, not too cool even though the wind was blowing fairly hard. I fear we may not have many more days as warm, so it was time to get out there and find something to share.

Today you will see some of what I call "moody" sunsets. The weather around here has turned off cold and rainy lately and as a result we've had some really great sunsets.

This weekend I was able to attend a really cool event full of horses! The Springfield Greene-County Parks put on an event at the Valley Water Mill Equestrian Center. It was the first time I'd been out there and I was really impressed with the Center. Back when I had my horses there weren't events/parks like this, I know if there were I would have been out there for sure!

I used the experience to shoot some video with my camera, it was an amateur move as I haven't used the video feature on my camera much at all. So please bear with me when you see some things out of focus.... It's not easy to follow fast moving objects!

The Easy Rider Drill Team has won National honors so it was a pleasure to see them in action. All in all it was really a fun event that I plan to attend again!

Happy Friday everyone!

Today you will see the Autumn sky in all it's splendor right from my porch here in the Ozarks. The days are getting shorter, almost 3 minutes a day! Seems I have to adjust my shooting time a lot these these days. It won't be long before it'll be dark before folks get off work! Fortunately, being retired I don't have to worry about that. Anyway, here are some of the skies we've seen around here lately.

We had an interesting week here in the Ozarks, some rain and lots of cool weather. Which makes for great photo opportunities. I did a little search and they are called cirus clouds, and generally occur in fair weather and point in the direction of air movement at their elevation.

I only have a few photos to share today, but hopefully that will be changing soon. With the season changing I'm hoping to get at least some Fall colors to share. Until then, I have to fall back on my regular fare, sunsets with a bonus waxing crescent moon. I hope you enjoy them!

Since today is Good News Wednesday, I wanted to share something really good with everyone. Yesterday I had the rare opportunity to see some "Hula Chicks". It's not everyday that you get to see these elusive birds, they are, as you might think, hard to find and although not very camera shy, they usually don't display like this.

I tried to do a little research on this unusual bird but wasn't able to find much, hopefully I'll get more opportunities to observe these interesting birds in the wild, if I do, I'll be sure to keep you all updated!

It sure feels good to be back online! In case you hadn't noticed I was offline for almost a week due to computer problems. But after a thorough cleaning and a small fee, I'm back in business. I have to admit, I felt almost like I had lost my best friend when I looked over at my desk and didn't see my computer tower. Once it was returned to it's place, I promise to be more diligent about properly keeping it dust-free.

Hello Newsviner's! I have a few photos to show you today and and explanation. First off I'll start with the explanation as to why I haven't been online much this week. I'm having computer problems, one day last week I'd been online to most of the day and all of a sudden my computer quit. What I mean is it turned itself off! I was kind of surprised by that and promptly tried to turn it back on, that's when I got the message that I had experienced a CPU overheating event. I talked with some friends and they say I've probably got problems with the fans that keep the thing cool. They suggested to remove the cover and clean the dust out, which I have since done. The two fans I can see were indeed very dirty, but they both seem to be working. But I'm pretty sure there is one that I can see because it's behind a large box.

Today I have an assortment of photos taken in the last week, some Clematis I found blooming close by, a view of my building at sunset, and of course some Ozarks sunsets. I'm going to start off with something I think is pretty cool, an example of Crepuscular rays. Per wiki, "Crepuscular rays also known as God Rays), in atmospheric optics, are rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from a single point in the sky. These rays, which stream through gaps in clouds or between other objects, are columns of sunlit air separated by darker cloud-shadowed regions."
I've had better images of this but it's been a long time, you don't get to see these too often.

We had a great week here in the Ozarks for sunsets, lots of color and clouds. The temps have been a little hot, but it finally cooled off yesterday and the forecast is average temps for the next week. Which means somewhere in the 80's! Much better than the high 90's we were getting. I have some sunsets to show you as well as a Full Moon shot this week, the moon was actually last week, but since I didn't post an article then, I'm showing it today.

I still haven't taken many pictures yet, so I only have a few to show this week. Our weather has finally improved, we've had rain and much cooler temps so that's good news. I have a couple sunsets and something I was playing around with a couple of weeks ago to show.

It's still really hot here in the Midwest. I'm so ready for it to cool off a bit!

Yes, it's my Birthday! And look what I got for a present, the full Moon! So far, this it turning out to be a great day, I mean how many folks that are called Moon Children and get to have such a lovely companion in the sky?

I did a little search and today's moon is called the The Full Buck Moon – July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon. Farmer's Almanac

I also found this.

Cancer— June 21 to July 21

Good Wednesday morning everyone! We are finally getting some badly needed rain! I stepped out last night to see if I could get a few pictures for Good News Wednesday and was pleasantly surprised to see some clouds in the sky. So my first image is of the sunset. I also got a couple of shots of my front porch of the few plants I have growing this year. Then this morning I wanted to see if I could get a decent picture of the sky after it rained all night. The sunrise shot was taken looking west rather than east because the sky was more interesting in this direction. So, without further ado, here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

If I can stop laughing I've got to tell you all a story. I found a perfect way to get woken up. It all started this morning when I woke way too early, it was approximately 3:30 am, I knew the moon was almost full so I wanted to get some pictures of it. So the first thing I did was pour me a little coffee and step outside to see where it was. Mind you, it's very early, and I'm not completely awake... Well, I opened the door, looking up to the sky and the moment I stepped out, someone said "Good Morning!"

I only have a few since I'm still waiting for the sun to move across the sky for better viewing, but when I saw these I had to capture them. We finally are getting some rain! Everything seems more happy now that it's had a drink, the grass was getting quite brown.

My final article about our trip to Kentucky. We were on the road for about 10 hours each way, which gave me lots of time to take some pictures of the sights. I took lots but am only showing you the best or most interesting.

We had wonderful weather for our travels both to and from Kentucky, Which made our Vinemeet trip even better!

Finally! I have some sunsets to share with everyone. Because of the season, the sun is generally hiding behind a large building blocking my view through the months of May and June, but I was able to get a shot the other day of some clouds on the horizon at sunset. I also have a few from Louisville Kentucky!

Part of the fun of the Vinemeet last week was discovering all the souvenirs inside the Welcome gifts bag and the door prizes we won. You can't imaging all the neat stuff Dowser found for us! I believe most of the welcome gifts were all the same, but the door prizes were all different. I've taken some pictures of my memorabilia brought home form the meet, some I bought, and most were from Dowser.

Most of you know that Bella is Augur Well's trusty jeep, if you didn't now you do. Well, I have a story that you might enjoy so I'm sharing it today. It all started last Friday, the first full day we (my sister and I) were in Louisville for the Vinemeet. It had been agreed that Augur would kindly take us to a nice restaurant for lunch, Dowser had been invited but she felt she didn't have time to spare. My sister and I preferred not to do any driving in the city since we had no idea where to go. So Augur graciously  offered to drive.

I've been working furiously to get my pictures in order to show you all how much fun we had this last weekend. I finally got them ready! I'm going to break them up in order to not make the videos too long, I plan on writing some articles about each event later but at least you can see the pics now. To see the captions, once you click on the video, look up on the top right and click on Show info. Or you can go to my Flickr page of the whole collection and click on each group. Your choice.

I've been working non-stop to get some pictures up and have finally got some presentable. I'm planning on writing a real article about our wonderful visit later, but I know everyone wants to see pictures! So I've put together a slideshow on Flickr I'll post here. Now, to see the names of who you are looking at, you'll have to click here and it'll take you to the page. Otherwise, just sit back and watch all the smiling faces and lovely hats we made! Edit: I just discovered if you want to see the titles, just click on Show info on the top right of the video!

Since I'll be busy later this week visiting Dowser and friends at the Vinemeet, I'm going to show you some pictures for Good News Wednesday. My potted lilies are blooming finally and they are just so lovely and as an added bonus they smell good too! I also have a sunset that complements the colors of the lily that I thought was nice.  Hope you enjoy them!

I have just a few images to post today, they are not my best work however they are what I could come up with this week. I'm still not completely well so I haven't gotten out much. My front porch is lacking the number of flowers I usually grow, but I knew I would be unable to take care of them like usual. So, I'm posting what I have at the moment.

I haven't been out to get many shots lately so I decided to re-visit some of my past sunsets.

Happy Birthday Cloud!

Sixteen years ago on this day, May 29th, Cloud tottered out of the trees not too far from this spot with his mother. We went up to his Pryor Mountain home to look for him on his "Sweet Sixteenth." We found him with his band up on Tillett Ridge. A few bachelors came on to the scene, and Cloud proved his fitness and strength once again.

Above info copied from video.

I am one of the luckiest people alive to have all this wonderful contact with caring compassionate, and intelligent friends here on Newsvine. I consider a whole lot of you to be my "real friends".  Some of you I have met in person, some of you I've talked with on the telephone, and most just conversed with online. However the contact was made, I believe I have met some real treasures. For that, I want to say Thank You!

You may have noticed I haven't been around lately and it's because I haven't been feeling up to par lately. Heck, I've hardly even taken a picture! Well, my absence is due to some medical problems, one of which was my gallbladder was found to have a very large gallstone in it. It hadn't been really bothering me, but to hear the doctor, I should have been in all sorts of pain. Come to find out, I had a very sick gallbladder. It was enlarged, full of nasty infection and a golf ball size stone!

As some of you may know, I had some problems this week with the original CRT monitor that came with my computer. So I used that excuse to get me a new toy. I purchased a 21" LCD Flat-screen and installed it yesterday. I can't believe the difference it makes! I love this thing.

I'm still getting used to it and the fact that it's so much bigger than my original one I'm able to push it back on the desk gaining much needed space. The images are so much more  vibrant giving  more life to my sunsets than they even had before!

I have to admit that  the visit of a hummingbird to my porch is better than getting a crazy expensive car. For one, I really hate to spend my hard earned money, and hummingbirds to me just say 'Everything is right with the World' I know it's  a simplistic view, but that's ok. In my world, birds, flowers, and sunsets are what's important.

After a short hiatus my sunsets are back! I hope you enjoy seeing what nature has had to offer lately.;

Here's a few images taken while looking out my window. The Downy Woodpecker momma seems to be busy collecting seeds so she can properly raise her young.

And the Goldfinch seem to know it's almost Spring and are molting into their most colorful feathers. I love it when these beautiful golden creatures come to visit.

This is the third and final in a set of articles I've written about the Saint Patrick's Parade in our town last weekend. The first article was about the Pet Contest, the second was about the folks and floats in the parade and this one is about all the cool cars in the parade. There were lots of different car clubs, individuals and companies entered in the car event. There were Volkswagen's, Mustang's, Cadillac, Model T's and even an old hearse! There were some cars I couldn't identify as well. But you could tell each one was a source of pride for the owners. I was really amazed at how many there were, they seemed to go on forever!

As you probably already know, I attended our First Annual St. Pat's Celebration last weekend and took so many pictures I killed my battery. The mood was festive and it was tons of fun. On this article I'm posting the parade pictures, I already posted the Pet Contest here and will be posting an another today with all the old cars that were in the parade.

I attended our first annual "Irish Pet Contest and Parade" last weekend and boy was it fun! It was a cool day with a forecast of rain, but I decided to go anyway and wasn't disappointed.  The rain held off until almost the end of the parade so I only got a "little" wet. Luckily, I had all the pictures I wanted so the camera was tucked away safe and dry. Anyway, I got so many pictures, that I'm going to publish in two articles. One for today, and one of the actual parade for Friday.

The mood of the day was festive, the color of the day was green, and fun was had by all! The pets and owners queued at the foot of the Jefferson Ave Footbridge on Commercial St. And I think the pets were as excited as their owners!

As I mentioned yesterday about the Moon this weekend being the Biggest Full Moon in Decades, I had to see if I could get some images of it. I wasn't able to shoot it when it was coming up in the east, so I settled for a 3:30am. viewing. I'm sure if you go out tonight right after sunset and look east you will see a spectacular sight! Anyway, once I got out there, all I could see were fast moving clouds and the Moon peeking out once in a while. The first two images are what I saw. Maybe an hour later the clouds had cleared and I got the last two.

These photographs are a feature called Weekend-Exposure, a feature of Newsvine Photographers.

What can I say, I'm hooked on sunsets! The image on the right is an attempt of capturing the moon this morning.The clouds had other ideas. By the way, this weekend would be a perfect time for you to check the moon out as it is rising. I posted a seed regarding this here:

Biggest Full Moon in Decades to Appear This Weekend, so be sure to keep an eye out!
THE GIST

* Due to the moon's elliptical orbit, it will appear 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter.
* The moon will become full early on Sunday morning.
* The last time the full moon was so big and close to Earth was in March 1993.

I can't believe we only had one day with enough sun and no clouds to get my usual sunset picture, but it's the truth. The sky was cloud free and an interesting color of yellow by the time I decided to go out. I was afraid it would be a boring picture so I almost didn't bother. I'm glad I did, as the first might not be that great, I really like the zoomed in shot. Hopefully we will have more days like yesterday very soon.

The sun has returned with a bang this week! Each night it's gotten cloudy just as the sun is setting. However, by keeping an eye to the sky, I was able to capture it just before dipping below the horizon. It's been all about timing. I already posted one of them on Wednesday, but have some more to show today.