304/365: Latin teacher

Yes, it's a picture of me, which of course means I didn't take it. I wore my Kim Possible costume to school today -- and taught Latin in it. :D I think my students were amused -- I told them on Friday that I was going to dress up for Halloween, but I'm not sure they believed me! Several of them told me I should dye my hair that colour... I'm not convinced it's a good colour on me. :P

~Sil

304/365 Not in Kansas

Once again I am trying to use special effects to rescue a bad shot.

"Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again." Rick Polito's summary of Wizard of Oz

Posted by Frelga

303/365 - Halloween fun!

Ahh the fun of halloween!!!

One of the homes along the road to and from our house and town has placed a rather risque scarecrow out for all to enjoy!!

I guess it should be a full moon for Halloween this or at least that is what they are showing! ROFLMBO








Here I am showing off my costume for work tomorrow!! I just hope I can keep the pants up all day long. But it is all in fun!!! I am wearing one of our SCA shirts, a pair of SCA pants, my SCA Dagger, belt and pouch along with a pair of big boots with rolled down tops that are perfect for SCA as well. The gun I bought at work and it is a working pirates cap gun. :D I am rather pleased with the outfit all together. I even bought candy to give out at work tomorrow night!!!

Happy Halloween from my house to yours!!

Vana


Photos taken in Bow WA.

302/365: Makeshift doesn't get any worse

So, I was in Vilnius all of last week...but I haven't got time to edit and upload the photos!

So all you will get is a funny picture from Lodz:

Really, now, you'd think they would find something better to tie the construction tape to than an old, dead Christmas tree. In October! Where did they find that thing, anyway? What would they have done without it? Does the construction crew keep it in their van just for that purpose? Has it been lying in the trash since the carnival???

It made me laugh, it really did.

302/365 - A concert photo

For his birthday, I bought Wilko tickets to The Complete Stone Roses, a Stone Roses tribute band that come highly recommended - so much so that one of the original Stone Roses' band members has played with them on occasion. We went to see them on Saturday night.

They were brilliant and it was a great gig. They played my favourite song, which wasn't necessarily a given (Wilko's favourite song is I Am The Resurrection which both the Stone Roses and the Complete Stone Roses end with, so we knew he'd get to hear his!). I did video it, but the sound is rather awful, so it's going to be need a lot of touching up, if I can even manage it.

This photo isn't fabulous because we weren't that close to the stage (I had elected to stand on a box next to the lighting man, out of the way, so that I could see (I ended up being as tall as Wilko ... no Gimli and Legolas references! ;)) which turned out to be a good thing since by the end the crowd were bouncing about and the beer was flying. The floor was soaking after the gig!

The finale to the Complete Stone Roses gig

Edited to add some information about The Stone Roses (copied from my post on TORC, if you think it looks familiar! ;)):

The wiki page on The Stone Roses. They were a Manchester band that pioneered an alternative rock revival out of Manchester in the 80s and early 90s, called Madchester. The music (as opposed to the singing) is really good (if you're into indie/rock). They were pretty influential here in the UK, although I'm not sure whether they - or the bands that were formed as a result of The Stone Roses - made it across the Pond.

301/365 Let There Be Light!

One of the joys on the dark evenings of the season is lighting lanterns on the porch and yard.

I actually took this photo already about a week ago, but the scenery looks just the same this evening. The leaves in the bushes next to the fence have just turned more yellow.

Rowanberry's back yard
Espoo, Finland

300/365 Pumpkin Patch

These are our pumpkins,

all ready for carving!

Dawn/RoseMorninStar

300/365 The Waking of the Monster Seeds

In keeping with Halloween coming up:

Remember the pics I posted some weeks ago, of the magnolia in our garden having developed seed-pods? Here they are again, with the seeds now getting ready to pop out. I thought they looked like monsters who have just opened their eyes and are looking around to see who they should eat first... :D ;)

299/365: Poochie

This little doggie I took a photo of because it was so happy to see me, a total stranger - I love doggies and the name?  Smeagol!!

Taken at the new apartment location in Vancouver, WA

Jules

299/365...Two For the Price of One....

As you can see, I can't make up my mind. So you get two pics from me today.
Hope you like them. 




Dawn!



I was up real early the other day and saw what I haven't seen in months. I love sunrises.

Too Cute for Words!!

And then there are my girls. Pawkah, in the foreground, and Pawsha spreading their cuteness around.  :D 

I don't know what was holding their attention, but I'm glad I had my camera in hand for this shot. 

How can you not smile when seeing this?

Calma's Place...
Port Orchard, WA

298/365 Hummelstown

This past Sunday it was foggy and cold in the morning, so I opted out of a bike ride.  :P

Instead I went for a run and took my camera with me through nearby Hummelstown.  Here is your tour….

A co-worker has relatives (in-laws?) who own the Chatterbox Café.  Once a month or so we order lunch from there.  They don’t have a large menu, but the food is tasty and they don’t scrimp!

On the main town square stands the Warwick Hotel, which is a very old building --- they could probably get away with saying ‘George Washington slept here.’   The restaurant has a varied menu and it is also quite tasty.  The ‘habanero wings of fire’ come to mind. 

During the month of October Hummelstown has a ‘Scarecrows on the Square’ competition.  Local businesses and even individuals put up scarecrows of various themes and then stump for votes from the citizentry.  This is a collage of many of the scarecrows…some scarier than others:

Before heading home I wanted to hit a nature trail along the Swatara  Creek, but found out it was still a mess from last month’s flooding.  As I crossed a set of railroads tracks to get to the trailhead, the alarms went off, the lights flashed, and the barriers came down right behind me and a train came through in about 30 seconds.   It looks scawy in the fog.......

An old water pumping station by the creek was roped off.  A plague near the roofline shows the old high water mark from Agnes back in 1972.  This year the whole building was under water.

About 5 minutes later, as I crossed the railroad tracks again, the alarms went off, the lights flashed, and the barriers came down right behind me as another train came along on the second set of tracks going in the opposite direction!!!! 

These are busy tracks, since there is a large bi-modal transport hub only a few miles away. 

I manage to make it home without any more bells and alarms and flashing lights.  Yea! 

~Tooks in Southcentral PA

297/365: Fibre fest

On Saturday I went to the Ann Arbor Fibre Festival with luthienelflover (pictured above) and her mom. Along with booths and booths full of awesome yarns, fibres, rovings, etc., there were also angora rabbits and stalls with sheep, alpacas, and ... Humphrey the camel. This was my first encounter with a camel and I was surprised at how huge he was! But also very fuzzy and surprisingly friendly--he was loving all the attention and also trying to get into Luthy's shopping backs to see what she'd bought. :D

So much pretty yarn!!

Ann Arbor, MI

~Sil

297/365 Ringwraith

The Ringwraith

This weekend, I went to see FOTR with live orchestra, along with the lovely Teremia, who used to lead the M00bies read the b00ks thread, one of my favorite LOTR discussions of all times (look it up in Movies). They had a few exhibits, Sting and Anduril among them. As the Ringwraith stood with his back to the window, resulting in a less than perfect shot, I decided to get a bit fancy with the special effects. This one is called The Ansel.

Frelga

296/365 - Marshall Arts Practices for our SCA group

There are several areas that folks practice for their arts for the SCA.

The first here is Thrown Weapons. Whether they be daggers, hatchets or spears, one needs practice to get these items to embed themselves into the targets for points

In this picture if you look closely you can see his dagger in mid flight by the boarded window of this shed.






Then there is the Heavy Fighters! These guys make their own armor and chainmail for fighting. The swords they carry are real but for combat they use hard padded swords so that they do not injure seriously the other guy. They get plenty of bumps and bruises from the impact of hitting each other with these padded swords. They make their own shields as well from wood and metal and then place their symbol upon the shield.

In this practice the older fighter in the long chainmail is instructing the younger fighter how to block and why he needs to watch his legs as well as his head and chest.

Then there are the Archers!! This is Rodri Glynglas (Ryan my darling) shooting at the target. Usually at events we have three targets with which to aim at set up at intervals of 20 yards, 30 yards and 40 yards. Here he is shooting at 20 yards.

The weather today was perfect for practice. Yesterday it rained to beat the band but today the sun was shining and the Bald Eagles were soaring overhead!!!


Photos taken by Vana on Hiway 20 near Anacortes WA.

296/365: Last day at Fabryczna Station

Last weekend, the Łódź Fabryczna train station closed. The outdated station is going to be completely rebuilt- we are promised an international, modern, magical and futuristic transit hub, and although no designs or plans have ever been seen by the public, one fact is true: old Fabryczna is closed, and all trains are being redirected to other stations. 

This is just one of the reasons I've started taking buses instead of trains- I feel bad ecologically, but I really don't need to go all the way across town to take a dirty, uncomfortable carriage for twice the price and no time gain. Even if Fabryczna was the station I always came and went from. There are a lot of memories there.

Anyway, in this photo we see the final party at Fabryczna- the city was supposed to host an official closing gala, it decided it did not have the money, so a few local artists set up an impromptu volunteer stage on the steps. It was bitterly cold, but quite a few people came to listen. Top left, you can see a mentally disabled, homeless woman dancing like crazy- she rocked out to every single band. I hope she wasn't relying on the station to shelter her in winter. It will be closed for the next four years.

On the other hand, no one is certain when construction will begin, so maybe what has just been created is a temporary homeless heaven!

Goodbye, Fabryczna.

~Ro in Lodz

P. S. for the curious, Fabryczna means 'pertaining to the factory'. Lodz was an industrial town and this station was first built in 1885 by the factory owner Karol Schiebler in order to transport merchandise.

295/365... Holding heliona's Place...

PEANUT!!!!

This is from a few months back when the weather was good and the squirrels were hungry. Well, I suppose they're hungry all the time, but oh well.
This little fella came busting out of the bush and all but did a swan dive on the peanut hidden in the grass then scampered back to the bush so no one would get his prize.  :D

Calma's backyard
Port Orchard, WA.


Just keeping the place warm for heliona, (who will post later) and Rodia.

295/365 - Personalised M&Ms

So, as you all know, I was at my brother's wedding on Saturday. It was a brilliant event, with brilliant weather. However, the wind was also bitterly cold, which means that sadly I didn't take many photos of the grounds (which were beautiful) because I was too busy trying to stay warm (and also tottering about a lawn in high heels isn't conducive to taking photos either!).

However, at the wedding breakfast, there were these little bowls of M&Ms on the table. Upon closer inspection, I saw that they warranted being photographed. :D

Very cool M&Ms!

294/365 Fallen Leaves

So, my first contribution. :D

The autumn storm earlier this week blew a lot of leaves from the nearby trees to our back yard, which yesterday looked like this:

I think that the hubby will do some raking this weekend.


Rowanberry
Espoo, Finland

293/365 Sunny autumn weekend

An old friend of Martin's was near Cologne on business last week and came over here to visit for the weekend. As the weather was beautifully sunny, we went on a little outing on both Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday we went to the "Drachenfels", a mountain a little south of Bonn (about 45mins from here) overlooking the Rhine, crowned by an old castle ruin and rewarding the climb with some spectacular views.

On Sunday we went for a hike in the hilly countryside east of Cologne - a lovely mix of farm and pasture land with forest and brooks and just enough hillyness to keep the walk interesting without being too challenging.

We were especially lucky to find that the end of our walk, which we had expected to be a small village and hoped for a pub there, turned out to be a former monastery turned into a major conference hotel-cum-café with a huge outdoor terrace, where we could bask in the autum sunshine while enjoying not only a view over meadow and forest, but also the typical local afternoon dish: waffles with hot cherries, cream and ice-cream:

Yum! :D

293/365 Since I got nothin'

I realized I really hadn't taken any photos this week.. 

so here are are few more from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

 The Ferry that takes people across the lake or on tours around the lake. It looks like an old riverboat.









The house below is an adorable Bed & Breakfast. It's for sale! Anyone want a business in Lake Geneva?

A cute little hobby car for someone. I don't think it has room for any children. 

Dawn/RoseMorninStar       

292/365: Shrubbery

On the route to and from work:

This display is on a corner lot and I "notice" it every single time I drive by to and from work.  Something pleasing about it to my eye, so I figured it was a good representation of something in my neck of the woods that I enjoy.

Jules

Vancouver, WA

292/365.....Kitchen Witch....

Good Food Guarenteed

My good luck Kitchen Witch. Hang her up and you will never burn a meal. My mother gave her to me as part of her wedding gift. That was 34 years ago and she has hung in all my kitchens since. (3) Upon our first move, I was too busy setting up house to put her up and I burned the crap out of dinner. She went up immediately. As you can see, she is well used and still going strong for I have not burned a meal in over 30 years.

　

Calma’s kitchen….


Port Orchard, WA

291/365

This past Sunday I had the bright idea to ride my bike along the greenbelt to downtown Harrisburg.  Unfortunately, I found out a part of the 'belt' is gravel instead of paved.  My bike doesn't do so well on gravel, so I turned around and vowed to find a way around the gravelly part for a future ride.  :P

On my way back home I rode through a short underpass.....

.....and saw something I missed the first time through. On the opposite wall was a single piece of graffiti .....

I thought it was lovely.  :D


~Tooks in Southcentral PA

291/365 - Occupy Milwaukee

 

Went out to the Occupy Wall Street day on October 15.  Got a bunch of pictures, but these are my favorites.  I've never actually been to a protest, as my natural cynicism leads me to doubt the notion of my appearance on the street to be a significant factor at these sorts of things.  But I find I wish I had gone to the pro-union protests in Madison earlier this year, just to be a part of the crowd, and I thought this would make up for it.  While there were the expected anti-Scott Walker, pro-union, anti-corporate greed participants, there was actually a wider range of viewpoints represented than I would have thought, including Ron Paul libertarians and Guy Fawkes-mask wearing anarchists wielding signs about the fluoride conspiracy.  The protest itself was alright, but I just can't get over the simple fact that all the marching and chanting in the world won't make a difference if the business tycoons and politicians don't want it to.  These protests seek immediate action, but change only comes slowly if at all in this country: with luck at the pace of the election cycles; without, well...

-Krawler

290/365: Wigged out

My dad is building me a bookshelf to hold all of my wigs; until then, they're just sitting in various places in my bedroom, staring at me with their blank (and sometimes non-existent) wig-head eyes! *Tremble, shudder, twitch* ;) Happy early Halloween?

(Also pictured is part of my reference collection, so when the wig zombies attack me, I can whack them with the Oxford Latin Dictionary--bwaahahahaa!)

~Sil

290/365 Elkhorn Slough

From our recent trip to Elkhorn Slough - a curved tidal marsh and part-time estuary (the creek dries out in the summer) South of Santa Cruz. Slough is pronounced "slew," go figure.

Chasing lunch

The seagull was stalking the otter, hoping to snatch its hard-earned clam. What the seagull didn't know is that otters have learned to eat seagull! Both critters survived this encounter unharmed. The otter finished eating and dove, leaving only a trail of bubbles of air pushed out of its dense fur.

7-3=?

I forgot what those birds are called. I bet Tooks knows.



No, you can't sit with us. Sheesh!

 Pelicans are being mean to a cormorant. Don't be sad, little cormorant. You will make friends soon.

Posted by Frelga