Hard to believe, but there was a time when I didn't care for hydrangeas. When I started seeing all the different colors and varieties, I changed my mind. The white ones pictured above grew at my house in Maryland. They are pretty basic, but they are definitely pretty! The last couple years I've enjoyed seeing the interesting color varieties of hydrangeas available at the garden center, and maybe now that I have a house where we can plant something, we'll add one or more of these to the yard.
Hydrangeas are even pretty once they fade and the leaves have dropped, at least in my opinion.
For the letter I, I turned to the Latin name. This is Ipomoea, commonly called Morning Glory.
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This week the Sunday Stills prompt turns our attention to animals found on a zoo or farm. Pretty much any animal might be found in a zoo, I guess, and I have always enjoyed visits to the zoo. But I'm focusing on a few farm animals today.
I've never owned a horse, and it's been years since I went riding, but in my opinion, there are few animals as beautiful as horses.
These horses and their donkey companion belonged to our neighbors in Maryland, and were pretty friendly. Usually it made me feel so fortunate to look out over my backyard and see horses or other farm animals grazing peacefully.
And when the weather was not so good, we marvelled that animals were generally okay out there! They had a nice barn to take shelter in whenever they wanted to!
This beautiful team was giving wagon rides at Christmastime and I was so glad to get this photo. I wish I'd got their names.
Sort of straddling the fence between farm and zoo animals are bison. While they once roamed freely in the wild, their numbers were greatly reduced and thanks to zoos, wildlife preserves, breeding programs and more, the American bison has been recovering. Like beef cattle, they are raised on farms and ranches for their meat. Bison are semi-wild and can't be domesticated to the same extent that cattle are, and the ranches require heavy duty corrals and equipment to safely handle these powerful animals. About 200,000 bison are raised on privately owned ranches for their meat. Many wildlife preserves also have bison roaming on open ranges, and it is breathtaking to see just a small herd of them and imagine what it was like to see a prairie covered with herds of hundreds or thousands!
I have seen bison out west but don't have photos of those. This fellow was at the Columbus Zoo . . .
Back to somewhat more traditional farm animals . . . cattle. Where we lived in Maryland, we were surrounded by dairy farms and quite a few of our friends were farmers. Peaceful scenes like this were part of the everyday drives in the area.
They were our neighbors, and most were quite friendly.
These calves were neighbors at the other end of the road.
I don't remember whether these were neighbors or not!
These oxen were not our neighbors, but I was impressed with their patient strength when we watched them work at a farm museum in Geneseo, New York, many years ago. Very handsome!
And I leave you with this darling little guy who was at Timbuk Farms (greenhouse and garden center) this past Christmas season.
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Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
~II Corinthians 1:3-5~
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Welcome to my ongoing challenge and reminder to myself to take photos somewhat regularly. I'm not a photographer, but I enjoy taking everyday photos of things I find interesting or want to remember later, and I'm more likely to notice interesting things when I'm intentionally watching for them. Having some prompts that are open to interpretation has helped me pay a little more attention to what's around me. Here's how it works: Every two weeks I have a few words and phrases to focus on, and I try to find opportunities to take pictures of these things each week. The link-up post will be here every other Thursday, sharing my photos and offering a link-up for participants to share theirs. Right below the link-up is where you'll find the next set of prompts.
July Prompts - Everyday Images #92
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layers
current season (quarterly)
milestone
getting ready
wings
entrance
young
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layers - the delicious layers of the Coffee Crisp bar I enjoyed for a snack at work
current season (quarterly)
milestone - red, white, and blue fireworks to celebrate America's milestone birthday! America 250!
getting ready - can't remember whether I was getting the grill heated up and ready to cook dinner, or actually getting dinner ready
wings - I gave up trying to get any photos of birds or butterflies, because I just didn't take many photos overall the past two weeks, and none of the opportunities I had to take bird photos worked out. So here is my cardinal windchimes that are in my kitchen right now, but need to be moved outside
entrance - guess we'll need to pull some weeds! It's funny that I really didn't notice them until I took the photo.
young - that's a very young me with my Mum and Dad
And a few bonus photos:
We really need to spend more time on the deck. I love it. It needs an umbrella or awning of some kind because the sun does beat down on it pretty hard in the late afternoon.
On July 3rd we went to fireworks in our city, and on the 4th we went to another suburb city for fireworks and a concert by the Wallflowers.
Furniture lined up against the wall right now, but it will get spaced out and dressed up a bit whenever I get organized.
Soon after I took this photo, we actually got a nice floor lamp, which went beside the china cabinet instead of right in front of it. haha. Slowly but surely we're getting settled and every day it feels a little more put together. It's slow because we just don't have much energy (or time) in the evenings, and this past weekend my husband had some health issues so we weren't home to work on the house.
I am sharing my photos every other Thursday, along with my prompts for the next two weeks. You can use all or some of the prompts for your own photo posts, or none of the prompts and just link up a post featuring your photos. Simple rules: Your posts must be family-friendly; the photos must be your own; and the post must be mostly photos. If you do share I'd appreciate a mention and link to A Fresh Cup of Coffee on your post.
The Everyday Images link-up is posted every other Thursday, and is open for two weeks.
This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
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