Passion Fruit

I feel a certain amount of passion for a good mango.  Not a Minnesota mango.  But an ugly black spotted but perfectly ripe one picked right from the tree and purchased for peanuts.  I ate a mango just like that in Costa Rica this month.  Thank you Uvita farmer's market.  I paired it with a fried egg sandwich. The bread for that was purchased from a snooty french bakery in Ojochal.  The eggs were bought in a store.  But when you taste them you know they are snatched from chickens that live the pura vida lifestyle.  Well, obviously I enjoy a good breakfast.  And when you eat it on a warm morning by the ocean in Costa Rica it's all the better.

Passion is the www.illustrationfriday.com theme this week.  I painted this years ago.  In fact, the passionate fruit admirer is part of an advertisement.  I don't use images like that anymore.  The melding of woman and ocean is all me.  My favorite part is the mango that is a sea urchin.  Hmmm, come to think of it that is one culinary delight that I have yet to savour.  Someday...maybe.

The Signs of Fall

Dragonflies are dragging their feet about leaving.

The red berries are ready for migrating birds.  (although I have no idea if they eat these)

 Mushrooms are exploding onto the scene.  This one was the size of a dinner plate.

 People heart Fall.  

We're all talking turkey.  (And eating.  Hee, hee.)

Yellow leaves sparkle in the sun.

There are so many mushrooms you could say they grow on trees.  

Now if we could just say the same about money. 

The wild flowers lose their petals.

The views are tinged with rust and gold.  Just like life.  

All these photos were taken at Westwood Hills and Spring Lake Park this Fall.  For more birds visit Wild Bird Wednesday

And for more turkeys......take a gander below.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Leaves For Leontien

I planned on posting the continuation of my Duluth, MN post.  I'll post the birds from Hawk Ridge in a couple weeks. I'm waiting because it came to my attention that Leontien needed help from her blog followers and from anyone who has been touched by cancer.  Basically everyone has had a loved one stricken at some point in their lives.  I know I have.  A blog hop at A Rural Journal has been set up for Leontien to visit and hopefully feel surrounded by good will.  Healing leaves will be fluttering across the screen for some time to come.  Here are mine...  

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

A weekend on the river...

What a bonus!  It was 80 degrees this weekend.  The Sun was shining, the Honeycrisps and pumpkins were ripe and the leaves were brilliantly colored.  We weren't even planning one more trip to our favorite pizza place. The Nelson Stone Barn.  But we were lucky enough to get a bonus weekend on the river.  Our first stop was for apples.  A whopping $50 for a big bag of Honeycrisps.  Holy Cow.  I guess you have to be a Millionaire to eat apples these days.  Then we hiked on over to Maiden Rock bluff.

Enjoy the view.  Then read this interesting tale about Maiden Rock...

Princess Winona (Princess We-Noh-Nah) is the central Native American character in a "Lover's Leap" romantic legend set at Maiden Rock on the Wisconsin side of Lake Pepin in the United States. Princess Winona leaps to her death from Maiden Rock rather than marry a suitor she does not love.^[1]There are several variations of the story. Winona's father is sometimes said to be Chief Red Wing of what is now Red Wing, Minnesota or Chief Wabasha (Wapasha) of a village identified as Keoxa, now known as Winona, Minnesota. Rather than marry a suitor she does not love, Winona chooses to leap from the cliff of Maiden Rock to her death. Who the suitor is depends on the version of the tale. Some versions featured him as a French trapper; others say he is an Indian of another tribe.

In the traditional Dakota language, "Winona" is not a personal name, but a general term for a first-born child of any class distinction who happens to be female.

The concept of the central figure as a "princess" is in keeping with a European-American stereotype about Native American "princesses." In fact, the Sioux do not have an equivalent title for "princess" in any of the major dialects.^[2]

Today "Winona" has become regularly used as a personal and place name throughout the United States.

A train chugs down the tracks.

A yellow explosion.

No Fall trip is complete without a visit to a pumpkin patch.

Who is this goofball?

A feather in Pepin.

Look at the sunset creeping down through the window of the old barn pilings.  A bottle of vino, a romantic setting and a fantastic pizza just pulled from a burning hearth.  Life is good.

The Loser Files...

I have an uninterrupted losing streak over at Joan's blog  She has a monthly photo contest.  But at least my photos are winners to me!  Because they are my photo memories.  Especially my cat Akua.  He's my baby after all.  The theme was cats and dogs.  

 A leaf for a Fall theme.

Cows grazing for a food theme.  They are food (gulp) plus they are eating.  Poor cows. 

 White flowers for a White theme.

A Green parrot for a Green theme.

 A snowman for a Christmas theme. 

 This is one of my favorite travel photos.  We are sitting at the top of a Mayan ruin at Tikal in Guatamala. Do you see the other pyramids peeking over the jungle in the background?  Seeing Tikal was an amazing experience.  Calgon take me away right now!  I wish I was on a new adventure as we speak. Oh, and this was for a shoes theme!

A weathered and worn mailbox for a mailbox theme.  There were only 3 entries so I thought I might have a chance.  But no winner was selected!  My bad.

Beautiful Spring trees for a tree theme.  Loser.

But you might be a winner.  Have you read my toemail post below?  O.K.  I know these blog awards are kind of silly.  But I played along and forwarded the good, the bad and the lovely.  Are you feeling lovely...Punk?

For more winning photos visit Sunday Best!  

  

Hibernate

It is Friday again already. And that means it is www.illustrationfriday.com day. I picked an old illustration from my story, Sidney the Unstoppable Squirrel. I thought it would be perfect to follow my last chipmunk post. In my illustration Carmen the chipmunk is popping out of her hole to say hello to Sidney the squirrel. I sure gave Carmen a weird hole to hibernate in. All it needs is a manhole cover and she could be on the streets of New York. I'm sure that the chipmunks in our yard have been much more selective with their den placement. I know our little friend from my previous post put hers underneath our deck. And with all the corn she has stored up for Winter it must be huge! I don't think chippers actually hibernate so much as they sleep for long periods and then wake up for a snack. Kind of like a teenager I guess.