The Great Puddle

A melting snow bank in my driveway made for a unique photo opportunity.

Go On, You Can Have It

It's a free couch for the taking. I've gotta say, I've never seen a couch thrown up, high on a snow bank with a "free" sign attached to it before. It really stood out to me and thankfully I had my camera by my side.

Smile For The Camera

Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas to you and your family. Thank you for stopping by on the days that you do to make this photo blog what it is.

Woolly Mammoth Spotted In Cottage Grove

That's right, this life sized Woolly Mammoth made of chicken wire and wood frame, hay, some rope and a great imagination can be found along Highway 61 in Cottage Grove.

No Access

A view down one of the streets in Cottage Grove.

Natures Artwork

Snow, Wind, melting, wind, more wind....oh what fun nature has with blowing and drifting snow.

Winter Is Here To Stay

Blistering cold temps have set into the Twin Cities. The morning wake up weather should be around -7 F (-21 C), however, we are suppose to see a rise in temps throughout the day and should top +18 F (-7 C). The good news is, according to the calendar, we only have six more days until the first official day of winter!!

Impressive Tree House

I drove past this two story tree house last month where there as still a few leaves on the tree. I waited until the remainder of the leaves fell off to return here for a photo opportunity. The tree house is quite impressive and sticks out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood. I can imagine how much fun this would be in my younger days.

Passing By

Painting The Night Sky

The Green Train

A Splash Of Color

Lets start your Monday off with a colorful macro shot.

Coming Soon

This is what it's like to grill outdoors during a Minnesota winter....

Friday Reflections

Lazy Sunday

Fall Colors At The Pond

Nothing But Net

Earlier in the year, a storm rolled through town with lots of lightning.

Goose Bumps

Reflections

In between the rain showers, I managed to snap a few shots at a Cottage Grove pond. I don't believe this body of water qualifies as a lake.

Walking Path

Snowy days are almost here....

More Snow

Another capture from last weeks unusually early snow storm in October....

And I'm Back

Where did I go? I didn't go anywhere, but I did spend a lot of time sleeping. It turned out, I had 100% of the H1N1 symptoms. Yep, the 'swine flu' caught me and caught me good last week. I just didn't really have the energy to turn on my computer for a few days. I had heard late in the summer they predicted the H1N1 would peak in October, before the vaccine would be available. I believe we are pretty close to peaking. So, the good news is, now that I've had H1N1, there is no need for me to get the vaccine.

But alas, I have returned to the daily photo and will start off with a simple indoor photo and back to the Twin Cities photos tomorrow.

We Set A Record

My understanding is, the last measurable snowfall in the Twin Cities has set a record. Four inches of snow fell on Monday, this is the earliest record we've ever had that amount of snow falling in the Twin Cities. We're not alone, I'm sure you've noticed the cooler temperatures where ever you are reading this.

About 48 hours after the snowfall, all of my plants are dead, I've seen several trees where ALL of the leaves have fallen off the trees over night. Like that, winter has started.

Very Early Snowfall

I had to do it, I had to break out the camera for this season's second snowfall in Cottage Grove. A few days earlier it had snowed, but melted before I could get a fresh battery in my camera. This snowstorm produced quite a bit of snow with plenty of photo opportunities. This was very wet and heavy snowfall while many of the trees still had their leaves. This was also a very early snowstorm for us as you can tell by all of the green in the photo.

Goodnight Vehicles

Theme Day: "Contrast"

Greetings fellow CityDailyPhoto bloggers as you make your way through all of October's 'contrast' theme day. The photo I've selected with outrageous contrasting colors was taken in my flower garden over the summer. It features a macro shot of a katydid resting on my lily's. He really stood out with the bright orange background. I initially thought a leaf had blown onto the lily, but a second glance, I realized it was an insect. Ran into the house to grab my camera and hoped it would still be there for my return. Success!

To see additional theme day photos around the world, stop by the portal page for a convenient thumbnail view of all participants. As the time zone changes each hour, more photos will be added.

Pee Wee Football

Nighttime Pee Wee football in Cottage Grove is in full swing. My son is playing for the Purple Panthers this year. They are the team on the right side. He was playing in the leftside wide receiver for this game. With the action on the field and the setting sun, I had to set my ISO to a very high level. This of course caused the grainy photo, thus I lost any ability to zoom in with my point and shoot camera. If your monitor is adjusted correctly, it wont be too dark of a photo for you. The red sky made for very decent opportunity for capturing photos this evening.

Self Portrait

So tell me, which one would you guess is me?

Night Time Pine

Nighttime falls on this row of pine trees at Pine Glen Park in Cottage Grove

Almost Harvest Time

From my personal garden, it's getting close to harvest time.

Red Sky Delight

I am enjoying the red sky sunsets here at the end of summer. No doubt they are due to the unfortunate California wild fires.

Fantasy Football Draft

Live from my garage, is the Fantasy Football auction draft headquarters for the league that I run. The evening temperatures were very cooperative and cool this year compared to last years high temps and high humidity. The new edition for this years football draft was the television set to watch the Vikings football game. As you can see, only one is actually watching the game, the rest were intensely debating their next player selection. Good luck to all who play fantasy football this year....well, except for the guys in my league.

Cottage Grove Football

Football season is just starting up. Today's photo is from the Cottage Grove Football Pee Wee division. It is for the boys heading into 5th and 6th grade. This scrimmage between the purple and blue teams was held this week. It's the final scrimmage before the first real game takes place on Saturday morning. In case you are wondering, my son is on the Purple Panthers team.

Quite The Sunset Tonight

What an amazing color the sky was tonight. I was at my son's football scrimmage for about two hours, with the sunset during the evening. Thankfully I had a clearing to get a photo or two of it. This photo, aside from cropping, is not color tweaked from a graphic program.

Wild Weather

The Twin Cities has seen some substantial thunderstorms roll through this area the past couple of nights. A combination of humid weather from the Gulf combined with a cool front from the north have made for a couple of interesting evenings. Friday evening, I had minor power outages, to the point where I powered my computer off line for the evening. Saturday night, I didn't see any rain around my part of town, but 20 miles north of me say a nasty storm pass through with reports of tornado touchdowns and 65+ miles per hour winds. Sunday we'll get the reports of any storm damage that occurred.

Blooming Day

Every year I wait for my Stargazer Lily's to bloom....this was the week! Naturally I had to photograph them in full bloom. I really need to find more of this type to plant or figure out if these can be split or how to grow more stems.

Not Yet, But Soon

Currently it's for planting corn, but one day, the corn will be gone and a road with houses will be in it's place....

Still Of The Night

At the end of the day, all that remains is the outlines of the trees.

The Show

Captured during the July 4 fireworks show in Cottage Grove at Kingston Park.

Sparkling Effects

It's time for some fun with sparklers....plus my kids like it when I put photos they were a part of on this photo blog.

 

Firework Show

Captured on the 4th of July during the fireworks show in Cottage Grove. The event is held each year at Kingston Park.

Garden Tour 2009

From my garden, to my camera, to the blog. Fresh flowers on the rise.

Keeping Dry

One thing I discovered while taking photos of lightning last Wednesday was be prepared for the rain. Thank goodness I was within 15 feet of my garage when the rain started falling from the sky or my camera would have gotten soaked. I'm making a mental note, if I'm out taking photos of lightning, have a plastic bag to throw over the camera handy to keep the rain drops out.

While I was watching the rain fall, I snapped a couple of photos between my vehicles parked in the driveway. I really like the effect the rain had on the street lights.

More From The Roof

The view down my neighborhood from my rooftop. This fall, after the leaves drop, I need to return up here for a sunset photo or two. Currently there are too many leaves to see the sun set, but come winter, this may be a good location.

Roof Project - Day 3

Final day of the roof replacement project on my home. A big thank you goes out to my friends that helped me, I couldn't have done it without your help. Finally the end of the project is here. Very tiring work and I certainly wont be quitting my day job to do this kind of work. Very taxing on your body.

Roof Project - Day 2

We've completed day number two of the roof project. It's coming along very well so far. The front side of my home is completely shingled, the backside of my home, plus my porch will be finished up tomorrow afternoon. I'm dead tired, no surprise there.

Roof Project - Day 1

Today I'm posting a "before" photo of the roof of my home. It was in dire need of replacement. Sadly, the shingles are only 15 years old, but they were a "organic" shingle and didn't really last like they claimed. These shingles were on when I purchased my home, so it was out of my hands what was up there. Needless to say, the roof is being replace prematurely.

Today was all about demolition. I took the day off from work to remove the shingles, by myself. I'm sore, I ache, I am tired and my body hurts. I needed to have the shingles removed before all of my help arrives Saturday morning. Everything is coming along fairly well. I have the main part of the house completely removed. All that is left are the shingles on the porch, which is around 280 square feet.