Time is something I obsess about when things aren't going well. I either have an overabundance of time or a lack thereof. The study of Time is called Horology and in 2012 that's my plan ... to study it so I can make better use of it.
Good Morning World. The Catholic Church in Henry, South Dakota got a brand spankin' new red metal roof this fall. Talk about sharp ... I love it.
What little snow we have had is nearly gone and the chances for a White Christmas aren't good. That's very rare here, in addition to temperatures in the high 30's. Yet we are all busy here on The Prairie with preparations for the Holiday. 
My Letter To The Editor was printed in yesterday's Public Opinion. 
There is no better feeling than screaming down the highway and seeing something that takes your breath away. For me, it's a must stop situation. This happens to me often here on The Prairie. It's a rare occasion for me to ignore the call to capture a scene that may only last a moment or so. 
These trees are ours. They border the north side of our 3.22 acres. The dirt belongs to a guy named Steve, who rents it out to a guy named Nathan. Nathan just harvested his wheat and what you see here, the soil, is all glacial debris that has traveled from Canada with the glaciers. It's very handy to be married to a Scientist. 
Yesterday morning the Sun was a Girl. I knew that to the tips of my own Girlie toes.
I took this photograph yesterday evening at a benefit for our Codington County Heritage Museum. Bernie Hunhoff, the founder of South Dakota Magazine, was the entertainment. He's a very funny guy and told some great stories on people from around here.
Half of my heart is back in Custer tumbling along with this vivid band of storm clouds. See 9 September for an additional view.
I typically find beautiful Architecture in this part of the world in the buildings along main streets of our small towns. 
If more people would spend more time looking up, there would be less negative energy. Period. I shot this last month in The Badlands.
"One ought to feel one's relation to things ... to others." At Sky Watch Friday we are doing just that.
My soul singing Sky Watch photo tells you exactly what our days are now like, here on The Prairie. It's nearly Fall and there is so much to sing about. See what we sound like at http://www.skyley.blogspot.com.
Ron and I took an amazing 10 day camping trip to The Black Hills recently. Ruby Thursday came along and the three of us shared a tent behind Al, Cheryl, and Chris, in their luxurious Avignon with all of the conveniences necessary to take the bite out of "Roughing It". Our first evening there we took a beautiful drive to check out our surroundings. As we neared the turn into the campground the clouds around us moved together and formed this amazing spectacle. Al and I grabbed our cameras and began shooting. It was difficult to pick just one photograph for Sky Watch Friday. I chose this one for the effect of the trees on the mountain and how they matched the color of the clouds. I really do live an amazing life ... and if it's out there, I'm going to capture it. Check out Sky Watch Friday when you leave here. You have friends around the world who want to show you what they captured for you too.
On the way home from our camping trip in Custer State Park we went through the Bad Lands. It was a drizzly day and the rain's moisture penetrated the colors in an amazing way. A few of my friends from Custer made their way into this photo. Love from The Prairie ... have a great Labor Day.
The soft blue sky is a great backdrop to the vivid erosion of The Badlands. Just that. And it's great to be back home. See what your other peeps are up to at http://www.skyley.blogspot.com
I take all of my photographs in color these days but some of them are just meant to be black and white. I followed this amazing cloud two weeks ago, shooting around it as much as I possibly could. This one was taken at Lake Pelican near the end of the road we live on. It's in a show that will be up during the month of September at the Goss Opera House. It's called "Too Soon Moon" ... I love my job.
My camera is a priority ... it goes most everywhere with me. I look at things before me, all around me, up above and down below me. I have an appreciation for most everything, especially if it is beautiful, interesting, funny, or sad ... the list of adjectives goes on and on. So when I take a photograph it's because I am on to something. And around the World there are people with cameras who think like I think and do what I do. See what they are on to at http://www.skyley.blogspot.com
Last week we took our friends Karen and Lee to DeSmet to see where Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up. Karen lives in China and Lee lives in Indianapolis. They both read these books as children and Karen actually learned to speak German by watching the Little House On The Prairie reruns while living there. I had a difficult time disassociating Michael Landon with the place. So here's one for Pa Ingalls ... the church on the road up to the Farm. See what your Earth family has to show and tell at Sky Watch Friday.
The object in perspective here is what I believe to be a planet. You might see what it looks like from the other side at http://skyley.blogspot.com/
I visited my cousins on their Farm near Ipswich, South Dakota last weekend. We walked the property while the sun was setting on Saturday evening. I wandered off to find the soft light of the pastel sky and it's interesting contrast to the 100 year old roof of this building. SKY WATCH FRIDAY ...
I am in love. My new Girlfriend's name is Bambette. She is beautiful and came through my back yard this morning while I was having coffee on the porch. She was nibbling on my white flowering crab apple tree. She can have it. Ron put a feeder out for her and filled it with corn. xoxo from The Prairie. Did I mention that I love my life?
I have perches. I go to them when the sky speaks to me. It can take me quite a while to arrive home when it's evening and I have been in town. All my Family needs to do to know where I am is to look up. My extended Family has been looking up too ... see what they came up with at http://www.skyley.blogspot.com. They are your Family too.
Here on The Prairie the first Peony to open is a big deal. They follow the Lilacs ... but it's not a competition. The Peony blossom sets a pattern for itself, and then does not follow. The frail layers, the color, the zest, the passion ... and the fragrance? Why that's the smell of Love.
I am an Episcopalian ... that's Catholic Lite, 1/3 less guilt. Yesterday we celebrated Pentecost, the birth of the church. We said a prayer for the Planet ... this is what the service meant to me. This is how I witness.
I am in a silly mood. It's going to last the rest of my life. I am certain. There are other skies and other moods around this silly world at http://www.skyley.blogspot.com
I am a Rabbit. I have a clue for a friend ... it's east of Mount Rushmore.
One of my Grandmother's greatest joys in life was going for a ride in the country. After loosing her husband as a young wife, she moved her children into town from off of the farm and went to work for Herberger's. 
If I were a handsome Rabbit at lunch time on The Prairie and I could munch this beautiful Gazania blossom instead of a piece of tree bark, no doubt, I would choose the blossom. Lucinda B. Rabbit might want to join me. She would be impressed by the crunchy texture of the Gazania's center followed by it's sweet tart petals. Maybe she would want to see more of me. A handsome Rabbit can only dream of her soft Bunny nose as it twitches. She doesn't even know me.
Most of my backyard sunsets are incredibly interesting. Many of my sunsets are spectacular. I call them mine because they happen in my backyard. Your Peeps at Sky Watch Friday are covering the rest of the Planet. http://www.skyley.blogspot.com
I love lettuce. The rabbits around here love it too ... and the German Shepherd here on The Prairie can only do so much. Sioux Valley Nursery is selling pots of lettuce that are ready to eat. You cut the 6 mixed varieties down right away and eat them so that you will have more in 10 days. So far so good and there is plenty coming right back. Isn't it beautiful? Sorry rabbits.
Feeding the world is a responsibility we take seriously here on The Prairie. We watch the skies for plenty of sun and the perfect amount of rain. 480 acres of wheat surround us and the vegetable garden that Mister Keller planted yesterday. Drops of rain fell through the night and everything is just as it should be. Unless, of course, the world ends this afternoon ... In that case, you might want to check out skies around the world at http://www.skyley.blogspot.com
I am crazy about editing and bringing many of my photographs to a totally different level from where they begin. Many of my shots need that because I take them that way. Sometimes I already know what's going to happen.
The leaves on my western shelter belt trees are busy turning green. Spring winds push the clouds along from there to here. My porch provides a perfect spot to catch this vivid entertainment. On Sky Watch Friday I'm paying attention for all of us ... and I love taking my editing up a notch or two just for you. No link to other posts today due to technical issues. Have a great weekend. xoxo from The Prairie.
I like that I save things. I have been saving, as opposed to hoarding, all my life. For the past month I've been working on going through those awful cardboard boxes labeled "Momentos" ... my Boyfriend has been going though the photographs and slides. We are no longer cluttered. We are close to being a family of recycled plastic tubs with labels. Oprah would be proud. There are Sky Watch photographers and their stories at http://www.skyley.blogspot.com
This adorable baby boy Goat, just five days old, snuggled up against my bare neck last week. He lives at Sioux Valley Nursery. My Spring is really just beginning here on The Prairie. And everything old is truly new again at Easter.
The Prairie has the most beautiful and fertile soil on the Planet. So when that soil has been covered with snow for a good long while I can't help but notice its beauty in the Spring. While last years corn stalks are still standing, making up the hint of brown, underneath it is jet black. The clouds gather in the distance to complete the picture. 
I stopped in Sioux Valley Nursery this afternoon for the first time this season. I've been decluttering at my house so I wasn't ready to buy anything. I'm focused on Easter Week and having a great Spring and Summer. The Gardenias smelled just as heavenly as they looked.
Although there is actually a nice Wintery Mix in our forecast. Mother Nature is a tease. See what she's up to on the other side of the Earth at http://www.skyley.blogspot.com
I have been photographing this grove of trees for almost 4 years. The melted snow has become what appears to be a new lake. What remains appears to be a shore. As for the sky ... this is likely the last of the wintry clouds. They have become big, puffy, and rolling for summer. They have to do that. It's their job.
I have a Sun Porch full of Geraniums. I buy them in Spring for my tall black pots along the garage. I can't stand to let them go in the Fall so I cut them all back, dig them all up, and move them all indoors ... thinking all the while that I'll put them back in the Spring. But I don't. Sioux Valley Nursery opens this weekend. And Geraniums will be the first thing I buy.
A group of geese on the ground is called a gaggle; when geese fly in formation they are called a wedge or a skein. There's a whole lot of shakin' going on here on the Prairie ... and it's Spring around the World at http://www.skyley.blogspot.com 
This is for F. Carter Smith ... from my Junior League of Houston Star of Texas Cookbook. 
I'm going to stay OUT of the moment for a while. My feet are really not tanned and dusty these days. And there isn't a thing in my Garden that's green. But I was going through photographs today and couldn't leave this one behind.
