Thanks Marcie!

Hi
   I am back and want to thank Marcie SO MUCH for the great posts while I was gone.  I really appreciate it!  Photo uploads are disabled right now, so I will post tomorrow!!!

pumpkin patch

You know it's fall and almost Holloween when the grounds at Grace Methodist Church are covered with pumpkins. They have every size and shape for your jack-o-lantern carvings, or if you are talented enough to make a pumpkin pie from scratch.

Historic Homes

The Grand Dame of all the historic houses is located at 9th and Monroe. This one is very dear to me because my family  owned it from 1946 to 1955. This is not a  recent picture of it, when I went to get a photo of it to post, I was shocked at the condition it's in now. I'd rather remember how it looked in it's prime which this photo deplicts.

Historic Homes

This is my grandfather Ed Beal and his mother in 1947. They spent 7 years restoring the house because when they bought it, it was in terrible disrepair. The ground floor even had chickens living in it.

Historic Homes

This house at 1303 Ohio gained recognition because of the blocks of white sand used in it's construction

Historic Homes

I don't have any history on this house but I think it is just lovely

Historic Homes

This house at 1309 Michigan was known as the El Paso and Northeastern Hospital, and from the old pictures I've seen, it still looks alot the same. It is now apartments.

Please bear with me on my attempts to post. I haven't figured it out yet.They keep switching from order so you are getting the last first. This is why Autumn has this blog and not me

Historic Homes

This house was built in 1904 and is present day Memories Restaruant. It has been a beauty salon and a bakery. There's a story that  a previous owner had a parrot that sat on the front porch and  cussed a blue streak at everyone walking by, especially the ladies. The story goes that the city officials made him get rid of the bird or face prosecution on moral charges.

Historic Homes

I love the old historic homes in Alamo. It amazes me how different they are from each other when they were built about the same time. Not like the carbon copy developments we have now.

This house was the first one built here in 1903 I didn't find an old picture of it

And this one was the second one built also in 1903. It has been kept quite close to the original with only the front porch different.

stations of the cross

stations of the cross

While walking on a path near Three Rivers, we came across these stone pillars-shrines, that seemed to just be placed randomly up the hills. We took alot of pictures and after reviewing them, we were quite shocked to see the stained glass inserts on them. You couldn't see them until a light reflected off it, either sunlight or in this case the flash of the camera. After investagating, we found that it is called the Stations of the Cross and it deplicts the final hours of Christ. There are 12 of them, but that night it got to dark to see them all. I hope you find them as intresting as we did. -Marcie...Well, there were more photos than this but it wouldn't let me upload them for some reason, I will try again later. And thanks for your patience,

sunrise

Hi, I'm Marcie, and while Autumn is on vacation, I will attempt to update her blog for everyone.While we are know for our beautiful sunsets, by the time the sun peaks over the Sacramento Mountains, it's really rare to get awesome sunrises. These are a few that I was lucky to capture this year so I thought I'd share them with you. Enjoy!!

Strange Tree End of Summer '10

Not the best photo, but you get the picture.

It has straightened out quite a bit this year, I think it will be totally straight by the end of next year.  I pick up a few leaves daily now, the season is over.

I wanted to throw this in.  An industrious spider wove this seemingly overnight.

Sunflower

How gorgeous is this?

I caught the bee busily helping himself.

These are the 2 or 3 days of autumn right now... must. capture. them.

Sky Watch Saturday

Lenticular cloud.

I love that word, lenticular.

I usually see them form above mountains, so this was different for me.

Go Tigers!

I love the homecoming mums! 

Blocker Spring

I thought this little spring house was cute.  You see them still in the mountains here and there...

I would have never noticed this with out my camera.

These old homes always call out to me.  I wonder why they were abandoned, what the stories of the place were, what they were like when they were new and had families.

I leave you with a shot of autumn flowers.

Balloons and Mountains

These had drifted north of town...

I love the flags hanging off of this one.  If I had a balloon I would want it to look more like this, or a Jules Verne balloon, lots of swags and flags!

Slainte, means Health in Gaelic.  It is used as a toast in Ireland.

We were south of town here, just incase someone recognizes the mountains and calls me on it!

Here you can see them in the distance, floating above town.

Balloons close-up

I see most of these balloons each year and have pet names for them now...

This one I call the Purina Balloon.  Balloonist chow, champagne and propane.

Close-ups and under-shots...

 This one reminds me of the old NBC (I am corrected)  logo of the peacock that used to fan its feathers.

If you haven't been up in one, the baskets are sturdier than they look.

Slipping the surly bonds of gravity

I can never get enough of these beautiful sky creatures... 

 They remind me of butterflies, their life in flight is never long enough...

Sky Watch Saturday

I didn't think quickly enough and by the time I thought about a photo,

I was down the road...

This is one of the things I love about it here, you can see.  Yes, it IS raining somewhere in the basin, just not where you are.