Monarch butterfly, Lake MacBride, IA

Bidding the old year farewell with a beautiful monarch butterfly, spotted near Lake MacBride.

Sour cherries, Iowa City

 One more view into that cherry tree, with layers and layers behind the central cluster.

Sour cherries, Iowa City

I found the brilliant red of the sour cherries just amazing, their glossy appearance so tempered they seemed less real than wax or plastic.

Sour cherries, Iowa City

 Returning to last summer, a tree bursting full of sour cherries, delicious and waiting to be plucked.

Tragedy in gingerbread

Now fully decorated, the derecho house is a picture of tragedy, with windblown decorations sliding dow the roof and quite a bit of red frosting where my daughter declared a casualty had occurred. Not visible from this angle: the snowdrifts and toppled Christmas tree on the inside where the blown off roof let the weather in.

Derecho house

Our attempt at construction of a gingerbread house did not go quite so well this year. It was salvaged by my elder daughter, who seized on the recent weather alert that had sent us to our basement to declare that the gingerbread house had been hit by a derecho. Here it is partly decorated, in the middle of the salvage process.

Is this the one with catnip?

There is no concealing certain things.

Yawning Christmas cat

 Veronica loves to sleep beneath our Christmas tree.

Guarding Christmas cat

 Salvatore perches alertly in the dark, the Christmas tree behind him.

Blackberries, Lake MacBride, Iowa

Cluster of blackberries ripening one by one.

Blackberries, Lake MacBride, Iowa

 Bountiful blackberries waiting to ripen along the trails at Lake MacBride.

Osprey observation tower, Lake MacBride, Iowa

In a far corner of MacBride Nature Recreation Area, north of Iowa City, this osprey observation tower looms high up in the trees. Unfortunately, it appears that only researchers are allowed to climb it.

Leaves of Corn

 Spiking leaves of corn split the deep blue sky.

Lilypads

 A shallow pond full of lilypads, one flowering.

Decaying Car, Iowa City

 Zoom in on broken lights and letters askew.

Decaying Car, Iowa City

I guess this was once a Buick Electra. I like the patterning that they layers of spray paint make.

Decaying Car, Iowa City

 Zoom in on the yellow flecked wheel component.

Decaying Car, Iowa City

I love the way that the plants are coming right through the body of the car, and the juxtaposition of the different rusting component shapes.

Decaying Car, Iowa City

Brake shoes and sprouting shrubs.

Decaying Car, Iowa City

Found in the woods in the Iowa River floodplain, an upside down decaying car, being quite thoroughly reclaimed by nature.

Dragon Tree, Iowa City

 Somebody has spray-painted this curiously bent tree into a wonderful sort of dragon figure.

Low water on the Iowa River

The  Iowa River low and dry in mid-July, exposing detritus from its wide and shallow flow.

Wood Grain Herky, Iowa City

Another denizen of Terry Trueblood, I'm no sure I'd call this pattern "wood grain", but it's certainly an interesting blotchy brown.

Terry Trueblood Lake, Iowa City

 The lake at Terry Trueblood recreation area on the South side of Iowa City.

Closet lunch

 Lunching stuffed animal peer out of a closet.

Rejected cat

 Salvatore lying very flat, feeling rejected since he was excluded from one of the girls' bedtimes.

Basil

 Flourishing basil plant on our back porch

Red Japanese barberry

A very spiky purple-pink barberry plant in our back yard.

Tangle-haired plant

 This plant looks like it's got a tangled up head of hair.

Day lily

One more day lily, this one a more frilly sort of orange cream variety.
 

Day lily

Another up-close zoom into a day lily.

Day lilies

 I've always loved the ridiculously huge stamen and pistil structures that explode out of the center of a lily.

Day lilies

 More day lilies, this time pink.

Clover flowers

Flowers from clover in our lawn.

Berries

 Another closer view of a berry bunch.

Berries

 Little waxy white berries from one of our trees.

Deep red lilies

Lushly deep red lilies in our back yard.

Step pyramid

 Another view of the bubbling cylinders of the step pyramid.

Step pyramid

 A sort of step pyramid of marble shoot bits and tupperware.

Teether

An old teether looking surprisingly ominous up close and backlit.

Yellow shapes

 Shapes formed by my daughter's blocks.

Sparkly cylinders

 Sparkly pink cylinders from our marble set.

Spiky ball

 A soft spiky play ball.

Marbles

 Marbles in close up.

Feline repose

 Veronica drowsing bonelessly by the window.

Sunset

A nice orange sunset over a bank of trees.

Bed of flowers

 I appreciated the pun in the flowerbed in front of this house.

Clothesline mural

Mural of a clothesline on the side of a big red shed.

Birdhouse cluster

 Cluster of bird-houses on a pole together, clearly successful and heavily occupied.

Redbird Farm WMA, Johnson County, IA

 Through the wide sloping fields of the preserve.