Two Things Challenge: Ghost/Image

Ghosts of Airplanes Passed

The Two Things Challenge this week is Ghost/Image.  Last weekend the sky was perfect for leaving contrails, the ghosts of airplanes passed.  They were everywhere, and I could only get about half of them, even with the 17mm lens.

Two Things Challenge: Drive/Round

The 2 Things Challenge for this week is Drive/Round.  This is the old Shelby County courthouse at the head of Main Street in Columbiana.  I'm not sure how old this building is, but the "new" courthouse was built down the street in 1906.  The old one is now a museum for Shelby County history.  When you get to this end of Main Street, you have to enter a traffic circle and drive round the building to get to any of the other streets, or turn around. 

Pardon Me, Mam!

While photographing the bee below, I also spied this Lady Bug feasting on the same goldenrod.  Rather than the nectar and pollen preferred by the bees, she seems to be enjoying the stalk of the plant, or perhaps some microscopic parasite.

Saddlebags

When I went to photograph the Goldenrod, I found them covered with honeybees, stocking up for the winter.  About a third of them had these pollen saddlebags, stuffed to the max, but the rest did not.  Either they had just unloaded, or it's not their job.

Poison or Not?

The Monarch butterfly is poisonous to birds.  The Viceroy butterfly is not (or so the popular theory goes), but it mimics the Monarch in coloration and patterns.  There is a subtle difference in the markings on the lower wings, but birds don't take the time to figure it out, they just tend to leave them both alone.  Others say it isn't so, and they both taste bad.  I don't eat either one.
This one is a Monarch, and we don't see very many of them around here.

2 Things Challenge: April/October

The 2 Things Challenge this week is April/October, and it was tougher than I thought it would be.  Half of this is from April, and half from October.  Which is which?

Peek-A-Boo

Every fall these things show up all around here.  I wonder if the paint is edible for cows and horses.

2 Things Challenge: Instant/Delay

Sitting around DFW for 8 hours . . .

Our original flight had a broken air speed indicator light, so the plane had to wait on a new one to be flown in. 

Instant delay. 

They booked us all on the next flight, but there wasn't an available connection for us to Birmingham, so they rebooked us on another airline, leaving 5 hours after the original was supposed to. 

Another instant delay. 

Okay, we'll just be a little late, but we won't have to go through Atlanta.  But . . . no bag when we got to Birmingham, and it takes almost an hour to file a simple lost luggage claim, especially when the bag was switched from one airline to another and we had no new bag claim check. 

Another instant delay. 

They delivered our bag the next day, no problem, but filing a lost luggage claim has got to be the most inefficient process any of the airlines have.

Join us at 2 Things Challenge for other interesting interpretations of the weekly challenge.

Dinner

Chicken and corn tortilla casserole and avocado salad with my son and daughter-in-law when we went to Texas to see our new granddaughter.  Delicious.

Two Things Challenge: Post/Card

The Two Things Challenge this week is Post/Card.

This yellow card is used extensively around this part of the country to post the property to keep trespassers out, or at least warn them they are entering private property.  There was an attempt to reinforce this card with little slats of wood when it was nailed to the post, but it looks like the slats split.  Still, the message is plain, "Go somewhere else!"