Grey Skies Coming Our Way #SkywatchFriday

 Whew!  It's May 1st.

Now I can rest. The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is over (except for my Reflections post next week) and I can get back to watching the skies.

But the skies lately, where I live in the Southern Tier of New York, haven't been too sunny and blue recently.  So, for May Day, I bring you these.

Yes, these are color pictures.

April 21. 

April 30. 

April 30. 

Contrast with this picture from April 27. 

After warmer than normal temperatures, we are going to return to cooler temperatures.  We may even have a frost next week (which would be a disaster for our local apple crop). 

I was going to show you some lovely spring pictures but maybe I'll get back to the beauty of spring next week.

Joining Yogi and other skywatchers for #SkywatchFriday.
 

Zinnias #AtoZChallenge

I've reached the finish line!  I have completed the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

Because my theme was Beauty of our Land, I decided to do one more flower post, this time of the Zinnia.  

For this post, I've taken some of my favorite zinnia photos.  I used to grow them, but I didn't last year, and probably won't this year.   I try to grow them at my house but the seedlings somehow get eaten.  I've grown them in the past at a local community garden, but we have given up our plots for now.

Most of these Zinnias are mine.  I think the two butterfly photos may have been taken at a garden in Binghamton, New York back in 2023. 

Yellow speckled with red.

Bee on zinnia.

Yes, there are green zinnias.

Speckled.

Swallowtail butterfly.

Monarch butterfly.

White and orange.

Not sure what to call this.

The grand finale.  I hope you've enjoyed my offerings this Challenge.  I will probably, after Thursday, go back to my usual schedule and I hope you'll join me at any or all of the below:

Mondays:  Music Moves Me

Wednesday:  Wordless Wednesday

Friday:  Skywatch Friday

Sunday:  Shadowshot Sunday. 

And, probably May 5, my Reflections post for A to Z. 

Z Day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme: Beauty of our Land.

Congratulations to everyone who finished the Challenge.   Join us from May 4-9 for our Reflections posts.

 

Yale (Dinosaurs) #AtoZChallenge #WordlessWednesday

Once again, I have a two meme day.  First, Wordless Wednesday, brought to us by Sandee at Comedy Plus (for the link, please see bottom of post). Also, it's Y day in the Blogging from A To Z Challenge.  Two memes for the price of one.

In 2024, my spouse and I visited Yale University.  Visiting their Peabody Museum has been a bucket list item for my spouse since childhood, when he became interested in dinosaurs.  Dinosaurs are one of the specialties of this free to the public museum.

Yale Peabody Museum sign.

Life size Torosaurus latus dinosaur statue outside the museum. There were plans to erect a garden next to this with plants that grew during the times this dinosaur existed when this was erected in 2005, but if they did, I didn't see signs of it.

Dinosaur Skeleton.

Skeleton and architecture.

The building the Peabody Museum is in.  This is a fantastic museum, as you might expect from a world class university.

I have more pictures, many of them not related to dinosaurs.  Maybe one day I'll publish some more on my blog. Y not?

Y Day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme: Beauty of our Land.

Sandee's Comedy Plus: 

 

Xanthic #AtoZChallenge

X, for me, is the hardest letter of the alphabet in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  I think all of us A to Zers struggle with this letter.  I've used this particular X word (xanthic) too many times but it is perfect for spring. There are so many yellow flowers associated with spring where I live: tulips.  Daffodils.  Forsythia.  And even more.

So, I'm revisiting the topic of Xanthic.  Or, in plainer language, Yellow, especially related to flowers.

The dictionary defines xanthic as yellow, or yellow-like.  That works for me, because I have lots of yellow flowers to show you from this spring.  Some are still blooming.

Euphorbia, my yard, April 26.  

Tulips, neighborhood, April 22.  I like photographing them from above to get the interior in the picture.

Barrenwort, my yard, April 14.

Yellow daffodil, my yard, April 22.

Fringed yellow tulip, my yard.  I only had one of these beauties come up this year.

Short tulip, variety long forgotten, my yard, April 23.  Now, isn't that Xciting?
 

X day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  Now off to see how others conquered X. 

Winter #AtoZChallenge #MusicMovesMe

Today, two memes for the price of one.  First, W day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, followed by Music Moves Me (linkup is at the bottom of this post). 

Winter.  It's a large part of our lives where I live in the Southern Tier of New York.  Some people like it.  I am not one of them.

I am so happy that spring has finally come, but perhaps we would not appreciate spring so much if we didn't have winter.  So here are some photos of our winter. Several are from my guest photographer, who has a DSLR, and lives out in the country.  Me, I'm more small city, and I use an iPhone.

A flower garden sleeps.

No picnic today.

Ice on the river.

Trees sleep and ice takes over.
 

My guest photographer: rural New York State winter scene.

My guest photographer: a heron she named Harriet. 

My guest photographer: Duck and ice.

Now, it's time for Music, as I join the Music Moves Me bloggers. We are a group of music loving bloggers who blog about music each Sunday or Monday (or even later in the week). If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join!  We are brought to you by Cathy of Curious as a Cathy, Stacy of Stacy's Random Thoughts, Marie, and myself, plus other music loving bloggers.  Why not join us?  Our optional theme for this week is "America’s favorite past time for many starts up again for professional baseball players.  You don’t have to be a fan but it could be fun to pick songs that include the teams’ mascot. Stretch this prompt to fit your play set however you want!" but I am going to choose Songs beginning with W as my theme because I accidentally did the official theme several weeks ago.

From 1969, Blood, Sweat and Tears and Sometimes in Winter.

2004's Wizards of Winter from Trans-Siberian Orchestra. 

Finishing with 1967's Wintertime Love from The Doors. 

And that's a wrap! 

W day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme "Beauty of our Land".

 Music Moves Me - here are the participating blogs.  If you have at least one song to share, why not join us?

Crabapple and Camden Shadows #ShadowshotSunday

Today, on this off day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, I decided to feature some spring scenes.

Camden, South Carolina, April 2015.
 

Crabapple tree, Vestal, New York, April 23.

Another tree, also getting ready to bloom

Joining Lisa at This and That: A Blog, for her #ShadowshotSunday. 

Virginia #AtoZChallenge

Today I am spotlighting the state of Virginia.  I have visited it several times.

First, a beautiful university campus in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Welcome to the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819.  

Its Rotunda was designed by Jefferson and its construction was completed shortly after Jefferson's death in 1826. If you wonder, viewing these pictures, if it resembles Monticello (Jefferson's home) - it does.

Monticello from a distance, April 2016

It should be noted that buildings on the original campus were built with the labor of enslaved people, and that scholars (male, of course).  Women also had to fight hard to be able to go to this university, which only became fully co-educational in 1973.

Near Charlottesville, Virginia.

Rolling rural hills. 

Along I-77, fog can be scenic, and also dangerous.

Virginia Welcome Center, I-77. (Interstate 77)

I'll end here with beautiful dogwoods in bloom, Monticello, April of 2016. 

V day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme:  Beauty of our Land.