Denim and Daisies

Two things that are synonymous with my family are kids and day care. I'm sure many families would think the same thing. It is a little different in my family. First, my Mother raised thirteen children then; when most mothers would be thankful for having an empty nest, she started a day care center for thirty children not her own. When Mom was well past normal retirement age she finally sold her day care to my sister who changed the name, expanded it and then opened several more. Many of our family members worked, at one time or another, for either my mother or sister.

My fascination with day care began long before my mother got into the business. Kindercare originated in Montgomery Alabama and opened their first center a few blocks from the home of my Aunt Sister. When Kindercare went public she decided to invest a small amount in the local sensation. That small amount grew into a large amount as her stocks split, and split and then split again. My now ninety -two year old aunt is still playing the market and living off the seed money that came from those day care centers.

I am always amazed at the originality that some folks put into naming and decorating their business to make sure it attracts attention. My mother named her business "Wee Care" and my sister's is "Bow's and Bullfrogs." Just down the street is an ordinary looking old house that has been the home to "Denim and Daisies" for a while now. It recently got a new paint job that makes it unmistakable as a place where children hang out.

What is more associated with children that primary colors and crayons.

I love the new shutters that surround the building. Each one is a different color.

The multi-colored pickets certainly caused me to take note.

I am linking this post to the meme Color Carnival.

To join the fun or to check out all the colorful entries of other players, visit Maria and her friends at Color Carnival.

I am linking this photo to Photo Friday. This weeks theme is "Primary Color."

Visit other participants by clicking on the icon above.

Have a Seat

I was not raised in a house that used a time-out bench. In my youth parents still punished our misbehaving by sending us out to cut a switch or resort to the old stand by of the razor strap to wallop our behind.

By the time my child came along, schools were teaching their students to call family services if a parent resorted to that type of punishment so the time-out corner was born.

This bench was built by my brother-in-law and given as a gift to his brother, who lived with me and my first husband until he moved to a nursing home. The bench stayed with us. By then, my grandson had joined our household and he spent many a time-out on this bench. He is now fourteen and almost six feet tall and I recently passed this bench along to him. It will store his CD's until he has children in need of a time-out.

This bench sits in the atrium of the Butterfly House in St. Louis.

The above two shots are the halves of a bench that sits in the waiting area of a Mexican Restaurant in Omaha we like to visit when we go to see my sister.

This bench is located in a small park of a busy tourist area of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It provided a welcome rest for our weary feet during our last visit there.

From time-outs to weary feet, how, would we survive without a Bench.

I am linking this post to Alphabe Thursday.

The theme this week is the letter "B". To check out the other participants take on the letter of the week visit Jenny Matlock and her friends by clicking on the icon above.

What a difference a day makes.

Outside of town on Highway 94 sits a small old barn that I pass rather offen. This barn sits close to the road at the edge of a large soybean field. I have tried to take a photo of this building dozens of times, but, my shots have always needed to be snapped through the windshield of the moving car. Road conditions prevent stopping to take the shot. Of the many shots I have snapped, I only have two I would care to share.

This shot was taken at sunset this past winter.

This one was shot two weeks ago on a very gloomy afternoon.

The season and time of day certainly give the old barn a different feeling.

I am linking this post to Barn Charm.

Barn Charm is a Monday meme hosted by Tricia.

To check out those charming barns posted by others visit Bluff Area Daily.

Potpourri of Reds

The weather here in Missouri's wine country has been stormy with high winds, some tornadoes, and lots of rain for several weeks now. So photo opts have been scarce. As a result, I am dipping into the archives this week to share a potpourri of red shots taken over the last year.

This shot was taken through the front window of my sisters house on our visit last spring. The red SUV parked in front belonged to us. We have since traded it for a red truck to haul our camper.

On that same trip we attended a Girl Scout "Fly-UP " ceremony for one of my nieces. It was held in the hall of a local Protestant church. This stack of red books was on a cabinet in the corner of the room. The only word on the spine is "Worship."

I snapped this old El-Camino parked in the drive of a local Bed and Breakfast

While attending the craft fair hosted by our downtown merchants association last fall I snapped this photo at the booth of a gentleman who makes brooms the same way they did back in the eighteenth century.

This is the broom we purchased to keep in our vehicle.

I am linking this post to Ruby Tuesday and Rednesday.

Mary at "Work of the Poet" hosts Ruby Tuesday. Rednesday is a Wednesday meme hosted by Sue at "It's a Very Cherry World." Both memes are dedicated to the color red. To join the fun or just check out what Red others are excited to share visit Mary and her friends at Ruby Tuesdayand Sue and her friends from Rednesday

Spring and Easter

Beverly, at Pink Saturday has given us the leeway this week to deviate from the tradional pink post and do anything:

Spring, Easter or Passover related.

I am going to start with why spring is my favorite time of year. I love the look of new growth. All the many shades of green that show up in the grass, trees and shrubs. The photo above was taken just his afternoon a few yards from the home of my cousin. It is a wooded area that borders the Bourbeuse River dotted with white dogwood trees.

This is one of my favorite houses in town. It sits on a corner lot at the end of the lane where my sister lives. The yard is an endless array of year round color. Spring brings these wonderful blooms from the pink dogwood trees and beds of bright spring bulbs.

What would Easter be without colored eggs. I snapped these in the local supermarket.

When running errands around town I do my best to avoid the main roads. I often take longer routes through the neighborhoods to get me where I need to be. That is how I came across this large chocolate bunny and the Easter eggs decorating this yet to be planted flower bed.

I wish you all a Happy Easter and may you get out and discover some new area of your town before this wonderful season called Spring has turned into the heat of summer.

I am linking this post to Pink Saturday, hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

To join in the fun or just visit the pink post of others visit Beverly and her friends at Pink Saturday

Good Friday

I posted the above photo on my photo blog Cashjocky's Photo's and was ask to provide some history of the Crosses. Since the story is so fascinating and rather lengthy I decided to post it here. As the header on my photo blog states this blog is about the stories that go with the photos and on the photo blog the picture is its own story.

I live in a small rural town in the Ozark Mountain Region of Missouri. So my town is very hilly and built on various levels of carved out limestone. These crosses sit on one of the highest points in town beside the Knights of Columbus Hall. If you look closely at the photo you will notice what appears to be a small white structure on the left just above the treetops. That is our hospital and it is the tallest building in town but built on a lower elevation than the crosses.

These crosses are known as Lithuanian folk art crosses. They were hand carved by a retired Catholic priest. The Rev. Anthony J. Bukauskas was born in 1916 in Lithuania. In 1939 Russia invaded Lithuania. Anthony Bukauskas was a sociology teacher and civic leader and a year later he and many other civic leaders were sent to a concentration camp in Minsk, Russia and then to a German refugee camp. His vocation grew out of prison experiences.

Father Bukauskas was ordained a Catholic Priest on July 21, 1946 in Eichstadt, Germany. He came to the United States in 1949 and settled in St. Louis. He was the pastor of one of our local churches for the last twenty years of his career and retired in the area. Father Anthony, as he was called by his beloved parishioners, was an accomplished artist and in retirement taught art at our local collage, and founded the Mid Missouri Fine Arts Society. He died in May of 2006 and was buried in the cemetery of his last parish. He was well know for the carved Lituanian folk art crosses he created, many can be found at Catholic churches and cemeteries in the area but these overlooking my town are the most well known.

Automobiles is my "A" word of the week.

Alphabe Thursday has come full circle. The last post completed the twenty-sixth letter of the Alphabet so this week we start over with the letter "A". I really didn't want to go for the obvious and rejected airplanes, apples and automobiles, but, after a long search of my photos realized that I just couldn't resist doing automobiles. I have several shots of cars I have been wanting to share for a while now and this is the perfect chance, even if my "A" word is one I expect to be very popular this week.

The Old Salt hates for me to make collages of my photos, so please forgive me if you happen to feel the same way about them. But, I fear that using several collages is the only way to reduce the size of the post.

One day at the beginning of this school year my sister called asking if I could pick up her exchange student for her. I arrived a little early and while I waited I noticed this car on the faculty parking lot and snapped a couple of shots. The windows were covered in yellow post-it notes. I later learned the students were pulling a prank on one of the teachers who happens to like pulling practical jokes on his students.

While visiting my sister in Omaha I photographed this old station wagon parked on the street outside my BIL's office. The car has a handicapped tag on the mirror and animal print seat covers to go with the fancy paint job. If I could have waited for the drivers return I would have expected it to be an old hippie gentleman with a full bread and ponytail carrying a guitar case.

On one of our gadabouts we found this group of antique automobiles parked at the rest stop we pulled into. I watched as the drivers had a conference on the sidewalk and snapped a few shots as the motorcade rounded the curved drive headed for the freeway. I assumed they were members of a car club headed to a show.

I am linking this post to Alphabe Thursday.

The theme this week is the letter "A". To check out the other participants take on the letter of the week visit Jenny Matlock and her friends by clicking on the icon above.

Just in the Right Spot at the Right Time

I never leave home without my camera. You never know what you will find when out and about. Following are a couple of shots containing red that were totally unexpected.

The neighboring town of Herman, Missouri has quite a few wineries and the city just got a new red tour bus to transport the patrons between the sites. We just happen to catch it parked outside the old city opera house (which has been turned into a restaurant) when leaving after a dinner with friends. I was surprised that the photo came out this well since it was taken well after dark with just the light on the parking lot.

I shot this photo during our last snow storm the end of March. A icy hill caused a detour or I would never have seen this red glazing ball. I liked the way the reflections played in the ball and the color stood out in the snow.

I am linking this post to Ruby Tuesday and Rednesday.

Mary at "Work of the Poet" hosts Ruby Tuesday. Rednesday is a Wednesday meme hosted by Sue at "It's a Very Cherry World." Both memes are dedicated to the color red. To join the fun or just check out what Red others are excited to share visit Mary and her friends at Ruby Tuesdayand Sue and her friends from Rednesday

Carpet of Yellow

Yesterday while out running errands I came across this lovely expanse of yellow.

Imagine the next two photos side by side to get the panoramic view of where these yellow posies came from.

This is our post office, located on the main highway though town.

Now one more quick shot.

This is a close up of what is creating that carpet of yellow above.

Yep, dandelions. Thousands of dandelions.

Guess Uncle Sam cut weed removal out of the postal budget?

Update, Update!

04-18-2011

I revisited the post office today and found it now looks like this.

Not a single bit of yellow on the lawn.

Instead it is full of seed heads that look like white puffballs.

Grocery Mural

During our last trip to California to visit the Old Salts grandkids we planned a side trip so that I could see San Francisco. While there we pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store near the embarcadero and the side of the building was covered with this mural. It was getting dark but I could not resist taking the following photos.

Following are close ups of the four panels. Thankfully, they are lighter than the shot above. I was amazed at the details that went into these mosaic history lessons.

After an extensive web search I found the following information about this mural.

The mural entitled WORLD SOURCES OF FOOD was built in 1959

by John Garth and is located at
Marina Safeway Store, 15 Marina Blvd. between Buchanan and Laguna

This large four-panel mural mounted on the outside of the grocery store tells the story of how food is transported from around the world from farmers, fishermen, and animals, in a colorful montage-style design. The pixelated image pulls together to an almost photographic effect when viewed from a distance. The mural contains over 150,000 pieces of vitreous glass and tile from Italy and Japan. Mr. Garth worked on the mural over the span of one year.

I am linking this photo to Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sallie.

To join the fun or visit those that participated click here.

Friends of Wings

Recently, we visited a large shopping mall and found these butterflies decorating the courtyard.

I thought they were lovely and made a nice spring statement. When I got home, I visited the website I found attached to one of the butterflies and learned they were more than decorations.

The butterflies were part of a fundraising event for a local children's charity called "Wings". The "Friends of Wings" had these plain white butterflies made and sold them to anyone who wanted to decorate one and donate it back to the charity to be auctioned off for the charity.

Sixty butterflies were purchased by area corporations, merchants, artists and civic groups. The decorated butterflies have been placed in busy locations around the city. These three were at the mall. In May all the butterflies will be on display in one location and auctioned off.

I would love to have one for my garden, but I fear that bidding will be way out of my reach.

I am linking this post to Yard Art Thursday.

Mary T. at the Work of the Poet host Yard Art Thursday. To join the fun or just check out the

entries of others, visit Mary and her friends at Work of the Poet.

Here a Sign, There a Sign

I am sure you know the verse to Old MacDonald Had a Farm. Those words could be easily changed to reflect how some folks feel about signs, on occasion.

With a sign here

And a sign there

Here a sign, there a sign

Everywhere a sign, sign

Heck, signs are everywhere. There is almost no limit to where you will find a sign and what it will tell you.

I found this sign on the wall in the snack bar of a dime store (yes there is still a old fashion 1960's style dime store alive and well) in Santa Fe, New Mexico a couple years ago. Only problem was the sign lied. That dime store was not always open and the refills hadn't been free for years.

You don't often find a sign that is meant to be sat on, but, that is the case with this chair. I also found this chair along with three mates outside a shop in Santa Fe.

I found this sign in a small town in Arkansas. It was very tall and stood above the rooftop of the strip mall where it was placed. The dog was repeated on the other side and there were no words anywhere on the sign poles. Perhaps, it was not finished? Or, perhaps the folks in that small town knew what it was for without any words. There was a pet grooming business located in that small shopping plaza.

Just in time for today's post I received the following slide show of Church signs in my e-mail. It must have been divine providence sending me a message, so I am attaching them for you to enjoy. The slide show is set to music and the song is entitled (what else) Signs.

I am linking this post to Signs, Signs hosted by Lesley of Southern Ontario, discovered . To check out what interesting signs others have posted this week click here.