July 27 - Great Blue Heron

One thing about Great Blue Herons is that they are sort of "natural posers".  Well, they do a good job of staying still and this makes it easy to get a nice reflection in a photo. This Friday morning in Seattle we have a low layer of clouds and 58 degrees that will give way to clear skies and 70, or so, this afternoon.

Hope you have a real nice weekend and thank you for stopping by John's Island.

July 26 - Love Birds?

Seen on this morning's walk. Immediately after snapping this, I got the "caaawww, caaawww, caaawww" and then they flew right over my head. Not sure if that was a "thank you" or something else.

July 25 - "Stylized" Daylily

The "stylized" effect is created and saved by the camera.  This particular effect is the "Illustration" mode. The original is shown below.

The original photo was snapped this morning, July 25,  2012, near Green Lake in Seattle. The weather presented a perfect summer morning.

Pic of the Day - July 24

Traffic on the Trail

Thanks for stopping by John's Island and a special thanks to those who leave kind comments. We are going to try a series of "Pics of the Day" ... Who knows how long it will last? Hope you enjoy.

Pic of the Day - July 23

Saw this today while on a walk around Green Lake (Seattle, WA, USA).  Scientific name is Hemerocallis fulva ... more commonly known as a daylily. The colors seemed especially brilliant, almost like flames.

Thank you for stopping by John's Island and thanks to all of you who leave kind comments!    

Painted Sunset July 12

Some forest fires in Russia are burning so hot that the smoke is rising up into the atmosphere to the level of the Jet Stream.  The Jet Stream is carrying the smoke all the way across the Pacific to North America.  Here in Seattle the smoke creates a layer of haze and some beautiful sunsets. This one on July 12 reminded us of a painting.

Geyserland

Imagine the year is 1908. You're planning your summer vacation and want to see America's first National Park, Yellowstone, in the US Rocky Mountains. This is before planes and cars so you will need to take the train. You've written to the Oregon Short Line Railroad and they have sent you a brochure describing what many are calling "Geyserland." They have just finished building a rail line right to the western entrance of Park. What you see below is the brochure you would have received showing all the information for the 1908 season, which opened on June 11, one hundred four years ago today. Be sure to click on a picture which will provide the larger view ... hopefully large enough for you to read if you wish.

Yellowstone is still one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. And just imagine that in 1908 a COMPLETE Tour of the Park, five-day trip, hotel accommodations, and thirteen meals were included in the ticket price of $55.

Here at John's Island we collect Yellowstone memorabilia and have just added this brochure to our collection. The OSL (Oregon Short Line) and the NP (Northern Pacific) were the only two railroads to build tracks to the edges of Yellowstone, although other railroads provided service to relatively nearby cities. The OSL reached the western entrance while the NP tracks ended at the northern gateway of Gardiner, Montana. The OSL was eventually purchased by the Union Pacific. Early memorabilia from the Oregon Short Line is rare.

As always, thanks for stopping by John's Island. 

Postscript:  The page titled Geyser Time Table is a little darker than the others. I tried to do some digital processing to make the text more readable. The gold-colored print on the faded paper makes it difficult to get the text dark enough to be easily readable. After trying several possibilities, the one above seemed to be the best option.