knife and gouge

after the storm

Very quiet in town today, except for the plows, trucks hauling snow, and me.

hello snow

"blizzard conditions and some ice glazing expected"

Storm coming. Time for mini marshmallows.

homemade soup

sunday mist

Good thing I know exactly where I'm going.

an iowa afternoon

it's a sign

For the last three and a half months, I've been photographing signs. Those kinds of signs, the whatever-you-call-thems, the kind where you can plop it wherever you want to and say whatever you want to say on it. (I'm so articulate.)

Anyway, the plan is to put the whole series up on the website eventually . . . in the meantime, here are a few of my favorites.

saturday finds

my brain

one and two

This month's Photo Club subject: Numbers.

nothing but the kitchen sink

sunday afternoon, the end

sunday afternoon, cont'd

The Mississippi.

Kind of love the graphic on their warning signs. That's exactly what a person falling off the side of a hill would look like, no?

sunday afternoon

Gorgeous day, so went hiking at Effigy Mounds National Park today.

elkport revisited

Remember that little bank building that I blogged about last winter, from the once-town of Elkport, IA? I went back there this weekend to see if it was still standing... and it's not. In the above photo, it used to sit between the powerline post and the tree at the right.

The far building that is also missing from the left picture was the old high school. That building was in bad shape -- the roof had caved in -- and they were already starting to demolish it by the time I left in April. I assume that the bank was then next.

Shortly after I had posted the original photos back in February, I was informed (thanks, Jim!) that the bank building was actually used as the town Post Office for many years (I'm unsure if it was still the Post Office at the time of the flood in 2004, but I did see some letter boxes through the window, so it's possible).

The entire flood area is now a community park and campground. I don't know what kind of structural damage the bank building sustained (the outside walls looked pretty stable to my untrained eye), but it's unfortunate that it wasn't able to be saved and incorporated into the park.

The church is still standing, and looks in great shape.

how to climb a tree

Step 1: Find a tree.
Step 2: Move upwards by any means possible.
Step 3: Look down. Why else climb a tree if not to see how things look from up a tree?

pony hollow trail

small town views

i walked the red carpet

Not really. But there was a (short section of) red carpet, complete with (not necessarily short) LA movie people, in town tonight. The town being Elkader, IA, population 1500, the occasion being the new indie film 16 to Life, filmed on location twenty minutes away in McGregor (which, just to be properly thorough, has a population of 871). And that's the news.