It's Friday! I call this Week Finished!!

"There will be a rain dance Friday.. weather permitting."
~ George Carlin

"Life is a zoo in a jungle."
~ Peter De Vries

"Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings."
~ Evan Esar

Friday My Town Shoot Out gives us a challenge each week to find and share images around our town that represent a certain theme.. This weeks theme is " Trip to the Zoo"..

I have always loved the zoo.. I adore the tiny spider monkeys and the tall elegant giraffe..

Emily always loved the zebras best and would beg to go see the zig zag horsey over and over.. I am pretty sure she meant striped..

at least these were striped..

I remember as a child that Mama loved the peacocks.. this one posed pretty for me.. I love the colors and patterns formed by any birds feathers..

Mason and I enjoyed seeing these guys.. Mason enjoyed it so much that when we came home from our visiting he told his Papa that he and I had dove right in and swam with those big old bears... actually we did stand right there and watch the bears sliding on their great big icy cold water slide and talked about how much fun it would be to jump in there with them.. I was hot as the devil that day and they were loving it!

I think Maya likes every single animal... I have seen her ride this guy a couple of times though.. They might even be on a first name basis.. I really wanted to ride myself but thought they would say I was way too old.. way to fat.. way to crazy...

I used to fuss at Cooper for growling at a lioness
just like this beauty.. he still like to growl at stuff.. my birds.. Dave's fish..

This colorful locomotion carried me on a wonderful hour of rest on hot July day.. around the zoo and over to the gardens and aquarium at the Albuquerque, New Mexico Zoo..

I couldn't have a better guide than my Son's family... Maya my beautiful Grand-daughter.. Tana .. my daughter-in-law... is a great planner.. the picnic was delicious.. Mason had so much fun there... and of course the king of the Chair is Anthony..

Well at least it is the KING as long as he sits there.. Even I took a turn in the chair..

I hope you have enjoy sharing my memories of a most wonderful day!..

Have a good night!

Patsy

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ZOO

Zany Menagerie...

Oasis to the endangered

Observatory for our future..

Written By: Patricia Sawyer

5-10-2010

April 16 - Day after Tax Day!

"If it's well written and well directed and you've got good actors to work with, acting is easy. But making sure all the ducks are in a row is the hard part. It's very rare." ~John Lithgow

"Sometimes I'll go by and there are a couple of swans, the next day it's a few ducks. I'd like to stop there every day for a year and capture how it changes, then put it all together to create an incredible image of a traditional English scene."
~ Graeme Le Saux

“There is one order of beauty which seems made to turn heads. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle.”
~ T.S. Eliot quotes

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Friday My Town~ Shoot Outs has deemed today as the day after taxes day.. Dave and I filed ours a long time ago in January and had spent the small amount of cash returned to us long before it gathered any dust in our pockets.. Money seems to go faster than it comes to us.. But I do think that is the way it is with almost everyone we know.. we were lucky in that we got a small amount back.. Many people have to pay more money in to the IRS..

Now that the work and worry of figuring out what you can claim and how you will ever come up with the extra cash to pay Uncle Sam has passed... we are asked to look through out Town photo's and choose just one that makes you smile or chuckle.. maybe even laugh..

Dave and I were walking along the lake today searching for a cactus.. ( don't ask it's a whole different story!).. when we spotted this young family along the walkway across the damn.. we had been watching a mother duck with a nest and hurried to check and see if this was the brood we have been watching and waiting on to hatch... As we got close they took off into the water with Both Mom and Dad quacking loudly... our duck was right where we left her a few days ago still sitting on her nest of warm bluish green eggs.. She even moved a tiny bit away when I asked nicely with the swish of a small leafy limb that hides them.. Counting quickly I saw that she still had nine eggs and moved away so that she could return to her vigil..

We watched as the parents swam away and then back to the damn as we walked on.. every time we came close they swam out again and would lead the babies right back as soon as we stepped away.. finally as we had our backs turned they dashed across the damn and settled on the edge of a large submerged rock.. Mama and Papa swam in circles around and around the boulder keeping the babies on their safe if rocky perch.. every time the papa came around to the side where we were he quacked at us as loud as I imagine he could.. I had to laugh at him.. I quickly snapped this photo.. It's a good thing too since I am not sure I had another "make you smile" photo in my stash.. Finally we decided that we didn't see the cactus we were looking for and headed back along the path to the car and home.. The young ducks are fluffy and sweet but you really don't want to come to near to them.. Mallards are great protectors of their young and though it might have made a funny photo I am sure that neither of us wanted to be attacked by a Papa duck today.. We prefer instead to enjoy their silly antics from a distance where we are safe from being quacked to death..

I hope you had a wonderful day after taxes day! I hope you had reasons to smile. giggle or laugh today.. If you didn't then maybe you can imagine me running from a quacking.. wing flapping. fluttering.. angry Papa duck.. see.. I know you laughed at that! Have a wonderful night!

Patsy

Friday Shoot Outs..... Photo's from My Town!

"As iron is eaten away by rust, so the envious are consumed by their own passion."
~ Antisthenes

"As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend."
~ King Solomon


"Idleness is to the human mind like rust to iron."
~ Ezra Cornell


This weeks theme for Friday Shoot Outs is WROUGHT IRON....

Wrought iron is so named because it is worked from a bloom of porous iron mixed with slag and other impurities. The word "wrought" is an archaic past tense form of the verb "to work". "Wrought iron" literally means "worked iron".

Wrought iron is formed by heating and beating steel. This term is also used to describe a style of furniture and/or metalwork. Wrought iron is no longer in wide production.. having last been manufactured as "charcoal iron" in Sweden in 1968.. most items that are termed "wrought iron" today are actually "mild steel".


Hand forged and made to last almost forever.. most of the fences found around family graveyards or family plots with in a bigger cemetery are made from wrought Iron.. This fence is actually rather simple compared to some of the ones I have seen in Church yards here.. I was taken with this one because the gate is always open.. I once closed it thinking that maybe some one had left it open by mistake.. a few days later I passed by and noticed that it was open again.. when I saw wrought iron on the list for today's theme I hurried to make a photo of my favorite wrought iron fence! Though the newest of the graves is dated 1867.. someone undoubtedly still visits here and leaves the gate open as a welcome to other visitors..


Not to far away from the peaceful resting place of a family who leaves their gate open in welcome... I spotted this gate.. It appears to also be wrought iron... I'm betting that it is made from steel and only made to look like iron.. as you can see this gate is a part of a high board fence that guards something that you can't see.. even if you get very close and peak through the gate.. I guess it may be a house.. while I was standing there looking up at the head high fence that blocks all sight I noticed a small red light flashing on and off on the top of the wall and then I heard a click.. at first I thought someone was about to open the gate.. maybe even to welcome little old me to their so very private world.. But it was not to be.. I was not welcome.. in fact the click that I heard three times before I spotted it's source... turned out to be a camera hidden in a tree just inside the gate.. Dave begged me to return to the car as I waved and posed for the camera that I believe made my picture four times as it turned and moved up and down on it's stand.. I don't know what hides behind this fence and this fancy gate but I wanted them to know that I came in peace.. a pity I didn't know I'd be photographed.. I might have worn a better shirt or have brushed my hair... I wanted to leave them a note in their mailbox that poked through a tiny hole in the fence.. I wanted to walk right up and knock on their fancy gate.. but after I saw the flashing red light I wondered if it was electrified.. I even threatened to moon them but thankfully good sense returned to me just before I dropped my pants.. I could hear the camera clicking away as I pranced my way back to the car where Dave waited with the motor running.. I know that we live in a time where people are robbed and thieves could be just around the next bend.. But I am thankful to be a person who does not live in constant fear.. locked in behind a tall wooden wall with a wrought iron gate to keep the world outside...
Thanks for sharing a little bit of my Town.. Have a great Night!
Patsy