The first day of school - Did you picture it right?

Backpacks loaded with new supplies? Check. Just the right clothes? Check. Camera ready for the first-day-of-school  picture? Check. It may be one of the marks of good parenting to get that picture each year.

This year. Thirty years ago. Fifty years ago. It's all the same. My mom was religious in her zeal to capture my sisters and me before we headed off across the field to attend the first day of school at our country school. No doubt we looked better on that one day than we did on any other day of the year than, perhaps, Easter Sunday. Fresh haircuts or perms, new dresses, lunch boxes packed.

My own efforts to record my son's first days of school each year were less consistent.  In the picture I took one year, he has his backpack and is kneeling next to his cocker spaniel.  Barefoot. By the time I remembered to take the picture, it was the end of the day and I had to beg him to put his backpack on. Getting him into shoes again was out of the question.

It's funny that of all the school pictures I took of him, that's the one I remember most. That's often how memory works. We don't remember what happens a thousand times right. Rather, we remember what happens one time wrong. It's often the one time wrong that makes for the memorable story.

My nieces are now taking those first-day-of-school pictures of their kids. This year, one daughter holds up four fingers and the other holds up one finger, indicating fourth and first grades.  The pictures are great. I don't wish my nieces to be as forgetful as I was, but I do wish them pictures that bring up stories and and memories.

Happy first day of school!

Great taste, no calories

The Iowa State Fair is all about the food, right? Food we eat and enjoy and then regret when we remember the calories?

Well, the Fair offers huge banquets to enjoy that contain not one single calorie. One of those is on the second floor of the Varied Industries building.

That's where Iowa quilters display the fruits of their labor over the past year. And it is one huge bounty. Even folded so that only a small portion of each quilt shows, the entries still extend from ceiling to floor, covering three walls of a large room. 

Each quilt is a work of art. The colors, the patterns, the stitching all attest to the skill of so many dedicated quilters.  Each quilt, individually, is phenomenal. Grouped together, they create a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors.

A few photographs provide a taste of the variety on the plates of Iowa quilters. Here's a sample and you can enjoy them all with absolutely no calories!

Can you identify this flower?

The prairie always gives me something new to look at. But often I'm not sure what it is I'm seeing.  Here's my latest puzzle.

I realize the challenge picking out the flower and foliage from all the green. I've looked in my trusty Tallgrass Prairie Wildflower book and the closest I can come is Showy Tick Trefoil.

There are some inconsistencies between what I see in the picture in the book and what I see in real life. My prairie plant is taller than the 2-4' the book describes.  Also, while the leaves on my prairie plants are 'alternate, short-stalked, beanlike' as the book describes, they are also much longer than in the picture - 2-3 times as long.

Since I'm new to this whole prairie thing (I count three years as 'new'), I'm hoping one of you in the blogosphere will be able to help.

Or, if you're more into photography and can give me advice on how to make one green plant differentiate itself from all the surrounding green plants, I'd be grateful for those tips, too!

Thanks!