Dayton Train Show, November 4, 2018

The day was overcast and windy but it wasn't raining.  Hooray!  Our van was parked way out.  Steve spotted the Ford from the 50s immediately and took a photo with his cell phone.  Parked next to it was a very nice  Porsche but he liked the Ford better.

Tom and Steve headed toward the entrance to the show.  I tagged along behind.

Inside, Tom paid our entrance fees and we put on our wrist bands.  My first thought was if this is the train show, it has really shrunk in size.  And then the money taker told us this was only one of four sections to the show.  There was another tent the size of this one and two permanent cement block buildings as well.

The buildings are the first ones that have been put up at the new Montgomery County Fair Grounds.  I am impressed.  The chosen site is beautiful, and large.  The old Montgomery Fair Grounds was close to the heart of Dayton and crowded.

Steve had two goals in mind.  I don't know was highest on his list but I think it was seeing Sam Swanson.  The other goal was just being at the Dayton Train show.

Steve is well known at the show.  His dad, Ray, was active in setting it up for many years.  Vendors know him...

And Exhibitors know him...These two asked me to remind Ray, Steve's dad, that Ray had been the one who got them into working this show.

I followed Steve from place to place until my legs wore out.

Here is an overview of part of one of the buildings.  When Steve saw closest train, he ran to the layout.  "It's The Spirit.  It's The Spirit.  I saw the real one with my dad."  

The Spirit is first in line, a locomotive painted to honor the U.S. Armed Forces.  Here is a closer look for you. It was traveling at a good clip so the photo is not quite in focus.  I didn't think about switching to video mod. 

While Steve and I were roaming about, Tom found a treasure, an advertisement with a map of the Nickel Plate Railroad which ran along the back property line of his childhood home.  He gave it to Steve to hang in his bedroom.

By the time I saw Tom, I was worn out from keeping up with Steve. Tom took over keeping up with Steve. I found a chair and sat down.

Shortly afterward, Terry came and sat down beside me.

I told him Steve was searching was searching for Sam.  Terry said, " I know he is here.  Maybe he stepped out to get something to eat." 

What was even nicer was that Terry started calling Sam on his cell phone.  Sam's phone was busy.  Terry kept trying every five or ten minutes and eventually reached Sam.  By this time I was back to following after Steve.  We were at a train layout talking to a vendor when along came Sam.

There were trains in every imaginable gauge.  Steve seemed most drawn to the HO and N gauges.  

Above is a rail yard in an N gauge layout.

This man's hand adding a car shows the tiny size of N gauge.

This is the town on  the N gauge layout.

Here is FRED...The arrow points to him...Flashing Rear End Device.  Like always, Steve said, "Hello, FRED.  Goodbye, FRED."

Closer view of FRED...

And here is Sam.  Thanks, Terry and everyone else who alerted Sam that Steve was looking for him.

Mission accomplished.  Steve and Sam had a good reunion.  Later Tom and Sam had a good talk, too.                                  

Tipp City Mum Festival, September 30, 2018

Tom was on a mission.  When he is in a crowd, foremost in his mind is navigating through it.  I followed along behind and looked at booths and signs.  Over in the distance on the left side of the photo is the Tipp City High School Football Stadium.  A group of citizens are in the process of raising money to renovate it.  This year they collected enough to redo the field. There is an overall plan and they choose sections of it to work on as the money is collected.

I think  renovating the stands is next on their list.  I hope so.

This was the sixtieth year for the festival.  When it started, the Springhill Nursery had fields of mums planted in fields along the highway so chrysanthemums were the obvious choice for the festival's emphasis.  Since then Springhill has been sold several times and no longer has the fields of mums but the name remains and so do mums at the festival.

Years ago when we were active  in Cub Scouts with our boys, we were part of the Saturday morning  parade.

Later on, I had a booth at the park where I drew charcoal sketches of visitors for ten dollars each.

There must have been  more Tipp area artists and artisans at the park but Tom kept zipping along.  I only saw Paper Alice.  She had a booth at the park when I did and she has continued to have a booth.

She makes beautiful paper from the ads she receives in the mail.  She includes bits of leaves and flower petals and tiny stones and spices from her kitchen to add interest.  She sells her paper, creates art on her paper and teaches others how to make paper.  In this picture, you can see everything she uses to go from start to finish.

And here is a closer look at her paper.

If you are curious about her work  you can get more information at
www.paperalice.com

 The last time we came to the festival in the park, food truck events were a fairly new type of event in our area.  There were only a few food trucks at the park.  This year there were many, many food trucks.

 I photographed this truck because man with the red and black striped cap is one of the old-time baseball players.  Tipp City has an old-time baseball team.  There are others in the area.  They play baseball according to the old-time rules.  There was a baseball tournament in progress.  It was between games for this player.

Local groups as well as food truck owners were selling food.  I remember the Fire Department selling waffles back in the days when we were part of the Cub Scout group.

The park was crowded with booths.  In them people were selling...

bamboo socks...

alpaca sweaters....

Halloween decorations...

Fairy Princess crowns...

and hundreds of other wares.

Tom knew where he wanted to stop...The Miami County Park District tent.

They had a step by step craft set up so people could make a paper flower.

As we were leaving, I looked down the path and there they were...the pick-up basketball players.  I see players on these courts almost every time I drive by the park.  

A pleasant visit to the park on a pleasant day.  The sun was shining. The temperature was in the low 80s and there was a gentle breeze. 

My Eightieth Birthday....Wow!

June 13, 2018...I have entered another decade.

The first day was amazing.  I expected that Tom and I would go to The Rusty Bucket where our grandson is chef and have a pleasant meal.

I was ready to go when Tom said, "There's someone at the door.  Will you get it?"

My two sisters from Florida were at the door.  One of them said she thought I was having a heart attack when I opened the door.  I could not have been more surprised.  They drove all the way up from Florida to spend my birthday with me.

Tom told us to go ahead and go to the Rusty Bucket.  He had things to do at home.  The four of us could talk when we returned.

With my grandson on the patio of the Rusty Bucket.

A few hours later my daughter, Sonja, arrived with supper.   So much supper, I told her, it looked like she had brought enough food for twenty people.

Good thing, too.  Other people, none of whom I expected, showed up.

What I have told you are only a few of the highlights of the day.  Tom and  and my sister took at least a hundred pictures so I have all of them to jog my memories.  And yesterday, a book made with help from the Shutterfly website , arrived so I have still another way of remembering.

This decade is off to a wonderful start.

Friday, June 1, 2018 at Cedar Bog

Tom, our friend, Pat, and I wanted to see the Showy Lady's Slippers. (Cypripedium reginae)  Since Tom and I have come to the bog,( which is really a fen,) quite a few times, we knew where they would be.

Tom headed off ahead of Pat and me.  We took time to look at other things along the way.
The large plant to the left of the boardwalk is a Great Angelica.(Angelica atropurpurea)

There is a closer look.

Pat liked these masses of tiny white flowers.  We meant to ask what they were when we returned to the Education Center but we forgot. I think someone told me a long time ago that they were Flowering Spurge.  Sometimes I remember correctly. 😀

Here is a closer look at them.

Pat and I both like to look at all kinds of wild things.  We saw quite a few of these dragonflies.  This morning I checked in my copy of Dragonflies through Binoculars and learned that this is a Common Whitetail female.  (Libellula lydia)  We saw the males, too but I didn't get a photo of one.

The white line is the boardwalk.  When we came to the fork we went right because I knew we were close to the Lady Slippers.  Tom was out of sight.  I really wanted to find him because I was beginning to be bothered by insects.  The  insect repellent was in the back pocket of his power chair.  I didn't find him but I found the Lady Slippers.

Pat loved them.  I knew she would.

About then Tom found us.  He came up behind us.  He had taken the fork to the left and turned back when we didn't catch up with him.

We all used the insect repellent, then headed back to the van.  thunderstorms were predicted.

This is how the sky looked above the parking lot.  There were a few drops of rain by the time we were settled in the van.

Surprisingly, those raindrops were the end of the rain until hours later.  But how were we to know?

Beautiful Day at Charleston Falls, August 12, 2017

Come with Jeanne and me on the walk we took at Charleston Falls this morning.  The day was perfect...sweater weather and sunny.

Black-eyed Susans

And the smaller Brown-eyed Susans

Ironweed

Spiderwebs sparkling with dew in the sunshine

Not sure what this plant is.  I plan to take more photos and post them to the Ohio Wildflowers and Flora Facebook page.  I discovered when I started searching my field guides that I hadn't looked at the plant as closely as I needed to for ID purposes.  The little black row of "buttons" fascinated me.

Bright orange fungi on a rotting log

Doll's Eyes ( White Baneberry)  The fruit is far showier than the delicate flowers.

And an enormous Prairie Dock