Deep Run East Pre-School Art Show, No. 1

Today, my home church hosted the Deep Run East Preschool Art Show in the Fellowship Hall. During the morning worship service, the preschool students sang several songs followed by a video highlighting the preschool year. After the service, the art exhibit was opened up to the preschool families and after Sunday School to everybody. The students, staff, and volunteers did an excellent job in making a delightful art show. Below are five pictures of the various art projects with possibly more to follow here later in the week.






If you haven't done so already, for maximal enjoyment you may want to click on the pictures for larger views.

Maine Scenes, No. 7, Baxter, Welcome Signs

This weeks assignment for Tuesdays Photos was on the theme of signs. I chose to present two photos of signs in Maine below.


The above welcome sign is found on the road to Baxter State Park and Mt. Katahdin. It is a great place to park the car and take in the beauty of the area.


This second photo amuses me by virtue of its message. By the way, in the years that I have hiked across that bridge, the sign did not cause me to take any greater caution than I do naturally. :) One must cross this bridge to get to the peat moss beach that I mentioned in an earlier Maine Scenes post. I do though remember one year that a just a little ways before this bridge some Canadian Geese with young goslings seriously tried to chase me away.

Two Tulips

It's one of those days when nothing is quite coming together for a post. So here are two tulip blossoms from my parent's farm. Hope you all are having a great spring!

Allentown before My Time

Yesterday, I was sorting through some things from one of my uncles. Among the items, I found this postcard picturing a scene from the city of Allentown, Pennsylvania. I think it is from the early 1900s. In some sense, it touched me awakening a romanticized view of an earlier period of history.

The Dandelion

The dandelion
Some see as a nuisance or worse
A weed that should be exterminated
Yet despite extreme efforts
Keeps coming back

But to me
The dandelion
Brings back fun-filled memories
Of childhood
Of exuberance and persistence

How we colored
Each other's noses and cheeks
With the yellow dandelion flower
In a frolic of mischief and delight
As we snuck up on each other

And when the dandelion seeded
We sought and created the winds
To see the fluffy seeds
With wings of cotton take flight
Over the fields or better yet into a sibling's face

Along the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek, No. 3, Signs of New Life

Today was a beautiful day mostly sunny and with temperatures in the mid-seventies Fahrenheit this afternoon. So it was time to go hiking after work along the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek near Perkasie, Bucks County, Pennsylvania once again.


Along the way, I saw these Canadian Geese with their goslings - wonderful signs of spring and new life even though Canadian Geese overpopulation is a problem here.


I continued along the path nearly stepping on a garter snake that all too quickly slithered away for me to take a photograph.


But I was being watched. Lo, the white goose! On farms, geese can effectively serve as watch dogs; but this one remained quiet.


Near the creek bank was the huge tree with a hollow though not as large as Pooh Tree in Peace Valley Park near Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.


And then, I came across this great blue heron apparently cleaning itself in the picture above and on the move upcreek in the picture below. It was an excellent afternoon.

Off the Banbury-Mopac Trail

Trees lining the way

Rays of sun and blossom

Emoting the senses

Engulfing all being

Sensation and stillness thriving side by side

All In One Sunday, No. 4

Today, the Junior Youth of my church and a neighboring church held a joint afternoon road rally and game time. The youth and us adults who went from my church gathered in the fellowship hall after church and Sunday School to eat our bag lunches before the activity.

The road rally was a challenge. There were eight teams that went out and not a one figured all the clues out correctly. But we were being mostly scored on time and mileage. The car I was driving had a good combination of individuals to decipher the clues and came in first winning a bag of jelly beans. :) Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from the road rally itself.

While people were arriving back from the road rally, it was snack time. And there were loads of snacks brought by the other church - chips of all sorts and salsa, chocolate chip cookies, candy, and pretzels.

After all the youth were back, there was a period of organized game playing. I had been talking with a driver from the other church when the first game started and did not hear the name of it. But it basically was a game in which the youth who were "it" had to catch all the other youth who also became "it" and had to join in on catching the remaining youth until all were captured. The people were captured by lifting the person off the ground. As you can imagine, the person being captured sometimes put up quite a bit of resistance. Below are two pictures from this game.



The next two pictures are of the youth playing frisby football - a little less physical. :)




I spent the evening at home. And after all the snacks from the afternoon, I only ate vanilla yogurt and frozen blueberries for supper. After supper, I spent a couple hour finishing the reading of the novel entitled The Darwin Conspiracy authored by John Darton. It examines some of the enigmas of the Darwinian origin of the theory of evolution. Not all is as it often appears to be.

Waves of Grace: Live from Jericho musical

Two of my nieces are in a Christian homeschool drama group called Waves of Grace. Last night, I went to see their musical performance entitled I Witness News: Live from Jericho. They did an excellent job as they followed Joshua and the children of Israel into the Promised Land. This was their third performance in the same day. The photo below is a picture of the cast after the final performance was over. My nieces are located in the first row (first one from the left) and the second row (second one from the left).

Sunrise Transformation

I love sunrises. The first photo is the original picture that I took with the Canon Powershot A80 on Landscape mode. I framed the view using the flip out LCD screen. The second photo is transformation of the first made by adjusting the RGB levels. But it grabbed me both for its colors and the effect on my imagination. It is almost like what might be an extraterrestrial eye watching us.

Along the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek, No. 2, Part 2, Wildflower Views

Last Saturday, I posted some of the animals, I saw as I hiked along the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek near Perkasie, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. This here is from the same hiking trip but shows some of the wildflowers I enjoyed along the way. And for those who might be interested, my abstract art post of yesterday came from the upper left hand corner of the first picture.

Fantasy Land, No. 5

I have an appreciation for the abstract especially when it calls on my imagination. This picture is dark. Is it because of the chains in it? Can you see the figures that might be a young lady in the middle of the picture and a young man to the left of her? Are they walking on one of the chains or are they just inside looking out? Or you might also think of these characters as upright, dressed-up mice? And what are the meaning(s) of the chains?

Do click on the photo for a larger and more clearer view.

Water Lillies and Goldfish

A few days back, I posted some water lilly photos from a brother's pond. Someone asked me whether he still grew water lillies. The answer is yes. On Sunday, he took us into a small greenhouse addition to his shop where he has a small indoor pond with water lillies and goldfish. He also has water lillies in a small pond at his home but not at the large pond next to their greenhouses. The muskrats invaded that pond keeping it clean of most growing plants.

A photo with a story?

When I viewed this bike, there was a sense that this bike carries a story or stories. Does this picture strike up a story in you? Would you care to share that story here? This picture was taken along the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek in the same section that I hiked and posted about here two days ago. The picture below gives a larger view of the creek in which the bike was found. The pictures are clickable to see a larger view.

All In One Sunday, No. 3

Today was a joyous church and family day. The pictures below only represent a small portion of all that went on. The first two pictures are from church and the next four are from our family gathering on the home farm. Unfortunately, not all could be in attendance because of distance and sickness. But it was good being with those who could be there.


My day began with attending an Easter Breakfast at church sponsored by our church youth as a fundraising effort for their upcoming summer mission project at a camp in one of the New England states. They served us scrambled eggs, toast and dry beef gravy, and hash browns among other things. Delicious!


Every Easter Sunday, we usually have people playing trumpets and/or trumbones. The guy to the left is one of my brothers and the guy to the right is our lead pastor.


Here's another of my brothers from Michigan with our three nieces.


Here are us guys out talking and playing with Dad's dog Sparky.


Here's one of my brothers and his wife and two year old son riding a cart built by another of my brothers.


Here's my brother from Michigan, three nieces, and a nephew enjoying the glider on the front porch.

Along the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek, No. 2, Animal Views

This afternoon, I hiked along a portion of the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek paralleling Perkasie, Bucks County, Pennsylvania from Callowhill Road to Blooming Glen Road. It was a partially sunny afternoon with temperatures near eighty degrees Fahrenheit. It felt good to be out in shorts, T-shirt, and sandals in the woods most of the way. And along the way, I met a child who told me about seeing a racoon attacking and eating a squirrel. He said the the painful cry of the squirrel almost made him wince. And then there was a teenager who upon seeing my camera said he should have his Nikon with him. I came across him later and he proudly told me, "See I said I would get my Nikon."


The above picture shows the highlight of my afternoon. I was crossing a walking bridge when I noted this huge turtle swimming upcreek. The shell portion of the turtle was easily a foot or more long. And note how large its head is and how long a tail it has.


Two stately white geese and a third gray goose
with its head in the water


A robin with a questioning eye


Three mallards resting


Trout season is open and people are out fishing in full force. This particular picture is taken along Constitution Avenue, Sellersville, Pennsylvania though the road in the picture is North Main Street. But people were out fishing in crowds whenever there was a road near the trail.

Pennypacker Mills, No. 2, Some More Wildflower Views

Tuesday afternoon this week, I went for another hike at Pennypacker Mills near Schwenksville, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Spring is flourishing there as exhibited by the following pictures.


A stalk of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)


Trout lilies (Erythronium americanum)


A clump of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)