Sunday, November 23, 2014

Convention Season

With the countdown to Thanksgiving Thursday, I would imagine that your households here in the US anyway are busy getting ready for the best dinner of the year. Here not so much. Hubby is still in corn harvest, which they hope to finish up tomorrow. Hopefully he will be home by tomorrow night. While the girls go to their in-laws for dinner, we will have a very quiet Thanksgiving. I did buy a turkey the other day because it was so cheap, so I may thaw it out and roast it.

I have grown tired of my fall decor that I have had out since September, but I am holding off on putting up the Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. I have to decide what to do about a tree since I donated mine last year. I am thinking of an un-pre-lite tree.  I do have some fun Christmas projects that I want to share with you, but I am going to wait. Let's savor the moments and rush not the season.

When I went out to feed yesterday morning, I heard the roar of the squawking Canada geese as they were coming for a landing to the east just outside of town where they were gathering by the thousands. From the Garden Spot, I could see them circling above the convention site, turning the sky black, the conventioneers filling the early morning sky. Later in the day I drove out to see them in the fields.




I used my 75-300 mm Canon lens and still didn't close enough. I didn't walk out into the field for fear of scaring them way, nor did I want to be a trespasser. So I parked the SUV on the side of the road to get these shots.





They arrive in small groups, a few families at a time busy chattering to each other, calling to those below announcing they arrival.


They set down right in the middle of the flock. Are they meeting up with friends from the North? Do they reunite with family? Do they make plans and business deals? Do they arrange marriages for their eligible children? Or do they just land, hoping to find a good dining spot?



The convention began at daybreak with the arrivals flying in from all parts all day.



Many of the fields have been plowed for the winter, while other fields still have corn stubble, making good feed for the thousands of Canada geese that congregate along the Front Range all winter long.


Often the snow geese follow along. While not rare in these parts, we do not always see the snow geese.


From our backyard, I often get photos of the abandoned grain elevator on the main highway; now you can see it from the other view, east of town.


How many geese? Thousands. They will not return to this field either.

At the end of the day as I drove home from an open house in Greeley. The geese blackened the sky again as they had ended their convention, flying over the highway headed west, craws and bellies full, all partied out, looking for the lakes where they would spend the night. Tomorrow another convention in another field.


A bit behind, I finally made my dish flowers. I like the way they turned out. I have more dishes to work with. I think these will make either nice table center pieces or plate flowers in the garden next spring; although, they are very heavy.

 I will give these away as gifts. I especially like the Anchor Hocking white egg plate laced in gold. The amber glass are Tiaraware saucers. Remember Tiara glass sold through home parties? I bought a few pieces then. The amber candle holder comes from Home Interiors and Gifts, another home party company that sold decorating accessories. (I sold Home Interiors for years before I went back to graduate school). Both companies had beautiful, quality products. Home Interiors went bankrupt and another company bought it out, so it is still in business with it's Homco line still in production. I don't know about Tiaraware. These independent direct sales companies that were family owned companies gave so many woman careers. I hate that these beautiful pieces end up at thrift stores, but still it is wonderful to seem them re-purposed. 

I will be sharing this mosaic with Judith at Lavender Cottage, so drop by to see all of the other beautiful and interesting mosaics.

Will anyone be participating in their local Turkey Trot before they eat dinner? Jen has asked me join her in the 5K Trot. What is that girl thinking? She is a runner; I am not. I'll see. 

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful week.

Happy Thanksgiving.






13 comments:

  1. Beautiful and interesting photos, Ann!
    You know what I especially loved? The mountaintops! (Or are they hills, how high are they?) We don't have anything like that...
    Your dish flowers look lovely!

    Happy Thanksgiving!

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  2. How amazing to see all of those geese together like that! And the photos with the snow covered mountains in the background could be a photo for a calendar! Love your glass creations...I like the one with the little amber votive holder in the center. Turkey trot? We went to those every year when my boys were growing up. I take the day off now! lol Happy Thanksgiving my friend! Warm hugs, Diane

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  3. That's a lot of geese! Your dish flower design is brilliant. They look so beautiful and unusual. They will sure dress up a table beautifully. Happy Thanksgiving to you too Ann.

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  4. Wow! I love your dish flowers!! Beautiful. Have a good Thanksgiving, stay home alone with Mr actually sounds nice and quiet.

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  5. I have never seen so many geese in one spot before. Your photos are wonderful! I love those glass gifts you have made. How lucky for the person you give them too. Happy Thanksgiving Ann!

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  6. Wow, so many geese. I love your photo's and the dish flowers. Happy Thanksgiving

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  7. Your comments about what the Canada Geese were talking about made me smile. We have flocks of them here - but not in the numbers you have seen. I'd like to see that though. But snow geese - well we have LOTS of them - tens of thousands - and they fill the skies when a flock flies up. We get trumpeter swans also - thousands of them this year, the biggest flocks we've seen so far.

    I love what you've done with the glass pieces - they do look very spring-like.

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  8. I smiled at the whimsy of the geese conventioneers perhaps arranging marriages. I can imagine the honking and squawking of that many geese!
    Pretty plate flowers - they would add a lot to a garden.

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  9. A gathering of the geese clans to make decisions, lots of noise and goose manure. :-)
    A turkey trot before dinner? This is a new one for me but both of our daughters run half marathons and they'd think this would be a fun thing to do. Not me, steady as she goes on the treadmill in the mornings, safe from the outdoor elements. Oh yes, and breakfast television to make the time go faster.
    Thanks for linking to Mosaic Monday Ann.

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  10. Love the scenery of the geese on the plowed land with a view to the mountains, but even grain elevators on the background are nice to see. We also have too many geese, especially on the pastures, a nuisance for the farmers for they eat all the grass.

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  11. What a beautiful scene, these lovely Canada geese against the backdrop of the mountains. Love it!

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  12. Hello Ann, Happy Thanksgiving to you! Wonderful pictures of all those geese. We had loads and loads of cranes flying over to their winter quarters, very impressive as well.
    Thank you for your letter,it arrived Monday. What a joy. Here is my blog link,hope it works:
    http://bayou-bayoublog.blogspot.be/
    love, Anke

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  13. I love seeing the geese conventions around....and your dish flowers are fabulous...I really love these!!

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