Category: Picture of the Day

Picture of the Day for August 26, 2015

One local school district started classes yesterday, but the children attended a much bigger school than this old one-room schoolhouse found in Mercer, Wisconsin. It probably was not a wise thing to get on the bad side of the teacher since you would have the same teacher normally for most of your school years in that one room school.

I don’t know why the restored schoolhouse was named the Shirley Sleight School, but there was a Shirley Sleight who lived in Mercer.  She was born in 1917, married and had two children (by the 1940 census) and seemed active in the community as a performer in “Moonlight Serenade” in 1957 for a fund raiser a park and in 1998 was still active in the The Depot Historical Society and the depot museum, which is where the school is located, so I assumed it was named in honor of her service and volunteer work. She died in 2004.

Shirley Sleight School

Shirley Sleight School

 

And a peek inside.

Inside Shirley Sleight School

Picture of the Day for August 24, 2015

It was very hard to get a picture of the birthday kids this morning since either I could get only one in the picture or have a blurry mass when the two were together as they wrestled with each other. Only when I sneaked out when they were napping that I was able to get a picture of Trouble and Stripe together, but it had to be a quick shot or the moment was over.

Happy First Birthday Cats

Happy First Birthday Cats

Picture of the Day for August 23, 2015

On a ridge in southwestern Wisconsin, sit a 45 by 65 foot church built out of 150,000 bricks which was dedicated on January 20, 1901, to become the third church for the German Lutherans in the Ridgeville area which was organized in 1862.  Above the entrance are the words “EV LUTH ST JOHANNES KIRCHE”, as a 110 foot tower bell climbed above and could be heard throughout the countryside, until the steeple was damaged in a storm and replaced with a cap in 1948, only a few years after when the last German service was discontinued in the early 1940s to all English services. It would have nice to see St. John’s with the tall steeple but it is still an impressive brick church.

St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church

 

Picture of the Day for August 20, 2015

Hopefully the sun will peek out and shine today, otherwise the Black-eyed Susans will have to provide the sunshine. There are different hybrids from the native plant which are used in gardens and mine have multiplied quite well from the couple of plants I started with. Even giving a truckload away to a friend didn’t slow them down long but they sure add some bright color when most of the other flowers are done blooming.

Sea of Yellow Faces

Sea of Yellow Faces

Picture of the Day for August 19, 2015

With a crown of yellow, orange, or red feathers on its head (although normally concealed), the Eastern Kingbird looks rather stately in its tuxedo look. And it defends it territory like a king, harassing other birds that venture too close during the breeding season, while catching insects to eat. But its lifestyle changes during the winter months in the Amazon, where it eats fruits and travels in flocks.

Eastern KingbirdEastern Kingbird

Picture of the Day for August 18, 2015

Ducks love water so they should like the today’s rainy weather. There are many variety of ducks, even ones with a bad morning hairdo! But the bad hairdo on the White Crested duck is caused by a genetic mutation of the skull. Ducks with this mutation are born with a gap in their skull, which is filled with fatty tissue and from this tissue, the feathers sprouts.

People have continued to breed for this mutation, as early as 1600 as seen in paintings, but if a pair crested ducks are breed to each other, then about a quarter of the embryos to die in the shell because a double dose of the crested gene will cause the duckling’s brain to develop improperly outside of the skull. Half the offspring will be crested and the remaining quarter will be non-crested. When breeding a crested duck with a non-crested duck, half will be crested and the other half non-crested, with no lethal allele, although the crests are smaller than when breeding two crested ducks.

White Crested Duck

White Crested Duck

Picture of the Day for August 17, 2015

This flower (or weed) didn’t escape from gardens but most likely came as a stow-away from Europe and Asia in hay or alfalfa seed in the late 1890’s. Since then it has spread to 45 of the 50 states and has rapidly invaded Wisconsin’s prairies and barrens, as well as pastures, hay fields, ditches and other grassland areas.

Well it might look like a pretty purple flower, the spotted knapweed makes and then secretes chemicals into the soil which kill surrounding plants to aid its evasion.

Spotted Knapweed

Spotted Knapweed