©2012 Cris Coleman

Here you are, Rick. Is this what you had in mind? Even if it isn’t, I like it better. Thanks for the suggestion.

©2012 Cris Coleman

While this is technically not a “looking glass”, we are “looking” through a “glass” window at a photo of Jesse James. Why Jesse James?

Jesse, the famous outlaw who, with his brother, Frank, and gang, robbed a Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad train shortly after it departed from the small town of Winston, Missouri on July 15, 1881.

Jesse shot and killed someone he thought was in charge of a train that brought some Pinkerton agents to his mother’s house in 1875 the night that his little brother was killed. Jesse shot him in the back.

Frank, not to be outdone, shot and killed another man who apparently was attempting to stop Jesse from shooting his man. The mystery is why no one was ever found guilty of the killings.

The above photo of Jesse James is located in the railroad station in Winston. The station is now a museum. Although I’ve never seen anyone there, it does have railroad memorabilia inside.

While returning from photographing a sunrise through some trees and over a pond, I came across these unusual tiny (presumably) ant hills. I thought I’d share them with you for this week’s photo challenge.

©2012 Cris Coleman

©2012 Cris Coleman

©2012 Cris Coleman

©2012 Cris Coleman

©2012 Cris Coleman

©2012 Cris Coleman

Green Pond by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Here’s my entry for St. Patrick’s Day.
Surely there’s something magical about a green pond.
Surely there’s got to be Leprechauns somewhere around there to keep it so nice and green.

That being said, I’ve never understood what all the hoopla is about when it comes to St. Patrick’s Day. It seems everyone goes nuts — parades, green beer, green eggs, green puke from too much green beer, and so forth.

When I was a wee lad in elementary school, if you didn’t wear green, you got pinched. What was that all about? You didn’t even have to be Irish to get pinched. Of course, my mom never bought me anything green. You can guess what happened.

In a r-e-a-l-l-y small town in Iowa, one of the things they do on an annual basis on St. Patrick’s Day is turn the river that flows by their town green. I mean, come on…..

I can hear all the Irish men and women out there (or maybe those who just like to drink green beer) shouting at me, “YOU’D UNDERSTAND IF YOU WERE IRISH!” Well, maybe, maybe not.

I may have a wee bit of Irish blood in me. I’ve got a two-thirds chance that one of my great, great grandfathers may have been Irish. From what I’ve been able to tell, about two-thirds of all the Hines in Kentucky during that period of time came from Ireland.

On the other hand, it might be that I just came from a family that didn’t get excited about anything. Or it could be that I’m just an old curmudgeon after all.

Still, I wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
Whatever that means. 🙂

©2012 Cris Coleman

Contrast by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

It doesn’t get more contrasty than this. I was out on the backroads of Missouri searching for places to photograph when I ran across this blight of a contrast to the surrounding area. Sad, it is, is it not?

©2012 Cris Coleman

Distorted Farm Pond by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Farm ponds are a regular fixture in the Midwest. So are wild grasses. But are these wild grasses and farm pond from the Midwest? Or are they from another dimension? Another universe? Or only in the imagination?