I thought I’d share some X-tremes we have run across on the lake. Starting with some X-tremeHomes. . .
This home is one of my favorites on the lake. . .
X-treme craftsmanship and detail. . .
This home has x-treme water views, with water on three sides. . .
We watched this home being built~ I’m afraid this home owner is x-tremely color blind. . .
X-treme copper turrets, dwarfing the neighbor’s house next door. . .
This is the other x-treme seen on our lake.
I like the idea of being right on the water, but this would make me x-tremely nervous. . .
This x-tremely adorable boat house has everything you would need for a weekend get away :-)
This is something we hadn’t seen before on the lake~
An X-tremeAirport~ this would certainly make your morning commute x-tremely easy :-)
An x-tremely large boat with an x-tremely small cover. . .
This is an X-treme Pontoon/Tiki Bar.
Complete with a hammock and potted palm trees~
X-tremely Distressing. . .
X-tremely Cheery :-)
X-tremely good odds for catching fish. . .
X-tremely better odds :-)
I am X-tremely Grateful for everyone’s kind comments and visits since I joined Blogland in January. In appreciation, I thought I would throw a ThankYouCoffee for my tablescape this week.
This Mark Roberts’ Birds Nest Fairy was a birthday gift (thank you Pam :-) so I perched him on some boxes for an impromtu centerpiece next to a bird’s nest.
Help yourself to muffins, fruit, and mini quiches. There is juice & coffee. . .
I set the table with my Portmeirion Botanic Garden and added these mugs that I ran across at Home Goods~ they were in a three pack, by Rose of England.
This ceramic glazed bird bath I found at Target this spring. I have plans to use it indoors rather than out. I thought it would be a fun to use to serve your muffins :-)
My x-treme thanks for your comments and visits and
thanks to my hostesses to this week’s parties I’m linking to:
“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4th, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.” ~Erma Bombeck
The history of weathervanes can be traced all the way back to 48 BC, to the Tower of the Winds in Athens, Greece. An octagonal marble structure, that contained a huge weathervane in the shape of a Triton, a Greek sea-god that was part man, part fish.
I thought I’d share some Weathervanes that we have run across on our boating excursions, viewed from the Water.
Today weathervanes are more often used as architectural ornaments rather than measuring wind direction. This pineapple is not the most common weathervane seen on the lake~ of course, this is not the most common house on the lake either. Here is the rest of the house~
Weathervanes with Herons, Fish, Ducks, and Sail Boats are more often found~ perched on boat docks or cupolas on roofs and gazebos.
The city of Montague, Michigan claims to have the largest standard-design weather vane, being a ship and arrow which measures 48 feet tall, weighing 4,300 pounds.
According to White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce:
“The ship on top of the weathervane is the Ella Ellenwood, a Great Lakes lumber schooner whose home port was White Lake, off Lake Michigan, in Montague. In October of 1901, the Ellenwood ran aground with a full load eight miles north of Milwaukee. The crew abandoned ship, and the wind and waves of a fall storm broke the ship to pieces. The next spring, a portion of the ship’s nameplate, bearing the word Ellenwood, was found in White Lake. Almost miraculously, the nameplate had drifted back east across Lake Michigan to the ship’s home port.”
A challenger for the title of world’s largest weather vane is located in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. The weather vane is a retired Douglas DC-3 atop a swiveling support. Located beside Whitehorse International Airport, the weather vane is used mainly by pilots to determine wind direction. The weather vane only requires a 5 km/hour wind to rotate.
“The popularity of weathervanes exploded when a papal edict from the 9th century A.D. help bring the weathervane to the skies of most of Europe. Rome declared that every church in Christendom must be adorned by a cockerel, a symbol to remind Christians of Peter’s betrayal of Christ.
While these cockerels were at first not intended as weathervanes, they were eventually combined with the weathervanes that already dotted many church steeples to create the familiar rooster-shaped weathervane common today. This is probably due to the fact that the cockerels atop church steeples were easily visible from anywhere in town, and so were a logical choice to become communal weathervanes.”
If you’re on the lake you should have a lake dog, or at the very least, a dog weathervane :-)
I had to chuckle when I spied this one. . .
He has a bird’s eye view :-)
One of my pet peeves, since we are on a lake, easily three hours from any beach, are coastal images, like this pelican. . .
Or this sailfish. . .
or this dolphin~ to my eye they look out-of-place. . .more suited to a coastal home, but I am not the weathervane police :-)
And this is probably the most common weathervane seen on the lake :-)
I thought I’d set my table inspired by the water again this week. These salad plates were a birthday gift, so this gave me an opportunity to play with them :-)
If the reflecting surface is very smooth, the reflection of light that occurs is called specular or regular reflection.
The laws of reflection are as follows:
The incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal to the reflection surface at the point of the incidence lie in the same plane.
The angle which the incident ray makes with the normal is equal to the angle which the reflected ray makes to the same normal.
Light paths are reversible.
Understand now? :-)
Specular reflection is the mirror-like reflection of light (or sometimes other kinds of wave) from a surface, in which light from a single incoming direction (a ray) is reflected into a single outgoing direction. Such behavior is described by the law of reflection, which states that the direction of incoming light (the incident ray), and the direction of outgoing light reflected (the reflected ray) make the same angle with respect to the surface normal, thus the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection; mathematically this is θi = θr.
Any Questions ? :-)
Reflection is also defined as: a fixing of the thoughts on something; careful consideration. I’ve often reflected on why boaters rarely observe “No Wake” signs & buoys . . .
And if this Desperado has come to his senses. . .
And if we will ever rid ourselves of muskrats. . .read here.
Reflecting on my tablescape this week, I chose to go with water-inspired colors~ more Caribbean in color than Lake incolor :-)
I added some flat glass marbles to the table and plates for additional reflection~
Reflections of the porch railing in this wine glass. . .
And a marble reflection in this spoon~
The turquoise footed-bowls are Style-Happy from Home Goods.
The textured glass salad plate is by Murero, recycled glass, Italy~ Home Goods. Blue & White dinner plate ~ Kohl’s/Food Network. Aqua charger~Home Goods, manufacturer unknown.
Napkins are Badgley Mischka~ Home Goods. Napkin Rings & Blue & White glasses~Kohl’s.
Small aqua fish dishes and assorted vases & bottles~Home Goods. Blue wine goblets~ Dollar Tree :-)
More reflections by candlelight. . .
Reflecting on these turquoise dishes~something cold and creamy like sherbert or ice cream seemed to be in order, but I decided to resist and serve fruit :-)
It is chair-sitting weather again~ The fine art of “Chair-Sitting” involves: Stare at the Water and Clouds. Read a Little. Have a Drink. Watch the Purple Martins. Hold a Dog in your Lap. Listen to Music. Discuss Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and just Sloooow Down.
This is the elusive white squirrel that I have been trying to photograph for 4 months now. . .I finally managed, through a window, so the photos aren’t great. We have a heavily wooded natural area behind our house in Charlotte, NC. The canopy of trees in our backyard is essentially a gymnasium for dozens of squirrels.
In my googling I ran across Roadside America’s site that says: “Not one, but five towns use albino squirrels as their claims to fame, and none is particularly happy about the others.”
Another tidbit that turned up in my googling; The University of Texas has a legend of the albino squirrel. My friend Ginny’s son, Trey is about to graduate from there this year. I’ll have to remember to ask if they have heard of this:
Apparently white squirrels don’t live as long, since they don’t have the camouflage that nature intended, and are easily spotted by predators. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for this little guy.
I’m linking this to A Southern Daydreamer. Be sure to stop byfor more Outdoor Wednesday treats.
