I do love history. I manage a museum site on facebook with a growing 850 member/friends and we often really get into the local history. You could have a look if you want:

https://www.facebook.com/historicalsociety.greenupill

It is indeed an interesting site, and also a very sad site--walking several hundred yards up into the woods to observe where they had to bury Abe's poor mother. Such a sad time it had to be for that young boy.

This past summer I took a photo in southern Indiana at the site of Abe Lincoln's boyhood home. When he was but a young lad his father, Thomas, crossed the Ohio from Kentucky on a raft and homesteaded a small farm up in what at the time was in the middle of nowhere, Spencer County, Indiana. That's where Abe's mother died of milk sickness. Milk sickness, also known as tremetol vomiting or, in animals as trembles, is characterized by trembling, vomiting, and severe intestinal pain that affects individuals who ingest milk, other dairy products, or meat from a cow that has fed on white snakeroot, which contains the poison tremetol. It goes without saying that Abe's mother died an agonizing death within the very cabin walls pictured below, of which only the foundation and part of the fireplace remain, preserved in cast bronze. Abraham Lincoln spent fourteen years of his life and grew from youth into manhood (1816-1830) on this southern Indiana soil. Many of the character traits and moral values that made Abraham one of the world's most respected leaders were formed and nurtured here.

I was memorized standing at this exact location trying to visualize the Lincoln family during a typical evening, with young Abe reading a borrowed book by the light of that very same exact fireplace.

What are the chances of ever getting another shot like that? Slim to none... especially since I didn't know what I was looking at at the time. Actually, I do that a lot with this particular camera because by using the digital multiplier it'll zoom out the equivalent of 140x. I use it more in this mode to simply identify extremely distant objects I'm curious about, and rarely use the actual photos themselves because the digital multiplier tends to make them a bit pixelated, and also I wouldn't normally attempt to "frame" a shot under those circumstances. But for me this is one of the things that make photography so interesting--you never know what'll come up next in the viewfinder.

I finally figured that out, but it took a while. It's just a strange image... for me, that is. I'm not a photographic "artist" like a lot of people on here are. I'm too mechanically orientated. Thanks for the appraisal.

I'm happy to hear SOMETHING's taking over for my brain, cause it ain't been right for a loooong loooong time.

It had started sprinkling rain at a pretty good clip so I dodged inside the truck cab to wait it out and then I saw off to the left beyond the boat dock a little bobbing speck that intrigued me. So I rolled the window down a bit more, leaned back to keep the camera dry and zoomed the little SX40 all the way to its full 35x and snapped off this shot.

Now... none of the above story is all that remarkable. What struck me most about this photo is that the fishing bobber is dead-centered in the frame. No one trying to be a good photographer would ever intentionally center the primary object like this one is... but try as I by cropping this way and that, nothing looked as good as leaving the bobber dead-center in the frame. What I can't figure out is why? And I do mean WHY?

Now that you mention it, Bob, how do you suppose that saying came to be? Was there a song to that effect in times past? Perhaps you could be the "Bluebird of Happiness" sleuth and research that bit of trivia which would make us all a bit happier.

What great bluebird photos, especially the first one! Gotta love that one. For me, it's never too early to start thinking about spring. I'd like it to be springtime 13 months a year.

Yes, John, I'd say "birthday candles" have a LOT to do with a LOT of things... including trying to remember what I forgot to remember.

You just gotta love those blue birds in the spring time, flitting around catching worms for their hungry young. They don't usually let you get very close, so you have to zoom in quite a ways to get a shot like this one captured over at Hidden Springs State Park, Illinois.

Well, Ms Tomato, I'll just skip right on out there to Oregon from icwe here in Illinois with a nail and a hammer and a nicely framed picture of this Magnolia blossom and I'll just hang it right up there on your wall above the fireplace, right there beside the moose head.

I must be part dog,... because I don't like taking pills either... no, that's not right... it's SHOTS I don't like getting, not taking pills. I'm still hoping Danilo can remember the name of the memory pills he keeps forgetting to take.

Thanks, Ms Tomato, I think your Heirlooms are quite attractive too (tee hee)

We were kind of hoping you could remember the name of the pills me and the Danilo are supposed to be taking, but I see you've forgotten too.