Went to the boat races Saturday. This is an annual one-day event held downtown on the Milwaukee River. There are some choke points passing under some of the bridges and the boats cannot race side by side so they are all racing against the clock following timed starts. This year there were 175 teams entered with 650 collegiate and club rowers from around the Midwest. It's a single-leg three mile course and we had an absolutely beautiful day sitting in the warm (but not hot) sun watching the crews pass by.

Unfortunately, you all know what the bright, midday sun did to the quality of my photos. This is "My Choice" image for September:

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Larger view in my gallery: http://www.prestophoto.com/photos/image/3777446

Rusty

Such unique and creative interpretations of the subjects, everyone!

Choice of the Month: Turkeys in the Straw.

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Mary

Keep the good work coming, everyone!

This is about as exotic as it gets around here - we made our own crystals. Can Borax be considered exotic? Probably not, but the final result is cool.

Courtney

Courtney i love the crystals so much i had to look it up.

Very cool crystals, Courtney - didn't know about that.

Changes: Changes are certainly coming to the bee hive. The white top part of the "super" is capped honey. The bottom part is not yet capped but the bees are working hard to made the cells "cappable."

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That makes 6 for the month - now to tracking down some of the optionals.

Mary

This is one of our favourite runs - alongside the river, amongst the fields and away from the traffic but still easy to reach by running from our house. The photo definitely lacked impact so I have given it a bit of a painterly look with Topaz - using adjust, simplify 4 and detail

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It looks better larger. Here is a link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39600397@N08/8007305324/

Fantastic crystals, Courtney. We never managed to grow them to such a size, though I remember being very pleased with some copper sulphate crystals.

We are up to five pages of rerally nice stuff. Lot of imagination here.

Rusty

Thanks for the comments. We also tried growing alum crystals, but they were a bust - all very small.

Mary, interesting photo of the bees and bee keeper.

Angela, your "painting" turned out great. I like the look you created, rather surreal. It reminds me a bit of a puzzle - just where do those steps go? What is the runner up to?

Courtney

School: This is the Orient, WA, school which has just undergone a major referbishment. It was originally built in 1910. Orient is a very small community, very close to the Canadian border in NE WA.

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Mary