Day 239: NY Skyline Red White and Blue - August 31. A close up image of the New York Skyline and Empire State Building lit in red, white and blue for Labor Day. There won't be too many more uncluttered images of this view from the NJ waterfront. You can see the construction cranes creeping up into the sky. By this time next year, the sight of the Empire State Building will most like be nearly obscured.

Day 238: NY Skyline Sundown - August 30. A view of the New York skyline as the setting sun highlights the Time Warner towers in brilliant gold. A Spririt Cruise boat is seen on the Hudson River as it departs the the sundown cruise around Manhattan.

Day 237: Sunflower Field and US Flag - August 29. Happy Labor/Labour Day to all U.S. viewers and our Canadian neighbors.

Day 236: Betty Boop - August 28. Came across this large figurine of Betty Boop at a Beauty Salon. Fell in love - she made me smile and brought back memories of the comics, etc.

Day 235: The Lost Church - August 27. Bright afternoon sunlight highlights the beautiful brickwork, faded red paint, anddamage to the wooden door of the entry to what for 165 years was an Episcolpal church. Built in 1846 it was a parish church until 2011 when it was designated a mission church. In January of this year, the church mission was dissolved and the church and associated cleric house and property are slated to be converted to low-income housing.

Day 234: Eastern Comma Butterfly - August 26. Not flashy like some of the other colorful butterflies but the patterns and color nuances are beautiful in their own right to my mind.

Day 233: Tomatoes and More Tomatoes - August 25. This is the peak season for picking up summer New Jersey vegetables and fruits. Tomatoes, corn, peppers, eggplant - a wonderful feast of color and flavor at the country farm markets and city farmers markets.

Day 232: Sunflower Camouflage- August 24. A garden sunflower with a bee so covered with yellow pollen that I almost didn't see it. This is a much smaller and delicate looking sunflower than those that I usually photograph in farm fields. I think it is a "Lemon Queen" variety of something similar.

Day 231: Sedum Plant blossoms and Leaves- August 23. Blossoms just beginning to open on this plant - I liked the pale pink delicacy of the flowers against the bright green of the leaves.

Day 231: NY Skyline Morning Pastel- August 22. Unusual early morning colors yesterday for this time of year after a rainy night and dawn. Usually on rainy days the skyline is lacking color but these lovely soft pastel hues were shortly after sunrise which I'm sorry to say that I missed. I also just realized that I messed up a date somewhere in this months daily posts. I must have forgot to post a day. Need to go back and check.

Day 230: Monarch Butterfly on Lantana Plant - August 20. One of those just stop and 'hold your breath" moments to preserve it in memory yesterday. What a treat to see this Monarch butterfly on a Lantana flower - color coordination by Mother Nature.

Day 229: Hoboken NJ Street Art - August 19. This is a small segment of a wall mural created in 2005 as a joint effort by the Hoboken community to celebrate the 50th year anniversary of the city. Students submitted artwork depicting their views of the highlights of the city and two women artists/teachers merged them into an overall mural design that was painted and funded by volunteers. When time allows I will post more images of the delightful, creative artwork on the wall.

Day 228: Clear-winged Moth - August 18. Just two years ago, it was a rare thing to see one of these clear-winged moths where the butterflies were hanging out. This year, there have been large numbers of them - unfortunately not large numbers of butterflies. I liked this shot because you can clearly see the pollen that he is collecting.

Day 227: Harsimus-Jersey City Goats- August 17. Meet Carmelia and Johnny Bravo, two of five goats that have been eating their way through decades of invasive plants and poison ivy this summer to help a group of human volunteers recover and restore a small historic cemetery in Jersey City NJ. The cemetery is a treasure trove of information about veterans of wars from the Revolutionary War through World War II and of so many immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island and came to Jersey City to build their lives and start families. In 2008, it was so overcome by vagrants, drug dealers, and invasive weeds that it was simply abandoned and left to deteriorate. A few years ago, a neighbor and friend who has 4 generations of family buried there took it upon herself to clean it up, enlist volunteers, and get funding through grants and public support. They have made tremendous progress but the pervasive weeds almost undid them and did undo their weeking mowing, cutting, trimming efforts. Finally, this summer they enlisted the help of the goats. I've been meaning to get there and see for myself and finally did. Amazing the progress they have made in a few months. And they are so cute.

Day 226: Country Lane Wildflowers - August 16. Passed by lthis lovely sight while driving to the sunflower field yesterday. Had to turn around to go back and get a shot although impossible to get the scope of the scene. Fields on both sides of the lane were filled with the purple salvia (I think), yelllow goldenrod and Queen Anne's Lace. Shawn Kraus suggested that the purple flowers may be Purple Loosestrife. Thanks Shawn - if anyone else can identify them I'd be grateful.

Day 225: Sunflower Duo - August 15. Couldn't resist - back to the sunflower field today. There is another field that has not bloomed as yet so hopefully I will have more opoortunities to photo the flowers in the next week or so.

Day 224: Sunflower Field NJ - August 14. Happy to see that the sunflowers are blooming here in NW New Jersey now. They got a late start this year.

Day 223: NYSkyline- Afternoon - August 13. Beautiful skies after lots of rain last night. Nice to see the sun popping out this afternoon.

Day 222: Hoboken Terminal Ticket Windows. - August 12. A shot of the ticket windows or the waiting room of the Erie Lackawanna (Hoboken) Terminal. The terminal is a major hub with access to train, Light Rail, PATH and ferry service to and from New York City. The waiting room was badly damaged in Superstorm Sandy and not reopened until Jan 2013. It is still undergoing repair work including a beautiful old wood shoeshine stand.

Day 221: Supermoon over Manhattan. - August 11. Unfortunately moonrise time was too early in the night to see any color or detail until it had risen higher in the sky and of course by then it looked much smaller. When it first rose over the skyline horizon,the skies were still so light that it could barely be seen.

Day 220: Jersey Fresh Tomatoes - August 10. Fresh picked tomatoes on display at our local Farmer's Market.

Day 219: Monarch Butterfly - August 9. Nice to see Monarchs showing up. Very few of them though so far.

Day 218: NYSkyline-National Purple Heart Day - August 8. Last night the Empire State Building was lit in purple for National Purple Heart Day (August 7) and in honor of the MIlitary Order of the Purple Heart. This post is for all of those members of the Order to say thanks for all that they have endured and for those purple heart recepients who lost their lives in the service of this country.

Day 217: The Gateway - August 7. Passed by this stucco house and had to get a shot of this gate. The late afternoon blue shadows and wam light where the sun reached created interested shades of color on the white stucco and I love the wrought iron gate. Had to sqeeze the camera lens though an opening in a fence to get the shot. Thanks to all who have commented on my posts in the last few days - it is a great motivation to read them.

Day 216: NY Skyline Lower Manhattan - August 6. A view of lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center yesterday afternoon from Liberty State Park in Jersey City NJ.

Day 215: Clear-winged Moth (aka Hummingbird, Spinx, Snowberry Moth) - August 5.

Day 214: Broad-winged Skipper Butterfly - August 4.

Day 213: Bee on Coreopsis Flower - August 3.

Day 212: Yellow Hibiscus - August 2.

Day 211: Sunflower - August 1. This pretty sunflower is one on a small plant that sits in the middle of a sidewalk a few blocks from my home. I've passed by it a few times when driving in my car and finallly took a walk yesterday to get a photo.