ORMOND BEACH, FL - - The cold (for Florida) weather outside is a good excuse to look through the photos taken (and not posted) over our Christmas holiday camping visit to Fort De Soto. Sometimes simple is best as this greenery with sea shells decorating a stair railing in Pass-A-Grille shows. The feathered friends below include an elusive American Kestrel; a swooping sea gull and a cormorant (with freen eyes) drying his wings.
TIERRA VERDE, FL - - Sure, having fancy pink feathers is pretty neat, but try scratching or feeding with a bill like mine. And it's not the most aerodynamic piece of equipment when you are flying. I think the other wading birds make fun of me. How would you like to be called 'spoonbill'??
"There won't b any holiday spirit if I don't get some shrimp real soon"....quoth the yellow-crowned night heron.
TIERRA VERDE, FL - - This house in Pass-A-Grille apparently has plenty of Santa lovers....but they probably want him to work a bit to get into the chimney. The pelican wind vane got plenty of use during our time on the Gulf Coast as the wind never really stopped blowing.
TIERRA VERDE, FL - - OK, I did these posts backwards. Please read the previous post first and then things will make sense. 
TIERRA VERDE, FL - - Our (almost) annual trip to Fort De Soto (Pinellas County park) for Christmas came with better weather. Last year the conditions on Tampa Bay weren't good enough for the ferry to Egmont Key to run. But yesterday (Thursday) we were in line to head out and bounce around on the way out and back in the green boat in the bottom photo. Since Tampa is a big shipping port there is heavy ship traffic and the 'pilot' boats are busy as they ferry individuals to plot the course into the harbor docks.
ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Lydia thought I was a bit crazy getting up at 2:30a.m. to attempt to take photos of the total lunar eclipse. It didn't help when I didn't hear the alarm go off and received an elbow in the ribs as a reminder to turn it off. But, faithful partner did get up; walk outside and look up and then walk back inside without a word. In all, I was up until 4:00a.m. 'playing' because without a tripod to make stable rather than shake-y time exposures you don't really have a chance of getting a good shot of the colors (reddish hue) when the eclipse was total. In the above shot - - with a bit of imagination - - you can make out the image of the moon just before it goes totally into shadow. The shot below (a hand held 24 second time exposure) gives an idea of the color....and also the impossibility of holding still for very long. In all, I had fun. The eclipse was impressive and worth getting up for. I knew my chances of a good photo were between slim and none before starting but trying different things to see how they work is what it's all about.
ORMOND BEACH, FL - - There were too many good shots from our Thursday trip to Merritt Island NWR to just post two on the previous blog. So here are some more egrets in action.
MERRITT ISLAND NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE - - For the 500th post of this blog I figured I'd do a bit of reflecting. For those of you keeping track, my first blog on this meandering journey of retirement was posted April 16. 2006
ORMOND BEACH, FL - - No snow here, but plenty of floats in our annual Christmas parade to get everyone in the holiday mood.
ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Our usual Wednesday morning breakfast walk takes us through Central Park on our return trip. Lately, we've had good luck spotting hawks and, last Sunday, a bald eagle. Today was no exception. Two red shouldered hawks were resting in different locations. So we hurried home, got the cameras and returned. While one hawk posed for Lydia, I spotted an eagle in the same dead tree as Sunday. But this one (above) looked different. Sure enough, it was an immature (young, before their head and tail feathers turn completely white) bald eagle was on alert.
ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Today was a day to look for construction projects. First, it was a hungry Pileated Woodpecker munching on leaves/bugs/moisture in a tall tree in a nearby park. Normally, we hear and then see these builders pounding away at the outside of a palm tree. Later in the day on a trip up the coast on A1A to St. Augustine I stopped to check out the little 'toy' at a heavy-duty marine repair and boat builder in Palm Coast. Today, they had the usual canvas draw in front of the construction area open. Anyone got an extra few million for a yacht? This is not your average pleasure craft....and, I doubt, they build vessels this size on spec.
ORMOND BEACH, FL - - There was a half moon floating in a blue sky and a green home made appearing catamaran floating on the blue-looking Halifax river water near our house Sunday morning. The boat, with all sorts of things lashed to it certainly looked to be this mans home. Using sail-power it doesn't cost too much to wander up and down the inter coastal waterway.
ORMOND BEACH , FL - - As you can tell by the dateline we are back in OB...6 months and 14,500 mile later. The last couple of days traveling have been endless miles of not much. Although we did see a number of wind farms (this one in Texas) and stopped by the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. The Blue Angels (old model) aircraft and those in the background are just a very small part of the exhibits. It is well worth a visit. Now, qwe get to unpack and soer through 6 months worth of mail.
DURANGO, CO - - We're back in Durango, at the same campground where we stayed on our way out to the North Rim. This time the two 'pets' in the nearby corral weren't so shy. The two 'runts' which appear to be over-fed Shetland Ponies came right to the fence and the white one poked a nose out in hopes of an apple or some other treat. His equine companion was a bit more hesitant, waiting to see what we had before going into a full press begging routine.
MOAB, UT - - The Devil's Garden trail in Arches National Parks leads you to 7 different arches...and makes you work to get there and get back. We saw them all over the course of a 6 hour hike. When the trail sign says" "Primitive and difficult trail" ... believe it. So here are three different arch views along the trail although I can't remember which name goes with which arch. In any case, the fudge brownies we had as a reward were well worth the moments of anxiety where slip-sliding down slick rock faces was a toss-up as to getting down safely or tumbling down like a runaway senior with no business there.
MOAB, UT - - This area in Arches National Park is called 'Park Avenue.' Why? Because the sandstone resembles buildings on a street / avenue?? Maybe.
MOAB, UT - - A artists' rendering of Delicate Arch, in Arches National Park, is the iconic symbol which graces the vast majority of Utah license plates. This was just one stop on our half-day journey through the park. There is a trail to the arch (note the individual in the bottom center) but the trail head parking area was full so we went to the view point a mile away and hiked the trail there. This proved to be the smart choice because our angle for shots of the arch and the early afternoon light worked out just right.
MOAB, UT - - The view of Canyonlands National Park from Dead Horse Point State Park is varied...and always spectacular. One item which somewhat mars the vista are the evaporation pools seen center left in the above photo. These are just two of a number of large pools from which phosphate is recovered. A mining company with the rights to do this pumps water from the Colorado River into the mines, the phosphate dissolves, and the water is pumped into the evaporation pools for the next step in the process. Note my trusty companion (upper right) surveying the scene.
BEND, OR - - As usual., Lydia's path finder sense of adventure got us onto a back road which had more twists and turns than a pretzel - - the Mckenzie Pass - Santiam Pass Scenic Byway. And, as usual, we ended up somewhere really neat. The Mckenzie Pass Lava Fields, in central Oregon's Cascade Mountains, stretch for over 65 square miles, the remnants of three volcanic eruptions the last of which was 2,700 years ago. Atop the pass, at 5325', there was an observation/lookout area which would have had a great view except for the ever present fog. The Three Sisters peaks are out there - - but we can't see them.
EUGENE, OR - - We've seen our last sunset on the Pacific. As of this morning our journey will take us east and eventually land us back home in Ormond Beach.
FLORENCE, OR - - We finally reached Oregon. Along the way we camped on the Klamath River; stopped by the Battery Point Lighthouse (accessible only at low tide..and you better know when high tide is coming); and took plenty of obligatory fog shots showing how greenthings are if they are moist most of the time.
SHELTER COVE, CA - - In our quest for new, out of the way places, we came upon Shelter Cove. This is a small community on California's Lost Coast with a campground which had an outstanding view of the Pacific, complete with restored lighthouse only 200 yards away. But what really intrigued us was the (private) air strip less than 100 yards from our campsite. The green plane (look past the hood of the VW) was taking off while the red plane in the distance was parked.
CASPAR, CA - - Our journey Sunday took us from the Manchester Beach State Park campground where the fog rolled in about 30 mins. after we arrived and lifted teasingly while we had breakfast - - only to drop its curtain again. Then it was on to Elk, where the gray foggy mass was well offshore. Finally, we ended up at Caspar Beach camp ground with a site about 200 yards from a cove with breakers hitting the entrance with force.
