The herons are building their nest — Fall has officially arrived

Went out around 6:45am to feed birds, get a look at the day. The anhinga was drying it’s wings, flapping them like a sail in a brisk wind.   The BOBs, Band of brother mallard/mix, whom I am convinced are reincarnated vikings with their attitudes, were wandering through the yard and settled to groom by the water.   I still wonder where Carbs the muscovy went to.
The cranes came flying over, you will notice the baby is keeping more of a distance from its’ folks as they are harassing him more often.  Poor guy gets picked on a lot.  baby still has a way to go before all his color fills out.
But the reason I am so excited is because the herons are building their nest!  The first thing I noticed when feeding the birds was the heron flying across the lake with a stick.
I ran in for my other camera since the battery was running on empty.  And I saw it leave and waited.  And it came back again, another stick in beak.   It then circled the tree and positioned itself for flying into the branches.  
This means it is officially Fall and we will have some eggs, when the eggs come, it’s about 28 days later that they will hatch.
I am on my way to get set up for the art venue, but thought I’d share the start to my day – I hope yours is equally exciting….

The rain went north instead

This was the most colorful thing for most of the day. The promised rain that slammed Alabama, didn’t even fill the bird bath!  We hardly had a thing.
All day I finished up with pricing, bagging, and organizing to have my stuff ready for setting up on Friday.   What a mess I made, finally about 1am I vacuumed and everything put on the dining room table.  This was taken around 10pm. Whew, glad it is all put away.
Earlier I had fished. The sky was truly beautiful. The clouds came in waves,
then it settled into gray woolen puffs stacked in layers.  Then patterns of sorts  The heron came out to observe -
It is the female heron. She watched for about a half hour, but since I was spending most of my time avoiding 4 turtles, she flew toward the center of the lake and chased off an anhinga. I bet she was about 300 feet away when I hooked a bream and it broke through the water splashing which alerted her and she flew right over for a meal.  She stayed on and suddenly the male heron appeared and he is a big one too.   Much larger than the female.  they still have not gone up to the nesting tree, but I bet it will happen soon. they bwill be lugging branches over my head. It’s fun to watch them fly off with all kinds of sticks for the huge nest they make. I wish they would use one of my trees like they did 3 years ago, but once my red maple fell over, they probably felt vulnerable as it shaded them so well.
It got dark again so early and the mosquitos are terrible. It is still quite warm, though, right now it is about 60 degress outside and is only going to be 71 – now that is cold.
Guess, I will drag my body off to bed, yikes how will I get up on Saturday to be there before 8am, I have to be nuts! Good night, or rather good morning, catch up with you later….

Update on Rats and waiting for rain and still waiting for rain…

The day was dull, every photo I put in todays blog is colorized. I cheated!  Hurricane Ida hit up at the panhandle and the weather is affecting us. We are supposed to finally get rain tomorrow – will it actually happen?  All day it looked so dull. As I drove up to Sanford and stopped to take some pics, I kept thinking the sky would unload any minute, but not a drop. I took a few dashboard cams of things and places, and they all looked so boring I had to jazz them up a bit.   The Gateway condos actually look like this   and the corner of First Street near the Welcome Center looked much more festive like this –   and even the bales of hay in the hay trucks looked more delicious with some color to the grain.  

An abandoned building looked a little more appealing by deepening the color
At the marina, there was nothing new, same old birds, had to emphasize the ibis. 
And when I got home, I had to blame what I thought was an eagle as an excuse for fishing in early afternoon. I could see it flying all over, but could not get a close photo. Finally it landed three houses over so I threw out the pixels on  the telephoto to capture it  way up in a tree. That’s an osprey.
I caught a shiner and threw it back, caught a couple bream and they went back. The cranes were there, Ringo was with me too.
Then the heron flew into the tree and watched me cast out over and over.   Finally I caught a nice sized bream and threw it on the ground, the heron flew down and nabbed it.  He swallowed and happily flew off.  Ringo and I came in as it was almost completely dark by 5:30pm!
My HP “refurbished” printer came in today so I can resume getting photos ready for this weekend art show. HP tells you to send the defective printer  back within three days or get charged a chunk of change on your credit card, but the return address label I needed to do that was  not included, they forgot to send it! I had to call them and stay on the line forever getting a case number from someone in Bangladesh so they could send me a label. I suggested they email it and they refused.  I could have flown to India in the same time it took to stay on hold for their techs.
Rat update:  G & H Pest Control in Sanford came out Monday to give me my last estimate for how they would address my rodent issue. Gene, who owns the company came out and walked around and looked in the attic and did a thorough search of the house just like Massey. Gene looked at me and told me “he would be taking my money if I hired him” because he would be doing the same exact things I have been doing. They would set the traps as I have and that is all they can do. He suggested I keep fresh peanut butter in the trap every week and keep doing it. He said he could find no fresh droppings and I had no roach or bug problem. He didn’t even give me a price for a yearly spray, so if you live around this area and want a really honest pest control company, call G & H Pest Control Inc. 407-323-6681 website http://ghpestcontrol.com/ Actually, it has been rather quiet, but I will keep listening for signs of life above my head…
As I finish this I can hear a light rain outside,that is good news, hope we are in for a night of the wetstuff!  In fact, I walked outside and immediately smelled the earthy scent of wet grass. The drops were light, but anything is better than nothing!   After the art show, I can get back to looking for photo ops. Be patient, and come to the Gateway this weekend to see what 40 artists have for you…(nothing like more self promotion)

Thursday at the Zoo looking for crows

Ran by the zoo Thursday looking for crows. Did not see one, but here’s what I saw:

The leopard wasn’t panting today, just looked board as when I saw him last.  One of the elephants was still in her stall, the other one came out to greet me.
The tortoises were kept apart by a fence because he is a bit too amorous all the time. They look like they miss being together. Both are 50 years old and can live for 200 years!   The keeper came in with food and he scratched her back and she just loved it! I did too, she looked so happy.
The emus always look at you like they judge you.  The kangaroos always look so lazy, didn’t even take a picture. The cheetahs could not be seen, they were still in their den.   The porcupines were quill to quill in their dream state. Even the goat was sound asleep.   But some kids came with food and he perked up.   The Llama just peered over top of his barn window and decided I was not worthy of his presence.
The reptiles were more active, well not the alligator,  he slept in the sun with a hat of greenery.  The lizards were busy. 

Then I went to get french fries because I love their fries, but they did not have any made up, so

had to settle for a pretzel instead. It attracted the grackles which were everywhere, but still no crows at all.  

The grackles and I ate the pretzel and I headed on back to the car. There was an adorable marmoset out on a leash, but all it was doing was sleeping, her name is Judy,
Oh well, I’m sure if I had gone to the Walmart parking lot, I would have found some crows, but there’s always another day to catch crows. I do enjoy the zoo, especially when I have it to myself like I did early Thursday morning, even if most of the animals were still sleeping.

October state of mind, now where’s the cold front?

It’s been a little while, but really have been waiting for the heat to subside. The birds have been hardly coming, everything is just rather worn out by this heat. last night was supposed to be the beginning of a cold front touching down to bring some relief.  The fishing is lousy because of the mooching turtles. The fish are not biting like they were over a year ago. The bass have retreated somewhere though Ringo and I relentless keep our eyes on all activity that stirs the surface.  Today started sunny hot and humid, all week it has been high 90’s. The cranes flew in   to make their presence known
As usual they did
a rain dance

rain dance

The flowers seem tired too, we all need a change.  But they always manage to still color the yard.

The day clouded up and got to a cool 87 degrees, so that was about 10 degrees cooler than it has been.  They said big rains were coming with this cold front, but only a short period of just droplets came and that was it. We ended up with a rainbow hardly visible.  But still nothing that remotely felt cool. So still waiting for our big Fall to fall.

Red in the morning – sailors warning

This is exactly how it looked at around 7am. I have not re-touched it at all, the day began as a red one, now it is going from pinks and blues, to blue and vanilla. Gotta get gardening before the vampire sun comes up to get me.  The cranes came for their seed and I noticed when I came out to take a photo, the shadow of the baby was on the body of the mother.

8:28am, I have washed my hands literally of weeding and trimming, so much more to do! But I got a nice reward, the blue girl roses are in bloom and smell so sweet  .

Tonight the clouds settled in and they were thick, I didn’t see the moon till it got higher over the lake,  It was beautiful. I watched it go through the clouds as it moved higher. 

It is just a beautiful sight as the moon moves in orbit.  Tomorrow it will happen once more. I will of course be watching.
I am working on “ab”-stractions, my way of making crappy photos I take into abstracts – here’s a few samples, 

It’s a lot of fun – what will become of them? Some will be used on exhibit, some will get trashed – but some bad photos turn into new art, and what the heck is wrong with recycling?

Harvest Moon

Last night ther heron came down and fished with Ringo and I. He stood in the water, I stood at various places on the lake, neither of us caught anything, but that didn’t matter, I was glad to have the heron back. Every morning I keep going out to see if it is on a branch in it’s nesting tree.
Earlier I had been out in the yard taking pictures

of dragonflies, they are everywhere and will stop close to me as if they are as curious about me as I am about them. 

The butterflies too were all over. 

We now have a small bunny that appears from time to time .    The little guy came when the cranes were here and Papa crane chased him off.  Baby crane is still changing color, his eyes are still lighter and he does not have the red crest yet, though it is coming in little by little.

Ringo was busy under the bushes eating a long blade of grass.

The band of brother mallards are still hanging around with the pekin ducks, but Carbs is nowhere to be found. Have not seen him in weeks.
Fishing is horrible for some reason, even with the harvest moon tonight, not one little tug on the bobber. 

Tomorrow night I think I will go to the marina and take some pics of the moon coming up over Lake Monroe.  It’s just such a treat to see it so close and so big.  The anhinga sat up in the tree and watched from his vantage point.   It was a good night for moon gazing and bird watching, just not for fishing, only for feeding turtles.

Soothing Sunday morning – snakes and flowers

It’s Sunday, the week flies by in nano-seconds anymore. The good thing is that hurricane season is coming closer to the end.
This morning had the cranes right outside mooching for the loose bird seed on the ground.
They have gone and a soft rain is falling on the lake. The cardinals have taken the cranes place.  And as I write now, it is sunny again — that’s Florida!
Thank goodness we have had no pythons come crawling through here YET as yesterday they picked up an 18 foot Python about 20 miles away that was being kept in a risky enclosure. A snake like that when hungry could do some serious eating, like kids! 
The owner said the 300 plus pound, 18 foot snake gave his daughter rides – SAY WHAT? It was fed about 4 rabbits a day.  I noticed on Yahoo a story about a python that ate 11 guard dogs, that wasn’t in the US, but it could be the way pythons are showing up here in Florida these days. I’m sure people are letting them go because they can’t afford to feed them and they grow so large.
I can remember in the learly 90’s when we were involved in the Central Florida Herpetology Club, the people came to meetings with snakes around their necks and arms, (they had to be bagged and caged during the meeting.) There were lots of vendors selling ‘herps’ of all kinds; turtles, lizards and of course all types of non-poisonous snakes. We have had ball pythons, rat snakes, Texas longnose snakes, milk snakes and Brazilian Rainbow boas. We lost some of them in the house from time to time, (but never told any of our guests that when they visited.) And we let our boas swim in our pool once in a while, climb the banisters, but Aaron, the snake’s caretaker grew bored and we sold them.  Not once did we let any go, oh take that back, we did let our mean mean yellow rat snakes loose in the woods, (those were the snakes that bit me,) but they are native.
Today, we still have the same cats we did when we had the snakes, and the
prospect of seeing a 12 foot or longer snake in my yard would be a bit unsettling. So I will just focus and show some pictures of the more delicate flora and fauna.
The flowers are bright this morning, spider lilies were wet. 
The canna lilies bright red. The Meyers lemons are getting bigger and bigger, can’t wait till they ripen.  The water in the lake is still up nicely, though fishing is still bad. Last night I caught a turtle. The fish are not biting. The cranes were though, they did not realize Ringo the cat was so close and Papa crane almost got him.

So that’s how Abbesworld is going today so far. How’s your day? 

Friday – remembering the past

Amazing how fast the years go by – it’s already 8 years since 911. I watched the whole historical footage on the Today show with Katie Couric – it still evokes the same emotions, I got goose bumps and choked up watching that second plane hit. Published two old poems written years ago after 911, they are on http://abberantverse.wordpress.com

It is also my late sister’s birthday, the whole family misses her dynamic personality, her warmth and love.  That’s me front in blue and her behind me in white, (and cousin to right). In the bottom shot, she is in the front, I’m behind. We were always close, she was the ultimate best friend and ‘confidente’!  So it is a day to remember I don’t have her here anymore and miss her bunches.
It was a good day to escape the confines of this ‘BOX’ I am enslaved to and go to the marina and enjoy the view.
I stopped by Veterans Memorial Park and saw someone had put red roses near the flagpole.
It added color to the rather blue day.  I was the only one there. It was so very empty.  The wind driven water was really whipping up against the sea wall.
As I drove up to the duck pond, I could see a number of birds standing in the shade of the trees. I pulled up and could tell right away, these birds are used to getting fed!   
I’m sure they were disappointed that I did not come armed with bread.

I always enjoy seeing the different colors on the pigeons and cross breedings of the mallards.
Again, there was not one muscovy duck up there. Forgot to mention that Carbs has also been gone four days now. I assume he will show up again soon. The Band of Brothers has been coasting around the lake lately.
Back by The Palms, the birds and ducks were all quietly sitting in the shade. Did not see any crows, but did view a few grackles. 

I came home after watching the waves for about ten minutes.  It was very calming.

I came away with a nice sense of peacefulness.
I stopped by my friend Sonja’s.  She told me that her chimney had been struck by lightning. I guess because trees cover part of her house when I fish, that I didn’t notice it. So I had to go take a few pictures.   Her pergola too had wood missing from the porch where the chimney had collapsed on top of the beams. She has work to get done. It affected some of her electric too.  So I guess knowing that her house is just acres away, was struck by a bolt, I won’t sneak out during those random thunderstorms to film.
And back at home, what is the best remedy for the 911 blues? Brownies! Warm brownies packed with a cut up Snickers Bar! So long for today -

Friday, cranes take off

It’s Friday,  this morning there was a fog over the lake But that did not stop the cranes and Carbs the duck from looking for birdseed.  The other birds were busy too, lots and lots of cardinals today. I bet there were about 7 at one time!
When it was time to go fishing, the cranes were still here rooting around the yard. The sky was very dramatic.   across the lake there was this wonderful rainbow patch just above the treeline.  The sky was full of storms to the east.
Most of the day I had been working on my garden. I think I am going to let more than half of it go back to being grass. The weeding is Hell.
That overgrown patch beyond the crane in the first photo is the garden and I have not weeded in a few months. I am really losing interest in keeping it up. The weeds grow the best, so essentially I have a garden of weeds. and maybe I should just let the whole lawn go to weeds and just mow one three foot area going down to the lake?
Anyway, it was time to fish so I chose a lightning rod,  and ran to the lake because there was a great full moon last night. How can I ignore this magnetic call from the lake. I did catch two fish, bream,   they are really very pretty fish with rainbow colors on parts of them.  The sky continued to turn blues and I could see the rain coming down a few miles away.   The cranes finally gathered on the hill and I grabbed my camera. Excuse how messy the image is as I had messy sticky, gooky fish hands and was trying to touch the camera without holding my hands on it too much. But when I saw the cranes all standing straight in a row waiting to take the cue from the father to leave, I wanted to try and get
a video of them flying practically over my head.
I did give up fishing as the turtles were once again making it impossible to throw the bait out without having a turtle charge right for it.
As I looked up, I noticed how beautiful the sky was, it had melded into pinks and blues, and orange my favorite look.  It’s one of those moments you wish you had someone out there besides a duck and cat. The colors were spectacular. So, that’s about it. I came in and Frankie was hogging my desk and had knocked over all kinds of paperwork as she sprawled out.   And that’s it for today – where does a day go? Where does the month go? Where does a year go? Can it all just slow down for a while, life is just passing by way too fast…. Tomorrow I will report on the garden

Getting ones feet wet…

Today I walked out to feed the birds and Carbs was gone. I wondered if the BOBs had chased him away. The yard was busy, especially down by the lake where many many dragonflies and bees flew all over the yellow blooms down by the stump of my fallen oak. In fact so many bees were there pollinating, the air was humming. 
The fungi growing in the wet grass even looked happily like a cute couple.

The cranes flew over and the baby was quite intimidated by the step-father crane who kept bullying him. The baby would fluff all up and crouch with it’s head  down when it was near the male.  It knows to try and stay away from that dominant beak.

A titmouse was continually banging itself against my window. I will go into that in a day or two. The butterflies were all over the place, and the roses were young and tender.  
The brown thrasher was the bossy bird this morning. The bird was happily having fun splashing and cooling off.
and then a dove decided it was it’s turn to get wet .  The thrasher was wildly twisting and jumping and I suppose the dove thought it looked like such fun, it decided to join the thrasher.  Except the thrasher wanted no part of sharing the bird bath and screamed at the dove and sent the dove flying off. The thrasher fly up on top of the feeder.
Finally it ate enough seed and flew off.
I ran out to my Free lunch at Don Pablos. I won the free lunch for 4 by putting my business card in a bowl about two weeks ago. I took my good artist friends who have been so helpful and nice to me, Pam, Judy and Leslie. The service was great and the conversation too. Judy, Pam, and Leslie are always inspiring to listen too, always have irons in the fire. Leslie is a published writer who should have another book out sometime soon. She writes about film, (movies) and does a very detailed and thorough job of research, she also writes poetry and reads it at local venues. Pam has been juried into many shows, I think she said 8 or 9 this year alone, her infrared photography is a standout. Judy has a super group, she started the Womens Caucus for Art branch here in Orlando and really took pains in getting it to a non profit status. So I am the slacker of the group, well, actually I have one piece, a photo I did of Jimmy Hendrix, to be put on display for a month as part of an interior design show downtown. Tomorrow I have to go pick up the work at RT Art. Just one email and Roger said he’d have it for me so I could get it framed this weekend, that’s service!  sales@RT-Art.com
On the 8th of September, I will have 3 pieces at the Gateway in Debary for a month. So things are not that bad for s struggling artist getting her feet wet just like that brown thrasher, enjoying the exposure, lost in her abandon of the arts and the wonderful natural view in front of her window…
P/S, carbs came back and is still here…

Tuesday early am

Tuesday clouds and wildlife

The clouds are schizophrenic today,  dark, light, puffy, happy and sad.  I went up to the marina to see if anything was going on. Only saw limited birds and ducks. Took pictures of whatever looked interesting. 

Went back home and it stormed hard with driving wind.

It settled down and have had lots of jays, cardinals, and doves by the feeder right out my window. I watched one titmouse take a sunflower seed and put it between it’s feet, then crack the seed and carefully eat it. 
These birds work so hard for their treats. Carbs of course is down at the lake. Adam and I went off to lunch at Imperial Dynasty on 434, we love the sesame tofu. They are even offering sushi classes over there if anyone in Longwood area is interested. Afterwards we took the long way home up Markham Woods road to look at some of the mansions they have built – I can’t even fathom what it costs to live in those massive homes. Did notice several homes that are in foreclosure, lawns uncared for, the abandoned look of emptiness.
We drove up through International Parkway and handed Adam the camera when we saw a woodstork.  He did a good job!
After coming home and sitting here at the computer. I am just so spoiled by an eyeful all the time! Beautiful female red wing black birds are on the feeder this afternoon. they are brown, unlike the sleek males, but still very nicely marked birds.  And that’s how it’s been today so far, dark, dreary, bright and light and so enjoying the birds in the tree outside my window.
Looking at the time, wondering where did the afternoon go? I have been lost in the world of wings, amused by blurring colors and captivated by flight… here’s photos for your enjoyment.

How do I get anything done???

Hurricanes a comin’ – nutria spotted – torso and legs for sale

Had a great time in Tampa. Did see my nutria, ,   also there was tilapia in the condo pond – how they got there — who knows — they are certainly not native.
Also on the condo pond were many female mallards with beautiful faces, and all had different markings.

Other than some long distance birds that I get over here. the wildlife was quiet.  I didn’t go anywhere interesting to take pics this time. Just quiet family time. My Bella and Sasha were there to be my bed mates.
Then it was back home to reality, two tropical storms about to turn into hurricanes with one as a fairly substantial one. Both could impact us.  The first is tropical storm Ana due to possibly hit Florida between Miami and Port Canaveral so far. It will be a rain maker they say, winds around 70mph, that’s not too bad. The other one is worse, will be a Category 2 hurricane. That one is following behind the other one. So far it is TD #3. I went this am to stock up on food and water just in case.
Will be watching closely. Don’t plan on leaving home, will be here to monitor and blog. I can’t imagine leaving my ‘box’ unless it is possibly Katrina big.  Meanwhile, it’s always good to be home. Today went to the flea market and got Orangeblossom-oak flavor honey, ummmm, delicious! I also bought a suet feeder and something is eating the whole block of suet in one gulp over night. I will have to remove it nightly. I do have a lot of cardinals and jays lately. 
One last thing, I was at a garage sale that had dept. store dummies, a few male torso and legs, if you need any, call Katy 407-690-2929

Summer storms back to normal

After 4 years of having droughts and very few storms, we are finally back to normal. Back to having the sky change it’s face in the afternoon.

The heat becomes a slow southern burn and the clouds decide to ban together and grow dark and scary. It’s been wonderful having the rain. The lake is coming up nicely and everything is green and fresh and humid, oh the humidity. You open the door to go out and immediately your hair crimps up like the Bride of Frankenstein.  Today I had almost finished mowing when the sky looked a bit crabby so I came in and watched with Ringo.

The lightning
flashed across the lake.

The lightning was flashing in front of me as I filmed from the porch. Look for lightning bolt in that big cloud around the middle of the film.  The rain poured down and about a half hour later, it’s about all rained out, in fact. It now looks like fishing time…
Okay, I’m back – the fishing sucked. But at least there were nibbles. Here are some familiar faces that always surface and bug me.

Holey moley

I saw the cranes out there looking to make trouble.

They came on the porch knocking over the cat’s water and food, then they went outside and were rooting around in my garden. Then I saw them playing with something, tossing it and then running off. I went outside to see this adorable freshly killed mole.  It was so cute and very very soft and very dead with ants starting to climb all over it for dinner on the go.  So I picked it up and tossed it back to the cranes and the father crane had a ball throwing it all over the place. He even retrieved it twice from tossing it into the water. 

They had a lot of fun with mole toss. The male was so funny I made a little video and attached a link to it so you can see what I have to put up with all the time, and I love it…

Tuesday Ibis – Subway cookies and exercise

Ummum, today at ‘the desk’ — move over Jared – does it get better than Subway’s chocolate chip cookies? (Yes, it gets better if they are warmed ever so slightly.) While my friend Beda in her 70’s, and looks 49 goes to her first pilates class after being so disciplined on her diet, I salute her steadfast  efforts! Today I saw a T-shirt that said,  That’s a great motto – I agonized with her as she denied herself carbs in order to lose weight and stay healthy and now she goes the extra mile to exercise – Yikes the E word scares me! I will exercise later by getting up from the computer to put the cookies back in the kitchen fifteen feet away, maybe I will walk back and forth five times just to lose a couple calories. Right now I am on the ‘feed the fever’ trend, because I have a slight cold, (and boring enough I think it’s starve the cold – or is it reversed?)  Whatever, I admire these efforts by people to trim up  and fly right, “I reject your reality and substitute my own“. Here’s one, eat colorful foods, so how about if the food comes in a the colorful bag? Look at that colorful title on the Subway cookies – hows that for rationale?
I was invited to go to pilates class, but no thanks, I remember those years of being chosen last for every team in gym class. I remember taking a Jazzercize class with my then, ten year old daughter who after seeing that I could not figure how hands and feet moved at the same time, requested I sit down or not stand next to her, I remember those days and respect that I am not an exerciser  or anything near athletic except for wearing tennis shoes for comfort! The only thing that might make me behave is the sin tax, if they tax sugar, I will become a hoarder and blackmarket sugar runner…I ACCEPT MY LIMITATIONS – Don’t worry be happy, that’s the other credo…
Back to nature – I love ibis, they have those beady eyes and long beaks and make the whackiest noises.  I had some vistors, (requiring me to get up and walk outside) and watched as three lovely ibis came to play in my yard.
Another tidbit I found on Wikipedia, “The ibis is the last sign of wildlife to take shelter before a hurricane hits and the first to reappear once the storm has passed.” They are noted for their bravery. I guess they aren’t that brave, they didn’t let me get too close before flying off.  Here is the photos of a descendant of birds long ago. One of my favorite favorite, top two favorite short stories is The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst – go online and read it, and get a kleenex!

Here’s some photos for you to enjoy and see how regal they are.

Monday thinking

Baby crane was here this morning with his family. They ate bird seed, groomed, wandered around yard poking the ground and then lined up and took off like paragliders sailing over the lake

Yesterday it was storming off and on when they came. At around 11 am. it got really dark.  the sky blackened and let loose with a nice rain and lots of thunder. The cranes don’t like the noise, they were quite suspicious and kept looking around to see where the thunder was originating from.  It was raining hard for a while and I noticed even a softshell turtle came out of the lake and rested under my lemon tree.
The water was just dripping off the cranes.

I enlarged to see the rain coming down. Even my waterbarrel was gushing from the excess.
Last week we had no real rain, it would cloud up and threaten and the lightning is getting to be way too lethal around here. A guy was gardening the other day and a bolt came from nowhere that hit near him and he said he passed out, and one of his legs didn’t work and he had to crawl back to his house and was hospitalized. That’s why I am paying more respect to the lightning gods lately as they get closer and seem to be picking out a lot of people to play their games with. I look at the sky and turn on local news before I fish to see what is moving where. But the sky is so amazing around Florida, that’s one of the assets is the constant movement of wind and clouds and rain. Sometimes it comes from the Atlantic, sometimes from the Gulf and when they collide – whammo, fireworks. Like I have said before, it will be sunshining in the front, and raining across the lake. Usually by the time it is almost dark, the sky makes peace and all is pink and quiet.
Today so far it is one of those voids where the sun is hiding, but the sky is gray/white! I need to go out and weed whack while the sun can’t fry me and the lightning is still asleep…


reflection of sun on water

Friday’s visitors

This is my desk at 12:51am – maybe I need a blog that shows my desk at different times during the day just for effect! It looks a little messy, but there is a method to my madness. And breakfast at Tiffany it’s not- but that box of POPS was a great deal at the grocery today, 21.4 ounces for $2.50!  Can’t get get perfume per ounce for anywhere near that, not even stuff like nuts, makeup, or even other cereal!  It’s the biggest box of cereal I have ever seen – how could I turn it down? Right now it’s keeping me and my stomach company. I can see how insomniacs gain weight, this box weighs 1 and 1/2 pounds, I should weigh 5 more at the end of the week. Ha ha – just kidding, I don’t intend to eat it all, Adam is about ten feet away and he has been dipping his hand in the box pretty good himself.
Right now I am looking at the huge tree frog on my window, it showed up about an hour ago. I will have photos later at
http://offshoot2.wordpress.com
Yesterday it seemed like I got a few visitors pictures of things around here. First of all Ringo, because he starts my day with a smile. I see his big face and hear him meow and see him flash those big blues and that is a good sign. Out on the porch was a busy anole running around chasing off the other lizards.  Went out in the yard and there were a lot of butterflies on and off. Two were flirting for a long time.
There even seemed to be a few monarchs trying to find some milkweed.  Behind the large hibiscus bush I have a tree stump that had a fresh snake skin across it, so a nude snake is somewhere around. And later on, just about the time I was getting ready to fish, the clouds came in for a visit and they did not look happy. Even Papa Crane was keeping a close eye on “weather” or not I would be down at the lake. And I wasn’t, we had a lot of lightening, but no rain.  I took many photos of the changing sky and will probably post them tomorrow. But for now, I am finishing this and getting ready to post tree frog pics at the other blogsite -
Sweet dreams – don’t let the tree frogs bite…

3am and all is so peaceful

2:37am, no rest here.
Earlier tonight I caught a softshell turtle and had to unhook it, they have quite interesting undersides,  but it looked more like some kind of weird alien than a turtle from that angle. The markings are quite unique really, could this be a girl and maybe the boys have blue rectangles? Don’t worry she or he was fine after they got de-hooked.  They scurried back to the water. I HATE catching turtles!
It was actually quite hot and stagnant and I was hoping to get a shot of the rocket launch, but they scrubbed it again.
In the morning I took a few flower pics, The crepe myrtles are gorgeous. And forgot what this plant is, but loved the red flowers on it also.

The moon was even still out at 8am:

The crow was in the tree singing a morning song

And I had a nice lunch with friends. Came home and worked on more photos. Oh the days go so fast, summer half over – maybe El Nino will save us from the big storms this year! I don’t know, anymore around Florida all we hear about is people getting struck by lightning. I do have to watch more carefully when I am at the lake as the storms roll in,

The clouds roll in so fast and the lightning is really getting way too familiar with humans. But the storms are actually so wonderful to listen to, especially to hear the rain on the roof at night.  But not tonight, it is just a quiet one, so quiet, I might have to sneak off and go to bed, good…morning again…