Going back to Blogger

I have decided to return to Blogger.

http://sherripatterson.blogspot.com

Monday Morning Macro – Face to Face

Up Close and Personal with Beau….

 

Sunday Stills – The Letter “T”

“T” is for “Tot” — and here is one who was dancing to one of the bands playing at the City Celebration this year.

“T” is for “Toy” — like this manatee that is in our Youth Section of the library.

“T” is for “Tree”  – and here is one of my local favorites.  What in the world keeps it from breaking?

Another good theme from Ed for the Sunday Stills photo shoot this week.  Click on the link to the right to see the links to many other submissions. I’m going there now.

Friday My Town Shoot Out – Smiles & Faces

Every year we do a City Celebration and one of the best things about it is the ability to people watch. When it comes to “Smiles and Faces”, the pictures I took that day provide a lot of appropriate images for this week’s Friday My Town Shoot Out.  Enjoy them — the young and the young at heart….See the link to the right for more Shoot Outs od wonderful smiles and faces.

Sunday Stills – Horses

I’ve been very busy this week with the Friends of the Tarpon Springs Public Library Book Sale and Annual Christmas Book-Tique so getting out to take some pictures of our local horses was not possible.  Florida does have a lot of horse country and there are stables quite close at hand, but no time to go to any of them.  So I am reposting my favorite pony….

 

We are tired of waiting…

for the causeway out to our little island beach to open.

We just observed the 17th anniversary of our move to Tarpon Springs, FL and the weather is cooperating fully.  We had a high in the mid-70s today and humidity is down, way down. Today was one of those really perfect days. One of those days we would love to walk the causeway.

We rode out to  Sunset Beach and watched the activity over on Howard Park Causeway.  I could see vehicles parked out on the island so I believe they have started the renovation of the bathrooms out there and may have finished the repaving of the causeway. The cranes and barges are gone and new bridges completely done.  I hope all of this means they will be ready by December 8, the date I had heard for the reopening.

Sunset from the Island at Howard Park

Won’t be long now and I’ll finally be able to capture the first sunset shot in over a year from Howard Park Beach.  I’m not the only one who has really missed the causeway and the island.  It is a frequent topic of conversation these days.

Come on, people, it’s past time to let us back on our island!

Monday Macro Stills – Bougainvillea

While I was out walking around the yard last week, I caught a couple of nice macro shots of the bougainvillea blooms. They love this cooler weather. The low here for today is 62. We expect to hit 80 for a high with low humidity. My definition of perfect.

Be sure to click to enlarge for detail. Check the link to the right for more Monday Macro Stills on the Sunday Stills blog page.

Sunday Still – Fur Fins & Feathers

It’s interesting that Ed picked this theme this week. As Beau had a haircut and I had an encounter with an egret so fur and feathers were covered by just downloading my camera.

No bandanna for Beau.

It comes off as soon as we get him home.

Is that a look of relief on his precious face?

As for “fins”, I had one from an aquarium visit:

I went out to the mail box earlier this week and as I turned around, I saw an egret walking across the lawn from the house next door.

I ran inside the house and got my camera off it’s printer dock and opened the lens before I went back out. He was still walking toward the house. He was curious and probably thought I had some food for him.

He rounded the bougainvillea and walked right up to the porch where he posed in several different positions, still hoping for food.

He kept looking…kept hinting….

But I didn’t give in.  I know I have neighbors who feed him hotdogs, but I won’t do that.  He needs to go catch a lizard or a fish if he’s hungry.  He was a friendly young bird. I talked to him the whole time I was taking pictures and he seemed to be interested in everything I had to say.  Just after I took this last picture, Butch pulled into the driveway and slammed his car door.  The noise frightened Big Bird and he flew off.

No worries. He’ll be back — and so will some of his pals. It is one of the joys of living here. Beautiful, interesting birds everywhere.

For other Sunday Stills photo submissions, check out this link

Happy Accidents

Jackson & Perkins has a deal on roses if you buy their unnamed test panel roses.  A couple of years ago I bought 4 roses.  Two of them have grown beautifully. One is a pink, the other yellow. I named this yellow one, Chele.  For some reason I always think of her when I see a yellow rose. There is probably something in my subconscious that prompts that.

I loved the way this shot came out. The pool screen behind the rose with the reflection of the structure and trees in the water behind the screen. I was shooting the rose and the rest was just a happy accident. Love that Kodak Z740.

Speaking of “happy accidents,” look at one of my new watercolors:

Fire in the Woods

What I was really trying to do was paint a “fire red” autumn maple in the middle of dark woods and ended up with what looks like a forest fire. I kind of liked the effect. Artists in any medium just love happy accidents, don’t we? Camera, paint, beading, scrapping….whatever — we benefit when something just happens.

I never knew…

that an avocado tree could get so huge….

Look at this exposed root.

I can only imagine what is underground supporting this mammoth tree that puts too much shade on our pool now.

It’s so big, I can’t get it all in one shot standing anywhere in the back yard…

It produces Haas avocados…not the typical Florida avocado tree. I’ve written about it before…I probably will do so again. It is simply an amazing tree. Be sure to click on the images to view the large version of these pics for greater detail.

Unfortunately, Butch’s tomatoes are rarely ripe at the same time as the avocados.  I can remember one summer when I made a lot of fresh salsa and guacamole because we had both ripe at the same time.

Butch says he’ll have some tomatoes by Christmas. I don’t know…I think it may be Valentine’s Day.

On a more serious note, please remember to thank our veterans today. As we all know, “Freedom is never FREE.” We owe them a huge debt of gratitude for the monumental sacrifices made on our behalf.