Month: February 2019

'scene' along the way, a second look, finding my way, perseverance, photography, road trip, sky, sunset

Home-made sunset…

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I could have saved myself a lot of effort if I hadn’t been so stubborn.  I went ahead and took the little three day trip from NY to FL, even if the trip itself was no longer necessary and I could have just driven home, period.  And as soon as I got back to NY that’s what I did.  Being home and enjoying the warmth, and also seeing the chaos that still was waiting for me inside my home wetted my appetite to be here.  So I got back on Sunday night and left for PA the next morning. A very windy drive. I left again the next morning, with FL as my ultimate goal, and the GPS got me off the highway and onto some rural roads with landscapes that were a shame not to be able to photograph.  The road climbed some hills and curved around others, and at each peak the landscape fell away into little brown valleys.  And each valley seemed to have a farm house and a red barn.  It was a perfect rural landscape.  With my late start I didn’t get as far as I would have liked, and got off the highway when it got dark.  I don’t always mind driving at night, but as tired as I was it was the right choice.  And I was able to get up and on the road at 3 AM, which would put me at home by noon.

A friend asked me to send her any photo with green in it, she is weather weary in NH.  The drive along the highway was such that I couldn’t stop for photos, but I described to her the wonderful landscapes I was passing on Rt 10 in FL.  It’s horse country up there, and the grass in the pastures was almost artificial looking it was just that green.  I like seeing the fences that divide one pasture from another.  Trust me, the photos in my head were beautiful.

I was so tired that I didn’t think I’d get out for pictures after all that driving, but I suddenly remembered my cousin saying that she has a very nice photo of the sun setting over my new house so I went outside to check.  And yes, the sky was pretty, so I went to the pond here to see what it looked like there. Photo-worthy for sure02-27-2019senatesunset102-27-2019senatesunset202-27-2019senatesunset3It really is good to be home.  And as I was just getting ready to publish I realized that naturecoastimages.blog is back on the nature coast.

 

 

blessings, family, finding my way, fun, grandchildren, moments, perseverance, photography, road trip, sunrise, travel

Where the wind blows…

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The day began with coffee with my son.  A rare event, a chance to talk.  A quiet time together.  And that was after a night of listening to the wind howling relentlessly. Which was a worry since I planned to move on to my daughter’s house, a long drive in the wind.  But I arrived safely, after hanging onto the steering wheel for dear life several times along the way.  And the day ended with a glass of wine with my daughter.  Not as quiet, but a nice visit with some of my favorite people.  A very rare day.  And this morning brings coffee with my daughter, and another windy drive ahead.  Heading home…02-26-19NYsunrise102-26-19NYsunrisefeature02-25-2019henryThanks to Henry for sleeping with me last night…

a second look, family, finding my way, friends, go with the flow, growing old, home, home improvements, life goes on, nesting, perseverance, photography, road trip, sunrise, travel, weather

Home Sweet Home…

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For someone who spent most of her life preoccupying herself with thoughts of the dream house she may or may not have one day, I have to wonder how it is that I’m so pleased to call this little place home.  While I’ve been freezing up here, and yes, I’m up north again, I found myself wanting to get back there to my little place and fix it up.  I can’t tell you how many hours I spent ‘fixing up’ my house over the years.  It doesn’t matter which house because I wallpapered and painted, sewed window treatments, and took down wallpaper and redecorated, all of them.  It was my stress relief when there were worries with the business, or the angst of surviving my teenagers.  (Turns out that I needn’t have worried, but there were no guarantees.). And over those years houses became mansions.  Not my house, but the new houses I’d see being built were palaces that I couldn’t imagine living in.  Or calling home.  When the kids came home from school to one of those houses was there a mom in there greeting them with fresh baked cookies?  They were anything but cosy.  So I guess the answer seems like it should be no, I never got my dream home.  But if that’s what you think then you’d be wrong, because that dream house in my mind kept evolving with time, and for this exact moment, at this exact time of my life, this really is my dream house.  Not too big, not to small, it’s just right.  Call me Goldilocks…02-23-19senatemanor102-23-19senatemanor2Not my view unfortunately, but just down the street.  And I thought a sunrise picture yesterday would be just the thing to finish this posting, but the sun wasn’t cooperating.  Neither were the bluebirds that are nesting in the little birdhouses across the street, but I’m leaving today, heading their way…02-23-19senatemanor3

'scene' along the way, a second look, birds, Florida wildlife, home, nature, nesting, perseverance, photography, pond creatures, road trip, the big picture, travel

Back to the rookery…

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This rookery is in my new neighborhood now that I’ve moved.  I was out early to take care of my coffee addiction, and to use the free wifi at McDonalds, and when I was done I thought I might stop by the rookery to see what was happening there.  they were in full nest building mode, accompanied by much clacking of beaks thanks to the wood storks.  I’m going to go on record that when I’m back here in a couple of weeks there may be eggs.  I won’t have missed the main event, at least I don’t think so.  Today there was much coming and going as the wood storks and great white egrets carried in lots of sticks, and the pairs worked to build their nests together.

This is just a natural spot that these birds have chosen for their nesting.  There is a chain link fence around the perimeter of this pond, and an alligator lives there but I’ve only seen him once.  The shrubbery is very overgrown on the inside of the fence and there is only a small area where it’s possible to see what’s going on in there.  The fence is too tall to shoot over top, so I will have to have a step stool in the car with me as part of my photo equipment from now on.  Consequently I tried to aim my lens through the spot where the gate didn’t quite close all the way.  Or try to aim through the spaces in the chain links.  One very cooperative wood stork flew over and landed on the shrub right in front of me, but on the other side of the fence.  Too close for the lens I was using, I had to back up into the middle of the street to get any image at all.  Shooting was a challenge because of the fence, and also because the sun was still low and I was shooting right into it.  But that didn’t stop me…02-23-19greategret102-23-19nesting02-23-19nesting202-23-19woodstork102-23-19woodstorkcloseup02-23-19woodstorkcloseup202-23-19woodstorkcloseup3

'scene' along the way, a second look, finding my way, neighbors, perseverance, photography, road trip, sky, sunset, travel

Sunset by Hooters…

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Seriously!  As I do often, I became aware of the photo op potential of the Hooters near me because of the photos taken by another photographer.  Now that I’ve moved it’s even closer, envy worthy even.  I’ve always been jealous of the photographers I know who have photo ops right at their doorstep, and now I do too, kinda.  But my photo op comes with pretzels and beer!  It’s gonna be hard to beat…02-22-19baitshop02-22-19catches02-22-19Hooter's02-22-19hooters202-22-19hooters302-22-19iphone102-22-19iphone202-22-19kittysunset02-22-19ontherun02-22-19woodstork

'scene' along the way, nature, perseverance, photography, road trip, simple things, sky, travel, weather

Diamonds in the sky…

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I woke up this morning in the Hudson Valley area of New York, and what woke me up was the sound of the snowplow out front.  I peeked and there didn’t appear to be a lot of snow, but what snow there was seemed to be in the process of being piled up at the end of my son’s driveway.

As I seem to do everywhere I go, I was was up first and enjoying coffee in the dark and quiet.  My son’s house sits on a hill, and with the land falling away from the house out back what you are seeing out the back windows are the tree tops.  I wasn’t fast enough to take a photo of the owl that was out there last evening.  I saw him fly from a closer perch to one further away, but by the time I had the camera out he was out of sight.  We could hear him though, so it was frustrating.  Maybe I was looking for the owl, or maybe I couldn’t have missed the view out back as it got lighter out there this morning.  But those tree tops were encased in ice, and as the sun hit them they were spectacular.  A true winter wonderland.  I had to stand on the steps in order to take pictures, which left me without a perch for a tripod, and I had gotten the 600 mm lens out and I thought I wouldn’t get any sharp photos, it would be futile, but I took some anyhow.  And I thought it was raining because I could hear rain falling, but I was surprised to realize that it was the ice melting off of the trees that was what I was hearing.  It was a beautiful morning…02-21-19treetop02-21-19-treetop202-21-19-treetop402-21-19-treetop3I’d have called this post ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds’ but that would have led us in a whole other direction…