Category: connections

'scene' along the way, connections, finding my way, friends, growing old, life, life goes on, perseverance, photography, road trip, travel

Turning the page…

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I’m not in Kansas anymore.  Florida either.  Lots of you, probably the majority of you, may look out your windows to a view like this.  But not me, not in Florida or Maryland either.  And I do spend a lot of time enjoying the beauty around me in Florida, but this scenery is just amazing to me.  A simple drive to run an errand and I’m looking at lovely vistas all around me.  It was an absolutely beautiful day yesterday.  Just seeing the sun was a treat after the rain that’s been following me around.  Starting the day talking with a friend over coffee, and then winding down the day with cribbage on the porch, plus a glass of wine, is very special.   As is this friendship, which began so long ago that it’s just always been there.  Long ago we talked of the future and anticipated the life that was waiting for us.  And now here we are, our stories have been written.  We’ve turned the page and are now facing challenges that we never thought of when we were young, but we are facing them together…05-20-19websterlakeview05-20-19websterlakeview205-20-19websterlakeview305-20-19websterlakeview405-20-19NH405-20-19NH505-20-19NH605-20-19websterlakecemetery05-20-19websterlakecemetery205-20-19websterlakechipmunk

connections, family, grandchildren, live and learn, memories, perseverance, photography, reality check, road trip, technology, travel, weather

My girls…

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Two of them anyhow.  There are more, but they weren’t in York, PA for the very busy weekend we just had.  If it hadn’t kept on raining, and raining, and raining, I’d have gotten out for more pictures and possibly might not have invaded their privacy the way that I have today.  Of course I’m proud to show them off.  They are beautiful people inside and out.

And I’m happy to be in York PA just in time for the laptop to be warning me that my storage situation had reached the ‘critical’ storage.  You see my daughter has an Apple Store less than a half hour from her house, and the Genius there got my external hard drive tweaked enough to let me store my info and backups on that.  But he also warned me not to attempt to do this myself, wait for Apple Care to call me tonight and walk me through it.  It was a “Don’t-try-these-moves-at-home” sort of thing.  You don’t have to be a genius to follow their directions.

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backyard visitors, butterflies, connections, Florida wildlife, flowers, friends, gardens, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

At home with friends…

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It was a perfect way to spend a day, sitting in the most lush natural garden you can imagine, and talking with friends while various visitors dropped in to have their picture taken.  Lots of butterflies, many that zoomed into view but never stopped long enough for a picture,  The same with a beautiful big dragonfly and a tiny little hummingbird.  A lazy cat and two dogs seemed to be enjoying the view with us.  A perfect day in a beautiful oasis of green.  Thank you Eddie and Linda, for doing all the work and planning that makes this not only a beautiful oasis for us, but the perfect microclimate to allow these creatures to thrive.  And for sharing a lovely day with me.4-22-19butterflymosaic4-22-19yellowflower4-22-19purpleflower4-22-19pinkflower4-22-19passionflower4-22-19monarch34-22-19monarch24-22-19monarch4-22-19butterflymosaic24-22-19brownbutterfly

connections, egrets, finding my way, Florida wildlife, friends, nature, Osprey, perseverance, photography, simple things, strangers

New friends…

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Part of the charm of heading over to the rookery is that there is a Twisty Treat ice cream stand right there!  So you can tell yourself that you are going to take pictures, but in the back of your mind you are thinking ice cream.  Yesterday I had my priorities straight, I got the ice cream first!  Okay, you do have to drive across the parking lot and tuck your car in behind the buildings to unload, but I then found myself marching towards the fence with another gal, a like-minded gal, because we were both lugging a three step ladder and cameras with nice long lenses.  It must have looked like we planned it.  So I made a new friend yesterday, and had a very nice time as we took pictures of the chicks, and talked about photography in general.  I told her about our camera club, FCCP, Florida Center for Creative Photography, and I told her that there are a lot of people my age in the group, but younger people also.  Mentioned because she is young, the years that I wonder where they went are still waiting to unfold for her.  But she said she likes people my age, and at that moment we were kindred spirits.  The big difference was that when the osprey we had been watching hover in the air over the rookery finally made his dive and came up with a fish, her camera battery didn’t die like mine did.  The most dramatic moment of a nice afternoon and I missed it.  But really I didn’t miss anything, I made a new friend…4-15-19twochicks4-15-19thisbig4-15-19ospreyegretfight34-15-19ospreyegretfight24-15-19ospreyegretfight4-15-19incoming

'scene' along the way, connections, coping, death, finding my way, grief, healing, life goes on, marriage, memories, perseverance, photography, sunrise

Questions without answers…

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I honestly don’t know what Charley would have thought of my current camera obsession.  That I’m alone now is probably an advantage since I can hop out of my chair and into the car for sunrise photos at the spur of the moment.  He wouldn’t go anywhere until he was showered and dressed, and he always smelled heavenly.  Skunk-piss he called it, and I still have some and take a whiff now and again.  When the time has gotten away from me I’ve been known throw on the clothes from the day before and head out, and I don’t know that I even comb my hair when that happens.  It’s a factor of leaving the house in the dark when no one can see you, and then it’s light out and you head for home and want to hide.  With a little more preparation I’ve been known to stop at Panera for an accessory cup of coffee and a treat.  Yesterday after this shoot I got a cinnamon crunch bagel, which I had forgotten even existed.  I didn’t need the reminder.

So, it’s a toss up really.  Charley might have been annoyed with me over my endless photo shoots, or he quite possibly would have bought himself a better camera than mine and it might have been a competition.  It could have been fun, but I guess I’ll never know…03-24-19sunrise103-24-19sunrise203-24-19sunrise303-24-19sunrise403-24-19sunrise503-24-19sunrisefeature

birds, connections, coping, Florida wildlife, life, life goes on, nature, nesting, perseverance, photography, unintended images

Birds do it…

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I’ve been watching all my TV on the internet since I’ve been back in FL, and it’s been educational to say the least.  What has struck me is that no matter how innocuous the title of the show you decide to watch is, like “Love”, it seems to me to have nothing to do with ‘love’ at all.  It must be my age, or it’s the man-woman thing.  Charley had a serious lament in his last years.  As he put it, he was waiting for the day that the supermodels would pull up out front and say, “You, Fat Boy, into the limo!”  He tried to make a joke out of it, but after I heard it enough times I realized that he was serious.  He really did feel like he missed out on something.  And he never responded to any of my retorts.  Like, “Sam Elliot hasn’t pulled up out front looking for me either”, or “have you looked in the mirror lately”, or “so this is something that has happened to everyone you know and you’re the only one it hasn’t happened to?”  I gave up after a while and told him that if the supermodels ever show up out there then just go for it. Youth and beauty are fleeting things, but having a connection to someone, someone to talk with at the end of the day, that’s what really matters.

I took friends to the rookery yesterday and of all the shots I took these are the ones that stood out.  First of all I was paying attention to the wood storks especially, because their babies are so darned funny looking.  Last year all you saw were wood stork chicks, but so far I haven’t gotten a good shot of one this year.  But even if I hadn’t been paying attention to wood storks in particular these would have caught my eye because they were the only action going on out there, and their nest was in the perfect light.  These birds have to be a great example of ‘there is someone for everyone’,  Or maybe they just watch too much Netflix…03-22-19birdbrains03-22-19birdbrains203-22-19birdbrains303-22-19birdbrains503-22-19birdbrains6

And life goes on…03-22-19birdbrains4