Cat Without Hat

Here, you haven't seen a new picture of the cat in a while. She still looks the same, though.

Beauty At The Beach

Here's another gem from last weekend. I'm trying to remember what these are called. They grow near the coast sometimes because they like dry conditions, which is what you get there. All that water, but few plants can use it. These plants have leaves that are fleshy to hold excess moisture, and they are encircled by little plantlets that fall off and create new plants. They can be quite invasive in certain areas. Kalanchoe, that's the name I'm looking for. Lots of different forms out there, but I think these are the most attractive.

That Old House

More than one of you requested a picture of the house I mentioned yesterday, so here you go. This picture is probably 4 or 5 years old, but it pretty much looks the same still. You can see the fish over there on the left. The dock appears curved due to the odd perspective I used to fit it into the frame. Well, it's actually a stitched-together panorama of 5 or 6 pictures, not a single picture using a fisheye lens. I thought for a long time that this house had a name, Land's End, but I later found out that was the name of the old subdivison it's in. You can see the sign way over on the right by the house above, or in the detail below, which I shot last weekend. This is the very northernmost tip of Longboat Key, FL, which is the only part of the island not covered in high-rise condos or golf courses. They have wild peacocks roaming around there, too, but that's a photo for another day.

A Few Days In February

Here's the other calendar page for today, this time for just the week. And didn't we just see this fish a couple of days ago? I think so... I need to start visiting more places. Anyhow, this is Longboat Pass, shot from the north end of Longboat Key, FL. The hammock you see to the right is at the end of a long dock that belongs to a small beach cottage that is probably my favorite house on the whole island. If it ever comes on the market, I may have to sell one of my kidneys to try and buy it. I'll have to post a picture of it someday. It's not big, or beautiful, and it certainly wouldn't be the place you'd want to go in the event of a hurricane (at most, it's 3 feet above sea level), but the view can't be beat. I suspect the fish belongs to the owners of the house and the dock, but I'm not sure.

February

First day of the month, so you get two calendar pages today. This first one is for the whole month. You're looking at the Everett Road covered bridge in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. I shot this last August, and I revisited the bridge during my visit last month. The exact spot where I shot this photo was under a foot or more of water on the most recent visit. For the sticklers out there, this is not the original bridge. I believe the original was destroyed by a flood sometime in the 70s, and the one you see here was built about a decade later. It's closed to vehicular traffic, but you often see horses & their riders trekking across it. (Well, often is a relative thing. I've been there twice and seen it happen once. Is 50% of the time considered often?)

Once again, I seem to be repeating myself in this blog...

A Little Bit More January

Whoops! I've waited until Tuesday again to post my weekly picture. And there's two more for tomorrow, since it's the first day of the new month. You guys and gals need to do a better job of reminding me about these things.

Anyhoo, what we have here is sunset over Lake Erie. The small lighthouse on the left marks the entrance to the Cuyahoga River. This was shot during my trip to Ohio last year, not the trip a couple of weeks ago. I think I remarked a few days ago that I lived in one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. Well, that's still true, but I also believe that every spot has some beauty in it. Even wherever you're at.

Spider Guy (Not)

First off, I'm scared silly of spiders. So I don't know why I'm throwing this picture up of a crab spider. He's very small, probably less than half an inch across, and now that I look at him up close, he looks more like a tick that a spider. These guys make their webs across trails quite often, so I walk right into them a lot, and I always worry about where exactly that spider ended up. Is it just me or does that look like some sort of creepy smiley face on his back?

Fishy Fishy

I've always been fascinated by this fish. I don't know why. It's just so incongruous. There he sits, up on a pole, out in the water. No advertising, no message about Jesus, no nothing. Just a fish for the sake of fishness, I suppose. Somehow, that's refreshing.

Jonathan Livingston

Seagulls are usually dirty, nasty pests. But they are really pretty when they're in the air.

Fun With Flipper

I see dolphins fairly often while I am out and about, but I almost never get pictures of them. Today I got lucky, and this marine mammal swam across my viewfinder. He was swimming slowly and not diving very deep. so I was able to squeeze off a few shots. He swam under a bridge as I was watching him, so I ran to the other side, but he didn't come up on the far side. I continued walking along the bridge, when suddenly I start hearing voices. It turned out to be the drawbridge tender on his loudspeaker, telling me that there were dolphins on his side of the bridge! It was a little spooky... I didn't get anymore pictures of them, though.

More White Stuff

There's nothing like a week in cold, frozen Ohio to make you appreciate the beauty of your own backyard. It's the end of January, but the winter weather is far away from Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island here in Florida. And this white stuff is sugar sand, not snow. I think I must live in one of the most beautiful spots on the planet!

Doe, A Deer (A Female Deer)

On the very last day of my recent adventures in Ohio, while in the van on the way to the airport, I finally spotted a deer. I saw three, actually, way off the road behind a thick stand of trees. Not the best situation for a picture, as you can see. It didn't help matters any that there was a well lit clearing behind the animals, making it that much harder to get a shot. But this is what I got. The other ladies were sitting on the ground, and I couldn't get them in the shot. At least I didn't strike out completely this trip.

The Next Week In January

This week's picture is a group of white pelicans on Lake Morton in Lakeland, FL. These guys migrate down to the area in the winter, so I don't see them around too much. And they seem to prefer freshwater to saltwater, but I have occasionally seen them in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hawk (Not Tony)

Yesterday, Bill, the boss at my Ohio office, took me down through the Cuyahoga Valley in search of some deer. Unfortunately, we didn't spot any, but I did manage to spot this red-tailed hawk. (Well, I believe it's a red-tail, but I'm not an expert on birds anywhere, much less here in Ohio.) Bill must have thought I was crazy when I yelled to stop the van and jumped out with my camera clicking away. In the first few shots I got, the hawk had his head turned down, but this is the first one I got where you could see his head. I was walking towards him slowly, trying not to spook him, when he turned and took off across the river.


I can't even get shots like that in Florida! Right place, right time I guess. He settled in a tree on the far bank of the Cuyahoga, so I kept walking towards him, hoping to get some more shots.

After landing on the far bank, this magnificent bird was too far away to get more good shots, but I waited a little while anyway, and sure enough, he took off soon again and began to circle overhead. It took me a few minutes to figure out why, but it turned out that a crow was harassing him. I got this one shot of the two of them fighting in mid-air. I guess the crows get some kick out of it. I didn't see any food involved, and it's certainly not a mating ritual. But whatever it is, it makes for great pictures!

Snow Virgin

I know you've all been waiting for these, so here you go... I got up enough nerve to try skiing Thursday night. I didn't realize just how much nerve it was going to take until I actually got to Brandywine Ski Resort and looked up. A giant hill covered in fake snow loomed above me, and I was completely out of my element. I rented some gear, somehow figured out how to get my feet in the ski boots, and wandered out onto the slopes. My lesson wasn't scheduled for a while, so I waited around watching little kids ski around like they were born with skis on their feet, and other folks on snowboards making the surfers down near me look strictly amateur. The instructor finally came around, and it turned out I was the only person in the sub-beginner lesson. (Remember, this is only the day after I saw snow for the first time, yet here I am taking a ski lesson...) He tried his best, but I just couldn't get it. For an entire hour, I'd struggle up a very slight slope, only to slide back down (sometimes backwards!) with little or no control, unable to stop or turn until I either fell over, or, on one spectacular occasion, smash into the split rail fence that separated the slopes from the meltwater stream below. Of the three rails in the fence, I broke two of them clean in half. It wasn't long after that incident that I decided I wasn't going to pick this up quickly enough, and I limped off to the rental return spot with my ego firmly tucked between my legs... (Big thanks to Wendy, an instructor at the resort, for these pictures. Now I know why she didn't want to be my instructor...)

Snow Forensics

As the snow melted away on Thursday, I started to notice something odd. There were trails of footprints left behind, like something out of an episode of Scooby Doo. Everywhere I had traipsed around and compressed the inch of so of snow on the ground, it was dense enough to melt at a slower rate. So wherever I had been, you could see these footprints. I knew they were my footprints because I was the only one silly enough to go walking around in it for no good reason.

Ohio (5/50)

I figured I should try to find a good Ohio license plate to share with you while I'm up here, and this is what I found. My friend Wendy who works up here has this creative plate that for some oxymoronic reason says UNCRE8V. (She also pulled her old plate from WV out of the trunk that said UNCRE8IV.) This was taken the day after it snowed, I think, or maybe late that same day, so it's starting to melt. And when it melts, some of it refreezes into those icicles you see dripping from the front bumper. That's something you don't see very often back home in Florida.

Previous plates: New York, Maine, Hawaii, Washington.

Snow Show

Here's a snow picture for you, just to prove I actually did see snow while here in Ohio. This was taken last Wednesday (if I remember correctly), down at Brandywine Falls, which I'm sure you remember from my adventures in Ohio last year. So far it's only snowed once during my visit, and it only stayed around for about 36 hours. Yesterday the high temperature was in the mid-50s, so it was all melted except in the most sheltered spots. (This is the 3rd warmest January ever on record here in Ohio. Go figure...) Chances are good for some snow this afternoon and overnight, though, so wish me luck!

On The Grid

Right before I left Florida a few days ago, I showed you a glorious sunrise that was somewhat marred by powerlines in the picture. Well, here in Ohio, I've seen one good sunrise, and what do you know, it's got more powerlines running across it! I've got to start planning ahead for these pictures.

I've got tons more pictures to show you from here in OH, but I haven't had time to get them up. Today might work out a little bit better, so stay tuned if you want to see some snow, and if you're lucky, me wiping out on the bunny slope!

This Week In January

Ever hear of a silk oak? Well, I hadn't either until I came to Bradenton. Turns out they are yet another invasive tree, but they put out these spectacular flowers for a few weeks a year. They sort of look like giant Christmas trees hung with golden ornaments when they are in full bloom. Quite a site to see.