Windy day on the water....

Quite rough today but here's a brave little wood duck taking her new babies out for a swim. They are so skittish that I had to really zoom, so it's not very clear. I counted 5 babies but there may be more. We've seen them with up to 15.

One more Spring flowers shot

Yesterday was a perfect day. We got our flower beds back into production and looking good. We planted these African Daisies (from the Lowe's in Gun Barrel City) and I just couldn't resist taking pictures of them. Had a nice rain early early this morning. Spring is here and we're lovin' it--well our little Corgi isn't too crazy about thunder and lightning, but other than that even he loves spring.

I've added a couple more shots of the African Daisies....If I hadn't taken it myself, I would have doubted that the original post was an un-touched photo of a real, live flower! It's perhaps the luckiest macro shot I've ever taken with my little Canon G5. Here are some other shots of the flowers and the garden they are in.

Yes, it IS Spring!

Life has returned to those pots of what appeared to be dead plants sitting on the deck all winter.

Butterflies and Flowers....is it Spring?

First, pardon me for posting 3 instead of just 1 -- I just couldn't decide! Second, I must confess that these were actually taken last August. I'm just so anxious for the flowers to start blooming again that I couldn't wait to share them with you.

Country Sunrise

Couldn't resist stopping to shoot the sunrise on the way to work Tuesday. In a few more days, these trees will be completely covered with leaves!

Double your pleasure.....

There's nothing like a reflection on the water to enhance all things beautiful. Life is good on the lake!

Bottoms Up!

There's a lot of eating going on at our place! This is shallow water and we were tossing corn out to them. I cropped this from a larger photo of many more ducks....but these are the cutest.

More local friends

We have a large community of ducks that visit our cove. Mallards are probably the majority. But we also have wood ducks, cormorants, coots, a few domestics and domestic/mallard hybrids (mallards are VERY social!).

It's for the birds!

Squirrels are very industrious little creatures. They can be real work-a-holics as the old adages and fairy tales can attest. They can also live by the "work smarter, not harder" rule! An open bird feeder with nuts in it is just too irresistible! As long as they're on the watch for dive-bombing blue jays and not worried about the little Corgi barking and bouncing below (more on him later), it's feast time!

United States Coast Guard Auxiliary

We have a wonderful group of volunteers who patrol our lake, ensure our safety and perform our rescues when needed. Our neighbor Harry is one of those fine people. Last night they had an awards ceremony and Harry graciously agreed to pose for my blog in his dress uniform. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the women and men of the US Coast Guard and the Auxiliary for their service.

I do leave the house ....

Today I realized that all of my photos so far were taken right here at home! Some of you are probably wondering about Gun Barrel City. Well, GBC is actually a very young town that basically grew up as the lake population did. This lake was formed in 1968. And there are some interesting shots to take of Gun Barrel City (no pun intended), I just haven't done it yet! Mabank was here first, so I'll show you a little of Mabank first.

During the last drought....

This was taken in Nov 06 when we were in the midst of our terrible drought. Beach combing was interesting but not being able to take the boat out for almost a year was painful! The water level now is less than a foot below this dock. You can't see the rungs of the ladder at all! Normal lake level is 322 feet above sea level. I think we were down to about 314 that year.

April 1 Theme Day is Water . . .

That theme is right up my alley. Hmmmm. Shall I dig out an old favorite or run around trying to get some new shots? Never pass up a good excuse to run around taking pictures, right? To quote Forrest Gump...That's my boat!

theme day id=13

Love the sparkles

I love to see the sparkles on the lake. This is from my deck this morning. Obviously one of my favorite places to be. This is the little cove where we had 23 woodies yesterday. If you look really closely, you might see a male in the water. His mate is probably in one of the nesting boxes nearby.

TheWoodies are Back!

I counted 23 wood ducks in our little cove early this morning. Unfortunately, it's hard to get good shots of them. They're very skittish and are usually here only in the early morning and early evening. They are wonderful little creatures. We have 7 nesting boxes in our cove and will be enjoying them and watching for their little ones over the next few months. I'm sure you'll see more photos soon!

My rain gauge runneth over.