SURFING through my SHOTS from my SAFARI to SAN Antonio, I've found SAILING....
A STAGECOACH in the SKY.....
And STARS and STRIPES.
We took the boat out for a little while yesterday and saw, as we expected, every form of water transportation imaginable! From canoes to pedal-boats to personal watercraft to sailboats to ski boats to bass boats to cabin cruisers. Here's just a microcosm ... taken right here in our cove, from our boat. The house in the background was the site of a birthday party with a live band. There were 5 or 6 boats tied up around their boathouse and the neighboring boathouse to the right plus several PWCs. Our friend was trying for a leisurely sail and I was trying for a picture of the leisurely sail when this ski-boat came flying through the shot. We decided to leave the lake to the week-enders and go home and listen to the live band from the safety and sanity of our deck! Happy Memorial Day!
These guys are a challenge to photograph. If they're in the water, they can dive at any instant and you'll have no idea where to watch for them to re-surface. We jokingly refer to them as "drowning ducks" around here because one of our friends was sorely distressed the first time she saw one dive. When it didn't come up and didn't come up, she was shouting "the duck is drowning, the duck is drowning!". Now it's a game to see who can guess where they will come up! Last weekend we were out on the boat and came across this guy. I decided to see how close we could get. The last photo here is actually the first I shot. The other two I had to zoom to get, so they're not very sharp. Considering that I was both the captain and the photographer, I guess they're not too bad! You would think that photos 1 and 2 are reversed, but they're not. He/She was considering vacating the premises, but apparently decided we were relatively harmless and decided to stay. See more Camera Critters moderated by Misty Dawn.
Our (all of us CDP bloggers) friend Abe at Brookeville Daily Photo has a great post for Memorial Day. Please check it out.
Around here, Memorial Weekend is known as the FIRST BIG WEEKEND OF THE SUMMER and everyone who has a lake house comes. That means lots of things....yard work, getting the boat back in shape, inflating all of the kiddos water toys and hitting the water with every imaginable vessel available. For those of us lucky enough to be here full-time, it means "HERE THEY COME AGAIN, THERE GOES OUR PEACE AND QUIET!". We were "week-enders" longer than we've been "full-timers" so we hope we still maintain a sense of balance and patience!
Peace, happiness, health and good memories to you all!
Last Saturday was a lovely day for the most part....then we had some rain....and then just as the sun was getting low I caught it trying valiantly to peek through the clouds. Usually sky conditions change pretty quickly around here. I shot 4 pictures in a few minutes and these are the first and last. I was surprised later to see how little change there was this time!
Pop over to Wiggers World to see more Sky Watch Friday shots.
OK, I've had some long days this week and posted late, if I posted at all. Guess the hours and miles are getting to me. I came across this in a little town called Mexia and it's just too funny to not post. Maybe it doesn't meet the City Daily Photo criteria for where I live, but I hope it will spread smiles around the world! This bikini beauty stops traffic for a used car dealer.
If you click to enlarge, you'll see there is a double rainbow....and a reflection in the water. This was taken last June. It's late in the day....long day today....but head on over to Mrs Nesbitt's for more ABC Wednesday posts.
Here's a real fixer-upper! It's been sitting here for as long as I've been boating on this lake, which is about 7 or 8 years. I call it the S.S. Minnow! If you click to enlarge, you can actually see some details....looks like there still might be some glass in some windows.
As I was enjoying some of your blogs yesterday, I came across a short discussion about paths. It reminded me of this shot I took a couple of months ago. This little lane leads from the Trinidad ISD building to a cemetery. I wasn't able to explore the cemetery, as there were people there I didn't want to disturb. But it seems to be near the banks of the Trinidad River (through the woods behind the fence).
It was cloudy most of yesterday, but just at sunset we suddenly got a quick few minutes of fabulous pink and blue. I didn't realize with the first shot that the moon was in the pink! Click to enlarge the first photo and you'll see it. The 2nd was taken in moments. And the pink was gone the next moment. See more Sky Watch Friday photos!
Ok, it's a little bit of a desperate stretch.....but see the design around the center of the web? Doesn't that look a little like a Q????
Go to Mrs Nesbitt's for more creativity with the letter Q!
Last weekend we had just finished a fabulous dinner at Hernandez Mexican Restaurant (more on that in another post later) in Malakoff when we spotted this family under the porch roof. In honor of Mother's Day and in participation with the Camera Critters Sunday meme, here's a shot of dinner-time at Hernandez'.
We seem to have a lot of bird lovers in our group, so though I'm not the photographer that Abe is, I thought you might enjoy these. The same "duck lady" who built the wood duck nesting box I posted a couple of days ago also built this bird condo. One year we had bluebirds nesting in it. The first photo shows the papa feeding and the bottom one shows the baby peeking out.
I had a sunrise photo ready for today, but decided to save it in case that's our July theme! So I ran out this morning and snapped this one. Looks like a PERFECT day today. I'll be on the boat by 5:30!! See other Sky Watch Friday posts at Wigger's World.
Please click the ABC Wednesday icon to see more participants' entries at Mrs. Nesbitt's Place!
You've seen some of my wood duck and mallard babies. I thought you might like to see one of the wood duck nesting boxes. This one was built by our neighborhood "duck lady". She carves the duck head on the front. Some of her boxes have both the male and female heads. The 2nd shot shows the inside. There is a Plexiglas panel that enables you to see the nest without disturbing the eggs. It can be lifted to clean the box out after the hatching. We Inn-Keepers put cedar shavings in the box and when mom builds her nest, she adds soft down. Right below the hole (always football shaped) is a piece of hardware cloth. The ducks have a hooked beak and they climb up that wire and tumble out of the box when called out by their mothers at 24 hours of age. It is imperative that they fall ... at least 5 feet and up to 15 feet ... because the impact with the ground or water somehow jump-starts their little digestive systems. If they don't fall out within 24 hours, they can starve to death. It is incredible to see them ... when she calls, they come tumbling out of there one after the other and practically walk on water to get to her. In the last photo you'll see a vertical piece of wood near the top. This is what causes the box to tilt slightly forward when it's mounted on a post (usually on a boat dock or retaining wall, so they can fall into the water). We have 8 boxes within view of our deck in our neighborhood and it is great fun to watch them! If you look in the distance in the first photo, you can see a green box on a post at the wall of Buster's yard. Obviously, the subject box today was just posing for pictures and not actually available for occupation!
Sometimes you just click at just the right moment.......
Check out the rest of the entries for Odd Shots Monday.
Camera Critters Sunday -- click and check them all out! I've spent way too much time this morning trying to catch photos of this guy. For the last 3 or 4 days, he has been tapping on my windows. We have 3 double windows and 2 sets of French doors facing our deck and he has tapped them all. Which has kept me hopping from window to window to window trying to anticipate his next appearance. When he perched on my turtle friend to rest, I just had to click for this Sunday's theme photo! It looks like he and the turtle are enjoying our view as much as we do!
TnChick moderates a Saturday theme called Photo Hunt. This Saturday, the subject is "Time". Those of us who moved to the lake from more fast-paced cities (primarily Dallas/Ft Worth, it seems) have had to learn to adjust to a different pace here. It can be frustrating for "week-enders" but once you've settled in, you find that the pace here is much healthier! We call it "Learning to live on Lake Time". Now when we go to the big city, we can hardly wait to get out of their traffic and get HOME! This was taken with my new PDA/phone/camera, so I apologize for the quality. Thank you to D&C for sharing your home and dinner and decor!
Reports of a tornado touching down near here at Canton this morning. I was blissfully ignorant, but went out side to take this shot right after I heard....the sun is already starting to peek out here. Hope everyone in the storm's path is ok!
Fly over to Wigger's World to see more SkyWatchFriday entries.
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