For the month of December 30 Minutes in the Life acknowledges that times get busy and so for this month we choose to do a Festive 5. Most of my 30 minutes come from one event but I did want to share two others as well.  In the last week in November I asked Richard to take me to the Hoffman Chocolate Shop.  They had a display of lights in their garden.  I took along my Lensbaby Sweet 35 with the idea of capturing the lights and the beautiful bokeh that this lens creates.  Beyond that I have been to a series of Christmas lunches.  The middle 3 image are from one of those events.  Lastly, my Christmas tree bokeh.

Blessed is the season that engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love

~Hamilton Wright Mawbie

Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but also of reflecting

~ Winston Churchill

Christmas is a great time for extra hugs and cuddles.  Love is the magic of Christmas.  If you are blessed with children, share with them that special magic and it will spread to others as well.  

“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”

Christmas for me is about acknowledging and celebrating the birth of Christ.  It is also a time for family, and I am grateful to have all my family with us as well as an additional guest that Amy brought home with her.

I wish you a blessed Christmas with your family and friends.  May you know love, peace and joy as you celebrate together.  If you are traveling, travel safely.

Peace on Earth will come to stay

When we live Christmas every day.

~Helen Steiner Rice

Thank you for joining me for this month’s 30 Minutes in Life.  Please take time to visit my friend and fellow blogger  Stacey Markel Photography to see what she has for you this month with her Festive 5.  Keep following the circle of photographers to see what the other photographers, from the US and around the world,  have shared this month. Don’t forget to leave a little love on their pages.

You can also find me on Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Viewbug and Google+

When I think of the theme Wonderland I think of winter and snow and the gorgeous scenery that you will find in the northern states.  Down in Florida, Wonderland takes on a different perspective.  This month Kathy of KG Ledbetter Photography chose the theme Wonderland.

I was stumped until I read about a local chocolate shop, Hoffmans Chocolates, that has a light display in the gardens.  In fact this year they have even created a mini ice rink.  So I asked Richard if we could go up to see the light display.  This was hopefully going to work out for the Wonderland theme.

My heart dropped when we got there and I saw just how many cars were there.  It did not look like there was much parking at all.  Right now I am walking but just barely.  Long distances do not work for me.  Fortunately I have a temporary disabled permit, and even better the policeman directing traffic spotted it and waved us into a parking close to the event.  I could have hugged that policeman on the spot.  It was not a big area to walk around but once done I was glad to get out, back home and on ice again.

I took a couple of lens with me but defaulted to my Lensbaby Sweet 35 for all the beautiful bokeh that it creates

A snowman family

The Christmas tree in the center of the square

Mr Teddy

A collection of lights

Santa’s reindeer

And good old Santa wishing you all a very Merry Christmas

As we head into this festive season, I want to wish you all a safe and happy holiday season.  If you are traveling, drive safely.  If you are staying at home remember not to get caught up in the craziness of the season.  Relax, enjoy, embrace the season, know peace, love, joy and laughter.

Thank you for joining me for this month’s Share Six.  This is a circle blog.  From the sneak peak images I have seen, you are going to want to follow the circle.  Please take time to visit my friend Tori of Roots and Twigs Photography and see what she has for you this month. Keep following the circle to see what the other photographers have shared this month.  Don’t forget to leave a little love on their page as well.

You can also find me on Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Google+ and Viewbug.

Now it is your turn. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook at Share Six and come and share your images on the theme Wonderland throughout the month of December.  A new theme will come out on January 6.

Remember you can follow us on Instagram at @sharesix  and tag your images #sharesix_wonderland

You can also find the Share Six webpage at http://www.sharesix.wordpress.com

We look forward to seeing your images on the theme Wonderland.

There is nothing worse in my life than waking me up early in the morning. When I say early I man before 8 AM.  I am definitely a night owl. Actually I do that most work days so that makes sleeping in even better.  However, on occasion I am willing to drag myself out of bed and blindly shower and dress, and pick up my prepacked camera bag and head downstairs.  I would love to say I make coffee.  I miss coffee, but I am drinking mainly tea.  So tea made, I allow myself to be dragged off to the beach with the intention of watching the sunrise.  Somewhere along the way I surface to a less surely mood, where conversation begins to be possible.  Once we arrive, we sit and drink our tea or coffee and we wait for the sun to begin the new day.

Saturday was one of those days.  Richard suggested we go and watch the sunrise.  I agreed thinking, oh no I have to wake up early.  That said I was ready to get out with my camera again after 3 months of being house bound.  We were going to one place and before we were out of the community we changed our direction to head north to Lake Worth.  The reason, breakfast at Benny’s on the Beach.  The restaurant opens at 7am and that meant we could watch the sunrise and eat straight after.

So here is my start to Saturday morning.

It was not the most spectacular sunrise.  The weather was overcast with a thick band of clouds across the horizon.  However, it was good to get up and get out after being housebound for three months.  Breakfast was good and the company was even better.  We definitely should do this more often, says me who likes to sleep in.

“Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of success is in turning that diary into the best story you possibly can.” 
~ Douglas Pagels

Thank you for joining me for this month’s 30 Minutes in Life.  Please take time to visit my friend and fellow blogger in Germany  Sonia of Sonia Epple Fotographie and see what she has for you this month.   Keep following the circle of photographers to see what the other photographers, from the US and around the world,  have shared this month. Don’t forget to leave a little love on their pages.

You can also find me on Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Viewbug and Google+

It’s November and time for Share Six and the theme is Harvest and it was chosen by Katherine of Cobert Photography.  It’s fall up north, and the colors are changing, and pumpkins are out.  Folks are getting ready for Thanksgiving.  I am down south.  The weather is hot, there is no change in color, and I am still limited to my room recovering.  There is no going out for me, so I have to improvise.  Yikes, the only photo’s related to harvest that I have, have been used before.

I was stumped as to what I was going to do.  The other day a friend posted the lyrics to a song on Facebook, and my brain kicked in.  The next morning I was up early and working on the theme.  So what was the song?

Harvest Moon ~ Neil Young

Come a little bit closer
Hear what I have to say
Just like children sleepin’
We could dream this night away.

But there’s a full moon risin’
Let’s go dancin’ in the light
We know where the music’s playin’
Let’s go out and feel the night.

Because I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon.

When we were strangers
I watched you from afar
When we were lovers
I loved you with all my heart.

But now it’s gettin’ late
And the moon is climbin’ high
I want to celebrate
See it shinin’ in your eye.

Because I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon.

And if you want to hear the song click here.

What I have done here is, once again, experimented with double exposure, made up of moon images and beach scenes.   Underneath the Harvest Moon.

Because I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon.

~ Neil Young

Thank you for joining me for this month’s Share Six.  This is a circle blog.  From the sneak peak images I have seen, you are going to want to follow the circle.  Please take time to visit my friend Kim of Kim Sidwell Photography and see what she has for you this month.  At the same time give her a warm welcome back to the blog group.   Keep following the circle to see what the other photographers have shared this month.  Don’t forget to leave a little love on their page as well.

You can also find me on Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Google+ and Viewbug.

Now it is your turn. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook at Share Six and come and share your images on the theme Harvest throughout the month of November.  A new theme will come out on November 6.

Remember you can follow us on Instagram at @sharesix  and tag your images #sharesix_harvest.

You can also find the Share Six webpage at http://www.sharesix.wordpress.com

We look forward to seeing your images on the theme Harvest.  

I love Iguana.  While they are not native to South Florida, they are here in abundance.  We used to have one living on our dock for the longest time.  We had an unusually cold winter one year and he disappeared and along with him, a lot of iguana locally died.

However, in our local wetland the colony seems to be growing again.  On a walk through the wetlands prior to surgery I happened to find this guy hanging out in the shaded area.

Thank you for joining me for this month’s Tell me a Story.    This is a circle blog.  Please take time to visit my fellow blogger Kim of Kim Sidwell Photography and see what she has for you this month. Keep following the circle to see what the other photographers have shared this month. Don’t forget to leave a little love on their pages.

You can also find me on Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Google+ and Viewbug.

I chose the theme Double exposure this month and I have to be honest I ambitiously wanted to do some in camera exposures.  However, I had a hectic run up to my surgery date and since then have spent my days in bed recovering.  I chose this theme because I wanted to stretch myself beyond the norm.  I wanted to try something new.  I am a bit disappointed that I could not do that.  However, while lying in bed I started playing with an app on my phone and came up with some double exposures that I like.  This was the route I was going to go.  But I was not totally happy with them, so I began to play in Photoshop to see what I could come up with.  What I have done here is show the double exposure and then show the combinations that make it up.  Here are my double exposures for this month.

One of my favorite places to be – the beach

At the beach and I cannot resist sitting at the edge of the water watching the Osprey dive for fish.  At the same beach I pulled out my Lensbaby and the Sweet 35 optic and began playing.  I love the dreamy effect that the Lensbaby creates.

Raindrops in Seattle

When I rains I love to head outside with my macro lens and catch the water drops on the multicolored leaves.  I combined this with another Lensbaby image taken in Seattle.  If you haven’t visited Seattle then that is one of my favorite places to visit in the US, along with Denver.

The setting sun on a long journey

In 2015 I did a road trip to Columbus and managed to capture this train from a moving vehicle.  I loved the leading line in this image.  The sunset was captured using the Lensbaby and Sweet 35 optic.  The star effect was created by taking the optic to a blur position.

Key West – The Keys are on my heart.

The flower was taken in a local park using my macro lens.  I don’t do this often enough and I decided that I would just go for a short walk and do some close up shots.  The signboard was taken in Key West.  The words sum it up.

On land or sea the setting sun moves me to capture those final moments

Taken in Key West just a week before I had surgery and 3 weeks before Hurricane Irma passed through, this one of my favorite things to do in Key West.  Head out on a sailing ship (in this case Schooner Appledore) to watch the sunset.  The other photo is taken at the Everglades National Park, where I frequently go to catch the sunset.

Eyes on Denver

This little man holds a very special place in my heart.  Simba is our rescue cat and as of now our only cat.  He is one of the most loving cats, but put a dog in his pathway and he turns into a monster.  Another place that I love is Denver and in winter it was the most beautiful sight I have seen in a long time.  Cold though!!

And I did one more, since I very rarely put myself in the picture.  I was playing around one of the sliders in Photoshop and this was the result.

My brain activity

I love this image of me, although I cannot claim it is mine.  It was taken by my daughter, Amy Stuart.  The other image is taken on our trip to Nashville.  Each year we try to meet up with my brother somewhere in the US when he is here on conference.

Thank you for joining me for this month’s Share Six.  This is a circle blog.  From the sneak peak images I have seen, you are going to want to follow the circle.  Please take time to visit my friend Katherine of Cobert Photography and see what she has for you this month. Keep following the circle to see what the other photographers have shared this month.  Don’t forget to leave a little love on their page as well.

You can also find me on Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Google+ and Viewbug.

Now it is your turn. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook at Share Six and come and share your images on the theme Double Exposure throughout the month of October.  A new theme will come out on November 6.

Remember you can follow us on Instagram at @sharesix  and tag your images #sharesix_doubleexposure.

You can also find the Share Six webpage at http://www.sharesix.wordpress.com

We look forward to seeing your images on the theme Double Exposure

Just before I went in for surgery we had friends come and visit.  They were both from South Africa and they had stayed with us the previous year as well.  It was a short 4 day visit but I was glad that it worked out to happen prior to surgery so that we could get out and do things.

On the Saturday Michael had suggested that he would like to see Alligator.  We have the perfect spot for that so Richard suggested that we go on the Sunday for a kayak through the Loxahatchee National Park.  We are almost guaranteed to see gators.  The night before Beverly and I went up to photograph the sunset at the same place and she got the opportunity to see a gator in the water.

However, no such luck for Michael.  We have had a lot of rain so the water levels were very high and there was no place along the edge of the river for the gator to hang out and suntan.  Ironically we did not see any in the water either.

However, it was a fun kayak.  Although it was overcast, I really got sunburned on my legs which left me peeling just in time for surgery.  Not fun.

I had taken my old Canon Rebel on the kayak with me.  I can live with it if that one falls in the water – I cannot live with it if the Canon 6D falls in the water.  However, there is some issue going on with the Rebel and it’s auto focus.  So these images, were taken in manual using fully manual settings while on a moving kayak.   Telling Richard to stop every 5 seconds was not going to work 🙂

So here are some of the images from the kayak trip that we did.

Starting out on the kayak trail.

Beverly and Michael had to get the rhythm of the oars before they started moving too far.

Reflections of a beautiful day out on the water.

Water Lily’s in abundance.

Crossing paths with folk who had the same idea as us.

Typical scenes from the kayak.

A beautiful Halloween Pennant Dragonfly.  There were so many dragon fly out that day.

I loved seeing the Water Lily flowers.

Water levels were high.  Typically you can see the posts of the notice board.  The water is about half way up.

Water Lily in it’s simplicity.

Apple Snail Eggs.  The snails lay there eggs in clusters.  We once had a snail lay it’s eggs on our back dock and it was a very interesting process to watch.  Each egg is pushed out in a layer of slime towards the cluster.  I guess the slime fixes it to the rest of them.  The Limpkins love to eat the snails when they hatch, as do the Snail Kites.  Both are found out in the Loxahatchee National Park.

Little Blue Heron – another beautiful bird found in the South Florida area.

Beverly and Michael have the rhythm going now and we are moving along.

Grasses along the edge of the water.

A Turkey Vulture is a common sight in South Florida.  A vulture is something I did not think I would see moving to the USA but I see a lot of Turkey Vulture and Black Vulture in the area.

Up close on a Water Lily

Beverly and Michael – you will note that they switched positions at a dock we saw along the way.  She was far braver than I would have been.  You would not catch me trying to get out of a kayak on the water to change positions.  I know exactly where I would land.

Bubbles forming in the water behind the kayak

Bubbles on the water

The end is in sight.

Michael is relieved.  This turned out to be a 3 hour trip and I think they were both glad to be out of the kayak and back on dry land.  They worked muscles that they have not used in a while.

Thank you for joining me for this month’s Tell me a Story.    This is a circle blog.  Please take time to visit my fellow blogger LUPJi Photography | North Virginia Event and Wildlife Photographer and see what he has for you this month. Keep following the circle to see what the other photographers have shared this month. Don’t forget to leave a little love on their pages.

You can also find me on Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Google+ and Viewbug.

This is kind of an emotional blog this month.  As you know from last month we headed off to Key West just prior to surgery.  Surgery happened and since then I have been home on bed rest for the past month and still have another month minimum to go.

In the midst of all of that Hurricane Season kicked off with a major destruction of Houston and Beaumont, Texas and various areas around it.  I was glued to my TV and Cellphone as my Finance Officer has family living in Beaumont and I have some photography friends living in the area as well.

Move forward 2 weeks and we have Hurricane Irma forming in the seas, heading over the islands and heading to the east coast. As a Cat 5!! Yikes!! So Sunday I tell Richard to head out to Publix and get water and a list of things.  I also suggest that he fills my car with gas and certainly keep his topped up.  So my wonderful husband comes home with 1 case of water and 2 jugs, and I am thinking “what!!”  I politely ask him if that is for him or for me.  Water does not last in our house and so 1 case will be finished pretty quickly if we have no water.  Okay, Okay, I cannot do a thing about it as I cannot drive and am pretty much stuck to the bed.

Each night he comes home and slowly starts putting up the shutters, grumbling along the way that he is too old to be climbing to the second story of a house and do I know that there are 78 panels of steel that have to be put up, along with all the tracks in the flooring to bolt the shutters in.  No I didn’t but I will humbly submit that this man worked like a Trojan and I am so appreciative of that. By Friday most of the shutters were up.  We had decided that we were going to stay home and ride out the storm.

On Thursday, the storm starts showing signs shifting west.  So now we have gone from the edge of the storm, to directly in it’s eye.  Not happy here, we have done the eye wall before it is not fun.  So the screening gets tied down on all edges.  The fences get secured on our side and the neighbors side ( we lost both the screening and fences in the last hurricane – Wilma 2005).  All the while Irma is rolling through the Caribbean Islands battering every aspect of the residents lives.  Around Cuba the cone changes yet again and the storm now shifts to the west coast.  We are out of the eye but now we sit on the dirty side of the storm.  That means wind, rain and, oh yes my favorite, tornado.  I freak out about tornado.  That is more scary to me than a hurricane.

Friday I spent as much time as I could (using my office chairs upstairs and my wheelchair downstairs) going from window to window stuffing towels in the window area to stop any water coming in.  Fortunately the shutters prevented that but the one window that we did not have shuttered allowed a lot of water in.  Oh yes, I did not mention we have a set of windows in the upstairs bathroom that does not have shutters, it is too high to reach.

For the first time I also created a safe room in our downstairs bathroom.  That is the only room that does not have external walls. Here were my priorities, camera and lens, back up drives, computer, cell phone, ipad, 3 days change of clothes, 3 days of basic food, and the one case of water that Richard bought, along with Simba.  His crate was in the laundry in case I needed to crate him.  Now you are probably thinking I am freaked out by now.  Ironically not so.  I was calm.  Rich and I chatted about this and there were a number of factors.  One I could not do anything, so it kept me out of the mass hysteria at the grocery store and the gas lines, and two, we do have not kids in the house anymore. So we were at peace.  It will be what it will be and we are going to ride it out.

Hurricane Irma shifted more west and then it went right over the Florida Keys, decimating and devastating so many lives.  As the storm rolled in we “battened down the hatches” and rode it out.  The constant tornado warnings were stressful but overall we had dodged a bullet.  But it was with intense sadness that we have watched the news and seen the devastation in the Florida Keys.  Key West was flooded and homes, boats, trailer homes, and businesses on the various islands have been destroyed.  In many cases there are no homes to go back to.  My heart is burdened for not only the people of the Florida Keys, but to those on the Caribbean Islands and to all those folks who have incurred damage in the path of Hurricane Irma’s travels.  The images I have seen coming out of the Florida Keys is overwhelming and I cannot begin to image how someone begins to clean up their home when there is a boat in their living room.

So my blog today is just a reflection on Key West prior to Hurricane Irma and her relentless path of destruction.

Exploring Key West – I love Key West for it’s laid back, easy going shorts, tee-shirts and flip flops kind of feeling.  There is always an excitement in the area and as the weekend approached things got kind of hectic on the streets.  We were doing our 30 minute walk about on a Friday morning.

Fishing boats were out in the ocean

A lady was selling decorative umbrella’s on the street corner.

A cruise ship was docked in the harbor.  These boats are huge and I felt so insignificant next to it.

Along the waterfront – this is Key West.

Jet ski’s are out in the playground of the ocean

90 Miles to Cuba

A common sight in Key West. I hope they survived the storm surge.

Key West Aquarium – we overlooked some of the display area and I could see a sting ray swimming around.  Not sure how much more there is to the aquarium .

Impromtu photo of a man pushing a piano up the main street in Key West.

Interesting characters of Key West – Key West is famous for their Hemingway cats which I believe have 6 toes instead of 5.

Live music out on the streets and there is nothing nicer than listening to kettle drums.

A resident of Key West hanging out enjoying the flow of visitors and engaging with a few of them.

Iconic Key West – outside the Art Museum

A familiar sight in Key West – Party time!

Time for happy hour or rather our lunch break, beers and calamari.

These are the scenes you will find as a norm in Key West.  I hope that Key West will be up and running again as quickly as possible and have not sustained excessive damage.  I read that the hotel we stayed in had sustained minimal damage and the cruise group that we used said their boats had survived the storm and that they were doing clean up of their areas.

Clean up in the Florida Keys is going to take a long time.  Clean up in the islands is going to take a long time.  Folks are hurting.  Hearts are broken.  Lives are devastated.  If you are able to please consider donating to a well established organization where the majority of the funds received go to the restoration of the area.  There is huge needs all over.  I am extremely grateful that we survived, and I pray that the people who have been so seriously affected by this storm will in time find rest and peace and begin to start their lives again.

In the meantime, as the days move forward we now keep an eye on Tropical Storm Maria who appears to be gaining strength and could well become a hurricane, and Tropical Storm Lee.

Thank you for joining me for this month’s 30 Minutes in Life.  Please take time to visit my friend and fellow blogger Sonia of Sonia Epple Fotografie and see what she has for you this month.   Keep following the circle to see what the other photographers, from the US and around the world,  have shared this month. Don’t forget to leave a little love on their pages.  To see more of Sonia’s work you can go to her Facebook page to check it out.

You can also find me on Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Viewbug and Google+