Another blue hour ending: May 2023
Posted on May 11, 2023
When you read this, I will be walking the streets of Sydney, Australia. A little bit of history, both my fathers parents were Australian born, but both families emigrated to South Africa where my grandmother and grandfather met, married and created their own family. I will not get to where my grandmother was born but I am hoping that I will be able to walk the streets of my grandfather’s birth town.
However, that is not why we are traveling there. In 2020 Richard developed a melanoma, and for the last 2.5 years he has been on immunotherapy. For a while we did not know which way it would go, but as of the last scan things looked good. But it reminded us that he has not seen his family for a good 10 years, and have not seen our nieces for over 23 years. Our nieces have their own families now. Most of all Richard will get to see his mom whom he has not seen for way to many years.
Ironically, his entire family emigrated to Australia, and mine left Australia.
While we are gone I thought I would share another beautiful sunset in the good old Florida, USA. I love silhouettes and on this particular night I managed to get a few.









I loved watching the sun go down, and last of all the blue hour after the sun sets.

I hope you are all having a fantastic day. Think of me, I already picture sore feet. We are going to be walking a lot. I have plotted out a map of Sydney and I cannot wait to see it. In addition, we plan to walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte, and on a different day catch a ferry to Manly. I also get to meet up with a cousin on my dad’s side of the family in Sydney and hopefully Melbourne and meet up with a childhood friend who will fly in from Brisbane. I joked that it seems crazy that we both have to go halfway around the world to meet up again. That is the scatterings of Africa. We are all over the world.
In addition to spending time with family in Melbourne, we will be doing the Great Ocean Road, as a 3 day road trip. I cannot wait to -Port Campbell and see the incredible rock formation. The challenge here will be that Richard hates cities and I love to walk through them and see all the architecture and beautiful buildings. He wants to walk to waterfalls. I’m not saying I don’t like that but I do want a balance of city and surroundings.
Until next time, stay well
Blue Hour: April 2023
Posted on May 1, 2023
It’s another week and another project. This week’s theme was Blue Hour. That is the period just before the sunrises or just after the sun sets. I had a couple of Saturday night but they did not count because they were in the wrong week. So it was back to Loxahatchee National Park on Tuesday evening to see what I could come up with.
Love watching the sun set on the day. It feels like an achievement of sorts. I have survived the day, and survived another day to put it honestly. I am always so conscious that time is limited now. I am at the age where things start to go wrong. I remember growing up and the folks would meet up with friends, and the conversation would be “do you remember so and so…, yes… , well they are dead”. Yikes. I have reached that age. So it is good to get out and celebrate each day.





Finally the blue hour arrived, and I got the image below. I had hoped for more clouds but it is what it is. I definitely got the blue.

As I was walking away down the embankment to the car, I turned around to see what was behind me and spotted this silhouette. I think this may be my blue hour image that I will submit.

Nature is a great place to get out and appreciate the beauty of this world. When the day is tough and the troubles are huge, find somewhere where you can just walk and appreciate the beauty around you. That is what I like to do.
Look out for more sunsets, more Macedonia pics, and Whoo Hoo, in a few days I am heading to Australia for 2 weeks. I know, I know 2 weeks is not enough, but it is all I could convince the other half into taking. Stay well until next time.
30 Minutes In The Life: April 2023
Posted on April 24, 2023
This has been an interesting week. It has been a time of reflection. Two close friends brothers died this past week. A dear friend from one of my study groups lost her husband this week as well. It makes me so grateful to know that I am still alive to see the sun come up and go down each day. I am especially grateful now that we have a toddler in our lives. Luka is our grandson, and I pray that we are around to see a lot more sunrises and sunsets so that we can immerse ourselves in his little life. Time flies and before we know it, he will be a teenager. My friends grandson turned 9 yesterday and it feels like he was a toddler just the other day.
So Saturday I needed to get some sunsets for a project I was working on. (look for it at the end). However, Luka was having a sleepover and so I asked Richard to come along with me so that he could watch him while I photographed the sunset. He ran all over the place and was a sweaty child by the time we left. We had to have another bath when we got home.
It was good to see them both out and about. As I talk about gratitude. I am so grateful that Richard has recovered so well from his melanoma scare. Two and a half years of immunotherapy and he is doing well. I am so glad he is around to pour into this little guys life. Oh I know the picture is not perfect but it is hard to catch a moving child in the dark when your settings are on the sunset.

That said I was there to catch the sunset. I needed to get my creative project done by midnight Sunday. The theme for the project was Dreamscapes and I had to use images taken during the week. Dreamscapes is not my idea of an easy task. I managed to capture Luka sleeping on Friday, and then I combined the image with two of these sunset images. Pulled birds from another image, and threw in a moon just to finish it off. More about that later in the blog.
The sunset was stunning and there was enough cloud to make it more interesting.






The theme Dreamscape was a challenge for me. As I mentioned there are a number of layers to the composite. First I create the swirls using three different sunset images and manipulating them in photoshop. Then I added Luka sleeping. After that I added the birds and cleaned up around each one of them. Lastly I added the moon.
I tried to create a composite of light and dark with the purple reflecting the rem stage. The moon is still out but the orange of the sun is starting to come out and the dark is starting to fade. That twilight zone. Quite often Luka will laugh while he is asleep or smile. I often wonder what he is thinking about.

Going back to my opening paragraph. We are not guaranteed to see the sun come up or the sun set. If you have not told your loved ones that you love them, now (sooner rather than later) is the time to do so.
30 Minutes in the Life is a small group of bloggers who get together once a month to put thought to paper and share on the happenings of their lives. Take some time to follow the link to see what my friend and very talented photographer Lupji of Lupji Photography has to share.
30 Minutes in the Life: March 2023
Posted on March 27, 2023
Walking in the wetlands is always one of my happy moments and today is no different from any of the other time. I love the peace and tranquility of my walk, despite the speed walkers and the camera groups and sometimes the crowds. I tend to switch off and focus on why I am there.
Getting out clears the cobwebs, opens my eyes, helps me to appreciate that there is more to life than me. There is beauty that surrounds me and it is a joy to see.

The simplicity of a leaf on a railing makes me smile. This is one of go to styles of photography. I love the creaminess of the image. Today I did not get to see too many brightly colored leaves, given that we are coming out of winter, but sometimes that is okay because it is real.

A Little Blue Heron who was confident enough to allow me to get closer to it than it may have liked. I love the feather action in the wind.

Fir fronds lying on the railing still give a very winterish feeling.

I may be wrong but this bird does not look like a Grackle, rather it looks distinctly like an Indian Myna. How do I know that, I grew up with Indian Myna by the boatloads. Grackles are common in Florida. Indian Myna are common in South Africa.

Sometimes its the random things that catch my attention. This case it is a random spider web of leaves and bits and pieces hanging by a thread attached to something my eye does not capture.

A Yellow Rumped Warbler flittered around my view. I don’t capture these little birds too often so I was grateful to see it settle for a few minutes before taking off again. It was long enough for me to capture the pose.


One of my favorite birds is this Little Green Heron. Green you may ask? Absolutely that is it’s name but I am with you because I have yet to see green in it’s coloring. That said, this little bird is a wader and can hold this pose for the longest time as it watches for it’s food.

I was doing my best to get down and low with this little Palm Warbler when someone, something not sure which triggered flight mode. I caught it just as it was about to take off.

The Palm Warbler above is the same one in this picture. It flew into the trees and hopped from branch to branch and it took me a good deal of patience to be able to capture this image. I love the image but I am not crazy about the big yellow blob which is a leaf.

Further around on my walk I came across this colorful leaf. I could not resist taking it’s picture. I always laugh when people see me taking a photograph and then remark “Oh it’s a leaf”. Come on, this is not just a leaf. This is beauty in creation and they just don’t see it.

As I have mentioned Iguana are my friends. I love them. I love their make up. I love their coloring. I love their attitude when you get to close and it flaps it’s neck skin to let you know that it is not happy. They are prehistoric looking and so darn cool. But that is me. Iguana are not popular in Florida. Iguana do not do well over the winter season. On cold days their body temperature can go to frozen mode and they go stiff and fall out of trees. Some to the ground and unfortunately some into water, where they will drown. Those on the ground tend to thaw out as the temperature warms up and then they carry on with life.

The Grebe is super sensitive to people around. For me, getting a photo of this little bird is an achievement. They are super fast, and spend a fair bit of time underwater and will come up so far away from where you expect them to be. This little one had been bathing and so I was able to snap it before it ducked away again.

I happened to find another Palm Warbler in one of the random trees along the walk way.

As I arrived at a water hole, I was surprised to see a host of Glossy Ibis and a couple of Great Egret. The day was cool and this Great Egret looked like it was cold to be honest.

Glossy Ibis are either boring looking or look stunning. When the sun shines on their wings it changes the whole look of the bird completely. They go from a boring looking brown to the pearly colored wing that changes color dependent on the angle it catches the wings.

Talking wings, doesn’t that wing span and it’s intricate formation just amaze you. I am always in awe of nature and it’s creation. Each feather is exactly in the right place so that when they come to fly there is no question that they are going to take off.
Nature is a great place to get out and appreciate the beauty of this world. When the day is tough and the troubles are huge, find somewhere where you can just walk and appreciate the beauty around you. That is what I like to do.
30 Minutes in the Life is a small group of bloggers who get together once a month to put thought to paper and share on the happenings of their lives. Take some time to follow the link to see what my friend and very talented photographer Lupji of Lupji Photography has to share.
30 Minutes in the Life” February 2023: Tikves Winery
Posted on February 27, 2023
I decided to go back to Macedonia for my 30 Minutes in the Life. I have neglected editing my images. Today’s trip is to Tikves Winery in Macedonia. It was part of our drive down to Okrid. If I recall correctly our trip was about 3 hours of driving time to reach Okrid. Like we do here in the USA, we love to visit wineries. It is fun to see what they look like and to stop and have some food to eat and taste some of wine that has been made there.
Tikves winery dates back to 1885 and a long tradition of wine making. Hot summers and cold winters are the perfect climate for the growing of the grapes, and Macedonia definitely fits into those categories. One of the days was 105 F and I know that in winter it gets super cold.
The first few pics are of our drive to the winery. The countryside really reminds me of the Midlands of South Africa. Lush and green and endless.





Tikves was set in a small town about the 3rd of a way through our trip and if I remember correctly a good portion of the inhabitants of the town worked at the winery. Daniel had booked a tour and we were given access to the winery where we parked and waited for our tour guide. Our tour guide only spoke Macedonian and so we had to rely on Daniel to translate, and he was not the best translator lol. He chatted with the tour operator and forgot to tell us what had been said. First we would walk the outside of the premises. While it may look big it really only took us about 10 minutes to visit the outside. Of course, I was always dragging behind everyone because there is so much to see.









And then we were heading inside the building and down underground. The air was cool inside. I was impressed with all the vats near that restaurant, that have the wine pumped into them. It is quite a process.





The tour through the underground area was fairly quick. It is not a huge winery, but it was very interesting. Last stop was the restaurant. Through the doors below we entered a double story restaurant area. We were the only guests at the time. We selected to have some salads, cheese and meat dishes along with a white and a red wine. One thing about Macedonia is that they have only two types of cheese as far as I could tell. A salty feta type cheese, or a soft gouda type cheese.
Oh and I fell in love with the stained glass windows.









It was a nice stop over in our trip. Back in the car we are now on the the road to Okrid, where we will spend 3 days at the Lake and touring the area. Look out for more blogs on Macedonia coming up.
30 Minutes in the Life is a small group of bloggers who get together once a month to put thought to paper and share on the happenings of their lives. Hopefully soon I will get back to rest of the Macedonia images, but in the meantime, take some time to follow the link to see what my friend and very talented photographer Lupji of Lupji Photography has to share this month.
30 Minutes in the LIfe: January 2023
Posted on January 30, 2023
I have confessed many times over the last 3 years that I have struggled to find my groove and to get back into the passion of photography. With covid slowing and in many cases shutting places down, along with Richard’s melanoma journey, and Mr Luka taking all my time, there seems little time to get out and do photography. However, the end of this past year and into January, my son-in-law’s mother has been visiting from Macedonia. Ljubica and I have done a whole lot of getting around and it involved me taking photo’s while she pushed Luka. Of course, he had to go with. I feel like I may have got the kick start I need for 2023.
Earlier this month I had time to myself and I decided to pick up my 100-600mm lens and go for a walk at Green Cay Wetlands. I have missed getting out with the lens but it is too heavy to carry and push a pram and try and keep Luka happy.
Today is all about getting back into nature, to re-orienting my head and taking deep breaths knowing that there are things I can change and things I cannot.
Nature is an interesting source of photography. Some shots you have control over and you can set it up as you want it, and other shots are on the fly.

This Little Blue Heron while wild, seemed quite comfortable with people getting up close to it. Sadly in the wetlands you have those people who are there to walk, without consideration of what is around them. I don’t mind people walking, I wish I did it better, however, when you see a bird sitting on the railing and folks trying to take photo’s, slow down and enjoy this incredible bird, as you go past. That way you do not scare the bird away. This bird allowed me to get fairly close but it does help to have a bigger lens so that there is no need to be on top of it.

I love birds feet and I especially love this kind of photo where the object is in focus and the rest is a soft blur.

While it is still winter we are starting to see signs of spring (which of course means the hot summer is not far behind. Although I am not going to complain too much as I will get two winters this year, as we head to Australia in May). What I love the the beginning of new life, while we are still seeing signs of old life hanging out. The lens also creates some awesome bokeh for the background.

I loved this particular image because of the contrast of the leaves. The brown underside stands out fairly starkly against the mottled green of the upper side of the leaves. What also fascinated me when editing was the background kind of reflected the contrast of the fern.

I don’t typically catch small birds but for some reason today I was lucky enough to do so. This little bird is called a Palm Warbler. These tiny birds are fast and move around so quickly that I was lucky to catch as many as I did today.

This Yellow Rumped Warbler is slightly different to the Palm Warbler in coloring. I happened to spot it in the tree eating some kind of berry. Fortunately it stayed on the branch long enough for me to capture it’s image. The differences I see seem to be the stripped effect on the wings and body and the yellow on the wings.

Of course, we have the controversial Iguana. I personally love them. They are so prehistoric and so incredible in design. Most people don’t like them because they are an invasive species to Florida. I see them eating the grass in the back garden. I am good with that. As spring arrives so does mating season, and along with that some interesting colors in the Iguana. They can go from muted greens and browns to bright orange, which is pretty cool to look at.

Along with changes in color, the birds start displaying changes as well. The Anhinga get this really cool color around their eyes. Both male and female (above and below) show this distinct marking during breeding time.


Nature includes leaves, new and old, and I love to find leaves and photograph them with this narrow sliver of focus. I just love the blur around it.

This cute little bird is ironically called the Little Green Heron. To date I am still trying to find the Green part but it is a beautiful bird all the same. It can stand still for the longest time and just when you about to give up it will dive for it’s food.

Another sign that spring is on the way. I love the unfurling ferns. The beginning of new life. So symbolic of new beginnings and so many new opportunities.

Today there were about 50 Glossy Ibis that had descended into this watery area. The Glossy Ibis is known as such due to their pearlescent feathers. Dependent on which way the sun is shining on the feathers you either get a plain brown bird or you get this pearl effect of colors. When the sun catches the feathers at the right angle they are stunning.


Last but not least on this walk about, is a critter that I really do not like. In fact I would go as far as to say they creep me out. Spiders are just not my thing. It may go back to being traumatized by a friend chasing me with a giant spider on the end of the stick, or the bamboo spiders we used to get in South Africa. Or it may even be the fact that I know a couple of people, my son included, who have been bitten by spiders and it has taken months of doctors visits, removing dead skin, packing the bite with antibiotics before the wound actually healed up. However, I am in awe of the incredible architecture spiders create. Who builds an amazing home on 4 twigs. Spiders are good when it comes to that, and I respect that, so long as they stay away from me.
30 Minutes in the Life is a small group of bloggers who get together once a month to put thought to paper and share on the happenings of their lives. Hopefully soon I will get back to rest of the Macedonia images, but in the meantime, take some time to follow the link to see what my friend and very talented photographer Kristina of Hello Olivia Photography has to share this month.
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