sharleenstuartAnother 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.
Share Six: December 2022: Color
Posted on December 6, 2022
Color is our theme for Share Six this month and I grateful for all ability to see Color around me. The world is a beautiful place. Color comes in so many diverse areas of our lives, from sunrises and sunsets, to flora and fauna, to places we visit. There is so many opportunities to experience color in our lives.
Wherever you are in the world and whatever you celebrate, I wish you a blessed time. For me it is about Christmas, and celebrating the birth of Christ. It’s about family time. It’s about little Luka tearing into his presents. It’s about quality over quantity. It’s about sitting at the table over a meal and enjoying the celebration. This year we will get to celebrate with Daniel’s mom as well. She will be flying in to the US in 2 weeks and I am so excited for her.
Stay safe, stay well, enjoy the festivities. We look forward to seeing you in 2023.
This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented ladies in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Kathrine of Cobert Photography is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Instagram page. Definitely check out her incredible art.
Come and share your images to Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_color
Share Six: August 2022: Travel
Posted on August 6, 2022
I chose the them {Travel} this month because I knew I would only be arriving home from 12 days in Macedonia four days before we were due to go live.
Travel plans to Macedonia started way back in 2019, but circumstances kept postponing it. In December 2018, Amy & Daniel got married in our back garden, however, none of Daniel’s family could be with us. So Amy & Daniel planned to go to Macedonia and have a reception there for his family in 2020. Well we all know that covid happened and that put paid to any traveling. 2021 was the year from hell, and Richard’s health played a big role in us doing anything. In addition Amy was pregnant and was not able to travel. So 2022 comes around and the kids are determined to go back home to Daniel’s family and they wanted us to go with. This would be the time to have his family celebrate their wedding and also have Luka baptized. We would spend almost a week in his home town before heading out on a road trip to see the rest of Macedonia as best we could.
Below is a short synopsis of the traveling we did. Details will follow in additional posts.
Macedonia was a beautiful experience that we may never have done if it was not for Amy and Daniel asking us to go with. I am grateful that we got to meet Daniel’s mom, brother and sister in law, and their daughter, as well as extended family on both his mothers and father’s side, his groomsmen and friends. We also got to experience some of his culture and understand Daniel a little better. Added to that we got to see a fair bit of the countryside. Hopefully Daniels mother will be able to come out later this year and we will be able to reciprocate the hospitality. Today I get to try to make two different macedonian dishes, kebapi and borek.
Travel rounds out your understanding of the world and life as it is lived by others. It gives you a better sense of knowledge and helps you to be more tolerant of different ways of life. Travel broadens your horizons and gives gives you the opportunity to meet new people, taste new foods, and drink new drinks. Travel is something I wish I could do more often. Next on the list is a visit to family, part of my family history and a place we have always wanted to visit, Australia.
This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented ladies in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Janet Douglas is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Instagram page. Definitely check out her incredible art.
Come and share your images Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_travel
Share Six: June 2022: Light
Posted on June 6, 2022
Well this month has passed and I have done one walk. I have struggled to get out on my free day as I have had Luka and for the past 6 weeks he has been sick. Last weekend when I did plan to go out, I ended up with him spending 3 days in our home. Amy had bronchitis and she did not feel at all well, Daniel was working night shift, and honestly we did not want Luka to catch something else. As it was I took him to the doctor for a check up on his cough and discovered he had another ear infection, and subsequently received another antibiotic. Poor guy spent a good bit of time in my arms.
So I looked through what I had not edited this past year and pulled images for light from there.
This image caught my attention because of the bokeh and the light shining through the wings. This poor Anhinga has clearly had a run in with something, probably an aligator, given the loss of feather. I have to wonder how it is flying to be honest.
Whenever I go to shoot the sunset, I always take my lensbaby, but for some reason I never pull it out. This was one of the light images that I had not edited 2 months ago. This is my favorite spot to get some nice pond reflections. What I like about this image is the reflection of the son on the leaves of the reeds.
Out in the garden and just after the rain. The light was dullish but I was able to capture the waterdrop at the tip of the leaf.
Out on my walk recently I spotted this Iguana in pockets of light. He was on a berm surrounded by trees and there are odd spots that get lit up along the edges. The Iguanas are in mating season and this guy clearly has been fighting as he has a bloody spot on his back that looks like a claw snagged him.
Sunsets are my favorite and sometimes they are average and sometimes they light up the sky. I loved the different shades of light in this image.
Moody kind of light found along a secluded walkway. This are my favorite kinds of images.
This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented ladies in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Janet from @wiredtothemoon next is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Instagram pages. Definitely check out her incredible art.
Come and share your images Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_light
30 minutes in the life: February 2022
Posted on February 28, 2022
How did we get to the end of February already. Clearly time is flying. At least I am having fun. As I think I mentioned sometime back, I kind of lost my desire and energy to go out and take photographs. I am trying to be a bit more determined, but Mr Luka is taking up a good deal of my time. Three weeks ago when I had him I thought I would take him for a walk. That wasn’t the worst experience, but it could have gone a lot better. I did not get the images I would have got on my own. In all honesty I just wanted to get out and walk. We are going to revisit this option, perhaps in the coming weeks but maybe a smaller park.
Two weeks ago, with some determination, I took my camera along. I packed in my zoom lens, my wide angle lens. my 28-135mm and my Lensbaby sweet 35. I did not pull any of them out at the house, but when I came to leave I weighed up going to the shop or going to the sunset. The sunset won. I was able to see some “sunset” friends again and just relax and laugh and enjoy the moment. Honestly you just have to grab that “happy moment” where you can
I always like to stop at the “pond” first because very often I will get nice reflections across the water. This particular evening I was looking for a depth of field image so spent some time playing around with the branches of the tree. Ultimately it was not the image I used .
Heading down to the waters edge I always love silhouettes. Normally I try to get people but there were not too many in the right position.
There are all sorts of critters around at this time of night and I am always on the look out. The picture above was the tail end effect of a duck diving. See two below for the same duck looking at it’s refelction.
I had really got there just before the sun started to set. Added to that there was this thick band of clouds that the sun got behind and stayed for a while.
Fly by’s are always fun and the question is, how many images you can take of birds flying by. If you look at my drive I took about 30. At times the grackles do their murmuration and that is such a treat to watch. They were out this evening but unfortunately not playing in the direct sunset set.
The clouds to the side of the actual sunset were stunning and I kept moving my camera back to them. I hoped that the final sunset would infuse them with color.
Looking directly at the sun as it emerged for a brief second before setting, gave me the opportunity to get this lens reflection.
While the birds were flying by the duck about was playing in the water. At it’s own risk because there are gators hanging out.
I have learned through error, not to walk away when the sun has set, because very often the next 15 minutes could change the outlook of your images. As the sun set below the horizon the sky came alive and the colors were amazing.
Cruising in the sunset takes on a whole new meaning in the Everglades and this guy was hanging out. I was up on the high road looking down on the low road, so I had a better view of the gator paddling along in the water. I kept thinking “lady if that gator comes up where you are sitting at the very edge of the water, some parts of you are going to be missing”. Lucky for her he did not swim her way, but these guys are lurkers and quickly slip under water. I would not want to be the one sitting on the edge of the water at sunset.
My friend and I hung out chatting until the very end of the sky show and were super glad that we had done so.
I love the beautiful sunsets that I am privileged to view in South Florida. The Everglades is out west location for doing that. I can do it from home but there are trees in the way so it is very much sky and no horizon. The Everglades gives me the view of the setting sun and that is a real treat for me.
Thank you for joining us, 30 Minutes in the Life is a circle blog and we have some very talented photographers in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month, Lupji Photography is up next, and I am hoping that he shares his new addition to his family. Congratulations to you and your family.
Share Six: September 2021: Quote
Posted on September 6, 2021
Can you believe it is September? A few more weeks and life is going to change again. I will go from being a parent to a grandparent. It is so exciting and a little stressful as well. Having a baby during covid makes my heart beat a little faster.
With all this going on there has not been a lot of photography done. This year has run me down to be honest. But we did try to get a 2 day away in before the baby comes along and Richard and I traveled up to St Augustine. A place we used to visit regularly but have not been for a few years. We did take a detour last year on the way to Georgia and it was so busy we kind of by passed and went away from the historic district.
It turns out that this month Lynne chose a quote and it work perfectly with our St Augustine trip.
“My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport”
— Steve McCurry
We love to travel. We have been doing the odd get away. Richard has been a little nervous taking his vacation because he doesn’t know whether he will need his vacation. I on the other hand am conscious that I still have 3 weeks vacation to take.
So we hit the road and 4.5 hours later we booked into a quaint little Bed and Breakfast right in the historic district of St Augustine. It was a 5 second walk to the main street and all the restaurants. A 10 minute walk to the cruise. This trip we did something different, something that we have never done in St Augustine. We took in the winery, the distillery and the brewery. And that was all before lunch. Oops, I needed food. Seriously though, they only give you tiny little glasses which are half full. But if you are heading to St Augustine I would recommend you check them out.
Richard loves the sunset cruises and so that was our goal for the first evening. We quickly grabbed dinner at Harry’s and then headed down to the quay to wait on the cruise. The weather was iffy to be honest and I was not optimistic that I would get anything worth while but I did manage capture a few images I was happy with.
When I looked at this picture I thought that Richard looked like he had been out in the sun all day. This is one of the side effects of the immunotherapy. His skin turns really red. The other side effect is that he gets a very itchy rash.
The boat trip was just a intracoastal trip and not out to sea, but I do enjoy seeing the under carriage of different bridges and this was was not too bad.
The company on the cruise was quite fun, and very chatty which made the slow moving boat a lot more interesting, and I managed to get a few sunset images as well.
We were fortunate that we made it back to land dry and we were able to get back to the guest house and to relax.
Day 2 was a marathon of walking. This was our booze walk, if you can call it that. We headed up through Flagler college, which is an incredibly beautiful university in St Augustine. This was the first time I had actually walked through the college.
On the far side of the buildings grounds, there is a fence that looks like it has been made out of old cannon balls. St Augustine’s history is that this is the oldest city in Florida, originally Spanish founded and occupied in 1565. St Augustine has a really interesting fort that you can visit. Richard would try and find a bit of shade while waiting for me. Me on the other hand was just distracted by all there is to photograph.
With it’s history, St Augustine is well known for it cemeteries and we passed one I had not seen before. Just to the side of the bench I see a little squirrel digging deeply for it food.
Our first stop was San Sebastian winery. They gave us a tiny tasting glass and we made our way around tasting wines at various stations. Some I liked and some I didn’t. We each have our own palate. What I did walk away with was a really smooth bottle of sherry. We also decided to buy some cheese and crackers and have our own little cheese and wine evening in the gardens of our Bed and Breakfast.
Next stop was the St Augustine Distillery where we got to taste, gin, rum, vodka and bourbon. I am a rum person and it was pretty good. The distillery has an eating place upstairs but we had one more stop before we planned to eat, so it was back to walking again until we arrived at Dog Rose Brewing Co.
I am also a beer person, but I tend to stick to something like Heineken, whereas Richard likes IPA. So he is at home at these different brewing companies and I find myself really restricted. When we were in Naples I discovered that a larger kind of works for me, and so I asked to taste a larger at Dog Rose Brewing Co, and I was not disappointed. In fact, after all that walking the first beer went down super fast and the second I took my time.
Last stop was a lunch garden before heading back to put our feet up and relax and catch up on the highlights of the Tour de France.
St Augustine is a great place to visit if you are looking for history. There is so many different areas to seek out that we did not visit this time around. It is definitely worth stopping at if you are heading to Florida.
Just a reminder if you are hitting Florida, remember the suntan lotion and a big floppy hat. It is hot here and you want to take care not to get seriously burned. Richard is dealing with the results of plenty of sun and not enough sunscreen. Melanoma is not something to play with.
This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented ladies in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly artistic friend Lynne of Lynne Grant Photography is up next is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Facebook page or Instagram page. Definitely take some time to check her out.
Come and share your images Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_summersun.
30 Minutes in the Life: April 2021
Posted on April 26, 2021
It’s April, and we have been living under a cloud since mid February, and practicing day to day living. I have not vocalized what the the cloud is, just mentioned that Richard was in hospital. The black cloud we are living under is Stage 4 Metastasized Melanoma. For us this came out of the blue. Richard had been diagnosed with a melanoma in 1987 and had had it removed, a skin graft done, radiation etc. One year later he was back at the doc and they had to remove his lymph nodes. For the next 5 years he was observed and after 5 years, he was NED – no evidence diagnosed. For the last 34 years we have lived as we always had, on the coast, in the sun, paddleboarding, kayaking, camping, suntanning and changing color. We both love the outdoors, and spend a lot of time in the sun. The sun makes me feel good, a color change makes me feel like a new person.
The news we got on February 15th took a lot of processing. We are told that sometimes melanoma can spill to the organs and go dormant for years. On finding out this news you go through stages of disbelief, anger, fear, acceptance, and what’s next. What’s next is 2-3 years of immunotherapy every 3 weeks. He had a bad reaction to the first round and he ended up back in the emergency room after I called 911. Round 2 has gone well. The only side effect is a rash. Tomorrow he will have round 3.
I will confess to be hovering, checking in, wanting to have him leave me notes if he goes out. I think it is driving him nuts. But the reality is that I am worried about the “what if”.
Melanoma is one of the deadly cancers. Metastasized melanoma, means that it has gone from your skin, to your lymph nodes and organs. Richard has melanoma in his small intestine and in the lung. Stat rates are not great, but I believe we have a mighty God, and there is power in prayer. Richard has a multitude of people praying for him, for which I am very grateful.
Day to day living means you continue to work, but time off becomes time together. We are starting to say we need to begin checking off our bucket list. Despite Covid, we are going to start doing things together that takes us away, and out of town.
The other night I suggested that he join me to watch the sun set. He decided he would go walk along the edge of the canal and get his exercise in while I photographed the setting sun.
It was nice to arrive and see old familiar faces and to be able to chat to them. I have been concerned about going out for indefinite periods of time. So this was good for me. One of my good friends just recently lost her husband to cancer, so for me it was reassuring to see her smiling face and to see that she is looking so well.
It was also a good opportunity to meet new folks and to learn a little bit more about them. Richard returned just as the sun was setting and joined us as the sun went down. Chatted a little bit before we left. I know that these are the kind of evenings I want to share with him.
We have a bucket list that we want to get to ticking off. So in the immanent future we are lookin at a trip to Naples in Florida and not in Italy (unfortuantely). Richard would like to go for another sunset cruise, and I am always up for catching the setting sun. As soon as Australia opens up for visitors, Richard has said we need to go. He wants to see his mother and siblings. I have family over there that I would like to see as well.
So much has to change in what and how we do things. Eating habit have had to go almost to the side of vegetarian, lots and lots of my favorite (ugh) green veggies. One of the biggest things to go is sugar. Cancer apparently loves sugar.
Day to day, that is what we now know. Day to day becomes your visual image. While we will plan ahead, we are also limited to the medication regime and the side effects.
So today is my 30 minutes with my husband watching the sun set, and praying that the medication does what it needs to do. If you are a sunseeker like we have been, please consider using sunscreen that provides a significant cover, watch out for odd looking moles, and educate yourself. Australia, Florida, California are listed as the top 3 places for melanoma. I am going to add South Africa to that listed because where we grew up the climate is exactly the same. See a dermatologist and get yourself checked out. This was the first thing I did since Richard came home. I am good, but the peace of mind is so worth it.
Thank you for joining me for another 30 Minutes in the Life. This is a circle blog. It’s a small circle this month. Please follow the link to see what my very talented friend, Janet Crouch Photography, has to share this month.
Share Six: February 2021: Silver Lining
Posted on February 6, 2021
There are so many {Silver Linings} when I look back over the past year. Sure Covid is the pits. Wearing a mask is not fun. Not being able to hang out with your friends is super disappointing. However, slowing down has been good. Working from home even better. Not having to wake up early and drive an hour to get to work, is probably the best for me. But how do I put those into photographs?
Another {Silver Lining} is being available for the kids. Amy finally sold her condo (that is another whole story of delays and ridiculous events) but in preparation for the sale, they moved in with us, along with Snow and Rory, their two rescue cats. We are now a house of 4 adults, 4 rescue cats who don’t always see eye to eye. and one rescue bird that screeches all day. That said, it is good having them here. Richard has not been well the past 2 months and so it is another two people to talk to him, and help me to remember to not get stressed out and ask to many questions. Cameron was a silver lining when it came to moving Amy’s contents of her apartment to storage. He traveled 2 hours to come and help move furniture and was a tremendous support to us. Richard was just not up to moving heavy furniture
There are so many little things, but I was challenged a little bit on how to capture them all. In Florida, during covid, you are still able to go to the beach. While I am not actively going to the beach in the day time, I have been when there are limited people there. Amy told me that she was going to the beach one evening to do yoga and watch the Wolf Moon come up. I managed to convince Richard to go to a different beach to do the same. Here was my {Silver Lining}. The beach is open for us. In the evening there is not too many people. While the whole of the USA above Florida feels like the artic tundra, we could still go to the beach. The second part of the {Silver Lining} is that my theme for 52 Frames was Horizon, and the credit was for breaking the rule. I was really looking forward to the moon rising over the ocean.
So I talked Richard into going. He tried to talk me into going to watch the sunset. But no, the moon had it’s appeal. So I packed some cheese and crackers and a small container of wine, and headed off to meet him at work. From there we drove down to the beach.
Let’s talk about love. It is freezing cold, the wind is blowing, Richard hates, hates, hates the cold, and here he is sitting on the beach so that I am not there alone at night. Got to love the commitment here. We got there a little early and found a V in the sand dunes and huddled back in there to try and stay out of the wind. Below is my take on {Silver Lining}, a blustery day at the beach.
There were not too many people on the beach. I could probably count them on one hand. I am sure most of them had the same idea as I did. We all wanted to watch the giant moon come up over the ocean. While I was hanging out I took my 52 Frames image below.
Unfortunately, this was our view. The clouds formation just got bigger and bigger, and so we could not see the moon coming up to start with, and just when I got a glimpse of it emerging another cloud came over. I finally sent Richard back to the car, and waited another 10 minutes to no avail before I called it quits.
The plus side in all of this was I did manage to get one image of the sunset, which I will add looked beautiful driving home.
When I finally got home, I hung out in the driveway until the moon cleared and I was able to get an image of the full moon, before the clouds moved back across to cover it up. Just an aside, the moon reminds me of an orange. I have noticed this before when I have taken photos that there is this circle towards the right hand side, and then what appears to be lines of some sort spanning out from that circle. I have to wonder what that really is, besides my imagination.
I will confess that it was good to be home and inside out of the wind. That started a week of cold weather. The last couple of days have been windy and cold. Cold for this African born South Floridian. Today my fingers were like icicles. Not cold relative to what is happening up north though I am sure, and my heart goes out to all that are experiencing the snow and freezing cold weather.
I hope that you enjoy the {Silver Lining} theme. This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented ladies in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly artistic friend Lynne of Lynne Grant Photography is up next. I would encourage to have a look at what she has to offer. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Facebook page or Instagram page.
Come and share your images Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_silverlining
30 Minutes in the Life: January 2021: Sunset
Posted on January 25, 2021
So, January is practically over. It has been a tumultuous start to the year, just when I thought things were going to be better for all of us. Some days I just need to get away from it all. For the most part I am hibernating in my office working fortunately. Aside from the virus, and the political stuff, my daughter and her husband packed up their apartment in preparation for it being sold, and along with their 2 cats, moved into our house. So we are a family of 4 adults, 4 cats and 1 bird. My Ms Moo is not a happy cat right now. She is scared of her shadow and now Amy’s two cats are stalking her. She is in hiding most of the time. Snow has also taking to staring down the bird.
In addition, I joined 52 Frames. So this is my 4th project 52 for the year. I feel like my goal so far is to get out and take the photo’s I need for each week. This weeks theme was water. There is a great pond up at the national park that I love to take photos at. So Thursday evening I packed up 5 lens (17-40 mm, 28-135 mm, 70-300 mm, 150-600 mm & Lensbaby Sweet 135) and I headed up to the park to check out the owl, take photo’s of the pond and watch the sunset. While our property backs up to the edge of the Everglades there is no access into the area from our home. We are also separated by two small canals.
In the end my 52 Frames image was taken at the sunset and I will post it here as it is the only image in black and white.
The owl was high up in the tree so it is really hard to see him that well. The female is in the nest and she seems to sit behind the main part of the tree. This was the best I could get of him.
It always fascinates me how the the setting sun changes so much. I started out at the pond and the light was this golden brown color.
I headed down to the water line at the edge of the Everglades and I really did not think this was going to be a great evening. The cloud was thick and low and I was not going to bet the full sun. It felt dark and sort of dingy for a sunset. I also did not realize that I had moved my FStop to 9. Obviously I must have done it up near the owl. I started out with the Lensbaby Sweet 35. One of my P52’s is to use the Lensbaby Optics that are taking up space in my lens drawer.
From here on out it was a case of changing lens to get wide angle, a bit closer, much closer and super close. One of my favorite things that typically happen at sunset is the birds flying by. Quite often, although it did not happen this evening, you get to watch the murmuration of the grackles and that is a beautiful dance in the sky. Below is a flock of Ibis flying by.
People aside, we often get a number of different species, below is the Great Blue Heron.
Fly by’s happen fast and you have to keep watching. Below is a larger flock of Ibis, all heading south. I would love to know where that land up each evening. I have no idea what bird is in the second image below, but chances are it was a slow moving Ibis.
Grackles will fly into the area in the hundreds. On Thursday there were not that many but I was so glad I had brought up with beast with me to get in super close.
What was pretty neat was that the Grackles on the edge of the water were taking a bath at sunset. Hence the first image and the water drops.
As the sun got lower the sky got more reddish orange and really intense.
More Ibis below as the sun is setting. From the silhouette, the birds in the second image look like a flock of cattle egret.
At this point I kind of figured the sun was done, and the mosquito were going to be out shortly, so I headed back to my car. I could not resist turning around to take a silhouette.
Halfway done the ramp, I discovered my friend walking up. She told me not to leave, she wanted to talk to me, and she convinced me that the final rays would get better. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. This time it certainly did. The sky lit up and I was so glad that she told me to stay.
Nothing like kayaking at sunset in a alligator infested water. Oh yes, there are often alligators swimming in the water.
Finally the mosquito’s got to much for us and we headed back to the car. I managed to capture the last silhouette before diving into my car, with a couple of mosquito for company. Nothing like being bitten all the way home.
The Florida Everglades is a grassy, slow moving river, a natural marshland, which is habitat to hundreds of animals. There are various different different areas to the Everglades. There are the mangroves at the coast, the sawgrass marshlands and the pine flatwoods. You will find endangered species like manatee, American crocodile, and the Florida Panther.
This particular park, that I go to, has walking trails, and it would not be uncommon to have an alligator cross the trail in front of you. I recently saw Turkey Vulture eating a dead animal. There is a lot of birdlife if you get out and walk, and the owls have come in to nest. Two weeks ago there was a pair of mating Sandhill Cranes. There are also Bobcat in the park.
The walking in the area is great. I managed to get out and do a two mile walk but I was constantly watching for Alligator on the edge of the banks. I didn’t see Alligator but I did see a great big iguana. Unlike the wetlands, here we are on the same level as the Alligator.
When the bushes behind out house were cut short we used to be able to see the deer running along the edge of the Everglades past our home.
The park is great for walking, however, my this is by far my favorite spot to go and watch the sunset.
Thank you for joining me for 30 Minutes in the Life. I would encourage you to take some time to visit my very talented friend Stacy of Threadbarems. You will definitely love what she shares. I am always inspired with what she has to offer.
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