Thursday, November 29, 2018

Catching up in Naples

Have not forgotten everyone although I'm sure it seems like it. Not really great excuses, although I'm trying very hard to finish writing my book. It's on self care and self healing as a little hint to whet your interest. I'll give a report when I'm closer to publishing. Honestly, time has just zoomed by and poof, I'm very late.

Heron - a good luck charm for our family always
Egret
Woodstork - ugly on land beautiful in flight
Maybe a red throated grebe?  Never seen one before
I think a red tail hawk but the lighting did some strange things
My collection of bird photos for the last couple weeks. Some are here year round but some are winter only or not supposed to be here at all, as in the grebe...

More beach action of course. It starts off with almost no other people and by the time the big family crowds come in I'm out. More dolphins sighted but boy, they are hard to catch on camera.

The sunrises around here are amazing. It takes exactly the right timing though, 5 minutes too late and I've missed it. And another rainbow!

This was a happy early morning walk surprise. I hadn't seen an otter in a very long while but he was not especially happy to see me. Did you know otters hiss?

Orchid tree bloom
Tis all for now. I will make every effort to be back sooner rather than later.

Friday, November 9, 2018

Ahhh the beach, the sun, the sand

Appreciating all that is the beach and tropics here in Florida. It has gotten busy here and there are lots of signs and activities that have the welcome back theme. Yup, I definitely qualify for the "snowbird" status.

Net fishing for little bait fish. It seemed to be a lot of work, and the man spent a full hour collecting fish and fending off the birds. They clearly knew what this activity was all about.

It was a mighty fine day at the beach with a dolphin sighting thrown in.  No red tide, if you've heard of that, which was a big problem this past summer while I was away. It has resurfaced north and south of us so it may show up yet. It's a nasty red looking algae that affects people's breathing and allergies. It apparently affected the number of visitors to Naples this summer even though the area was barely affected. The tourists lumped all the coastal beaches together.

Beautiful rainbow. I don't see them here in Naples very often. It happened on my walk on my birthday. Happy birthday to me!

Start with sunrise and end with sunrise. This was taken around the area that is called the preserve in our master community. There are many acres left untouched so it's quite wild, something if you know me, I relish. And so I got to see a creature I've never seen before. A bobcat. I was in the car, not walking, so did not get a photo. Too bad. Amazing that surrounded by suburbia this area clearly has its own ecosystem. The community is 25 years old so I'm sure that's part of it. The bobcat was much smaller than I imagined, double the size of a domestic cat, which I'm sure also helps it survive in our area. Maybe I'll see him again on my morning walks.