Steve’s Everglades’ Pics

Here’s what my sister sent me of pics her husband Steve took with his SLR digital camera with fancy lenses.  They’re better than the ones I took with my digital Kodak.  Betsy’s e-mail said:  “Steve took these pictures off a boardwalk through the SW part of the Everglades.  The camera wanted to focus on the close objects, not on the baby 'gators...but good enough.   Mama's only job is security..50+ eggs to start, the head count that morning was 10, and we only saw 7 that afternoon  The others may have been hunting minnows or tadpoles.  The bird is an Anhinga...sunning after fishing, which is swimming under water...he spreads his wings to dry them out.

Betsy”

  

Thanks for stopping by. Comments always welcome.

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Sarasota Visit, Part II

When Misty and I were at the Ringling complex, we stopped for lunch at the Treviso Cafe in the visitor center.  This very strange bird kept wandering along the edge of the patio.  I thought it was a Muscovy duck, but up close, it’s not anything like those.  Big green feet, red at top of legs, red and yellow beak.  What the heck?

On our trip the next day to the dog park/beach at Venice Beach, we saw this Anhinga grooming itself.  It finally sat still and showed how looooong its neck is.

These retrievers were having a blast playing on the beach . . .

. . . and fetching a ball from the surf.

Missed the best picture because he wouldn’t stay still.  A Boston Bull was laying and rolling in the surf!

Here’s an Irish Wolfhound with his two little pals, toy schnauzers.  Cutest little things.  I want one!

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Along Sarasota Bays marina parking lot, is this sculpture from an iconic picture from VJ Day of a nurse getting the heck kissed out of her by a sailor.  Had to stop and get some pictures.

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This sign tells about the statute, but doesn’t mention the photograph or photographer.  It was on the cover of Life Magazine.  With a simple Google search of VJ Day Kiss, I found this link to the photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt  here.  Click on the pic to enlarge to read the sign, then back to return.

That’s it for Sarasota.  Tomorrow or next day, I’ll do our trip to Ft. Myers and the Everglades with my sister and her husband.  Thanks for stopping by. Comments always welcome.

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Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

While I have the time and ambition, I’ll finish up the pictures of places I went with Bob and Misty so she can sincerely regret going back to snowy St. Louis!  Misty and I both love lighthouses and this is the second one we went to and climbed all the way to the top.  She saw some more on her way home along the Panhandle, but this one is the best.   Here’s Misty and Bob with the sign.  Another gorgeous day!

I like what this sign says.  Click on it to read the creed of the Lighthouse Board.

Pic on left is looking up from the bottom and on the left is looking down from the top.  203 steps.  Phew!  Looks kind of like a Nautilus shell.

Here’s Misty and I at the base . . .

 

. . . and at the top!

Here it is in all its glory.  Rigging and scaffold for repairs.

Tiny moon!

Views from the top.  Russel and Greta at the bottom in second pic.

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Very cool to be able to drive down to the beach where we saw Black skimmers, hundreds of them!

Here’s Bob and Misty’s Odyssey, living up to its name.

Last glimpse of the Light from the beach.

That’s it for Misty and Bob’s big adventure.  Thanks for stopping by.  As always, comments are welcome.

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Blue Springs Manatees

The day after Bob and Misty arrived in Florida, we drove over to see the Quilt Shop of Deland and took a surprise trip to Orange City to Blue Springs State Park.  I didn’t tell them we were going to see manatees, but when we entered the gate, there was a big sign with a silhouette of a manatee on it.  On the door by the ranger was a sign, “199 spotted today.”  So much for that surprise!  We got out and walked around, first down to the boat dock on the St. John side of the log boom that keeps boats out of Blue Springs.  Man, that water is blue!  The middle pic is Anhingas.  They wouldn’t spread their wings out to dry.  Click on any pic for a close up detail and then back to return.

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Misty and Bob were impressed by their first up close look at a Live Oak.

Misty and me at the first viewing platform.

And now for the reason we went.   Here’s our very first manatee.  All by himself, but he was not alone!

The first pic is one cruising by and the other pics are of groups of them, ten or more.  The last pic shows one sticking his nose up for a snort of air.

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This pic shows our first alligator lounging in the shade on the shore.  Looked kind of like a log, but a guy there kept insisting it was a gator.  Why he was in the shade, who knows, but looking at pic on monitor Russel knew what it was without being told.

Our second gator was lounging on a log in the sun.  Looking at the pic close up, the pattern on his back is clear.

 

Here’s a pic of the fishies that swim by the hundreds in the springs.  Not sure if they were catfish or not.

This old fella was snuggled up next to a log right next to the shore.  On the close up, you can see the scars on his back from close encounters with boat props, the leading cause of manatee deaths.

Have to tell a funny story on Misty’s sister.  When they visited Sanibel in 2009, they paid $50 a head for a boat tour to view wildlife, including manatees.  Nada.  I took Misty and Bob to Blue Springs and we saw a hundred manatees and some gators for the park entrance fee of less than $10 a car.  Of course, the manatees aren’t there all year round.  They gather in this spring every winter as the temp stays at 72 degrees, a lot warmer than the St. John River.  Here’s a pic of an information sign.  Click on it to read it.

That’s it for our trip to see manatees.  Misty and Bob were thrilled to pieces.  Still need to blog Castillo San Marco and Ponce Lighthouse.

Thanks for stopping by.  As always, comments are welcome.

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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St. Augustine Light With Misty & Bob

On January 8, I took my St. Louis friends Misty and Bob to see the lighthouse and and the Castillo San Marco in St. Augustine.  Misty and I are both lighthouse nuts, so every pic you see of Misty, she is grinning!  On the way there, I told Bob to pull over, pull over.  There was a bunch of birds on the side of the road, birdfooting around some crops.  From where we sat, I thought they were sandhill cranes.  After looking at the pictures at home, I realized they weren’t and looked them up.  Wood Storks!  Around them are cow egrets.  Click on any pic for a closeup, then click on back to return.

 

Then we went looking for St. Augustine Lighthouse, not sure which way to turn once we got off the causeway.  Easy decision as we could easily see it from the causeway, sticking up off to our left!  It was even more impressive up close!

 

Here we are at the base entrance with Bob standing by the Christmas tree at the base of the stairs..

These next pics wouldn’t get in order for me.  First is the view of the stairs looking up from base, second is about half way up looking down, third is Bob from the first landing and last is the view from the top all the way down.  Not for the faint of heart.

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This was as high as Bob would go, about two landings up.  Not the 13th floor, just the 13th stop on the guided tour.

Proof that we made it to the top.  Cold and windy, but gorgeous!

Here’s our views from the top, including Bob on the porch of the lighthouse keepers’ house.

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This is a lovely little garden off to the side of the keepers’ house.  You can see the gnarly live oaks with their resurrection ferns on the branches.  It has rained recently, so the ferns were nice and green.

Here’s the First Order Fresnel Lens from the inside.

 

Misty on the porch of the keepers’ house.  Amazing that this was a burned out hulk in the 60’s!

These were the first pics I finished processing.  Will finish up our trip to St. Augustine with the Castillo pics soon.  Going to work on the manatees at Blue Springs State Park first.

Thanks for stopping by.  As always, comments are welcome.

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Edison-Ford Winter Estates

On our first full day in Fort Myers, Betsy, Steve and I went to tour the Edison-Ford winter estates. Russel stayed at the hotel in avoidance of pollen. Thomas Edison built his house first and his great friend Henry Ford came soon after and built his right next door. The main purpose of Edison's estate was to research various tropical plants that produced rubber and Edison's lab on the grounds tested over 15,000 different types of latex-producing plants. After years of research, it was determined that goldenrod provided the most latex per pound of plant, but even that was horribly expensive and inefficient. After all that, Henry Firestone, a frequent guest, discovered that man-made materials (a by-product of petroleum) made excellent rubber for the tires of Mr. Ford's cars. Enough facts. If you want to learn more, check out: http://www.efwefla.org/home.asp On to pics.

This first pic is of Edison's home, showing the pergola to it's right, covered with Queen's Wreath. I thought it was wisteria from a distance, but up close, Queen's Wreath is much more impressive.
This is the back side of Henry Ford's home. It was under rehab, so not much to see inside. We could only peek in both houses, but pics of antiques or bare floors are booooring, so I'll spare you those.

On the grounds, this huge bouganvillea appeared to have palm trees growing out of it!

Aside from all the antiques, here is a pic of what Mr. Edison called an "electrolier," one of the electric chandeliers gracing his home. With all the windows and doors open, the cross breezes make this home very comfortable except in the summer, when everyone fled back north.

This is Betsy and Steve admiring a Mysore Fig, a champion Florida tree. This kind of tree produces latex, but not very efficiently.

Here's a close-up of a Queen's Wreath. Definitely not wisteria.

More Queen's wreath.

Close-up of Bouganvillea. Love that pink!

Another view of Edison's home with glimpses of Ford's behind it. Yep, they're that close to each other.

Last, but not least, this Great Snowy Egret was fishing the waters of the Caloosahatchee River, which separates Fort Myers from Cape Coral. His breeding plumage is almost all gone, but what looks blurry off the back of his head and the end of his tail is the remnants. Click on the picture to see him better.

That's it for today. I'll have pics of what we made at last Saturday's workshop in my next post, probably not until Sunday or Monday, as I have to recreate a couple of the things we did and that I gave away as door prizes. Silly me forgot to take pictures first!

Thanks for stopping by.

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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