‘Ripples’ for Ailsa’s Travel Theme.

“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” ~ Scott Adams

Ailsa’s travel theme this week is ‘Ripple’. Not being a ‘water baby’, I’ve never been a person to make a big splash, either in or out of the water, but I just love the word ‘ripple’. It’s sounds so gentle and not in the least bit intimidating. Ripples on the water can be caused by nothing more than a slight breeze, as in these sunset pics of the small lake outside our home in Florida.

The surface of the water is always on the move, although the Great Blue Heron manages to stand as still as a statue.

This anhinga also sits so peacefully watching the rippling water.

Generally there’s nothing more scary than a few ducks and other water birds creating ripples in the calm water,

except on the odd occasion when the ripples are caused by something slightly more sinister.

I do hope you enjoyed my ripple pics. I can’t wait to get back there in September to take a few more.

To see other bloggers’ ideas for Ailsa’s them, just click here.

Captivating birds for Jake’s theme

Some of you may have noticed that I seem to find the water birds outside my window really captivating, and I must admit, that I spend a good bit of my day, and my blogging time, watching them. I’m sure you’ll forgive me. 🙂

This year we don’t seem to have as many as there were last winter, but there are always the faithful few. The Great White Egret is a regular visitor to our bit of garden, and this morning, I saw him out of the bedroom window, standing like a statue, staring into the distance.

Great white egret

As he disappeared behind the tree, I caught a shot of his tail feathers.

I always thought that unlike myself, birds never have a ‘bad hair day’, but yesterday, it was really windy, and his feathers were flying every which way. I was wondering whether I should swim across the lake and offer him some of my hair spray. 😀

Another bird which is really captivating to watch, is the Anhinga, also called the Darter. When it sits looking across the water, it really sticks its neck out, and looks so funny, like a nosy neighbour.

Anhinga

They can sit for hours, just drying their wings in the sunshine. It’s a very relaxed life here in Florida. 😉

Anhinga

As some of my regular readers may have guessed by now, my favourite bird and the one which I find the most captivating, is Mr Great Blue Heron. Sometimes he looks really sleek and tall, like here.

Great Blue Heron

At other times, he looks all hunched up and decidedly grumpy, probably because of the unusually cold and windy weather. It’s fascinating how different he can look; almost unrecognisable.

Of course the sweet little ducks are always captivating, as they lazily float around, also doing nothing of any great importance.

Florida ducks

If you’ve enjoyed my captivating birds, please go across to Jake’s Sunday Post to see his wonderfully captivating graphics. Maybe you too can join in the challenge.

Peaceful in my back yard for Jake.

Jake has asked us this week to do a peaceful post. I hope that you find that most of my posts are peaceful, with the possible exception of the jackhammering and the parasailing, ones. 🙂

Today, whilst hubby was busy again in the kitchen, building cupboards, not cooking, I took a walk outside to see what was going in in our peaceful neck of the woods.

The only sound was of the wind gently rustling the palm fronds, and not a single person was to be seen. The only inhabitants of the lakeside, were the birds. The Great Blue Heron seems to be the kingpin around here, and he stood meditating by the water’s edge for quite a while,

before marching off to see what was potting a bit further down.

His friend, the Anhinga was busy drying his wings, and didn’t want to chat to anyone.

and the duck family were practising their  swimming, up near the golf course,

under the watchful eye of mom and dad.

The Wood Stork was umm…… just stalking around, 🙂

and then there was a bit of action, closely watched by the Ibis.

Mr. Great Blue decided to go over to the other side of the lake, and catch himself some breakfast too.

Yummy  sushi  is his favourite dish.

The most peaceful creature of all though, was Lizzie lizard, who just sat motionless, waiting for her breakfast insects to venture near.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my peaceful morning in my back yard. To see more takes on Jake’s theme, as well as his own amazing images, just click here.

Ailsa’s ‘Liquid’ travel theme.

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”
~ Mother Teresa

For Ailsa’s theme, I have a few photos to share, all involving the uses of that most necessary liquid commodity, water. Click on any image to see slideshow.

Adding beauty to an already spectacular view in the Hinchingbrook Channel, south of Cairns.

Washing the boulders along the beach in Umhlanga, South Africa.

Lots of liquid at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Bringing in the tourists to a beautiful African country suffering from a failed economy.

Creating hydroelectric power at Niagara Falls.

Jet skiing in Key West.

Keeping cool on a hot day in Phuket.

Sailing down the Nile in a Felucca.

Skiingi n Whistler, Canada.

Creating icicle patterns on wheels in Wyoming.

Old Faithful, just letting off steam in Yellowstone.

Liquid home for a shark at uShaka Seaworld in Durban, South Africa.

Doing the weekly laundry in Morocco

Decorating my son’s house for Christmas, in New York.

Getting all your ducks in a row on our lake in Florida.

Providing a great fishing ground for the pelican and anhinga in Florida.

Reflecting the Washington Memorial.

Creating the stunning blue of the Grotto Azzurra on the Isle of Capri.

You can click here to see other bloggers interpretations of Ailsa’s theme.

Back in Florida and loving it.

Here we are in Florida. We were awake for 22 hours yesterday, before we finally fell into bed last night. With the time difference, and the fact that it was a daytime flight, we didn’t sleep at all on the plane. I was so engrossed in my book, Kate Atkinson’s ‘Case histories,’ that the time just ‘flew’ by. 😀

The guy at passport control was really chatty and friendly; our bags came through quickly, we got an upgrade on the car rental, so everything went really well. On the drive from Miami airport, I was craving a Starbuck’s chai latte and a toasted sun-dried tomato, mozzarella, and basil panini, so we stopped off and had this for supper. Just sitting there amongst the local folk, typically working on their laptops, it was as though we’d never been away. Sorry about the lopsided pic. I snapped it as we were driving away. 🙂

The drive back was uneventful, although we did see two accidents on the 95, with police already in attendance.We stopped off to do some grocery shopping at our local supermarket, and when we arrived at our little house, it was just as we’d left it. It was nice to get acquainted with all my ‘stuff’ here. It’s funny how you forget what you’ve got when you haven’t seen it for 6 months. 🙂 After unpacking some essentials, we finally got into bed about 11 pm. What bliss that was!

This morning, we looked out at the lake, but there wasn’t much going on; just an egret having a morning chat to an anhinga on the opposite bank, up by the golf course.

I’m afraid that our trusty old Sanyo camera has just finally given up the ghost. The new one is on order, so let’s hope it hurries up and gets here. Just across from where I’m sitting, there is a gorgeous anhinga sitting drying its wings in the morning sun. It’s a lovely calm, mild day, and there’s a lot to do, so I must get on and do it. I’ll catch up with you all later. Have a great day.