a few pics from florida...

we were without internet until last week, and then justin et all were here, so i have not been able to keep up with my blogs, but now we are all hooked up, so here are a few of the photos i've taken in the last couple of days that i like.


i've never seen a 2 tone little blue heron before, but he sure is pretty!


bird of prey right outside our balcony


the tides hotel in south beach


south beach lighting


manatee

day 31...

well here we are the last day of december, the last day of our photo-a-day and the last day of 2009! i took about 5 photos this morning of my cactus, but none of them focused on what i wanted without being fuzzy, so tonight when i looked at them, i had to resort to this! here's looking at you, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! hey ruth, hey nathalie, are you up for a 365 photo-a-day!!!

day 30...

the girls had a grand old time jumping on the mattress this morning before i had a chance to put it back up on the hidabed.

day 29...

yesterday i didn't have time to upload my photo, because the girls came over for a pyjama party. their parents were having an adult party, their first in a long long time! i took some photos of the apple tree's shadow on the snow on the cabana roof, but there was the clothes line right in my line of view and there was no way i was going out since it was soooooooooooooo cold. so instead, here is the pot of boiling water that i had just put the spaghetti in for dinner.

day 28...

well i've had 8 photos in a row that were indoor shots, so i figured it was time i got outside again. here is a white on white shot!

day 27...

ruth gave us the challenge today and it was 'silver'. so i went around the house and took everything i could find that was silver, and chose the first photo i took of my pandora barcelet on my bureau. i love that it reflects on the black, so it could have been one for that 'reflection' challenge last weekend too. nathalie took this cute little ornament and ruth took a new bracelet.

day 26...

nathalie gave us the challenge today of 'aftermath' and again i was torn between the mess from the opening of the gifts or the mess of chips after losing my shirt in our poker game!!! just kidding we were playing rumoli and i lost about $1. anyway the mess in the basement won, so here it is. it's not that messy either, because justin made sure all the screwed up paper went into that huge red bag, and i could not take the photo while it really looked a mess with all the gifts and toys because they left before midnight and it was a challenge for today! grrr... ;) you check out nathalie's here and ruth's here.

day 25...

well it's finally christmas day and it turned out to be a pretty darned good day, only one child meltdown right at dinner time, but we will just chalk that up to tiredness and hunger! i only forgot to get one thing and reg said no one would even notice, but just as we were about to sit down, justin asked 'where are the crackers', i just knew he would notice! oh dear...! we took a lot of photos and i am torn between 2 for today's photo, so i will post both, but the official one will be this one of st. patrick's church since we are afterall celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ!



and here is the other one of the kids before we opened any presents! i think that that is the trick, take the official family photo then , and everyone co-operates!!!

day 24...

'twas the night before christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. the stockings were hung by the chimney ..... well you know the rest! everything is ready and we had a nice quiet evening watching a movie in front of the fire. the calm before the storm, as they say!

day 23...

today was my birthday and i was spoiled rotten by all my friends and family! last night my gal pals took me out for an italian yummy dinner and spoiled me with gifts and a scrapbook album that they made me that i will treasure forever. they also had these balloons on our table which i thought appropo to use for my photo today!

day 22...

i went back to my flowers today, because as i was passing them this morning i loved how the light was coming through the window on the, heavenly smelling, center of the lily.

day 21...

not up to par today after being hit hard yesterday afternoon with a 24 hour thing! i was in and out of bed all day, so i just took a photo of the flowers i received on saturday night.

day 20...

it was my turn today to give the challenge and it was 'ice'! i had the idea for it last week, when i saw the pretty patterns of ice on the window in the office, but of course by this morning it was gone! we went for a drive this afternoon and went by the river where i took one of my shots for our june challenge and captured all this ice. can't wait to see what ruth and nathalie come up with!!!

day 19...

ruth gave us a challenge today of 'reflection' and since i had just changed my header to the perfect reflection shot, i had to put my thinking cap on! i always take many photos so that i have a few to choose from and this morning was no exception. i took a shot of a window relecting in some glassed watercolors, then a ruth shot with my camera in a mirror, then a window reflected in a mirror and finally the shot i chose was of a reflected prism on my hand from some crystals hanging in our kitchen window.



that's out there eh ruth! ;) you can check our nathalie's beauty here and ruth's here!

day 18...

well i tried again this morning to get my little juncos, but not a good one in the bunch, so i turned my attention to this silly, but smart squirrel who comes to visit everyday and tries to eat whatever bird food we have out there. today he decided to have his way with the cage of suet seeds that i put out for the woodpeckers, who incidentally have not found it yet, and he fought with it til it fell to the ground where he scooped it out and ate to his heart's content!

day 17...

i took oodles of photos of the little juncos that come right on the gallery to feed, but i can't seem to get a decent photo of them since they are gray and white, but mostly gray so their eyes don't show up clearly. so since i was wrapping presents this morning and this photo will be in my december album, i figured i would use it here too!

day 16...

i hate it when i have a lot of photos that i like that i can choose from one day, like today, and then there are some days i just don't have any idea of what to take even! well i have a photo of that helicopter that crashed this morning when they had just hoisted it up onto the flatbed to haul it away, or there is the one of the st. james hotel downtown that is so quaint and with their christmas lights, even more so, and others. i finally decided on this one taken inside of our world trade center.



if i had a mac i could straighten out those lights, but on here i have no idea how to do it!