easter flowers

i took this photo early this morning, before i even had breakfast, because that lily is making the whole kitchen smell divine! dd brought these over on easter sunday and they still look lovely although the rose is a bit wilty!

ruth has challenged me tomorrow for a photo of something round and smooth, hmmm, and sunday i challenged her for something square or rectangular. i think i have the easier time, since she has chosen a garden theme, whereas i don't have a theme, good luck ruth! but of course i know you don't need it, you are a pro!!! ;)

16th and 17th april

yesterday i was out all day and did not have my camera with me and missed a beautiful shot of the champlain bridge mirrored in the river at around 8:30 pm, so i had to settle for a flash shot of my book that i am reading at around 10 after watching LOST.

the shot for today is the bud for my double purple lilac bush that has finally started showing some life, love those lilacs!

finally something ready to bloom in the garden, but i have no idea what it is!

it's easter monday and here is the slice of cheesecake i had for dessert tonight!

ruth and i challenged each other for this weekend's photos, yesterday i picked a tempo shot, because we had both planned to take them down and easter sunday ruth chose easter eggs, of course. i had a hard time choosing which photo of which child to use, but i think zoe's concentration on getting that little chocolate egg ready to eat took the prize!

taking down the eye sore!

today we finally took down the tempo, well actually ours is a nanouk, but this is new last fall, but have always had a tempo. i challenged ruth to take a photo of hers today since we were both taking them down. i'm sure she has a more artistic photo than this. it's always a good day when it comes down and gets packed away for another year, a sure sign of spring!

friday, 10 april - this was taken with julie's camera through her living room window. sometimes there were 6 goldfinches feeding at the same time, but of course when i went to take the photo there were only a couple. i liked the fact that this one was turned upside down!

thursday, 9 april - it's not much with all that dreary background since i took this at around 7 tonight, but my irises are coming through it all!

wednesday, 8 april - i know, it's not in focus, but it's through the window and the squirrel was on the run! ;) that's my excuse and i'm sticking with it! i was sitting at the computer when i saw this little girl going running across the street, go up the fir tree and come down with her mouth full of whatever and ran back across and up our fir tree (and not just once), so either it was moving day or she was stealing from another nest to make hers.

tuesday, 7 april

ah ha, got my robin today!

monday, 6 april - i was told by someone in florida once to soak my shells in javel to clean them up and kill any organisms that may be still in them. so today in this lovely liquid sunshine that has followed us all the way home from florida, here are my 2009 collection soaking since i didn't see one robin today and that's what i had planned to take since there must be some fat worms in the grass for them in all this rain, but didn't see a one!

sunday, 5 april - froggie is not looking too good this morning, but there is a story to this big guy! we bought him in niagara falls for my mother-in-law about 25 years ago, because she collected frogs. when she died my sister-in-law took over her apartment and he has been there til my sister-in-law died last january when we took him and put him in the garden because we knew the grandkids would love him. he is supposed to be a garden ornament, but i presume that all these years being inside didn't do him any good, so now i either have a paint job to do this summer, if he has not started to crumble, or he is heading for the garbage, either one!

saturday, 4th april - ok it was 5 o'clock by the time i remembered to take a shot and it was just
at cocktail hour and with such a lousy lit day, what better object to take than my delicious marguerita, cheers!

friday, 3rd april - i took so many shots on the road today to get the shot for the day and i had some pretty intersting ones like the canadian & american flags at the border but this shot just melted my heart. elki & zoe were so excited to see us, but by 9 o'clock elki just couldn't keep her eyes open and zoe was still going strong!

thursday, 2nd april - we had just driven into west virginia and stopped to stretch our legs and get a coffee and it was so pretty i chose this shot over many, many others for my second photo.

wednesday, 1st april - we left for home early this morning and this is my first shot for our photo-a-day challenge. they have this beautiful way of marking the main roads off of route 95 in northern florida and here is one of them!

sunday, 29 march - we had a double birthday celebration last night over at the boat house and my contribution was to make the salad, so i prettied it up but noone actually got to see it!

while i was over at barnes & noble the other morning buying 'eclipse', i bought a pocket guide to the florida wild flowers and one for their birds and wouldn't you know it this is not in it! drats!!!

this one could be a birdsfoot violet, but i'm not 100% sure since the pics in this guide sometimes don't actually do the flower justice!

and these 2 photos are of something really strange, here are the 3 stages, the flower, the bud and the fruit! it looks kinda like something alien to me, doesn't it?

thursday, 26 march - here is another unknown tropical flower that is starting to bloom now!

even though we are getting lazier by the day down here, the other day i was up early enough to get this shot of the sunrise only because reg was going to play golf!

friday, 20 march - today is dear hubby's birthday, and as part of his gift, yesterday i brought him to 'butterfly world' and it was fantastic! we roamed around the aviaries for 3 hours and there were butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, flowers and parrots all flying around free! even though i had to practically drag him there, he really did enjoy himself and it's so magical and relaxing, that our shoulders actually just let go of all the stress that each day brings!

here are just a few of my favorite butterflies, moths, flowers and i will post the birds on my rocklady blog!

the top photo is a 'dryadula', the second is a passiflora 'inspiration', the third and fourth are a lily and an iris, but they are not in the guide, so i don't know which they are, the fifth not in the guide, six is a 'red cracker' and the last 2 are not in the guide either, sorry!

oh and btw, the header is a photo i took over there too. :)

sunday, 15 march - thought i'd show you some of the flowers that were blooming this morning when i did my walk. the top one is an unusual color or bougainvillia, the second one i cannot find the name of, the white one is a carissa and of course the best is always last, a bird of paradise!

friday, 13 march - here are some photos from the last couple of days, a plain old seagull, but they are so proud looking, aren't they. a collection of buoys on display just down the beach and the last one i'm not sure what he is, i'll have to look him up!

wednesday, 11 march - here are a few of my latest photos from this week. we were walking on the beach yesterday and this mastif was playing in the water, man he was big, plus there were 2 more of them up near the bushes! the crab was dead and on our way back, there was a seagull enjoying a crab lunch and finally, i don't know what kind of fish this is, but isn't he pretty!

wednesday, 4 march - yesterday we took the 'JUNGLE QUEEN CRUISE' which took us up the intercoastal up to the new river and onto an island with some beautiful and some scarey animals. the top photo is us ready to board the paddle boat, which a fisherman kindly offered to take of us all together (if you'll notice i still had a piece of a sandwich which i was trying to finish before we boarded and didn't realize that someone was going to take a photo of us, i was taking one of laura & justin and he offered)! unfortunately the birds and monkey are in cages and as you can see i haven't quite figured out yet how to make the cage disappear, only with the yellow bird did i manage it!

and the last photo of this humungous alligator was not farther than 2 arms lengths away from us, but very glad that there was a cement wall about chest high in between us!!!

monday, 2 march - laura and justin arrived on friday, so the weekend was very very busy sitting on the beach and swimming in the pool. after getting up at 4:45 am for a 7 am flight justin was bushed! he doesn't usually go to bed on a non-school night before 10 pm, but here it was 8:45 pm and he was fast asleep. on saturday morning we went for my usual walk and we saw this cormorant airing out his feathers and then we hit the beach where justin had a lot of fun riding the waves! see you in a few days!!!