Night Blooming Cereus

I want to thank my friend Shari for letting me adopt this wonderful plant. Is this just exquisite? It is a night blooming cereus, which as the name says it only blooms at night. It starts to bloom around 9:00 pm and you can almost watch it open. By 11:00 or midnight the whole flower is open and has a heavenly smell. Of course the next step is to take a picture. First I had to get out a black cloth, which Shari loaned me, then pose the flower for best results, all the while hoping something horrible was not going to get me outside.

The Golden Orb Spider Embroiders on her Web

Mrs Orb has been busy this week embroidering her web in anticipation of the upcoming embroidery event. Notice the Herringbone stitches. She heard that I was getting my new PE Design Lite for my Brother machine and she has taken matters into her own legs. These spiders spin giant webs that have running strands that serve as warnings to larger creatures other than bugs, that means humans. When you run into one of the warning webs you are supposed to go the other way. I sure do, I run like crazy screaming like a banshee and waving my arms. I call what she is doing a runway, she calls it art. The carefully woven zigzag shows the way for bugs to land. Isn't she clever?

Where the Deer and the Antelope Roam

This afternoon the family of deer came out for a snack. Oh no, someone came out the door. Run for your life Bambi!!!!!!!

Zumba Instructor

This is Shannon Kellum who is teaching Zumba classes in High Springs, Florida at the Wellness Center and also at the Fitness Center in Alachua. Zumba is a Latin dance used for fitness. The term Zumba means to move fast and have fun. That is what Shannon is all about. See how fast she moves below. It is a blur.

Can you guess what it is?

Hmmmm Molly was over today. Could it be.......????

It is going to get you!!!!!!

Yikes!!! Is that something growing in the refrigerator?

I just got a new macro filter. Now I guess I could take really closeups of my horrible bugs. Not on your life. The filter requires that I be within one inch of the subject and the subject really needs to be flat. Well ok so flat bugs really mean dead bugs. I could do that.

Old Things

My photography class assigned the topic old things. This is my interpretation of old things. These were all taken at the High Springs Cemetery. There is one type of headstone that is so interesting. It is called the Woodmen of the World and all the stones are tall and look like tree stumps. Great study in unusual colors.

Picures of Summer

Greetings from Ft. White. This is what you see traveling down US 27. This stand has been here for 27 years renting tubes to go on the Ichnetucknee. Try saying that five times fast. Thank goodness they had the good sense to have FSU emblazoned on this tube.
This man has been renting these tubes just forever. He enjoys his job.Some people don't like to get their feet wet so they take a raft.

This is the Sante Fe River.

A Study of White Churches

These churches are all located in North Florida from High springs to White Springs. Most of them are over 100 years old.

It's a Bugs Life

Aren't these bugs wonderful? The sunflower was at my sister's house. The rest of the bugs belong to me. Well except the spider. It was taking a ride on Steve's back when he mowed the grass. He did not even have a ticket or a seat for that matter. The web was stuck to Steve's back and it took a long wooden yardstick for me to get the web off his back. Taking all these pictures up close was probably some Karmic debt I had to work out. Our assignment last week was to do something simple. Simple bugs, that just about does it.

I must be Italian

This is our granddaughter Samantha having her first spaghetti dinner. Do you think it has too much garlic?

Portrait of our Miniture Schnauzer

This week the photography assignment was to take portraits. Festus was a willing participant once he learned that after each session he got a bone. In fact, the second day of shooting he was jumping on the chair and preening. Which portrait do you like best?

Get Together

Last Saturday night, Arlene and Gene hosted the first Friday Lunch Bunch Ladies and spouses for a lovely pot luck dinner. Talk about good food. Here are some of the fabulous creations: Shepard's Pie by Joan D, Key Lime Pie, with real key limes form Key West by Carolyn and she also made Guava and coconut bread pudding to die for. Joyce made a tasty Mediterranean Pasta Salad and Ruby pulled and pulled pork for Cuban pulled pork. Susan was in the hippie mood and made Taboule and shrimp. Celeste's husband smoked a Boston butt and now he is named Steve Smoking Butt. Suzie treated us to hor's dourves while Audrey delighted us with Italian pie. Joan L created a grand desert and Nadine made sure we had our Popeye Spinach salad. Lory made Cabbage rolls and the pan was licked clean. Geri , of course went over the top with her Quiche de resistance & caramelized onion. Many others brought goodies also and went home with very little leftovers. Thanks to Gene and Arlene for opening up their home and hosting such a good time

Critiques from my online photography class.

Original Photo

Cropped Photo

The top photo is our first assignment. We were given the word blue and told to take a picture of anything that represented the word blue. Her suggestion was to crop the globe tight. She thought that the exposure was fine but would have liked to see better placement of the globe. The picture above has been sharpened and of course cropped. See my reflection in the globe?

This is the cropped one.

This picture was taken at Disney Animal Kingdom. I sent it into my online photography class for critique. She suggested cropping both the top and the bottom.

Original Photo taken with Nikon D60.

The Chosen One

These are the horses that pulled the carriage ride on the 4th of July. Aren't they grand? The owner of the horses said that they were very proud to be chosen for this ride. They held their heads high and pranced around. This is a two page layout I did for the online digital scrapbooking class that I am taking. This is the last week and I have learned so many new techniques.