Lots of Pictures!

Well! It's taken quite a lot of time today, but I've finally caught up with my Pictures of the Day...well, up until June 23rd, at least.

Nevertheless, there are now many, many more pictures to look at, if you're interested. I'll eventually put the Pictures of the Day up on this blog, but if you want to see any of the other pictures from our trip, you can see them right now on flickr.

I know that some of you (myself included) have said that flickr is a bit confusing to use, but if you follow the links on this post, it shouldn't be too confusing. When the new page opens, there should be a lot of little square icons. You can click on any of those to see that picture, or there is an option to see the set as a slideshow (near the top right... and you can turn the comments on and off, too; once the slideshow starts, click on the option that says "show info"). If that's too confusing, tell me and I'll try to work something different out. Good luck!

So, click on the links below to see pictures from:

Germany - Regensburg
Austria - Salzburg
Germany - (The Real) Berlin
Germany - Hannover and Neustadt am R�benberge
Germany - Munich
Spain - Madrid
Portugal - Lisbon Area and Porto
(Note: these links are in the order we visited the places)

Complete Europe Trip Picture Set (Warning: It's pretty large, and contains the same pictures as the above sets... only if you've got major time to kill or you don't like the idea of seeing the pictures in smaller groupings, for whatever reason)

And, of course, you can see our pictures from the time we spent in Colorado:
U.S.A. - Colorado


So, thanks so much for your interest, and thank you for reading and checking out the pictures! Have a great day!

Collections

Collections....I read recently that nearly everyone has one of some kind. Though I don't want to admit it, I probably do have one myself, of yarn and fabric and beads. It's my stash, but it could be classified as a collection as well.

When I was on garbage detail the other day, I took a look at the walls and realized that the beer bottle collection had grown to epic proportions. Greg started this group of souvenirs long before I knew him. At one point after we were married, he thought about recycling the whole lot, mainly for lack of a place to display them. The boys were against it, so he hung on to them. Time came to build a new shed for the garbage and recyling cans, and he realized that it would also be a great place to display all of the beer bottles.


For several years now, these have graced the shelves. Occasionally they stir up some conversation, and once in a while we find a new bottle added to the group. Mostly, I don't notice them, since I head in to drop off bags, or to sort the sacks of bottles, cans and plastics headed for the recycling trailer.

But the other day, the light shining in the windows was just right, and it made me take another look. I had to snap a few photographs, as a result. It's fun, having things like this in unexpected places. It makes sense for a bottle collection to be in this shed. The only downside is that it's not the nicest place to linger to study things over. But an upside to it is that I don't have to worry about dusting all those bottles off!

Pictures of the Day, May 29 - June 4, 2010

Here are the rest of the Pictures of the Day from our trip in Europe. I've also nearly got the other pictures from the last month or so sorted out, and I'll hope to be posting them in the next few days. So, take a look at these, and I hope you enjoy them!

May 29, 2010: A peacock at the Sao Jorge Fortress in Lisbon. It seemed to reflect Lisbon in general, with its combination of the old and run-down with the beautiful.

May 30, 2010: Some sort of plant I saw near the shore, near Cascais.

June 1, 2010: This is one of those pictures where, when you see it on the computer, you say, "Hm, that looks a lot cooler than it seemed when I took it." I'm still not entirely sure how the stuff right next to these pots got so artfully blurry. In any case, the flower pots were in the courtyard of our hotel in Porto.

June 2, 2010: The sheets hanging out in the sun to dry at our hotel in Porto. Just seemed like a nice, peaceful scene.

June 2, 2010: This is my Picture of the Day for the 365 project, although I also took a "Portugal" picture for this day, since we went from Portugal to Spain in the morning. It's of the railing on our Madrid hotel room's balcony.

June 3, 2010: A cat on the sidewalk that looked just like Cucho. His owner was asking for change, so I gave him a few coins and asked him if I could take a picture of his cat. I suppose it really could be Cucho's long-long Spanish cousin that never immigrated to the New Country.

June 4, 2010: A BB seems to have hit the glass at Barajas International Airport, in Madrid.

And so ends our photographic tour of a few European countries. As usual, there are many, many Leftovers, so please feel free to check those out. I'm hoping to get all the trip pictures organized into a folder in flickr, and when I do that, I'll tell you.

In the meantime, thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Model Butterflies

The butterflies are out and about....and and sometimes they land in places that make it easy for me to photograph them. Yesterday I spotted a luna moth on Birch cabin, and last evening, a white admiral posed for me on the screen porch.

I actually had to look up the latter butterfly. Maybe, like birdwatching, this will become an area of continued interest for me. And once I have the butterflies down, I can tackle the many moths that show up. Already from reading the guidebook, I know I have seen some of them, just not recently. So many things to see, so many things to learn.

Hot walk!

We had a beautiful but very hot walk yesterday around the hilly country south of Plouy�. Thanks to all who gave up football and tennis time to join in! Thanks to Chris for the top photo.

Summer Lovin'

Though it shouldn't matter, something about the calendar officially registering the start of summer yesterday has actually made it feel more seasonal. The temperature got up into the seventies, it was humid while I was mowing the lawn, and the sun was with us for a large portion of the day. The length of the day stretched out nicely, though the cloudy skies in the evening prevented an extended dusk. Still, it was definitely a good midsummer.

One unusual sight prompted me to grab the camera and head to the lake. Not far off the end of our main dock, I saw three mature loons swimming along together. I left my lunch on the screen porch, and was able to make it to the dock at Tamarack without upsetting the trio. They continued their fishing/swimming expedition, while I snapped a few quick photos. Tiring of the model mayhem, they dove and went out for deeper waters. Later in the day, I heard a report of a baby loon seen on its mama's back, somewhere on the lake. Unfortunately, I still have not had the pleasure of seeing that.


But it is baby season, or in this case, juvenile. The raven pair that has taken up serious residence here at Heston's came in yesterday to get a better look at the garbage bags I was loading in to the pick-up. When I turned my back, two more flew in , so I was a bit surprised when I saw the four looking over at me. (Shades of Hitchcock's The Birds?) As I went about the task of gathering cardboard to recycle, they kept trying to get to a garbage bag, undoubtedly to tear it open and scatter the contents. We've see them do this in about three minutes. With four of them, they could go for a new record. To their chagrin, I finished my packing, and was off to dispose of the load at the canister site. I did toss them a token dead mouse, found in an empty garbage can. They were on it in seconds. Hungry little dudes, I guess.

Later in the day, Greg scattered a handful of pizza "bones" out in the parking lot. I call them bones, but they are the end crusts from the slices. Not caring to eat them himself,he used to save them as a treat for Moses. Now they get tossed out for the ravens or squirrels or whatever lucky scavenger might happen upon them. Soon the foursome of ravens was back. We were able to get a closer look at them, and realized that two are immature. They must be the offspring of the original pair. Addie has been grumbling a lot lately about the amount of ruckus these birds cause at about six a.m. each day. So she was initially not pleased to see the new additions. It didn't take long for her to be won over. Who can resist babies? She sneaked out the side door, armed with the big camera, and was able to take some close-ups of the kids. They were a hoot to watch, as they teased each other. One would grab a crust, and the other would steal right out of the beak of its sibling. Then mom would pick one up, and the two little ones would rush over and caw loudly with their beaks wide open. "Feed me, Mom! Feed Me Now!" We could almost hear them demanding it. At one point, she actually did feed the morsel to the cantankerous one. Paul asked me if he had ever acted that way. I said not quite. The young ones have a mottled brownish black coloring on their feathers, and they seem a bit unsteady on their feet. They tend to dance around a lot. But when it's time to follow their parents, they have full command of their wings. Pretty cool to watch.

So for the next ninety-three days, we get to enjoy summer. How will you be spending it?

Power Crazy: Shoreham Breakwater

At the eastern end of Shoreham Beach, the ill fated Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant comes into view.  It sits about a thousand feet inland along the Wading River, which serves as the border between the towns of Riverhead and Brookhaven. A hundred feet south of the beach there are fences with signs warning people to "keep out". With no intention of trespassing, I stayed close to the waterline as I continued eastward. There was a jetty ahead with a dozen or so people on it, and I decided to take a closer look.

It is a relatively safe jetty that was easy to walk, and there were no signs stating that it was private property. There was a couple sharing a boxed lunch while the others all appeared to be fishing. Halfway out, I heard a horn being blasted from the beach area behind me. Turning around, I saw a security-type SUV with two large men approaching the breakwater.

I would never succeed as a tabloid reporter. My camera is able to record video, but at that moment, it never occured to me. Instead of filming what was taking place, I slipped the camera back into my pocket as the two men approached.

The only thing he said to me was "You're under arrest, stand over there" as he pointed to the beach area adjacent to the jetty. They never identified themselves, and there was no logo on their shirts, but I knew they were not cops. I assumed they were from the power plant, but I was not completely sure.

I really wanted to explain to them that I was scheduled to be in Rocky Point for dinner at 6 pm. But, rather than dig myself into a bigger hole, I followed orders and walked back to the beach. They proceeded to round everyone up as they made their way out the jetty. Some sort of confusion developed with one group, and at that moment, I made the decision to run. Sweaty and out of breath, I reached the car and got the hell out of Dodge.

Soundbounder the fugitive!