Blueberry Festival

Oddly, I bought nothing containing blueberries. I did have a polish sausage with some onions and peppers, and a nice fresh squeezed lemonade, served in a quart size takeout container. Yum!

They had some seafood and BBQ thai as well, but it was a lot more money than I felt like forking over. There was also kettle korn and I almost got some, but the heat was making the cooker sweat, and that sweat was dripping right into the kettle, so I decided not to go there. ewwww..

It was pretty darn hot out, so hung out in the barn checking out the poultry and cattle, watching the judging. Once I got my food I made my way to a little open barn to sit and eat, as well as enjoy some country/folk/bluegrass music performed by Ron Davis, a one man band. He played much Johnny Cash, some Willie & Waylon, and some other odds and ends, very good!!

There was also a small civil war reenactment. Bless those people dressed in heavy wool period clothing on this sweltering day.

Scrap Your Day layout #2

So, here we are, only 3 days away from the third Scrap Your Day that Jeanne and I are doing together. She did this project last year with Shimelle, and this year we've decided to take it on ourselves, but picking the months randomly to switch up the different themes.

On this layout, I made a collage of just a few of the flowers from mom's gardens, and my sweet puppy of course. In the middle row are some of the cars from the Cruising Night at Atkins in Amherst, MA, breakfast with my parents in Williamsburg, and the entrance to the Holyoke Mall. On the bottom is me & my mom walking the 2 dogs. Click on the picture to see in more detail.

Where is the year going?? I can't believe it's only 87 days til my next vacation already! Not that I'm complaining. ;)

On Sunday morning I went to the farmers market in Jacksonville. I really should try to go more often, as it's only about 8 miles away. I spent about $14 and got so much stuff. Mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, bell peppers, onions, red potatoes, cukes, and both green and yellow squashes. You could also buy live chickens as evidenced in the top left photo. Or fresh boiled peanuts! Now all I have to do is make sure I can eat everything before it goes bad. It shouldn't be too hard. As of today, almost all of the potatoes are gone and half the berries, squash, and peppers. yummmy!

Thought I'd share another photo from the friday night free movie at the pavilion by the beach. Since the movie didn't start til 9pm, I had quite a bit of time to wander around. I love the blue on the right hand side of this building, and the sun dropping below the horizon.

Northeast FL weather update..

Lovely storm tonight: high winds, heavy rain. I didn't see any hail here, and the power didn't go out surprisingly. Once it stopped, as I did the other evening, i took the cat out onto the balcony with his cute little leash and halter on. Probably the only good thing about storms (besides much needed rain) is the fact that it usually cools off a little bit. And that's a good thing, since it was still 90 degrees last night when i went to bed at 10pm. **sigh**

Here is Mr. Scout admiring a bug flying around, I'm sure. or a shadow moving. certainly NOT the camera.

I couldn't resist a fisheye shot of the sky with this sweet cloud once the storm had mostly passed. Hence the funny orange color of the cat.

Happy day!

Friday Night Movies

On Friday I went to work for about 3 hours getting some last minute work done on a small project I'm finishing up. After I left work I went for a quick ride to Hobby Lobby & Michaels. Didn't get much, but wanted to see if there was anything new and fun.

I also made a quick stop at the Cradle Creek Preserve I had posted pics of here. It was great then, I don't know what happened. They may be cleaning it up, but the trails are overgrown, and there is cut wood everywhere. Lowe's did build a new footbridge in one spot, though. So, needless to say, I was in, got a few pics out by the estuary, and the canoe launch area, then I was out.

I headed out towards the beach after that, and to stop at Krystal's for supper. Over by the SeaWalk Pavilion I noticed something going on, so parked and walked over. I'd forgotten about the free movies they show on the big screen on Friday nights. Last night's movie was Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, starring Sean Connery as Indy's father, and River Phoenix as a young Indy.

Sunday's in the summer they do free jazz concerts, so I believe that will be on the agenda soon as well.

Red Shouldered Hawks

As I was leaving work this afternoon, I was looking at the giant rolls of hay being baled in the field, and something caught my eye. I made a quick u-turn to come back around and saw these two hanging out, i'm sure looking for dinner. The baler must be disrupting the small field creatures they so enjoy. I sat in my car pulled over to the side so I wouldn't scare them away, and managed to get a few pictures.

Pretty cool, but eventually they flew off in search of food. Hope they found some!

I was really bored the other day, and decided to try a makeshift filter on my camera. I used the trick of a nylon over the lens, and held there with a rubber band. the tighter I stretched it the less you could tell it was there. For this first pic I kept it pretty loose.

And this is with it stretched very tight. Still pretty muted, but clear.

A couple nights ago we had a very cool light show, as well. it thundered quite a bit, and rained for a little while. After the rain stopped it was all lightning. Mostly it was just the bright white flashes, but there was some orange and reddish light on occasion as well. I also noticed that the lightning mostly forked either upwards or to the side, not down. I have some video of it, but it's very long. If I can figure out how to get a couple smaller chunks seperated, I may even post it. I put my small P&S camera on the tripod, and brought it out onto the balcony. I put the halter and leash on my cat, and we sat, watching the light flash. It was 12:30 am by the time it had stopped enough for me, and then I went to bed.

The Color Red, And Then Some...

Today I had a TWI (training within industry) class south of downtown jax. I had a lot of fun, and learned quite a bit. It's mostly about training others to do their job properly, consistently and safely. It doesn't matter what industry or title you are. You will run into difficult people to work with and for. We got out a few minutes earlier than planned so I hit up the St John's town center for a bit on the way home.


Grabbed a scrappy mag at Barnes & Noble, a Frap of course, and this shot of the cute train they have set up for rides. I love the bright colors! Shimelle has a bit of a color challenge going on..


Over the weekend I went out to Lake City to visit my cousin and family. One of the kids had an end of year dance program which was a lot of fun (no photos allowed, tho). We also went to a town-wide tag sale out in Ft White. There weren't a ton of vendors due to the unpredictable weather that day, but there was still plenty to look at. In the center of the parking lot they had this old caboose set up on a short set of tracks, and I couldn't resist getting a few shots of it as well. Click on the photos for a closer look, and enjoy!
Hopefully I will get to scrap my May "Scrap Your Day" page. I think part of me doesn't want to scrap my vacation pictures, as I'll wish I was still there instead of being here. LOL
Only 100 days til my next vacation. :)

Scrap Your Day layout #1

Here it is, already a week into June almost. Where oh where is this year going??

We had some rain and a bit of thunderstorming today. Here is a photo taken at the boat ramp around sunset. I stopped at Michael's to use the coupon I had for 20% off, and got a few things to use on my vacation layouts.

Here is my layout I did for April's Scrap Your Day that Jeanne and I are participating in. Ge here to see her "Scrap Your Day" layout.

I will scrap May's SYD pictures soon, so that I can concentrate on June's day without feeling like I'm behind. It was definitely a great day, and I can't wait to see how the page turns out! I also need to choose the next month that decides our "theme" for taking pics.

Tonight I am just plain tired, and ready to crash.

I will leave you with this photo, it almost looks like the same bird I posted some months ago, and still can't ID. It would figure that now I can't find the other pic to compare. *sigh*

What I saw today..

So, I haven't much to say about these, but I couldn't resist posting several of my favorites.

I showed some of these little guys (and gals, I'm sure) here. They seem to be growing pretty quick. I'm pretty tempted to feed them, but don't want to upset the balance of nature...so I am content to take several photos and watch the protective parents keep them safe.

Into the water they go......

By this time, I've turned the car around twice, and finallt decided I should just park. thankfully there's a new warehouse for lease right there, so I stopped in the lot for just a few minutes.

.....And back out the other side, right towards me. this is when i wish i had some bread. :) (and where I got lightly hissed at, hehe.

This shot is my absolute favorite. I did only a slight crop, to move them more off center. I do wish I had gotten a little more in the bottom of the frame, but their cute faces more than make up for the slight oversight. hehe

More Vacation Memories

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory has much more than just butterflies & Moths. Top center: some kind of lizard (couldn't find it on the website), top right: Female Australian Stick Insect, left & center: Owl Butterfly, Bottom left: Akbar, a Senegal Parrot, and bottom center: the iguana. On the bottom right is a close-up of the nursery, where all the coccoons waiting to hatch are pinned up.

While Jeanne was jumping for joy, I was twirling about next to a small flower petal circle. Not sure of it's signifigance, but it was pretty.

Here's are several views of the area around Paradise Pond. clockwise from top left: tree from right side of Boat house, The island as seen from the tree, The flower grouping, and the boat house.

I can remember when I was much younger, they used to plow the whole pond in winter, around the island even, so ice skaters had plenty of space to move around. There was a sign hung in front of the boat house telling the thickness of the ice, and whether skating was allowed. We pulled each other around holding onto each others scarf, and probably spent as much time on our butts as we did skating. As I got older, and less people went there, they plowed a smaller and smaller area, and no longer went around the island at all. I can remember walking down the steps with my rubber blade guards on, and having hot cocoa with marshmallows when I got home afterwards. It all looks so much smaller than it did when I was a kid.