Winter Slumber

She closes her eyes to the falling snow

as daylight dims

in preparedness for night

the ghostly silence

of each singular flake

amasses to uniformity

upon one another

covering the sleeping earth

under a blanket of promise

like the dove

the crocus sleep

knowing their time

for flight will come

once again

Little bit of Florida sunshine

June is now upon us and I have no idea what happened to May!  Oh, that's right.  I became the mama of two puppies!  I am surrounded by chaos.

Not so long ago, there was much order in my life.  Like in April.  Like when we took time to visit our home in Anna Maria.  Actually, that week ended up not being so relaxing.  There were a number of repairs and yard work to get done.  I didn't take as many photos as I often do but did have a chance here and there while biking around.

Nowadays, just being able to sit and do nothing would be the most rewarding treat ever!  

(I now speak in dog language.)

I never tire of trying to capture some of my favorite birds.

The Great Blue Heron.

And my most favorite, those pelicans.

I can watch them endlessly dive and cruise above the waters.

I think they are magnificent.

But always, the best time is the evenings.

As the day begins to disappear into night.

It reminds me how extraordinary the universe is 

in all of its grandeur.

And I am thankful.

(And I will be more thankful once my puppies are house broken!)

Once upon a time

Once upon a time, I had a blog.
Once upon a time, I slept until 7:30 a.m.
Once upon a time, I traveled to far away places.
Once upon a time, I could go to dinner at any hour.
Once upon a time, I made my bed every morning.
Once upon a time, my house was orderly and smelled good.
Once upon a time, I took dozens and dozens of backyard photos of visiting critters.

Yep, once upon a time ... before these two:

Lucy

Harry

These little rascals consume my time!

Anyway, I just poked my head in here to do a quick post to let you know I'm still alive.

Barely.

Additionally, I had some images of a few of my backyard visitors that I captured before Lucy and Harry's arrival.  All these critters are still coming around ... but my camera is gathering dust!

 Hope you enjoyed as much as I enjoy watching them.

Nowadays, I spend my time watching Lucy and Harry.

As time goes on, I hope to get some better photos of them. 

Right now, they barely hold still for anything, let alone a camera.

So thanks for dropping by.

Someday, I may actually be able to have time to drop by your place again!

Happy days,

No place like home

Once upon a time there was a little red haired girl who left her home to travel around the world.  She flew in big and small airplanes, rode in cars on the wrong side of the road, and ate food

she did not know.

She was very happy.

 But now and then she thought about

her friends back home 

and wondered if they thought about her.

 Days and months passed

and although she continued to be happy

 she began to dream of the time

when she would once again return

to her home.

 One day as she was walking along a wooded path,

a friendly hawk swooped down and began to speak to her (with a French accent!).

"Silly girl!  Why do you visit all these countries

when you have the very same beauty in your own back yard?"

Aside from the fact that she was shocked that the hawk could speak with a French accent, 

she gathered her wits about her and exclaimed, "Excuse me?"

"Yes, I have been observing you 'oohing' and 'aahing' beautiful sights, 

but don't you remember the beautiful sights you have in your own back yard?"

  

With a tilt of her head, the little red haired girl said, 

"Well, yes, I do remember.  Like the northern pines and their reflections 

bouncing amid the shoreline waters."

"Oh, and the lighthouses!  How I love their twinkling search light."

"And I do so love the boats, especially at sunset, when golden light plays on their decks. "

"Oh, Mr. Hawk, you are so right," said the little red haired girl with a loud sigh.

"I didn't need to leave my own backyard to see such beauty.

It was there all along!"

The Hawk leaned down closer to the little red haired girl and whispered, "I overheard a scarecrow once telling of a story where this little girl was lost in some land called Oz and was so missing her home that a Wizard told her that if she clicked her shoes 3 times and repeated ' There's no place like home, there's no place like home,'  that she would somehow be transported home."

The little red haired girl looked down at her blue tennis shoes and said, "Really?"

The Hawk said, "Yep, that's what I heard.  You might give it a try.

But now, I must be off.  There's a lion in distress.  Something about a mouse.

Arrivederci!"

With a broad swoop of his wings, the hawk took flight.  

The little red haired girl thought about what he had said.  

She had seen many beautiful sights 

but she did long to return home.   

And before the hawk was fully out of view,

the little red haired girl closed her eyes and tapped her blue tennis shoes and said, 

"There's no place like home.

There's no place like home.

There's no place like ..... "

Home.

It was just that fast that she found herself once again in her

own backyard!

Happy to have returned home, the little red haired girl never ever wanted to leave again.

Well, at least for a while anyway!

(P.S.  We had some wonderful travel experiences over the last 6 months, 

but it has also been wonderful to spend some time here in beautiful Maine.  

Even in the winter, which was when all of these images were taken.)

More of Australia ... Rottnest Island

Since many of us are caught up in this bazaar 'polar vortex' embracing the country, I thought what better time to have warm images of another place and time.  So how about continuing with our Australia trip!

On my last update of Australia, we were spending a month in Perth on the west coast, which was just the beginning of their summer.

During our time there, we took a ferry to visit Rottnest Island, which sits 11 miles off the coast and is a popular holiday destination.  Diving, snorkeling, boating, biking and just plain relaxing is had by many Aussies throughout the summer months.

The Professor and I took our bikes over on the ferry, since no cars are allowed, and biked the circumference of the island .. which was about 14 miles.  It took us a good 5+ hours to make the trip around.  We stopped a lot, what can I say!  There was much to see and enjoy with the white beaches, crashing surf and spectacular views.

We also enjoyed all the wildlife.

The pelicans (which are one of my favorite birds) have a bit

of a different look than our Florida brown pelican.

But just as handsome!

What was really cool to spot 

was the huge Osprey nest.

~~ HUGE ~~

While we stopped to enjoy the couple, 

one Osprey took off and soon was bringing back lunch.

Other critters scattered around the island are quokkas, 

which look like a cross between a pint-size kangaroo and a a small ground hog.  

There were quite a number of them at our lunch spot.  

This little guy was wondering 

if I had any food to spare.

We had a great day of tooling

around Rottnest.

Warm and beautiful.

Ah, so warm!

Beam me over, Scottie!

(I need to thaw out.)

Later, my friends,

Bits and pieces of Victoria

Before I continue on to our stop in Melbourne, I wanted to share a bit more of the beautiful countryside of southeast Australia.  I really couldn't get enough of those beautiful cliffs in the Twelve Apostles.  So indulge me with two more images.

As I said earlier, we took the Great Ocean Road with its incredible views of cliffs and the great Southern Ocean.  But there were some other sights that I found just as fascinating.  There happened to be some big biking event going on.  We encountered hundreds of bikers, fortunately on the opposite side of the road, strung out for miles and miles and miles.  These are hard core folks biking some serious steep inclines!

Another sight that initially we found curious but soon understood its design was this truck.  I have never seen an intake to an engine like this.  See the valve on the right side of the truck (your left).  They call it an intake snorkel over here and is quite common on trucks due to the dust and water which folks commonly encounter.  As far as the front grill, well, those I occasionally see in the states.  But over here?  Well, it seems like every other car has a front grill of some sort.  Let's just say that a lot of kangaroos meet their ends on the front of a car's grill!

Always needing a bird fix, these cockatoos seem to be everywhere.  

And are they ever noisy!!

For our return trip to Melbourne the next day, we decided to take a more direct route back through the countryside.  We drove through some beautiful forests.  The vast height of these trees was humbling.

We were also entertained with the wide variety of mailboxes that folks use to collect their mail.  

The milk can seemed to be the most popular.

But I think the most creative was a microwave!

As we neared Melbourne, it began to rain.  From a distance, I could see this huge yellow patch of color approaching and as we neared, I shouted at The Professor to "Stop! Stop!"  It was a bit dangerous with the rain and cars whizzing by, but we were not alone.  Two more cars pulled off and stood in the rain taking pics.  I joined in photographing and at the time had no idea what the crop was but googled later to discover it was a canola field!

It was a beautiful sight.

We returned to Melbourne for the next four days.  In between The Professor's work, we were able to explore this lovely capital of Victoria.  I look forward to sharing it with you.

Later, my friends,