Good Morning

Good morning clouds.

Good morning bicycles.

Good morning empty beer cans. Our across-the-canal neighbors had a fishing tournament; this is how they organized their empties!

Good morning blinds.

Good morning chairs.

Good morning sun.

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Chairs

We finally found some comfortable chairs for the bar on our porch.





We couldn't decide on a color so decided on citrus, cherry, harvest, and leaf. I love these poetic names!

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Still confused....

One picture is large and the other is small. Hmmm....

I'll try another.





Well, it's square, anyway, like it's supposed to be. Guess I'll have to keep fiddling. It really is nice and easy, though....if I could only get the picture sizes right.

BTW, is anyone on Instagram? Let me know; I'd love to follow you.

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Well, Maybe Not

I don't like those small pictures. The umbrella one was taken with Instagram and is the right size. The others I took with my DSLR camera. I went into settings and changed the size to large but it didn't help. So, I'm going to try a few more.




This one was an Instagram pic.





We had to have some work done on our boat lift so were out on the boat moving it at eight this morning. The sunrise on the canal was so pretty. This was also taken using Instagram but it didn't come out square. Weird.

Okay. That's all I have right now. Time to post this and see how it looks.


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At the Beach

We went to the beach yesterday with my sister, Sally, her husband, Mike, and their daughter, Michelle. It was so beautiful and peaceful.



I walked around taking pictures of the natural flora:










And fauna:



Birds are fauna, right?

I'm using a new app called BlogPress to post this from my iPad. I still need to fiddle with it more. This is the third time I try. Had to delete the other two. But I'm learning. It's so much easier than firing up the computer.

Blue Angels

The Blue Angels are in town for an air show this coming weekend.

They've been practicing right in front of our porch.

I felt like I could just reach out and touch them!



Company

My friend, Regina, came down for a visit.

We went boating and saw dolphins cavorting right near us.

We also took a ride through the canals

and saw this little guy.

She took this picture of us.  Once I got done teaching, I decided not to color my hair anymore.  Yikes, is it ever white!

We ate too much.  Yummy kabobs!

A good time was had by all!

The Ploy

I was sitting in bed playing on my iPad this morning.

Gary was up fiddling around in the kitchen.

I knew he wanted to use the iPad and wondered how he'd get it from me.

It didn't take him long.

He poked his head into the bedroom and said, "I just thought you'd like to know that the sun is about to rise."

I jumped out of bed, grabbed my robe and camera, dropped the iPad next to him on the couch, and headed outside to click away.

He'd said the magic words!

Having Fun with My Camera

I love taking close-ups.  This hibiscus is in our front yard and I went down to take pictures of it as the sun was lowering tonight.

And, of course, had to take a picture as the sun set, too.

Yesterday we took a boat ride.  As we were going down the canal to Charlotte Harbor, I sat in the rear of the boat and took pictures with my zoom lens on. This ibis was watching us go by.

This arrangement was on someone's back porch.  I like how the chain frames it.

We ended up at a restaurant on Pine Island called The Lazy Flamingo.  Here are Bob and Gary sharing a cold beer.  Bob is Gary's father and is almost 87 and still going strong.

I got a kick out of these guys cleaning fish and feeding the scraps to the birds right near two "Please don't feed the birds" signs!

Look at the avid look in these pelicans' eyes waiting for a handout.

I love seeing the American flags fluttering in the breeze all up and down the canal.

Just Some Pictures

I got up early this morning and have been sitting on the couch in the sunrise downloading pictures.

The one above was a happy accident.  My camera was on manual and this bouquet of bokeh was the result.

Last evening I crawled around on the grass clicking away.  The light was so beautiful!

It wasn't a particulary beautiful sunset but I like this B&W effect without any post processing.

This one was taken about a week ago on a foggy morning.

Our orange trees are erupting in fragrance!  Aah, they smell so wonderful!

I took this one when I first got up this morning.

What did you do at first light today?

Cupcakes

About a month ago

Gary decided to make cupcakes for the first time...chocolate, of course.

They came out great.

Afterwards, he remarked, "I can't believe how easy that was!  I'd have been making them a long time ago if I knew that!"

And he handed them out to everyone.

So, as a little joke, our friend, Sandy, gave him a red velvet cupcake mix for his birthday.

He's really into it, now!



PS. Gary just read this post and pointed out that I forgot to mention that he made the cream cheese frosting from scratch. It was delicious!

Getaway

We took off on the boat for an overnight stay on Marco Island.

Here are a few pictures I took along the way.

Love this old rocking chair sitting on a dock.

These rowers were working hard.

So peaceful and serene.

The Sanibel lighthouse.

We called ahead and made reservations at The Boathouse Inn.

It was vintage Florida.  I got a kick out of this lamp in our room.

Luckily, the place was very clean and friendly.

This cracked me up:

Nice

People

Parking

Only

And it was the only empty parking spot in the whole lot!

Looking east last night at sunset.

A beautiful ending to a couple of relaxing days.