A Definite Sign of Spring

As always these flowers make it open for Easter even if it is earlier than it will be for some two hundred years.

"The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now.). The last time, it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).
"The next it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!"

Update

I've been told that people check my blog just so they know what I have been doing lately. I guess it appears that I haven't been doing anything for a couple of months. As most of you know, I started my new job in January. Last week (not the one we just finished), it really kicked my butt. This week, it was a minor tab to the posterior. There is so much to know, and sometimes, I just feel like an idiot. That has been where most of my energy goes. A year of upheaval in your job can just throw you some. I don't know how people go from job to job.
No trips for me since January. I started back to yoga (need to drop that 8lbs I put on). If I loose some or don't gain anymore, I can stay in my current clothes. There has been lots of beer drinking especially last Saturday. (Tell me why you book non-Irish bands for St. Patrick's Day.) I saw Tara and Jim recently (in February or late January I think). We went to Capital Ale House to sample some beer (notice a theme here).
All of you guys probably know too that we are planning a trip this year that will fulfill a lifelong dream. I will actually make it to Alaska...and just before I turn 40!
Today my plans are to do some yard work...its 11:30 and I haven't made it out there yet. Hmm, doesn't look promising. Also, I plan to go to Costen floors to look at flooring for my kitchen and bathroom. It is going to be really hard not to buy for my tastes, and instead buy nuetral in hopes it will appeal to some unknown individual.
That is what I have been doing lately.

South Beach

Back to our trip to Miami at the beginning of the year. While there, I really wanted to go to South Beach. Not for the celebrities, not for the restaurants, maybe the beach if would have been warmer, but I wanted to go for the Art Deco architecture. Yes, I am that big of a nerd. I enjoyed walking around (except when the wind blew which was about once a minute) and just looking at the buildings. Here are some of my favorites.

Sorry Hokie Fans.

The sad things is...I have many more photos. I may be the only one who cares. We didn't make it down there at night but we bet the neon would have been really "neat".

It is a juvenile Double Crested Cormorant

I never really trust my bird identification abilities and I was wrong. I thought this was a Great Cormorant not a Double Crested. However, Todd guided me to the right one.
We walked the Anhinga Trail while we were in the Everglades. These birds, Anhingas, an American Bittern, lots of herons, and some alligators could be seen around this trail. This is were we first met our English friends. Todd was trying to identify a Eastern Phoebe and they came up to us. We quickly saw a Great Egret (if I remember correctly) and a Common Yellowthroat while we were standing with them. I tell you birdwatching makes fast friends.


I zoomed in. My ISO was too high and that is why I have over-exposed areas on him. I forget how to use my camera between each trip and then I have about a two day learning curve. All my pictures from the first day are over exposed.

Is it real?

Todd and I traveled to Miami for the Orange Bowl last week. (Yes, Kansas beat Virginia Tech and I was colder there than when I was sitting in the pouring rain for the loss to Boston College). Anyway, we flew down on Tuesday so that we could do some sightseeing. Wednesday, we went to the Everglades for some bird watching but I found this guy (or girl) the most interesting. Other individuals had spread the word that there was a large american crocodile behind the marina (I believe this was the Flamingo Visitor Center). I never thought I would get this close to one. We arrived to a crowd of people and they were waving us over. As you looked down off the dock, you see this crocodile taking a shower. A young girl informed us that he had been on the opposite shore but had heard the water running when someone turned the spigot on. Supposedly he made a beeline here and then sat for the longest time just letting the water drip onto his face.


Picture from a small floating platform looking back towards the dock.



Taken off to the side from him.

Look straight down from the dock.

In Miami

We arrived late Tuesday. Some observations so far: Never rent from Alamo if you are going through the Ft. Lauderdale airport,Wal-mart is annoying everywhere, birdwatching makes new friends, Floridians think that 70 is cool and that 60 is chilly, and if a review about a hotel says they offer ear plugs then think twice.
Because of birdwatching we met the same couple three times yesterday. They were an older couple of London, England. We also met, very briefly, a couple who were actually younger than us. They looked to be in their twenties. Birdwatching tends to be an "older" thing.
I must admit that yesterday was cold but only because the wind was gusting.
Tonight is the game!

Fall Colors

More pictures from our trip up the Blue Ridge Parkway.


This seemed more graphic to me with all the tree trunks going through the picture.

This tree was very lopsided because of growing on the edge of the road. The side by the road was very short and the other side, down the hill, was twice as large. I was very uphappy with its shape and compensated by going in close.

I tried creating visual interest by putting that branch in the center of the picture. Not sure if I did so.

I tried capturing the red, yellow and green in this picture.

The actual road of the parkway.

It's about time

I haven't posted lately because I haven't had much to say. I have wanted to gripe but decided against that since that isn't what this is about. I can't say I still won't use the blog to gripe in the future though.

Saturday, Todd and I went to Blacksburg for the Va Tech vs. Florida State game. It was a 3:30 p.m. kick off so we stayed in Roanoke last night and took a leisurely drive back to Richmond along the Blue Ridge Parkway and Route 60 today. When you get off the main roads, Virginia is really a beautiful state. Our goal was to find picture worthy fall colors. I can never duplicate on film what I see with my eyes. However, this picture came out how I imagined. I will share some others later and you can decide if they are picture worthy yourself.

How Sad

From an article I read today.

The wolf's triumphant return to Yellowstone may be its undoing. The 66 wolves brought to Yellowstone and the Central Idaho wilderness in 1995 and 1996 have grown to about 1,300. At the request of the state legislatures in Wyoming and Idaho — lobbied heavily by organized shooting-sports interests — the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USF&WS) is about to remove the Yellowstone-area wolf from the federal Endangered Species list and allow the states to manage them. Known as the 10(j) rule, a special exemption to the Endangered Species Act allows government agencies extra leeway in controlling "experimental populations" like the gray wolf; in short, the government is allowed to kill them. Both Wyoming and Idaho expect USF&WS to lift wolf protection early next year. Then it will be open season for many eager shooters, including Idaho's governor, C.L. "Butch" Otter, who told a rally of petitioning sportsmen in Boise earlier this year, "I'm prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself." Idaho's official stance is to allow the killing of all wolves over and above the statutory minimum number of breeding pairs: 100 of the approximately 673 wolves in the state.

Read the whole article.

Blog Action Day

A memory to commemorate Blog Action Day. There are things that I remember from my childhood that often make me go "hmmm". For instance, as a child (around 5 years old and painfully shy) I would not hug my grandmother's brother because he could not talk due to a stroke and to this day I regret it. In middle school, my mother arrived home to me crying uncontrollably about a commercial I had just seen. I believe the commercial was for a telephone company but it had a elderly man asking his daughter where his hat was. "Dad its on your head." Looking back, the man had Alzheimer's Disease. The "hmmm" of this story is that my first job out of college and for the next eight years was working with elderly individuals in a adult day care. Many of them attended the center due to strokes and Alzheimer's Disease.

How does this relate to Blog Action Day? Here is my next "hmmm" story. To those of you who know me, know I love whales. I have a tattoo of one. I have gone on whale watching tours. I adopted one. I own Free Willy and the Life magazine about Kiko. I yelled very loudly for my boyfriend to hurry up on the Oregon Coast because I saw one. I admit I cried after watching the orca show at Sea World.
I grew up in Tazewell County, many miles from an ocean much less a whale of any kind. I don't know what triggered my whale obsession. I remember having a book but not what it said. I don't know if Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom had a special but, I remember a time when I was in elementary school where I decided to make flyer's and post them around my neighborhood (a dead end dirt road with thirteen houses on it, two of them being family in addition to my neighbors). My flyer's were to "Save the Whales" with a crude drawing of a sperm whale on it. I am sure I drew the spout also. I wonder what my neighbors thought?! It's amazing that these animals are still such a fascination for me: ask Todd about my excitement in Oregon. They also still need my (our) help. There are nine species of whales on the endangered list. Currently there are 936 endangered animals on just the vertebrae list. It is us who is taking away their habitat, needing makeup from their fat, or polluting the waters that are endangering these animals (and plants). Research how you can help. Look at other blogs that participated in the Blog Action Day. Make a contribution. Any small amount is a step in the right direction.