Just Another Sunset...

These pictures almost weren't taken. As I was sitting at the picnic table at the Sebastian Inlet State Park Campground, getting eaten up by the tiniest little critters I have ever seen, I decided to go for a walk. I usually take my camera but for some reason didn't this time. As soon as I got to the road and saw the clouds over the water, I turned around and went back for it.

Interesting clouds. Nice, yes?
But I didn't think the sunset was all that spectacular.
I should have known better.
4:53 p.m.

But then I walked further down the road.
And the sun got lower.
And the clouds changed.
And I zoomed in a bit.
5:04 p.m.

A change of position and I zoomed in a bit more.
5:06 p.m.

Just a little further down the road.
5:14 p.m.

It just got better with each passing minute.
5:17 p.m.

And then it was over.
5:22 p.m.

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.

One version of the History of Taps

I can't pass up a good sunset. Especially one that combines clouds and water. The perfect subjects. Mother Nature showing off yet again.

Just as a side note, the only “adjustment” made to these pictures was to resize them for posting to the blog. The colors and contrasts are just as they were captured by the camera. All I did was press the shutter button. They are, quite simply, Mother Nature at her awesome best!

Posted from the Brevard County Public Library, Melbourne Branch. Thanks to their free Wi-fi.

Pickleball Tournament at Chesapeake Thousand Trails

Today we played in the pickleball tournament here. Michelle and Mike Roberts hosted it and I thought they did a great job. I have to tell you, we've played pickleball coast to coast in Thousand Trails parks now and nobody quite plays like the crowd here does. They have fun at it, no matter what. So it wasn't surprising to me that the tournament was fun too.

This tournament was played differently than pickleball tournaments usually are. Because of that, by the end of the tournament, we all ended up being in a different bracket.

I'll have to do different posts for each, because it will be too much to fit into one.

Birds

Remember the ugly ditch? We needed it cleared so the driveway wouldn't flood, but I hated removing the trees since there were always so many birds there.

Well the birds seem pretty happy about the ditch. In fact they love it.


Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina).

WHY didn't I have my camera when I saw the Scarlet Tanager?! A male was splashing around as a female watched from a nearby branch. In the past week I've also seen a Bluebird, an Indigo Bunting, a Blue Grosbeak, and a Goldfinch bathing there.

I can't believe I managed to get two bird pictures in one week.



This Green Heron (Butorides virescens) stayed put nicely while I ran inside to get the camera, but his/her mate got tired of waiting. I think they might be nesting somewhere nearby. They love this dead tree.

Edited to add:
Ever since one of the Dharma Bums told me about the Friday Ark, I've been hooked! Click over there to see links to many more animals. Thanks to that site for adding our links too.

The thing

We found this... thing... on a walk.



Hubby says it is "obviously" the remains of a bug - one of those hairy caterpillars - and it does look like that, from this angle especially.



I tried looking up various combinations of the words dried hairy/spiky alien caterpillar exoskeleton on Google Images but didn't find anything that matched it.

------
Update:

I did think it was a plant pod of some sort at first. But it was the only one around. It was fairly glued to the tree.

Also, I just remembered a dream I had last night.

In the dream, I discovered that we had a basement that I hadn't previously realized was there. There was even a retractable clothesline that I thought would be perfect for drying quilts. I was ecstatic! I could finally wash the quilts!

(Yes I have a yard as big as all outdoors but I also have a dog who'd make mincemeat out of an heirloom quilt in very short order.)

(Yes I have the most boring dreams known to man.)

Teton-Yellowstone Drive-Thru

When I left Juniper Campground at the Ririe Reservoir, I decided to continue on US 26 over to US 89 in Wyoming, which goes through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. I greatly underestimated the amount of time that route would take! I had no intention of stopping for any length of time in either park (blasphemy, I know...) but thought it would be nice to drive through.

Teton National Park. The view from the Glacier View Turnout.
The drive was nice. Very pretty too, but it was also frustrating sometimes. Any kind of wildlife sighting resulted in traffic coming to a standstill. You'd think that people had never seen animals in the wild before! ;-)

First there were Buffalo. Not a big herd though, just a few scattered about.

Then there were Bears! Mama bear and her two cubs came up from the valley and crossed the highway, blissfully ignorant of the chaos and confusion they were causing! These pictures were taken through the windshield with the zoom at maximum magnification. I was about 15 vehicles away from the action.


There was also a moose (at least, that's what I think it was) with a large rack of antlers. I didn't get a picture of it though.

The place where I'll be staying in Montana is only two hours from the northern entrance to Yellowstone and I have every intention of spending a few days there, in the middle of the week when, hopefully, there are fewer people! Though with it being summer, there will probably be lots of people there no matter when I go.

Wordless Wednesday - facebook

first impressions

Desert Wild Flower

I don't

know what this plant is. It is one of the first to put on green leaves and bloom in the spring. It seems to be a native plant. The flowers are tiny, tiny on a long stem clustter of flowers. Leaves are long and stripped. Not much to look at but at least it doesn't have stickers on it.