Happy Thankful Thursday!

 Happy Thursday everyone!

 I am sharing some of the plants and blooms around our yard.
The rhododendrons are blooming like crazy, the Clematis is looking beautiful and the Siberian Iris are looking lovely too.  It seems most of our blooms are purple colors, one of my favorite colors beside blue.  

I am linking up with Lydia of Where the Wild Things Were and the Favorite Fotos linky.

"May your day be blessed with an abundance of peace, love and gratitude. 

"Peace begins with love and respect."

 I have 3 hummingbird feeders setup around the garden and yard, they are close to the butterfly bush and irises. 

One of the bigger bull frogs near our pond, one day I saw 3 of these frogs sitting around our little pond. 

 The clematis is very pretty on our fence, one of my favorite vine plants.  The photos do not show just how pretty this color really is in person. 

 I would like to see the whole fence covered with this clematis below. It looks beautiful. 

This clematis is a different species growing at the edge of our driveway. 

  "May all beings everywhere, be happy and free."

I am thankful to see all these pretty blooms around our yard. 

I can not figure out why my camera shows our rhododendrons as being more pinkish,  they are really more of a light purple or lavender color. 

This photo below shows more of the actual color of our rhododendrons.

I always like including a bird on my post, this is the female Red-bellied Woodpecker.  She is a daily visitor to my yard.   

My sky shot for the day, white puffy clouds seen above my yard. I think we have had more cloudy days than sunny lately, I am thankful for the sunshine whenever it appears.. 

Just wondering, how is the shopping in your area? Are you finding everything you want and need? I am thankful so far we have everything we need. One thing I can not find for a few weeks now is yeast.  I wanted to try a bread recipe and I can not find yeast anywhere.  Some things like the disinfectant wipes and some cleaning supplies have never been in stock.  Luckily we had these in stock at home. 

My latest books are:
Jacqueline Winspear's Elegy for Eddie, the Maisie Dobbs series # 9
Breath of Scandal by Sandra Brown 
The Cuckoo's Calling the 1st in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith a pseudonym J.K.Rowling


I hope everyone is staying safe, happy and healthy! I am always thankful hubby and I are both doing well!


I am always thankful for your visits and the comments.



Live simple and be happy!  😊 Spread peace, joy & happiness!


Thank you Michelle for hosting Thankful Thursday. 
Thank you to Yogi the host of   Skywatch Friday


Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!

Our World , My World

Hello and happy Monday! Happy April to everyone too!

I am linking up with Lydia of Where the Wild Things Were and the Favorite Fotos linky. Thank you Lydia for hosting the party.

I am sharing more Florida images, these photos are from our 3rd visit on Jan 12th to the Blowing Rocks Preserve and Beach near Jupiter Florida. 

This day was more relaxed, we sat on the beach for a good part of the day. We watched the waves crashing on the rocks, I watched the Brown Pelicans flying along the beach. 

I sat for awhile on my beach chair and watch an artist paint this scene below. I was amazed at how fast she painted the scene. 

Not quite finished, but I think the artist did a beautiful painting. 

Waves crashing right in front of me, I was lucky I was not splashed. It might have felt good though, it was a hot sunny day.

I was enjoying the waves crashing on the rocks but I also enjoyed watching the groups of Brown Pelicans flying by. 

I tried practicing my flights shots, whenever the Pelicans came flying by me. 

We also  enjoyed the Blowing Rocks Preserve butterfly garden, we walked the boardwalk towards the Indian River Lagoon. 

I was surprised to see a shark swimming near the waves, I also saw a sea turtle. I could not catch them with my camera, they moved too quickly. 

Me and my shadow. 

Thanks for your visit today!  I hope you enjoyed my post and photos.


Thanks to Angie the host of  Mosaic Monday

Thanks to LadyFi  the host of Our World Tuesday!

Check out the links above, I hope to see you there. Thanks to the hosts today. Enjoy your day and new week.


As always I thank you for stopping by and as always I appreciate your comments.

Honeymoon Island Beach State Park

Hello,

I am linking up with Lydia of Where the Wild Things Were and the Favorite Fotos linky.

On Nov 21st hubby and I visited the Honeymoon Island Beach State Park, Dunedin Florida located on the Gulf of Mexico.  They had a beautiful white sandy beach, lots of pretty seashells and of course lots of birds.

A closeup of the Terns.

A pretty sky and white sandy beach.

A Great Blue Heron in the surf.

A large flock of Terns and some gulls.

The beautiful beach, sky and Gulf of Mexico.

Jellyfish and seashells.

Brown Pelican

An Osprey

A Gopher Tortoise

My list of things I am thankful for:

For all the blogs I read and follow.
I am thankful for small acts of kindness.
I am thankful for you here reading my blog.

I hope you enjoyed my post and photos. Thank you for your visit and comments on my post. Enjoy your day and the weekend ahead!

Thanks to Michelle for the meme Thankful Thursday

I am also linking up to Skywatch Friday, I hope to see you there.
Thank you to Sylvia, Yogi and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.

Living Desert Zoo & State Park

November 9, 2013




 I am sharing some critters from the Living Desert Zoo in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The Living Desert Zoo exhibits 40 species of native animals and hundreds of species of native plants. These are critters and plants native to the Chihuahuan Desert. There is 1.3 miles of trail, walk along seeing the wildlife, native plants, flowers and of course seeing the native wild birds.

It was in the Aviary, I saw my first Roadrunner. They are quick movers and kind of funny to watch. I did not count this captured bird as a lifer but later in the trip I started seeing the Roadrunners in the wild. I was really surprised to see a lot of House Sparrows in the Aviary.

I love the cute roadrunner and the  hare riding the armadillo?

 

The Roadrunner in the aviary.

Are these birds are native to New Mexico,  they look like they belong in Costa Rica. They are a cute couple. I do NOT  remember their name, I am guessing the Red-Crowned Parrot.

A display of the pretty native plants.

A Eurasian Collared Dove, not a native but I found it in one of the trees in the zoo.

Besides the zoo critters, I was seeing the wild birds in the zoo like the Yellow-rumped Warbler above.

A cool Mountain Lion seen at the zoo, I did get to see (no photo) a real wild mountain lion at the Bosque Del Apache NWR later in the week.

 

The Black Bear is another native animal seen in New Mexico..

The Great Horned Owl..

A beautiful butterfly on one of the native plants.

 

One of the many Red-Shafted Flickers I saw at the zoo and during the week.

Pretty sure this is another Townsend's Solitaire seen at the zoo.

This was one of the few lizards I saw during the vacation, I was expecting to see more.

The native plants at the zoo attracted many different butterflies and moths. I believe this one is a Sulfur..Clouded Yellow.

Another one of the pretties.  I have to find a website for native butterflies and moths of New Mexico. I hope you enjoyed the walk thru the zoo.

Thanks for stopping by and  I wish everyone a happy weekend.

 To see more beautiful photos and cute critters.

Please visit:  Favorite fotos Thanks to the gracious host Lydia of Where the Wild Things Were

Oregon coast..Yachats

I am linking up with Favorite Fotos with Lydia @ Where the Wild Things Were


Can you believe I have MORE Oregon photos? These are some shots from our 2 nights stay on the Oregon coast in the town called Yachats. We were happy with our room 18 at the Fireside Motel. We arrived a little early so we let them know we were there and were told to come back in a couple of hours. No problem there, we drove down the coastal road 101 to do more sightseeing.

In the mosaic above I have some coastal scenes around Yachats and a Surf Scoter

Before going on our trip to Oregon I did a lot of research on Trip Advisor. I found out that Strawberry Hill  was a great place to see the tidal pools at low tide. We were not disappointed. We saw many sea stars ( I always called them starfish), the sea lions were sunning themselves on the rocks, the sea anemones were beautiful. We were lucky to be there during the low tide which made walking around on the rocks easy.

 We had a huge picture window with great views of the ocean. On the first night we were able to watch a couple of whales feeding right from our room. How cool is that?  I was thrilled with our view and seeing the whales. The coast was a great place for me to add a few more lifers to my list. YEAH!!!

 In this mosaic, I have some shots from Strawberry Hill tidal pools, sea lions, my lifer the Pigeon Guillemots, the view of the ocean from our room, and a view of the coast from a overlook.

The ocean was filled with my lifer the Pigeon Guillemots, Surf Scoters and Harlequin ducks and Gray Whales. I will be doing a separate post just on the Pigeon Guillemots. I saw them often along the coast.

We stopped on RT 101 at various overlooks that had beautiful views like this one above.

This is the Heceta Head Lighthouse beach.  The Lighthouse is being renovated and is covered up but we did enjoy a walk on the beach.

The view from our room 18 at the Fireside Motel. The pathway outside the hotel is a trail called Yachats 804 trail that goes for 3 miles along the beautiful coast.



To see more wonderful photos and mosaics please visit Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

Thanks for stopping by to see my post and thanks to Mary the host of Mosaic Monday and to the host of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia and Sandy. I wish everyone a safe and HAPPY week ahead.