More Florida Sunsets, Etc.....!...

Here are some more Florida photographs.

They are particularly poignant now, with all the oil spilling in the gulf.

The beautiful oceans

and my beloved Pelicans are in danger.

It both saddens and disgusts me.

I hope we can solve it soon.

Here is a Pelican taking off:

Ahhh....to be on that sailboat, right now.....

He's asking--B.P oil....how could you do this to us?:

Golden delightful evening:

My friend: Howie, the Ibis:

( I forgot to tell you the story about Howie.  The local fisherman trained them to eat leftover bait and meat where we stayed. Having some lunchmeat, we treated Howie off and on during our stay and he came and took it right out of our hand. Except.....one day we ran out and my husband was reading a book by the pool barefoot. Howie came up and pecked at his baby toe...thinking it was a sausage!) LOL  I never saw my husband jump up sooo fast before!)

Orange clouds over the sea:

A pelican making a splash:

(I absolutely LOVE their large wings and enormous wingspan~!)

Dramatic clouds over the ocean:

Sky on fire!:

I am never at a loss of things to photograph

at the Gulf....

I only hope this oil spill will be solved soon

and that all of this beauty

is not lost....

I am sad, horrified, angry, and hopeful all at the same time

that we will be able to find a way to remedy this tragic situation as soon as humanly possible.

This and That from the U.P. in Spring.....

Today, I am posting some more U.P. Spring pictures.

Because we spent the last two weeks of April

and

the first week of May in Florida,

by the time we got back to the U.P.

we had missed a lot of the wildflowers.

It just happened to be a "warmer than usual" spring

in the U.P. this year, which is rare.

But, we did find some wildflowers out in the deep woods:

These are Marsh Marigolds, otherwise known as "cowslips".

These are called: "Spring Beauties":

And, I was afraid I would have missed some of my garden spring flowers, but we did return in time to still catch about a week left of my tulips and other spring plants.

I collect the old watering cans.

The rustier, the better:

I love the character of the old watering cans.

Just think of the nuturing water they supplied the many, many plants over the years...

A tiny yellow "trout lily". I love the delicate shape of their flowers:

Some of my garden tulips:

I have over 500 in my yard now:

This was found deep in the woods...some kind of violet:

Another Trout Lily. They are very tiny, this is a macro of one:

I was so happy

that I hadn't missed all of the U.P. spring wildflowers

or my garden tulips

when we were away.

And now....it's  hard to believe they are all gone

and we are getting full-swing into summer!

I say....

Bring it on!!!

We have a MAY Photo Contest Winner!!!!

This one was tough, folks....

Every submission

deserves

a thanks for such talent!

We had to use a fourth judge this time

because it was so close.

And what is funny

is that the person who won

almost gave up.....

(s)he commented

that (s)he hadn't even gotten

"special mention"  yet despite entering several times...

and that maybe (s)he should stop entering the contests!

Just goes to show you all...

never give up!!

Keep entering...as you never know what might fancy 

certain judges' eyes....!

And I pick different judges 

for every contest.

Some do photography, some do not!

Anyway, I have kept you waiting long enough.......

(drum roll, please..........)

May's WINNER for the photo contest with the theme of:

LANDSCAPES

is..........

DJAN!!!!

What a great job she did!!

I loved the colors and mountains in this one!

Here is her lovely photo:

Amazing photo, isn't it?
The judges remarked:
"The colors in this landscape were wonderful"
"I like the depth of the landscape"
************************************************
I couldn't agree more!
(DJan, your Winning widget to display on your blog forever
will be on it's way to you soon......)

The judging was difficult for them...here are "Special Mentions" for the contender of first place:

--J.J.
--Mistaya
--RNSane
--SquirrelQueen
--Larry
and
Grannyann for her uniqueness on the theme.

Every single judge said it was nearly impossible to pick first place OR narrow down the Special Mentions due to them being so good!

If you forgot what they looked like, go to THIS LINK.
Thanks to everyone of you that entered....you all did a wonderful job!

Now, don't forget to send me your JUNE entry
for the FREE PHOTO CONTEST....
by midnight June 30, 2010
following THESE RULES.

FLOWERS
is the theme.
You don't have to be a Blogger to enter!

More Local Police Reports!!!

Yes, that's right folks..

Time (again!)

for

Local Police Reports!

For those of you that are new to my blog (and thank you very much!!),

I occasionally provide

copies of REAL police reports from my local newspaper.

(Because, frankly, people...

you just can't make this stuff UP!)

and

I add

my own commments in bold italics.

So,

here you are!:

**********************************************************************

In case you are reading this on your I-phone and the print is awful (which it is because I scanned it), it says:

"9:48am: group of people in lot yelling and chanting,

turned out to be magazine salespeople getting ready

for their daily fireup before hitting the streets" (address).

1. Okay..this flat out made me giggle.

2. Who on earth would call this into the police? What were they afraid of?  Were they traumatized by door-to-door salespersons as a child?  Or maybe they were traumatized by those bible bangers that stop by pushing their "Lampost" magazines?

3. Can you picture this? 

4. It could be worse. You could have a job like those salespeople.

5. Have you ever seen them do this in Walmart?  One day, I was particularly tired and rushed to pick up something around 7am before work in a Walmart. Unknown to me, they gathered behind me and began YELLING their team-whatever-chant.  I dropped what I had in my hands I was so startled.  They just stopped, mid-chant, looked at me and then started up again. LOL

6. Come to think of it, maybe they DID need to be arrested. It's just wrong, people, totally and unequivitably WRONG.

7. I bet they never made ONE SINGLE sale on THAT block.

8. Can you imagine the police talking to them when they arrived after getting the complaint?
Police: "Ummm, who is the leader here in this gathering?"
Salesman Supervior (SS): "I am, Sir!"
Police: "What is it that is happening here? Is this some sort of protest?"
SS: "Oh no, Sir...we are just having our morning meeting to fire up for the day of sales".
Police: "Kind of unusual and suspicious behavior. You know, we have a complaint lodged against you..and possibly warranted. I mean, you all are kind of nerdy. Don't  you have a LIFE? You mean you LIKE this kind of work?"
SS: Yes, Sir..why, I practically LIVE sales. In fact, we sell the "Police Monthly"...here just take a looky, shall we...see the Police Officer of the Month in the fold out? Yessiree, you are going to want to take advantage of our special...today only!....a one year's subscription for the price of 18 months...you can't say NO to that, now can you?  Or how about "Detectives are Us"...you look like the kind of person that likes a bargain, no?"
Police: "That's it, fella....Book 'em Dano...The charges  you ask???  Solicitation without common sense and decency, disturbing the peace, not having a life, and being just plain annoying."

8. Yes, I have changed my mind. I would have called the complaint into the police, after all. 
(unless of course, they were selling "Bloggers' Business Weekly".  Hmmmm, wonder what block they are in today??????????????????????????????

More Florida Photos!

As most of you know, at the end of April

we went to Florida

for the birth of my newest grandson.

While there, I took as many photos

as I could...

I always LOVE Florida's sunsets, palm trees, flowers and wildlife.

So, I will continue to post sets of them

until I run out of the ones from that trip.....

in between

posting the ones of our U.P. Spring and summer....

So, here goes:

Florida's gulf coast NEVER disappoints me

regarding supplying some of the most

breathtaking sunsets I have EVER seen:

Tropical flowers!  Wouldn' t you love to tuck one behind your ear and drink a Momossa?

And of course, my goofy pelicans! Love 'em!!:

Sunbeams at sunset!:

Love, love, love the palms....

Another shot of a Hibiscus:

Sometimes the best sunset shots are AFTER the sun goes

all

the

way

down:

Madeira Beach:

We will be back...

you know, with that new granddson living sooooo far away,

I have to go back more often now, don't I?

Oh, darn....

that will be very hard to do.

NOT!!!!  

This and That: U.P. Spring pictures continue!

I am behind in posting pictures that I took weeks ago

when spring arrived

in the glorious U.P. (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan.

So, between still showing you some of the April/May Florida photos

I will still post some photos

of the spring ones I took at home here in the U.P.

Enjoy!

Primrose from my garden:

A yellow finch sitting in the sun, with a little bit of a sassy attitude!:

A rose-breasted grosbeak.

We had four, but they only visited us for about three weeks.

We haven't seen them at all since the beginning of May:

One of my favorite birds! A Flicker!:

We visited some of our favorite rivers this spring...but I loved the foamy swirls

in the water, so I did a black and white of the foam:

Budding trees...I always love when they break out in buds and fresh leaves!:

A duck taking off from the water:

A hooded merganser and mate taking off from the water:

I love spring and the beginning of summer for the flowers blooming, trees coming out with bright green leaves and all the animals we see.

I will be posting more again soon!

Here They Are!...May's Photo Contest Entries!!!

Here they are!!

Although we didn't get as many entries this month,

you will NOT

be disappointed!!

May's theme was:

LANDSCAPES

And what was submitted was gorgeous.

I would want to visit every single one of these places!!

So, grabba cuppa coffee, put your feet up (once again)

and slowly

examine this month's entries.....

Here we go....

This one is from Far Side. She has two blogs. One is called: "Far Side of Fifty" and the other is called: "Far Side of Fifty Photos".

This one is from L.D. (Larry). He has two blogs. One is called:"Larry's Photo a Day" and the other is called: "Larry's Creative Zone".

This one is from SquirrelQueen. She has two blogs. One is called: "The Road to Here" and the other is called: "Through Squirrel Eyes".

This is from Ratty. He has three blogs. One is called "Rat Tales", one is called "The Everyday Adventurer" and the other is called "Nature Center Magazine".

This is from Grannyann. Her blog is called "Ann Tucker Blog.com".

This one is from Mistaya. She has two blogs. One is named: "Seasons Adventures" and one is named: "Life of a Pound Puppy".

This is from DJan. She has two blogs. One is named: "D-Jan-ity" and the other one is named:"Eye on the Edge."

This is from RNSane. Her blog is called: "Carmen's Chronicles".

This is from Sarabz. Her blog is called: "Greyt Days".

This one is from Mark. His blog is called "Going Like Sixty".

This one is from JJ. Her blog is called: "The world according to JJ in L.A.".

****************************************************************************
I warned you!
Aren't they spectacular????

You'd better hope I don't write you and ask you to be a judge!
Because it would be darn near impossible to pick just one winner, again!

Thank you, everyone that entered.
Once again, you did a spectacular job!

If perchance I forgot someone that entered, please let me know RIGHT AWAY
because I will be contacting the judges very soon to choose a winner.

Oh, and one more thing.

JUNE's THEME for the JUNE  2010 FREE PHOTO CONTEST!!
 (insert drum roll here, please....)

It is:

FLOWERS!!

(You knew it would be coming, didn't you???)

So, send me one favorite photo of your
best flower shot by midnight, June 30, 2010
following THESE RULES.
Yes, that means YOU!!!!
(You don't have to have a blog to enter).