Is There Anything Cuter than Baby Geese?

All baby animals and birds

look adorable.

We had a geese family

stop by our dock

this spring.

When I saw the babies,

I KNEW I had to take photographs.

Although the Mama Goose

kept her eye

on me

(and gave me the stink eye a few times)

I kept a relatively

safe distance

and

used my zoom to catch their adorableness.....

Enjoy!

Don'tcha just wanna pet these soft downy heads?:

Mom and Dad with the crew:

Giving the youngins a swimming lesson:

Looks like Mom and Dad have their hands (wings?) full:

Beauty in the grass:

Help me Rhonda!

I want one!:

Fuzzy and thirsty:

Look at their fuzzy little butts!:

Oh. My.

Like all parents..

we wish

we could keep

our babies young forever.

But, time goes on.

Luckily, in time, these babies will have babies for us all to adore too.

That's what is so nice about Nature.

Turtles!

The same day we went and caught the frog in the raindrops

(see my last post),

we caught some turtles

in

a ditch

beside the road.

I caught the back

of the largest

turtle I have EVER seen in the U.P.

Unfortunately, it popped underwater

and did not come back up so I could capture it better with my camera:

But luckily, this guy had no idea I was by him:

Usually, they feel the vibration on the ground before I can get close to them to get a shot

and they go underwater.

I had to use a zoom to get this one:

He was just hangin' out, getting some sun:

Or maybe admiring his reflection in the water:

After all, he IS pretty handsome, don't you think?:

We saw about three others that day,

but they were very spooked by any movement

or

shadows

and would plop right into the water and stay underwater

for a long, long time....

they definitely outwaited this photographer.

Steady like a turtle has its roots in good history.

They outsmarted me, and that was all I could capture that day!

Top 25 Retirement Blog Winner???? OMG!!

I received the following e-mail today:

Dear The Retired One,

Congratulations! Emma Lee here, and your blog, The Retirement Chronicles,
has received our 2010 Top 25 Retirement Blogs award!

You can see your name amongst our winners here at:
www.onlinemba.com/top_retirement/#The_Retirement_Chronicles

Winners were chosen through a scoring system led by internet nominations,
which came from your reader base!


Online MBA

I don't know how it happened,

but

it made my day!!!

Thanks to anyone and everyone who may have nominated my blog 

for this.

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head

Sometimes, when we go out looking for photographs

you don't find a lot to inspire you

as you do on other days.

We went out one rainy, gray day

and got some interesting photos,

but none that got my

heart racing with joy.

That is,

until

I

downloaded them

on the computer.

We found a simple subject....

a

frog.

But what made him really cool

is that it started

raining during our photo shoot...

making

some very

cool effects.

Here is the sequence as it occurred:

Here he is, peeking out at me from the pond:

But then?

Kirrr-plop....a raindrop beside him:

"What the HECK was that?":  he asked.

Oh. My. Goodness:

(I fell in love with the raindrop patterns!)

And the closeups of the action of the drops:

"Does anyone have a frog-sized umbrella?"

Just goes to show you....

nature can throw a great show!!

You just need to notice it!

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

Speaking of NOTICING things and capturing them with your camera...

dont' forget

the JULY FREE PHOTO CONTEST!!!

July's theme is:

ACTION or MOTION

Please remember to submit your photo by July 31st, midnight

following THESE RULES!!

Pay attention...the month is HALFWAY over..

you only have a few weeks to get out there and find a terrific action/motion shot.

Wild Swans!

When taking our usual ride out in the woods to see what we could find,

we found a

beautiful

beaver pond.

It had a huge beaver house in the middle....

and

looking out at the beaver house,

I was surprised

to see

four

large...

SWANS!!!!

Mostly they just slept.

They were quite far from us, at the other side of the pond,

but I did my best

to use my zoom to get them the best I could.

Here are three of them...two sleeping and one wondering what the noise was:

I was trying to be as quiet as possible, so they wouldn't get scared and either

swim away or fly off.

It must have worked, because she tucked her head back in for another nap:

I loved the big piece of "driftwood" looking wood behind them too:

The fourth swan was sitting across from them...also having sweet dreams:

I wonder what swans dream about?:

A shot of all four swans and the huge beaver house behind them:

They never woke up the whole time I snapped pictures of them....

we quietly left, leaving them to their slumbers:

We saw them one more trip out...and then yesterday when we checked to see if they were there?

They were nowhere to be found....

More This and That from the U.P.

Someone once left a comment on my blog which was one of the best compliments

I ever got.

(S)he said:

"I like your blog because you take ordinary pictures of anything and everything

and

make them extraordinary".

Wow. I was thrilled. The comment blew me away.

Because since retiring and getting into this new, confusing hobby

of photography, it has opened me up

to loving nature again.

Ten times more than I loved it before.

Because, by capturing photos, (especially macro photos)

you begin to look at the ordinary things

in a very different way.

The details.

The colors.

The patterns.

The beauty leaps out at you, hits you on the head and says:

"See? Why didn't you appreciate me BEFORE?"

"I have ALWAYS been here, waiting for you".

So, today,

I am sharing some of the things whispering to YOU...

"Please notice me....I am here, waiting for you to see the miracle that is ME."
 

(Do you hear them?)

Does anyone know the name of these pretty pink wildflowers? We saw them along a wet ditch in the woods:

I think this is a catbird?:

An old bridge:

The road beyond the bridge. Shall we follow it?:

Like maybe our ancestors did?:

A beaver pond at dusk... the setting sun lighting up the lily pads and water flowers:

The promise of yellow water lilies blooming soon:

A tiny hummingbird at my feeder:

A dragonfly, waiting to land on you to give you good luck and fortune:

I hope you

get an opportunity

to

see the beauty around you today.

Fabulous unFolding Ferns!

We went for a ride in the woods about a month and a half ago

and

it had just rained earlier in the day.

Everything was this intense, neon green color.

I felt like it was a tropical rain forest in the north.

But what really hit my eye

were

these brilliant, artistic

unfolding ferns.....

I just fell in love with them.

So here are some shots of the unfolding ferns....

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Just look at this twisty, convoluted fern

that nature designed to come up through the soil

and unfold

right before our eyes!:

(If only I could pack as well when we go on trips and I am trying to stuff my suitcase!)

I loved how the sun hit these ferns coming up from the forest floor:

The sun hitting the head of this fern reminded me of when

you first light a sparkler on the 4th of July:

A twisty tied curl (along with a bug!):

It's spring....

it had to wear a wooly hat to keep warm

while sprouting:

A bunch of newborn ferns!:

By now, they are full grown, huge ferns.....

but

I like them best when they are newborns......................................................