§ Creating Collages...

My photo albums are chock full of miscellaneous images these days, so I thought before I clean out the folders, and delete some pics, I'd make a few collages...

-brown pelican, yellow aloe vera, black bellied whistling ducks, terns, thistle blossom, turtle and peruvian water lily.


Seawall fisherman, moon, red salvia plant, botanical bog, sunshine, shrimp boat


windmill, amaryllis, shrimper, green anole, alligator, restaurant marquee, flag, yard art spinner

bird nest, bird feeders of the 'literal' kind, yellow wildflower, Charlies Pasture Pavilion, collared dove, tour boat, snowy egret & friend [dowitcher]

Now, to change from collages to random thoughts...

...When I was talking with Erik as he drove from teaching class to his daily stop...Starbucks, we were conversing about the upcoming movies, some of which will no doubt be mega-hits.  With the likes of Jurrasic Park IV, the Avengers...and then in the month of December, my highly anticipated movie:  Star Wars The Force Awakens [at least that is what's it's dubbed for now...who knows if it'll change before release date].  Okay, I knew this already, but ya'll don't so I'll share.  Erik does his opening speech with each new semester and new students with a quote from Empire Strikes Back.  For the both of us, it's an all time favorite, which by the way, we preach like gospel...and it goes like this: Do or do not. There is no try.

...I have been a bit disappointed in season 12 of NCIS ['nough said]

...With my mentioning of tornado warnings around the nearby counties here in Texas, Irene experienced a tornado!!  Where she works...the roof was damaged and a storage building was demolished.  No injuries.

...Which word, if pronounced wrong, is right?

a palindrome is a word, phrase, verse, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. The question:

...What word becomes a palindrome when viewed upside down and backwards?

§ I See the Moon [and a critter]...

...but the critter isn't ON the Moon!!

Honestly, I had a post readied and prescheduled to post at midnight but since I got up early to watch the blood moon eclipse and to try to get some decent photos of the event, I thought I'd share this instead and save my other post for fences and skywatch and critters for some other time. And yes, while out there in the mosquito infested yard, in the dark, I was fumbling around and trying not to stumble over anything...but, I had company!! ['possum on the fence]

I'll share my company first.....

In the 2nd photo, notice how LONG its tail is...from the bottom of its well....bottom, curving down to the left on the fence, and it actually is quite similar in color to the hibiscus branch!!

Well, I got out of bed very early. I had read online that the eclipse was to begin around 5 a.m. EDT. Which meant in my time zone...4 a.m.!! I got out on the patio at 4:15 in the morning and the moon [luck was going my way...it was clear skies!!] was about half covered with our shadow already!

I took several blurry photos. Naturally. But the 'bloodier' it became, the better I could focus on a bit of detailing...

...after about an hour of watching the moon and our shadow covering the entire surface, then, we started to spin away and the shadow was receding as the moon was dropping toward the horizon [the dark line at the bottom of the moon is a power line!]

...around 5:30 a.m. it began getting lighter and the moon was beginning to drop too near the neighborhood homes/rooftops. The color of the moon changed dramatically the later it became....

Around 6:15/6:30 I went back outdoors and stood on one of our patio benches...the moon was still under partial eclipse, but a normal 'white glow' with a faint shadow at the bottom quarter. By that time the moon dropped completely from my view. And the phenomenal occurrence during this blood moon eclipse is....as the moon set in the west, the sun was rising to the east at the same time!!! It's called a selenelion, and it occurs when the sun and moon are 180 degrees apart in the sky at the same time.

Furthermore, we are in a rare series of lunar eclipses. This lunar eclipse is the second of a series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses. The first total lunar eclipse was April 15, 2014, and the next two will be on April 4 and Sept. 28 of next year. This series of total lunar eclipses is rare and the next series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses will not occur until the year 2032.

linking to: Good Fences - Skywatch Friday - Willy Nilly Friday 5 - Camera Critters - Saturday Critters

§ Wild Pink Yonder...

1] Pink/Red Sky in the Morning...

2] Have y'all heard the WEA cell phone emergency alert? We did, again, this past week.  It is like what you hear in old movies with the air raid siren going off? Y'know what I'm talking about, right? Well, the WEA [wireless emergency alert] has been amalgamated within the cellphones of reputable companies and part of the warning signals if necessary by our governments [local and national]. It was raining cats and dogs one day here and just didn't stop. At times, the downpour was very heavy and visibility was nearly nil! Water was collecting in the gutters around our home and the force and amount was flooding the streets and moving up the sidewalks and on to our yards. The WEA rings...then, immediately followed by a text message. Got me to thinking.........ya, it hurt.....but I was wondering just what it sounded like in a big, public, place like the mall where everyone has their phones turned on. Y'know? Or where y'all work...a big company, all phones on the employees desks...and then, all of a sudden, the Alert goes off!!??  We've had an Amber Alert a little over a year ago, but I don't recall our phones 'going off' on an alert tangent like this time.  Guess since I was concerned for our home being flooded;  I paid more attention. And on one of my phone app, we had several days and nights' warnings going off with the high tide coming in and the swells out in the Gulf creating the high tide to be even MORE- flooding the beaches to the DUNES....no camping; and beach access roads closed.

3] England is expecting [more so William and Kate] another royal heir!! News states they have a girl's name picked...Elizabeth Diana Windsor. This has a beautiful ring to it! I like it. Thing is, I hope if it is a girl, they don't call her by a shortened version - Princess Di. That seems a bad thing [not being disrespectful of Diana Spencer, just a bad omen from the past tragedy.] I'm sure tho, that the 2nd heir will be beautiful...look what genes she [he] will have. That Prince George is a doll. His sister or brother will be the same without a doubt.

4] Dragonfly Porn...



5] Mentioning again....I have set up a linking party for your Holiday Home Showcase for Autumn. I will add a link after I post my first one, here, sometime this weekend. All about Spiders and Creepy. It's such a fun time of year for me. If you care to share, or check it out, look just below my blog header. Then, click on the linked graphic.

linking to: Willy Nilly Friday 5 - Skywatch Friday - Camera Critters - Saturday Critters - I ♥ Macro

§ Bear With Me...

1] First off, my title..."Bear With Me"...is it supposed to be bare with me? Or bear? Well, I would think that it should be bear instead of bare [naked]. In this context it should be 'bear' because in all reality the terminology here is a short version of the root word 'forebear' meaning: to have patience. There, hope that clarifies it for you. LOL

September 26th, 2014 will go down in the Yankees' history annals. I've watched him grow from a young player to an all time record breaker and I may add one who takes his fanfare seriously and treats his fans with respect and knows that without them, he wouldn't be where he is today!! It was Derek Jeter's last home game before his retirement. 20 years on the NYY field. A shorstop and team captain. And in so many ways it was an historical event. Bottom of the ninth inning, one out, NYY had a player on 2nd base. Up to bat, Derek Jeter. First pitch [Baltimore Orioles].......Derek hit a base hit out into right field. The player on 2nd made it to home plate, giving the Yankees a win!! And Derek a hero. The fanfare was deafening. If you follow me at any time, you'll know that he's been a favorite of mine for a long, long, LONG time. I was ecstatic and tearful at the same time. Awww, shucks, MLB dot com allows us to share in the moment of history...



As the commentator states "It wasn't just that he did it...it was the WAY he did it!"

*---♠♣♦♥---*



2] I finished one of the best books I've read in a long, long, time!! Of course, it helps that it's a favorite subject of mine. Edgar Allan Poe. But this book was more about his love affair. Historians still battle with the concept that this may all be conjecture..."is it really based on fact?" I guess we'll never know. But, in the literary field, there is speculation that Mr. Poe had an affair while married to his 1st cousin, Virginia. An affair with Frances Osgood. She had a bit of 'fame' herself...being a poetess. No matter really...the book was truly a page turner!! So descriptive and intense at times, as the reader,  I had to continue without stopping to see what happened the next day and the next. I even thought, after completely reading it from cover to cover..."This book would make an excellent historical drama!!" The book? Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen...

From the back of the book: The Author's note ending lines---"There, between the pages, her wit and passion gleams, as does her everlasting love for Edgar Allan Poe."

I'm sitting here with the keyboard telling you this Mrs. Poe is phenomenal! Tho speculative in correctness...it's one that will leave you wanting more. And I rarely read the notes and acknowledgements in the back of the book...but I did. That says something positive.

After completing Mrs. Poe, for me it's always a bit difficult to actually get an excellent read out of my mind for some time, but while at half price books over the weekend, a book that has been in my cellphone folder of ones to look for while perusing their shelves...I can delete it from the phone...I found it!! It's dubbed a thriller, and 80% of reviews I've  read, it's another excellent page turner. I'll be the judge for myself of course, but so far, it's just that, a gruesome thriller...all about Judas, Jesus' betrayer. The caption on the book states "Revenge is about to get biblical"...I've literally consumed the first 10 chapters and the book has definitely caught my attention!! One reflection from another reader states::

... a surprising portrayal of the man who betrayed the son of God with a kiss. Not a book for the faint hearted, a brutal, gruesome thriller, representing the aftermath of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus: a roller coaster ride of horror.

I rarely choose this genre [or for that matter romance novels], but these two I mention here today are just exactly opposite of my preferences... yet ...who knows I may enjoy this one as much as Mrs. Poe.

*---♠♣♦♥---*


3]...and MORE from our back yard-


Copper Ore from Green Valley, Arizona--------- Firebush


Epiphyllum Flower Bud------------------------------Ceramic Frog Globe


Gnome ---------------------------- Resin Frog Figurine-------------- Oriental Iron Lantern

Frog Couple------------------------------------------Frog with Straw Hat
Variegated-leaf Hybrid Hibiscus--------------------Kokopelli Wood Figure Bud Made on Fence


*---♠♣♦♥---*


4]
...and the rains came early today!

 *---♠♣♦♥---*


5]

The Nutty Professorional!!

linking to: Willy Nilly Friday 5 - Skywatch Friday - Camera Critters - Saturday Critters

§ The week that was...

GOOD FENCES

Canna Lily decorating a chain link fence on the island!
linking to Good Fences



SKY WATCH

...the soft, pink, hues of clouds above a immense barge along the Aransas/Corpus Christi Ship Channel.
linking to:  Skywatch Friday



WILLY NILLY 5

1] For quite some time, I have often picked up and read the back cover of this paperback. I find it when I peruse the Texas bookshelves at Half Price Books. For some reason all the books pertaining to the state of Texas are NOT half price! Anyway, I have read this back cover synopsis and have been tempted to buy it. Well, I did finally 'cause I found it in the clearance shelf in the store for only $2.  I'm really pleased with it. Very easy to read...it travels through the leaving of Scotland aboard a ship and their family trip across the Atlantic to the state of Texas; homesteading. The title of the book is "I am Falon". About a nearly-15-year-old-girl, and her story of life relocating to the United States and chancing upon the Texas Frontier which is still part of Mexico in this book's era. It's a page turner!! After so many disappointing books I've picked up... finally, a very enjoyable saga with an eye-opener confession near the end of the novel. I'm recommending it if you like historical novels.

2] We bought a set of DVDs from way back when!! Do any of you remember the time when TV had mini-series? Like Thorn Birds, Roots, Backstairs at the White House...ones such as these? Well, the two of us have often talked about one of our favorites...Rich Man Poor Man. I went out to Amazon and ordered it. It's just as good as it was way back in 1976!!! Whoa...that's nearly 40 years ago. I remember we did nothing...had NOTHING planned for those nights it was televised. So we could be home, sit down, and not miss an episode. We already have the set of The Thorn Birds, and Roots. And one from A&E....Horatio Hornblower [that is entertaining, tho fictional] I'm now thinking I might just as well order Back Stairs at the White House also. 'Tis another good one; one mini series both Bud and I enjoyed long ago. In my opinion, today's TV just isn't as good and not even close to being stimulating, unless you like reality tv and dancing with the stars which are all 'fixed'.

3] Last week, a weak storm front was situated just off the coast of Texas...bringing us in Corpus Christi much needed rain.  At times it rained hard, fast, and furious.   Not enough to quench the drought situation, but I'll take all we get for now!! Our lawn was looking mighty pitiful...especially when there were watering restrictions! Bring on the rain. I'm so ready for it.

4] By the way, since Random Friday is no longer a weekly meme, Tanya has recently started a new meme of five random thoughts....Willy Nilly Friday 5. Join in. Here's the link.  I like it very much.  It gives me a chance to voice opinions and thoughts that have come up during the week.

5] TRIVIA: Do you recognize this man?

Guess ...
Hint ... A now semi-retired TV celebrity, but not known to many.



CRITTER -'ribbit'
Jeremiah was a bullfrog....


linking to: Camera Critters - Saturday Critters

§ ...a new birdwatcher in our family?

GOOD FENCES
linking to Good Fences


Fencing along the walkway toward the jetty at Zahn Park/Beaches and Packery Channel boat ramps.



WILLY NILLY 5
linking to: Willy Nilly Friday 5

1] ..-. .- .. .-.. ..- .-. .   Right off the bat I must give my critique of The Ghost of the Mary Celeste written by Valerie Martin. Now for me, it is my understanding that the ship was found in the 1870s...abandoned. With no one on board. The ship was still intact, and towed to Gibraltar...with a mystery that has never been solved. Now, I was captivated by the title and really looking forward to reading an historical novel about the crew and the ship. But this published work was highly disappointing. Yes, I read the entire book. Even tho it continued to go down hill. Instead of the story of the ship itself, the author struck an idea and went off on several different tangents having nothing to do with the disaster/mystery at sea...concentrating on spiritualists, a journalist, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [who in real life wrote a short story of the Mary Celeste]. And the abrupt ending ...the last few days of the life aboard the Mary Celeste left me hanging...so, who is the ghost?  The seer? The spiritualist?  In part, the author has one person disappearing days before it was abandoned [according to history chronicled dates and time].   I'd give it one star out of five. It did keep me turning the pages in hopes that the 'tide would turn' to the ship instead of its babbling on and on about nothing to do with the disappearance of the passengers and crew. In my opinion, the book itself was a disaster. I was expecting more on historical fiction, but came up short. I'm very pleased of one thing....that I didn't buy it off the bookstore shelf; borrowing it from the local library was a wise move. What's the distress signal for failure? [ see above:  dot dot dash dot / dot dash / dot dot / dot dash dot dot / dot dot dash / dot dash dot / dot]

2] We, here at Hootin' Anni's home, seemed to have acquired a new bird0watcher enthusiast!!   Click on images to enlarge to see what he sees....

...Winston

3] I first heard about this when we retired to Arizona. There is a legend throughout the Sonoran Desert  about cicadas. Once you hear them 'singing' while they're well hidden in trees and surrounding areas -- the legend states it will rain soon! The Southwest is 'famous' for their monsoon season, their haboobs [blinding dust storms], and flash flooding. After I learned of this folklore and cicadas, I began to pay attention. Sure 'nough within a few weeks of hearing my first cicada calling, it rained. The monsoons began. Much relief to the parched desert. The lightning shows are something to behold! Scary...and CLOSE. We had lightning strike our house once,......went through the roof/attic space down the entire electrical system. We lost all appliances, including TVs and computer. The computer had a surge protector...this doesn't work with lightning...just power surges after power outages. No matter...my #3 tho should state, the cicadas are singing up a storm here!!! Storm did I say? Not yet. Wondering if the legend is part of Texas lore?!!

4] Speaking of insects. Here's a couple of groaners: a] "A centipede is an inchworm that has switched to the metric system." b] "One fly to another fly: 'Your human is open' "

5] I'm keeping tabs on all the Republican AND Democrat hopefuls for 2016. Reading some of the newsworthy sites online about all the scandals, etc. one reporter stated this...and I quote from the website in condensed version: "....in 2016 every single candidate will have some sort of politically motivated attack on them"....I say: "ummmm, y'think? And this is news? In what way?"


SKYWATCH
linking to:  Skywatch Friday


...the two dark spots seen are Swainson's Hawks!! Autumn migration is just around the corner. Yes!!!!


CRITTER FOR SATURDAY
linking to: Camera Critters - Saturday Critters

Anxious to get back to the car from our two mile walk...you'd find us venturing down by the river and the ponds for birding early one morning. It was sultry by the time we turned around and began our leaving the area. I wore a large brimmed hat and had decided to wear long sleeves and a pair of jeans to ward off a whole swarm of mosquitoes feasting on me through the tall grasses as we traipsed through the woodlands. Of course I was soaking wet with perspiration by now...stopping in the shaded areas to cool down and head back out into the sun. Once we stopped at an old abandoned bird blind, I happened to look through its opening and spotted something I wouldn't like to see in my dreams even!! A huge Yellow and Black Garden Spider. They're not lethal to humans, but still dark and sinister looking!!! We stayed there long enough for me to focus my lens on it and left!!!