§ Language of Color....Yellow

§ ...click your heels together three times and...

We're back home...I've been working on a few posts including photos to ready for this upcoming week, while unpacking and doing laundry, collecting mail and sorting that out...things like that, I realized this morning, after a couple of days this past week with horrendous traffic to contend with [metro population of the McAllen-Reynosa area of birding on the last part of our trip being 1.5 million], and then the Brownsville, Harlingen area... that there really is...

...no place like home!!!

Here are some of the calming effects of yesterday I saw in our yard---

...came home to our front and back yards filled with buds & blooms!!

linking to: WEEKLY TOP SHOT - SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY - Sundays in my City - Monday Mellow Yellow - I ♥ Macro

§ Pollywog Ponds

Everyone who follows me knows my 'infatuation' for the program seen weekly on Tuesday evening...the new season began last week, with the premiere episode entitled Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Now if you're into chat room talk, you realize when you see LOL what it means, right? Laughing Out Loud of course. Being a sibling, wife, and mother of military personnel, the phonetic alphabet is used often around here. So, part of the learning of the alphabet [used in radio/communications for clarity] Whiskey stands for the letter "W"....Tango stands for "T"...and Foxtrot stands for "F". In other words the series premiere of NCIS was WTF [chat room talk anyone?]. rofl

We watched the premiere episode of NCIS online, and tho Bud seemed to enjoy it more than I, I was left anticipating Tony in his beard searching and finding Ziva! LOL BUT!!!---who do you think Gibbs is aiming his sniper rifle at? I'm guessing Parsons. Maybe next week, I'll find out if my hunch is good. :o)

Well, we spent the entire last two days unpacking Halloween witches, and packing away all the 'normal' trinkets and pillows, etc.... away for the upcoming season. We decorated only the dining room and living room this year. That's enough. I've purchased a total of eight [I believe, I lost count] new witches. Mostly from Tuesday Morning. And I name 'em. I make small name tags and hide them underneath their dresses/costumes. Some of  the newest group I named...see if you get the theme here: Maggee [as in Maggie], Toni [Tony], Abigail, Donni [Donald], Elle Jae [L. J. Gibbs], Zeevah [alternate spelling of Ziva which means bright/shining in Hebrew], and Leona [Leon]...the eighth one, Tovia [female version of Tobias].

Since that is out of the way, I would like to share a short walk around Pollywog Ponds with you; the trees, the ponds, the river, the fisherman, the wildlife, the deep blue sky and the diamond topped lake in the warm Autumn sunshine....

Green Heron - in BOTH pictures!


One of the ponds sparkling...and a tree top laden with yellow berries


One of the ponds...and the backside; the Nueces River with a fisherman/boat

Dragonfly and two American Coots on the pond [enlarge this image and you can spot THREE more dragonflies]


Tri colored Heron preening on the bank...and a distant hawk above the treetops!

§ I'm Sooooooooo Confused!!!

Yesterday, all day, I was diligently working on the computer. Trying my best to get the connectivity through the cable modem to actually allow me to access everything online. For hours, I went through every diagnostic measure I know of. Reconnecting the router through the modem, going through each and every software program to see if any was playing havoc with the modem, even going into Windows SAFE MODE with NETWORKING [it worked for a short period, then....no connection and no server found message]. At one point about mid-afternoon, I was tempted to pick up the modem and throw it through the window!!! I finally just gave up, flipped the whole entire computer, hard drive tower, keyboard and modem off....shut it down, with the greatest intentions of disconnecting the cable modem and router and take it back to the cable company and demand a new replacement.

Now, just out of darned curiosity, I booted up the computer...lo and behold --- IT CONNECTED WITHOUT ANY PROBLEM!! What gives? Y'wonder. I don't have any clue as to why it's working fine this morning, but it is, and I'm taking advantage of the situation and getting some online stuff done. First thing, I made some new ringtones for the new phones. Well, Bud's anyway. He lost his in the mix-up and the SD card replacement when the phone company erred on setting up our individual phones. At the time, I said "No worries, I can make you some new ones sweet cheeks!" Little did I know I wouldn't be able to until this morning. Got that done. Will get them on his phone today sometime. I have a ringtone of the USMC Hymn for Erik's incoming calls, Daddy's Little Girl for Irene's incoming and Annies Song for in case I need to call Bud. It was easy to make the ringtones from mp3s, just the whole concept of getting into the site and software available online yesterday was the culprit. After that was done, I actually was amazed and very pleased I was still connected online and Firefox remained available! LOL ---So, I finished next Saturday's Birding blog post and have that ready and prescheduled to post Saturday at noon. Yay!! Even got the linky tool added with no problems whatsoever. Now, you find me here...writing!

I read in the smartphone local news over the weekend that there was an area on the bay where some Least Terns [shore birds] were spotted, nesting. And that the city roped off the area from human invasion. We could go so far and then stop to watch at a very safe distance without disturbing the terns. Of course, being who I am, I had to go see 'em. I finally found the area where they were nesting, and took some photos. Even at the far distance I was there with the camera, there were a few terns flying over my head and trying to distract me from the area...wanting me to leave. I saw no eggs or little ones as in 'chicks' [but a couple of immature ones], but I did see a few 'on their nests'. Of course, that's Bud sitting under the gazebo roof...this area of this particular trail has several lighted gazebos for hikers, bikers, and birders who utilize it in the heat of the day, or if they care to be in the area at night...the trail is lighted. Anyway, he was hot, and I wanted to continue walking around the bend to get a better viewing of the terns. As I returned, I saw him spying me through his binoculars.

Nesting Least Terns

And to end this post, and hoping I can go visit some special bloggers, you know who you are... I just wanted to share a few images that have been collecting dust in my image folder, so I constructed a couple of collages of various, eclectic images --

Left to right: Sunrise over the beach, the lighted Harbor Bridge, an Oil Rig at dusk, a Mermaid Fountain on the Island [curio shop], Corpus Christi on the Bay at dusk, Palm Trees at sunset, and the first spotted dragonfly of the season.

Left to right:  Our Lilac Colored Crepe Myrtle [or crape if you wish], Sunrise on Padre Island National Seashore, Our Pink Crepe Myrtle, Palm Tree at Sunset, lilac and pink crepe myrtle, and a Hummingbird at our Lantana Bush.

...wish me luck today, keeping connected with Blogger and being able to continue my daily routine.  I have some catching up to do.  But trust me, I have the modem quite accessible to unplug and take it in as planned all along.  Just in case!!  ;o)

§ Summertime Shadows

In my previous post, I mentioned a tidbit on how well the flowers in our yard are doing...and after planting my newest hibiscus in the flower garden, I had to snap a photo of it to share. In turn, I walked around the yard a moment or two and took more photos to show the colors and shadows early in the morning:






Top to bottom/Left to right:
Rose colored -Hibiscus 
Lemony yellow [one of my favorites!] -Hibiscus
My newest yellow with red center -Hibiscus
Cormorant in a tree - City park
One of two variegated leaf Hibiscus [hybrid and miniature in size]
Salmon multi-petal -Hibiscus
Mexican Bird of Paradise bush [love the fern-like leaf clusters!  This one was grown from a seed pod that I took when we left our yard in Tucson]
Don Juan Climbing Rose
Hot pink -Hibiscus during the sprinkler system watering
...and at night again...the ephyllium blossom. [2nd time in a little over a month it brought on blossoms!!!]