§ Autumn Colors Along the River Bank

ps...there is a bird [nashville warbler] behind the leaves!



Spanish Moss and leaves turning color...



I'm always on the lookout for heart shapes!!



More Spanish Moss & autumn leaves


A November Sunrise!!

§ Some of the Marvelous...

Aristotle once said: "In All Things of Nature There is Something of the Marvelous"

Today, just a bit of eclectic images from around town. From a beautiful sunrise to fog settling in on the city's North Bay. Perhaps you may agree that all things in nature are marvelous. The tempest, the beauty, the extreme, the simple, the hues, the serene...you name it. For each, there is a purpose---

SUNRISE FROM OUR YARD

Fog Drifting into the North Shore

Mama Cardinal

Parasite - Mistletoe in Bloom

Marigolds by a Tree Stump

Fungus Taking on the 'Look' of Bark

Papa Cardinal

Orange Crowned Warbler

Golden Fronted Woodpecker

Brown - Green Anoles on a Park Fence

Then, some eclectic thoughts for the day:
each tidbit is linked for the full coverage story...

Did you know that the NFL [National Football League] is TAX EXEMPT? Ya, that threw me for a loop too. But, I had to go out to Google to clarify this for myself. I was flabbergasted to read the tax exempt when I knew all too well that the teams rake in billions of dollars each year. How can an outfit like this that makes a profit be free of paying taxes when we common folk are taxed to death? Okay...thing is, the NFL has been tax exempt since 1942!! But it isn't the individual franchises....the teams...it only pertains to the promoting offices of the league...the office only, which is considered a non-profit organization. Still, it was a mind boggler!!

Speaking of mind boggling!!---Did you know this piece of gossip? Bruce Jenner, transitioning into a woman?  I guess, to each his own.  Or IOW - different strokes for different folks!! Okay, okay....I can't help myself...forgive me, but, I gotta state this thought that's been swirling in my brain: "From Bruce Jenner to Jenny Bruce"...kinda a nice ring to it don't you think? [No offense Jenny! errr, um, Bruce?] Whatever. As long as he/she is happy. Another whatever!!!!

Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman - I'm nearly finished with the book. It's very good. While reading this piece of work, I find myself reminded of two books actually. There is a flair of Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear and Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth. I'm anxious to come to the conclusion. Even tho it's based of a factual event in Biblical times, and historians know the outcome, this book will leave the reader with either an urge to check the real history of the event, or be a bit naive with the fictional version Ms. Hoffman created. I do recommend the book. I do look forward to the mini series that will be aired in March on CBS. But, I can't give it a five star rating. All because it's a work of fiction and doubts will linger as to the research she supposedly did for the final [published] draft.

A holiday tradition [ya, I know it's nearing Valentine's Day but...] in a local Houston Starbucks that my son frequents daily for coffee and chit-chat.  He has been a donor AND a recipient of a gift of a charitable car rental when his own car was totaled...so he could get to classes where he teaches, then by the week's end he could get his own car.  It just warms my heart.  And I plan on becoming one who 'pays it forward' this season by sending Erik some cash to donate in his name!!!

Last but not least...this is self explanatory!!!

§ The BIG Dub-ya

He must have gone by you

doing 90 miles an hour.

He was passing me!

I never saw such a crazy thing in my life!

-Let's get down there.

-Let's go.

We're going down there.

Russell, be careful.

Remember your condition.

Boy, the way he just sailed out there....

Look out.

There's nobody in the car.

-He's right.

-What do you mean, nobody?

There he is.

Holy smoke!

How about that? This guy's still alive.

He's still alive.

We ought to call an ambulance.

I don't know how he survived,

the way you went sailing right out there.

I'm not a doctor,

but I have some medical experience.

I'm a dentist.

Do you think you're hurt real bad?

Is he kidding?

Hold on, we're gonna get you to a hospital.

You move me, I'll break up in little pieces.

But what a deal.

Look, there's this dough, see?

There's all this dough: $350,000!

Do you hear what I'm saying?

$350,000!

In the park, in Rosita,

Rosita Beach State Park...

...just south of Dago in Santa Rosita.

It's in this box buried under this....

Buried under this big W.

You'll see it.

You'll see it under this big W.

You can't miss it, a big W.

About half way from home to Port Aransas, Texas, driving the beach highway 361 north from North Padre Island, there has always been an outcropping of palm trees. In the open, with nothing but the sand dunes and scrub brush/prairie land between me in the car and the Gulf of Mexico. So many times I've wanted to stop the car and get a picture of them. Why? Probably because of housing developments and commercial building taking place all over the area. I wanted a photo of the palms mainly 'cause it reminds me of the "Big W" from the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World [1963].


A few weeks ago, while I was alone on the stretch of highway, a white tailed hawk was perched on one of the power line poles to my left. I just had to pull over and get a photo. Thing is, the camera was in the trunk of the car, so I had to get out. Of course when I exited the car to get the camera, the hawk, watching my every move, eventually flew off before I was able to focus well. THESE PHOTOS I SHARE TODAY of the white tailed hawk ARE OF A DIFFERENT TIME on the island. NOT the day of the palm tree image. But, I was out now, I didn't want to let my one opportunity to get a photo of the "Big W"!!! The hour of the morning, just after sunrise, the traffic was light so, I leaned up against the car and took this photo you see above.

...and above the picture of the palm cluster...part of the beginning of the script from the movie. The movie, one of my favorites that I probably know by heart, is filled with a cast of 1000s with the likes of Jimmy Durante [he is dying and telling the witnesses about the cash stash under the big W], Spencer Tracy, Ethel Merman, Jim Backus, Mickey Rooney, Jonathon Winters, Edie Adams....and MORE!! 

But, there is  no shovel in my car, and the land is privately owned so...no trespassing to find the money buried here in Texas!!  But I can do some role playing in the car each and every time I find the Big W.

Cast

You Tube of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World accident

They discover the Big W

...who gets the money at the end? Watch it online for FREE....Here


To change the subject entirely...well, kinda. The weather here in South Texas is still drab and damp. But at least there is no snow!! My sister, on the Western Slope of the Colorado Rockies texted me a photo of their back yard looking from her kitchen window into their woods. Jealous, I am... they are getting SOME blue skies, unlike us'ins...

§ Redneck Hunters - Humor - Cotton Candy Sky... O My

 While out 'hunting' for more birds Bud and I spotted these in the fields...

Susie Lee done fell in love

She planned to marry Joe.

She was so happy 'bout it all

She told her pappy so.

Pappy told her, "Susie Gal

You'll have to find another.

I'd just as soon yo' ma don't know,

But Joe is yo' dear half brother!"

So Susie put aside her Joe

And planned to marry Will.

But, after telling pappy this

He said, "Thar'd be some trouble still!"

"You can't marry Will, my Susie Gal,

And please don't tell yo' mother...

But Will and Joe, and several mo'-

The boys, they'd be yo'folk,

they's all, likewis'n, yo' half brother!"

But, Mama knew, and said "My Gal,

Just do what makes you happy!

Marry Will or marry Joe...

You ain't no kin t' pappy!"

On Chritmas evening, just about dusk, I was getting ready to do a bit of cleaning up of wrapping and trash paper. This chore takes me into the garage to open the door and dump the refuse in the bin for city pickup. As I walked to the open area of the garage as the door opened, I saw some dark cloud lines in the sky and had to go back in the house for the cellphone. It all began with this photo. The cloud formation reminded me of horizontal venetian blinds...like the day was at an end and the closing of the blinds will soon bring darkness...

...then, by the time I was finished with the wrapping paper and closing the bin's lid, the 'blinds' had a hint of pink.

The evening was balmy, the temperature mild. I stood outside with my cellphone and just watched the colors change as the sun set in the west.  Turning a full 360 degrees I snapped photos. The moon was 'dry' but very visible at times as the clouds swirled and went from a dull purple to rose pink to amber/orange.

Sometimes it reminded me of cotton candy, or the cherry filling in a chocolate covered morsel. While other times I thought fire, or glowing embers. No matter what; it was all such a brilliant and bountiful way of painting the end of a perfect day!!

...MOVIN' ON...

How 'bout some Redneck Medical terminology?

Ready?

Benign - What you be after you be eight

Barium - What you do with dead folks

Catscan - Searching for the cat

Cauterize - Made eye contact with her

Coma - A punctuation mark

D&C - Where Washington is

Dilate - To live longer than your kids do

Enema - Not a friend

Fester - Quicker than someone else

GI Series - World Series of military baseball

Hangnail - What you hang your coat on

Labor Pain - Getting hurt at work

Morbid - A higher offer than I bid

Medical Staff - A Doctor's cane, sometimes shown with a snake

Nitrates - Cheaper than day rates

Node - I knew it

Outpatient - A person who has fainted

Pap Smear - A fatherhood test

Post Operative - A letter carrier

Recovery Room - Place to do upholstery

Secretion - Hiding something

Seizure - Roman emperor who lived in the Ceasarean Section

Terminal Illness - Getting sick at the train station

Tumor - More than one

Urine - Opposite of mine

Varicose - Near by

More? Y'all want more?

After living in the remote wilderness of Kentucky all his life...

... an old codger decided it was time to visit the big city. In one of the city’s stores, he picked up a mirror and looked in it. Not knowing what it was, he remarked, "How about that! Here’s a picture of my daddy."

He bought the "picture," but on the way home remembered that his wife, Lizzy, didn’t much like his father. So he hung it in the barn, and every morning before leaving for the fields, he would go there and look at it.

The man’s many trips to the barn began to draw Lizzy’s suspicion. One day after her husband left, she searched the barn and found the mirror. As she looked into the glass, she fumed, "So that’s the ugly so-and-so he’s runnin’ around with."

...ONE MORE, THEN I GOTTA GO [no pun intended, but read on]...

A young reporter went to a retirement home to interview an aged but legendary explorer. The reporter asked the old man to tell him the most frightening experience he had ever had. The old explorer said, "Once I was hunting Bengal tigers in the jungles of India. I was on a narrow path and my faithful native gun bearer was behind me. Suddenly the largest tiger I have ever seen leaped onto the path in front of us. I turned to get my weapon only to find the native had fled. The tiger leaped toward me with a mighty ROARRRR! I soiled myself." The reporter said, "Under those circumstances anyone would have done the same." The old explorer said, "No, not then - just now when I went 'ROARRRR!'"

§ ...I Just Wannabe Your Teddy Bear

Fence and Rose Arbor at a Bed n Breakfast in town...

linking to Good Fences


Sunrise and a duck [this photo of the sunrise and lone duck was taken years ago on the beach off Zahn Road on Mustang Island - I also use it as my computer's wallpaper every once in a while]...


linking to:  Weekly Top Shot - Weekend Reflections - Skywatch Friday

...does anyone else see something in this tree? I outlined what I saw as a bear and changed the coloring in the inset. I like to find in nature shapes and figures of other things like what cloud formations can be, etc. This, when I walked past it, I saw the critter! See if you can see what I saw....like it was coming out from a long winter's hibernation in the hollow of the tree.

linking to:  Camera Critters - Saturday Critters

§ - Rise and Shine -

...it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood!!

[photo of lonely, quiet beach after sunrirse- in another month, it's Spring Break for College Kids...you know what that means, right?  Bumper to Bumper Bikini-clad butts!!

linking to Skywatch Friday

_* _ * _

1]    I can hardly contain myself from revealing the two birds I photographed while in Brooks County this past week!! But, thing is, I had composed and pre-scheduled a post already for this weekend at "I'd Rather B Birdin'" with the InLinkz Tool set for Saturday, the 22nd at noon. I know I could've prepared the new post and copied and pasted the coding I have on my pre-scheduled post...this weekend's photo shoot is of a darling little   bird, so I'll go with that one as planned and construct a new post for next   weekend. I am so excited about showing the two off!! One, such a small bird that is 'lost' in Texas and can't find its way back to Old Mexico....the other is one I've mentioned to Bud I'd like to see here in this state,  and haven't until our nearly 100 mile drive. And such a sweet, funny, comical pose when I first spotted it!!! I hope I've piqued your interest. Stay tuned. A link will be posted here [on or after March 1st], so you won't miss it.

2]   Did I just type March? Golly, one more week and March will be here. That means for me and my sister; another Sister's Day Celebration! We've done this a little over a couple of decades now, on March 18th. I must start thinking seriously 'bout what to send her for her 'surprise', and then our synchronized champagne toast in matching fluted glasses to sisterhood at 8PM. Where does time go?

3]   As with everything in nature, when it comes to passion and love, everything tends to change color during this period in life of the living---as with Tri Colored Herons!! Now, this bird changes to its breeding colors dramatically!! They're beautiful year 'round, but during breeding season, the changes are phenomenal. Here is a photo I took on Christmas Day 2013 of the Tri Colored in its normal daily dress. Notice their legs and feet are pale green. Their beaks/bills are mostly drab yellow with the yellow getting darker the closer to the eye...

...and I have a photo of the Tri Colored Heron in its breeding cloak, but it's on one of my several bird photo disks, and to be honest, I'm too lazy to go searching for my own photo, so I searched Google to have a link to show you the dramatic changes that overcome the male heron during breeding season. Their beak/bill turns blue and their legs and feet change from green to pink/purple...

here's the link

And the reason I'm showing all this is to show off my newest watercolor work that I've been dabbling in for the past couple weeks; finishing it yesterday--

I think I'll title this painting either Times of Passion or That's Amoré! Which title do you like best?

4]    Boy howdy, did I ever find the most luscious tasting yogurt the other day!! The brand is Noosa Yoghurt!! I've tasted and sampled many kinds and brands of yogurt and even the Greek style. This by far is soooooo delicious. While at the store to pick up produce for our dinner salad, I went to the dairy section for milk. As I walked by I happened to spy a new packaged yogurt that has not been on the shelves before. And they were an introductory price: 3 for 5$. Walking over to have a closer look, the top label stated "Aussie made, Colorado fresh". Well, being from Colorado I had to take home just one...raspberry...and try it. I'm heading back to the store to get more!!!! Here is their site. I lived in Colorado for over 45 years, and never heard of this brand...the dairy, originating in 1894...I HAVE heard of. Grave's Dairy, in Northern Colorado. Trust me, if you find this brand in your dairy aisle, try it!!! It's delicious!!! By the way, Noosa is a town in Queensland Australia. The yogurt [yoghurt] is made from "Happy Cows"...or so the label goes.

5]   Dillon, my youngest grandson, has been accepted to enter College after graduating high school in May!!! Way to go Dillon!!

linking to:  Random 5 Friday, Camera Critters, Saturday Critters