§ J-Luby Beach

I left home before the sun came up. It was 86° in our yard; around 6a.m.!! I had no intentions of walking a whole lot of steps in that heat, but I wanted to be outdoors and get some fresh air and sunshine. The sky above me was cloudless. By the time I drove to the shore on the island, there was a pretty well formed cloud bank on the horizon. My destination was Packery Channel Jetty on North Padre Island, but I pulled a 'no-no' and entered the beach access road first. You are not permitted to park on this particular beach without a beach parking permit....which I don't have.  And it's well patrolled.  I wanted to just get out of the car along the coastline for a few minutes and get some sunrise photos. I also took my lensball with me as I stepped out of the car.

After I got some quick photos, I again left and drove back to Packery Channel, to walk the jetty...

The sea breeze helped me stay a bit cooler than if I were walking on the jetty trail, and the surf/sand was damp as I bent down after dropping the lensball; waiting for the surf to do "its thing" with my crystal orb...

I have a few more photos along the jetty. I'll post them later. It remained way too hot and humid, so I walked only about a mile/mile and a half before turning around and driving home after a stop at the grocery store.  I'm looking forward to late Autumn and early Winter in South Texas.

§ Lensball Shots [And my LAST Troll Doll]...

After cleaning my lensball, I placed it back in my car for future use in photography. While walking a short distance to the observation deck at Hans Suter Wildlife Sanctuary [too hot to be there too long], I grabbed my lensball and stopped to take some photos thru the globe. The sky was very impressive...

The cattails along the boardwalk were nearly expired. Several were breaking open to disperse the seed. But, against the blue in the sky, they were worthy of a photo or two:

I liked how the boardwalk railing showed unusual perspective and the beautiful cloud formation was magical:

As the sun broke from the clouds, I noticed in my ball that there was a rainbow effect [not a real rainbow] from the crystal refractive prism and then, I stepped a few paces further and tried to capture a single sunflower in the distance:

Tho, the images and the lensball photography is pretty nifty in all aspects, I've come to realize that I prefer making use of it for sunrises on the beach mostly!!  Once I made it to the covered deck, I saw that the water level was low, and only a minimal amount of active bird life was evident along the perimeter...gulls and herons, a couple of egrets and one of each; willet and skimmer. I left soon afterwards as the temp was soaring to the triple digit heat index; to the dangerous heat exposure.  Back to the car with A/C and then home where the room temp is more suitable than outdoors to be sure.

...I have come to the end of my troll collection...

↓ My 30th Troll Share ↓

TROLL DOLL COLLECTION Holiday Themed LARGE hard sculpture Santa in PJs circa: 80s

§ This and That....

For a few days I've stayed home and got some menial jobs done around the house. One was nothing earth shattering, but it took most of the morning. And since I go walking in the morning only, I didn't that day. The job of work was to clean, wax, dust, and arrange the entertainment center. One side of the shelving unit has our collection of DVD [and even some old VHS!!]. When using them, they never get put back in the original slot. So, I wanted to take them all out [100s] and dust the shelves, then arrange them alphabetically. By the way, you may wonder why we still have VHS in our collection...we have a DVD/VHS player, and some of our favorite movies have never made it to DVD. So, they stay here with us. Then, on the other side of the unit are four more shelves. There I have cassettes, CDs, and even vinyls -33 rpm and 45s-. Yep we have a record player, CD, and cassette player all in one. The collection of vinyls go back to the history of JAZZ, Elvis, Righteous Bros, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Herb Alpert, and many classical compositions. I even have a collection of Winston Churchill speeches in several volumes on 33rpm.

Now that you know the background of this post somewhat, the reason there is nothing much, I am sharing a few eclectic photos with you 'cause I have nothing better to share at the moment. I haven't gone walking 'cause the heat index has been hitting the 110° mark.  If I do go anywhere, it's all in the Air Conditioned Car...

Just outside our house, "x" marks the spot!

Finally, the frozen pitiful looking palm trees are coming back...

Power Line Repair work...on island highway!

 

Gift Shop Exterior on NORTH Padre Island [not South Padre Island...that's Brownsville, Texas]

 

I brought my lens-ball in from the car to clean and took a couple photos of a couple of my glass dolphins.

And Isaiah being somewhat of a mechanic. He thought the tire was a bit low and tried showing me that they needed inflating a bit so he could crawl under the chassis and check out the drive train for me.

 

 

...and to continue showcasing my Trolls...

↓ My 27th Troll Share ↓

TROLL DOLL COLLECTION Holiday Themed SMALLEST IN MY COLLECTION Thanksgiving Pilgrim circa: 80s

§ Lensball Sunrise

Before arriving at Whitecap Beach the other day, I pulled off and walked into the Packery Channel Park to catch the sunrise with my lensball.  Tho, it wasn't all that spectacular [cloudless sky], I still took some shots at the 1st light of the morning...
By the way, the daytime temp was 65 degrees at this hour, with a brisk, warm breeze.  And by mid afternoon it was 80 degrees.  Humidity was only 23%...a most perfect Springtime day all the way around.  It did remain cloudless throughout.  But another cold front...a freezing cold front is to move in next week at this time.    So winter is not over yet.  I'm looking forward to the days like Thursday.  Yet, I dread what follows come June.  Another hurricane, high humidity summer, coming all too soon.

§ 2020 in Review - Part I

All the Christmas goodies are packed away for another year. The year ends with a pandemic of course, [I'm really tired of this!] and the new year will come in with... the pandemic. I have spent more time at home than I've cared to the last 9 months, and I'm itching for better days ahead. While indoors on a cold, damp, day these past few days, I was going thru my photo folders. I got the idea to share some of my favorite subjects of the year, 2020. This post is the art of lensball photography and six of my images taken over 2020...

Gulf Sunrise

Outhouse? Yep!!

A Field of Bluebonnets

Ebbing Surf

"Morning Glory"

Dune Grass

§ The Park Thru the Lensball...

I mentioned previously that I walked in a small park outside Banquete, Texas the other day. It was small enough to have to walk around the paved trail/park road twice to get at least a 3 mile walk. My first go 'round I used only the camera lens as I walked among the oak trees. Then, as I finished the first lap, I stopped and grabbed my lensball that I carry with me in the car at all times. Really nothing more to be said, but take a gander, and enjoy a bit of a different perspective...