Hootin' Anni's Day Trippin' : willy-nilly5

Showing posts with label willy-nilly5. Show all posts

§ ...Oh What a Ratly Feast....

Grassy fields Forever!! [Calallen, Texas]

There is an elderly woman in Port Aransas, that each morning during Spring Migration, she dons her wading boots and opens the back of her SUV to grab a large bag of orange halves! She then wades out in the pond where she has strategically placed nails in boards....propping the orange halves for the birds. But, on this particular day, there was another kind of critter waiting for hand-outs!! When I saw it in the back corner, nearest the fence line, I thought of Templeton the Rat from the animated movie, "CHARLOTTE'S WEB".

"Templeton" [Port Aransas, Texas]

...more fences? You got it!!

Inca Dove [NORTH Padre Island, Texas]

Male Northern Cardinal on a Fence Post [Bazemore Park]

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Sadly, this past weekend, our city's police chief was killed by a 16 yr. old driver on the island highway. The driver cut out into the lane of traffic, a truck swerved to avoid collision, and the motorcycle driver behind the truck was the police chief.

Someone asked me how to add the meme buttons on Blogger's sidebar. Easy. Just go into Blogger's Layout, click on "Add a Gadget"...when that opens, just copy and paste the coding provided by the meme's owner!! Save!! But, to add them in each post, always being the same buttons, it's a bit more complicated....you must be proficient in html and be savvy in how to open and edit the template by choosing customize....it would take a whole blog post and a lot of time to explain it step by step.

On May 11th, Bud and I will celebrate 47 years of marriage!! On May 12th, our oldest grandson will be 26! Then, on May 19th, Erik, my son will be 43...my how time goes by so quickly.

Our two movies this week were "Nebraska" starring Bruce Dern and an oldie but still a classic in its own right....E T

For the last couple of days, my sister in Colorado texted me about her area getting nice, soft, gentle rains. Ironically, with all the flooding we had a few weeks prior, the grounds around here are beginning to crack already...seriously, we need Colorado's soft, gentle rains. Speaking of rains....a tropical storm forming in the Atlantic...already?

[if the image doesn't show...scroll down on my blog to Hurricane Link]

§ Reflections of Springtime in Texas!

Awwwwww, Spring! Nothing could be finer. Well, maybe Autumn. But that is a close 2nd when it comes to welcoming the newness and awakening of a new, fresh season. The deep blue skies, the new births everywhere...be they animals or crops 'springing' up in the rich, black soil around here. The cotton plants are nearly 6 inches in height already in the fields!! Or maybe some newly hatched chicks or the bird life all around busying themselves; building new homes. It's such a glorious time of year. On our short daytime excursions here and there, I am seeing all kinds of 'new' delights that refreshes and brightens my day. I went 'shopping' for photo opportunities from fences, macros, beautiful Spring skies with a threat of Spring rains or a deep indigo with happy clouds, Spring colors of yellow and green. Oh and anything newborn. I found all I was shopping for and share. Wanna come along?...

Reflection of a Snowy Egret

A beautiful sky!

A couple of NEWBORNS

"Auntie Santa Gertrudis and Nephew Calf" Her calf is hidden behind Nephew

Mama & Baby Girl

Closeup of Redhead Ducks & a Blue Winged Teal

Pond from Rainwater

Prairie Wildflowers

Multiple Fencing


Ranch & Fencing...Pond & Northern Shoveler Ducks in Flight

...and we didn't have to leave home to find more Springtime Goodies. In fact, in our own back yard. Coming to a post soon...

JUST SOME RANDOMS:

ONE: “And the Spring arose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast

Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Complete Poems

TWO: If you have Windows 8 version...or later [I think there is a Windows 8.1] and you like the program but detest the "Charms Bar" when you move your mouse over to the far right side of your window monitor...I finally figured out a "fix" to rid myself of the annoyance. LOL

Here's how:

Right click on the taskbar [the active bar that is at the bottom of your window...the bar that has the date, time, volume, etc ---

Find Properties. Click on Properties. When that opens, click on the "Navigation" Tab. You'll then read "Corner Navigation". Scroll down just below 'corner navigation' and check the radio button "When I point to the upper right hand corner, show me the Charms Bar." Once that is checked, click "Apply" and then "Okay". Done. Simple. And no need to mess with the registry!!!

No more charms sliding in if you move your mouse around. Except when you WANT it...clicking on the upper right hand corner of your monitor.

THREE: My recent read is entitled Holy Fools; of which I'm about half way through. Written by Joanne Harris who also wrote a good story and made into a movie: "Chocolat". Her words flow so easily and the storyline is light with a bit of mystery and charm of a world between a carnival act, a love affair, and a gal who bore a child out of wedlock to end up hiding out in an abbey in the 1600s. All the twist and turns in her young adulthood and the man she once adored comes to life with a longing to not put the book down so the pages keep turning. For her, and the leading man, it's a love/hate relationship that, for now, reveals much turmoil and high emotions.

FOUR: Wednesday last I had a follow-up appointment with my cardiologist. I will schedule an appointment with the ER surgeon in three months following my doctor's request/suggestion. The EKG performed this past week showed well. There have been no complications and I feel good. Exercise is still limited, travel should continue to be short trips...no flights for now. But, after the 3 month visit I should get a 'go ahead' with life as normal as possible....if all goes as well as this past month.

FIVE: Soon, the sound of the cracking!! Contact between the ball from the pitcher's mound to the home plate!! Baseball season. I love baseball.

§ 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!"

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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...

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.

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