February 2011

February 13, 2011

Janet and I tried out another new place today: Sleeping Turtles Preserve North, near Venice, a town half an hour south of here. The whole east and north edges of the park border the Myakka River. We didn’t see any alligators and only one large bird (a great blue heron). We could hear an owl with a rather low voice; I’m guessing that means it was large, but we never saw it. What we did see were plants and water; those plus constantly blue skies and warmish temperatures were heaven enough. The second photograph is of a palm log with some kind of fungus growing on it. The third photograph is Crinus americanus, also known as bog lily or swamp lily. Bog lily is what I called it after I got caught up to my ankle (and feared being sucked down to China while Janet was off photographing in the other direction) in the bog muck chasing down one of this one’s siblings, then found out that that really is one of its names.

February 11, 2011

I have not had good photographing experiences lately. Several places or events where Janet and I have gone with our cameras recently have just not worked. Sort of in desperation last Sunday we drove to downtown Bradenton to see if it held any alleys to prowl. We found one. If you stretch your imagination until it looks like mine, you can see the first two photographs as alley flowers. The third photo is a view from the alley. The fourth is looking into a store window. I’m hoping for better luck this Sunday. At least it’s supposed to be sunny and not rain—if the forecast holds.