April 2021 Favourite Uploads

[Allan Bell]

Been confined to village bounds during lockdown so only what I could achieve around the precinct.

 

Two engined jet plane leaving contrail against blue sky

 

 

Female Mallard duck bathing in pond

 

 

Small tortoiseshell butterfly on May blossom

 

 

Allan

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Allan Bell

[Regis]

Last weekend we went to a little island called Crab Claw Island, but not via chopper, and got a cabin on the beach:

 

And the sunrise was beautiful:

 

[Autumn Sky]

11 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

I've mentioned it several times in the past, I love to know the story behind a picture. There is always one. Please don't stop! 

Lovely intriguing picture, my kind of place.

Thank you Gen! Much appreciated. 

This is pic of buffalo herd same day.  It's not good photo as it was midday and simply too bright + I didn't have my zoom lens, but shows bit of area landscape

 

[Betty LaRue]

An American alligator, Alligator mississippiensis, sunning on a log in a lake in the Atchafalaya swamp of Louisiana.

Some years back, I drove a long day from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Houston, Texas and met up with a friend. After negotiating the 8 lanes of psychotic Houston traffic to get to her house, she opened her door and shoved a glass of wine at me, so I could slowly release the clench of my white knuckles and relax my bulging eyeballs. Yeah, the traffic was that bad.

 

Louise arranged our trips, driving my car, to birding areas along the coast of Texas and then on to Louisiana just east of Texas.

We took a tour boat ride of the swamp and I loved it. This was taken in an open area of the lake at the end of the tour. All in all, the trip was over 5 days. We also took a tour boat to an island off the coast of Texas to photograph whooping cranes.

This was when I realized how far my husband’s dementia had progressed. I thought he was just a bit forgetful, but it was much worse. I had left him a typewritten page on exactly how to cook the vegetables for our two parrots, cut up fruit, etc. The page was smack dab in the middle of the dining room table, and he couldn’t leave the kitchen without seeing it.

I had portioned out each day’s food into freezer bags and showed him where they were in the freezer.

When I got home, he'd only used a tiny bit of the food. He said he never saw the instructions, even though I pointed them out to him before I left. The thing is, if he did see them, he immediately forgot he saw them, I realized that later.

He had bought fast food to feed himself, ignoring the food I had cooked for him, and was feeding the birds some of that, so they weren’t starved. He was big on giving them pieces of crackers and cookies, too. So they ate unhealthy while I was gone. But at least they ate. The whole thing was horribly frightening to me.

I never left him alone again. People getting dementia are great at faking it, and they do it well until pretty far into it. I’ll fetch the picture now. I just found these images looking through one of my HDs.

 

 

This was the other boat in front of us. Louise and I were lucky. We were the only passengers in our boat.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Betty LaRue

[Michael Ventura]

26 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

An American alligator, Alligator mississippiensis, sunning on a log in a lake in the Atchafalaya swamp of Louisiana.

Some years back, I drove a long day from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Houston, Texas and met up with a friend. After negotiating the 8 lanes of psychotic Houston traffic to get to her house, she opened her door and shoved a glass of wine at me, so I could slowly release the clench of my white knuckles and relax my bulging eyeballs. Yeah, the traffic was that bad.

 

Louise arranged our trips, driving my car, to birding areas along the coast of Texas and then on to Louisiana just east of Texas.

We took a tour boat ride of the swamp and I loved it. This was taken in an open area of the lake at the end of the tour. All in all, the trip was over 5 days. We also took a tour boat to an island off the coast of Texas to photograph whooping cranes.

This was when I realized how far my husband’s dementia had progressed. I thought he was just a bit forgetful, but it was much worse. I had left him a typewritten page on exactly how to cook the vegetables for our two parrots, cut up fruit, etc. The page was smack dab in the middle of the dining room table, and he couldn’t leave the kitchen without seeing it.

I had portioned out each day’s food into freezer bags and showed him where they were in the freezer.

When I got home, he'd only used a tiny bit of the food. He said he never saw the instructions, even though I pointed them out to him before I left. The thing is, if he did see them, he immediately forgot he saw them, I realized that later.

He had bought fast food to feed himself, ignoring the food I had cooked for him, and was feeding the birds some of that, so they weren’t starved. He was big on giving them pieces of crackers and cookies, too. So they ate unhealthy while I was gone. But at least they ate. The whole thing was horribly frightening to me.

I never left him alone again. People getting dementia are great at faking it, and they do it well until pretty far into it. I’ll fetch the picture now. I just found these images looking through one of my HDs.

 

 

Love your stories Betty and sorry for what you, your husband and maybe the parrots too, had to go through.  One of my favorite U.S. road trips was driving and photographing around the "Cajun Country" area of Louisiana and touring the Atchafalaya Basin....just a wonderful place to visit and photograph!  Great food too....tho not so healthy.

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

Love your stories Betty and sorry for what you, your husband and maybe the parrots too, had to go through.  One of my favorite U.S. road trips was driving and photographing around the "Cajun Country" area of Louisiana and touring the Atchafalaya Basin....just a wonderful place to visit and photograph!  Great food too....tho not so healthy.

Yes the food was very good and I finally got to taste a Po’Boy sandwich. It was a shrimp one. I love Cajun food. It’s probably my favorite over Mexican, Chinese and Italian. Although I do love my tacos and pizza! I had tacos yesterday. I’ve not found a good Cajun restaurant in Wichita, yet. I hear one is opening, but I believe the offerings will be very limited. There was one in Oklahoma City I loved until it closed. Cajun’s Wharf. I always got the blackened Redfish. I did have crawfish once! Salty.

[Michael Ventura]

7 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Yes the food was very good and I finally got to taste a Po’Boy sandwich. It was a shrimp one. I love Cajun food. It’s probably my favorite over Mexican, Chinese and Italian. Although I do love my tacos and pizza! I had tacos yesterday. I’ve not found a good Cajun restaurant in Wichita, yet. I hear one is opening, but I believe the offerings will be very limited. There was one in Oklahoma City I loved until it closed. Cajun’s Wharf. I always got the blackened Redfish. I did have crawfish once! Salty.

Now that you mention, we very few restaurants offering Cajun food here and this is a very multicultural suburb of DC with food from just about everywhere.  I am a sucker for a good shrimp Po’Boy.  Everything I had down that was absolutely delicious!  Like you, we had one place nearby that had these amazing shrimp and crawfish boils as well as some beignets that were the real deal...but they went out of business, it was called BeClaws.

[Betty LaRue]

1 minute ago, Michael Ventura said:

Now that you mention, we very few restaurants offering Cajun food here and this is a very multicultural suburb of DC with food from just about everywhere.  I am a sucker for a good shrimp Po’Boy.  Everything I had down that was absolutely delicious!  Like you, we had one place nearby that had these amazing shrimp and crawfish boils as well as some beignets that were the real deal...but they went out of business, it was called BeClaws.

Apparently, there aren’t enough of us who love Cajun, or it’s that people haven’t ever tried it and don’t know what they’re missing. 

[Michael Ventura]

28 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Apparently, there aren’t enough of us who love Cajun, or it’s that people haven’t ever tried it and don’t know what they’re missing. 

Perhaps and maybe people from that region just stay put and keep the recipes local 😀

[Cecile Marion]

Oh, Betty. How difficult it must have been for you and for your husband. I’m so sorry.

 

Scenery like above is just a fifteen minute drive away from me here in North Central Florida. Though I feel fortunate I had many safe wilderness areas to roam during the pandemic, I’m looking forward to soon getting out and photographing people rather than reptiles.

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by Cecile Marion

[Betty LaRue]

2 hours ago, Cecile Marion said:

Oh, Betty. How difficult it must have been for you and for your husband. I’m so sorry.

 

Scenery like above is just a fifteen minute drive away from me here in North Central Florida. Though I feel fortunate I had many safe wilderness areas to roam during the pandemic, I’m looking forward to soon getting out and photographing people rather than reptiles.

 

Cecile, thanks.  
Your image....I don’t think I realized gaters sunned themselves on shore! I knew they got on land, or logs, but thought it was to go after someone’s pet or kid for a meal!
At one of the preserves, a mom allowed her little girl, about 5 yrs, to taunt and scream at a gater just a few feet down a bank. Right by the edge. A wildlife officer tried to tell the mother to not allow it because it was dangerous, and to stay back, and the mom screamed at him that her kid could behave however she wanted and to leave them alone!

I was so furious, I walked away before I was tempted to slap some sense into that shrew. I never heard any terrified screams, so I guess the girl got by with it.

It was this one.

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by Betty LaRue

[Cecile Marion]

Some people can behave like such fools! There have been many times I’ve found myself torn between trying to getting a photo and just walking away so I won’t be around when all hell breaks loose. 

[Jill Morgan]

Like these two of Goldfinches.  The one with the sky is looking darker than it did when I uploaded it.  Does it look dark to you guys, or is my monitor off?  I may brighten it a bit and reupload it.

 

 

 

[Michael Ventura]

12 minutes ago, Jill Morgan said:

Like these two of Goldfinches.  The one with the sky is looking darker than it did when I uploaded it.  Does it look dark to you guys, or is my monitor off?  I may brighten it a bit and reupload it.

 

 

 

 

Jill, the bird in the top photo looks a little dark on my screen, the sky seems okay to me.

[Betty LaRue]

8 minutes ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

Jill, the bird in the top photo looks a little dark on my screen, the sky seems okay to me.

I agree. Bird is dark. Beautiful images, though! 😁

[MizBrown]

11 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

A wildlife officer tried to tell the mother to not allow it because it was dangerous, and to stay back, and the mom screamed at him that her kid could behave however she wanted and to leave them alone!

That's when mom should be arrested, and the child taken in by CPS.   People have been killed by alligators as small as eight feet long. mostly by doing stupid things near or in water (one woman in SC tried to pet a gator who latched onto her leg and then rolled when people tried to pull her away with a rope).  

[Betty LaRue]

2 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

That's when mom should be arrested, and the child taken in by CPS.   People have been killed by alligators as small as eight feet long. mostly by doing stupid things near or in water (one woman in SC tried to pet a gator who latched onto her leg and then rolled when people tried to pull her away with a rope).  

I agree. As a mother, I always projected “what could happen” when it came to my children. No matter how remote a bad result could be, I took measures so the worst couldn’t happen. It led to a few disagreements with my husband.
This mother didn’t see the movie in her head that I would’ve seen. The one featuring her child being killed by a gator right before her eyes from her neglect.

I really do see movies of a possibility in my head...usually lasting seconds, but nevertheless horrifying.

[MizBrown]

10 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

This mother didn’t see the movie in her head that I would’ve seen. The one featuring her child being killed by a gator right before her eyes from her neglect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_alligator_attacks_in_the_United_States

 

Basically, big animal that subdues prey by rolling it under and drowning it -- keep away.   People are often stupid about bears and bison, also.   The Yellowstone studies show that some kids were allowed to play matador with bison or throw stones at them.

[Malcolm Park]

Always pleasing when this coincides

 

[Betty LaRue]

47 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_alligator_attacks_in_the_United_States

 

Basically, big animal that subdues prey by rolling it under and drowning it -- keep away.   People are often stupid about bears and bison, also.   The Yellowstone studies show that some kids were allowed to play matador with bison or throw stones at them.

Horrifying. Somehow the wolf attacks are the scariest.

[Colblimp]

Two taken today, both used today.

2FA4TGD

 

 

2FBHPW4

[NYCat]

1 hour ago, Colblimp said:

Two taken today, both used today.

2FA4TGD

 

 

 

Love it. i hope you put "funny animal" in the tags. People do search for that.

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

Cedar Waxwing, one of my favorite birds. Their feathers are very fine and soft-looking. I seldom see them because they tend to habitat woods and especially near lakes. They will come into town occasionally if food runs short in the country. During winter, I have seen them feed on juniper berries like in this image, and they came into town once and stripped the winter crabapples. I never see just one, they travel in flocks. And twice, in late winter, February, they have traveled with a flock of American robins. In fact, those two flocks had a frenzy with my crabapples while I stood trembling from excitement with my Nikon and 80-400 lens. Most of the images were unusable because I was shaking, I was so thrilled.

Its been 3 years since moving, and I’ve yet to see them here. This image is one I processed from 2007 when in Oklahoma.

 

Edited April 24, 2021 by Betty LaRue

[Colblimp]

7 hours ago, NYCat said:

 

Love it. i hope you put "funny animal" in the tags. People do search for that.

 

Paulette

Would never have thought to add that tag. Am on it. 👍

[Allan Bell]

11 hours ago, Colblimp said:

 

 

2FBHPW4

 

PHWAAAAW!

 

I can smell it from here.

 

Allan