Cotton Tree

This was a huge tree. Common names are "Tree Hibiscus" , "Cotton Tree"......Latin name: Hibiscus tiliaceus. The bright yellow flowers look just like Hibiscus and they are very short lived. They fade to burgundy red color before falling. But the fading flowers look just beautiful and new, it's wonderful to see flowers in two colors in one tree at the same time. And look at the ground under the tree, only red flowers are lying dead there.

One Little Bird

12/20/08 If you can magnify this photo, you can see that he's watching me over his shoulder.
And also you can see a ring on his leg. I don't know the name of the bird, maybe Eastern Phoebe?? Very nice stripe he has!!

Christmas tree and wreath

12/7/08 Sunday

We bought our Christmas tree, and place it in our Patio. Hopefully, it will stay fresher and longer because the weather is cooler than usual. The smell of the tree and the time to decorate,

gives us a sense of this season, very Chrismasy!!

And our weath....we had a snowman wreath, the snowmans made out of cotton balls, so pretty and original and I liked it very much, but the snowmans are getting old and retired. I took them off the wreath and put them at the window, then Max the cat killed them one by one......

The new wreath, is not very unique, but well, OK.

Florida Everglades

You maybe can't see, but there is one bird in the tree and it's reflection in the water!

12/6/08 World Picture Day at PhotographyVoice.com, members submit one photo taken on setting date for WPD from all over the world. It's very interesting to see all kind of different things on the same day.....for ex, Dec 6 must be a snowy day in North, but beach day in South, winter or summer. So I got up at 5:30 and went to see something at Evergaledes. I saw thousand of birds at Sunrise in this February, I was expecting to see them again but there was no bird there......asked one of the man who came fishing, he said, the water level must be lower for the birds to come back. Aha....!! So I took some photos of the fishing boats at Sunrise, and these Morning dew under the guard rail....(who goes to Everglades and take photos of Gurad rail...??!) some birds.....I love to be up early to go shooting!

11/30/08 Very windy day. I was chasing these dry leaves running in the wind. The sound was wonderful, the sound of Autumn. They were all fallen and dead.....and then, I found the Maple tree full of these new buds already!! Trees never die!!

Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving, hope you enjoyed the day with your family, with a nice dinner!

He was still like this for quite long time, of course, he was drying his wings in the Sun!

Now, Red-Bellied Woodpecker who was taking bath with sprinkler just outside my window....!!

I missed when he was doing it, then after that, he climbed the tree and took a rest in the Sun.

See, his pretty red head is wet and spiky!

Sprinkler and the bird

It was yesterda, just outside the window where I was sitting by my computer....this bird actually comes to this window sill sometimes and became my favorite baby, started to take a bath with the sprinkler water! Just 3 feet away from me!! I grabed my camera but the wrong lens was on, I changed the lens to 300mm zoom, luckly he was still taking a bath! but then, the window glass wasn't that clean, and Th angle wasn't right, and I was panicking not to miss the chance....so the ISO setting was wrong, too dark, shot again, blury, shot again....oh my...I am not a great bird photographer at all!!

コンピューターに座っている、すぐ左側の窓に、時々チチチッチチチッと寄っていくチビさんが、きのうはスプリンクラーの水で水浴びを始めました。すぐそこ、窓の向こう１ｍ先！！あわててカメラを出しましたが、ちょうどいいレンズがはまってません！！あせって取り替えてシャッターを切ると、今度は露出の設定が前のままで暗すぎ、あせるのでブレる、もたもたしてるうちに水浴びが終わって行ってしまいました・・・鳥の写真はヘタクソな私・・・・！！

Leaves and Seeds

I wonder this small tree full of ..... seeds or flowers??? Looks like whole tree was covered with white flowers, I was so delighted! After the seeds gone flying, these flower like sepals were left on the tree, shiny and beautiful.

11/25/08 Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, Sunrise Blvd.
There were a lot of RED leaves, I was happy!!

Fall scene

11/18/08 Markham Park.....this is the best fall colors I can find here in South Florida.....I think.

Hampton Pine Park

11/12/08 Went to the park, found some red leaves. The grasses were all seeds and beautiful in the fall light. I saw 3 iguanas, again, 2 were high up in the tree, one small green iguana was walking....I am tired of taking photos of them....sorry!

ここのパークにはカエデがいっぱいあるので行ってみました。あんまり赤くなかった。どっちかって言うと茶色っぽくなってただけ・・・この一枚は一番キレイだった色、虫食いだらけだけど色はキレイ。

何でもない背の高い草が、全部綿毛になって、秋の光のなかでキラキラしてた。

Sunday by the canal

I caught this yellow leaves in the Sun and the glittering water....sure it is Autumn here!

This Iguana fell off or just came down from the big tree beside me and scared me with THUD!! and then he looked so happy in the nice weather, too!

We are having wonderful weather recently, crisp air, nice sunshine, cool temperature and nice breeze, so we went to take a walk at Riverside Promenade by the canal in Downtown Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday.

このところ、フロリダは最高の天気。外に出ただけで汗をかく日々は終わり、涼しい風が吹いて気温がグッと下がりました。日差しは強いけれど、いい気持ちの風なので、散歩に出た。

ダウンタウンの水路沿いに散歩道になっているパーク、お金持ちのボートを眺め、お散歩中のイグアナを見つけ、ここに住みついてる迷いネコに再会し、ティナはベンチに座って絵を描いてました。

気持ちのいい日曜日だった！！

Flamingo Garden

and this one was taking a walk in the afternoon Sun.

....another was already high up in the tree.....

.....And I saw three Iguanas, one was climbing the trees,

"Silk Floss Tree" was blooming. Interesting contrast betgween these gorgeous pink flowers and scary thorns....

"Lipstick Tree" had some flowers left, and a lot of bees around.

Flamingo Garden again. Some weired plants, starting here, "Candle Stick Tree".

Halloween Night

October 31, Friday

Unfortunately, Halloween this year it was raining and cold. Yeah, I know, it's a matter of course in the Northern country, but we always have a warm clear night for Halloween.

My daughter went to her friends house for Trick or Treat, I carved this pumpkin by myself, oh, the cats were watching and Max was scared of pumpkin. Some small kids came in the rain, they didn't much care because they were getting tons of candies instead of getting wet, but the supervised parents looked a little bit miserable..? Happy Halloween!

Lion Country Safari

One of them wanted "Play Dead" and the others don't care. Never thought the stripe end up like this in their belly!!

We drive around in this park, and the animals are all free in the field!! Always the Zebras are my favorite there. Lions are in the fence and not for a great photos, and they are always sleeping.

Zebra and Zebra plant

I don't know what this plant is, they are quite big leaves. I call it Zebra Plant....here, compare with a zebra photo which I took a few days after this plant!

Strange Trees

I took many photos, usually more than half of them go to trash, and this one is the only Orchid photos which survived after all.

I went to the Botanical Garden of American Orchid Society, but tell you the truty, I am not a big fan of Orchids. I am more interested in other plants there.

These are two strange tree I saw. Silk Floss Tree - the trunk is covered with a ince-size thorns, but flowers are beautiful pink. Brazilian Potato Tree - the flowers are white to light purple to dark purple and show all the colors at the same time. And the name tells, the flowers look like exactly potato flowers!

ランの花はそれほど好きではありません。それなのに、オーキッドクラブの植物園に行って来ました。大抵、撮った写真の半分以上はボツになりますが、そうして残った写真のうち、ランの花の写真はこのたった一枚！私の興味は他の植物にあるのでした！

幹がトゲトゲのおおきな木、恐ろし気ですが花はきれいなピンクです。

もひとつ大きな木で、白から濃淡のムラサキの、いろんな色がいっぺんに咲いてる。花の形はジャガイモの花にそっくりで、その名もブラジルポテトの木！

そういうのを見てるとホント、楽しくなっちゃいます。丹精こめて育てたランの花はそりゃきれいですよ、キレイですが、ちょっとオスマシすぎて、心にずんと響く可愛さがないの・・・野の花の素朴さがより好きな私でした。

Field of Yellow

We went there last year, we were exploring the Lake Okeechobbe and driving all the way around the lake, and found this yellow flower field by accident. There wasn't any information about this beautiful field, we just found it!! Of course nobody is going to miss it while driving this road, but there were no big traffic anyway in the middle of the Everglades, and we didn't see any car stopping to see the Yellow Field.

So it is the time of the year to go back there to see the Yellow Field again and we did on 10/9/08. There was a small unpaved road just going into the field, signed "No Entry", but we entered anyway, stopped the car there and took photos. And what is special of the Yellow Field this year, yes, we had a sudden rain, the hard shower!! Although I went back in the car and took photos from it's open window, I still got wet a lot and so did my camera (a little). But oh, that was great, what I took made me so happy!

オキチョビー湖はフロリダの水の供給に大いに影響する大きな湖で、去年、グルリと一回りしてみましたが、その時偶然に見つけたこの黄色い花の群生・・・・その季節になったのでまた見に行きました。

フロリダ大湿原の真ん中を一本の道が走り、（ほとんど誰も通ってない）その右側は大湿原、見渡す限りの草と湿地、で、オキチョビー湖の西側、道の左側が一面の黄色い花です。

道路から外れて黄色い花の真ん中に、狭い未舗装の道があり、入るべからず、と書いてありますがもちろん入りました。そしたら両側に私より背の高い黄色い花たちがワンワン押し寄せて、わあ～ユメのようです。しかもおおきなおまけ付き・・・・急にダバーッと雨が降ってきたのです！車の中に逃げて車の中から写真を撮りましたが、それでも濡れた。そのかわり、ああ私は雨とか水滴とかの写真が大好きなんだよね～、大好きな一面の黄色い花の、雨まで写った特別の写真が撮れて、ホクホク満足で帰ってきました。

Volunteer Park

Volunteer Park....the closest park from my place. The big lake and wet land, bushes and trees, a lot of birds and wild plants. My favorite plant there, is this long tall grasses with these dangling flowers, I took photos last year too, but I can't stop doing it again. When the wind blows, these things sway and dance and I want to catch the movements.

And I found the seeds trapped in spider web, and a beautiful purple weed.....the man was walking and saw me taking photos, and he told me about a hawk he saw, but I am not a bird shooter......thanks though!

うちから一番近い公園、といっても自然保護地区になっていて、おおきな池？湖？と、そのまわりの水辺の鳥と植物を見られます。グルリと道があって、ジョギングしてる人がたまに通るくらいでほとんど誰もいない。曲がり角を曲がると鳥が急いで飛び立っていったりする。

ここでの私のお気に入りはこの何だか名前も知らない背の高い草。花、でしょうね、が風に揺れるところを写真に撮りたくて頑張りました。

Sleepy Sunday

Our cats were very sleepy today.....so was I....sleepy Sunday!

春眠暁を覚えず、でもないし、秋だもんなあ・・・・でも何だかとても眠い日だったのです。ネコたちがあんまり気持ち良さそうに眠っていたからかもしれません。ね。

Autumn

A little bit of Autumn here in Florida. Maple tree by the lake at Tree Tops Park.

There were many dragonflies over the water and I enjoyed taking their photos today, but all came out kind of blurry, they were too small!
ちょっと公園で小さな秋を見つけてきました。フロリダなんだから、これだけ見つけただけでスゴイんだぞ。フロリダメープル、大抵はキレイな色にならずに、ナアナアで冬、そして春になってしまうのだけど、部分的にキレイに色づいたのを見つけることがあります。木全体が真っ赤に・・・・ってのはやっぱ、無理なんだなあ、ここでは。

随分トンボがいました。水辺で３００ミリレンズで楽しく写していましたが、なんせ小さいんだなあ・・・・良いと思ってたのが、スクリーンで見てみたらボケてるのばっかりでした。