Airboat Ride

Great Egret on her nest, preening herself and waiting for her mate to come back?

This Alligator was quite small, 3-4 feet, maybe? He came toward our boat, but absolutely quiet.

Airboat makes a loud noise and goes soooo fast! See, there is nothing but flat wet land!

Febriary 21, 2009 My important friend came to Florida from Europe for vacation with his wife, and stopped by to see me. We went for an Airboat ride, the boat goes through the Florida Everglades for one hour, stopping occasionally to see the plants, birds, Alligators.....it was fun! I've been in South Florida for more than 12 years and never tried this before....now I want to go back again.

Morning Dew

I like to go out and take photos in the morning, earlier the better. This weed flower, only 3/4" in diameter, is much more attractive with morning dewdrops, I was on my knees and elbows and got wet to get these photos. Small flower and smaller dewdrops.....just so beautiful.

The upper one looks like a dewdrop flower!

Our Cats and Bird

This is Max the Cat. He usually scared of Fluffy the Bird, but still, always so curious and interested in her. Interested in.....as a playmate, not as food, I presume.

Fluffy is the strongest, I mean stronger than Max and Nicky, the older cat. She won't flinch if they get near, and if they are too close she is ready to bite, not backing off. Don't say Fluffy is an aggressive bird, she is not. She trusts Nicky, and Nicky leaves her alone, so they have peace to each other. But Max, he is just a baby, so too curious and want to touch Fluffy, sniff Fluffy, follow and chase Fluffy, but it looks like he just want to play with her, to stay close to her. Fluffy doesn't trust this kid, so Max look so sad when Fluffy doesn't let Max come closer.

This photo is a rare occasion and both seems OK, looks like he is whispering a secret to Fluffy's ear! The upper photo looks like Max is ready to lick her clean!

Leaves

The leaves are turning colors very beautifully now.....in January??
But it isn't so that they change colors when temperature drops, and colder the better for nice colors? Well, here in Florida, it never gets cold enough in Fall, leaves never gets beautiful colors. So what happens now, in January, we keep having low temperature, that is equivalent to the Fall temperature in Northern area.....so leaves think that this is Fall and turn their colors???

Tons of droplets on a leaf! But DOF's too shallow. I went back to the park the next morning to try better pictures, but the leaves were all gone!

This flower is smaller than 1/4 inch in diameter. On a small flower, dews are smaller....!

There's one small Botanical Garden close to my daughter's school. She usually take a school bus but sometimes I drive her, and I stop by at the garden, well, it's more like just a park, but they put the signs with plant's and tree's names, both common and Latin, so it's very good to know the real names.

So, in the morning, I don't need special flowers or trees, just these Morning dews, droplets and drops....I could spent a few hours with them there!!

Soccer game

This is a future Soccer player, a future olympic athelete! Way to Go, Boy!!

My best friend's younger daughter is doing Swimming, the older one Soccer. This pic is not her daughter but in her game I went to take pictures.

My first try of Soccer photos, second try of sports photos, I enjoyed a lot!

This picture, she just kicked the ball and my original photo has only the half of the ball in the frame!! I moved the ball and made up the missing right side of the ball in PS.

Mango

This is a Mango tree, now in full bloom everywhere. What can I say, my friends in North has some 30 inch snow and minus 30~40 cold temperatures and we have these flowers in full...!
But it was cold today. Feels very chilly, down to 51 F (plus!) tonight. Wow, cold!!