Happy Halloween!

Went looking for a different photo from the 50's, but found this one. It's my sister & me--I'm the cat, she's the fairy princess, taken in 1953. My Mom made both of these costumes --I don't think we ever had store bought ones growing up.

Flowers from different places

Elizabeth Park, Hartford CT roses

I couldn't decided on a post today --couldn't find a halloween photo I was looking for--so I looked through some of my florals. I try to go to Elizabeth park once a year--it's the oldest rose garden in the US.

Poppies in my yard. These are a beautiful color with paper thin petals.

Hydrangeas on Block Island

Black Eyed Susans, growing wild in my yard

1st snow of the season!

Yesterday afternoon it started with the big wet flakes. This is what I got up to this morning.......And very cold ( for here in Oct!) Supposed to be 45 with wiind chills in the 30's--Yuck!

From the house, looking to the driveway

Stay warm!

Butterflies

All of these photos were taken at Magic Wings butterfly place in Deerfield, Ma. I have been here several times and also to Butterfly Place in Westford , Ma. Magic Wings is a great day trip from my house & it's just down the road the world headquarters of Yankee Candle--they have a huge series of stores & a nice restaurant there. FYI--I didn't spend alot of time looking up the names--I bought a cheat sheet at Magic Wings with photos & names on it! Piano Key butterfly---(Heliconius melpomene)
Julia butterfly ( Dryas iulia)
Hecale Longwing (heliconius hecale)
Rice Paper (Idea ieuconoe)
Indian leaf butterfly ( Kallima paralekta)

Sunrise on Isla

Can't wait to take more photos like this --less than 3 months to go! All of these were taken from a perch along the malecon. I love to go & sit there early in the morning & then go walk around town to see Isla waking up.

Thinking about the Barracuda Bash 2009!

Finally close enough that we can start thinking about the Barracuda Bash! It's January 21 & 22 2009! Getting together this weekend with a few of our Isla friends & I know it will be a topic of discussion.

This is Rick (the person who won last year) and his son, Steve.

Weighing the fish!

A visit to the feed & grain store

The greeter

I go to a feed store about 20 mins. away that is owned by the man that we got our dog from. He sells alot of natural food and other pet products & some gardening things. There are usually a few of his dogs there & yesterday was no exception. One balck lab that belongs to his son and then 3 chocolates. They are very well behaved dogs.

waiting for customers

looking for their ball

They had a large yellow ball they they wanted me to throw--so I did! Fun to watch them race down the aisles trying to get the ball

sealions and an eagle-a continuation

Here are pictures of the whole buoy that I mentioned in the previous post. I think I took 24 photos of this hoping a few would turn out ok. Enjoy!

Whales and eagles

Just a few photos of some of the whales I saw when I went out off the coast of Juneau. There were many in the pod we came upon--one person was spotting & saying look over here, over there. My camera wasn't fast enough to keep up ( or maybe it was me!)

This eagle was on top of a buoy--all around the bottom were sealions sunning themselves--will put that up in another post!

Mendenhall Glacier & Auke Bay

This waterfall was off to the side of Mendenhall Glacier. I went there on a phto excursion from the cruise ship when we were in Juneau. You go out with a small group & a pro photographer--they take you places depending on the weather & guide you to take better photos. The group( 9 people) I was with had quite a range of people from a pro photographer from Austrailia to several people that still use film cameras.

The tour company had rain ponchos and monopod/walking sticks for everyone to use. This is the actual glacier. We were across a small pond from it, on walking trails.

We were told if anyone saw something they thought the rest of the group would be interested in, please let us know--so someone said--do you see the bear up in the tree?! Luckily I had a zoom lens--it was quite high up!

After leaving Mendenhall we went to Auke Bay and boarded a small boat designed for picture taking. All the windows opened inward, so you could sit & take photos--it was great! I would highly recommmend this trip to anyone going to Juneau. More photos from out on the water tomorrow.

a few macro shots

I decided to put the macro lens on my camera & see what I could find around the yard. Have a few new roses blooming....

Kind of odd to see them this late in the season.

Have been picking a small amount of raspberries every day. These golden raspberries have been nicer than the ones we had earlier.

Just thought this was an interesting shot of the underside of a mushroom......

Winter storage

Today was winter storage morday at the fairgrounds. People line up early to store their campers, cars and boats in our buildings. We have several buildings that we fill up in 2-3 hours. The above building has high ceilings so large boats and campers go in there.
People were lined up before 7 am--we don't open til 8 usually, but the police came by & said to get the vehicles off the road , so the gates were opened early. I was up there at 7:30 and they had already put quite a few campers, etc. in. We were all done by 10am. It's a great way to utilize the buildings for the winterIn the background you can see the vehicles out on the road--the day started out a little chilly ( about 36 degrees F) but no wind so it wasn't bad; and the sun was out!

Last gasp of fall foliage....

The leaves are mostly off the trees now; had a little rain & wind yesterday so alot came down. Here's Rafe with his ever present frisbee standing on the lawn of leaves.
So many leaves to rake! Hoping for a few nice days, so we can get out & do it--at least before we have more rain--nothing worst than having to rake up wet ones!
Photo taken a few days ago at the fairgrounds showing a couple of the nice trees. This weekend we have a cattle auction and winter storage going on. We have several large buildings that don't get used in the winter, so we fill them with campers, boats and cars.
The view from the top of Mohawk Mountain, looking toward Massachusetts. If you looked at a map of CT. as a rectangle, we live in the NW corner aabout 1/2 hr. from both MA. & NY.
Another view at the fairgrounds