The blog is broken…

I don't know what happened, but sometime between the post of the Green Heron on April 25, and when we arrived home in New York, the code that expands the posts stopped working. Now, when you click on the text Click for more…, nothing happens. I did not notice the problem until I attempted to publish photos of our new granddaughter on Mother's Day.

At the time I had hoped I would get the problem fixed in a few days, so I didn't send out a notice of the new post. I have been working on it, but I cannot find the problem, and no one else has been able to come up with a solution. I think I am going to have to redesign the blog from scratch. Meanwhile, all of the photos located in expanded portions of posts cannot be viewed. Until I get the problem solved, or redo my blog, I will keep posts short and the photos few.

Please take a minute to look at the two previous posts. One shows a recent photo of the Century Plant, and the other features our beautiful new granddaughter, Brianna Vanessa Quinn.

Century Plant update…

If you follow this blog, you will remember the photos of the Century Plant I posted in March and early April. The photo on the left was the last one I took on April 4, shortly before we left Florida to head home. The plant was still growing, but there was no sign of flowering. The May issue of the online resort newsletter featured an updated photo, showing that the plant is finally in bloom. I "borrowed" the photo, below, to show you all.




Type rest of the post here

Our Granddaughter…

I have let another two weeks pass without a post. Since the last post we have arrived home on Long Island and have been working to unpack the RV and settle back into our house. On April 30 we received the exciting news that my stepson Brian and his wife Vanessa gave birth to our first grandchild, Brianna Vanessa. As most of you know, they are stationed in Tokyo with the Army, and until we can make the trip to visit, we have to make due with photos. She is a little one, weighing in at birth at 6lbs. 12oz., and 19 inches long. Obviously the photos are not mine, but I did want to show off our adorable granddaughter.



Expand the post for more photos of Brianna.






All dressed up for Mother's Day


Brianna & proud daddy.


Brianna & her mom
Notice her Yankee blanket, bought by her dad, of course.

The Circle of Life…

I am posting from an RV resort on Hilton Head Island as Eddie and I make our way back to New York. Before heading home from Florida, we spent a few days camping at Disney World. The annual Flower & Garden Festival is being held at EPCOT, and I took my camera to the park to take pictures the flowers and topiary. In a pond at the China pavilion a bird was perched on a rock (I don't yet know what type of bird, because I haven't had a chance for online research) looking so still that at first I though it was a statue. It appeared to be stalking something, and after about ten minutes of staring, it dove into the water and came back to the rock with a prize. From my vantage point it looked like it had snagged a piece of water plant, which hardly seemed worth the effort. I snapped one last photo of the bird, and we went on our way. It wasn't until that night when I was downloading my photos into Lightroom, that I saw what the bird had really snagged.




Expand the post for camera and setting information.

Camera: Nikon D90 DSLR
Lens: Nikon 70-300mm VR
Focal length: 270mm
Shooting aperture priority at f/11 with the ISO was set to 200.

A new family at Easter…

A pair of Sandhill Cranes are nesting at Lake Margaret here at our RV resort. The gestation period is 55 to 60 days, so I doubt if they will hatch before we leave at the end of the week, but they are wonderful to look at — and photograph from afar.

More photos, and some information, in the expanded post.


Sandhill Cranes mate for life…

…and both the male and female share in parenting.

The sexes look alike, and I have no idea which is the male and which is the female.

I found a blind to stand in while I took my photos. They were taken with my Nikon 70–300mm VR (vibration reduction) lens. Rather than drag a tripod into the blind, I hand-held the camera. Without a VR lens, the photos would not have been as clear.

My camera is a Nikon D90 DSLR. The ISO was set to 200, and I shot aperture priority at f/8 and f/10.

In case you were wondering, still no sign of blooms from the every growing Century Plant. Wishing everyone a Happy Easter and a Good Passover.

When will it bloom?

I've been so involved in other projects for the past few weeks, that I haven't taken the time to do what I love — wander around and take pictures. Today I went for a walk with my camera, and over the next few days I hope to be sharing some of the photos on my blog. I'll begin with two photos of a Century Plant Agave that is growing in our RV resort.



I took this first photo on March 18, when I first heard about the impending bloom.



Everyday I ride my bike by the plant to monitor its progress, and it just keeps getting taller. The second photo was taken this afternoon. The property owner said she thinks she is growing Jack's beanstalk! No one seems to have any idea when the plant will bloom. I just hope it is before the 19th, when we leave for the season.

Expand the post for more…

While called the Century Plant, it actually lives from ten to twenty-five years, blooming only once and then dying. During out last two trips to Arizona and western Texas we saw many blooming Century Plants. The ones we observed in 2007 were of a smaller variety of the plant, but last March, in Texas, I took photos of a large, dying specimen after the bloom.

The Good Mother…

It has been another long stretch between posts, but I do have two cute photos to share.

A few weeks ago one of the Colobus Monkeys at Disney's Animal Kingdom had a baby. According to what I read in the newspaper, the keepers don't yet know if it is male or female, or even how much it weighs, because the mother is keeping it close. When we saw the monkeys this past weekend, mother and baby were very shy, but I did get a few shots. Right now the baby's fur is white and it looks like a little snowball. Over the next few months the fur will gradually turn almost completely black.