Every Day is a Gift!
I often see insects on garden flowers but it is a challenge to get them to stay still long enough for a photo. Here are a few insects I managed to capture through the years.
Shared with Terri’s Sunday Stills challenge Insects
Terri’s Sunday Stills challenge is On the Wing. I enjoy bird photography and have thousands of bird photos in my archives. I browsed through some of them and included a few favorites for this challenge.
I am the daughter of a United States Air Force pilot and I can’t do a post about wings without including wings of the USAF Thunderbirds.
Thanks to Terri for her Sunday Stills monthly challenge – On the Wing
Terri’s Sunday Stills challenge of State and Local Parks reminded me of some of the wonderful state parks where we have camped on our many RV travels over the years. I had a hard time choosing which parks to feature for this post but I narrowed it down to three of my favorites. These parks are great for a day trip as well as for tent or RV camping.
Stephen C. Foster State Park in Fargo, Georgia
We love this park so much we camped here many times through the years. We enjoyed stopping here on our trips to and from Florida. The park is located in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge 17 miles from the nearest highway. There is a small marina with a boat launch as well as canoe and kayak rentals and ranger guided boat trips into the swamp. It’s quiet and off the beaten track.
Silver Springs State Park, Florida
Silver Springs is another state park we visited many times on our RV trips to Florida. Tourists began visiting Silver Springs in late 1800s. The first glass bottom boat tours started taking visitors for rides over the crystal clear springs in the 1870’s. Today Silver Springs is a state park which still operates the famous glass bottom boats. The park also has several hiking and biking nature trails, a museum, a replica of a 19th century settlement called the Cracker Village, and a very nice campground.
Custer State Park, South Dakota
Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument attract many visitors to the Black Hills of South Dakota each year. Another great place to explore is nearby Custer State Park. Visitors can spend a day taking scenic drives on the Wildlife Loop Drive, Iron Mountain Road, and the Needles Highway. The park is also a popular place to camp with several campgrounds to choose from.
Thanks to Terri for her Sunday Stills monthly challenge – State and Local Parks
Our year was filled with some wandering, some quality time at home, and good times with family and friends.
A week long getaway to the Florida Gulf Coast was just what we needed to start the year. The week was filled with beautiful sunrises, bird watching, swimming with manatees, and a Mermaid show at Weeki Watchee Springs State Park.
February was a quiet month at home with porch sitting when the weather was nice, a trip to the Ships of the Sea Museum in Savannah with friends, attending the Livestrong program two days a week, and watching the camellias bloom.
We stayed home for the month. The azaleas were blooming and the days were filled with St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations with the Junkanoo band from the Bahamas.
We took a road trip to do some wandering in middle Georgia, enjoyed the spring flowers in our garden, and watched a few backyard birds.
We celebrated Henry’s birthday at a Savannah Bananas game and made a trip to Virginia to visit family.
We celebrated my birthday with a road trip to Orlando where we had a delicious birthday lunch at Sanaa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and spent a day at the Animal Kingdom theme park.
July brought a gorgeous full moon, a double rainbow and a trip to the Georgia mountains to celebrate our anniversary.
The weather was hot but the flowers in the garden were blooming at home. We made another trip to middle Georgia where we wandered around Butterflies and Blooms in the Briar Patch.
There were walks on the beach and gorgeous sunrises.
I made a trip to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Back at home we wandered around Ft. Pulaski National Monument one day.
We flew to Ft. Lauderdale to begin our long awaited Panama Canal and Central America Cruise. Watch for another post about this adventure coming soon.
We celebrated the holidays with friends and family at home. Some mornings I woke up to a brilliant orange sky at sunrise.
There were also many events with no photos to share. In March I completed a three month Livestrong program for cancer survivors at our local YMCA and I still continue to stay fit with water aerobics and other classes at the gym. We had some long delayed home home improvements taken care of. We cheered on our 13 year old granddaughter at a few middle school volleyball and basketball games. We were safe and dry in our home as we watched and heard the rain and wind from hurricane Idelia passed by in August.
Wandering Dawgs celebrated 10 years of blogging in March. I appreciate all of you who read and follow my posts. I’m looking forward to keep this up for a while.
Wishing you good health, happiness and much joy in 2024!
Shared with Terri’s Sunday Stills
Our host Tina has asked us to choose up to 10 of our favorite photos and to explain why they are favorites. If we choose one for sentimental value they should still be strong from a technical perspective.
All of my photos have sentimental value. They bring back fond memories of a good experience. All have been featured on my blog before. The hardest part of this challenge was limiting it to 10 favorites!
My header image is my favorite sunset photo. I pass by this tree to get to my house and I’ve watched many beautiful sunsets there. This is my favorite sunset image because of the dramatic orange sky, the bird on one tree, and the sun framed between two trees just before sinking below the horizon.
This next image of a pair of Orcas in Alaska is one of my all time favorite wildlife photos. We saw plenty of wildlife on our RV trip to Alaska ten years ago but when we reached Valdez, our last coastal town before starting for home, we still had not seen any Orcas. We took a wildlife and glacier cruise on a fairly small vessel and witnessed many whales, seals, puffins and other wildlife before a pod of Orcas surfaced near the boat. I was able to stand by the railing of the boat with my telephoto lens and take a few shots. This is one of my favorites because I captured a moment I will never forget.
Another favorite wildlife photo is this one of a Green Sea Turtle on Oahu’s North Shore in Hawaii. We were surprised when we spotted the turtle as we were taking a walk along the beach after doing some snorkeling.
I love taking bird pictures and I have many photos of Great Egrets. This is one of my favorites because he is showing off his breeding plumage and it shows the green color around his eyes.
This is my favorite hummingbird image. I was looking down on the garden when I captured this hummingbird drinking from a Mexican Sunflowers. I like the way the background is blurred and that the wings are in motion.
The next image just makes me happy. We were walking along Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island on a beautiful July day when I spotted the beach chairs set up underneath the colorful umbrellas in the middle of the driftwood.
One of the most memorable experiences of my life was taking a flight seeing trip to see Mt. Denali in Denali National Park from the air. This is one of my favorites from that exciting flight.
The next image is one of my favorite landscape images. On my morning walk in a campground in Colorado I spotted this fisherman beside the lake with storm clouds over the mountains.
I chose my final two favorites for the reflections and fog. Both of these were featured in past challenges and based on the number of comments I received they were favorites of readers of my blog.
Many thanks to our guest host Tina for the challenge Lens-Artists Challenge #268 – Tell Me Why
Wandering Dawgs 