Flutterbyflyby3’s Neighborhood

QotD: Twister, Earthquake, Flood, Fire, Volanic Eruption, Landslide...

Katiebell
2 days ago
4 comments

Are you prepared in case of a natural disaster? What do your plan and preparations include?

oh crap no...

yes, i live in Florida, it's the Lightening capitol of the US. We also regularly have hurricanes.
I don't even have one working flashlight. No extra food....nothing...
But lucky for me hurricane season is pretty much almost over, some rain from Ida and then the dry season will come on full force.

Photo Contest

Katiebell
4 days ago
4 comments

There is a photo contest at my Job (for the entire 7 hospital system). I'd like to enter, but I am not sure I have anything really great. My choices are:

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The Gator. People like the color I was able to capture, and the reflection and the way the water looks....

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The Frog which is a nice color study...and surprising...but doesnt everyone have this photo in one form or another...

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Dragon fly, but his wings happen to be well used....a fact of life....

I need to decide the deadline is November 10. I have a ton of photos. They need to be non imflammatory type pictures as it is the religious hospital....but I mostly do wildlife, sooooo...

Which ones are good...

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this is actually a Sun Rise....I like the dark and orangey contast.

With Digital Photography, I think the average photographer has become very skilled, given that any of us can fire off 40 shots, without the fear of wasting 40 things of film....so I think competition is fierce..not only does it have to be

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perfectly in focus, and not have a lot of distractors. the composition of the image should also be good, which is sometimes hard for me, like the stick in the background of the Frog, its hard to crop out and there was no way I could move it....

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Plus its hard to tell what judges are going to like, dislike.....

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Sooooo..... what do you all think????

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The Amazon Conduit is Fixed

Team Vox
Nov 2, 2009
17 comments

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

Oakland Park. I found the Alligator!

Katiebell
Oct 30, 2009
9 comments

I have not been running this week because I seem to have strained my right calf severely. It doesn't hurt much to walk on it, but when I put the full impact of running on it, it was really terrible.

So, in lieu of the running, I took Teulu the wonder dog out for a 6 mile walk. (He needs to lose about 10 pounds, so it was part of his diet and excersise program as well...)

Oakland park is not really a park. It's a very small lake (about 1/2 mile around) with a gravel path, a picnic bench and some swings at one area. It is situated on the West Orange Trail about 2.5 or so miles in.

As with most Bodies of water in Florida, This sign is posted.

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This is the only place with a 1-800-gator program...but they really are a problem at times. I have been to this park so many times, I was convinced there were no gators, but I was wrong.

The lake is home to a lot of wild life. It's one place where I can ensure constant sighting of the little blue heron, egrets, and a variety of other lizards etc....

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I personally like to photograph the frogs. Frog photography is pretty tough with an overly excited dog. this particular frog obliged even with the dog pacing wildly. Eventually though I did not supervise the dog carefully enough and he decided to jump into the pond to cool off....

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Keeping in mind the sign I had just seen I was a bit frantic to get him out. He did climb on out within minutes (he was still on a leash) now wet and covered in the green weeds. THis is the only photo I got of him. Not a pretty sight, but it does reflect his enthusiasm.

Sort of. His tail is not as fluffy as normal as it soaked in pond scum.

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We kept moving around the pond after Teulu's unexpected descent into the deeps.

Fall in Florida is a bit different. We don't get a lot of "Fall color" like up north. and right now its about 83 degrees F at 8 pm. But we do have subtle seasonal changes, like the seed pod below. Seeing a whole vine of these is like looking at fairy lanterns. I know its probably some sort of noxious weed, but its very fall like, and cheerful....

and while we dont have fall colors we do have some spooky Halloweeny sights:

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Moving around the pond, we photographed, and then startled a Great Blue Heron.

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Which moved and then pretty much posed and posed for me until I actually got sick of photographing it.

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But I did get some pictures of the bird.

At that point, I was being attacked by many mosquitos. So I decided we should move away from the water. Suddenly I hear a scratching noise on the ground, and a very large sploosh. Definitely not a frog. It was the Alligator I had been searching for for months! I was definitely too close to such a creature. From what I gather about Alligators, they are not exactly bright, as UF states they are mostly just prey driven predators.

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This is the wide angle of the pond.

As we went back up on the gravel, away from the gator sploosh, I then spotted another Gator resting on a log. It does look like I am right beside him, but I have a long zoom.

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This is the other view of an alligator which is more often encountered.

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It's often hard to tell if it's a log or a gator, but this particular log moved about 10 minutes after I took the photo, so I am sure it was a gator....

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Anyway, theres my latest photography. I hope people enjoy.

Amazon Conduit Update

Team Vox
Oct 29, 2009
18 comments

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy

Ponce Inlet Florida Take Three....

Katiebell
Oct 25, 2009
6 comments

On Friday, I went to Ponce Inlet, for a little day trip. It's about 1.5 hours from home. I must have misread the information on the Internet because I had this crazy notion that it was a dogs allowed beach. Well, I was unfortunately wrong about that. but we still had a nice trip and I have photos to share.

Ponce De Leon inlet is a small town about 12 miles south of Daytona. Daytona of course is famous for Bike Week and also for allowing cars on the beach. (No dogs, but yes on the cars...)

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Along the beach you can indeed see people, mostly with SUV's parked and then planted a few feet from their cars. I guess in the US, where we do have a love affair with our cars its not surprising!

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The population of Ponce inlet is maybe 3000 people. From my visit I have concluded that at least half of them are older men with Leathery tans who enjoy wearing Hawaiian Shirts...

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They ride pedal bikes around town and seem to be some of the happiest people around. I couldn't help it, I kept hearing Margaritaville the entire day in my head....

This inlet, formerly known as Mosquito Inlet, is one of the most treacherous ones in the Southeast.

Apparently since the 1500's ships have been wrecking on the sand bars.

The inlet was apparently explored by Ponce De Leon, who may have recognized the inherent problems with the inlet and sailed further north to settle St Augustine

which apparently has easier access to the sea.

The Mosquito inlet was claimed at times by France and Spain but except for the planting of some orange groves apparently the area was not a priority.

In 1821, Florida became American territory, plantations were drevived from earlier days and the inlet became again important in shipping...it also remained dangerous. A lighthouse was constructed there in 1834. Oddly, while the lighthouse had a great deal of current technology for the time installed, oil for the lights never arrived and so it was never lit. Continuing in the vein of bad luck, a hurricane arrived in 1835, and damaged the structure so badly that it now leaned. In December of 1835 the Seminole tribe attacked the listing lighthouse, burning the stairs, smashing the glass and absconding with the light reflectors.

It was said that the leader,Coácoochee, was later seen wearing the reflectors as a headress in the Battle of Dunlawton, a few weeks later. I searched and searched on the net and could not find an image of this, which must have been quite a fantastic sight.

Due to the Seminole War going on , no one came to repair the lighthouse and in 1836 it simply fell into the sea.

Fast forward fifty years later, the Seminoles now eradicated by war and disease, Ponce Inlet is now becomeing important in timber supply for ship building. the Inlet, however, remained a challenge. And thus, Congress once again approved money for the construction of another lighthouse.

It became very obvious how strong the need was when one examines this statement from the Halifax Gazette

"out of the eight or ten schooners employed in the lighthouse work five have been wrecked..." on the bar or in the river."

This lighthouse still stands in Ponce Inlet and is one of the most completely restored lighthouses in the country. At 176 feet high it is also one of the tallest. Due to this, I am surprised it isn't more well known.

The entrance of the Museum sports this quote... which I suppose is appropriate for the times.....

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2 comments

It has over 200 steps and visitors can actually climb up the lighthouse and walk about the decking for an excellent view of the coastline.

Now would be the moment for me to insert my photo of the magnificent view of the coastline, yes? Well, when I attempted to leave the poor puppy, he protested rather loudly, leaving me to abandon any hope of climbing the lighthouse.

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Nevertheless, despite not being able to go to the Beach, the Lighthouse or the Marine life center due to the dog, I actually found a lovely nature trail that appeared to be a dogs allowed kind of place.

At the end of it, there was an observing platform about 4 flights of steps up, so it was very pleasant to get up there and have a great view of the lighthouse from above the trees, and some of the coastal birds...

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4 comments

At the time I was taking the photos, I thought this was a hawk, but now that I look at the beak, sadly I think this is a turkey vulture. Aw well, it was having fun bobbing and weaving about in the breeze....

No trip to the coast would be complete without Pelicans..

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Another view of the lighthouse, from the platform. It does appear to be leaning, but I think it was me who was doing the leaning!

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1 comment

ANyway, I really think this is a great place to visit. It's tiny, lots of free parking, the beach is pretty nice (I am not a fan of the cars however...) the Marine life center has some cool things to see, as well as the lighthouse museum. Great for a stop-over, not a destination....Just don't bring the dog, he'll be disappointed!!!

yikes

Katiebell
Oct 25, 2009
Post a comment

I have been trying for an hour to post up photos from my trip to Ponce Inlet....each time I upload them and try to rearrange them, some wierd glitch deletes my post.......arrrrugh

Amazon Conduit: Update

Team Vox
Oct 20, 2009
22 comments

Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.

We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you for being so patient.

~daisy

Today is Blog Action Day! Blog for Climate Change.

Team Vox
Oct 15, 2009
53 comments

Blog Action Day

6 comments

Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.

This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!

Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.

Can't wait to read your posts!

~ daisy

This week in Running (Again)

Katiebell
Oct 11, 2009
4 comments

Well, this week was somewhat improved. I'm really still sore and achy and feeling sort of distracted.

This is the part of training that I dislike intensely. I have lost a bit of my base, it is coming back, but while it is coming back running is very much a chore.

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It's hard to get going, and hard to continue. There doesn't seem to be any benefit to doing it at all I seem so far from the goal that I just feel like quitting entirely.

In fact, I have to keep reciting things in my head regarding the benefits of running.

Mostly I focus on:

Its great for my heart

It is good for my waistline

I already am committed to a race.

And then I sort of get grumpy.

But it's a phase that I go through each time I stop running for sickness or things like stressful home sales!

I have to run through it, literally.

This week I managed to do 3 runs and one session on the ellipitical trainer.

If you count the ellipitical I did 16.5 miles, which is much better than the 6 I did last week.

If you dont count the ellipitical its 14 miles. Still good. 2 4 milers and a very difficult Six miler.

It HOT here in Florida. Now, I know a lot of you are saying...

Geee, DUH. its Florida. Yup, it's Florida. But we are having record Heat. Heat indices at 110. So, I hope thats part of why some of the runs have been a little difficult.

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Apparently at the end of this week we will be dropping back to the 80's which is great....

So, this is the week in Runnning. This week I have an odd schedule as I switched with someone. I'm hoping to increase up to 18-20 miles, but we'll see, That six miler just about did me in.

Until then I am trying to be