Contents

Rearview Mirror - Summary of the past week
Headlights - Our schedule as to where we will be heading

(Note: click on any photo for a larger image/slideshow)

Rearview Mirror

Schnauzer Shoot
One morning I took some photos for Jan S., our good friend and Schnauzer breeder. Her Teacup Schnauzers had just opened their eyes and were getting mobile! With Jan and my Jan’s help, I took scores of images of these adorable youngsters that weighed just two ounces at birth. Interested in a cute addition to your family? Call Jan S. at 239-980-2564.













Boating Sunsets
One evening I took out a boatload of family for a cruise on Pine Island Sound. Here are a couple of sunset pics.





More Birds
Lot’s of birds on the Island, here are shots of hawks, ospreys, pelicans, a vulture, a woodpecker, an anhinga, a frigate bird, and a mockingbird.





























Haiku Fran
Here is a candid shot I took of our neighbor and friend, Fran, as she was bicycling home. As you can tell, I added a little modification!

Headlights

See you next week.

Tags: Wildlife photography, Bird photography, Pine Island, pet photography

Contents

Rearview Mirror - Summary of the past week
Pups Across America! - Fish House pup
Headlights - Our schedule as to where we will be heading

(Note: click on any photo for a larger image/slideshow)

Rearview Mirror

Christmas Boat Parade
We drove the golf cart down to the Monroe Canal Saturday early evening to watch the Annual Boat Parade sponsored by the Pine Island Boat Club. Twenty or so well-decorated boats and crews made their route bordered by throngs of Islanders along the path in the 70-degree temperature. Here are four photos that Jan took of the parade.









The Lost Pictures
While downloading Jan’s boat parade images, I came across a surprise--some images I had taken a while back. Here is a shot from our Motoring Across America tour of Mitzy resting on the dash in the coach.



Also in the camera where a couple of shots I took while bike riding. One is a blur (intentional ☺) and the other is a one-handed shot of a hawk flying across the bike path.





Misto Bar and Grill
We went with good friends to a new restaurant in Cape Coral called Mistos. Islanders will remember George, the chef from Visuvios; this is his new place. Wonderful food, fine service, and great ambience. Jan had the Red Snapper and I had the Grouper Jambalaya. Definitley worth getting off the Island for--give it a try.





Hangin’ On the Island
Here are a few walkaround shots from morning Pup walks and late afternoon golf cart rides--a couple out kayaking Pine Island Sound, a squirrel, a couple of hawk shots, a young eagle, a posing pelican, a Night Heron, and five Great Egrets imitating a weather vane.

Pups Across America

Here is a shot of a momma dog that was out wandering around by the Fish House.

Headlights

See you next week.

Tags: Pine Island, Wildlife photography

Contents

Rearview Mirror - Summary of the past week
Pups Across America! - Jerry and Jan
Headlights - Our schedule as to where we will be heading

(Note: click on any photo for a larger image/slideshow)

Rearview Mirror

Poker Run
The first Sunday of every December is the Calusa Land Trust’s Annual Poker Run, a fundraiser to acquire and manage environmentally critical lands on Pine Island (www.calusalandtrust.org). It is a great organization and a really fun event. Here is a shot of me and my crew aboard Rough Draft as we headed from one stop on the water to the next.


(Photo courtesy of Tom Bridges)

Island Walks
More and more birds to view and sights to see during my walks around the Island. Here is a Wood Stork in flight, frangipani blooms with birds in the background, a duck cruising on the Sound (can a duck expert tell me what kind he/she is?), a hawk scouting prey, a few pelican shots, and a flock of crows.

Pups Across America

Here is a shot of Jerry and Jan on the golf cart.

Headlights

See you next week.

Tags: Wildlife photography, Calusa Land Trust

Contents

Rearview Mirror - Summary of the past week
Pups Across America! - Jerry in the prairie
Headlights - Our schedule as to where we will be heading

(Note: click on any photo for a larger image/slideshow)

Rearview Mirror

Island Walks
Early morning St. James City walks produced a few interesting pictures. Here are a couple of reflections taken from the pond behind the post office and two Wood Storks--one perched and one in flight. Also, here is a hawk that hangs around an eagle nest, a neighborhood orchid, a soaring osprey, a standing ibis, a really handsome vulture, plus the resting pose of Chico, the last of our Mexican gatos.

























The Pot Roast Caper
Our long-time friend Patrick has an interesting description of his ideal camping experience--he envisions traveling along the scenic highways of America, taking in the great vistas of our land while inhaling the all-American smells of a bubbling, cooking pot roast that will be his evening meal. So when Jamers brought up the idea of a Pot Roast Caper, Jan and I were all for it. Several false starts and changes in plans jeopardized the escapade, but it finally came together. Here is the scenario: Unbeknownst to Patrick and Friz, Jamers was down visiting us on the Island. Jamers told us when Friz and Patrick would be flying into Punta Gorda, so Jan phoned them saying that she had to go to Bonita Springs (where they have a home) anyway to shop for a rug, so why don’t they let us pick them up at the airport and drive them to Bonita? They readily agreed. Our plan was quickly formulated: Jamers, Jan, and I (along with the Pups) would drive BERT (our motor home) to the Punta Gorda rest stop, a mile from the Punta Gorda airport. While driving, the pot roast would be cooking in the slow cooker, accumulating the appropriate degree of doneness. At the rest stop we would unhook the car, Jan and I would drive to the airport to pick them up, tell them we needed to go to the bathroom, drive up to our coach, tell them to go in and be surprised by seeing Jamers sitting in the coach and smelling the cooking meats and veggies. Next we would hook the car back up and drive to our campground a little past Naples. Sounds like a great plan don’t you think?



However, we had a couple potholes on the path to pot roast progress: (1) We left the house early to prepare the coach for our trip (we keep the coach a few blocks away). When Jan pushed the button to raise the leveling jacks, one would not go all the way up--the coach would move but made a consistent, obnoxious, irritating alarm--not tolerable. We spent about an hour working on this problem (including lots of me laying under the coach urging it to act in the way I wanted it to). Finally, with Barry’s help, we used his jack to raise the coach jack enough to cancel the alarm. OK, we are running a little late, but all was still fine. (2) As we got ready to pull out, Jan smelled not the delectable odor of cooking pot roast but the metallic smell of burning wires--somehow the pot roast cooker got fried in the fix-the-jack melee. We stopped along the way to try and buy another cooker, but no luck. So Jamers and Jan modified the cooking methodology and polished the process to make things work. We arrived at the rest stop later than planned but luckily Patrick and Friz’s plane was late, so all worked out. We were there when their plane arrived, we loaded the car, lied about needing a potty break, and both of them were very surprised upon entering the coach. After a social break, we hooked up the car, drove to the Collier-Seminole State Park, set up camp in the dark, but by 9 p.m. we were enjoying the delicious, long-anticipated meal--MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.







Note that the planning for the original caper was much more complex and sophisticated. For example, it also included flying in PK Tours from the Caribbean.

Pups Across America

Here is a shot of Jerry, enjoying a romp in a meadow in the early morning light.

Headlights

See you next week.

Tags: Bird photography