Pearl and Hopewell

 

 

From the archives

 

 

WOW!

 

Weak Right

Was it the deformed right claw that caused the Gator to meet his demise? A thinning of the weak? Or was it from happy go lucky wanna be Swampers? We can only guess.

meter man

And so Monday begins a new venture in the Journey of John Stokes. For then he becomes a FPL meter reader. In looking at my own meter, I am stumped when the dials are on the number. Is the first number on the left read as 0 or 9. Suppose I shall learn come Monday.

Smoke on the Gator

Spend some time at the dock on Alligator Lake watching the cool high winds bring in the smoke from the Osceola Forest Fire. By the later afternoon, the winds had shifted to the east, taking the cover of smoke from the area.

The Immature Bald Eagle

 

The Delivery

As I was watching the young eagle perched high on his nest, one of the adults came in from the left all of a sudden with what looked to be a catfish. I have yet to get a good shot of what they bring to the nest. One day it was a snake, another, a mole? Today a catfish? With my old manual focus lens, it is quite difficult to consistently get off sharp shots of motion. The range of focus is confined to a few inches with no room for error. When I get a sharp photo, I am quite pleased! I for sure envy the professionals who have access to the 500mm auto focus lenses with the high frames per second bursts.

First Flight of the Young Eagle

 

 

 

Upon coming up to the eagle nest, there was a grand commotion of chirping as both adult eagles were on hand with the two young eagles. One of the adults had just delivered what looked to be a catfish, and suddenly, off the nest flew one of the young eagles, soaring up and circling back to the nest. I am not certain if this was his first flight, but it was the first I had seen after many days of observing them. It has been quite entertaining watching the progress of this eagle family.

Supplication from the Shining Congregation

This is the photograph I entered in the Adorama/Ken Rockwell photography contest. It was taken at Hopewell Baptist Church near the upper Suwannee River off Highway 6. A few asked, why this particular photo? I was attempting to read Rockwell's mind in that he likes bold images that stand out even as a thumbnail. Problem was, it wasn't bold enough. The other problem, the main problem, was the contest was viewer driven. If you did not have a good base of voters, you were sunk. Then, you had to make it to the top 25 photographs as I understood the contest for Rockwell to even judge the final winner.

 

 

Last Slant

We were the witnesses to the last slanting ray

Just a little gathering of old friends

Some said it was a forgetful day

Others were glad to see it come to end

But the few who witnessed were quiet

The two azaleas they understood

And while we thanked the slanting light

With old moss we took leave of the wood

And one by one we ascended spiders ladder

To ride the endless ray that slants forever higher.

In Praise of Haze

Took a late evening mountain bike ride at Alligator Lake through the haze. The smoke coming from the Pinhook Fire in the Osceola. Rode only three miles since the park was closing at 7PM. The spill from this past Tuesday did not bother me. Stopped by the check on the young eagles. They are sitting tall upon their nest, no doubt soon to fly off. Did not see the parents. The purple flags in the basin of the lake were awesome. Just a touch of early morning light on them would be brilliant. Too bad the park is closed tomorrow or I would return.

Daddy's Suit

With Nathaniel over yesterday evening, Melanie and I took the opportunity to quickly dress Nathaniel up in Landon's Easter outfit. Fortunately it fit but getting Nathaniel to sit still and pose quite another matter. We settled for about three out of about sixty that were acceptable. On hindsight, I should have ironed my backdrop as it was all wrinkled.

Zero Out Ten PM

 

On the ride into town, the moon was low and orange. With the Pinhook Swamp to our North in the Osceola on fire, with ashes falling all afternoon from the sky, it was an awesome full moon. I arrived home after taking Nathaniel home, to the winds having cleared out the smoke. The moon was a brilliant white. I set up the tripod in the driveway, attached the D5000 with 180 2.8 manual and TC-201 extender and stopped down to f8 at 125. I experimented with a speed up to 250 at 2.8. The focus for my poor eyes, already smarting from allergies, was difficult and constant. I upped the focus factor. A distant bird flew up into the brilliance. I missed it. Then the clouds rolled in. It was while fiddling with the focus and exposure I saw this jet streak past. I had just enough time to get the plane before it went off the moon. I knew I had captured it. Turns out, it was caught in the best spot, the brilliant area of the moon. I was stoked!

Ken Rockwell's Adorama Photo Contest Winner

In looking over the nearly 1,000 entries in this contest, this photograph, while strong in bold,graphic colors.   Rockwell loves bold, super saturated colors and this one drew him. It would have been nice had the contest given a final rank for all to see. It was one of those contests where all Rockwell had to do was vote on the top twenty-five photographs with the most viewer votes.While Suzanne Carson and I made an all out effort to get votes, all the while, for the most part, no one voted but a few of our closer friends. And I am still not sure if my photograph was eliminated when the reset took place.

BROW WOW!

GR8NESS! UK defeats Kansas for their 8th National Basketball Title. I have been a fan of Kentucky basketball from about the 5th grade when we lived in Kentucky. We lived just below Lexington at Wilmore in the heart of the Big Blue Nation.

Roger and Rosie

Sunday after church Melanie, Meme Clara and I rode the sixty mile journey over to Fanning Springs to get the two remaining chickens Susan said we could come and get. When we arrived, we thought it would be an easy catch, but they soon fled to the woods. Fortunately Stacey arrived and he knew how to catch them. He went to his dog pen and with the feeding of the hounds, the chickens came running to eat the feed.
He picked them up and put them in the cat crate for us. They rode the entire way back not making a sound. On arriving, we put them in the pen prepared. We came out later toward dark to find them loose in the yard. They had squeezed out of the top of the hog wire. I was able to catch them and place them in a rabbit hutch for the night. Monday morning I went out and placed wire over the top of the pen and placed them again in the 10 by 10 enclosure. So far so good. This morning we had two eggs. I went down to Bailey's Farm Supply and got a fifty pound bag of laying mash. So we are now in the chicken and egg business. Some point I shall let them free range in the yard.

Reality Check

It came upon the Gar Pond narrow trail
The realization of a slowing down
It came quite painful as I fell
Lying there breathless on the ground.

It was a realization unspoken
You knew the thoughts were there
Hanging onto the rear so broken
The third cog making not a pair.

Talks of coming rides not including me
The old one once so fast
Falling came so unexpectedly
Speed I thought would always last.

The Gar Pond white route I ride
Alone now in a slow spin
Some days on downhills I fly
Mostly I just miss my friends.