Birding Weekend in Sanibel

Hello my friends!
Finally had my first birding outing of 2013 with Lita. We spent the weekend on Sanibel, a place we both love not only because we met there but because it's so full of nature and wildlife. It's a dream locale for photographers, nature lovers and of course, birders. And we are all three! ;-) We had a great weekend which included a couple of really magical moments gifted to us by the universe as well as lots of great birdy sightings. We ended up seeing about 33 different species of birds and Lita added 7 or so to her life list and I added 4. We also ended up with dozens of bites that welted up on our face, hands, chest and legs thanks to a constant attack by no-see-ums, little biting bugs that, you guessed it, you can't see. However, they were so thick we could see them plain as day! They even attacked our scalps. I have itchy hair now. ;-(
And, I have tons of pictures to process. I promised myself I would keep up with the processing this year. Um, yea, right...I can already see how that is going to be a challenge!

Alrighty then! On with the highlights from the weekend in Sanibel:

On Saturday, we arrived in time for a quick drive through Ding Darling before having lunch at The Greenhouse Grill. I was able to add two birds to my life list while at Ding Darling, a Dunlin and a Red Knot. Later in the afternoon we hit Bowman Beach for a bit of shelling and then headed to Captiva to capture the sunset. There was no sunrise that morning at my lake due to rain so I was very happy to at least have a decent sunset.

A sweet Dunlin. They are so cute!

 Beachy Blues

 Sunset 1.19.2013

One of our magical moments was watching a Bald Eagle snatch a fish from the ocean and fly right over us! It was the highlight of day one but unfortunately both Lita and I had no time to adjust our manual settings and we just pointed and shot and none of our pictures turned out (I think we were shooting seashells or waves or some such thing). I managed to salvage one enough that I could add in some clouds I shot earlier along with some texture so that I could at least have a shot to remember the moment by. Not that I would forget...it was a one in a million chance sighting there!

Bald Eagle with Catch

On Sunday we got up before sunrise and headed to Ding Darling, unaware that what lay ahead would be misery in the form of no-see-ums. It was completely overcast so once again, no sunrise. That makes three days this month that I didn't see a sunrise. Hopefully the rest of the month will shine on! At Ding Darling we met other birders who were kind enough to let us use a roll-on eucalyptus bug deterrent which didn't work at all. We also met a nice photographer named Tom Brennan who gave us some no-see-um spray which didn't help either. Lita immediately welted up...it took my body about 12 hours before the allergic reaction set in. Even as I'm typing this I'm in a state of itchy misery. But, the real question is, was it worth it? And the answer is a resounding YES! The highlight of our day included interacting with a Yellow-throated Warbler and this amazing private performance we received from a Stand of Tree Swallows:

Wrong Way

We actually had to sneak into Ding Darling because it was 30 minutes late in opening. There was a line of cars waiting to get in but we were walking so we squeezed around the gate. We later went back and paid our $1.00 to the attendant who said the back of her alarm clock fell open and the battery came out. She felt terribly bad about it and we in turn, felt bad for her! 

Me and Tom with his serious birding lens!

Yellow-throated Warbler

After the morning at Ding Darling, we head to our favorite breakfast cafe, Over Easy for a delicious and filling meal. Of course I had eggs benedict with a side of not only bacon but also sausage! Piggy plate alert!

And, the Over Easy cafe has the best coffee. It was just what we needed to push through the rest of the day which included a hike along Baily Tract which is where we saw the Stand of Tree Swallows (I just love using collective nouns!) and a teenage gator. After a couple of hours there we headed back to Island Cow for a delicious dessert before heading off the island and back to the west coast.

Best.Coffee.Ever

Eggs Benedict, my favorite breakfast 

A Stand of Tree Swallows

Shadowed Selfies

Decadent Dessert

Greetings from Florida!

And, also from last week my sunrise collage:

Week 3

I continued drawing my giraffes for The Year of the Giraffe class with Carla Sonheim. I also did one in pastel. This is our last week for the drawing portion. I hope to add a few more pages to my giraffe sketchbook before the end of the month. 

Next up...a week with Phoebe! I can hardly wait for our adventure! See you all soon!

Glorious Gotham

I just returned from a short trip to New York City where I spent a couple of days with my friend Phoebe and also a couple of days with my lovely "niece" Leanne. Phoebe and I roamed around the city with our iPhone shooting the city with the Hipstamatic, which lends itself well to street photography. I did shoot with the 50mm as well, just not as much. Mainly because it was just too damn hot to have my heavy Nikon hanging around my neck. So, without further ado, a few of my favorites of Glorious Gotham taken with the iPhone:

 24 Fifth Avenue

Park Benches

 The Chelsea Inn

Skyline

No Parking Anytime

 The Electra

The Golden Ratio (also known as Leanne & Etai)

While hanging with Leanne I got to meet her roommate Meera who is an incredibly talented filmmaker. I also finally got to meet Etai, her boyfriend who is currently finishing up three years of playing Boq in Wicked on Broadway. While I was with both of them, Leanne got a call and was offered two roles including a dream lead in an upcoming Off Broadway play. It was an amazing moment watching her get the news and the tears welling up in her eyes, knowing that all her hard work was paying off and that she was getting to make a living at doing something she loves. I'm already planning a trip to go see her perform! And stay tuned for more Glorious Gotham pics as I still have a lot to process including those I took with the 50mm!

Adventures in Appendicitis

Looking pretty happy for a guy in a backless dress! (thanks Gina for the title,lol)

The last four days was spent learning a lot about the mindset of the medical establishment. That mindset for the most part is very closed. After having a crazy big meal on Friday night that included Sushi, alcohol and the biggest bowl of ice cream ever, my hubby developed appendicitis. On Saturday, he felt like throwing up but forced himself not to. Perhaps if he did, whatever toxin was coursing through is body would have been expelled. By Sunday, he was running a bit of a fever and complaining of pain in the lower right area of his stomach. I've dealt with gastro issues my whole life and I knew how to deal with inflammation so I got him started on certain teas and citrus to basically help clean out whatever toxin was attacking his appendix. However, we felt he should probably go have a cat scan to make sure it wasn't burst so we went to the emergency room at the local hospital where he had bloodwork done and the cat scan. He had already begun to feel better by this time, his pain having lessened quite a bit over night. My hubby is involved in the health care industry and as someone who is vice-president of a company that creates software for home-health care and nursing homes, he has a bit of insight to new research and findings. He had spent the whole weekend researching appendicitis and discovered a recent study in the Harvard Medical Journal as well as a few other studies that showed two-thirds of appendectomies were unnecessary and that an antibiotic therapy was more effective. Recent studies also show that the appendix is not a useless organ but that it helps to produce good gut bacteria.
Here is a recent blog article about the research.

So, what did all this mean? It meant that we were going to be met with skepticism, condescension and rudeness that really shocked me. They immediately checked my hubby into the hospital and began prepping him for surgery. We protested. The cat scan showed only a thickening of the wall area around the appendicitis. There was no perforation, no tear, no abscesses, no blockages. We opted for antibiotic therapy but no one would even consider that. They sent surgeon after surgeon down to scare the crap out of him. One surgeon even said in a condescending manner "I don't care what your little computer says there but I have 30 years experience". Not one of them would even look at the research. They refused to give him food or water. During this time, he began to feel better and better, the pain lessening even more. Even after signing the form to refuse the surgery, they refused to check him out or give him anything to eat or drink. And they still sent surgeons down to tell him how stupid he was. Finally, he checked himself out and we decided the next day to go to our regular doctors office and see if he would get him on the antibiotics.

The next morning, when we showed up at our primary care doctors office, they refused to even talk to us saying that neither of us had been there in three years (I'm sorry! Punish us for being healthy why don't you!!) and that he should just go to the hospital. When I saw my doctor through the window I tried to say something but the receptionist closed the window in my face. We stood there in the waiting room for a few minutes trying to decide what our next plan was when suddenly the window opened and the receptionist said "Why are you still standing in our office? You need to leave." Well, I was forced to call her a bitch, which I did quite loudly. This is my husband and I'm a she-tiger when it comes to him...don't mess with me when it comes to the love of my life! Needless to say, we'll need to find a new primary care physician and I probably won't be getting my medical records anytime soon. :-)

Finally, we ended up at The Cleveland Clinic, a top-rated clinic that is also a research hospital. We hoped they would be open-minded. And they were. Our surgeon was from China and he was aware of the research. The USA healthcare system is very behind compared to other countries. At Cleveland Clinic, we were treated with respect, they looked over the research and after a blood work-up that showed everything functioning normal, they hooked him up to IV's and began the antibiotic treatment which they agreed was the best course of action in his case. He is now home and we can look back and laugh about our adventure to take on the medical establishment. Still, it's not over. We have to make sure he introduces food back in slowly and he finishes his oral antibiotics. The only way we will have truly beaten the establishment is if we are successful in NOT having to go back. But we learned that you really have to stick to your guns. YOU are responsible for your health care and YOU have a right to have all options available to you before you make a decision.

Finally at the Cleveland Clinic! Another bonus of this locale? All the doctors were McDreamies!

The main thing you do in hospitals is wait, so of course I had to snap a few pics with the Hipsta:

Bedside  

7-8-9

 Yay! Intravenous antibiotics and perfect blood work!

 Going Down

Hospitals are creepy.

Homeward Bound!

A celebratory selfie of a good team!

 Cloud Reflections

Someone is very happy to be home! 

iPhoneography Mission #25

iPhoneography Mission #25: 
Call out to your pet and record the moment of connection.


I do not have the most cooperative cats when it comes to photography. Somehow they always know when a camera is in my hand. Even with the iPhone camera, and bird calls coming from my lips, I am still thwarted by closed eyes or a turn of the head. So I only have a few images to share with you for this mission as pictures were just blurs of fur as the little buggers ran off to hide from my lens. :)

Mom, you are disturbing my bird watching!

The ears back mean Back Off!

 Rawrrrr!

 Calm (but one more snap and her mood could change!)

The life of a pampered cat is soooo very tiring!

And, since these pets weren't cooperating, I called out to my other "pet":

Now, I can give my cats (and hubby!) a break from having a camera in their face and move on to the next mission...

iPhoneography Mission #26: Make water stains.

Ohhh...sounds like an opportunity to get very creative!

iPhoneography Mission #24

iPhoneography Mission #24: Seek Color


I got lucky this week for Mission #24 as I had to run to the antique store for a last minute purchase for my upcoming Mad Hatter Tea Party. After I had made my purchase, I took a quick run through the store, snapping away at colorful things that caught my eye.

 Blue Dog

 Blue Swirls

 Fiery Feathers

 Fanned Out

 Colors of the Kimono

 Pretty Plumes

 Of course it buys happiness!

 Sequins

 Xylophone

 Colors in Abstract

Beady

And here is the next mission!:

iPhoneography Mission #25: Call out to your pet and record the moment of connection.