Arkansas Adventure

Just returned from a fabulous getaway to Arkansas with the lovely Lita. We stayed in the Old Homestead Cabin at Panther Valley Ranch, a place I had previously vacationed with my mom and  my niece Danielle. This was the first time Lita and I had a full vacation together and not just a weekend. It was all about hiking, connecting to nature, birding, sketching, painting and disconnecting from technology, which was pretty easy considering that we couldn't get cell or wireless internet anywhere...well, except once, at the very top of a mountain. :)

We hiked three State Parks including one inside Ouachita National Forest. We had our 300mm aimed for spotting birds to add to our Life List. Birding is hard. It's hard on your neck. It's hard with a 300mm in a thick forest (maybe a 500mm will be on my Christmas wish list to Santa!) and even harder when you forget to pack your external flash and your binoculars. Still, we snapped away and then back at the cabin, birding books out, set out to identify those we had never seen before. All said, we logged 27 species. We saw lots of wildflowers, waterfalls, turtles, strange spiders and even a giant centipede that looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland. We had some stunning views, amazing adventures, a few iffy moments but always a barrel of laughs. We arrived to a breathtakingly rain-soaked view in Arkansas and we were welcomed home to Florida by a full rainbow. The universe was good to us and we were grateful. I took so many pictures that there is no way I could share them all here in one post. So for now, just posting a few pics of Panther Valley Ranch and of our cabin, all taken with the iPhone 4s.

Welcome to Panther Valley Ranch

Cabin View

Ironic that I stay in the Paddington neighborhood while in London and here was a reminder located in a remote cabin in the state of Arkansas!

Rain-soaked View

Banditos

Cowgirl

The Homesteader

Kisses for Jake

Lita and Dakota

Jake. I rode Jake six years ago. This time around, he had sleep apnea and fell asleep at the hitching post. He was really lazy during the ride and stumbled with me three times. His tummy was rumbling too and after he ate a few leaves and stopped for a drink at a creak, he seemed to be much more alert but he still had a mind of his own. Hmmm...a horse with tummy troubles and marched to the beat of a different drum? Sounds just like me! We made a perfect pair!

The Cowboy

Jacob, our ranch hand and trail leader made for some nice eye candy during our stay. He even saved the day by scooping up a giant wasp that was roaming around inside our cabin.

Chair Pair

 Fence Lines

 In a Field of Wildflowers

Nature Takes Over

They took me alongside Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland and around the Herriot Way in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. They traversed the Highlands of Scotland from Glasgow to Fort William and led me through the beauty of the Lake District along the Cumbria Way. They made it through two climbs of Conwy Mountain in Wales, brought me comfort during a long day in the Brecon Beacons and brought me to the inspiration for Wuthuring Heights atop Haworth Moor. They survived torrential rain, wind and hail. They got me across waterfalls and over rivers. They climbed mountains and crags, rolled over green hills and valleys. Led me into villages offering a good pub meal and a sound nights sleep. They stomped through cow dung and sheep poo. They walked through the muddy bogs and over the harsh landscape of the moors. They shared the trail with old friends and brought me to new ones. They lasted through three hiking trails in Arkansas before the sides ripped open. Farewell, my old friends, my beloved boots...you served me well. :-(

We sure will!

Stay tuned for more pics from the adventure as well as some of my watercolors I did while there. Yes! I actually took my sketchbook and paints and took the time each morning to indulge in the passion! :-)

Into Another Year Goes She

Sunday was the birthday of my creative soulmate, the beautiful Lita!
We celebrated by taking a quick day trip over to Marco Island. Neither of us had been before and we were excited to see what adventures we would find. Now, we usually don't go with map or plan, just get there and see what happens! We headed to the islands South Beach first and took a few shots of the beautiful white sandy beaches.

South Beach, Marco Island

Sea Oats

Although not as many shells as Sanibel, there were some nice finds like jingles, clams and cone shells.  Birthday Girl collected the nice round flat jingles to use in future crafting.

Sand Shark!!

Laughing Gull who is not laughing over the catastrophe happening in the Gulf of Mexico which is now affecting Florida's shorelines. 

Of course we had to do some shadow shots on the beach.

After a short time on South Beach we headed over to Tigertail Beach. As we were walking down the boardwalk towards the beach a guy leaving said to us "There's nothing down there to shoot". I loved Birthday Girl's response which was "it's subjective" which is true as we can always find something to shoot. We continued walking and came across a playground. Birthday Girl gets motion sickness easily so I was the one who got to fly through the air and pretend I was seven years old again!  What fun!

When we made it to Tigertail beach the first thing we saw was an Osprey who flew right over us with a catfish in his grasp and landed on a tall post. We quickly hurried over and snapped several shots of this beautiful bird of prey.

Once this raptor began drawing blood, it was time for us to move onward. We met a Londoner named Tiki Tony and he told us how to get over to the Gulf of Mexico which involved crossing the lagoon. We were a bit nervous, afraid of falling with our camera equipment but we love being adventurous so we carefully made our way over to the west side of the lagoon.

We laughed and giggled the whole way over...feeling the soft, slightly slimy seaweed under our feet.

Almost there birthday girl!  I love your adventurous spirit!

When we finally made it over to the other side we walked down a path that had tons of cute little crabs running in and out of the brush. The sound they made when they all started moving at the same time was like a stadium full of people all clicking their fingernails together.  It was quite the symphony!

The lagoons at Tigertail beach were stunning. It was a beautiful area teeming with life, like this little stretch here that had silky seaweed to hide the silvery minnows darting about:

Adding to the experience, I became one with the seaweed.

After our morning on the beaches, we had a wonderful lunch at NeNe's cafe followed up by a visit to a little chocolate shop where we met another Englishman, this one from Birmingham and where we discovered a Lita doll! It was this little plush doll that looked just like her! Of course I had to get it for the Birthday Girl and once she posts a picture of it on her blog, I will link it here so you all can see this little Lita lookalike! 

We wanted to do the trails at Rookery Bay in the afternoon but for some crazy reason they have the trails closed on the weekend. We then headed back over Alligator Ally to our local Barnes and Noble where we went a little nuts and bought magazines, a book on writing and a huge book on Pinups. Birthday girl and I are already getting inspired from it and have some digital ideas that we will be creating in the coming months. The Birthday Girl also picked up a great book called "How To Be An Explorer of the World" and it has tasks that get you more involved and in touch with the world around you.  This week we will be starting the tasks together and blogging about our explorations:

As Birthday Girl says goodbye to another year, our day together reminded us both that you can grow older without growing up. Keeping that spirit young and adventurous is important to longevity.

So, as she leaves one year behind and steps into another, she will keep her heart light and full of love and nurture her soul with creativity and child-like laughter and her loved ones will benefit from her joys! xoxo

Daughters of Poseidon

Daughters of Poseidon

What better way to start the Merry Month of May than a Creative Saturday with the lovely Lita! We left at 6am and headed up to Jupiter to Blowing Rocks Beach where our goal was to take images of us in various costumes to use as stock in our digital art pieces.

The scenery at Blowing Rocks Beach is one we will definitely come back to for more shoots.

We also did some impromptu portraits. 

We accomplished our goal of shooting stock but today ended up much more unexpected and organic than we had planned. Somehow, we ended up IN the water.

I was fine with being in the water as long as my hair didn't get wet. The sea other plans for us!

We laughed a lot as we usually do when we are together!

We suffered for our art: Lita got scraped and cut from the rocks and I sprained my toe and could hardly walk but troopers that we are, we continued onward to John D. MacArthur State Park where we took more stock photos and where I got a bit silly and did a jig on top of a picnic table despite the foot pain:

This picture truly expresses the joy that I had today getting to spend some time with Lita AND feeding my creative soul!  The day totally warranted a little dance of happiness!