A Morning at Loxahatchee

I had a few hours in the morning this week to get out and photograph some wildlife. I met my friend Andrew at Loxahatchee Wildlife Reserve. His goal was to see a Pileated Woodpecker. Mine was to just see something new that I could tick off my Life List, which after today's visit stands at 55 species. I'm sure I've seen more in my lifetime but I just started this Life List and I only added those birds I knew I had images of and knew where and when I took the picture. So, it's like starting over. But, Florida is a great place to begin and during the visit yesterday to Loxahatchee I saw 12 species of birds and added two new ones to my life list! Plus I took pics of butterflies and grasshoppers...can't forget about the insects (although I would dearly love to forget about the Deer Flies and Mosquitoes that were biting the heck out of me!). I don't really have a proper lens for shooting birds at a distance so some of the quality of the pics I'm sharing today aren't up to par with my usual shooting but I wanted to share the experience with you all anyways. And, I wish I had packed my macro as there were so many wild butterflies. Next time! So, sit back and enjoy some images from Loxahatchee Wildlife Reserve:

 Female Pileated Woodpecker. We actually saw two on one tree which is rare indeed!

 Limpkin, looking for snails

 Loxahatchee Wildflowers

 Lovin' Lubbers

Blade Runner

Green Heron on Alert

Peacock on Pickerel Weed

 Pearl Crescent

 Red Admiral

 Sharing Space

Snail Kite

Sunning Dragon

Sweet Tricolor

Isn't nature just grand? Hot, humid and bug filled summers still can't stop me from enjoying the beauty of mother nature!

Finding the Beauty After the Rain

I must have flowers, always, and always.

~Claude Monet

Ah, the rain. I think it's rained everyday for three weeks straight. And there is still over six months to go before the tropical season is over. *sigh*

The last few days have been really bad...over seven inches where I live. Streets are flooded and it's just dark and gloomy all day long. And to add to the gloom, I've had a stomach bug for most of the week. But not all was a wash. The came out yesterday afternoon for a bit and I took the opportunity to hurry to the mailbox before the next deluge.
And I saw something.
Four large Black Swallowtail caterpillars munching away at a pot of parsley.

Parsley Munchers

I've never had Black Swallowtails before! I saw one flying around about two weeks ago, first time seeing one in my yard ever. I had checked the parsley and there were eggs on it and I was really excited that I finally attracted a new critter to the yard. I planted the parsley two years ago in a pot and it's now rooted itself into the ground. I don't harvest from this pot as it also has milkweed and passion-vine that have self-seeded there. I noticed that they've nearly eaten all of it so I had to give up my own pot of parsley that I do harvest from that is kept on my screened-in patio. Now, they will have enough to finish eating and go pupate somewhere and make more Black Swallowtail Butterflies! I can't wait to see them zooming around my yard and hopefully I'll be able to snap a pic of one of the butterflies.

Garden Greens

After the excitement of seeing the caterpillars I wondered what else was out so I took the camera and went around snapping pictures of the caterpillars and other wet things. The birds and ducks were preening their rain-soaked feathers and all the plants were dressed in glittering diamond raindrops. There is always a silver lining isn't there? The earth is really quite pretty after a rain.

The Sentry

Urchin Textures

Encased in Beauty

Plant Parts

Rain Kissed

Mona Lavender

Remnants

Tale of the Orchid

 Cassia Leaf

 Glistening Diamonds of Pink

Stooped

 Star Light Star Bright

Egg of the Giant Swallowtail

I hope you enjoyed this rainy stroll through my secret garden and don't forget to...

Stop and smell the roses

Creative Play

Here I am!
I hadn't realized it had been almost a month since I have blogged. Yikes! So sorry about that but the good excuse is I have been very busy taking art classes and learning new things! My hobbies and interests tend to ebb and flow with the moon just like the tides of the great blue sea. As soon as I declare I'm going to do something, the universe takes me in a different direction! After the art retreat in Virginia, my many half-completed art journals were calling my name and I quickly answered by finally signing up for Jane Davenport's Supplies Me and I ♥ Drawing classes after quietly stalking her blog for over a year. :)  While visiting Jane's blog, a banner for 21 Secrets in 2012 caught my eye so I signed up for that one too! 21 teachers (including Jane) teaching techniques in what each does best...that's 21 classes for the price of one! So, basically, the bottom line is I have 23 classes to take this Spring! Whoohoo! I'm the first week into Jane's Supplies Me class and just finished Christine Mason Miller's Word Play class in 21 Secrets. Both inspired me immensely and here is the work I did this week:

 6th Floor Memories, Paris

Mixed Media

Form

Mixed Media

Paris

Mixed Media

(I have an upcoming trip to Paris, thus I've been inspired by that as well)

This one is in my Poetry Art Journal and is done in ink and watercolor:

the rain fell

among the tall lilies

ever upon the lookout

lofty with thought

by one, drop everlasting dews

and the lilies sighed

one unto the other

This one was done in my "Memories" mixed media journal:

Springtime Memories of Irises

If that was all done last week, what you may ask was I doing the last two weeks in March and I will tell you...still creating! I worked on this digital watercolor piece for my friend Loran's birthday. Once it was printed, it was hand-inked, matted, signed and sent off for her to enjoy! And she loved it! Yay!

The Naturalist

Digital Watercolor

I loved the technique so much that I created another piece:

Ponte Vecchio, Florence

Digital Watercolor

I also added another page to my Doll Dreams journal:

Tangerine Dream

Ink and Acrylic

And last but not least, I did manage to indulge in my first love of Photography with outings to Green Cay with Lita and to Butterfly World with Martina:

 Dawn Treader

The Dappling of Light

 Piano Key Butterfly

The Whispering of Dreams

Well, there ya go! That should catch all of you up with what's been going on and I promise to get back to blogging regularly! I've also got some projects coming up with Arthouse Co-op so stay tuned!