Horse video

Ah, the beauty surrounding us...

Lessons from Mom

According to Safari Channel, this is Mixo (one of their "regular" leopards) not sharing his kill with his brother. Now, you know his mom taught him to share with his brothers & sisters! Would you just look at those teeth!

Wild Earth TV

One of my latest favorite sites on the net is Wild Earth TV (www.wildearth.tv). Some of the channels on the site are stationary live webcams at various locations around the globe, such as cams that broadcast 24/7 views of eagle nests. My favorite channel is the Safari Channel. It broadcasts from Djuma Game Reserve in the Sabi Sands in South Africa. Drivers & camera crews go out and you get to watch live feed every day. Plus they put together diaries of the highlights, complete with narration. There is amazing video on a regular basis. It's a good way to start my day, and until I can afford to go there in person it's a nice way to sight-see.

Riverwalk...San Antonio, TX

Had a fabulous long weekend venture to San Antonio, TX. Spent a lot of time on the riverwalk...it's a wonderful spot...
This was a great bird be-bopping along:
Saw several broods of chicks:
...and lovely moss-covered bridges:
We didn't make it up in the Tower of the Americas, but it dominated the skyline. Maybe next trip!

Quote of the Day

Favorite quote of the week:

"Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark."

----Rabindranath Tagore, Indian poet, playwright, essayist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913

More Video Amusement

So, I've been a bit lax on keeping up ye' ole' blog. Much going on. Am still delighting in my new Flip video...as you can see:


Will try to get back to at least semi-regular posting soon.

Wally & Peanut revisited

We had a very pleasant evening with Wally & Peanut yesterday...as well as their Mom & Dad! Will share some videos soon, but thought I'd share a few stills for now.

Peanut is very attentive...especially if food might be in danger of hitting the floor!We knew it must be time to go home when Wally was trying to nap and it was obvious by the ears that we were keeping him up!
"You may rub my belly if you'd like."
"Why yes, I am king of all I survey...why do you ask?"
Aren't they just too precious?

Does this need any further introduction?

Flippin Out

So, LoML & I celebrate 15 years of wedded bliss later this month and he's already given me my present: a Flip video camera. I love it! I'm having so much fun playing with it. It is small enough to stick in your pocket and easily captures those fun, every-day moments...and then the software easily helps you create neat little projects like this:




And, yes, I've already given him his anniversary present too (a new stereo for his truck)!

Whale Watching

Turns out we weren't the only ones who saw the whale on Sunday (refer to my previous post)...a couple out fishing caught a video and posted it on youtube:

Wildlife Sunday

It was another of those days that just make me incredibly grateful to live in an area of such fantastic beauty! We had the opportunity to take a couple of friends out on the boat and play tour guide for them...the wildlife certainly put on a show! It was a record day of sightings for us.

We began by showing our friends the local osprey nest. We enjoy stopping by this particular buoy every time we launch to see these fine birds working on enlarging the family.

Next we stopped along the banks to see the Shackleford horses. Not a bad vista....
Blondie was checking us out.


Our next wildlife sighting was a sea turtle coming up for air...didn't have the camera out, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

But, by far, the most exciting sightings were when we went right outside the hook of the Cape. Not only did we see a pod of dolphins....
But we saw a whale! The first time I've ever seen one. It was amazing. Okay, I was shooting "blind"....the sun was bright, I didn't want to miss anything, so I just had the camera out and was pointing in the general direction the whale kept surfacing and clicking the button....you'll have to take my word for it that this shadow really is a whale. In talking with one of the park service employees later on, we believe it may be a minke whale.
Such a fabulous outing!

Cat Haiku

Cuteness in a cat,
Blinking, stretching, contentment,
Love serenity

SotD: Funhouse by Pink

Room Service & Pioneer Woman

I went to Raleigh on business at the end of the week. Stayed at a very nice hotel and decided I could adjust just fine to staying in luxury accommodations. Raleigh was a very handsome parrot whose cage was in the ground floor of the atrium. They gave you fair warning about the biting...what they didn't tell you was that he'll put his lovely yellow belly right up to the bars and try to lure you into petting him.I really liked the atrium style...
Room service? I'm in! These blue cheese chips were incredible.
After my training was done, my SIL met me and we drove to Charlotte for a book signing at Joseph Beth Booksellers. Maybe I'll post more pix of the store soon. It was a great store...large, airy, waterfall sign...
If you've never been to Pioneer Woman's blog, I invite you to click on the link here on my page. My friend at Goblins in my Garden first told me about PW. I have now been following her blog for several years and adore her. Her photography is fabulous. Her writing is real, down-to-earth (too much so for some?) and I just love keeping up with her life at the ranch. She published a cookbook at the end of last year, and has been doing some touring to support it. It was so refreshing to meet her, and discover her to be incredibly gracious and down-to-earth in person. We had the best time meeting her!

Blenheim Palace

Well, *finally* I'm going to take you back to the UK for a bit. Have been wildly busy around here and neglecting ye' ole' blog. But now that I'm here, I want to share with you another of our adventures from our February trip to the UK.

We took a side trip to Blenheim Palace. It's the home of the 11th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, and (I believe I have this straight) the largest privately-owned palace in the UK. It's also the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.

I'm going to share some pictures of the outside of the palace and the grounds...inside photography was not permitted. I encourage you to go to the official website for some more of the history, and a peek inside. It's a fabulous place. (I could live in the library!)

http://www.blenheimpalace.com/


I adored some of the magnificent trees. There was a photography exhibit inside that featured the Blenheim trees and I desperately wanted to take at least one of the pictures home with me!

Peanut & Wally Update

I first introduced you to our friends' pets, Peanut (part-dingo dog) and Wally (grey tabby boy kitty) on December 5th of last year. I thought it was time for an update. Despite their parents' original concerns, I think they're getting along famously. Wally is growing...he's in that gangly teenage phase. He wildly attacks Peanut, but she takes it all in stride. She might even initiate the wildness at times!

Here's Wally, going in for the attack!The ear set is a dead giveaway that he's still contemplating mischief...
Once again, Peanut looks to her mom wondering if they really needed a cat after all.
When the play is done, he's all sweetness and light...little baby kitty...of course, that *was* Peanut's bed before Wally came along!

Oz's sweet tooth

Oz doesn't get fed people food. But he has on about three occasions snatched some...and he seems to have a sweet tooth. We've established that he likes sweet tea and powdered doughnuts. What amazes me is how cats can go from almost asleep, to lion mode in seconds flat:

SotD

"The Scientist" by Coldplay
true...for you SIL

Serenity

Bliss

Interesting Sun Dial

Found this sundial in a garden in Marlow and thought it interesting:

Rock'n'Roll Heart

[photo courtesy of Eric Clapton's official website: http://www.ericclapton.com/ ]

Slowhand still rules the day!

More on the UK trip soon. For now, I digress to tell you about Monday night's trip to Raleigh to see Eric Clapton. Wow! I can't say enough good things about the man. He is incredible! I had seen him once before in the late 80's/early 90's (can't remember at the moment exactly when that was) but believe he's only improving with age.

I'm not going to do a full run-down of the show here. You can go to his website and see a set list, read other reviews. We had a fabulous time. With no other guitarists muddying the waters, Clapton was free to steal the show, and he did just that, venturing off into terrific extended jams. His blues roots were obvious, as he performed many of his oldies-but-goodies. The acoustic set included "Layla"; my favorites were "Running on Faith" and "Wonderful Tonight". His keyboardists (there were two) were fabulous and the rhythm section of bass & drums were tight.

Roger Daltrey opened up for Clapton. We thought his performance was good as well...a pleasant surprise as we had not been impressed with the Superbowl halftime show. He played a number of Who favorites including "I Can See for Miles," "Behind Blue Eyes" (always my favorite Who song), "Who Are You," and "Baba O'Riley." I was delighted with his version of "Give Me a Stone," a song I was not familiar with. Youtube has a video of it from another show.

Altogether a wonderful night.

More Ted

More Ted. ;D Isn't he handsome? He's patiently waiting for his human...who popped into the pub for a pint or so.And just look at that thatched roof next door!

English Equines

Oh dear! No time for narrative this morning...just the pictures. More on the details later.