A New Suit

On the screen of the pool cage.

Yum.

Proud of its work.

Paradise Antiques

I was cutting through a walkway off 3rd Street South and noticed some
very nice blue and white antique Chinese jars in a window.  So I went inside.  

Paradise Antiques has been open in this location only since last September.

Joe Miller operated an antiques store in Georgetown until five or six years ago.

He moved to Naples and opened a similar store a mile and a half from here.
He had a gorgeous walnut Biedermeier table that I loved, but I have no place to put it.

Barbatella

Barbatella is an Italian restaurant on 3rd Street South with a pretty interesting ceiling.

Pottery as Art

Like colorful planters?  Pottery as Art on Old Route 41 in Bonita Springs is for you.

Greater Naples YMCA

The windows of the Y look like a child celebrating a goal, don't you think?

Or a turtle?

A Nice Cove-side Pool

I visited friends Friday night.  Lovely pool and deck overlooking the cove.

DeBruyne Fine Art Gallery

DeBruyne Fine Art Gallery is closing after 30 years in Naples, most of it in the current location on Broad Avenue South.  It has been a family operation and the current generation is retiring.

Suzanne DeBruyne has worked at the gallery for the last 25 years. 

Two Bungalows

Two simple, neat, unpretentious but well-tended bungalows are within an easy walk of the very best places in Olde Naples:  beaches, shopping, restaurants, theater, boating, sports facilities, galleries, etc.

Corkscrew Country Store

Sometimes I come across an isolated, rundown store and wonder about 

the lives of the people who work and shop there.

Naples Sailing and Yacht Club

A visitor faces a model sailboat upon entering Naples Sailing and Yacht Club.

Portrait Practice

I went to a half hour lesson in how to use the Portrait features of my iPhone X.

Aimee was the instructor.  The best things I learned were how to use different lighting effects in taking the photograph and how to use the same lighting effects in editing.
I particularly like this "Stage lighting" effect.

Fred is English.  He sat next to me in the class.  

Linda is Fred's wife.  If you see me playing too often with the "Stage lighting" effects, tell me to stop.

Black Swallowtail

From the butterfly garden at Naples Botanical Garden.

Rocking Chair

Have I shown this mural before?  On the side of a building on Old Route 41 in Bonita Springs.
The artist is Alejandro Nuñez.

Monday Mural.

Lyn

At the next table Lyn concentrated on writing in a journal.  She has boxes of journals from decades of writing.  Lyn is originally from outside Toronto but she lived in southern California
for many years and considers herself a California girl.

Gordon River

The Gordon River drains through Naples, past the Naples Zoo and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and some greenway preserves before emptying into Naples Bay.

Two Female Mallards

A small pond (better known as a "water hazard" on the golf course) lies behind and below my house.

While trying to photograph a great blue heron I noticed two female mallard ducks.
The water looks like I painted it with finger paints, doesn't it?

I tell people that the best reason to have a photography hobby is that you can't do it from
your living room; you have to get out there to find interesting things to photograph.

I almost violated my principles with this image.

(Here is the heron.)

Motorcade

On the way to the airport to fly my daughter and her family back to Connecticut, traffic was held while motorcycles, SUVs, vans, police cars, ambulances and other vehicles streamed past,

escorting Vice President Pence's motorcade.  An expensive way to get someone to a game of golf. 

Out of seven or eight SUVs, three were heavy silver SUVs with small windows.  

I'm guessing they randomly put the Vice President in one and the others are decoys.

Barred Owl

A barred owl perched on a branch at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

Thanks, buddy.

Bay Presbyterian Church

Visible from heavily traveled Route 41 across a lake at the entrance of Bonita Bay's huge gated community, I long wondered what this structure was.  Church?  Restaurant?  Community Center?

The answer is yes.  Bay Presbyterian Church is the building with clean lines on the left,
with Lake House Bar & Grill pressed right up against it.

Easter Egg Hunt

Royal Scoop is an immensely popular ice cream store.  Every year they sponsor a huge Easter egg hunt in the yard of a church across the street.  13,000 eggs for kids 2 to 5 years old
and 13,000 more eggs for kids 6 to 10 years old.

You have never seen so many eggs.

Willa got lots of eggs.





Hazel liked the fire truck on the playground for little kids.



There was a live bunny.



One mother wrangled quads.  Or maybe triplets and a spare.

Alligator Flag Plant

The marshes at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary are filled with alligator flag plant, 

or thalia geniculata, a broad-leafed green plant that dazzles when backlit.

They give cover to the many birds and animals that occupy the marsh.

On the first of April the photographer members of City Daily Photo will be posting 

photographs to illustrate the theme, "One Color."  Click here to see some.

Three More Birds at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

 Pileated woodpecker

Red-crowned woodpecker

And a male cardinal

Night Herons

A birder said this is a juvenile BLACK-crowned night heron, and an adult black-crowned night heron was not far away.   I looked online and it looks more like a juvenile YELLOW-crowned night heron.

Let's just call it a juvenile night heron.

This one is pretty clearly an adult black-crowned night heron.
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

Red-shouldered Hawk

A hawk perched in a tree not far from the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

Ruddy Daggerwing butterfly

Naturalist

Blue flag iris

Black racer

Maybe a midland or northern water snake?

Dragonfly

Anhinga.  I tried several times to get a good reflection image,
but the trees are too busy to let the bird and its reflection stand out.

And a big alligator.