Holiday Lighting

A family down the street loves the holiday season.  

They are known throughout the town for the outstanding lighting of their house and yard.

Babysitting Duty

 Two big dogs and two little girls.  Can't beat it.

Santa Comes to Town!

Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus arrived Friday night to say hello before returning to the North Pole to complete their work.  In Ridgefield they left their sleigh behind and arrived on a fire engine.

Ridgefield Tree Lighting

Last night people gathered around the Town Hall on Main Street for the annual tree lighting celebration.

Autumn

 I like this homespun seasonal display on Branchville Road in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

The homeowner is hedging his bets with Christmas lighting on the porch.

A Special Day

Today is special for most Americans because it is Thanksgiving.  It is extra special in my family this year because Thanksgiving falls on November 25, my wonderful daughter's birthday.  

Thanksgiving dinner and a festive birthday party will be combined here today.

Lounsbury House Again

Back in Connecticut for Thanksgiving.  Ridgefield's Community Center, Lounsbury House, is lighted for the holiday seasons.  Decorated trees are on display inside.  I need to visit.

Naples Philharmonic

 

I was at Artis Naples on Friday evening for a rousing performance of Prokofiev and Rimsy-Korsakov works.  Photography is prohibited, but I interpreted that as applying to the performances themselves.  This was taken by my iPhone while the musicians warmed up and the audience arrived. 

Great to be back to live performances.

Four Murals

 Four Florida paintings on the side of a store at the corner of U.S. Route 41 and 1st Street North.

Linked to Monday Mural. 

Marco Island Historical Museum

 This growing museum displays articles from historical digs at the end of the 19th century that found articles from the Calusa natives who lived and fished there before the Spanish arrived.

Heron 1, Frog 0.

 They've got to eat.

Milkweed and Monarchs

 I planted six milkweed plants last week.  The next day there were monarch caterpillars on two of them.  Within days a monarch butterfly was buzzing them.  It doesn't take them long to find their happy homes.

Clocks

I wandered through Treasure Island Antiques.  A wall of clocks caught my attention.

Plymouth Prowler

A stunning black car was parked in front of my usual coffee shop.  It looked like it had been rolled off the assembly line the day before, after countless hours spent buffing the paint job until it glistened.  The medallion said "Plymouth."  Years ago I had a Plymouth.  It was nothing like this one.

Plymouth built a few Plymouth Prowlers beginning in 1998.  They had a retro design and conjured up thoughts of street racing.  Regrettably, the engine was one of Chrysler's stock models, so the performance disappointed potential buyers who wanted blazing speed.  Chrysler pulled the plug in 2002.  

Someone in Naples takes VERY good care of this one. 

An Osprey and a Fish

 Yesterday I wrote about how hard it is to capture a bird in flight.

But, the biggest birds around here -- pelicans, eagles, ospreys, great blue herons -- fly pretty smoothly in straight lines.  So, if I see one of them in the distance coming in my direction, I can be ready.

Like, for this osprey and fish.  It was overcast when the osprey flew over me, so the sky looked white.

Photographing a Bird in Flight is Hard

 I might stand silently with my lens trained on a bird for 15 minutes.  The instant I drop the lens to swat a mosquito, the bird will fly away.  Or, I will see a bird and reach for my camera, and it will fly away before I have the camera in hand.  Or, it will be facing left but unexpectedly decide to fly to the right.  

I was focusing on this little blue heron for quite a while.  Without warning, it flew off, making me snip an eighth of an inch off its bill and even less off its wing feathers.  

The easiest way to catch a bird departure is to reduce the zoom so the bird fills less of the frame and there is a split second more time to react.  But, the bird image will be smaller and less sharp when cropped.  

Decisions . . .

Trinity by the Sea

 A busy church on Galleon Drive in the Port Royal neighborhood in Naples.

Quite a banyan tree beside the church.

Galleon Drive

 A grand house in Naples' Port Royal neighborhood.  

Leaving the Boardwalk

 Golden hour.

Veterans Day

 

A monument in Naples helps citizens remember the men and women who served in the armed forces to protect this country.  It stands on a three-layer map of the United States.  In other countries, November 11 is called Armistice Day and Remembrance Day.

Here's Looking at You!

Osprey.

Meal Time for a Great Egret

 I watched this great egret toss and toss and toss this fish.

He never managed to get it from his bill to his gullet while I watched.

Hot Hot Hot

 A blue Lamborghini, a purple McLaren and a yellow Ferrari were parked in front of Marissa Collection's iconic pink building on Third Street South.