Glory

Also at Art in the Park on Saturday . . .

Glory Spinuzzi has been painting for three years, originally in oils but increasingly in acrylics.

Guy

Yesterday I went to Art in the Park, a small tented art show in Olde Naples.

Guy Tieman must think in circles and rectangles.  He was originally a glassmaker, but for the last year he has been painting and constructing these colorful rectangles with
colored rods inserted into rectangular pockets.

Turtles on the Town

Through February 2016, there will be fifty decorated loggerhead sea turtles all over Naples. 

This turtle was called "Under the Sea."  It was painted by local artist Nancy Job.  It is located outside the offices of a financial advisory firm that sponsored the installation.  

The turtles will be auctioned next March.  Proceeds will benefit Community Foundation of Collier County, United Arts Council of Collier County and Conservancy of Southwest Florida. 

Phoenix

Phoenix is one of my favorite baristas at the local Starbucks.  She always greets me
with a smile and conversation.  I am not the only customer who has noticed Phoenix' 

friendly personality.  Today is her last day at Starbucks.  Next week she starts work
as the receptionist at another Starbucks customer's accounting firm.
Good luck in your new career, Phoenix.

Gingerbread House

I'm back!

The Ritz Carlton Hotel in Naples always features a huge gingerbread house for the holidays.

It represents more than one thousand man-hours of work.

Out of the Jurisdiction: Pilanesburg National Park, South Africa

Here are the last pix from a month in southern Africa.  These photographs were taken in Pilanesburg National Park, a preserve two to three hours from Johannesburg.  Most of these will be 

close-ups, with a couple of others included.

An elephant came right up to the safari vehicle.

A pied kingfisher seen at a hide on a dam (the local term for a body of water).

There were some serious lenses aimed at the birds.  My 70 - 300 mm lens was enough.

It is always fun watching giraffes going into their drinking-water stance.

Warthogs don't look any better up close than they do at a distance.

A female giraffe feasts on acacia.

Zebra are good at standing still and posing.

Three zebra grazed together on plains that had suffered a fire.  Zebra often stay close.  

It is thought that the striped patterns blend together and mislead predators into thinking

that they are seeing a single much larger animal.

This isn't a close-up, but I wanted to illustrate how plentiful impalas are in the African bush.  

So many predators feast on impalas that they are known as the "McDonalds of Africa."

I arrived back in Florida yesterday.  Today will be spent doing laundry, sorting mail and paying bills.  With any luck, I will get out to find something for tomorrow's post.

Thanks for your visits while I was away and unable

to visit other blogs.

John Craig Clothier

"Sophisticated Men's Clothing."

The Promenade, Bonita Springs.

To see other approaches to the "shop window" theme, please visit the City Daily Photo portal.