Holy Crap That's Some Big Lightning!

These were due to the luckily perfectly timed trigger click.

Enough said.

Nature can truly be frightening sometimes!

Gloomy Morning Webs

This HUGE web was in my garage yesterday morning.

Even though it was a gloomy/rainy morning I just had to run back inside for my camera.

I’m glad I did

And I’m also glad the spider that spun it was nowhere to be found :/

Country Rainbow

Just had to share these pictures I snapped the other day of this beautiful rainbow:

You can see the double rainbow in this one

Doesn’t get much more awesome than that!

My Problem Child

I have a problem child.

Well, a problem dog-child.

In the last week Timber has:

A. Sliced his pinky toe open.    B. Chewed Destroyed things.  C. Scratched so bad he bled.
            

The corpse of our doormat        This lasted 1 whole minute      Just call me Dr. Blackmon

But then I get to spend my evenings with him and our little girl-dog and I don’t care how much extra work they give me.

He’s always been a cuddler.

And he wants so badly to be a lap dog.

But he’s already almost 30 pounds- soon to be 60.

This is what I imagine goes through his not-always-so-bright mind every night.

His usual routine:

1. 2.

Just an elbow mom.                                   Maybe a whole leg is ok?

3.

Ok, so half my body isn’t so much.

4.

Well, I was already half on, might all well just go for it all.

See mom- I DO fit!

5.

Well, let me just change it up a bit.

6.

Maybe if I stretch out I’ll fit better?

7.

Ah, there we go. Perfect!

Oh, your leg is asleep?

Well, I’m comfy so you’d better not move or I’ll give you “The Face”

“The Face”

It's impossible to say no the "The Face"

Nature at its Finest

These pictures are some of my favorites that I've taken over the years.
Finally got them all uploaded (although some didn't like the new digital conversions so they're a little fuzzy- I apologize)


Underwater Reef in Mexico


"Clemson Sunset" in South Carolina


Boat Plane in Alaska


Sunrise in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina


Abandoned house in Georgia


Palm Tree in Mexico


Pitcher, Ball, Batter, Catcher, Ump


Flowers from the husband


Does in Cade's Cove, Tennessee


Old tree on Biltmore grounds, North Carolina


Tulips at Biltmore, North Carolina


Doe at Cade's Cove, Tennessee


Bird at Ormond Beach, Florida


"A Storm's Moving Out", Ormond Beach, Florida


Mossy Trees near Reno, Nevada


Mountain Range in Alaska


"Lunch", Ormond Beach, Florida


Paradise, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands


Eerie Night


Kollo: the first foal I helped birth


Old house in Clemson, South Carolina


Yellow Umbrella, Ormond Beach, Florida


"Supermoon"


Swallowtail butterflies.

Ormond Trip 2012

I just got back from my family's yearly excursion to Ormond Beach, Florida.

The same beach and the same birds every year.

What was so different about it this time that it requires a blog post???

Only the fact that we got to visit Universal Islands of Adventure.

Which is home to......

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

Wooop Wooop!

Zonkos! Ollivanders! Filche's Emporium! Dervish and Bangs! Honeydukes! Hogsmead! And Hogwarts castle itself!

Can a 25 year old say that they were beyond stoked to walk down the road in Hogsmead and buy a butterbeer...a real life butterbeer?

I hope so, because I think I took about 200 pictures while we were there.

Let me take you on a tour :)

Our first sighting of the Hogsmead!

The Hogwarts Express! My baggage was all ready to go but I guess I just missed it! (Which is why I'm writing this blog now instead of learning magic)

Hogwarts!! Finally!!

School seal and the Entrance Hall! And I think that's Harry and Ron's room jutting off to the side!

Into the castle we go now!

Gryffindor is winning!

Moving pictures!

Look who we found in the Defense Against the Dark Arts room!

Look who else we found after saying "Sherbert Lemons"!

Our guardians were still watching over Hogsmead when we made it safely out of the castle!

After some wandering through the rest of Universal, we decided to head back over the Three Broomsticks to see what was up.

When we realized that the Hog's Head Pub was practically part of it we sidled on over for something a little stronger than butterbeer ;) Lucky we did because as soon as we'd sat down with our beers (If you ask for a Firewhiskey, they tell you that muggles can't handle it....which I deem an utter falsehood!) an afternoon thunderstorm let loose and we were "stuck" there :)

So all in all, the trip was a success!

And did I get a wand?

Only the most powerful one of all time.

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Although Harry Potter Wonderland did constitute a full day of magic, the beach and the wildlife entranced in an utterly different way:

Not too shabby of a welcome view in the first one huh?

The ever changing moods of Ormond Beach:

Not sure if these are a type of sandpiper, but they sure are cute when they run up and away from the surf!

Watching the Pelicans dive over and over and over is crazy.

This was the first year I have ever seen one of these Black Skimmers. It keeps its beak open in the surf while it flies- not sure what it was catching though!

Of course I never want to leave out Mr. Crabby who visits along with his many friends every year.

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I also had time, during the EVERY AFTERNOON thunderstorms, to finish two books. One of which I couldn't put down and the other which I found a bit childish.

Mark my words. The Divergent Triology is the next blockbuster. It's very similar in feel to The Hunger Games Triology. A world torn apart that healed in a way that worked at the time but is crumbling fast. I could not buy the second book fast enough.

This book I bought because I figured, it's by James Patterson, it can't be all bad. Even though it's a young adult novel. Which it wasn't. It was just very very easy reading and just a little too juvenile for my tastes. Not sure if I'll finish out the series or not. I would definately reccommend it for the age 7-15 range though.