Saturday's Critters

I was visiting my daughter in Orlando a few weeks back and went out one morning to get some coffee. This guy was strolling by on the sidewalk as I came down the stairs from her apartment.

Soon he was joined by his friend.

I started to follow them and they didn't like it one bit.

Get away from us with that camera lady!

Soon they started to ignore me and stopped for a snack.

Crazy camera lady! You'd think she'd never seen a Sandhill Crane before.

I am still having eye problems, so I will be posting sporadically for the next couple of weeks. I just can't seem to focus on the computer screen for any length of time without discomfort. My eye doctor said I have something called a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) in my left eye. I have experienced this before in both eyes, but this time it seems to be worse. PVD is common as you get older, but needs to be monitored closely because occasionally it can lead to a retinal detachment, which is very serious and must be treated immediately to avoid a loss of vision in the affected eye. Hopefully I will be back to posting and commenting soon, but I'm trying to be careful right now and avoid any eyestrain. Thanks for your patience!

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

Good Fences

Peaceful scenes at a horse farm just outside of town. Linking to Good Fences.

Success

I was eating a sandwich at Jimmy John's the other day and I like to read the signs they have on the walls of their restaurants. Most of them are silly, but probably because I am both a parent and a grandparent, I really liked this one.

Thanks for everyone's concern about my recent eye problems. My eye doctor says I'm fine, just stuff that sometimes happens as your eyes get older. I'm feeling better, but still trying to adjust and hoping I can tolerate looking at the computer screen for longer periods of time without feeling uncomfortable.

Linking to signs, signs.

St. Francis

Morning shot of St. Francis of Assisi statue outside my church last week. He loved birds too, just like me.
I apologize for not visiting and commenting on your blogs for the last couple of days. I'm having some eye problems and am trying to limit my screen time. Hopefully I will be back to normal soon!

Linking to Our World Tuesday.

Upside down

When I'm on vacation, I tend to take pictures of birds. I just can't help myself. I had fun zooming in on the swans while sitting next to the lake in Lucerne, Switzerland during my trip this past summer. I noticed that they did this upside down thing a lot!

Linking to Eileen's Saturday's Critters.

Lonely Tree

Lonely tree in the middle of Lake Lafayette. I took this picture from the walkway on the other side of the pedestrian bridge I showed in several posts from earlier this week.

Linking to SkyWatch Friday and Weekend Reflections.

Under the bridge and a good fence

Yesterday I showed the Lafayette Heritage Trail pedestrian bridge. While standing in the middle of the bridge, I took the first picture looking down at the railroad tracks that run under it and next to Lake Lafayette. After crossing the bridge, the walkway makes a sharp left turn and gives you a good view of the lake over the fence. This is as far as I went on the trail on this particular day. I definitely need to go back and do some more exploring.

Linking to Good Fences.

Through the woods

After walking around in the open areas of the Alford Greenway, which I showed in yesterday's post, I decided to follow this trail and head for some shade. This path is part of the Lafayette Heritage Trail which connects the greenway to other parks nearby. I got a little nervous during parts of this walk because I was by myself most of the time, but then I came to a clearing and found this pretty covered bridge. As you can see from the sign in the last picture, no horses are allowed on the bridge. You can see a little bit of Lake Lafayette through the trees under the bridge, but the bridge doesn't go over the water. I will show more pictures tomorrow.

Linking to signs, signs.

Horseback riders

Right after I took the shots of the little butterflies I posted yesterday, I saw the two ladies in the first picture riding toward me on the path. I was walking at the J.R. Alford Greenway, which encompasses 874 acres of open pasture and forested woodlands with 17.5 miles of trails open to the public for hikers, bicyclists, and equestrians from sunrise until sunset. The greenway is located just west of town near Lake Lafayette. It is a Trust for Public Land Project and the property was acquired by the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Greenways and Trails in 2001. It is managed and maintained by Leon County with the assistance of the Friends of the J.R. Alford Greenway. We are finally getting a break from the heat here, for a little while anyway, and I ended up walking over 2 miles. These photos are of the open pasture areas. There are more trails that are wooded and offer views of the lake and I will be showing pictures from those areas and the rest of my walk in the next few days.

Linking to Our World Tuesday.

Butterfly Trio

Two's company.

Three's a crowd.

I went for a walk yesterday and was photographing the first two when another one landed right next to them.

Even though it's Monday, I'm going to link up with Saturday's Critters. Go visit Eileen to see more fascinating critters from all over the world.

Weekend Reflections

Preening geese.

Linking to Weekend Reflections.

SkyWatch Friday

This picture was not taken in Tallahassee, but I haven't gotten any good sky pictures lately, so I am dipping into some of my vacation photos from this past July. I took this one from the window of our hotel room in Mainz, Germany as the sun was coming up the first morning of our trip. Our hotel was on the banks of the Rhine River and, as you can see, we had a beautiful view!

Linking to SkyWatch Friday.

Good Fences

Driving down the road, I almost missed this pretty scene. When I saw it, I knew I had to turn around and get some pictures for Good Fences.

Good to know

You can't say you weren't warned in advance about those unattended kids.

Linking to signs, signs.

Unusual color in Lake Ella

After taking the picture in yesterday's post, I walked across the street to get a closer look at the color of the water in Lake Ella. The usually dark water in the lake had turned a pretty shade of blue green. I found out that this was due to a crack in a pipe which allowed a tank of aluminum sulfate to spill into the lake. Aluminum sulfate is usually added to the lake in small amounts to kill bacteria and prevent algae blooms. The pipe has been fixed and the color of the lake will eventually return to normal, especially if we get a heavy rainfall. The aluminum sulfate is harmless to people and wildlife. I zoomed in on the turtle barge and they don't seem too worried at all!

Linking to Our World Tuesday.

Questions

Not really a mural, but close enough I think. This is located in a church parking lot across from Lake Ella. I thought some of the questions were interesting, others a little silly. Read more about this project here. What do you think?

Linking to Monday Mural.

A few more pics of Florida State Hospital

I showed a couple of pictures of my drive through the campus of Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee in my post earlier this week here along with a brief history. I wanted to show a few more today. The campus is quite large (620 acres) and they even have their own fire station. When I was in college at FSU many years ago, I took an abnormal psychology class and we visited the hospital on a field trip. I remember being appalled by the conditions at that time and more than a little uncomfortable and even frightened by some of the patients. I have to say it looks like many improvements have been made since then. Of course, I didn't go inside any of the buildings this time! By the way, I cannot remember why the flags were flying at half staff on the day I was there.