Saturday's Critters

This anhinga was camouflaged pretty well and sitting on the other side of a pond, so I had to zoom in to get this shot. It was sitting pretty low to the ground, not stretching out its neck, until I decided to whistle at it. As soon as I did that, up went the head and I snapped this picture.

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

SkyWatch Friday

Sunny, but cold day with beautiful blue skies. The tree on the left is covered in Spanish moss.

Linking to SkyWatch Friday.

Good Fences

The first picture shows a brand new fence near the entrance to Okeeheepkee Prairie Park. The second picture shows the first of two boardwalk bridges on the walking trail. The trail makes a loop around several ponds and you can see the other bridge I walked over in the upper right side of the picture across the water way off in the distance. On the other side of those trees is a huge cow pasture. I could hear some loud mooing coming from the cattle as I was walking the trail, but couldn't see them through the trees.

Linking to Good Fences.

No Mow Zone

This sign must be a reminder to the county workers maintaining the Okeeheepkee Prairie Park that they can't mow in certain areas because I know I wasn't planning on mowing anything while I was there.

Linking to signs, signs.

Our World Tuesday

More pictures from the walking trail at Okeeheepkee Prairie Park. Okeeheepkee means "disappearing waters", the Native American name given to nearby Lake Jackson. Lake Jackson is a shallow prairie lake which has two major sinkholes beneath it, causing it to completely drain into the Florida aquifer every 25 years or so, exposing the lake bed. This natural draining process has been going on for many years, and the lake always fills back up again. I have previously shown pictures of Lake Jackson on my blog here and here.

Linking to Our World Tuesday.

New Park

Leon County just opened a new park not far from my house and I'm not sure how to pronounce the name, but I love the fact that I have a new place to go walking. It's not much more than a walking trail around a few ponds and wetlands, but it does offer some nice space to view a few birds and just enjoy being outside. I will show more pictures in the next few days.

Sandhill Cranes: Saturday's Critters

I took a little longer break from my blog than I intended, but I'm back. Spoiling my grandkids wears me out! While I was visiting them in Orlando, I took some pictures of their neighbors, the Sandhill Cranes. These critters seem to be everywhere down there and they aren't shy. We always see them in pairs and these two didn't seem to mind us getting up close and personal with them. In fact, they even posed for me. My grandson and I have named this pair that hangs out in their yard Bob and Philomena (Although to be honest, we are probably seeing more than one pair, we just call them all Bob and Philomena).

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

Saturday's Critters

I had to zoom in on this red shouldered hawk sitting on my fence through the double paned window on my back door so it is a little hazy, but opening the door would have surely caused it to fly away. It was early in the morning and a little foggy too, but I think it turned out to be a pretty good shot anyway. There are a pair of them living in the woods behind my house and sometimes I'll see them both in my backyard at the same time.

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

Little Library

I took this picture right before Christmas, which I suppose is why there is a pretty red bow tied on the post of this cute little book box. The sign underneath the bow reads: Teresa's Book Box. Need A Book… Take One. Have A Book… Leave One. "Dreams Begin With A Good Book".

By the way, I won't be doing much blogging this weekend. I have grandkid duty!

Propaganda

Here is another display from the Florida State University Institute on World War II and the Human Experience. These were called "cigarette books" and are examples of German propaganda. The books were sold to the public with text, but no photographs or images. Cigarette and tobacco companies would sell numbered photographic prints in cigarette packs that corresponded with blank numbered spaces in the books. It was up to the consumer of the cigarettes to coordinate the numbers and glue the photographs into the books. There were a variety of these cigarette books published in Germany during the war.

World War II Toys

I wanted to show a few more items from the Florida State University Institute on World World II and the Human Experience exhibit I attended last weekend. The first picture shows a cloth Army soldier dressed in khaki wearing an officer's cap. Dolls were frequently made of cloth during the war due to rationing of materials. The second picture shows toy soldiers originally purchased in Canada because rationing in the United States made it difficult to obtain toys made out of metal. Tomorrow I will show a few more items that are definitely not toys!

Tuesday's Treasures

This past weekend I visited the Museum of Fine Arts at Florida State University to view a joint exhibit. The first one was "Anne Frank: A History for Today" touring from the Anne Frank Center in New York. It was a wonderful exhibit, but unfortunately photographs were prohibited. The second exhibit featured items from the FSU Institute on World War II and the Human Experience which preserves memories and artifacts of the men and women who served in World War II. Items in this collection are both military related and from home front experiences as well. The collection includes diaries, letters, photographs, memorabilia, and other materials related to the everyday experiences of the participants in World War II. The largest and most significant collection is that of newscaster Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation, The Greatest Generation Speaks, and An Album of Memories. Brokaw donated his collection of letters and other materials used in his research for his books to FSU. The three pictures above show items from this exhibit. You can read about each item by viewing the information provided on the cards in the pictures. The second picture shows an example of something I had never heard of called Trench Art, which I found very interesting.

Linking to a new meme this week hosted by Tom at Tom The Backroads Traveller called Tuesday's Treasures. Go here to see what the other participants are posting.

I am also linking to Our World Tuesday.

Profile

After the geese from yesterday's post decided to ignore me, I moved on and zoomed in for a profile shot of this great egret hunting for a snack near the edge of Lake Ella. Do you see the other critter hovering nearby?

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

Quick Getaway

Once these geese at Lake Ella realized I didn't have any food for them, they decided to move on.

Linking to Weekend Reflections.

Good Fence at Lake Jackson

A fence between the parking area and the water's edge at one of the boat landings on Lake Jackson. Look closely above the middle fence post just beyond the grass and you will seen someone in a small fishing boat out on the lake.

Linking to Good Fences.

Pink Bench

I forgot I took this picture, probably because this pretty pink bench is not located in Tallahassee. The Pink Poppy is a shop in Georgetown, Texas and I saw it when my sister and I were walking around this quaint little town near Austin when I visited her last fall. I just couldn't resist taking a picture of it.

Linking to signs, signs.

Discovery

This aluminum sculpture entitled "Discovery" by local Tallahassee artist Paul Tamanian is located behind the Discovery kids play area in Cascades Park. It was commissioned and donated by First Commerce Credit Union. You can read more about the artist at his website here. The 22 story Florida Capitol building is sitting behind it on a hill in the the distance.

Linking to Our World Tuesday.

The Edison

Built in 1921, Tallahassee's old city electric power plant building is located at the southeast corner of Cascades Park near downtown. It has been renovated into a restaurant appropriately called The Edison. The second picture shows what the building looked like a year ago when renovations had just begun.

Weekend Reflections and a Few Shadows

This table and chairs looked a little lonely in front of the windows of an office on Adams Street downtown near the Capitol. I took this picture on a Sunday afternoon, so it's probably a bit busier during the week.

Linking to Weekend Reflections.

Linking to Shadow Shot Sunday.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: best of the year

It was very hard for me to choose a "best of the year" photo from my blog, but here is one of my favorites. This mockingbird was posing for me just outside of the Florida Capitol building in downtown Tallahassee. The mockingbird is Florida's state bird. I have plenty of them hanging around my yard and they often wake me up in the morning with their beautiful songs. The first day of the month is Theme Day in the City Daily Photo Community. To see other CDP members' interpretations of this month's theme, visit our gallery here.

Also linking to Saturday's Critters.