It's Someone's Birthday Today!!!

Whose birthday is it? Moi?

The crew of the Time and Tide say it's Mom's birthday!

The Captain checks the calendar and today is most certainly the Admiral's big day!

Happy Birthday Moyia!!!

Not exactly sailing weather but still a great time

The summer doldrums are still with us as this morning shot testifies.  Great afternoon and evening anchoring out the previous day with just a little hint of the approaching autumn.

Heading home from Home

The little woman is heading home!  All the microwaveable food was depleted days ago and we did briefly consider actually going grocery shopping before we remembered that we can order pizza, chicken wings and nachos online for delivery in 30 minutes or less!  But the kids and I can only live on this for so long and even Dudley is pining for a can of dog food opened by his favorite girl.

Variety from the Garden

The little woman has been busy picking more veggies:  tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, jalepeno peppers and basil leaves are in this batch.  Also looks like she's already sliced and diced some for lunch as well.

New take on a more familiar plumage

A couple of the boys hanging out back checking things out.  These two are new to the menagerie but differed little from their North American cousins other than the obvious change of wing markings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-winged_Blackbird

A little bas relief

The sign out in front of my home away from home (for 2012) has some bas relief features that lend themselves well to the cha-cha 3D photography method with burst engaged.

Laying Low

My two favorite Brazilian koi (actually the only two koi I know in the southern hemisphere though they may just be large goldfish for all I know) are laying low waiting for the sun to warm up their pond.  Nightime lows are ~50F which is great for sleeping but might be a bit cool for my finned friends.

Happy Birthday from One Shutterbug to Another!!!

Over the years I've built a bit of a perception that I take a lot of photos.....and I tell people that if you think I take a lot, you should see my dad!!!  Dad infected me with the shutterbug early on when he used a Kodak Instamatic shooting 126 Kodachrome slide film.  The slides were then viewed in handheld viewers or on family nights with a carousel projector while eating popcorn (I think mom was secretly in on this as well).  The coup de grâce was in giving me my very own camera---the venerable Instamatic X-15.  It was an insidious move combining, not only the ultimate in a stylish camera with Magic Cube flash capability, but also with the shared name of the record breaking rocket plane which, to a young boy growing up watching moonshots punch holes in the sky from his front yard, was about as good as it good gets :)

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!!

 

Waiting for the Spring Thaw

The garden at the Pousada da Villa barely survived the harsh winter this year and is looking sparse.  Hopefully the spring weather will come soon and revive the greenery.