Smokies Light

What's the deal with kisses these days? There's Special Dark, Filled with Caramel, HUGS Chocolates, and Filled with Peanut Butter, not to mention Milk Chocolate with Almonds. All I want is a simple kiss but they are hard to find with all the superficiality and glitz these days. Oh well, I had no visitors last night so the entire bag (Almonds) is all mine.

This tree lives at the Fort Matanzas National Monument, a hop and a skip from my current abode. Guess which direction the ocean lies.

I promised Poopie a strawberry daquiri if she made it this way. I'm checking out all the establishments for the best daquiri and atmosphere. Lots of establishments and atmospheres to check out here.

Note: These shrimp were harmed in the making of this picture.

A Boeing B-17 bomber paid a visit to the local airport Saturday. This view is looking through the plexiglass nose with the navigator's station on the left and the bombardier's chair up front. When starting the bomb run the bombardier would actually fly the airplane using the control wheel center right.

The wind blew 30mph and higher for an entire week finally letting up last Saturday, taking its toll on boats and sailors. I'm an armchair sailor and read a lot about how catamarans are safer than monohulls because if one hull is punctured the other hull will keep it afloat. This boat might have remained on the surface in deeper water, but it could have been upside down also.
This cat was a really nice boat. The sails, cockpit cover, and woodwork look to be well cared for. Hope the owner has good insurance.

This rather poor image is of a family of wild dolphins cruising the Intracoastal Waterway near St. Augustine. If you look closely, the nearest "hump" is a baby dolphin with it's eye right at the waterline. The conditions for picture taking were tough. I was in an inflatable boat right in the middle of the St. Augustine inlet, which is a narrow, busy passageway for boats to the ocean with very strong tidal currents. Click here for a satellite view of the inlet (x marks the spot). The dolphins would surface only for a few seconds and then appear randomly somewhere else, meaning the time to aim, focus, and shoot was very, very small. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend taking a boat tour with St. Augustine Eco-tours. The price is right and Zach the tour guide and boat captain is very personable and knowledgable. This Wednesday really wasn't wordless was it?

The historic district of St. Augustine seems to have an endless number of pedestrian streets and back alleys, each offering some kind of bistro, cafe, restaurant, bar, inn, art gallery to be discovered. It's really a romantic place, with the sounds of live musicians playing and singing at the outdoor venues as you stroll along the streets after dark.

Round the world, solo, on a 32 foot sailboat. That's what Christian, pictured above on his boat Christa, is planning to do. He started a few months ago in New England and is working his way down the east coast, then over to the Bahamas, and then to points way beyond. The journey will take 5 to 7 years, maybe longer if he takes a liking to a place. I've been following his blog since he started, and when he sailed into St. Augustine I hooked up with him for a few pics and lunch today. I told him he was a bad influence on me. I'll be looking for an old boat and dreaming dreams, but in the meantime living vicariously through his blog.

Obviously heavily artsified but I sorta like it that way. I really need to use a tripod for night shots but I'm a little lazy in that regard. Guess I need to take this stuff more seriously.

"The 4,500-acre lifestyle resort would include two lakes, a ski area served by a 3-mile gondola, more than 1 million square feet of retail space, a campground, a 305-suite resort hotel and conference center, a golf course and several thousand single family homes and condominiums."

From the Mountaineer, via AllSmokies.

Slim pickins this week for pics. I took one brief outing last weekend but most of the pics are no good. The image above was taken at Washington Oaks State Park. The Intracoastal Waterway channel runs very close to the bank and it's a nice place to sit and watch the boats go by. Admittedly, I'd rather be on a boat watching the bench go by.

For those of you not familiar with nautical terms, a figurehead is the ornamental carving at the bow of old wooden sailing ships.

According to criticsrant.com, this blog's reading level is Genius. I don't take this rating as a compliment however. I believe it means you have to be a genius to understand what I'm trying to communicate. I do confess to placing subliminal messages in the images, saying 'buy my pics' and other political statements which are so sordid and vulgar they can't be communicated directly to the conscious reasoning mind. I guess criticsrant can read between the pixels.
Via Cookies in Heaven.

The fort above is the Castillo de San Marcos, a national monument. It was built in 1672 and is still here, standing at the northern edge of the historic district on the waterfront. What's unique about this image is that it was taken from out on the water, so it's not just your average tourist pic mind you. You can see a human far left in the fort to give perspective of the size. Seeing rare pics like this one is what makes you a genius for visiting this blog. Here's a pic of the moat. Every time I see or hear the word "moat" I think of that old Bugs Bunny classic with the singing sword co-starring Yosemite Sam (filmed on location at this fort by the way). The title of this post was taken from the screenplay, at 3:55 into the show. That's all folks.

Anhingas, or cormorants according to the tour guide, but I couldn't find a similar pic on the net. They fly under water.

Humans with dogs:

Waves:

Birds:

Airplane high above (a Bonanza!):

Moon high above:

Fishing Pier (2 miles away!):

Sea Oats:

All these pics taken this evening on the beach, all within 100 yards of each other and within 5 minutes. An infinity of beauty and grace up, down, and all around.

On a small boat. Outrageous, but I would like to go for a ride.

A flock of pelicans pulls up to the bar for a drink after a hard day at work cruising the beaches. The structure above is the lounge at the Conch House Marina. The outdoor deck with live music is pictured below. I thought the raw data of the image below had some potential but needed lots of work. It had to be cleaned up for public health reasons before it could be posted to the net. I can't remember what all I did to this pic in Photoshop besides cleaning the bird poop off the deck. There was part of somebody's head sticking up over the far end of the deck and a lady's foot was taken out at the far right. Some gaussian blur added, converted to b&w, dark areas brightened, and so on. Here's the original original straight from the camera.

Taken this morning, not in Florida. You might wonder why someone who takes a few photos such as myself would leave the Smokies during the peak Fall season. I guess it's kind of a been there, done that thing. This same view was taken last year, and the year before, and so on, tho it does get later in the year each time I take this pic. Today I was in a t-shirt at the overlook and probably needed some sunscreen to avoid a burn. Day after day of harsh sun, day after day of harsh crowds and road rage takes it toll. I needed a vacation from this vacation spot.

The new Twin Creeks Science and Education Center on Cherokee Orchard Road was dedicated last Tuesday by federal and local officials. I took a stroll around the building this morning and took a few pics. Click below to see them with running commentary.

How did the early pioneers ever make it out West on the Oregon Trail without XM Radio? I guess they had to make do with AM. I swear having XM makes a road trip 50% faster. Driving back to Florida today I learned about a new channel, XM Led, 59 on your XM dial. All Led Zeppelin, all the time. The band is scheduled for a reunion concert in London on December 10th with rumors (rumours?) of a 2008 tour floating about. By the way, if you've never heard Dolly Parton's live rendition of Stairway to Heaven on her 2002 album, it's worth the 99 cents to iTunes. I'm not a big fan of Dolly's music genre, but this one rocks.

Dolly: ""I love that song, and I always thought it sounded like a spiritual song. Robert Plant said he had always thought of it as a spiritual song and was thrilled that I had put the choir on it, 'cause he had always heard it like that. I believe a good song can be done any way if you really mean it from the heart. Everybody's been trying to get a copy of my version of this song. They've been offering everybody money to bootleg it. Rock stations have been calling us, and country stations just out of curiosity. I'm sure some of them think it's a big joke. I'm sure that some of them are going to want to crucify me, and maybe they will. But in all sincerity, I did it because I love the song."

Image courtesy of ledzeppelin.com

Short on pics this week due to holiday travel and short days now. I'm beginning to think this Florida winter thing might be a good idea. Can't believe no one else has thought of it before. The week's forecast is below comparing St. Augustine to Gatlinburg. The temps at my Smokies residence are typically 5-10 degrees cooler than what's forecasted because of the altitude. It's those lows in the 20s and 30s that hurt my bones. It just doesn't cool off here that much at night, at least so far. I took the pic above just a few minutes ago. I didn't make note of the camera settings but I did make note that I was dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops.

St. Augustine:

Nov 27 Tomorrow
Sun and a few passing clouds. High 67F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Nov 28 Wednesday
Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the mid 70s and lows in the low 60s.
Nov 29 Thursday
Partly cloudy. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the low 60s.
Nov 30 Friday
Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 50s.
Dec 1 Saturday
Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 50s.
Dec 2 Sunday
Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the mid 70s and lows in the low 60s.
Dec 3 Monday
Partly cloudy. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 50s.
Dec 4 Tuesday
Showers possible. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the low 50s.
Dec 5 Wednesday
Few showers. Highs in the upper 60s and lows in the mid 50s.

Gatlinburg:

Nov 27 Tomorrow
Chance of a morning shower. Cloudy early, becoming mostly sunny in the afternoon. High 54F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Nov 28 Wednesday
Abundant sunshine. Highs in the upper 50s and lows in the mid 30s.
Nov 29 Thursday
Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 50s and lows in the upper 20s.
Nov 30 Friday
Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the mid 50s and lows in the mid 30s.
Dec 1 Saturday
Considerable cloudiness. Highs in the mid 60s and lows in the low 40s.
Dec 2 Sunday
Occasional showers possible. Highs in the low 60s and lows in the upper 40s.
Dec 3 Monday
Showers. Highs in the low 60s and lows in the low 30s.
Dec 4 Tuesday
Showers. Highs in the mid 50s and lows in the low 30s.
Dec 5 Wednesday
Chance of showers. Highs in the mid 50s and lows in the mid 30s.

Found this one rummaging thru the attic in my Photoshop. The fort is a difficult subject to photograph in an interesting way. Try taking an artsy pic of a concrete cinder block and you'll know what I mean.

Another reject unrejected. I was in a moving boat in the midst of hundreds of birds when they decided to just up and leave all at once. How rude. Only the pelican's head dead center was in focus. I don't have experience taking pics from a moving boat of moving birds with a telephoto lens. You need a high shutter speed to stop the movement but that narrows the depth of field so less of the image is sharp. In order to correct this situation, I think I need to add a boat to my camera gear to get more practice. This Wordless Wednesday really wasn't wordless was it?

A variation on an image I posted last week. I tried a new artistic filter on this image but have now forgotten what I did.

My Dad and I have spent months trying to remember the name of the first movie I saw in a theater as a young child. We could remember a few lines and scenes but the title had escaped our memories. Then, in one of those unexplainable psychic moments that happens to us all at one time or another, the word "Castaways" just popped in my head and I just knew that was it. With Google's help I quickly found the full title: In Search of the Castaways. The movie was made in 1962, but I didn't see it until some time in the late 60s, perhaps because it took that long for movies to make it to the big screen in my little Southern home town, or maybe it was a re-release. If I can't rent it I'll have to buy a copy. What was the first movie you saw in a theater?

Dolphins at MarineLand. The place was closed up for maintenance but they let me walk around. I'm not sure why the mirror is used at feeding time. More creatures at the ark.