WORDLESS SUNDAY

I decided to make my own rules: I do my own "Wordless Sundays" from now on. That means: NO COMMENTS from my side, but YOU are very warm invited to leave some words, thoughts or ideas.

Thanks in advance and have a wonderful Sunday!

The Party was great yesterday!

The party was great - The party is over !

It's time to relax and time for getting new inspirations for this coming new year in blogging.

I want to say again "Thank you so much" to all of YOU, for all the wonderful comments what you made to my 1 year anniversary yesterday! I was overwhelmed to read all your nice compliments and it's a good feeling to know, that I have found so many good friends in one year!

One Year Blogging today!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU my Blog!

It was a GREAT year together. I had fun, you had fun - and together we got a lot of new wonderful friends this year!

I want to say "Thank you" to all my friends and visitors out there, who made it possible that my blog is what it is today: a fun place to share my photography and some moments in my life, down here in my little paradise.

Let's celebrate friendship for another year, or two...!

After the rain - and Anniversary is on the way!

This was the sky from yesterday evening after the rain. Isn't it beautiful?

Tomorrow will be my first ANNIVERSARY with this blog,
it is already one year old!!
O.M.G. and I thought I will not survive the first two 
months....!!! :-) I was really close to giving up this
whole blogging, because I had no visitors, or almost
no one... and then after a while I got recognized more
and more by other bloggers and they even were thinking
my blog is good, nice, interesting, funny..
(read all the comments... :)

And today, this is a big satisfaction for me and a big
challenge too, to do my blogging for another coming year
to bring every day a little piece of my little paradise
closer to you - with my photography!

Come over tomorrow to my blog, make a comment
and CELEBRATE with me!

Never ever give up your dreams  - in your real life too!!

Harry and Jimmy

Yesterday afternoon, after the big heavy rainfall, I had a new visitor in my garden. I called this Ibis bird "Harry". He was very busy picking at all the fat worms, snails and other "bug-goodies".

But he was not the only one new visitor....

May I introduce you to "Jimmy"......?

Jimmy is new in the environment and is quite different than all the other brown-red chickens we have running around the house. He is white, tall, can barely crow - but he tries! And he has to fight very hard to defend his new territory.

While Harry is gone by now, it seems that Jimmy won the fights against all the other roosters and decided to stay.

A Smile is in the Air again - and the Message on getting Awards!

Yesterday, I received this award (for the second time) from Heather D at heatherdugan.com/blog

Thank you so much Heather for honoring my blog with this award. Making people smile while they are reading - or in my case, looking at my pictures - is a good feeling and makes me smile, too.... Let's all smile together - A BIG smile is in the air!

Please visit Heathers wonderful blog "Footsteps"!

For me, I will take my time to find 5 other bloggers who deserve to get this award also. I will choose my fellow bloggers this time very carefully, since last time 3 out of 5 people didn't react at all - and that was NOT nice, NOT fun and VERY frustrating!

Signs of Fall - In Two Countries

The first yellow leaves in my yard - is this a sign of fall already?

This is the real picture of fall in my mind: colored trees in a park in Zug, Switzerland. Looking to this photo brings back for me a lot of good memories!

It's raining Cats and Dogs...

This is how it's looks just now in paradise - it's raining cats and dogs!

I love the rain drops!

The wet limbs with all the rain drops on, make the picture look like out of a fairy land, mystical and almost like out of a dream world - I'm only missing the elf's dancing....!

The Secret of the Red Dots

And the winner is Max-e from

http://themaxefiles.blogspot.com

He was the only one who guessed it right and wrote:
"some sort of reflective road sign" - and that's what it is! CONGRATULATIONS Max, you WON!

Since I know that Max is living in South Africa, I'm going to send him a picture of the hammock. In this virtual world it's no more a problem to make dreams come true, right?

I want to say THANK YOU also to all the other participants in this little Quiz. It was a pleasure - also for me - to read all your nice and funny comments. You all made me smile!

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Hot red chili peppers - the last three from my pot in the yard. They are small because we have had too much rain in the last few days.


So, we have now chili and some garlic.... and what we need also is ground beef, beans and onions....



...and where is the tomato sauce? Let's start cooking a great "chili con carne" - and you are invited to the table! Come back in two hours - and don't forget to bring with you a good bottle of Italian wine! :-)

The Magic Color Red II - Red Dots

Who knows what this picture is about?

The first prize for the winner is a weekend in our hammock in the yard - but please bring your own mosquito spray with you!! :-)

In a couple of days I will reveal what it is.... stay tuned!

The Magic Color Red

I love this deep, magic red in the evening sky after a big rainfall. The structures of all the electric lines are making a great contrast and are bringing some "life" to the picture.

Did you have your Vitamins today?

Strawberries have a lot of Vitamin C

Pears and peaches too...

One cup (144 g) of strawberries constitutes approximately 45 calories (188 kJ) and is an excellent source of vitamin C and flavonoids

Experimental Photography

It was biker weekend in Key West!

That brings for us a lot of extra traffic, smell of gasoline and extra noise on the island. Especially when they do their "Poker Run", starting early in the morning, producing horrendous noise levels and it doesn't ends up to early in the mornings -at 2 a.m they are still cruising around the houses - because it's supposed to be cool to play the "Easy rider type of guys" - while in the meantime" not so cool guys" try to get their well earned sleep.

I'm glad it's OVER for a year!

My little Mockingbird

Mockingbird

I love to hear the Mockingbird that sits up in my tree
I wonder why he sings so much, or if he sings to me.
He sits up on a branch so high, so he can fly away,
But I know that he likes it there, and that he wants to stay!

I love to hear the Mockingbird that sits up in my tree
If I could reach the limb he's on, I'd put him on my knee.
I'd tell him what a joy he is, to listen to each day
And that I'd like to understand, just what he has to say.

I love to hear the Mockingbird that sits up in my tree
I wish he had a friend sometime, so happy he would be.
I guess that I could be his friend, for he does comfort me,
On lonely nights and rainy days, because I cannot see.

Poetry by Rita P Hestand

After Rain

I'm back to my palm pictures again... :-)

Yesterday late afternoon we had a tremendous rainfall for maybe a half hour or more. After that, the sun came back and I have captured these palm fronds with my camera, while they were still covered with rain drops.

The party is over....

I'm glad I made it trough all these awards and tagging and it seems, everything is now back to "normal blog life" again.

Please NO awards anymore - let me breath again! :-)

TAG – TAG – TAG - who is tagging here?

I get tagged for a meme by Charlotte R. Dixon on her blog, Word Strumpet.

This is now really a new challenge for me, something more than getting awards! Thank you Charlotte.

The rules in this game are: You get tagged and you will tag (5) others - it’s that easy! But in between you also have to write something about yourself, something most people think, they don’t know about you. If you don’t want to expose your darkest sides – show only the sunny side of you, maybe they ever find out the other stuff.

O.k.….well, then let’s starts!

What You Don’t Know about Me is:

1)

I was born in Hungary, grew up in Switzerland. I have two nationalities that I’m very proud of it. Today I’m married with the love of my life: a real cornbread eating,
“Southern Boy”. He is the best thing what could happen to me in the last 7 years!

2)

I love to travel – that must be the Hungarian Gypsy blood - and I have visited many countries in Europe. Mostly, I liked Italy the best – and still do today - and of course the Italian food and the excellent wines, especial in Tuscany. Did you know that in certain restaurants in Italy you have to pay a weird fee called, “coperto?” Coperto is a tax you must pay for using dishes, napkins, fork, spoon and knife….. Mamma mia! :-)

3)

I speak 5 languages: Hungarian, German, French, Italian and now English. Some of the languages need a little brush up from time to time – that’s why would be great to take some trips again!

4)

I served in the Swiss Army from 1981 - 1988. And some of my friends still call me: “The Little General”.

5)

My biggest passion in life was always photography. I got my first KODAK camera (old and used) as a gift for my 12th Birthday. I was so happy and started running through many, many film rolls, in black and white, of course. Back then I already knew that one day I would be a “real” photographer! Today, I have changed all my equipment to the D-NIKON family.

6)

My photo blog will soon be 1 year old! Only a few days left until the HAPPY ANNIVERSARY cake! Please visit me on the 28th of September to celebrate with me!

7 )

I have two wonderful kids, Jeannine (38) and Daniel (33) and two sweet grandchildren, two boys “Fabrice” (3) and “Janis” (1) and on the phone they always say: “Hi America Grosi”! Grosi means”Granny”.

8)

My goal in life was always to not work at a regular job past 50 years old. I almost made it, I was 51 when I stopped and came over here to this wonderful country America, together with my husband! I’m proud of myself about reaching my goal. My next goal is to live 58 more years to realize all the plans that I still have in my head.

9)

Something that can make me really angry is when somebody is too late for an appointment and not on time! That’s the moment when I’m freaking out! It must be my “built-in” Swiss watch, I guess! To be on time means – for me – to show respect to the
waiting person, or at least call!

10)

My biggest dream as a little girl was to get a BIG box of colored pencils – I have loved to draw since I was a kid!! But because my parents were very poor and because of certain very sad political circumstances that happened in the past, I never got THOSE pencils! Until 2001 – here in America I could finally fulfill my dream and today I’m a proud owner of the BIGGEST box of Colored Pencils you can buy – MY Colored Pencils! And finally, my deepest childhood dreams came true. I had to wait almost 50 years. Now I am coloring everything in sight!

And now I’m going to TAG:

Luciano Bove http://www.lucianobove.blogspot.com

John Craig http://craig-photography.blogspot.com

Rob Sellen http://robsellen.com

Theresa Hall http://skdd.wordpress.com

You Make Me Smile - Award

It seems that it’s raining awards on my Blog for the last few weeks…and now another.

Thank you so much for this new award, Titania. YOU made ME smile often too!

People get these awards for being:

* clever,

* charming,

* fun,

* hilarious,

* ridiculous,

* entertaining,

* satirical,

* sweet

And the list is open-ended. I’m sure you will find more good reasons to smile visiting all the great blogs!

I’m supposed to give this award to 5 other people who really made me smile reading their blogs. I’m proud to nominate:

http://mrsnesbittsplace.blogspot.com

http://crpitt.blogspot.com

http://julianbennett.blogspot.com

http://morebabies.blogspot.com

http://www.sarcasmabounds.blogspot.com

Please visit all these bloggers to see what I’m talking about – and I’m sure you will be leaving their blog with a big smile on your face!

Remember 9/11

No words today - only silence in my heart!

Floating....

A leaf floating on the water in sunset....




BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:

"You make me Smile"

and

"Tell me more about yourself"

*****

Yesterday it was really my day! :-)


The wonderful and lovely Titania at


Finding Life's Enchantment
http://titaniastarlight.blogspot.com

sent me a message telling me that she awarded my blog with the
"You make me smile" award - and now I'm smiling about that, Titania - It's a big honor to get this award from you.
Thank you so much, I will post more about this in the coming days and I will forward it to five other fellow bloggers.

*****

And my second surprise of the day came from a person who I admire very much for her work in writing from the first second I have met her and her blog. She is a excellent and experienced writer and a great and wonderful person:

Charlotte R Dixon at Word Strumpet
http://www.wordstrumpet.typepad.com/word_strumpet

tagged me with the question:

"What You don't Know about Me"

I am supposed to write 8 points within this theme about myself.

Sometimes, I feel I still don't know everything about myself, either, but I will try :-)

All kind of Birds...

Portrait of a big white Heron bird

White Heron bird fishing - and he got one!

The pelican and his three body guards

Pelican waiting for food left overs from the fishing boats

And this one is just enjoying the warm sun on his back

Yes, we have more than palm trees...

We have also the best sunsets in the world - the tourist guides are writing that, not me!

And for the most, I like the pictures after sunset when the whole sky turns into a deep red, purple or gold. It looks like fire in the sky.

A colorful award

By now it is three days ago since I got this pretty award form a excellent photographer colleague, Kathy Libby at “Photography by KML”.

Kathy is specialized in landscapes and nature photos. Visit please her blog and her very tasteful made website too and you will be amazed by her stunning and excellent work in photography.

Thank you so much Kathy for forwarding this award to me, it is a big honor and joy for me to get this nomination from such a great photographer like you are.

play the drums please.... :

And now, I have the big pleasure to forward this award to a very special person who I met in this blogosphere and who I think, he deserve this award more then anything for his great work on his three blogs.

Rick is a storm chaser and weather guy who LOVES to be outdoor when big storms are building up on the horizon. That’s normally the moment when other people are running home as fast as they can - me too - but not HE. That’s the time, when the big FUN begins for him!

Please check out his sites:

http://www.ateveningfall.blogspot.com

He calls his blog “Wayfarers Journey”. You will see here outstanding and excellent nature and lightning photography - something what I wish I could do it that well too!

www.stormtracker2.com

http://southeasternstormchasers.blogspot.com

This blogs have the names:"Storm Chasing Teams" and “Southwest Georgia Stormtrack” and are his other interesting and exciting sites filled with a lot of weather observations, insider information and exchanges of storm experiences between other storm trackers – a lot of new stuff to learn about storms…..stuff what I didn’t knew before. Except once, long time ago, when I have seen the movie “Twister” I got a idea, what's all about storm chasers. But he is doing this in REAL life!

That’s why I want to give this award to you Rick – you really deserve it! CONGRATULATIONS!

Palms again.....

YES, we have still some palm trees left on the island! Somebody asked me in a comment to one of my last posts about palm trees, if there are still some palm trees left to photograph in Key West, because I captured so many of them already on my blog. I have to say it again: I just LOVE palm trees and no one of them look the same!
And new ones are growing too.... :-)

AND...... believe it or not, we have also pine trees on this island,
even a lot -
like this great beautiful example here, photographed in the last sunbeams of a hot and humid summer day.

Evening lights....

Beauty is everywhere to find - you just have to open your eyes and don't search too far away.

Your daily environment has a lot to offer.
If you take your time - you will see it!

Light Reflections

This is my view every evening from the back side of my yard, overlooking the water and the mangroves.
I enjoy just to sit there, looking out and listen to the birds, watching the last light reflections in the trees and on the water, before the night covers every thing all around in darkness and tranquility.

It is the place I love to be!