Vacation 2011

Time goes by so quickly.  It is now Wednesday (hump day as they say) and when you can see the end of the tunnel disappoint starts to set in.  We have been having such a wonderful time.  There is nothing more wonderful than hanging out with old friends and everything is the same.  Very comfortable.  Caroline pulled some strings and will be going on an "official" turtle patrol tomorrow morning.  We have been fishing, beaching, and going to the pool at the condo place were we are staying.  I have come to realise that I truly want to be in Fernandina and will be working towards the goal of getting back here as often as possible.  I like the person I am here; life seems easier and the ocean is were I need to be.  But...change takes time and like I said goals will be set to achieve that end.  The following are some of the many pictures I've been able to take.

our unit was in the corner (straight ahead in this shot) and had a nice large porch looking towards the ocean.  We also had use of this nice swimming pool, a good alternative for a quick dip as opposed to gathering all the beach gear and trundling off to the sand.

Caroline was an absolute fish and swam any opportunity she could.

Caroline, Daddy, and Eli making a sandman.

Eli was very tolerant of having a 6 year old idolizing his 11 year old self.

Sunset...the impact of them was obscured by the smoke from all the wildfires inland.  The smoke would blow in in the morning and if we were lucky the prevailing ocean breezes would blow the smoke away enough to clear things out for the afternoon.

Caroline and Eli at Fort Clinch.

Caroline inspecting the work the restoration mason has done.

Caroline got ahold of the camera.  This is her self portrait.

Nesting Wilson's Plover.

Sunset on the Amelia River Side of the island.

First time out fishing.  Caroline caught 13 little spots, Brett caught 3 various types, Clif, Eli, and Chris were skunked.

Next days fishing took us to the ocean side of the island.  Here we see Chris crying to Clif about not having caught any fish and it just wasn't fair.

Clif relaying poor Chris's saddness.  Brett seems very concerned.

Brown pelican

Obviously Brett didn't stop fishing.  He caught 5 whiting.  Caroline is examining the fish.

Osprey with it's catch

Sunrise on morning of turtle patrol

Caroline ready to go

Mama deer nursing her still spotted fawn on the dunes.

We found a logger head nest and proceeded to mark it.  Here Rhonda is showing Caroline the whole process.

Happy laughing gull strutting it's stuff waiting around for shrimp heads or non guarded bait.

Happy and Sad

Caroline and I found this Luna moth bedraggled and wet in the lawn yesterday.  With all the rain we have had, she was really struggling with a broken wing as well as being soggy.  In the past month we have had a grand array of the giant silk moths and have learned a lot about them.  This one is a female and we could tell by her fat abdomen and smaller, less "fluffy" antennae.  We brought onto the front porch under the overhang out of the direct weather.  I was not as difficult as I thought it would be to convince my nature loving daughter the moth would be safer outside and left alone.  Thank you Auntie Cheryl for all your lessons regarding wild critters.  Anyway, her wings dried and she moved to the molding around the front door and laid two eggs.  Back again to the computer for research and found out that if you put the moth (which only live at most two weeks once hatched from their cocoon) in a brown paper bag she may lay more eggs and we would this way be able to raise them and try to help perpetuate them.

As you can see she is holding her wing up and can't fly.  The green wing under her were found the day before by the mail box, just the wing and no body.  It just so happened to be on the little shelf drying out when we put the live moth there to dry as well.

So, before moving the moth to the bag, Caroline took some pictures.  They came out great for a 6 year old taking pictures.

It's Been Awhile

I can't remember what this little lily type plant is, but it was planted three years ago and this is it's first blooming in my garden.  Very petite plant with the blooms similar to the much larger Turks cap lily

May Blooms - Trillium

Daffy

Caroline thought Boston might like a bike ride.

Humphry

Woody

Humphry yelling at an interloper

Cecropia moth we watched emerge; we purchased the chrysalis at the Garden show earlier this year.

Window boxes I built are up and the gardens mulched.

What we do on Memorial Day...line up the chickens, I think Caroline was teaching them to salute.

We have a window in the house that really attracts moths and we recently found this Polymethus.  It is in the same giant silk moth family as the Cecropia (above) and the luna moth.

A few days after the Poly, we found this one which turns out to be a Blinded Sphinx.