Three-part harmony

Our three cats do NOT get along... you'll see the two grey cats next to each other, or the stripy grey cat and the black cat next to each other, but you will NEVER see the marbled grey cat next to the black one unless they're fighting.. Tessie usually sits back on the other side of the room and waits for Scouty to finish eating before she goes over to the kibble dish. But there are exceptions to every rule, and the other day she was too hungry to wait - and Scouty was too hungry to make a fuss, so I snapped this photo! Three-part-harmony, with felines...

Trying out my new cameraphone

Here's a couple of photos I took on my walk the other day. The camera-phone isn't as good as a 'real' camera... but it's not too shabby either. The light was a little dim for some of the shots because it was getting a bit late in the evening, but my sunset photo came out beautiful.

I adore frangipani... they're such beautifully delicate flowers, and they have a glorious perfume. It's just a shame they don't bloom for very long.

The Canal a block from our apartment. There are three bridges across the canal in our immediate vicinity, and I usually take at least one of them on my walk. I'm a bit jealous of the people who's houses back onto the water - they get to see this beauty every day.

And lastly, the sun was just setting when I got home. I usually take my walk in the cool of the evening because it's too hot out there to even THINK about doing it in the daytime. I love the evening light - the only bad thing are the mosquitos that eat me alive!

Orchids

Sorry it's been so long! It's been a very busy time for me... I've seen a bunch of things I would have loved to photograph while I was taking my daily walk, but I didn't have a camera with me. John's fixed that - he bought me a new phone (my old one's dying of old age) and it has a camera AND a built-in mp3 player. So when I walk I'll be able to photograph anything I see, at least once I figure out how to use the phone.

But for now, here's an older photo. I snapped these little beauties in the greenhouse at the Orchid Gardens up in Boca. The gardens are run by the Orchid Society and they almost closed down earlier this year for lack of fundage... but somebody came up with a donation to keep them running.

RIP Jack

I don't usually post photos of people... but Jack was special. He was John's employer many years ago, and John's friend ever since. The first time I met him was when I came to spend time with John before we were married - we went to dinner with Jack and Rhona so he could vet me as a suitable bride! lol (not really, John wanted me to meet him as a family friend...)

When we were married there was no question in his mind that he and his wife Rhona would come to our wedding. They were our only guests except for a friend John works with who offered to take photos for us (that was very sweet of him too, and he did a nice job!). Jack's health was never good, and he has been extremely ill for the last three years from the cumulative consequences of many minor strokes. He passed away on Sunday morning, so today I post our wedding photo and remember a good friend I would have liked to have known better.

Jack was Jewish by birth but an atheist in long practice, so he wouldn't want prayers for his soul - but I'm pretty sure that he's up there at the pearly gates now giving St Peter a good talking to. He always liked a good argument. RIP Jack.

I never got around to doing a second entry yesterday... so today I give you two photos in one go. These are both from our trip around the US, specifically our bus tour of the American South-West. We stayed overnight at Lake Powell and we drove up to the dam for an optional guided tour of the dam workings. The timing of our tour was bad - thanks to anti-terrorist paranoia we weren't permitted to take ANYTHING into the building with us, even our wallets or our jacket (or a camera), plus it was late in the afternoon of a very long day's travelling, so only a couple of people thought it was worth the hassle of going in. When I was a little girl, my parents took us to see a real hydro-electric dam and I remember that it was incredibly noisy, unbelievably HUGE, and I would have loved to see one again as an adult - but not if I couldn't even take photographs!
Next morning we went on a boat tour on the lake and it was fascinating... And on the way out of the area we drove past the dam from the other side and I snapped a photo through the bus window (hence the blur and the black line across the middle of the picture.)
The scariest thing about Lake Powell is how little lake there actually was. All that white stone has been bleached by decades submerged in water, and those huge chunky dam abutments were intended to be well below the surface of the water. But for the last fifteen years the lake level has been steadily dropping until everything's out in the open air. As far as I know, the lake level has continued to drop steadily in the years since our visit... if it continues at this rate, one of these days there won't BE a lake there to see.

Mmmm! Cookies!

I got a strange message when I tried to make a post a minute ago 'Error 503 Service unavailable'? Weird! Sorry I didn't get to post a photo yesterday. I guess that means you get two entries for today instead.

I'm on a diet and not eating this stuff... but that doesn't mean I can't think of it! I baked this enormous tub of cookies for a church function last year.

Budlia

Today's photo is a budlea (budlia?) in the Butterfly Garden at the Leu Gardens in Orlando. My parents had a big budlia in their garden and the butterflies used to swarm around it when it was blooming. Ours was one of the light-coloured budleas that looks like a giant lavender bush, but we had a cutting growing in a pot that was this vivid purple colour.