Life's a Beach … Depending How One Spells it, On Creative Arts Three Day Weekend
Atlantic City, New Jersey
© A. Mac/A.G.
RED BOX RULES: AN IMPORTANT REMINDER
From time-to-time, I should remind all members of NT, etc., that when posting photos, artwork, etc., it's important, when posting, that you own, and/or legally represent the licensing, copyright, etc., of what you post, and TO PROTECT YOUR WORK, TO INCLUDE YOUR COPYRIGHT SYMBOL/INFORMATION; and/or, WHEN POSTING COPYRIGHTED PROPERTY BELONGING TO PARTIES OTHER THAN YOURSELF, TO …
• BE SURE YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO POST, TRANSMIT, etc, SUCH PROPERTY, and,
• IF/WHEN SUCH PERMISSION HAS BEEN GRANTED, TO PROPERLY AND CLEARLY ATTRIBUTE THE COPYRIGHTS TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNER(S).
VERY IMPORTANT … IN THE FUTURE, I WILL REMEMBER TO POST THIS CAVEAT REGULARLY.
Thanks, A. MAC
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No flags this time … at least not from me.
I only really care about one flag anyway, but nice beach picture...
Morning..ohh you mean this flag..
I couldn't agree more..😁🦘🦘
Lots of stars on that flag. I could post a flag that has 5 stars on it, but I don't want to get my ass kicked.
The five stars represent the Southern Cross star formation which can be seen here..
The 7 pointed star is the Commonwealth star...represents the 6 States and all the territories..
I was having a dig at devangy.. seeing he said there is only one flag he cared about..and I couldn't resist the opportunity..I await his response...
LOL. I"m sure you're right about which flag it would be.
let's see ...
meh, we have all that here...
Morning..see told you..you would be right at home here accept you mob drive on the wrong side on the road..
Just had to be different didn't ya..
We speak proper fine English..we have advanced the language centuries...we speak in code to confuse tourists and it works so well.. could come in handy if we get invaded..
At least you got the colours of your flag right...red white and blue, just like ours..😁🦘🐨
I rented cars and drove around down there no problem. It did feel all wrong though. A constant panic, like everything was akimbo...
Morning jbb..yes was the same for us when I was in the US.. nearly had a heart attack on the bus as everything was on the wrong side..
Yet my cousin's son hired a Mustang (his dream car and now owns one) and drove around Dallas etc and said he had no problems in February...
Nope not for me I am afraid.. wouldn't drive in a pink fit...
Yep, for an American driver making a right turn from the left lane into the left lane goes against every natural impulse...
Wind Chimes (© G.Gam)
Good shot - taken at the right angle to include both the bells and the scrolled woodwork, even thought there is neither physical nor visual connection between them.
Thanks. I did that on purpose, of course.
cool composition.
Thanks.
here we call that type of woodwork gingerbread and it's very common in the mountain mining town homes...
It's called gingerbread here, too. I love the look, but the thought of painting it is daunting.
It's just a decorative element we added when we had the tool shed built. We have one on each side of the front.
Always love your pics. My camera doesn't work anymore. Need a new phone.
m
Life's a beach and then you sunburn.
Some photos from the beach at La Push, WA.
great pictures, but going to the beach wearing a parka seems a bit off kilter to me somehow...
Somedays it's better to be on the beach with a parka, than to not be on the beach at all. It's not all that incongruous to me up here at the Head of the Lakes on Lake Superior, where we have beach time in Feb.
... uh, yeah. no thanks, not a winter person since being snowed in by the blizzard of '65 in south park colorado.
That's more like the Lake Ontario beach I used to be on a lot as a kid.
Wonderful photos - is the second one of a wreck or just a tree?
Just a tree, but a very large tree.
If that's a person standing beside it, the tree is big enough to hollow out and live in it.
Coyote (© G. Gam)
This guy just took up residence at our house. It was pretty great watching him wander around the yard like he owned the place, but after a few days I had to ask him to move out. We haven't seen him for a couple of days, although he showed up again late last night.
I predict several missing cat and foo-foo dog flyers posted in your neighborhood.
Not in our neighborhood. I live in the hills near a wilderness area. Yes, we have wilderness areas in L.A. The coyotes are around here all the time, so everyone knows to keep their pets inside. This one decided he liked our property and moved in.
Morning..ahhh huhhh...see you have got nasties over there on your patch of dirt...
I used to have a video on an old phone of 3 coyotes that approached me in a parking lot one very early morning while I was standing outside my car destroying my lungs about 7 years ago. they got within about 20 feet of me before I decided to get back in the car to watch them. when I showed my daughter she got pretty upset with me, since she reminded that I was within about 2 miles of a park where somebody's foo-foo dog got invited to lunch while still on a leash and then a lady jogger was attacked by a few a them. I'd never seen one in the wild until about 25 years ago and now it's not uncommon to see them running thru the open fields and parking lots in suburbia.
There's now a bounty on them in Virginia and West Virginia. They're hard on livestock. Some neighbors lost all their poultry to them. I wish they'd go after the damn aggressive "domesticated" geese that try to attack my car on the regular.
yeah, I can't shoot at them, they look too much like dogs, but I do like to murder varmints...
a lot of the golf courses here employ dogs to keep the geese airborne...
Yeager Airport in Charleston, WV has a dog used to herd geese and other birds away from their airport. He's also great at PR when he tours the terminal, getting ear scratches.
Morning.. the equivalent here is the fox.. introduced by the Brits..
Damn things are everywhere cleaning up livestock and wildlife..
Government use to pay $10 for the skin..was not uncommon for some shooters to make $200 a night..
My brother shoots them if he sees them when duck or rabbit shooting..
That's terrible. I love the coyotes. I just didn't like the mess he was leaving on the patio that I had to go out and clean up. Coyote poop. If he had just done it in the bushes or on the hill somewhere I wouldn't have told him to leave. He did show up again on one of our cameras at about 4:00 am this morning.
As I understand it, they were brought in to reduce the deer popoulation, which was getting out of hand to the point that diseases like brucellosis and chronic wasting disease (similar to mad cow disease) were running through the deer herd.
Then coyotes, having no natural predators, grew in numbers and became both a nuisance to farmers, and prone to diseases like mange.
We probably shouldn't have interfered.
We have foxes, too, but I don't think there's a bounty on them. I see them now and then, but not often.
I've never heard of coyotes being introduced. I do know that their range has spread across the country.
Coyotes do have natural predators. I recently read that coyotes are second to deer as mountain lion prey.
Apparently, we have foxes here in the Santa Monica Mountains where I live, but I have never seen any.
My understanding is that they weren't seen much in the eastern US until they were introduced, or perhaps re-introduced.
No mountain lions here, or if there are, not in sufficient numbers to do anything about the coyote population.
Whether or not we have cougars or panthers is actually a bit of a controversial subject here. The official word is that we don't, but there are people who will swear they have seen one or the other.
I saw a fox on my drive home last week, but I might not see another one this year.
There used to be one, or maybe a mama and litter, living on my neighbor's property, and we saw her pretty often. But she seems to have moved on.
Mountain lions, cougars and panthers are all the same creature. What they are called just depends on where you live. They are also called pumas and catamounts.
I knew that mountain lions, pumas, catamounts, and cougars were all the same, but I didn't know panthers were. If they're around here, they are remarkably well hidden, to the point that the forestry department doesn't know it.
We do have bobcats, which I imagine could take down a coyote, but they're not especially common. I've only ever seen one, other than the stuffed one that was my alma mater's mascot.
Cougars are sometimes referred to as panthers.
A large bobcat could possibly kill a smaller coyote and a large coyote could possibly kill a smaller bobcat. There is some literature that says coyotes prey on bobcats and some that says they generally co-exist.
We have had bobcats at our house a few times. One time we had a pair and they stayed in our backyard for about 15-20 minutes.
The one I saw was chasing a deer across a field in Bath County, which is a very rural part of Virginia.
My sister who lived in Fairfax (now lives closer to Richmond I think) saw a bear on the side of the road from the highway.
I've seen foxes. I saw one crossing the road in front of me the other day.
Used to see woodchucks all the time but not in years. I wonder what happened to them?
There used to be bears around my neighborhood, but I haven't seen one for several years. That one died of mange; just laid down in somebody's yard and gave up the ghost.
Several times, there have been mama bears with cubs. My dog was convinced he needed to go befriend the cubs. I dragged him home before he pissed off mama bear enough to kill us both.
There have even been a few in towns in our county, in the residential areas, just strolling through.
We call woodchucks groundhogs, and I see them all the time. Usually, there are several on the side of the road on my way to or from work. One used to live under a rock near the creek on my property, but I haven't seen him for a while. Probably got sick of the dog trying to dig him out.
The wolf is a natural predator of the coyote. In MN we have very few coyotes in the northern part of the state due to the pack of wolves.
A wolf is an apex predator with a bite force of 1,000 lbs and weighs in at 150 lbs or so.
This is the reason you don't see many coyotes in northern Minnesota. The photo was taken on the edge of the Red Lake Ojibwe reservation by J. Tan.
Male, 150 lbs, 1,000 lb bite force, highly intelligent, able to run in deep snow for hours. They are the APEX predator in Minnesota which has more wolves than any other state in the lower 48.
I've never heard about any wolf sightings in Southern California. I imagine they were here in the distant past.
Ouch!
That's one of the scariest wolf photos I've ever seen - the kind you might have written about in one of your great stories.
For the first time in over a century there are now two Grey wolf packs in northern Califronia.
On Ojibwe reservations in MN the wolf is protected, no one is allowed to hunt or harm a wolf. The Ojibwe and wolf have a very long history both in myth and reality. They are central in our history and culture and in our creation story. Nanaboozhoo and the wolf traveled the world and named all the creatures that exist on Mother Earth.
When I was young in my teens I used to trap muskrats and would set up trap lines deep in the forest. I would travel by snowshoe in the winter to retrieve the muskrat and their pelts. I would be gone for a couple of days at a time and in one area there was a meadow with a small lake that would be frozen over in the winter and I would take off across the meadow and lake since it would save me a mile or so of traveling in the deep show in thick timber. I clearly remember moving with a pack on my back snowshoes a travois, a recurve bow, a buck knife, and a single shot .22 and an oilskin and I could see the wolf packing tracing me along the tree line. After all I was in their territory and wolves are inquisitive and wanted to know what I was doing there. If I was far enough in the timber and had to stay overnight I would build a fire, fashion a bit of a leanto and wrap myself in the oil skin to shed off the snow and wet. Many times in the morning I would find wolf tracks within 20 yards of my camp. They came to say ''Boozhoo Kavika''.
A time now lost, the kids on the rez ride around on snow mobiles and could not use snow shoes if their lives depended on it and of course, the cell phones go everywhere with them, the only constant is the “Ma'iingan''.
They are always there, watching and tracking you in their kingdom.
Well, if they don't use snowshoes any more, they can always be used as tennis racquets.
many years ago when I was a telecommunications installer, I went to a home that had a wolf hybrid, back when it was still legal to own them here. I had no fear of dogs, but it's size and the look in it's eyes literally made the hair stand up on my neck.
First off I'm happy that having a wolf hybrid is illegal in Colorado, I wish that were true in every state, they are still a wild animal, a powerful and deadly one at that. They are not known as an Apex predator because they are vegetarians.
Coming face to face with one gives you a feeling of how helpless you'd be if it decided to attack.
I read about that. It's exciting.
Maybe he's waiting for his latest order to arrive...
Nice to know that 87 is "too young".
You never watched the Roadrunner Coyote cartoons when you were a kid? What the heck did Canada put on Saturday morning TV to brainwash the children then?
Oh, is THAT what that image is from. Yes, I've watched the Roadrunner, but that image didn't remind me of that.
That wasn't an image directly from the cartoon, it's a photoshopped image to invoke the memory of the show. Hense the bomb strapped to the back of Wiley Coyote there.
Don't remember watching that one.
The only animals anywhere near me these days are pet dogs and cats. But back almost 7 decades ago, I came home to my parent's home that was on the edge of a forest to find a deer munching away at the euonymus vine leaves on the side of the house. Amazingly I never saw any wildlife near us when at my lakeside home that was surrounded by forest, but we drove to the local dump at night with the kids so they could see the bears eating the garbage.
Here in the sticks in Virginia, it's a rare day when I don't see a deer. They eat the phlox that I planted right outside my bedroom window.
We had a deer eating the roses on our front porch one time. We also have bobcats and mountain lions. I saw bobcats on our property a few times many years ago, but none recently. The mountain lions have shown up on our neighbor's videos in their yards, one just 300-400 feet from our property. Other neighbors were hiking in the hills around here one day and they saw a mountain lion watching them. They haven't hiked there again. That is something I don't want to encounter in person.
We also have the usual jackrabbits, mice, rats, gophers, squirrels. That's one reason I like the coyotes coming around.
We had a snake recently. I posted of photo of it eating one of our local lizards. The lizards are always scampering around outside.
We also have hawks circling overhead almost every day. I've seen eagles a couple of times sitting in our trees, and one time we had a group of turkey vultures fly by.
We used to have families of quail every spring, but they stopped showing up a few years ago. I don't know why.
There was a bear sighting for the first time that I can recall in our local mountains recently. There are bears in the other mountain ranges nearby, but this was the first time one was spotted here in the coastal range where we live, that I know of.
There are also ducks and geese. I've had mallards land in our pool a few times, but we chase them away immediately before they bring their whole flock.
I should also mention raccoons, skunks and opossums.
And owls. I hear the owls almost every night.
All this right in the city of Los Angeles.
Hopefully there are no wildfires near you. When I was on the sacred Buddhist Mount Emei in Sichuan Province I took photos of the wild monkeys and chipmunk that were beside me, but I've never seen a squirrel in China yet. Maybe they were known to taste good. LOL
Some shots from around the yard.
Very creative work on your part, and lucky to have very good subjects to photograph as well.
Thank you Buzz. I do love my property.
Did you photoshop me into your second shot?
LOL. Good thing Jules Verne didn't see your avatar.
It is a rather striking resemblance. I got a good deal on a couple of these guys on Craigslist.
Perhaps cousins from my father’s side.
Morning..poor fozzy is cold..curled up and fast asleep in the gumtree..
I'm sure you're not unhappy because al least then it was quiet.
Ahh they do carry on during the day at times but it's mainly at night..
They also quieten down during winter though this one was clomping along my fence at 2am heading towards a tree .
The only noise I have to put up with at night is screaming female cats in heat and dogs barking. I have no problem with thunder once in a while - I've always loved thunder and lightning storms, especially night storms at my lakeside home where we had a velux roof window over our bed.
Ahhh the joys of living in cities..
Not for me I am afraid..give me the country any day..
For me, there was a time when I was tempted to buy a farm up near Algonquin Park, but that was before I was married and had kids. Now, these days, at my age, I prefer to be close to all conveniences, including not too far from a hospital.
Beachcombers at Moonrise, Cape May, New Jersey
© A. Mac/A.G.
Ocala, Florida is known as the Horse Capital of the World and rightly so.
This is a photo of Gypsy Gold Horse Farms near our home and the horse is known as a Gypsy Vanner.
Photo taken from the internet.
Hope the pythons don't get big enough to eat one - it could make the expression "I could eat a horse" come to life.
Evening...what a stunning horse..
I am not particularly fond of horses but that is a magnificent animal..
I've been to the Gypsy Gold Farm and seen this horse up close. It is simply beautiful, there are no other words for it.
sorry, but I cannot imagine any self respecting NA on the back of that horse ...
meh, maybe I've seen too many westerns...
LMAO
I follow the Facebook page of a farm in Oregon that raises Gypsy Vanners. Their horses, while generally well-behaved, are mischievous and full of personality. They seem to love a good joke, even one played on themselves (sometimes by themselves).
They do have a personality and a fun one at that.
Met a box turtle this evening while walking the dog.
The only time I've seen turtles here is if they're in a store that sells them (could be for food or pets) and my wife's nephew had one as a pet that I recall seeing in their home.
Encountered this big female Snapping Turtle on the way to fishing.
Walked around her. Waaaaaay around her.
© A.Mac/A.G.
Morning... nope no snapping turtles here...but we have a few other things that go snap...
Rice Krispies?
Wait, we have meaner versions of a reptile than Australia?
Who knew?
We have snappy turtles but they are quite shy, not vicious and not related to your turtles...and better looking..
We are greatful for small mercies..
😁 Not my photo..
Our snapping turtles are moody.
I brought this sea turtle carving back from the Kingdom of Tonga.
"Fonu" (© G.Gam)
A sea turtle that you landed that we can see - one you can point to and say "see sea turtle".
My God, that was so corny I hope it isn't a sign I'm approaching dementia.
Oy
A fitting response.
A fitting response.
Holy smoke. My reply wasn't that memorable that it had to be repeated.
Arvo..
A wooden turtle I bought in Vanuatu a few years ago...
Very cool. Did you enjoy your visit to Vanuatu? I've read a lot about it and it seems like an interesting place.
Evening...yes very nice place... but I would not go there on a cruise ship again..would fly and stay at a resort etc...and then do your own thing in your own time..
We usually travel independently and set our own schedules. We did take a cruise in SE Asia a few years ago that was a lot of fun and we saw a whole lot of places we might not have otherwise visited.
Calling this one; one of our most interesting I believe. Thanks everyone. Back Thursday.