Memorial Day weekend gardening

We had beautiful (tho very hot) weather! My son and his girlfriend helped me weed and garden for several hours. Many, many thanks!

Naples zoo April 25, 2012

Ibis - The most interesting thing (to me) is that these birds were roaming free! 

Zebra - Love these unique creatures.

"Everything will be all right" 20120523

Said to me by this lady (great-grandmother?) in
last night's dream.
She appeared by my bedside, gave me a
much-needed hug, and said this.  Very cool.
(It's ok if you think I'm strange.  I know this already!)

Chimp Eden 20120519

A tv show I recently got hooked on. 

It's way better than Idol...I'm starting 

to get caught up in the chimp drama!

Myers Point 20120513

Lansing Park on Cayuga Lake, NY
A mother's day motorcycle ride with a friend
led to a sketching day at several relaxing places! 
Just now getting to post these.

Johnson City pagoda 20120512

A pagoda built for a pumphouse by Endicott-Johnson employees,
and decorated with various recyclable objects from the factories
as a dedication to their employer.

Lassie

While in Naples, I stayed with some friends for 2 nights. This is their beloved companion, Lassie.

May flowers

It's been a good month for flowers!  

Faithful chives

These chives come up every year!

Mother's Day flowers - Thank you!

First poppies - Bright pops of spring color, and always gone too quickly.

My lucky day!

I saw at least 5 of these on Saturday, they must have been hatching that day. It always gives me a special feeling when I see these. :-)

A month of turtles!?!

After seeing the big tortoise at the zoo, I came home and while walking at lunch, saw this rather large pet out for a walk in his yard. Can you guess his name? Snappy! I don't know how, but he looked friendly! Maybe it was because his owner was laughing that I wanted to take his picture to sketch him. The little guy I saw Friday at Otsiningo Park. Now he did not look very friendly. He looked like a 'snappy' to me!

Leopard tortoise

From my recent trip to the Naples, FL zoo. He (she?) was enjoying a snack of grass.

Broome County Courthouse

I found the perfect parking spot to sketch - I wanted to sketch it for EDiM #2 (2012), which is about a new years resolution of mine - balance. To find just the right balance for myself.
It was late afternoon, and the way the sun shone on it made it look more, well, courtly!

I also did this one of the Vestal gazebo and war monument:

Naples Beach - Lunch at the Turtle Club

I enjoyed a wonderful lunch here, and made sure to bring my sketch stuff.  The beach and weather were both perfect that day.

View from my table

Naples Beach - Illegal beach chair!
Ok, confession time- I was looking for a beach chair.  The first place wanted $20 for an hour!  I said I didn't want to buy it, just rent it for an hour. So on I walked, and soon found these lovely chairs and umbrellas.  I went up to the hut, and said can I have a chair for an hour?  I don't need an umbrella, just the chair.  He says, of course!  I asked how much, and he said, oh no charge, they are free for guests of the hotel. Um, so I said, that's great!  He set it up for me, facing the correct sun direction, and I used it for my hour.  After a few minutes, I realized it was the Ritz-Carlton, and the young man didn't realize I was only a beach wanderer. The 'real' guests get a mini-flag pole, so when they raise their flags, they are waited on. Maybe next time I'll be a real guest, haha.

Ritz-Carlton beach chairs

Corkscrew Sanctuary

I'll guess visiting a swamp isn't everyone's idea of a Florida vacation!  But since I did this trip on my own, I did exactly what I wanted.  And Corkscrew Swamp didn't disappoint.  I spent several hours walking the boardwalk which meandered throughout the huge trees.
I got to see some beautiful birds, a couple of gators (still frightening to me, and I was grateful for the raised boardwalk) and an ancient landscape.
Here are some of my sketches so far - I'll add others that I started but haven't finished yet.

I had so much fun sketching here, I thought it deserved a title page!

These were rather cool swamp items, or so I thought...
I didn't notice the er, um, rather embarrassing
symbolism until I was halfway through! *blushing*

These rather GREEN plants looked to be waving
at the sun.  While sketching them, a lovely
orange butterfly went
past, so he was included as well!

I laid on a bench to sketch these trees and the sky!

  Here is a description I found online:
"Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary's Boardwalk 
A 2.25 mile boardwalk meanders through pine flatwoods, open prairies, and finally into the largest forest of ancient bald cypress in North America. These impressive trees, relatives of the redwood, tower 130 feet into the sky and have a girth of 25 feet. Their massive branches are draped with mosses, lichens, air-plants, orchids and ferns.
Almost 200 birds are permanent or temporary residents of the Sanctuary. Year round, visitors see egret, ibis, heron, limpkin and anhinga. Songbirds, including black-throated green warblers and yellow-billed cuckoos, visit during the spring and fall as they migrate. Corkscrew is world renowned for supporting the largest colony of nesting wood storks in the United St

Our early spring in Upstate NY

Back in March, we had some lovely summer-like weather, I'm just now posting a sketch of my flowers that bloomed then-