Ready for Summer (Already)

So, here is the final stage of summer dress for the laughing gull. Soon most of these will look like this.

More Birds

Surprise, Surprise, I've been out with my camera chasing birds. The first two shots show just how delicate egrets really are. The gull is here because as you can see, he is switching to his summer look. In the winter they have white heads and in the summer, black. If you can figure out why, you're smarter than I am.

Weather Report

I heard something new on the local weather report last night. He showed a satellite view of Florida and had drawn an arrow to the nearest cloud ------- 430 miles away! Now that's a high pressure center. Anyway, here's my picture of the same phenomenon. No clouds, nohow, noplace, no time.......

A Foggy Day

Here's proof that even though I'm chasing the sun, I don't always find it. It's been foggy here for a couple of days and the effect is a little eerie. I took these shots off the front balcony of our condo.

Shared Items

I've added a feature to this web page. It's called shared items and it's made possible through the Google Reader. The one thing I'm sharing now is a site I love by a 108 year old Australian woman named Olive. Once you've accessed the shared site you will be able to look at more of her postings. They are worth the effort, especially the video clips. The link is at the bottom right hand section of this page.

Carribean Cruise

We've been on a little cruise to the Caribbean. We only made two stops, Grand Cayman and Key West. Actually we like the cruising aspect so much it really doesn't matter where we go. The food and service on Celebrity is just so good we could sit in Miami and have a good time. One "highlight" of the trip is that I got bit on the finger by a stingray at Stingray City. He mistook the index finger on my right hand for a squid. I had a squid in my left hand but he missed by a little. It wasn't much of a bite but there was lots of blood so Jean thought I was looking a little like shark bait.
Other that that we just did the normal cruise stuff, ate fancy dinners, ate sushi, ate canapes, drank rum. You know, the usual.
The boat we traveled on is the same one we will be on in July when we go to Norway to celebrate our 40th. It's an older style boat than the new megaships but we like it a lot, very relaxing.

And now for somthing completely different......

This from my friend David Ascher in South Africa:

EUROPEANS HEIGHTEN THREAT LEVELS

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent
terrorist threats and have raised their security level from 'Miffed' to
'Peeved'. Soon though security levels may have to be raised again to
'Irritated' or even 'A Bit Cross'. Londoners have not been 'A Bit
Cross' since the blitz began in 1940 and tea supplies all but ran out.
Terrorists have been re-categorised from 'Tiresome' to 'A Bloody
Nuisance' The last time the British issued 'A Bloody Nuisance' warning
level was during the great fire of 1666.

Also the French government announced yesterday that it has
raised its terror alert level from 'Run' to 'Hide'. The only two
higher levels in France are 'Collaborate' and 'Surrender'. The rise was
precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag
factory, effectively paralysing the country's military capability.

It is not only the English and French that are on a heightened
level of alert.

Italy has increased the alert level from 'Shout Loudly and
Excitedly' to 'Elaborate Military Posturing'. Two more levels remain:
'Ineffective Combat Operations' and 'Change Sides'.

The Germans also increased their alert state from 'Disdainful
Arrogance' to 'Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs'. They also
have two higher levels: 'Invade a Neighbour' and 'Lose'.

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual and the
only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to
deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new
Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.