A quick walk with the butterflies ...

Seeing Stephen's photos <-- from the butterfly habitat yesterday, reminded me that I was way over due for a visit to Butterfly World.

     I stopped by on my way home from work, got there less than an hour before closing time but I did get in a few good shots while I was there. Having an annual pass is a good thing, I can stop in any time I want to. Yep ... the pass was a good investment.                   

 

       I thought I would post a few of my favorite shots over the weekend but be warned, I'm having a hard time narrowing it down to just a few. I decided to start with a flower.

  Saturday morning edit: A few of you have asked what kind of flower this is so I'm adding a shot of the entire flower to give you a hint. Mostly because "I dunno" lol.

     If anyone already knows the name of this purple beauty, let us know. If not, I'll try to look it up this weekend, time permitting of course.

     Hmmm ... maybe if I post some of the other favorite photos from yesterday's walk with the butterflies, someone with more time, energy and creativity than I have, might come up with a caption, a poem, a haiku or at least a name. It's worth a try, right? Here goes! :.:.:.wink;.:.;.wink:.:.:.

                                               

Useless color play ...

    I just wanted to practice some of the things that we went over in Photo Shop class tonight. This is no work of art or anything, but it did give me the opportunity to try duplicating an image, change colors with hue and saturation, grouping with previous layer for custom text, using a gradient and creating a frame, I know ... this one has puzzle pieces on it!  The photo on the right is the original.                         

  

                                                                            

Pandanus ...

                                                                                                                 dornbrau was right!

   I want to thank all of you so much for your delightful and candid response to my "Is it just me" question in my last entry. You guys are great and yes ... it does help to know that you are not alone.

     Everyone knows that I am going through some growing pains right now. My kids are grown, the baby has moved out, the divorce is finally over and for the first time in my life, my time is demanded and directed by no one but me. I'm not ashamed to say that this has been a little bit scary and that I have felt quite overwhelmed by it all, but the good news is, I'm starting to get use to it.

     I have recently come to the conclusion that it's way past time to make a new game plan for this fresh new chapter in my life. I figure that I am obligated to spend about 43 hours at work each week, 6 hours driving to work, 6 hours getting ready for work and about 45 hours sleeping. If I do the math, I find that this is about 100 out of the 168 hours available in a week.

     The other 68 hours are mine, all mine and what I choose to do with them will determine who I am and where I am going. I've made a commitment to go to classes two nights a week, that adds a grand total of 5 more hours to the allotment. The project at hand will be figuring out how to balance the 63 hours that I have left over.

     I do appreciate your help with my question and thanks also for baring with me while I try to get things figured out. I'll do my best not to bore you to much with the details but I do tend to write about things I am dealing with and I do plan on remaining part of this community.  I love this place.

     Now, about that last photo ...   dornbrau was right this is a  Pandanus tree. I have heard that the Indians did use the fibrous fruit as a food source at one time. It seems they may have mixed it with coconut to make it more palatable. I guess this might be a good thing to know if ever your were on a survival mission out in the Everglades or something.

     I remember collecting Palmetto Palm hearts to feast on when I was in Civil Air Patrol as a kid and being tested on survival skills. We also would drain the water that collected inside the center of wild airplants, strain the water through our T-shirts, boil it a little and then use it to fill our canteens. Ahhh ... to be 15 again, on second thought maybe 42 is not so bad.

    I do want to thank Stephen at Sometimes Photo Blog for highlighting that photo in his nightly photo spotlights. Stephen's journal is one of my long time daily reads, his entries are always full of photography and journaling advice and his consistency with managing a nightly post (like clock work) and his attention to detail, is always inspiring. I'll admit that I tend to get as excited about having one of my photos spotlighted in the Sometimes Photo Blog as I do about being Editor's #1 weekly pick.

     SloMo (miss you girl) taught me when I first started Rain, that it's much more rewarding to be recognized from within. So ... I want to thank Steven and the rest of you that make time to recognize other writers in your own journals. This is part of what makes J-Land such a great community.

                                                                                   

Is it just me?

     

 

                                                                                                               Anybody know what this is?

     It's no secret that it takes a lot of time and energy to keep up an online journal. The creative thought that goes into even the simplest of entries is very time consuming, not to mention the amount of time spent taking and editing photos, creating an animation or graphic, writing a song, a poem or a haiku, painting a beautiful picture, drawing a cartoon or just telling silly inside stories about the magically mundane moments in our lives.

        A book that I'm reading right now, "Organizing for the Creative Person" <-- describes the creative person as someone with the gift of being able to perceive global matters and produce emotion, image, intuition, sensuality, creativity and humor in a charismatic manner that may easily draw others to them.

     The book also mentions that this kind of creativity resides in the right hemisphere of the brain and that the right hemisphere lacks any concept of time, structure or detail. These are traits that reside on the left side of the brain. 

     It seems as if the author of this book is trying to say, that the more time we spend using the right side of our brain, the higher our risk of becoming a bit disorganized in other aspects of our lives.

     Since so many of you are among the most creative people that I know, I was wondering if any of you can relate to some degree, about becoming less organized in other areas when you are spending so much time being creative, or is it just me?

                                                        

Exploding Toads In Germany ...

  

    I've spent a little time taking photos in my own back yard this week, this is one of them. My sister gave me these frogs on my 30th birthday, we all know that was a looooong time ago, right?

    While sorting through this weeks photos for keepers, I decided that this would be one of them because it reminded me of a story my friend David<- David <- David <- was telling me about at work on Sunday. (Things have been so hectic at work these days there has been little time for silly small talk, comparing notes on current events or sharing random thoughts and ideas about art, the ocean or Sushi) I miss that. I miss you too Stella! Oh and Patty P's a Grandma now ... welcome Baby Lopez! OK, OK, enough of the sappy "my coworkers are my friends and I miss them stuff" it's very possible that they could be reading.  

     Now for the story ... It seems that the toad population in Hamburg Germany is exploding, literally exploding. The toads are found swelled up almost 4 times their normal size and eventually they simply explode! Fungus? Virus? Bacteria? Suicide? No ... you might be surprised to find out the details at -> The Washington Post.

                                                            

Hawaiian Tropic ...

     has nothing on Maxillaria Tenuifolia.

   

  So it's not the most significant bloom in the bunch, it more than makes up for it with it's incredibly strong fragrance. There is absolutely no question why this little guy is called the  Coconut Orchid. When you walk past it this time of year you can almost hear Jimmy Buffet singing about Margarittaville and all of those tourist covered with oil. Mmmm ... do you think AOL might come up with a share fragrance button someday??? Nahhhh ... on second thought, that might not be a good thing!

       I don't want to forget to take photos of the familiar and common place in my own back yard. I do know that there are a few things here that are new and unfamiliar to some. Have I ever mentioned that I loooooove living in Paradise?

                                                             Good Night All

                                                               

Something New