Joy

We visited Butterfly World recently and they have a cool exhibit that lets you feed Lorries. These colorful birds are so full of personality and they love people! John loves feeding them and the bird on his shoulder had just flown up from the bird bath and shook water all over him. John has a real affection for birds. He once volunteered at a local aviary and had the really fun job of socializing the baby parrots. We've been visiting Butterfly World for many years and I came across a picture which is obviously old - but here's the teenager as a little tyke enjoying the Lorrie exhibit even back then...

The Lorries are only one of many exhibits at Butterfly World. Obviously, there are butterflies! They have a laboratory where they provide miniature habitats for caterpillars to weave their cocoons. Then they attach the crysallis' to a hatching area.

They open the hatching area a few times a day to let out the newly emerged butterflies to enjoy the absolutely gorgeous gardens. The butterflies spend their entire lives inside the enclosures, and there are many opportunities to interact with them.

They have two other aviaries where you have a good chance at spying some beautiful birds...



It's a great place to visit and a lot of photography opportunities! These are just a few of the photos I took and I'll be uploading the rest to my Facebook and Flickr photostreams.

I hope everyone is having a great week. God Bless!

Gossip Birds...

Overheard at the aviary...

Blanche: You'll never guess what I saw yesterday...

Harriet: Hmmm...? What?

Blanche: I saw Ralph feeding mealworms to Roxanne!

Harriet: {gasp!} But Ralph and Fiona are nesting together!

Blanche: I know. It's terrible.

Harriet: Are you sure it was Ralph? Where did you see them?

Blanche: Yes I'm sure. I was over by the banana tree looking for grubs. I don't think they saw me.

Harriet: I was just at Fiona's yesterday. She says Ralph is such a casanova - bringing her exotic nesting materials! Their nest is quite modern.

Blanche: Well, their nest is going to be the scene of a pecking disaster if Fiona gets wind of this!

Harriet: Ya know, I've rubbed beaks with Roxanne and she's nothing special. What does Ralph see in her?

Blanche: I don't know, but she sure does over extend her wings when she does her mating dance - {rolls eyes} such drama, really!

Harriet: Oh dear, this flock just isn't what it used to be...

Catching up - again!

I am so very sorry for being away from the blog, my dear friends. Life has been in fifth gear lately and I think I must have ADD as I cannot seem to keep everything organized!

Last week we attended a karate tournament in Ft. Pierce. John wanted to try the experience and see if he liked it. We got up very early - and those of you who know me, know I am NOT a morning person. Pat was getting dressed and discovered that he packed MY Gi pants, instead of his! He couldn't even get them over his legs! LOL! The real downside to that was that he couldn't be a coach on the sidelines unless he wore Gi pants and a coaching shirt. We were hoping they would be selling Gis at the the tournament, but no luck. He approached one of the tournament leaders and was able to find someone who could loan him some pants. Whew!

After getting there at 8:00 a.m., we pretty much waited around until the afternoon before any of the students from our dojo started their competitions. Besides John, there were two other students. They both did excellent! Florencia, who is 13, earned a Silver medal in kumite (sparring). Jason, who is 17, earned a Gold in Bo (weapons), and Silver in both kata (forms) and kumite.

John finally went into the ring at 4:10 p.m. His sparring partner was a 14 year old six foot kid. John is 12 and about 5'5." They ended up in a tie at the end of the match and unfortunately, the older kid won the tie breaker. But I have to say that John did fantastic! Having never competed before, waiting all day with little to eat, and then having an older and larger opponent - he did great! He'll be competing in that division for a couple of years and it's quite competitive. There were about 16 kids in his group. John is looking forward to competing in the next tournament in April. Our Shihan has also approached me and convinced me to compete as well, so I'll be doing some extra training to get ready. Tournament karate is different than traditional karate. It should be interesting!

John on the left

I've taken tons of photos lately and just finished processing the tournament shots. I was able to score a press pass and had floor privileges. I'm going to be providing my work to the tournament sponsors for marketing. How cool is that?

Have a fabulous day!