Tiny hint

This morning there was just the most tiny hint of fall in the air. I think it was because the humidity was lower, there was a nice breeze and at the beach there was just simply a feeling of a change coming.

The waves were wonderful, the sky was a beautiful blue, the clouds were interesting. Heaven. Wish you had been there to capture it all. The best I can do is photos. Smells, breezes, feelings... well you're on your own with those.

Even the pelicans are enjoying their morning flight.

Oh, speaking of clouds, late yesterday afternoon I was outside and after hearing the rumble of thunder looked up to see this interesting cloud formation. It turned gray then went away with nary a drop of rain. 

Ditto

 A weird weather pattern has it raining in the morning which is very disruptive for long beach walks but provides interesting clouds. 

So just like the other day it is clouds, clouds, clouds (with lifeguard stand and bird thrown in for good measure.) Without repeating myself I'll just say ditto. Each, fortunately, is individual and interesting if not just simply breathtaking. 

Enjoy and remember to run between the rain drops.

Clouds, clouds, clouds

Sunday was so rainy there was no beach going not even with rain poncho or umbrella because of lightning popping all around. I missed my walk and was grumpy all day. Today there was a very brief shower then hope with nothing but clouds — and what an exciting assortment of clouds we had. I'm happy to share these few with you.

This was my initial greeting:

The angry cloud monsters:

Marshmallow cloud monster:

Look closely, there's sun in here somewhere near the horizon, barely pink:

This is my favorite. Looks like snow on the mountains. Stunning!

So, it ended up being a very interesting walk and fortunately the rain held off until after I'd been home for about 20 minutes. Phew!

Green visitor

No, not a little green man from Mars visiting my house, but a little green lizard or anole. Hard to spot the tiny critter in this first picture. 

We have many, many little lizards that are native to Florida. They are cute, fast moving, cats love to chase them, and as a kid we used to have them bite our ear lobes so we'd have a lively pair of earrings. They don't bite hard at about 2 to 3" long, excluding tail.

However, since there are over 500 species of these little lizards and many of the non-native invaders are more aggressive than these sweet little green ones, it has been a long time since I've spotted one. Fortunately I already had camera in hand when this little fellow was trying to blend in to a jade plant on my front porch. He was doing a pretty good job of it too. Cute!

Monday, Monday

With the song, Monday, Monday rattling around in my brain, I found quite an unusual morning when these storm clouds at sea were giving us a light show of lightning and streaking sun at the same time. Do you think I could capture the lightning on camera, of course not, but the cloud formation was interesting nonetheless. 

What I did capture was another lucky somebody who didn't have to go to work today. The fisherman got his feet wet and a couple of egrets were hoping to share his catch. I wonder if he knows how lucky he is. Clouds were pretty too.

Pot 'o Gold

As usual I was intrigued by our sunrise while keeping an eye on the rain clouds to the west. 

What I got instead of rain was a rare and beautiful rainbow.

This lady who I see often with her nose in her journal gave me a strange look as I stopped to take another picture. I said, "look behind you." Reluctantly she did then thanked me. I was happy to share with her, as I am happy to share with you. Wish you could have been here with me.

This photo with the American flag stirs me beyond belief. Lucky me! Another great start to a great day.

Simply sharing the dawn

Just wanted to share the different aspects of the dawn, day to day and minute by minute. Makes me happy to be alive, and vertical, and I just want to share with those who can't be here too.

September 3, speckles and stripes

September 4 red skies in the morning...

Finally, about 45 minutes later than the red skies above, here comes the sun!

What a day, what a day!

I knew today was going to be a great day as the first light of dawn was stunning, even a little later the sunrise was even more incredible — it almost looked like a Rorschach test. 

THAT wasn't the best part... Check back to July for the posting called "Turtle Thrill" when I spotted a rare green turtle making her nest in the dunes. Well, right on schedule, unscathed by Irene's high tides, those eggs hatched today and the baby turtles headed to sea. Alas, it was not without struggle. 
Someone in a nearby condo left their porch light on and since baby turtles are steered by light, many of the hatchlings headed deeper into the dunes instead of out to sea. I found one little guy on his back tangled up in a bush, I set him upright in the sand and watched him go... camera with video in hand. The whole process took close to an hour, I've edited his trek for you to see.

I was not being mean by not taking him directly to the ocean. They need to strengthen their muscles by crossing the sand, and they need the time to imprint this beach on their DNA so that they will return here to nest again... in 30 years. 
Before long the turtle patrol arrived and more hatchlings were found in the brush and sent on their way. We could tell from the many, many tracks that most hatchlings made their way around the bushes in the dunes and eventually crossed the sand in the right direction. All in all five were saved and headed back to the sea just like the little fellow I got the opportunity to film. 
Hard to believe he was smaller than the palm of my hand, hopefully you'll notice the shoe print in the sand in the video and see just how tiny he is. 
Good luck little guy, you had a beautiful day to start your life. You also started my day off just perfectly. Thanks.