Another card from Texas, this one from Austin.

It took 6 days and traveled 1,043 miles.

Having lived in New Mexico, I’ve seen many of those animals, but not sure I’ve ever seen a wild armadillo, alive or dead(on the side of the road) or even at a zoo. Strange looking creatures, but in a cute, I want to cuddle with you way. 🙂

Hrm . . . how did these ever slip by me?  Very good question.  Well, I suppose late is better than never, or so they say, right?

This isn’t the best picture of a dragonfly that I have taken, but I really did love his color.  I chased him around for  a good ten minutes before he decided to sit long enough for me to get this picture.  I tried getting closer, but he kept flittering away like I was scary or something.  The nerve of some dragonflies!

If it is purple, I might take a picture. If it is purple and happens to be a flower, I must take a picture.  This little flower reminds me of a picture I took at the Wanshi Botanical Garden in Xiamen, China, way back when, but it isn’t quite as frightening. Still pretty, though.

My camera may be awesome, but it wasn’t quite as awesome as I needed it to be in order to capture this little guy in complete focus.  There were a bunch of lizards out and about that day, but he seemed especially interested in the Canon I had hanging around my neck.  Had I not hear him scurrying underneath the leaves, I seriously doubt I would have ever seen him.  He almost blends in perfectly with tree.

Once upon a time, I used to take pictures of benches, and I had this crazy idea that I was going to make a coffee table book entitled, Bitch’n Benches and Some Pretty Flowers.  Like many of my ideas, he never took off, and I never made my coffee table book.  I still take pictures of benches, though, just in case.

Even though spiders freak me out, I love taking pictures of them.  I love looking at and admiring them, but the instance they touch me – all bets are off!  I have an awful habit of getting too close when I try to use my macro lens. On more than one occasion my lens has touched the spider or the web, and well, I might as well have petted them when that happens because I always instantly transform into Little Miss Muffet and start screaming as I aim for the hills.  Spiders are beautiful, but I hate each of the eight freaky legs!

Quantum is usually far more active than this video shows, but since he is nocturnal, he sleeps all day and stays up all night.  I just wanted to let you guys see him.  When I can catch him doing something really interesting at night, I’ll post it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUSRUW7R-0Y[/youtube]

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I can only imagine what type of people are going to end up at my blog with a title like Blue Tit.  I guess it doesn’t matter how they get here, as long as they get here, and most importantly, stay.  Although, if they are looking for anything other than a Blue Tit bird, they will sadly be disappointed when they do arrive.  🙂

The sender of this card said, “It is a very common bird in Finland and stays here the whole winter while most birds are spending winter time somewhere in warm southern countries.”

I at first thought she was talking about a type of bird we have here in South Carolina called a Tit Mouse, but when I looked it up in Wikipedia, I found they are different types of birds, although, they do come from the same Tit bird family – the Paridae.

In Finnish, a Blue Tit is called a Sinitiainen, and they only have a lifespan of about 1.5 years.  Blue Tits are considered valuable destroyers of pests, like aphids, but can also be annoying pests as well.  They sometimes pull off the buds of various trees in search of insects to eat.  Another thing I found interesting, is that a pair of Blue Tits will use the same nesting box year after year.  When that pair dies, another pair will take its place.  Wikipedia didn’t say, but I guess that means they mate for life.

This spring I want to go bird watching. I hope that I can take pictures like the one above of the various South Carolina birds.  I’ve tried getting pictures of the ones in my yard, but they hide too far up in trees and won’t sit still for nothing.

I was going through the pictures on my computer and decided to post a few that have never made it on this little blog of mine before.  As you can tell by the dates on the pictures, they are all rather old.  I need to go through all of my China pictures and see if there are any interesting ones I forgot to post.  I’m sure there has to be a few.  Phil and I took something like 5,000 pictures.  And if there aren’t any more photos, I’m sure there are still a few blog worthy videos.  I’ll try to find some this weekend.

I’m anxious for spring to roll around again.

I love taking pictures of flowers for some strange reason.

I am pretty sure that this was taken at Swan Lake in Sumter.

Maybe I will go again this year – get their when more flowers are in bloom.

RIP Dopple

Dopple was my favorite orange cat ever.  He totally could have been a real life Garfield.

RIP Morgan Rose Ireland Yvette DeWitter

She was the best kitty ever!

RIP Thames

Thames talked with every step he took.  He was one strange kitty, but I still loved him.

I found this grasshopper behind One Eared Cow Glass several years ago.

He stayed on that stick just long enough for me to snap a picture of him.

I don’t even know what this is, but it’s scary!!

Anyone have any idea what this critter is called?

I was looking through some of my old videos and thought I would post them here for your viewing pleasure.

The first one is off a piggy scratching his bum.  I found him at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens located in Charleston, South Carolina. I’ve always wanted a pig, and came real close to buying one in China, but Phil wouldn’t let me.  Meanie!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeE84PufTQk[/youtube]

I love feeding ducks.  I used to go to a pond near my house all of the time, but they have now made it illegal or something like that to feed the ducks.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8q40t2456s[/youtube]

I used to volunteer at Carolina Wildlife Care, a non-profit, wildlife rehabilitation clinic located here in Columbia.  It was a great experience and I was able to see a lot of wild animals up close.  One of the cutest animals I saw there was a Blue Grey Gnatcatcher.  I wanted to put him in my pocket and take him home.  Sorry about the video quality. My old Kodak didn’t like close up shots.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd0fuPwt_0k[/youtube]

I told you that I took 195 some pictures when Phil and I went to Riverbanks Zoo this past weekend, so it should come as no surprise that all of these posts are zoo related.  I’ll get on to something new soon.  I just haven’t been taking any pictures or videos of anything interesting lately.  The zoo was the first time out and about with my camera in a long time.

I love cats, but I know if Morgan Rose had been this big, she would eaten me alive the first time I told her no.

Animals at the zoo seem to be in a perpetual state of sleep. Maybe the zoo keepers feed them sleeping pills.

I took 16 pictures of this stupid bird(hawk) while he was participating in a bird show, and this is the only one that didn't turn out blurry. His name is Houdini.

A pretty flower I stumbled across.

A sleepy Koala. Maybe he is dreaming of the wild he'll never get to live in.