Black and White - group 2

Embiggen to enhance your viewing pleasure!

Tay (you've seen her all over my blog)

 Sea birds (central California coast)

Even the homeless wear nice socks in Kyoto

Tokyo Station Platform 

Poipu Beach, Kauai 

.

Alive and Kicking...

I'm sure that many of you have noticed my frequent references to A.D.D. Right?  Well, I really am wildly A.D.D. and it's been a problem for a long time. Probably most of my life. A couple of weeks before my last post and after about a thousand prods from one of our girls; I made an appointment with a psychiatrist (who in all likelihood, will read this blog post). After much talking and question answering, I was given a prescription and some hope.  

After a few days of taking the medication, I was AMAZED at how I felt.  I felt FOCUSED!  Focused like I've seldom been in many years. I have a list with about 100 things that I need to do to our house, yard, cars, etc.  A.D.D. people are great at making lists and I'm no exception. The problem is that very few items ever get crossed off the list!  I could start an item, but then get distracted (by nothing at all) and forget about what I was doing. The difference now, is that I'm not making a new list, I'm actually knocking things off the old one, right and left. 

Anyhow, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm doing well and I will be back soon.  I've even created some posts that are waiting to see the light of day. I haven't posted any of them because I just don't have the time yet to respond to comments or to visit any blogs myself. But I will!  

For those that have been with me for quite a while; the daughter that was prodding me was Ashley. Ashley, of the seemingly abandoned, yet amazing StupidGirls blog and her living and breathing Our Journey begins as the Kings blog.

Love you all, miss you all and I'll be back very soon. I promise!
--------------------

In the mean time, beware of the giant pelicans!

embiggen por favor...

.

A Walk Around the Lake

Earlier today I tried to create this post and nothing would work. Then a message from blogger informed me that they were no longer supporting MS Internet Explorer. I couldn't even make a blog post unless I downloaded and used Google Chrome! Wow! Is there going to be a war between Amazon.com and Google someday to see which one will control the world?

---------------------------

Okay, enough of that. Today, my wife and I took a walk around our local lake. It's only a few minutes (walking) from our house, but every time I go there, I'm amazed by how much wildlife we see. All of these photos were taken today.

Although we live close to the ocean, it's nice having this little bit of freshwater paradise in our neighborhood. This view shows about half of it. Although there are some huge rainbow trout in the lake, motorized boats of any kind are not allowed.

I believe these guys are "Coots."  There are some here all year, but many more come each winter. They are pretty comical to watch.

Heron of some sort

A closer shot of a coot.

Although this is strictly a fresh water lake, pelicans make the short hop here from the ocean to do some fishing.

There are probably a couple hundred Canadian Geese wintering here. They are really big and loud birds. Love the colors.

Red-Tailed Hawk looking for something to kill I suppose.

Not at all a good photo of a woodpecker.

I have no idea, but he/she liked me

A grumpy Egret maybe?

We also saw a turkey vulture, many squirrels and rabbits. There are rattlesnakes, mountain lions, coyotes, and deer around also, but we didn't see any.

------------------------------------------

For reflections by other photographers go to Weekend Reflections by James.

.

Weekend Reflections - Gulls

Ever notice how birds almost always face the same way?

For reflections by other photographers go to Weekend Reflections by James.

.

Morro Bay Quick Visit

As this is our third trip through Morro Bay in the last year, this will be a short one with just a few photos.  I think one more post on that trip will just about cover it.  Before we're done with out current two week trip, I should have a few good photos from it as well.  It's not really much of a trip, because we only  drove a hundred miles to get here and we're pretty much hanging around the camp ground. Still lots to see though...

.

Weekend Reflections - Central California Coast - Just Birds

Birds + water = nice reflection

Gossip Girls checking me out

Wow! He's been working out!

Grumpy!

Lots of Guano on those rocks.

You talkin' to me?

All this guy needs is a monocle, top hat and cane.

Cormorant

--------------------------------------------------

For reflections by other photographers go to Weekend Reflections by James.  There are about a hundred folks, most of them really good photographers who participate.

.

Central California Coast - Port San Luis

One of the great places along the central California coast is the town of Avila Beach/Port San Luis (pop. 1600).  There are so many world class destinations in the area, that most people just drive right past this turn off and never give it a second thought.  The day we were there on our last roadie, it was initially so foggy that you could barely see anything. We hung around for a while and the fog thinned enough to let a little light through.

One of many seals hanging around under the pier.

The pier was built in 1873. There are exactly zero tourist attractions on it.

A lot of different contrasts in this scene.

There are no slips or docking places for the small fishing fleet here, so when not at sea, they anchor off the shore.

Gossips...

No marina for the few pleasure craft in the area.  I was pleasantly surprised that this photo turned out okay, despite the fog. Or maybe it was because of the fog.

.

Central Coast - Oceano

The posts relating to our last two road trips are starting to back up on me.  Because the scenery and things we did on each trip was so different, I decided that I'm going to alternate posts from each one.  We parked our RV outside of the little town of Oceano. There is nothing noteworthy about the town, except for the awesome area it's in.

The view from our spot. The ocean is just the other side of those sand dunes. We decided to take a stroll to the beach and take in the sunset.

Just pick a spot and lay out your towel and umbrella

Is this a beach, or the Sahara Desert?

The French Foreign Legion blazing a trail to the next oasis.

It just goes on FOREVER...

This dune was at least 10 stories tall. If my wife was to fall,  she would probably be hurt. Please note that she has her priorities in order; her wine cooler is much more important that her safety. You can see how high this dune is by taking a look at our shadows and the people in the background.

Finally we got our payoff for all the hard work.

The beach was pretty awesome. Totally undeveloped.

Off in the left distance, you can see some vehicles and RV's. This beach is the only place on the west coast of the U.S. that you can drive on.

You think it was hard hiking to the beach?  We had to hike back after sunset. My new favorite APP on my phone is a compass...

.

Critters We Saw This Week

Ground squirrel. Not too popular because they undermine hillsides. Pretty darn cute though!

As the crow flies (or gull), we weren't that far from the ocean.

I don't know what he was. If you can spot him in this photo, maybe you know.

A shop in Julian had 5 hummingbird feeders out and all of them were being used.

A cottontail who didn't seem to mind me very much.

A crow riding the thermals. It may have been a raven, he was too high for me to really know.

A Horny Toad. They really aren't a "toad" at all, but a lizard. These guys are said to be able to squirt blood from their eyes (into yours) from five feet away. I don't know if that is fact or fable.

Red Headed Woodpeckers. These are guys who make thousands of holes in trees and then put acorns in the holes.

A covey of Quail at one of the camp sites.

Although my friend's dog is not a "wild" animal, he is one heck of a tether ball player. I've never seen a Boston Terrier jump as high as this guy can. Chuck (apocalypse now), this pic is for you! 

Those woodpeckers peck on everything. We were battling one who was trying to peck a whole in the roof of our RV!

-----------------------

I also saw some deer and cottontails, but couldn't get a decent shot at them!

.