Saturday July 7 - Evening Storm

Thunderstorm moving in from the southwest at sunset.



June 29 - After Tropical Storm Debby

Debby beat us up for about a week and today we found out just how bad.  The photos below are our favorite beach on Anna Maria Island. The beach with it's snow white powdery sand is gone. Also there were over a hundred Loggerhead turtle nests on the beaches, most of them were washed away. The experts are saying hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sand was washed back into the gulf.

It will probably be many years before the beaches are what they once were

but life goes on, the sailors are still here and the dolphins and we will be here as much as possible.

June 11 - Evening Thunderstorm

I have never been anywhere that has the amount of lightning that we have here in the Tampa Bay area. I've spent quite a bit of time trying to get good lightning photos and sometimes I get lucky.



Back to the Beach

Back to the Beach

 Bradenton Beach 6/2/12

just another perfect day in paradise

Snowy Egret



CINCO DE MAYO

This was the Cinco de Mayo celebration on Old Main Street in Bradenton. Good food and drink and good music.

This is a nice tree lined area of small restaurants, shops and bars.

and it is a dog friendly area

There was a animal rescue service displaying an iguana and a burmese python, two non native invasive species that are causing problems statewide (more about that later).

and there was music provided by these guys, they were very good with a mix of old and new music

And lastly came the Krewe of de Soto on their float with beads for all.

At the county fair

Where we lived before coming to Florida the county fairs were always held in the summer, but here in Manatee county the fair is in January because the summers are so brutally hot. Like all county fairs everywhere there are the exhibits and competition, livestock, arts and crafts etc. including some very fine photography.

and there is the food, including deep fried everything

and the games

and the rides that seem to get more stomach churning

there was this guy that sang and danced and all the little kids were in awe of

and the livestock

and there was even pig races

and there were these folks

Sunday November 13 - At the Causeway

One of the few beach areas we can take our dogs and they enjoyed the day.

 Kingfisher

diving pelicans

the girls