Happy Valentine's Day My Friends! by: brendasue

Hello Everybody!  Hope You are enjoying a wonderful romantic day with a great Lover!
For those of us who are not having a wild romantic time, Welcome to my Garden Photography Blog!!!!!  I could not get the chocolates in the blog so I ate them for you. (They were good). But I am bringing you Flowers, Rare Birds, and a lovely visitor, plus a slide show someone else made at Perdanales River.


(And--------The Price is Right!)   So Come on  In--We are starting with a road trip to Elaine's Place.

My friend Elaine invited me to have Valentine's Dinner with her Family and friends yesterday on Sunday 2-13.  What a treat to go to her place for a celebration dinner! She is a great cook and all these wonderful tasting treats are everywhere!  This was Turkey Dinner with all the trimmings!  

Elaine gathered these flowers and made an arrangement for the table. Her Husband, Don, set a gracious Table. I shot a couple of pics of the flowers and table to share with All. 
Enjoy the photostudy!

A Classic Red Rose (with a fade to black and white).

Look at this peaceful, beautiful moment!


Soon there were kids and grandsons and granddaughters and friends and the whole room was filled with joy as we enjoyed the feast Elaine and Don had prepared for this festive day.  WOW--wish the whole world could have been there!  Thank You, my friends!

Turn off the lights, the party is over and we are heading back to Kates Cabin for your surprises there!

Here she is--  Our Rare White-Faced Cardinal I named:  The Snow Queen

Her feathers have filled in on her face so she does not look as goofy as she did the first time we saw her.  She is so good to the little visiting birds.

I believe I said before that she might be the only white-faced cardinal in the world.  Would you believe I googled white faced cardinal and actually found photos of one other.  It is in Texas also up around the Perdanales River which would be around 3 to 4 hours from where we are here in Hempstead, Texas.


He has a slide show of several birds including the white faced he photographed.  I have included this slide show for you at the end of this blog!!!  (Who loves you!!!!)

When you view his slide-show you will see it is Not the same bird as our Snow Queen.  She has a mate now and is building a nest. They are all building nests!

This seems to be Cardinal Love!!

If she treats her babies like she does these little birds, she will be a good mother.  Both the mother and father care for the babies once they hatch from the blue speckled eggs.

I put this feeding station on the ground in an open area so the birds can see the wild wood cats if they approach. Last night I looked out and there was a big, fat racoon snacking on the corn!!

The Cardinal's favorite seed is the sunflower seeds.

I googled albino birds and found several links. This was good:


http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/jan/18/bird-lady-what-about-those-albino-birds/

This bird lady states that a true albino bird would have red eyes and pink feet and would be extremely rare.


Most reported birds are leucistic, which means some white coloring.
Leucism is a genetic mutation that prevents the normal deposition of  melanin on some of the bird's feathers.

So I googled albino cardinal and found this link:


http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/2009/03/albino_cardinal_photographed.html

check it out as it is a photo of a true albino cardinal!! amazing.

Supposedly, these leucistic birds have trouble finding a mate as they look different.  We see here, she has one interested! 

 Here is another link referring to a bird seen in Indiana:


http://cardinalbird.org/have-you-ever-seen-a-whitealbino-red-bird-or-cardinal/comment-page-1/#comment-11561

Snow Queen is so pretty but not as rare as the only one. Here is a link with 3 photos of a white body cardinal!


http://www.nature.net/forums/load/bird/msg0215295227782.html?5

I am thankful to have seen her and photographed  her! I am happy she is still here.  Let me know if you have seen any!

And now for your surprise:

A second rare cardinal with a white wing! And white chest!

How about that???  I will try to get some better photos!  This is too much to see both of them!!


Below if the slide show showing another white faced cardinal and other birds:










080831 Birds of Pedernales Falls State Park


Now, One more surprise!  Guess who came over for corn and coffee??

Elisabeth, the deer!

She says:  Happy Valentines Day Everybody!!!!!




I almost forgot-----The Alien:

......this is brendasue signing off from  Rainbow Creek






I wish you All a Life full of Love!










katescabin@gmail.com












O+O

Space Cowgirl Ropes A Texas Tornado! Once in a Lifetime Shots! by: brendasue

I Kissed A Texas Tornado, Roped It, and Bringing It to You!!  Hi Everybody. When this Storm left Texas it continued North producing Tornadoes everywhere and becoming the 2nd worst Storm in History.

When the Little King and I left the cabin, Gray skies covered the sky and I doubted I would get any Sunset Shots today.  The routine ride is Little King sits on the front seat and watches out the front window. We make one turn.  When I stop the car, he has to be the first one out the door to run down the Country Road!


On this day, I let him out, but I noticed a very powerful wind that was not at the Cabin. He took off down the road and I grabbed my camera to catch one Golden spot in the sky.

My oh My look at this sky!

This is right above my head!   Oh the wind is blowing so hard and sucking up into that cloud.

One spot of Gold is a Sunset!

Little King come back, it is a tornado forming, we have to go!
You can see the clouds going over the road. (sunset to right).

The sky seems to crack open and Glow. It is sooo windy.

Zoomed in to the orange crack. Would you look at that!

Zooming back out so you can see this funnel cloud forming. It is a tornado.  Little King come back, we must go for real.

The Sun lights up the bottom tail of the Tornado.

OMG,

Come Back now Little King and get in the Car. It is coming down.

Oh this is big, really big.  I am so scared but I cannot stop taking the Photos!

I have never seen anything like this, ever.
Okay he is in the car. It is soo windy still.

The bottom tail of the Tornado is just above the tree. It is still coming down. I am in the car, too.

Look!  The sky has parted and it is the Sun! I do not believe it.

The most spectacular Sunset of my Life! (Maybe I am going to die in the next few minutes.)

I hear my Daddy's voice yelling:  Get the Hell out of Dodge!
But I can not move.  Is anyone else seeing this event???  How could I be the only one to see this tornado?  Look at that Sun!

I am soomed in as close as I can go with this camera. The sun is illuminating the inner chamber of the Tornado.   OMG

You can see the lower tail on the left just above the tree.  This is an open vent going up the middle of this cloud sucking up the wind like a vacuum  cleaner.  It is a Funnel Cloud. It is hovering just above the sun. I am so weak and overwhelmed.

I do not know how You feel about praying. I do not care. As for me, right now I am praying.  I do not know what I am praying for. I just See that I am in the presence of Great Power and absolute Glory.
Something has just happened---the wind has stopped. It is dead still.
From lots of wind to nothing in an instant. What is going on here?

Look at that Chamber of the Tornado. It is lighting up.

You can see the Tornado tail and the ground in this photo. This is as close at it comes to the ground (Close enough for me!)
The wind has stopped and by the Grace of God, this cloud is lifting up.

You can see it lifting up over the sun.  You can see the funnel cloud in the middle top of this frame.  What a huge Tornado, this storm is going to cause some bad weather.

The vent chamber is still open, but the cloud is still slowly lifting. There is no noise, no wind---Just me, the King in the car and a Tornado.

You can see the tail that was above the tree has lifted off to the right.  (Thank You)

Oh My-The Power, The Glory before me and IN my camera.

The interior funnel cloud is lit up by the sun beaming through the clouds.  Oh my, there are just not words to express this feeling. I feel so very small. I am nothing.

Keep on Lifting Up Baby!  A very Powerful Cloud.

You can clearly see the funnel cloud moving rapidly to the right.
Any of those hanger down clouds could turn into a tail and come down to earth.   Now the momentum of the storm is moving to the right and up whereas it was sitting on top of me about 15 minutes.

The darkest concentration of clouds on the horizon is well off to the right now (heading North) Hope someone is tracking this on the radar. A very big Storm.

I am showing this shot in black and white for detail. You can see the tail has closed up and is still lifting up.

To the left, the clouds are breaking up exposing the last of the Sunset. To the right you can see the remainder of the funnel cloud as it disintegrates.

There it goes:  Up, Up and Away!

And here we go, the King and I out from under these clouds, back down this Country Road to the Cabin in The Woods on Rainbow Creek.....Home, sweet Home.

MOM and I  made it Home Okay

What a Sunset!

What a Tornado!

...this is the Little King signing off from Rainbow Creek. Goodnight!

If you are interested in the rest of the photos of this photoshoot, contact me at:   katescabin@gmail.com (I have 100 or so).

My work is copyrighted.  I give you all permission to share this column with everyone.  No one has permission to sell my work except me.  Thank you,  brendasue

Here is a Christmas DVD mini video of the Tornado.  Enjoy

O+O