Hummingbirds, Snapdragons & Tigertails!

On June 5, 2013December 7, 2013 By cindy knokeIn Flowers, HOLLER HAPPENINGS, MY PHOTOGRAPHS95 Comments

I thought you might be in the mood for hummingbirds so I snapped a few today!

My husband likes the shots of them still, but I prefer snagging them in flight. There’s a new one around with a beautiful blue throat, but he keeps getting dive bombed by the locals so I haven’t got a good snap of him yet. I swear he hovers around me for protection. When they dive bomb him, they are moving at incredible speed, when they make impact you could hear an audible woof sound and he makes a squeak. I feel sorry for the blue throated guy.

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The female has no colors to flash, but I still think she is pretty.

The Snapdragons are blooming and we get more each year. They self sow.

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I included one tiger swallowtail shot because it shows the swallowtail and the gem colored patches on the wings. Aren’t they beautiful!

Cheers to you from The Holler!

Busy Day at The Holler!

On June 5, 2013June 5, 2013 By cindy knokeIn HOLLER HAPPENINGS, MY PHOTOGRAPHS82 Comments

The roadrunner did his usual morning investigations and stopped for a nano-second to barely let me get this shot. He’s a very fast evader. He has to be to get away from all the Wiley E’s.

These little finches have left their nest and are almost ready to fly away, but not quite yet. You can see they are fledged, but still have bits of down. I didn’t dare take more than this pic because they froze in stillness when they saw me and I didn’t want to scare them. Their parents nest every year in our inner courtyard.

This is the nest they left this morning.

Some birds like the red-tailed hawks reuse they nests each year, but not the finches. They rebuild the new nest right by the old ones.
This little guy was scratching for bugs in his favorite spot….

The lizards sibs were sunning on a rock….

When this intruder sashayed in.

Resulting in many defensive push-ups in the spiny lizard community, but not much else, they were way too comfy resting in the sun.

The bumbles were buzzing.

The flutters were flying.

The hummingbird resting.

The bunnies eating.

When the sun set a fire on another holler night.

Sweet dreams from The Holler!

Butterlies & Flowers!

On June 2, 2013December 7, 2013 By cindy knokeIn Flowers, HOLLER HAPPENINGS, MY PHOTOGRAPHS126 Comments

Today was butterfly day! I got these three butterflies within a half an hour on our butterfly bushes.
Tiger swallow tail.

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Red Admiral.

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American Painted Lady.

The Holler is ablaze with blossoms. The gladioli are blooming!

So is the hardy blue sage.

Happy June from The Holler!

A Parrot in Prague, A Twizy in Rome, What the Heck is this? Unliking My Likes….(And Other Misc Items…)

On June 1, 2013December 7, 2013 By cindy knokeIn Flowers, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, TRAVEL REVIEWS95 Comments

Okay, okay. It’s a macaw in Prague but that doesn’t rhyme.
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It’s a Twizy
A cute little Twizy,
Open the door
Drive it off
Oh,
and don’t forget your mom!

(Some of you may be able to prompt your senior cerebellums to recall the Polaroid Swinger jingle? This was my first camera and I still have one shot to prove it. I was about 8 or 9…. The rest of you will have to google this archaic artifact of photographic lore…. See if you can find the jingle. It was awesome…..)
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Anyhoo, multi-tasking in Rome. This woman can talk on the phone, open her car door, put her mom in the back seat, talk to me in Italian about her car, and drive off, ALL AT ONCE!
Wow!
I consider myself quite the multi-tasker. But this woman has clearly put me to shame.
And why, for heaven’s sakes, did wordpress print this in red?

Have you ever driven in Rome? I would require medication, even without the multi-tasking.
But, when in Rome…
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Are you looking at me?
A gulls eye view in Gibraltar.

What, pray-tell, is this floral stunner from Vienna?

And this from Spain?
Jim ate it. He said it was sweet.

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A tulip in Prague.

An Iris in Cartagena.

A Lebasque in Vienna.

And finally, does wordpress ever unlike your likes? It does this to me sometimes and it is quite frustrating. I set aside time to read your posts and if I like the post, I indicate it. I go back later and see sometimes that my likes have not recorded. Quite concerning because I want you to know when I like your posts. Has this happened to you?
I guess I have to talk to one of those “Happiness Engineers” at wordpress…..
Cheers & happy weekend.