A trip home ...

I had to stop on Belton Dam on my trip home from Mom's house on Wednesday, to pay homage to God's handiwork - HE painted the sky so beautifully again ...

A few more picture from Zilker Botanical Gardens

I had some time today to edit a few more pictures from our trip last Saturday down to Zilker Botanical Gardens in Austin. Here are some more of the flowers we photographed ...

(unedited - I was playing with some of my "toys" on the dial, to darken the background of this photo - I think it looks like it could have been taken in a studio with a black backdrop, but I promise it was taken in the "field")

Some more roses ...

I love lilies too ...

Rose Collage box

I made a box for mom (pencil holder, vase holder, whatever) that is 4" square opening with 4 x 6 inch sides. I created these pages to go on the sides. I'm giving it to her for her birthday with a vase inside. We'll transfer the flowers I got her last week, if they still look good.

More pix later ...

I have to go get ready for family dinner to celebrate Mom's 80th birthday - her birthday is actually on Wednesday, but Julie, Joe & Blake can come today (not Wednesday) so we will be celebrating as a family today. There will be 10 of us for dinner - we are going out, and more for dessert back at the house! I will edit and post more pictures after we get back from Killeen.

Zilker Botanical Gardens

Mike and poki went to Austin to the Zilker Botanical Gardens on Saturday, May 23 - we couldn't stay long, left just ahead of a torrential rain storm. We got stuck on MoPac behind some crazy drivers who thought it was just OK to stop under the bridge at 183 - all 3 lanes were stopped dead still, which would have been ok I guess if Mike's car had been under the bridge during the hail storm, but it WASN'T. Fortunately, the hail wasn't large, and didn't last long. It was a little frustrating!!!! But... back to pictures.

Some of my BEST work I think was some of the FIRST photos I took, at the waterlily pond in the parking lot!

This dragonfly sat on this waterlily for the longest time - I got quite a few shots. I am amazed at the clarity - I know you won't be able to tell here, but when I zoom in on the photo, the detail in the dragonflies body and wings is amazing! I was probably about 4 - 5 feet away from the flower (it was in the middle of the pond!)

Norfolk Botanical Gardens

We arrived back in Norfolk about 12:30 p.m. on Friday. After locating the hotel, and the airport, we went over to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, a 200 acre facilty run by the city of Norfolk, VA. It was beautiful - even though we were interrupted twice by RAIN - we got soaked both times! - we had a great opportunity for photos before, and between the showers. The second one sent us to the hotel ...

The rose garden was a rainbow of colors, and HUGE!

The beach behind our hotel in Nags Head

On 2 of the 3 days we were in Nags Head, poki took early morning walks on the beach behind the Beacon Motor Lodge - just climb a flight of stairs from the parking lot, and over the sand dune to this... (I slept in on the middle day - til almost 9:00! Wow!)