All Creatures Great And Small

Over the past few days, there have been lots of critters hanging around our harbor.

We've seen:

Green Lizards,

Brown Lizards,

A Great Blue Heron in the Marsh Grass,

A Great Blue Heron on Our Dock,

A Lesser Bittern,

A Momma Duck with Her Baby,

Sheep's Head Fish,

And this bird that we've not been able to identify yet.

We haven't seen the dolphins in our harbor lately, but we hope that they visit us again very soon!

Fourth of July Frivolity

Since the Fourth of July is also my dad's birthday, we had LOTS to celebrate this weekend!

My sister arrived Thursday afternoon with the C-man and Sunny and things picked up quickly around here.

There was an extreme amount of this going on:

And lots of "hands on" time by Bamma and me with this one:

(This is one of my FAVORITE pictures from the weekend!)

The Lock.ett Girls

After having fun in the pool, we all trooped inside for dinner. As my sister was getting the C-man's dinner ready, I grabbed a piece of baked eggplant off the stove from where my mom had been preparing them earlier. C-man saw me eating and said, "I want a cookie." I explained that I wasn't eating a cookie, I was eating eggplant. Of course, C-man wanted to try it and announced he wanted "MY OWN." I convinced him to try mine first, sure that he wouldn't want any more, but to my great surprise, he loved it! We went over to the stove and got him "my own" so he could have it. Before the night was over, he had eaten somewhere between 6 to 8 pieces of eggplant and kept asking for more "em-plant."

Eating Eggplant

After everyone had a bath, we all settled down in the living room to visit for awhile. Sunny tried to crawl all over the floor and C-man was being entertained by doing puzzles. At one point, to keep Sunny from crawling to and playing in the dog/cat water bowl AGAIN, I grabbed her up and hugged her close. C-man saw what I was doing, wanted in on the action and wanted to get some hugs too. He said, "We can be babies TO-GETHER, Aunt B!"

(Another of my FAVORITE pictures!)

After putting the kiddos to bed, we went and sat out on the front porch. The sun was going down and the wind was very still. This was our view off the porch:

What a great end to the day!

Friday morning, my sister got a call from Nick who informed her that his car had died on his way to work that morning not far from their house. Fortunately, my brother was still in town and was able to go help him out. Unfortunately, that put an end to Nick's plan to join us at the beach Friday night. But there was still great fun to be had at LBF! Friday and Saturday were spent like this:

More Swimming

Cooking ribs

Picnics poolside

Walking back up the dock from dolphin watching

Stylin' by the pool

All too soon, it was Sunday and it was time for the clan to leave. Sue wanted to get on the road ahead of the holiday traffic, and I can't say I blame her. I hated to see them go, but I think I pretty much speak for all of us when I say we definitely had a GREAT weekend! It's always fun to spend time with my family.

After they left, my dad wanted to drive over to the beach and see what, if anything was going on, so my mom and I accompanied him. I know it was the Fourth of July, but the whole "working 24/7" on the beaches is a farce. There were NO workers on the beach anywhere. We did see a good number of people out on the beach, but we didn't see anyone in the water. I don't know if that was a result of common sense or the double red flags posted. This is what it looked like from the Ro.mar Beach access:

It looked nice from the vantage point that we had, but we also knew that it wasn't as pristine as it should be.

When we got back to the house, we decided to have some adult beverages on the front deck. Even Bon decided to join us out on the breezy deck.

As we got settled, my mom pointed this out just above us:

It was a beautiful end to the Fourth of July, my dad's birthday, and a fun-filled family weekend!

Clean Up, Critters and Cronies

There's a lot that's been going on in L.A. (Lower Alabama, which is not to be confused with those folks out on the West Coast).

Thursday afternoon (June 24), Dad, Mom, and I journeyed over to Gu.lf Shores to check out the beach from the State Pier. There were workers doing what appeared to be some clean up and there were LOTS of boats out in the water, but we couldn't tell that anything was really being done. Just looking at the boom that was being placed on the shoreline--in front of the oil that had already come in--it did not appear that it would do any substantial good. Mom, Dad and I also observed five or six "workers" watching another worker in a front-end loader. All the front-end loader seemed to do was make a bigger mess and bury more oil on the shoreline.

Oil and Workers on the Beach

Clumps of oil on the beach

Black oil specks in the water

Oil Slick off the end of the pier

(Brown area in the water)

Boom staked on the beach in front of the oil

Next, we ventured out onto the pier. We took our time walking the length of it and looked over each side as we meandered toward the end. We saw lots of oil sheen out in the water and even saw big patches of oil off the end of the pier. There were lots of bait fish in the water and pelicans sitting in the water. We even saw a blue crab swimming out there.

Blue Crab

Pelicans out on the Gulf

Around LBF the past week, there has also been an abundance of wildlife moving around. We've seen lots of birds, crabs, a turtle, and, several times we've seen the dolphins. We also have a mocking bird family that has taken up residence in some of our bushes.

The mocking bird family

(The mom is on the topmost branch)

Great Blue Heron in the top of the tree

Great Blue Heron on our dock enjoying his dinner

Crabs all over the rocks

(If you click on the picture, you should be able to see hermit crabs and lots of little black crabs)

Turtle

(This is the first time we've seen one in our harbor)

Another neat thing that happened this week occurred when our across the street neighbors called us. Mr. Hill told us that we had a Great Blue Heron on our roof! The bird stayed up there for at least two hours sleeping and preening and just generally enjoying himself.

On top of the house

(Taken from the dock)

Preening

Still Preening

Posing for the camera

This past weekend, my best friend, Cynthia and her daughter (who also happens to be my god-daughter), Ella, came for a whirlwind visit. Cynthia and I have been friends for 35 years and this was the first time I have seen her since February. We went out to the beach, but didn't stay long because it was REALLY hot! We spent time out by the pool and just generally talking and catching up. It was GREAT to see them and spend time with them.

Ella watches a heron on the dock

S-M-O-O-C-H!

Best Friends!

It's been a busy week, but I'm looking forward to seeing what this coming week holds! Bring on the Fourth of July!