Pool puppies!!!

Rat Terrier puppies are known to be good swimmers.  We thought we would try that out to see.  Toto, though he is smaller, shorter and stockier proved to be quite a good swimmer.  Charlie with his long lanky legs proved to be less of a swimmer.  Charlie thrashed about, splashing water every which way!  The first three images below show Toto's superb swimming skills and the remaining four, well... Charlie's not-so-great swimming skills.

Sunflowers and a Monarch Butterfly

Ever since I watched the IMAX show, Flight of the Butterflies, I have had an appreciation for the Monarch butterfly.  Did you know hundreds of millions of Monarch butterflies migrate from the mountains in Mexico through the United States to Canada?  It was exciting to discover a Monarch flying among the sunflowers I photographed in our yard.  Included below are a few images captured during my sunflower photo session.  Enjoy!

A relaxed squirrel, an American white ibis, a rainbow, and Cypress Beach scenery

While photographing family at the park in Tampa, I captured a brown squirrel relaxing on a fence and an American white ibis near the Hillsborough River.  I was surprised how close the squirrel let me get to him before he ran off.  American white ibis were very plentiful at the park.  They were hard to photograph since they were constantly on the move.

I was also able to capture a beautiful rainbow while at Cypress Beach along with some beach scenery.  Enjoy!

Ragweed, hay bales, hedge apples, and a resting foal

Before I left for my Florida trip, I was getting antsy to take pictures outside since I hadn't for a while; and I couldn't resist one evening during a beautiful sunset.  I drove down the gravel road close to our home and took images of some ragweed; the first being a bird sitting on the ragweed plant below.

A lot of people confuse ragweed (shown below) with Missouri Goldenrod (shown next).

Many people believe that Goldenrod (shown below) was a main cause of allergies because Goldenrod's peak blooming period coincides with the peak of ragweed season. An important thing to note is that Goldenrods are bee pollinated, where ragweeds are wind pollinated. This means allergy sufferers are especially affected on windy days as a result of ragweed's wind pollination and not Goldenrod's bee pollination.

These hay bales are accented by the setting sun and a beautiful sky background.

As a child, I remember playing with hedge apples.  After they dropped off the trees, we used them as bowling balls outside.

Remember Laughing Horse's baby?  He's gotten a little bigger and is taking a nap. I still haven't been able to get close enough to find out his gender.  Hopefully soon!

A nursing calf, laughing donkey, lizard couple and a common nighthawk

Photoshop has a feature that lets you create an animated GIF, and I did so with two images of a Hereford calf nursing its mother. Because the wind was blowing, some of the bushes in the background also move.

This is one of the last images taken of Emmy Lou before we gave her to our neighbors to protect their two goats from coyotes.  She's not very far away and can still visit Ace and her donkey family next door.  I miss having her nearby and watching the bond that she had with our Palomino horse Ace.

While it was sunny and hot outside last month, often this lizard couple would sun themselves on this wooden stump in our yard.  If you'll notice, the bottom lizard has a stump for his tail.  The collard lizards cannot grow back their tail when it has been broken off.

Surprisingly, I was able to get fairly close to this common nighthawk bird while it was resting on the wooden hedgepost in our yard.