A Week of Hot Sun and Sand in the Winter

John and I were fortunate enough to have been invited by Dick and Sheila Nason, John's parents, to join them for a week on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands!



This is the way up to our lovely Bluebeard Beach Resort on the Island of St. Thomas.


Coming from Michigan in February made the reality of this glorious, flowery resort even more of an amazing treat.










A view of our beach from the lobby deck.







Here is the view from our apartment.





And here is the beach itself...



Where we spent much of our time, reading and soaking in the sun (and often the shade from under the palm trees.



Here's a view looking straight up from the lounge chairs.



Aren't the colors of blue and green brilliant? It is hard to capture them in a photo as the very light in this part of the world is somehow... special.

I have yet to get a definitive answer to the question, Why are the tree trunks painted white? Two possible reasons are: (1) to protect the trees from sun burn which makes them susceptible to bugs that bore, (2) to help make them visible at night.

Here we are at the beach front bar after drinking a fruity rum drink while watching the sunset. This evening we had a drink at the bar. Most evenings, John made us fruity rum drinks in our apartment for sipping on our blacony and watching the cruise ships depart, lit up like jewels on the sea.

I wish I had a few night shots because the evening and night views were quite remarkable as well. There is something quite special about a full moon seen through palm fronds...

On Wednesday John was headed to one of the British islands, Tortola, to meet up with some friends who had rented a 50 foot sail boat to sail around in the lovely Caribbean for a week. He met up with them for a day and night while Dick, Sheila and I toured the neighboring island of St. John, a real beauty a full half of which is a national park. We haven't pictures of St. John because my St. John had the camera on his sailing day away...

While waiting for the ferry, I was much interested in the more day to day way in which life on an island is managed. Ferries are used to move everything from island to island. Trucks full of aggregate, cars...

FedEx packages, people and merchandise of all sorts move in and out of the port constantly and very casually.




Here I am, awaiting the ferries and getting ready to send John off.

John on Tortola...


The sail boat his friends rented.


Sailing...






An evening stop at the Jolly Roger Inn.


With the sailing crew.




John's ferry ride back to St. Thomas on Thursday.


Views from our driving tour of St. Thomas. This picture is of Charlotte Amalie, the island's largest city and main U.S. Virgin Island port, from high on the hills above.


The glorious Magens Bay. Dick, Sheila and I stopped there for a picnic lunch before going to meet John upon his return at the ferry launch but, no photos of this stunning beach... sadly. It was remarkable.


A photo after our one big sea food dinner out. Other meals were made and consumed at our apartment which had a small kitchen.


And here are a few photos of our final day... snorkeling and basking on the beach.


If you look closely, you can see John snorkeling in front of the rocks and a pellican perched on those rocks.













Before heading home...


And back to winter....

There are many pictures that I now see we failed to take. The most important was one of Dick behind the wheel of the car that he and Sheila rented for our use. He did a wonderful job of driving us around, on the left side of steep and windy roads...

Despite the failure to capture everything, these photos should give you an idea of just how lovely our get-away was.

Thanks again, Dick and Sheila!

Adding to the Population

In efforts to encourage nature, envelopped as it is in snow...

Snow...

And more snow...

...we went to a seminar on orchids at our local English Gardens and purchased two companions for our eight-year old veteran.

Here they are, first in their new ceramic homes and then from a little closer up.

Games Old People Play

Brigitte thought she'd make me look younger—starting with the mustache—for which purpose she used some pencils meant for...eyebrows? The result did not, exactly, encourage her to extend her efforts to the beard, much less the thinning crown of my glorious hair...

Frohest Geburtstag, Kleine Gitta

Here is the birthday child! But where is she? Look closer and you will discover her half hidden by the One Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall. Well, the count is off and the bottles are still empty, but filling them was on the agenda at the Magee Household last Sunday when we celebrated Brigitte's birthday. Legally it is today!

Next you will want an explanation of the title of this post, perhaps. All right. It's in German, where Brigitte was born. She was Christened Brigitta, a name pronounced with a hard G, as in "Golly, what a pretty baby." Her nickname in childhood and youth was Gitta, the last two syllables, and "kleine," above, means "little."

Here is a picture of the flowers and the gifts awaiting Gitta's attentions later. She was tickled pink by a perfect replacement of a little jug she'd broken, a new pot, and some lovely Yoga pants. The daisies spoke of the coming season, soon, soon, but not quite yet.

Herewith all three put together—bottles, gifts, and birthday child!—and the cozy warm atmosphere of the post-cake-cutting period...

The season outdoors was most assertively still winter, however—although absolutely glorious.

Birds

These things are addictive. Having taken a video with my little Canon, I thought I do the same thing with my little Kodak. The bird mobile hangs in the extension of our equally little Kitchen. Kodak produces a QuickTime movie format, and I discovered that that format is compatible with Blogger. It came right in, although in size it is smaller.

Kodak's images are sharper here, it strikes me, although the light is also better... The huge advantages in being a two-camera-family!!!

Butterflies

Delicate paper butterflies fluttering in the heat of a radiator beneath the picture of the person who gave us this gift for Christmas.

This was also my first attempt to make a video with a tiny digital camera. What the product proves is that the feature of the camera actually works and that while I was thinking of myself as Akiro Kurosawa, thinking is about as close as I got...

Uploading the video directly to the Blogger platform failed repeatedly, forcing me to master the process of posting a video to YouTube, courtesy of which service, here you are...

Tale of Two Cameras

Just a day after getting the new Canon camera—after the little Kodak simply refused to work (and efforts to interest Kodak in its healing repeatedly failed)—I am happy to report that now both cameras are alive and well, and this by a peculiar process. The proof is above. The image of each camera was taken by the other—to be sure a little carelessly. They are the same size, actually, but the Canon is slighly more slender.

Here is what happened. The assembly of the Canon was, for me, the first ever such venture. The Kodak had been a gift and came to me "click-ready," as it were. In that process I discovered that you needed both a battery and a memory card—and how each of those was inserted. Having gone through this process, I got curious. I discovered where my Kodak's battery was located and, just to look at it, I opened the case, took it out, looked at it, and then I put it back in. Then, just for the hell of it, I plugged it in again to see if it would charge. It had refused to charge before, hence my purchase of the Canon. Miracles! My little Kodak suddenly behaved as it always had. No sooner plugged in than it displayed its little charging light. And in almost no time at all, it was back in action, and everything worked just fine again! Wow!

The upshot is that I've been promoted. Now I own two cameras. I went on a walk right away to take the last of four "seasonal" pictures of a scene I've been showing on Ghulf Genes. I used both cameras to take some shots. And as it turned out later, the Kodak's shots turned out slightly better than the Canon's. But then I know how to use the little Kodak much better....

Anyway, the Canon is a better camera (12.1 megapixels to the Kodak's 8.1 and a higher zoom factor). But I am tickled pink. If Kodak, the company, would have gotten involved, I would have probably spent money on repair, maybe as much as the Canon cost, and I'd still only have but one camera, rather than two!!!