Sea Glass Christmas
December 23, 2023 20 Comments
Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season from Florida!
Nature Photography by Pam & Richard
December 23, 2023 20 Comments
Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season from Florida!
April 29, 2023 10 Comments
Clearwater is a beautiful place to visit on the Gulf of Mexico near St. Petersburg, Florida. Favorites were the sugar sand beaches, plentiful dolphins, botanical gardens, and spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Can’t wait to see it again!
January 1, 2023 10 Comments
Best wishes for the New Year – hope it brings magical moments in time! Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
“Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, and drink the wild air!”
Get out and enjoy nature – it’s good for your health!
December 23, 2022 15 Comments
Warm wishes to you for the holidays from our Florida “Snowman”!
December 11, 2022 14 Comments
The weather lately is perfect and we’re enjoying our home on the central east coast of Florida. Lots of flowers are blooming, rainbows and rocket launches are a treat, and it’s a lovely time for a walk at the beach!
October 30, 2021 12 Comments
Here in Florida the beach looks different every day. My favorite of all is when the water turns this stunning aqua blue. Makes for a great beach walk on our Space Coast!
August 28, 2021 2 Comments
Sebastian Inlet State Park, Florida, is a favorite of ours year round. In summer we especially enjoy walking out on the pier. It’s a great way to see the wildlife and enjoy the breeze. Great birds we’ve seen include royal terns, osprey carrying a black sea bass, and a rare black tern.
February 14, 2021 4 Comments
Warm wishes for a Happy Valentine’s Day from Florida!
August 15, 2020 2 Comments
We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium at the end of February. It is always a delight – one of the best aquariums we’ve ever seen! It is extra special because of its beautiful location on the central California coast. Although temporarily closed now because of the pandemic, you can visit virtually through these live cams: https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/live-cams.
Some of the birds at the aquarium are quite old (https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/stories/the-aviarys-amazing-senior-citizens). Each one was found injured and unable to be released back into the wild. They have been happily living their lives in the aviary ever since. I read that birdwatching and nature is good for the soul and health – agreed! https://www.healthfitnessrevolution.com/top-10-health-benefits-of-bird-watching/
May 30, 2020 7 Comments
Pfeiffer Beach is a real gem tucked away at the end of Sycamore Canyon Road at Big Sur, California (south of Monterey). This spectacular beach is famous for its pink sand, formed by manganese garnet crystals that have washed down from the cliffs above. Look for ever-changing patterns of increasing pink sand as you walk north along the beach. A bonus to your walk is the rocky sea arch offshore – watch for the waves to come roaring through its keyhole arch. Don’t miss this hidden secret! Learn more at: https://www.hikespeak.com/trails/pfeiffer-beach-big-sur/
A previous post about Pfeiffer Beach is at: https://naturetime.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/big-sur-stunning-pink-sand-beach/
February 7, 2020 10 Comments
Blue Iceberg at Fjallsarlon Ice Lagoon
The glaciers and ice on the south coast of Iceland are stunning! Some of the icebergs are an incredible blue. This area is one of our absolute favorites of anywhere we have ever been! When we flew home, we got super lucky and had a spectacular view of Greenland on the return flight. Gorgeous! We will definitely return – nature photography is the best in Iceland! Our updated Iceland slideshow / travel guide full of pictures, tips, and a custom google map is located at this link (click once, and then click again; wait a minute for it to load and open): ICELANDIC SLIDESHOW 2020
December 24, 2019 14 Comments
Warm wishes from the beach here in Florida for a wonderful holiday and happy new year!
November 29, 2019 Leave a comment
Iceland’s Snaefellsnes Peninsula is an enchanting place. We find more places to go every time we visit. The birds – the sky – the coast – and the ever-present Snaefellsjokull volcano make for a magical place.
In the Sjominjasafn Maritime Museum we saw a display with a beautiful quote by Halldor Laxness, World Light:
“Where the glacier meets the sky, the land ceases to be earthly, and the earth becomes one with the heavens; no sorrows live there anymore, and therefore joy is not necessary; beauty alone reigns there, beyond all demands”.
March 2, 2019 5 Comments
We enjoy going to Sebastian Inlet State Park on Florida’s central Atlantic coast. It is a spectacular place to visit! The weather this winter has been especially beautiful. We made this collage of our favorite scenes at the inlet (click on the picture to enlarge and see details). Info and live cam links are available at: https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/sebastian-inlet-state-park
November 25, 2017 4 Comments
The weather is perfect here in Florida! Migrating birds have arrived, and it is a beautiful time for a walk at Sebastian Inlet State Park.
September 18, 2017 5 Comments
I am very happy to say that our beautiful beaches here on Florida’s Space Coast still look great after Hurricane Irma! We were all nervous staring down a Category 5 hurricane – at times the projected track went right over our coastal area east of Orlando. There certainly was damage in Brevard County, but nothing that can’t be fixed. Our house itself is fine, although we do have an enormous amount of yard work to do. It is such a luxury now to have use of power, water, internet, gas, and grocery stores – makes you appreciate what surrounds you every day. It was also nice to see people helping one another. All our animals and birds are back too. Great to get back to normal!
August 12, 2017 7 Comments
Florida in summer is a land of ocean breezes, afternoon showers, and warm nights. A walk on Cocoa Beach in the morning is perfect!
January 1, 2017 11 Comments
Warm wishes from Florida for a new year filled with peace, love, and happiness.
November 25, 2016 2 Comments
A popular place to visit near San Diego is Cabrillo National Monument. At the park’s southern end are some of the most accessible tidepools in southern California. The rocky trails there overlooking the Pacific Ocean are very scenic. Nearby stands a statue of Juan Cabrillo overlooking beautiful San Diego Bay. It commemorates his landing there in 1542. At the top of Point Loma Peninsula stands the old Point Loma Lighthouse. It was in active service from 1855-1891, but was retired because the light was often above the fog line and was thus invisible. A short stroll from the lighthouse leads to the Gray Whale Overlook. It is an excellent place to watch for whale spouts in winter.
Emma Minter, who lived at the lighthouse as a child in 1878, said: “What had I for playthings? The nicest in the world! Pretty shells, colored stones, kelp babies. It seems to me that I can remember every day of my young life there.”
Information on visiting Cabrillo National Monument is at: https://www.nps.gov/cabr/index.htm
October 2, 2016 10 Comments
Here is a dramatic panorama of Sebastian Beach today in Florida – blue sky to the north, and storm coming from the south.
September 29, 2016 11 Comments
The scenery on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula is stunning! The Snaefellsjokull Glacier there dominates the landscape and was the entrance point for scientists in the Jules Verne classic “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. Jokull in Icelandic means glacier.
One evening at midnight in June the sunset turned the mountain pink, while a strawberry moon rose over the ocean. The view from our beachfront cabin was magic! Making it even better was when three wild horses galloped by on the beach. Some people think the mountain has high magnetic energy. Belief is strong in the area that elves and hidden people live in the lava. Plans are currently underway to draw a map detailing the area’s enchanted and magical places: http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2016/06/06/belief_in_elves_very_strong_in_west_iceland/
Iceland is an amazing and must-see destination for any naturalist or photographer. Although it is now in our rear-view window as I plan our next adventure, I am sure we will visit again someday. I have prepared a custom Google map of places of interest to us in Iceland: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=1skvfqsNlWpCilCOaJc2tjreDGnc&ll=64.70735820733395%2C-19.523818050000045&z=7 Although we didn’t manage to see everything due to time or weather constraints, we did manage to see a majority of places. Feel free to ask any questions you may have if you are planning your own trip. I put together an Iceland travel guidebook illustrated with our best pictures here (PDF – click twice): ICELAND SLIDESHOW updated July 2019
September 27, 2016 10 Comments
The Snaefellsnes Peninsula northwest of Reykjavik is one of our favorite places in Iceland. The landscape is spectacular! Gorgeous mountains and glaciers sit next to beaches where we saw driftwood, polished stones, and even old whale bones washed ashore. In June the Arnarstapi bird cliffs have an amazing amount of nesting activity and cacophony of sound (turn up the volume and listen to video below). Lava flows in some places there are condensed into dramatic pillars and columns. Nearby stands a statue of stone that commemorates the Guardian Spirit of Mount Snaefell. The town sits at the base of Mount Stapefell (known as the “Home of Elves”, composed of pillow lava and green olivine) and in the shadow of Snaefellsjokull Glacier. The Arnarstapi harbor is particularly scenic, and the town café serves the best hot chocolate!
A bit further west is Djupalonssandur Beach, which is famous for its protected black pebbles and remains of a British trawler shipwrecked there in 1948. Iceland has very few trees, so driftwood there floats all the way from Siberia! Four large stones on the beach were used in the past to test the strength of fishermen. If you couldn’t pick up the largest stone, you weren’t allowed on the boat! Just picking up the smallest stone is quite an effort for the average person. Nearby are Longrangar Lighthouse and a lava rock formation known as the “Elf Church”.
September 22, 2016 5 Comments
We love lighthouses, and we enjoyed seeing a variety of them in Iceland. Some lighthouses have bright colors for best contrast with the landscape. All sit in beautiful locations by the sea. The Reykjanes Lighthouse is particularly scenic because it sits in a geothermal area known as “Smokey Point”. The Gunnuhver fumerole there produces a surprising amount of steam. A life-size great auk statue stands nearby, marking the location where the last great auk lived in 1844. A recent article discusses the possibility of using DNA to bring the great auk back from extinction: http://www.earthtouchnews.com/all-articles/2016/september/01/can-the-great-auk-return-from-extinction/.
The Akranes lighthouse is fun because we think it looks like a rocket ship (we may be biased because we live on the Space Coast of Florida and see launches all the time). There is a wonderful photography/poetry exhibition inside by Mak Jurgen called “I Miss the Days Chasing Lights”. He also plans to publish a book called “Vitar” (lighthouse in Icelandic) by 2020. The view from the top is spectacular!
Mr. Ingvar Hreinsson has repaired all of Iceland’s 104 lighthouses spread out over 3,000 miles of coastline. A recent article about him is at: http://grapevine.is/mag/feature/2016/08/26/shine-a-light-the-icelander-who-repaired-every-single-lighthouse-in-the-country/
All of our posts about Iceland’s lighthouses are at: https://naturetime.wordpress.com/?s=iceland+lighthouse. “Viti” in Icelandic means lighthouse.
August 26, 2016 3 Comments
We make frequent trips to Sebastian Inlet State Park, Florida, to walk out on the fishing pier and stroll on the beach. The water is especially pretty right now, and there is always lots to see! You can view a live cam at: http://www.sebastianinletcam.com/
August 3, 2016 Leave a comment
An especially great place for photography in southeastern Iceland is Vestrahorn Mountain. The 8-10 million year old gabbro and granophyre rocks are the remains of an ancient magma chamber of an extinct volcano. To get to it, drive on Ring Road 1 about one hour east of Jokulsarlon and exit to Stokksnes (an old World War II NATO radar base). The exit is just before the tunnel entrance east of Hofn. Drive about 3 miles on the dirt road until you reach the remote family-owned Viking Café and pay a small entrance fee.
A short hike through this stunning landscape leads to a former Viking movie set. This Viking village was initially planned to be revived in 2017 to film the movie “Vikingr” by Universal Studios. The movie is about epic Viking sagas by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur. An initial article about the movie in October 2014 is at: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-iceland-viking-movie-baltasar-kormakur-20141008-story.html In a follow-up article dated September 2016 Kormakur says that he expected to start work and filming of the Viking movie in 2017: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/baltasar-kormakur-returning-iceland-oath-926795 An update in 2019 said that Vikingr is still under development by Universal Pictures.
UPDATE: In October 2019 it was announced that Baltasar Kormakur will begin production in 2020 on the supernatural volcano drama “Katla” for Netflix. This eight part series “begins one year after the violent eruption of the subglacial volcano Katla….Mysterious elements that have been deeply frozen into the glacier from prehistoric times start to emerge from the melting ice and cause consequences that no one could have ever foreseen.” Exciting! Read more at: https://grapevine.is/news/2019/10/10/baltasar-kormakur-making-supernatural-volcano-drama-series-for-netflix/
NEW UPDATE April/May 2020: Filming for Katla will begin as soon as possible in Vik, Iceland. The town is already being prepped for filiming by shoveling ash around buildings to similate fallout from the eruption. Read more at: https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/how-icelandic-director-baltasar-kormakur-lives-in-quarantine.html and https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/culture_and_living/2020/04/24/vik_i_myrdal_covered_in_volcanic_ash/ Filming in progress: https://www.icelandreview.com/culture/baltasar-resumes-filming-of-supernatural-volcano-drama/ .
Continuing your exploration, drive a very short distance in the other direction from the Viking Village to the sea to photograph the black volcanic sand dunes and mist-covered mountains. The dunes are shaped by the wind and topography. This place is stunning and embodies the wildness and drama of the Icelandic landscape – the owners consider it “Heaven on Earth”!
July 26, 2016 2 Comments
Jokulsarlon is one of those places you never forget. The glaciers, icebergs, and crystalline ice on the volcanic black sand beach are stunning! If the weather turns rainy, it only serves to make the blue ice even bluer (click on any of the images to enlarge). If you visit Iceland, don’t miss this incredible place! More info is at: http://icelagoon.is/
July 16, 2016 2 Comments
Today was a gorgeous day at Sebastian Beach, Florida. The weather and water are warm, and the sea turtles are busy nesting at night. In fact as of today, the area has recorded the second highest count ever of documented sea turtle nests. Scientists rope off the nest sites to keep the eggs safe until the turtles hatch. Great time of year!
UPDATE: Final sea turtle nesting totals at Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge on August 27, 2016, are: Loggerhead – 20,376; Green – 1,295; Leatherback – 72, and Kemp’s Ridley – 1.
February 17, 2016 Leave a comment
The waters offshore Catalina Island deliver a special treat to visitors in summer – the chance to view flying fish at night. We went out on the historic wooden boat Blanche W. built in 1924. The boat was named after chewing gum magnate William Wrigley’s first granddaughter, and features open air mahogany benches in the back. Spotlights (vintage World War One, 40-million candle-power) mounted on the front of the boat were used to scan the water for fish. At one point we watched a pelican join in the fun by diving for fish when they jumped out of the water. What a memorable night! A wonderful TV show about Catalina’s flying fish by Huell Howser of “California’s Gold” is at: https://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/1999/08/01/flying-fish-californias-gold-1009/
February 15, 2016 Leave a comment
When we visited Catalina Island, we went on an underwater semi-submersible tour (other ways to view sea life include snorkeling, diving, and glass bottom kayaking). Numerous marine preserves surround the island and protect vast numbers of fish. Our favorite fish was the orange garibaldi – they are very feisty and often approach divers (learn more at http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animal-guide/fishes/garibaldi). The fun part of the tour was never knowing what we’d see next!
February 8, 2016 6 Comments
Catalina Island has been famous as an island getaway for southern Californians for over 100 years. Early advertising boasted “In all the world, no trip like this!” In 1957 the Four Preps sang “Twenty-six miles across the sea, Santa Catalina is a-waitin’ for me”. Dick Clark dubbed it the first surfer song, and Brian Wilson said it was a major influence on the Beach Boys. A fun LA Times article about the song is at: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-socal15jul15-story.html.
The maritime distance from the Los Angeles mainland to Catalina Island is actually 22.3 miles, which is easily traversed these days by high speed ferry. In 1894 messages were sent there via Carrier Pigeon Service. Notes were printed on tiny oilskin squares, rolled up, and placed into little canisters on pigeon legs. Within an hour a pigeon could complete the ocean crossing and deliver the message – twice as fast as steamships at the time! By 1902 the service ended when wireless messaging became available. We were charmed by the island’s beauty and landscape. Visitor information is at: http://www.visitcatalinaisland.com/.