Myrtle Beach -January 2 - January 8

January 2 - in between church services we decided to go to Huntington Beach to enjoy seeing the birds.  It was quiet there, as if the birds knew that a storm was coming.  With coffee in hand, we strolled out onto the causeway to see what was there. We walked further up the causeway and found some beautiful Roseate Spoonbills.  We were quire surprised as they usually head to Florida for the winter.  There was at least 5 there.   We didn't stay long though as the rain came chasing them all away. 

January 3 - today we experienced a really high and really low tide like we have never seen before.   The tide came right up to the dunes and even went into them.  It was pretty incredible to see.  The weather turned colder, but still warmed up nicely in the afternoon.  It was extremely windy and I suspect that this was the contributing factor to the water being so high.  Chairs were blown into the pool and tables were over turned.  It was pretty crazy.

January 4 - today we decided to drive to North Myrtle Beach and explore Cherry Grove Beach.  This area is said to have "lots" of sharks teeth.  Well I don't know about "lots" but Ralph sure found a big one!  We were pretty excited by that!!

January 5 - Golf Day!!  We went golfing at Litchfield Golf and Country Club today, We were really looking forward to this!!  The weather forecast was perfect.  Ralph was evening planning on wearing short.  It's a good thing he didn't because it started rain on the 3rd hole and didn't stop until the 16th hole.  After that the sun came out and warmed things up.  We stopped for a short while at Huntington Beach to enjoy the birds for a while.  Needless to say we were pretty tired when we got home so it was an early night!!

January 6 - we were up early today and on the road by 6:15.  We had read about a Sharks Museum in Aurora, North Carolina that sounded really intriguing.  It was a little over 3.5 hours to get there, but what a fun day we had.  The Museum offered two "sand pits" where you could dig for sharks teeth.  Since our goal was to find a tooth a day for Brody, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to "stock up".  We dug for almost 4 hours and found roughly 270 teeth.  How amazing is that!  It sure was fun!  We were back in Myrtle Beach around 6:30.  It sure was a "full day" but one we will remember for a long time.  We got pretty dirty and it took 3 rounds in the washing machine to finally get our clothes clean.

January 7 - today was a catchup day.  Time to do grocery shopping and beach walking.  It was a nice relaxing day.  We had bible study as well in the evening.  It was nice to be together with our group. It was a good lesson on "fasting".

January 8 - overnight the weather turned pretty cold.  We dressed in our warm clothes and headed our for our daily walk.  Today was the first day that we found shells on the beach.  The waves were blowing in from a different direction and that may be the reason that I was able to find some. Later in the afternoon we went to Huntington Beach to enjoy the birds,   I have never seen as many "white" pelicans before.  The majority of birds right now are pelicans which we find pretty unusual.  The regular osprey was there, but very few ibis, egret and herons were around.  I hope they find their way there.  We miss them.

Myrtle Beach - December 26 - January 1, 2022

We are about to embark on our winter stay in Myrtle Beach.  I've decided to update my blog weekly so as not to fill up peoples "mail boxes".  Each week will reflect the fun that we've had while enjoying our time away.

December 26 - today is Ralph's 63rd birthday.  We celebrated it by being up early and watching a beautiful sunrise this morning.  Afterwards we had a nice walk before sitting down to watch church.  It was a nice relaxing day.

During our walk we found a few sharks teeth. These are actually a pretty good size and we were excited to show them to Brody.

December 27 - Today was another beautiful day.  Ralph and I were out walking early in the morning and wearing shorts and t-shirts.  It's pretty amazing how warm it's been.  I was planning another walk later in the afternoon and had told Ralph that I wasn't going to bring my camera as I didn't expect much of a sunset.  I hadn't gone very far before I realized how wrong I was.  I quickly went back to our room and grabbed my camera.  Here are two of the shots that I took. I really wanted to capture the reflection in the sand as the sky was changing colour.  It didn't last long, but while it was here it was very pretty.

December 29 - I saw my first Eagle today.  That was really exciting to see.  I saw it when we went out grocery shopping.  We are now moved into our Condo for the rest of our stay.  It's nice and comfortable with a great view of the ocean.  This mornings sunrise was nice.  I didn't go down to the beach this time but rather set up my tripod on the balcony.  I prefer the pictures done at the beach level, but I was making coffee at the time and some days the colour changes so quickly

I went for a nice walk in the afternoon.  It was quieter on the beach by the time I went out.  I was amazed at the number of gulls and terns that were making their way to the beach.  There was thousands of them in the water and on the beach.  It was pretty interesting to see but a little intimidating when they all take to the sky and "woosh" directly overhead.  

December 31 - I find it hard to believe that it's the last day of the year.  We left for Myrtle Beach a week ago and the time has flown by.  We're being careful and sticking close to our condo and the beach.  It's busy here right now and I think it's actually busier because of the amazing weather that we have had.  Yesterday was a rainy day and we enjoyed it by reading a couple of books.  Once finished we are placing them outside of our room on a side table for others to enjoy.  We've noticed that people are taking some of them back to their rooms which is nice to see.  

This morning, it looked pretty stormy first thing, but then the sky exploded into colour.  It made me think of fireworks.  What a beautiful start to the last day of the year.

During the evening a really heavy fog rolled in off the ocean.  It was a little disappointing as I had hoped to practice photographing some fireworks.  There were still plenty that were set off, but the fog made it impossible to obtain any form of focus and I wasn't able to capture the beautiful display.

January 1 - Happy New Year!  The fog from last night stayed until a little after noon today.  Everything was damp outside.  The temperature was nice though and made it nice later in the day for Ralph to do his Polar Bear dip.  He wanted to do this to support his brother and nephews - who went into Lake Ontario yesterday.  The water was pretty rough and the waves were quite high.  I was glad that the sun was shining brightly when he went in so that he didn't get too cold.  

It's been a good week.  Next week we plan to get out and golf and visit Huntington Beach Reserve.  

Gone fishing

Today is Christmas Day.  We listened to a nice Christmas sermon and enjoyed the singing of the ladies choir.  It was really beautiful.  Ralph and I decided that we would spend most of our next two weeks staying "close to home".  Today was a quiet with the afternoon spent watching the antics of many pelicans in the ocean.  They were fishing in large groups.  In many cases they were surrounded by lots of gulls and terns. It was challenging to get some good shots as they were quite far out in the ocean.  With the sun on the water, it reflected many beautiful colours.  I am pretty happy with how some of them turned out.

And we're off

Ralph and I are planning on spending the winter in Myrtle Beach.  We left on Thursday, December 23 and arrived on the 24th.  We stopped over in Asheboro,  North Carolina for the evening on the way down and left today around 8:00.  We arrived in Myrtle Beach by 11:30.  The ride down went very well. The roads were quiet and the weather was beautiful and sunny all the way.

Our day was spent checking in and settling into the room.  We did a few groceries (to last the weekend) and then went for a nice walk along the beach.  It's a little busier at the beach because it's the Christmas weekend but we expect things to quiet down again on Monday.  We're in a temporary room right now and will move into our condo on Monday.  

There are plenty of gulls/terns on the beach again this year.  I had some fun photographing them.  We were also blessed with an amazing sunset.  I never get tired of the beautiful colours.  

Mushroom Foraging

 It's been a long time since I updated my blog.  It's not that I haven't had things going on, but somehow got bogged down in everything going on.  It's time to start updating again.

Today Ralph and I went mushroom hunting.  I had seen a few video's on photographing mushrooms and it looked so interesting.  I decided to go looking this morning at the Arboretum and took a few pictures but really wanted to look into some deep forests to see more.

These mushroom's were so tiny, growing on a rotting log.

Fungus makes an interesting picture.

This afternoon we drove to Palgrave and found a nice forested area to explore.  A few things to keep in mind when shooting.... bring a small brush (wipe away debris), bring a flashlight (brighten up the mushroom), shoot wide open (F2.8 or smaller and then F16.0 as the final shot).  This will help when developing and stacking.

To get a really good shot, you have to get low to the ground.  I will say that my back started to ache and it's really difficult/challenging to focus without bringing yourself really low. Ideally it would be best to lay on your stomach.  Auto focus doesn't always work and you find yourself manually focusing to get everything sharp.  Perservence ensures that you are happy with the end result.

Overall I am happy with the end results.  I still have a long way to go and practice makes perfect as they say. Ralph and I really enjoyed ourselves and look forward to doing this again soon.

The stars were brightly shining

I have been dreaming of doing some Milky Way photography for months. Since we live in an area where you really can’t enjoy the dark skies it is with great anticipation and excitement that I look forward to heading up North. We are currently in the Sauble Beach area and the skies are nice and dark. We set our alarm for 1:30 this morning and headed to a predetermined area not that far away from the cottage. Boy was it dark. Scary dark lol but the sky was indescribable!  The heavens were declaring the glory of the Lord. It took our breath away.  This photo is a panorama shot created vertically from 5 different photographs .  It’s my first attempt at trying this technique and I’m pretty happy with it.  We didn’t stay out long but it sure was worth the wait!!