RIP Sue Rooney

This past summer I lost my Aunt Sue, the youngest of my dad's three sisters.  Each of dad's sisters has died of cancer, each too young.  On top of that my mom's only brother, as well as her best friend Penny Hill, no relation, but that's a long story have also died of cancer.

When we visited my parents in Florida this past holiday season, The city of Tarpon Springs has a memorial event on Christmas eve.  The town's lagoon is filled with luminaria, to mark the passing of loved ones.  This years felt very somber to me.  My uncle, Sue's husband was there and given how quickly she died, he is still having a hard time dealing with life without his love.  A few days later he showed us the sculptures that Sue has been working on over the past 8 years.  To her and everyone's amazement she had some real talent when it came to sculpting.   I post this in loving memory of Susan Hill Rooney, Lucy Hill Coon, Joanne Hill Monahan, Penny Hill and Bill Park.

 The scene over Tarpon Springs Bayou with all the luminaria lighting up the sky along with the full moon. 
 

  Hundreds of people came out to participate in this beautiful event.

 Below are some of my aunt's sculptures.

 Sue worked with alabaster and I can't imagine how many hours it took to complete this.

 Up close to another piece she made.

 This piece is so thin that the light shines through.

  
 Her piece that won best in show that she reluctantly submitted. And no the picture doesn't do it justice.  Below is what the judges had to say.

 
 This last one is the piece that she was working on when she died.  It is of a dolphin swimming over bubbles.  She asked my uncle to complete it.  He is getting ready to finish what she started.  I can't wait to see it when it's done.  RIP Sue, you are missed.  

The Eyes Have it.

Living north of the 40th latitude line birds are spooky the vast majority of the time, but for some reason the same can't be said of many birds in Florida.  Every time I get to visit my parents in warm sunny Florida, I'm amazed at how close one can get to a wide variety of birds.  This year was no different and I got a nice collection of shots and what surprised me most was the variety of eye colors.
 

 Double Crested Cormorant

 American Oystercather

 Brown Pelican

 White Ibis aka  Chokoloskee chicken

 Anhinga aka Snake Bird

 Common Grackle

 Great Blue Heron

 Osprey

 Yellow Crowned Night Heron

 Common Merganser

 Little Blue Heron

 Horned Grebe in winter plumage

 Kestrel

Common Loon in winter plumage 

Below are some birds with dark eyes

Marbled Godwit

 Marbled Godwits

 Immature Laughing Gull

Long Billed Dowitcher

 Willet

Time well Spent

Every year a group of friends reunites on the banks of New York's Salmon River.  As we get older and hopefully a little wiser these trips become more about our time together and less about how many fish were or were not caught.  This year I'm glad that was the case as fish were hard to come by.  In years past one could pretty much count on 1-3 pulls for 10 hours on the river.  This year it was more like 1-3 pulls for 24 hours on the river.

Instead of being discouraged I found myself doing the only thing I could, enjoying the time with my friends and fishing each run as carefully as I could.

That being said I didn't land a fish, although I did encounter a couple, but I got my ass handed to me, which was fun in and of itself.  The nymphers in our crew fared a little better, but not much.  Unfortunately I wasn't with them when they hooked fish so I didn't get any chrome pics.  Despite the slow fishing many laughs were shared, tales were told, we caught up on each others lives and shared some great meals.

Looking back at our time on the water I can't imagine a better way to spend some quality time with friends. 

Working the run

Cheese

Post lunch riverside siesta

Heading out at first light

Overdue

Life has been a little busy lately, so I have not had the opportunity to post any pictures.  That doesn't mean I haven't been taking pictures so here are a smorgasbord of pictures since my last post from a variety of outings.

 Soft light

 Incoming rain showers

 Nuthatch