Woodbine in the Winter

“No Lifeguard on Duty”

Back when I was still going to school, I used to have quite a bit of spare time.  I spent a lot of that spare time going out and taking photo walks and one of my most favourite places to visit was Woodbine Beach…. Woodbine Beach in the wintertime to be more specific.  I love how the beach is so empty during the winter season, devoid of the people that usually crowd in during the summertime.  I’ve never actually been to Woodbine Beach in the summertime (I’m allergic to heat… and I have sweating issues… lol), but from what I’ve heard the crowds can get pretty thick during those times.

There aren’t that many things to see at Woodbine Beach; mostly sand, sand, water, and more sand, so there really aren’t that many things to take pictures of.  I really just go there to spend some quiet alone time along the shores of Lake Ontario.  The pictures are really just a bonus.  Looking back at these pictures makes me wish I had more time to just go out and take pictures again…. *sigh*

Here are a couple of shots that I’ve taken during my many trips to Woodbine Beach in the wintertime.

“Driftwood”

“Caution, bench may not be suitable for sitting”

“Enjoying the sunset”

“Leuty Lifeguard Station in Infrared”

“Leuty Lifeguard Station”

“The shores of Lake Ontario”

“Sunset at Woodbine – You can see the silhouette of the CN Tower in the distance.”

“Dusk at the Beaches”

Dogs in the Park

“Cute little pug (that I forgot to ask what his/her name was)”

We went on a quick stroll today through the grounds at Toronto’s Allan Gardens and saw that there were a couple of dog owners with their dogs inside the off-leash area so we decided to take a quick detour into the area and subsequently met these guys.  Seeing these dogs makes me miss my dogs back home.  To the owners of these adorable dogs, thank you very much for letting us play with them even for just a litlle bit!

“Rocco, the poser”

Be Ve-wy Ve-wy Quiet… I’m Hunting Wabbit!

“Hi Bugs!”

In the last couple of months I’ve been noticing little holes in the dirt in our plant boxes in the backyard.  I wondered what or who made those holes cause there were TONS of them!  Well, a couple of weeks ago I finally got my answer.  The holes were being cause by this family of rabbits coming into our backyard.  I’ve been seeing them a lot ever since roaming about from our neighbors’ backyards to ours; they even made their own holes in the fences so they could easily slip in and out.  Well, one afternoon while I was sitting outside enjoying the nice summer weather, I saw them scampering around the backyard again so I decided to follow them like Elmer Fudd, except I had a camera in hand in place of a rifle.  I had to walk REALLY REALLY slow in order not to startle them and I also had to hide in the bushes so they wouldn’t notice me coming over to them.  I wonder what the neighbours thought while I was taking these pictures?? Anyways, here are the pictures resulting from that endeavor.

“Munching on grass”

“Uh-oh… I think he saw me!”

“Thinking that he probably should have made that left turn at Albuquerque…”

Daylilies

We’ve had a REALLY hot and dry summer in Toronto so far.  Its been so hot and dry that I have never seen our backyard so lifeless and dry that whenever I step out into the backyard I would hear the brown brittle grass (well, whats left of it) crunching under my feet on every step!  The state of our backyard right now is really in stark contrast to what it was about a month and a half ago when the weather was nice and mild and everything in the backyard was full of life and ripe with photographic opportunities!  Thankfully I took a lot of pictures of the backyard during that time so I’ll have stuff to process for the future.  Think of it as saving for a rainy day except that I saved the pictures for the opposite reason.

Anyways, here are some pictures of the daylilies in the backyard when they were in full bloom. I love how the flowers are backlit by the warm sunlight and makes it seem like they’re glowing… And who said that you shouldn’t shoot against the sun?? 😛

To My Last Fish

“Digby, the Black Moor”

I’ve had an aquarium in my room for the last 10 years or so and I’ve had so much fun taking pictures of its inhabitants over the years.  However, about a month ago I had to get rid of the aquarium after my last fish, Digby, died because of another fungus outbreak.  My tank has had fungus problems over the years and I’ve managed to keep it under control with anti-fungals; but the fish would still eventually succumb to the fungus after being hit multiple times.  Since the outbreaks became more frequent over the last couple years, I decided to not take in anymore fish so I wouldn’t have to subject more fish to get fungal problems.  I also decided to give up the whole aquarium business after my last fish had gone to fishy heaven, since this tank would probably still have fungus even after a good washing (I’ve washed and dried this tank thoroughly several times in the past and the fungus just keeps coming back).  It finally happened about a month ago.

This post is dedicated to Digby, the black moor.  He (I just assumed that he was a he… lol) was the last fish that I had the honour of keeping in my aquarium.  Here are some of the pictures I have taken of him over the time he had occupied my tank.

Honda Bay Island Hopping

“Early morning stillness at the Honda Bay docks”

Last day of the Puerto Princesa trip 😦

Our last day in Palawan was spent island hopping around Honday Bay.  We really only had half a day left because our plane ride back to Manila was at 3:30PM that afternoon, so we had to wake up really early that day so we could maximize our time around the bay and still have enough time to pack and get to the airport.  We got to the Honda Bay docks at around 7AM and it was great because there were barely any people there except for the boatmen that worked the boats.  Since it was very early, the boat rental office wasn’t even open yet so I just roamed around the docks and took pictures until we got a boat that would take us around the bay.  I loved how quiet and calm the dock was, compared to the chaos it was in later in the day.

A Visit to the Puerto Princesa Crocodile Farm

“Baby crocodiles lounging around at the Puerto Princesa Crocodile Farm”

Continuation of the Puerto Princesa posts.

One of the places that we had visited in Puerto Princesa was the Puerto Princesa Crocodile Farm. They had SOOOO MANY crocodiles of varying sizes. They had small ones which were less than a foot long to a big adult one which measured more than 15 feet.  The farm is known to locals as the “Crocodile Farm” but its official name is the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center.  It not only houses crocodiles but also other animals, but the crocodiles are the main attraction of the center. We had gone to the farm as part of a city tour that our hotel offered so we only got to see the crocodiles because we had to go to other destinations in the city to complete the city tour.

The tour started out with a guide saying stuff/information about the crocodile farm but I was too busy taking pictures (as I always am in all my trips) to listen. I did catch the information about the crocodile skin and skeleton that they had displayed at the entrance (scroll to the picture to see the information).

“The dried crocodile skin and the skeleton in the pictures were apparently from a crocodile that was approximately 60 years old and measured about 17 feet long. Amazing that an itty bitty baby croc can potentially grow that big!”

Revenge of the Crocus

I had previously posted about how the crocuses in the front yard had bloomed, but at the time only a couple of flowers were open.  Today, however, was a different story. It was a gorgeously warm day and I guess all that warmth and sunshine coaxed the remaining crocuses to bloom. The plant box in the front yard had a carpet of crocus flowers!  They were calling to me, so I decided to take another stab at taking photos.  I also thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to bust out the macro lens!  I haven’t used my macro lens in a long while and I had forgotten the difficulty of taking macro photos.  The really thin depth of field + my unreliably shaky hands = potential disaster; I would have used a tripod but that would have just slowed me down (and I didn’t have a tripod that would go down that low on the ground).  So I just cranked up the ISO and remained as steady as I could while taking the photos.  I think it worked out well!  Enjoy the photos!