Glowing butterfly antennea

Just had to share this little oddity. I was taking some pictures of this butterfly out on my butterfly bush today and in every shot you can see his antennae glowing on the tips! The look like little fiber optics!




This one is blurry but I thought it was pretty cool that I caught him flying away!

Devonian Botanic Gardens

I took the boys down to the botanical gardens to get some fall shots of them. Holy man that was like pulling teeth! They have both become little budding photographers and did not want to have to sit still while I took their pictures, they wanted to take their own shots.
I managed to get a couple okay ones. out of about 120 shots of them, these were the most acceptable. I'll have to try to convince them to do it again before the leaves are gone.












These are a few of the botanical gardens:








After our stroll through the Japanese Gardens we went into the Butterfly house.







Check out this weird flower about to bloom! I forgot the name of it but it's in the butterfly house.

September 15, 2008 Full Moon

Check out the amazingly beautiful full moon from last night:

Fun with a new lens

Today I finally cashed in my gift certificate that I won from Vistek and put it towards a new lens. Even though I am miserable with my first cold in over a year, I had so much fun today playing with it. Check it out:

The fall colours are starting to come out:


Ants on a leaf:


Chain on a swing:


And in black and white:
Row of chains:



Another colourful bush:

Turks and Caicos Islands hit by Hurricanes Hanna and Ike

My beloved Turks and Caicos Islands have been hit by TWO hurricanes in less than two weeks! First Hanna, a Category 1, hit last Sunday. It circled the islands and stalled out for over 3 days. Once she finally hit the road, Ike came for a visit. He hit at about midnight last night and was a Category 3. It was a near-direct hit with 220km hour winds to these tiny, low-lying islands. There is extensive damage, especially to Grand Turks and South Caicos. Initial reports say that 80% of the houses on those islands have damage, lots of roofs blew off, even the prison roof is AWOL. Providenciales, the most inhabited of the islands, and the island we visited last year, sustained damage, lots of flooding and has lost it's power as well. I have a very good, long-time, childhood friend who lives there and I'm very worried about him. I've chatted with his brother who lives here in Canada and he assures me that my friend survived the storm in one piece but I don't know the extent of the damage to his home. His mom, step-dad, sister, BIL and niece all live there as well.

I've posted these pictures here before but will post them again. These are the beautiful Turks and Caicos Islands: