Ellie Sparkles

Just playing around with the features in my camera. 

Pretty cool!

I'm having fun learning new things about this camera. 

Please enjoy the star filter photos!

Hope all is well with everyone...

Ellie Sparkles!

 This is my favorite. Star filter combined with lens flare, makes it interesting. 

Mothers Day Nature Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all! 



I hope it was a wonderful day. 







Please enjoy the video I made today :-) 

In my down time....

I had my surgery. Am supposed to keep off my feet as much as possible. 

Again, RV's make great recovery rooms! 

In my downtime, I've decided to learn more about my camera. 

A Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ70. It's a super zoom camera! You can shoot the moon with this camera. 

Shot at full digital zoom. 

 The blood moon

Note the craters!

I love this camera! I'm learning more & more about it. 

You know what? Maybe I already shared these moon pics? I don't recall. If so, please forgive me!

Today, I learned how to do One Point Color. It's fun! Need to take better photos of the flowers though. The winds were blowing them around. I'm also learning how to use my filters & lens hoods. This is so much fun!

(keeps me away from the potato chips too)

Yes, this is a custom hood on this truck. 

This is fun! Maybe once I'm better, I can do a bit of traveling & do some photos & cool videos of places!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. 

See, one can still find things to do while in down time too. :-)

As far as my healing goes. Had a bandage change last Wednesday. The doc shot my foot with a steroid to stunt the healing somewhat so we can try to prevent as much scar tissue as possible. Yep, that's been the problem. Scar tissue keeps forming, which keeps bringing the Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome back. 

Enough already huh?!

Oh & did I mention I also have a broken finger? 

:::Sigh:::

Another 3 weeks in the finger splint - at least....

At least it's my little finger on my right hand. Sure, I make more typos now, but all in all, it's not that much of a problem. 

Thank goodness. 

Happy Easter & an update

Happy Easter everyone - I hope ya'll have had a wonderful day!

Weather has been gorgeous. I'm going to hate it when it heats up & I'll have to close the RV windows up to use the air conditioner for another season. It's been nice to sit on my sofa, by my big window, window open, breezes flowing through all day. 

I did have my surgery on Wednesday. 

The recovery in the recovery room was awful. My foot kept going into spasms, the really nice nurse kept hitting my IV with more morphine. It was so painful that tears came to my eyes. The nurse was great! In fact, the entire staff there were great. Nice people, everyone in smiles, everyone willing to answer questions & really listen to you. They ask a whole slew of questions before surgery. One of the questions was "Do you have dentures"? My answer, YES!! Wait, what in the hell am I saying??!!! I don't have dentures! The girl laughed & said people do that all the time. 

The ride home was a bit rough. As you can imagine, I had hallucinations the whole way home. I kept drifting in & out of consciousness, at one point, I could have sworn there were piles & piles of shoes at my feet on the floorboard of the car?? Each time I slipped away, I had hallucinations of piles of stuff! Piles of shoes, piles of clothes, piles of this & that each time. It was very weird. 

And my driver decided to run errands along the route back to my RV. I just wanted to get home....she should have done those errands on the way to pick me up. I was miserable. Foot could not be propped in her car, it was swelling & throbbing & I had to sit there at each place she stopped & endure it all. Was soooo glad to finally make it back to my RV & she ran my dogs for me when we got back. Was grateful for that. 

I still say RV's are the BEST recovery rooms!!! My friend was surprised & said my RV makes a good walker for me & it does. I grab this drawer, this door handle, the stove, etc to move around with. Could not put any weight on my foot the first couple of days & have to use a walker outside. I use a cane inside now. As long as I have the boot on, I can now walk around with the assistance of those devices. 

I want some easter candy or some chocolate, or some ice cream....boohoo. Have nothing like that in here outside a jar of Nutella & nothing to dip into it. Bummer. I need a trip to the store. Have been mostly eating cereal as I've not been able to eat much. I guess my craving for sweets means my appetite is coming back? 

Anyhow, again, I hope all is well with everyone & that ya'll have had a wonderful day!

The Blood mOOn

Yep, I set my alarm for 1:30am & got out of my nice warm bed to stand outside in the cold. Wind chill factor of 36 & windy. Brrrrr. 

Camera on a tripod, tripod blowing a bit, but was still able to get something!

Then pain hit, so I had to call it quits & get back into my now cold not so warm bed. 

The price we pay for nature huh?

I have a broken finger, my little finger on my right hand. Soooo, it was screaming at me in pain. I ignored it as best as I could to get the footage though. Yes, I was a bad Mom to my little finger!

So, I'll insert some photos for those that .....uh oh, I can't. OK, I'll have to do that later as I want to get this post out. The photos are in my external harddrive, so again, will get them later. 

But I do have this video I slaved for.....so please enjoy!







PS, My Tarsal Tunnel is back, which is partly why I've been absent. I go to surgery tomorrow. I guess during my healing time will be a good time to catch up with ya'll. Have a wonderful evening everyone. 

Funk - but great moon shots!

Hey everyone, I hope all is well with ya'll. 

Sorry I've not been around lately. I've just been in a funk since my trip to Port Aransas. 

Port A was great, when it wasn't bone chillin' cold & I got tons of great pics & vids from there. I'll share some of that within the next few days. I haven't even finished editing everything yet. 

So to update  - not much has really been going on with me these days. 

I did buy a really cool little washing machine for the RV, a portable washer. I'll share it in another post. 

I am still here on my spot in the driveway. Starting to really yearn for my own freedom now. 

Have been working on youtube videos to help fill my time, plus I like creating videos. 

The new camera is great! It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ70 with a 60x optical zoom. 

Soooo, I will share some moon shots taken 2 nights ago. Someone told me there will be a pink moon on 15th. I have never heard of a pink moon. Hope the skies will be clear! 

So here are a few of my moon shots.. 

Shot over Ellie & my van. You can even see the stars!

 Shot at 60x optical. 

 Shot at digital zoom. 

Shot at full digital zoom. 

Then I saw this & quit shooting!!

Catch ya'll later. Have a great day! I'll post more later. {{hugs}}

Hmmm....BLM land...something to think about.

Yes, I'm back from Port Aransas, although I really wish I could have stayed longer!

The group actually called me this evening & put on the speaker phone - how cool is that!!

I'll share some of Port A with ya'll once I get some time to do so.

But in the meantime, I found this video on You tube. Yes, it was lost! OK, not really, but I found it interesting & probably pretty true since they went through  the trouble to make the video!

Port Aransas

I'm sorry, I've not been updating my blog again! 

I arrived in Port Aransas on Saturday. 

I decided against boondocking on the beach & now I'm glad I didn't do that. 

Why?

I had this image of my dogs bringing in enough sand to build sand dunes & sand castles!

And I'm not fond of thinking of running my generator on the beach, on top of sand, thus getting even more salty sand in the RV's generator as well as in the engine & everywhere else. I know the damaging effects of it. 

Sooo, I opted to go to the RV park here instead. IB Magee RV park, which is county owned & ran. 

I chose to park in the grassy section. They have a concrete section & grassy section. 

I chose grass to walk my dogs on. 

Pulled in, got set up, put out & staked down my outdoor mat. Was so excited to walk the dogs behind my rig. I had SPACE, LOTS OF SPACE! 

Oh YIPEEEE!!

B-u-t....I did not count on the sticker burrs!

Oh my poor dogs! The first one I walked there, was covered in the nasty spiny thorny things. As was his leash, then my hands, my pants, my socks, my shoes! OK, this was not good. So I went inside, grabbed my slicker brush & proceeded to brush them off my poor guys. I got thorns stuck under my skin on my hands now & they hurt! 

So I'm learning where I can walk the dogs to minimize the problem, but they are still there. Just not as bad. I'm stil talking the stickers, the dogs will always still be there with me ;-) 

And I keep my slicker brush outside on the picnic table where I can grab it & use it before I bring them back in to brush their feet off - just in case. Maybe sand castles would have been better?

Except today. It rained, it's cold. The winds kicked up big time last night. Really strong winds. I had to get out of bed & roll my antenna back down as it was really getting beaten up. Then my front window bonnet opened up as it has screen panels on it. So I had to fix that as it was banging on the side of my RV. We also got a wind storm like this when I was in Corpus Christi, but I was surrounded by bigger rigs & didn't get the effects of that wind at all. They told me I was cheating at that park. ha! 

So anyhow, boondocking on the beach in these conditions really doesn't appeal to me at all. It's supposed to rain the next two days, then clear up on Thursday. That can't come soon enough! 

Yesterday was nice though, although cold, still nice. People were out on the beach. People were out fishing everywhere too. I rode my bike around with my cameras & took pics. Haven't uploaded them yet though. 

Got a Dolphin on Video too! So cool! And some pelicans begging the fishermen for their catches. And something really cute. Some boys were playing with a remote control car, racing it on the beach & creating their own dunes for it to race over. The effects of watching it kick up sand & race over their dunes was just too cute! So hopefully, tomorrow, I'll get those pics in & edit them. 

Anyhow, that's my update on Port Aransas to now. I'll see if I can put some pics here via cell phone. 

I have met two wonderful people here & we're going out to lunch with some other people tomorrow. I'll unhook the RV & meet them there. I need to find a grocery store & get some groceries & dog food. IF they don't have the dog food I feed, which I hope they do, then I'll have to take the ferry to Aransas Pass to HEB or Walmart! I'm going to lock my bike down (must remember that I have it sitting on the ground right now, locked to my ladder or I'll be literally towing it along). Anyhow, I'll lock it down to the picnic table & leave my matt with a NO VACANCY sign so no one will try to park in my space! Although no one should because you have to pay & mine is paid through Friday night....but I don't totally trust people not to try anyhow. 

Take care everyone - hope all is well with ya'll! 

Seabirds - can you identify?

I can't say that I know what all these birds are.

But I know a couple of them! But then, so does everyone else on those couple of them too....

                                                           White Pelican. (a floatin`)

                                   Brown Pelican - with his mouth full. (a floatin` too)

                                               Brown Pelican. (a flyin`)

      Gull - aka Seagull - not a statue. Although he liked to strike a pose. (a standin`) Don't know what                                                        variety it is though.

A curved bill something or other...tried to Google, but could not come up with descriptions of Gulf Coast Seabirds! (a eatin`)

Some kind of crane. I got footage of it in flight too. It looked like it took off to attack another bird?
(a struttin`) In the camera, the neck looked pinkish, but in the photos, it looks brownish. So I don't really know what colorish it really isish.

This guy, I really don't know what it is other than it's a bird that caught a fish! I found this one the most fascinating, but what is it?? Wish I could have gotten a closer shot of it. I tried to walk closer when it was on the short pole, but it flew off. Then I saw this one at the top of the light pole, it was still pretty far away though. Anyhow, I found it of the most interest to me. (a eatin`)
It has a hawk like beak & a cute little tuft of black feathering on the crest of it's head.

Christmas In Corpus Christi, TX

Merry Christmas Everyone! 

I hope ya'll have had a splendid day! 

My little Christmas Tree. It traveled rolled in a towel! 

So yes, I made it to Corpus Christi & spent the day here in the RV park. 

It was a really nice day. 

Who knew you could enjoy the company of total strangers?

Well, I did! They did 2 fried turkeys & everyone brought a covered plate. The food was wonderful, I didn't bite into one thing I didn't like! 

It was really nice, I was invited to sit beside Jenni, the park manager. 

She's really friendly & outgoing. 

Everyone loves to gather around her - this is a great park, full of friendly folks from everywhere. 

It's almost embarrassing when someone asks me where I'm from - expecting to hear something fascinating...um...Houston. Haha! 

I am at the Laguna Shore RV Park in Corpus Christi, actually, I think it may be Flour Bluff, but it still uses a CC address. It's a nice park, quiet & well managed. Very pet friendly too - but one must respect the rules or you might get the boot! 

I've been keeping my guys quiet & they've nearly gone unnoticed - almost. People do see them when I get them out to potty them, but I try hard to manage the dogs to keep them quiet while here. 

I will be leaving on Saturday, heading to Port Aransas. I think I'm going to do some boondocking parking on the beach (with a pass of course), then I won't have to be as strict with my guys. We'll be able to take longer walks & if the others behind make some noise, I'll be where it won't matter so much. And it's not like they'll make a lot of constant noise, but they might fuss a little from time to time while others are taking nice long walks. I just don't feel they can do that so much here as I must keep them quiet here. Which is why I don't stay at many RV parks. I usually prefer to stay at state parks & such instead. But again, it's been nice to spend Christmas Day with like minded folks that are so into the RV thing. Most seem to have pets, so they were discussed a lot today as well. 

 Where I am parked. They put me in a small spot, actually, the only open spot they have in the park. But it's all working out well for me & the dogs. My rig is a 22' rig, so it backed up nicely into this spot. And I have full access to my entry door, thus making it easier to get the dogs in & out - plus some privacy here in the corner too. It's all good! 

                            Ellie's view. 

Across the road from me is the beach, full of seabirds. You can't really walk near the water as it's too boggy. So I took my camera over there yesterday & today for some shots. The problem is, most of the birds are so far away that I have to shoot in full zoom, so I lose a lot of detail. Today was a gray day, which also gave the camera a challenge as it kept losing focus. But I still managed a lot of pics anyhow. 

You can see Padre Island across the waters. This shot was taken with my camera's 60x full zoom. 

Above are some beach shots. As you can see, you can't really walk on this beach near the water. It's too boggy & well, you probably would not want to wear it's odor either! You don't really hear the water wake & such here like you do at most beaches. It's been too cold to walk over there in the evenings to see how far the water comes in, but today, I got an idea of how far it must come in due to the standing water pools that were still visible. The seabirds don't mind though...

The beach is also full of deer tracks, so I guess they come in at night there. There's also a lot of dog, possibly coyote tracks as well. But definite dog since a lot of the people here like to take their dogs over there & let them loose for some play time. Unfortunately, I can't do that with mine! It's too risky for my guys, they might just take off & leave! 

I'll share some of the bird pics with ya'll tomorrow since I've already loaded a lot of pics in today's post. 

Again, I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas day. 

Merry Christmas Everyone!! 

Season's Greetings!

Season's Greetings Everyone! 

I hope everyone has a safe & wonderful holiday season! 

I took this picture of Birdie while in Dallas during the great ice storm! 

I'll be heading south tomorrow -- I've decided to spend my Christmas Holiday Season in Corpus Christi, then head up to the big Port Aransas Get Together! 

I'm looking forward to the trip. 

Now, if we get an ice storm in CC, then something is wrong with the world! 

I also set up a small Christmas tree in the motorhome. It's cute, I'll have to take some pics of it. 

BUT, I bought the tree at Target! Yep, Target. I NEVER shop Target, so waaahhhh!!! 

And yes, I used my debit card. I should have paid cash!! ARGH! My bank (ha, I don't actually own a bank, that always sounds funny), notified me on Thursday. Grrrrr

Sooooo, Friday was spent running to my bank to cancel my debit card. Then off to my storage place to re-secure my monthly payment plan onto a different source. 

Always something huh?

Again, Happy Holidays to everyone!! 

Ice Ice Baby

Ice, yesiree, ice. 

Everywhere. 

Still. On 12-09-2013

Took myself a little vacation & well, I'm frozen in Dallas, TX! 

Day One of ice

Nice. 

Actually, I came up for a Saluki Specialty & the ice storm hit that very day. 

So strange to go from 79 degrees to freezing sleet the very next day. 

That is not snow, it's icy sleet coverage - It's been hard walking the dogs!  

So we made it to the specialty on Thursday, then could not make it to the shows on Friday. That was the worst day for the icy road conditions, so we stayed home & made soup instead. I came to a friends house in Euless, TX, which is a Dallas suburb, so I have the luxury of being able to plug in & use my little space heater in the motorhome. Which is still under ice. And it's now Monday. 

My hood is definitely frozen shut

Road conditions are getting better, it's supposed to get to 39 tomorrow & 48 on Wednesday. I figure Wednesday will be a good day to make a run for it! 

My entire roof is still under ice, so it would definitely not be safe for any traffic behind me. I'd feel awful if I caused any kind of traffic accident if a big sheet of ice were to fly off into traffic behind me, possibly even killing someone! So I'll stay put & that sheet of ice will be gone by Wednesday. 

As a precaution, I taped plastic over my kitchen & passenger side coach windows. BUT I should have also taped plastic over the big window on the other side too. The weep holes froze up! So I hope no damages were done to that side, so far, it looks ok. But I'm glad I did the passenger side because the awning caused HUGE sheets of ice to form down the walls & over those windows. So they were protected. It looks funky, but I think it's also helping to keep the RV a little warmer too?

Man am I glad I did the plastic thing. Note the vent area over my kitchen window! 

My overhead cab was KOLD though! brrrrr. The nose was covered in ice & I could feel it all the way through! Thank goodness for electric blankets! And 4 other blankets as well. Usually in the middle of the night, I was kicking blankets off, then pulling them back on again. ;-) 

I knew that it was going to be cold, so to be on the safe side, I bought the pink RV antifreeze to pour down my drains & toilet into my gray & black tanks. I did NOT know that there was going to be an ice storm though. Someone said, well, you should have known, it was all over the "Dallas" news. Well, um, all the news I got from my weather app was that it was going to get cold. And well, I don't exactly get Dallas news in Houston. So I'm glad I took that precaution. My water tank & plumbing are safe & ok as they are inside my motorhome & protected with a nice warm space heater. Cabinet doors in the kitchen & bathroom are also open to let that warm air to flow in there to protect plumbing. 

So far, I've been extremely careful. I have to walk my dogs here, so I make sure that I have my ankle brace on each time. And fortunately, the shoes I wear to walk them seem to have pretty decent traction. It was still kind of scary, the landscape here is hilly where I walk, so I make sure to stay on the flat parts. I have this image of the dogs trying to run (& they have because they like this stuff!) & dragging my butt right down to the street just so they can watch "Mom" become a speed bump for oncoming traffic! This mornings challenge was a squirrel. That jumped out of a tree & landed right in front of us, then took off running. The dogs tried the same, but I had a good grip on them & was on a safe surface! Whew! 

And I feel fortunate that we never lost power here as many folks did. Of course, I could run my onboard generator, but I would have ran out of gas too as I am sitting with a half tank of gas instead of a full tank. Gas here is around $3.17 a gallon. I got it for 2.98 along the route here.  (but I blew it, missed a turn off, which added another 75 miles to my trip! grrrr)

So anyhow, that's what I'm up to - how is the weather your way?

More photos below, for even larger images, click on each photo:

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

***And yes, I am still cleaning up after them too!!! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! 

My computer would not let me do any photos earlier, so I had to leave for dinner at a friends house. 

When I got back, I was able to get the photo done. 

LOVE my new camera! 

On the homefront here, or would that be the steps of an RV front door? Not much going on with me right now. 

Have one more day of therapy coming up on Monday, then that ends the 2nd round of my therapy. Doc isn't happy with my lack of progress (not anyone's fault, my foot just isn't that strong yet), so he's ordered another round. Here we go again! But I am thankful because it could be so much worse. 

I hope all is well with everyone! 

I am grateful for ya'll - your great blogs. Your great knowledge. Your great photos. Your great RV trips. 
And the wonderful kinship that we all share. 
RVers are a very special group of folks!

So again, Happy Thanksgiving!