My Wordless Sunday - # 9

Have a wonderful Sunday - Schoenen Sonntag allerseits - Buona Domenica per tutti - Je te souhaite une merveilleux Dimanche - Szep vasarnapot kivanom!

Twenty Seconds of Excitement...

 

The big waiting for the start of the Shuttle Discovery's last flight to the Space Station started for many visitors already early in the day and in the afternoon. Some were enjoying te pretty water views, some had already a drink or two, some were playing cards or just relaxing in the warm sunshine, like this man in the front.

And then, finally at 4.50 p.m. the Shuttle appeared flying high already into the sky

Some seconds after the start came the clouds, covering up the view and that's was it - an excitement of maybe 20 seconds, that's all.

 This is what the Shuttle left behind: a lot of noise and this large and impressive looking smog cloud.

Space Shuttle Discovery's Final Launch

In less than two hours, NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to make its last trip into low Earth orbit. Discovery will be traveling to the International Space Station, carrying a large module packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as a robotic assistant named Robonaut 2. With the entire Space Shuttle program scheduled for mandatory retirement this year, Discovery is the most-flown spacecraft in history, traveling 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) over the course of its 39 missions since 1984, and spending nearly a full year in orbit. Gathered here are images of Discovery, its crew, and support staff from the past several months, while the spacecraft was being prepared for today's launch. This mission, STS-133, is scheduled for liftoff at 4:50 p.m Eastern Time.

If you're interested in learning more about this flight and to see great pictures, click here.


Hi my friends,

It was quiet an experience yesterday and big fun for me to watch the last flight of the Shuttle. My snaps are only a small collection of documentation what I have seen with my eyes - and with my camera. My big wish is to get one day more closer with my camera, to see the "real thing" close enough!!

Maybe someone out there by NASA will read this...!?  :))

Thank you so much also for all your kind comments to my last post. Gladly appreciated!
I wish you all a wonderful Friday - Weekend is just around the corner.... yeah!
~Susanne






http://tinyurl.com/37jkbtz        Dave's paintings on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/yatdh5x       My photography on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/2wf9qsh      My photography and Calendars 2011 on RedBubble
http://tinyurl.com/37ckddf      David's paintings + My photography on ImageKind
http://tinyurl.com/2bsfvk9      Meine Europaeischen Fans kaufen meine Fotos hier auf myGall

Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales...

Rusty door gates - captured in Fredericksburg, TX

Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded 

by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.
Alexandre Dumas

Hi my friends,
Thank you very much for all the kind comments here on my blog and over there on my facebook page. I appreciate every single one and I'm happy you liked my post so much about the migrating pelicans.

Tomorrow afternoon about 4p.m. will be the launch of the last Space Shuttle flight. I'll be there and try to get a spot close enough to make some acceptable pictures - I hope!. And I'm hoping too that my camera (and me) will be fast enough to follow and to capture this historical spectacle - before it's to far away and flying over Africa already...LOL...

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday.
Susanne






http://tinyurl.com/37jkbtz        Dave's paintings on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/yatdh5x       My photography on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/2wf9qsh      My photography and Calendars 2011 on RedBubble
http://tinyurl.com/37ckddf      David's paintings + My photography on ImageKind
http://tinyurl.com/2bsfvk9      Meine Europaeischen Fans kaufen meine Fotos hier auf myGall

The Pelicans are back!

The pelicans are migrating and took over "The rocks" in Jetty Park, at Cape Canaveral

Get out of my way, that was my spot last year and it's my spot this year also!

Hi my friends,

The white pelicans are migrating and back. Taking over "The Rocks" out in Jetty Park at the Cape Canaveral shores. I have captured some of them and it's fun to watch their cleaning rituals.

A large flock of White Pelicans winter also in the Indian River near Scottsmoor Landing. You might see them flying and feeding anywhere on Merritt Island.

Thank you very much for all your kind comments to my "Wordless Sunday" post. 

I'm gladly appreciate them.

Wishing you a good start in the new week.

~Susanne

http://tinyurl.com/37jkbtz        Dave's paintings on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/yatdh5x       My photography on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/2wf9qsh      My photography and Calendars 2011 on RedBubble
http://tinyurl.com/37ckddf      David's paintings + My photography on ImageKind
http://tinyurl.com/2bsfvk9      Meine Europaeischen Fans kaufen meine Fotos hier auf myGall

My Wordless Sunday # 8

Have a wonderful Sunday - Schoenen Sonntag allerseits - Buona Domenica per tutti - Je te souhaite une merveilleux Dimanche - Szep vasarnapot kivanom!

Jellyfish or Medusa

Jellyfish - captured in the waters of Cape Canaveral, Florida

Jellyfish (also known as jellies or sea jellies or Medusozoa)

are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish have several different morphologies that represent several different cnidarian classes including the Scyphozoa (over 200 species), Staurozoa (about 50 species), Cubozoa (about 20 species), and Hydrozoa (about 1000–1500 species that make jellyfish and many more that do not). Medusa is another word for jellyfish, and refers specifically to adult jellyfish.
Jellyfish are found in every ocean, from the surface to the deep sea. Some hydrozoan jellyfish, or hydromedusae, are also found in fresh water; freshwater species are less than an inch (25 mm) in diameter, are colorless and do not sting. Many of the best-known jellyfish, such as Aurelia, are scyphomedusae. These are the large, often colorful, jellyfish that are common in coastal zones worldwide.
In its broadest sense, the term jellyfish also generally refers to members of the phylum Ctenophora. Although not closely related to cnidarian jellyfish, ctenophores are also free-swimming planktonic carnivores, are generally transparent or translucent, and exist in shallow to deep portions of all the world's oceans.
Alternative names for groups of jellyfish are scyphomedusae, stauromedusae, cubomedusae, and hydromedusae. These may relate to an entire order or class.



Hi my friends,
I hope you had all a nice Valentines Day! Thank you for all the wonderful comments here on my blog and also on my facebook site. I do appreciate it.
Today I have a picture about some Jellyfishes I have captured out at Jetty Park. That was also for me the first time I have seen these pretty creatures swimming at the surface of the waters out there, beside some turtles, Manatees and Dolphins.

I'm happy to see you coming back to my blog today!

~Susanne





http://tinyurl.com/37jkbtz        Dave's paintings on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/yatdh5x       My photography on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/2wf9qsh      My photography and Calendars 2011 on RedBubble
http://tinyurl.com/37ckddf      David's paintings + My photography on ImageKind
http://tinyurl.com/2bsfvk9      Meine Europaeischen Fans kaufen meine Fotos hier auf myGall

Happy Valentines Day...

HAPPY  VALENTINES  DAY

to all my friends - all over the world!

~Susanne

http://tinyurl.com/37jkbtz        Dave's paintings on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/yatdh5x       My photography on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/2wf9qsh      My photography and Calendars 2011 on RedBubble
http://tinyurl.com/37ckddf      David's paintings + My photography on ImageKind
http://tinyurl.com/2bsfvk9      Meine Europaeischen Fans kaufen meine Fotos hier auf myGall

My Wordless Sunday - #7

Have a wonderful Sunday - Schoenen Sonntag allerseits - Buona Domenica per tutti - Je te souhaite une merveilleux Dimanche - Szep vasarnapot kivanom!

The three methods how to learn wisdom...

 

 By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; 

Second, by imitation, which is easiest; 

and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius

 

 

 

 

 

Hi my friends,

 

I'm so happy that so many of you liked my first video so much!

Thank you for all your kind and wonderful comments.

 

Today's post is about reflections. Reflections in the photo and reflections also in life - and that's now something it's worthy to think about deeper. The picture to the quote was made recently at Lake Washington on a wonderful and bright sunny day. I love to go to that place, love to relax there, while I'm taking pictures. Many of my photos in my ZEN-Video were made there too.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend. 

And, tomorrow will be my "Wordless Sunday" again. 

See you tomorrow, right? :)

~Susanne

http://tinyurl.com/37jkbtz       Dave's paintings on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/yatdh5x       My photography on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/2wf9qsh      My photography and Calendars 2011 on RedBubble
http://tinyurl.com/37ckddf      David's paintings + My photography on ImageKind
http://tinyurl.com/2bsfvk9      Meine Europaeischen Fans kaufen meine Fotos hier auf myGall

My first video!

My first Video - with my ZEN photography.

It was quiet a new, but great experience for me to learn and to make this video. I know, it's maybe not everything perfect now, but it's a start. All the next videos will be better, I promise! :)

Click, sit back, turn up your volume and ENJOY!
Have a wonderful day!
~Susanne

btw, thank you so much for all your nice comments on my last post. I appreciate every single one!

The bridges of Magnolia Plantation, SC

 

One of the many pretty bridges in Magnolia Gardens, Charleston SC

History of the Magnolia Plantation & Gardens

Thomas Drayton and his wife Ann arrived from Barbados to the new English colony of Charles Towne and established Magnolia Plantation along the Ashley River in 1679. Thomas and Ann were the first in a direct line of Magnolia family ownership that has lasted more than 300 years and continues to this day.

Magnolia Plantation saw immense wealth and growth through the cultivation of rice during the Colonial era. Later, British and American troops would occupy its grounds during the American Revolution, while the Drayton sons would become both statesmen and soldiers fighting against British rule.

The establishment of the early gardens at Magnolia Plantation in the late 17th century would see an explosion of beauty and expansion throughout the 18th century, but it was not until the early 19th century did the gardens at Magnolia truly begin to expand on a grand scale.

Upon his death in 1825, Thomas Drayton, the great grandson of Magnolia’s first Drayton, willed the estate successively to his daughter’s sons, Thomas and John Grimké. As he had no male heirs to leave it to,  he made the condition in the will that they assume their mother’s maiden name of Drayton. Some time later, while in England preparing for the ministry, young John Grimké Drayton received word that his older brother Thomas had died on the steps of the plantation house of a gunshot wound received while riding down the oak avenue during a deer hunt. Thus, having expected to inherit little or nothing as a second son, young John found himself a wealthy plantation owner at the age of 22.

Despite the prestige and wealth inherent in ownership of Magnolia and other plantations, he resolved still to pursue his ministerial career; and in 1838 he entered the Episcopal seminary in New York. While there, he fell in love with, and married, Julia Ewing, daughter of a prominent Philadelphia attorney. Returning to Charleston with his bride, he strove to complete his clerical studies while bearing the burden of managing his large estate. The pressure took its toll, and his fatigue resulted in tuberculosis. His own cure for the illness was working outside in the gardens he loved. He also wanted to create a series of romantic gardens for his wife to make her feel more at home in the South Carolina Lowcountry. A few years later, as though by a miracle, his health returned, allowing him to enter the ministry as rector of nearby Saint Andrews Church, which had served plantation owners since 1706 and still stands just two miles down the highway towards Charleston.

But until his death a half-century later, along with his ministry, Rev. Drayton continued to devote himself to the enhancement of the plantation garden, expressing his desire to a fellow minister in Philadelphia, "...to create an earthly paradise in which my dear Julia may forever forget Philadelphia and her desire to return there."
In tune with the changes he had seen taking place in English gardening away from the very formal design earlier borrowed from the French, John Grimké Drayton moved towards greater emphasis on embellishing the soft natural beauty of the site. More than anyone else he can be credited with the internationally acclaimed informal beauty of the garden today. He introduced the first azaleas to America, and he was among the first to utilize Camellia Japonica in an outdoor setting. A great deal of Magnolia’s horticultural fame today is based on the large and varied collection of varieties of these two species—not the abundant and lovely Southern Magnolia for which the plantation just happened to have been named.


The outbreak of the American Civil War would threaten the welfare of the family, the house, and the gardens themselves. But the plantation would recover from the war to see additional growth of the gardens as they became the focus of the plantation over agriculture when the gardens opened to the public for the first time in 1870 and saved the plantation from ruin. Since that time, the plantation and gardens have evolved and grown into one of the greatest public gardens in America with a rich history. To explore that history in-depth and hear the stories of those who lived and worked there over the centuries, visit Magnolia Plantation & Gardens today.



I hope you had a nice read, my friends. I loved to be in Charleston, going around to photograph all the surrounding beauty - and I'm still missing that beautiful city of the South Carolinian Lowcountry today!
~Susanne






http://tinyurl.com/37jkbtz       Dave's paintings on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/yatdh5x       My photography on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/2wf9qsh      My photography and Calendars 2011 on RedBubble
http://tinyurl.com/37ckddf      David's paintings + My photography on ImageKind
http://tinyurl.com/2bsfvk9      Meine Europaeischen Fans kaufen meine Fotos hier auf myGall

My Wordless Sunday - #6

Have a wonderful Sunday - Schoenen Sonntag allerseits - Buona Domenica per tutti - Je te souhaite une merveilleux Dimanche - Szep vasarnapot kivanom!

http://tinyurl.com/37jkbtz        Dave's paintings on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/yatdh5x       My photography on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/2wf9qsh      My photography and Calendars 2011 on RedBubble
http://tinyurl.com/37ckddf      David's paintings + My photography on ImageKind
http://tinyurl.com/2bsfvk9      Meine Europaeischen Fans kaufen meine Fotos hier auf myGall

Yeah, weekend is here...

Yeah, weekend is here!

Hi my friends,

I wish you all a good start in your weekend.
Be happy like this pelican it seems to be and enjoy your coming weekend - hopefully not with to much snow shoveling work - -stay warm! Or, come down to sunny Florida, 79F today  :))

Sunshines to you,
~Susanne





http://tinyurl.com/37jkbtz        Dave's paintings on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/yatdh5x       My photography on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/2wf9qsh      My photography and Calendars 2011 on RedBubble
http://tinyurl.com/37ckddf      David's paintings + My photography on ImageKind
http://tinyurl.com/2bsfvk9      Meine Europaeischen Fans kaufen meine Fotos hier auf myGall

Almost spring time in Florida

Almost spring time here in Florida...... captured at Lake Washington, FL

Hi my friends,

Thank you very much for all your kind comments to my blog post, I appreciate them. I'm glad, you've enjoyed to read about that famous surfer guy Kelly Slater.

We took a nice walk in the warm sunshine 2 days ago and I have seen already this tree blooming in a pretty yellow. And many bees were out already too and the Lake was sparkling in a wonderful sun light. 

Spring MUST be arrived here in Florida! :)

I wish you a wonderful day - stay warm and secure, my friends up there in the North!!

Susanne

http://tinyurl.com/37jkbtz        Dave's paintings on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/yatdh5x       My photography on FAA
http://tinyurl.com/2wf9qsh      My photography and Calendars 2011 on RedBubble
http://tinyurl.com/37ckddf      David's paintings + My photography on ImageKind
http://tinyurl.com/2bsfvk9      Meine Europaeischen Fans kaufen meine Fotos hier auf myGall