Mother's day gift

today i received the best gift ever and that was to spend some time with Dillon. he's very busy with school, improv, his girlfriend, his friends - you know; being a teenager. but today we got to hang out and i really enjoyed it. first we hit the dog beach to look for beach trash that i will use in an art project for COA (clean ocean act). it was really windy and chilly; so we were bundled up. and we didn't really find that much trash. i'll have to keep hitting the beaches a few more times so i have enough to do this project. We did find a bunch of tennis balls that i gathered up and left and the opening of the dog beach for owners who forgot to bring one.

then we headed home and went exploring in our own back yard. behind our house is a field that belongs to the quarry, Clayton. and if you slip behind the metal fence at the end of the field, you into what eventually becomes the quarry. lots of found object stuff back there, let me tell you you! anyway, we explored the quarry area and i watched dillon climbing on all the equipment. dillon and his friends come back here alot (well to the general area of the field, marshes, etc.) so he knows it well. there are a couple of small small bodies of water back there; which i want to figure out how to get closer to and check out the birding situation.

then we hiked over to this other area where a new home is being built next to another lake. wow, it is an amazing home and HUGE! we sort of illegally went inside and looked around. it's probably a 3 million dollar home with the house and property.

now we are back home and hanging out. all that fresh air and wind made us tired!
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this is a picture i took of dill today that i altered into a poster. pretty cool, huh?

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and this was another photo i took and then played with it in photoshop. the one on the far left is the original. i like how by adusting the lighting and contrast in the middle photo, you can now see is eye through the rock.

cadillac beach ride

caddy ride! (just so you know, i'm the one who has always worn hats and then i buy cool ones for jeff to wear!)

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LOVE this jetty area. there is an egret i like to photograph who hangs out under the bridge there. he literally just flew off as i approached! bugger!

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beach shot -jeff walking behind me. he was brave as the water was cold. there is no way i'd put me toes in there! (yes, i am a wimp with cold water, don't like it at all!)

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this is a feature in my new camera that i was trying - panaroma. you take two pictures and then the camera combines them for you. not a great shot, but i was experimenting.

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the Least Tern

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geeselets and parental units

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found this darling little egg on the way home after photographing some Canadian geese babies.

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we have an old cadillac. not sure the year - from the 70's i'm sure. it's not "classic" nor has it be redone to restore it's original splendor. it's faded blue and a bit rusted. but it runs and it is sweet. we take it out in the summers and we go to breakfast, the flea market on drives, etc. tucker loves to go for rides in the "caddy". well today after i heard that MORE rain was headed our way, i took a "personal day" (from my studio, lol) and told my husband, we are heading out while it is sunny!

so we hopped in the caddy and headed over to Avon beach where we like to have breakfast at the Av Pav (avon pavilion). it's right on the boardwalk looking at the beach). we had a lovely breakfast, then took a walk on the beach. after our walk we went to check on the "Least Terns", an endangered bird who are back nesting at Fishermen's cove. it was a nice day. i'll post a pic of the caddy later, since after we got home, it started sprinkling and we had to put the tarp over it (oh, yeah, the roof leaks!)

Ocean Grove flea market

I love to go to this flea market. it is held twice a year. unfortunately the last two times they had it, it rained, so it wasn't all that good. but today was beautiful and the place was crazy! i went with Jane and her daughter, Claudia. they drove here yesterday and spent the night. we stayed in the trailer and it was great fun. we had a lovely dinner in Asbury Park.

this morning, we got to the flea market about 8:00am and right off the bat, i spied this home made cupboard. SOLD - to me! the guy told me he could have sold it 10 times over with all the expressed interest in it. i've already got it on the back porch and accessorized, so tomorrow, i'll snap a photo of it - in it's new home. i also bought a cool bust to hang necklaces on, a tattered dress form, 2 black shutters with moon cutouts, a home made potting bench and 2 bird houses. it was great fun. we got lots of sun, walked around forever and spent too much money.

beach, birds and fireworks

So tonight i headed back to the beach as a volunteer to watch the fenced off areas of the bird colony during the fireworks. i met more volunteers. Jan and i were position on the beach side centered in the middle of the colony (but on the other side of the fenced area). as we were walking over to our position, we noticed foot tracks inside the colony area. i mean, come one, there are signs everywhere saying "stay out, endangered birds", etc. and people are still going in there? sorry, but that makes me sick.

the fences were extended yesterday to give the birds a bigger area. we noticed tonight that the birds are venturing closer to the shore, which is a good thing. there are so many birds inside the colony that it is a bit dense. but widening the area, it gives the birds space and encourages the fledglings to venture further away and allows the chicks to have a better chance at getting fed. there seems to be a lack of food source (fish), so the fledglings are killing some of the chicks as they fight over food. (makes me want to go out and buy some fish for them). right as the birds seemed like they were settling down for the evening, the fireworks started - and that caused them to panic and fly off. i took an interesting picture of them as they were scattering. it's all good info to have, because now the woman who runs the volunteers, Nancy Maclearie-Hayduk can give all this information to the biologists involved and speak with the township about moving the fireworks down a few blocks.

here are the birds scattering

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Tri-city art tour, Asbury Park NJ

the Boss, window display, Asbury Park

Graffitti art on a mural - love this!

Belly dancer, Verona

art made from trash

we could all use a little more of this

street art performance

interesting, funky girl on the street

Last night i went out with Mary Ellen, who i met at the bagel store and then she ended up buying a pendant that she noticed me wearing in the store. this is the first year for this art festival and i was very excited to find culture in this area! being a shore town, i haven't found much of interest around here for me. this was totally my scene and i loved all the interesting people all enjoying all the other interesting people! we had a nice dinner at a Japanese restaurant. i had some yummy sushi, Mexican roll, which was California roll with guacamole on it - DELICIOUS! Later we had drinks at a cute little bar/restaurant called "Market in the middle" which had these awesome tables that Mary Ellen's friend, Molly designed. a very fun evening.