Mark of the gecko

By day, he's a mild-mannered Cuban anole, sunning himself on a rock, pooching his dewlap, trying not to get squished or eaten by an osprey. But, like the alligator in yesterday's blog, he has dreams. A little fisheye, some radial blur, and some vignetting, reveals this alter ego: Z-Gecko, the avenger. Perhaps not. But that's how I saw it.





The good stuff:
xydeco

Day of the Dead dioramas

flight dreams

watermelon

concertinas

windmills

waterfalls

triple word scores

finding a dollar in the wash

Dinosaur dreams

OK my northern neighbors. Go out in your backyard and bring me the biggest lizard you've got. I'll wait here . . . Got it? Good. Now, as they say in Australia: "That's not a lizard. THIS is a lizard." Alligators rank right up there with Spanish moss and airboats as things I love about living in Florida. This 8-footer was lying in wait next to a retention pond within fifty yards of a house on the West Orange Trail. A fence kept me from getting too close (although I probably wouldn't have gotten too close).  A few weeks earlier, I had to brake on my way home from the trail to wait for an alligator that had crawled up out of a roadside lake to see what was on the other side. Although alligators are certainly common in Florida, it's not all that common to be able to pull the bike over and snap a picture of one. This was a treat. So now we've had: spiders, and snakes, and now alligators. Tomorrow I think I'll wrap up the creature feature with a nice little lizard and then move on to flowers.

The good stuff:

hurdy gurdy

claymation

903 Mills Market

holiday weekends

thunderstorms

dancing in public

blues guitar

The Sugar Mill at Deleon Springs

airboats

stained glass

Um, Darlyn . . . Step away from the shrubbery

Hadn't intended to start a trend, but after yesterday's success at spiderweb photography I managed to get another elusive shot - extreme close-up of a snake sticking its tongue out. This black racer isn't poisonous -- good snakes make good neighbors -- but it gave Darlyn a bit of a shock as I was taking her picture under an arbor in the U.K. pavillion at Epcot and broke all paparazzi on this little guy sunning himself on the boxwood behind. Now that I've done spiders and snakes, I think I may cycle through a few criters over the next few days. I got a shot of an 8-foot alligator last week I've been itching to share. 

The good stuff:

whistlestops

zithers

terra cotta warriors

lotus flowers

hot air balloons

sky writers

coy

mariachis

popcorn

secret entrances