M&I / GBMINI

Sunshine MINIs picnic 2015

Posted on January 17, 2015February 12, 2017 by Ian C.

This was our first time joining Sunshine MINIs for their annual picnic (a picnic in January, WOW!.
After washing Black Knight yesterday we were ready for a morning meet with other Orlando area MINIs for a nice drive to the picnic …

At the picnic there were MINIs, and MINI owners, everywhere (attendance was close to 150 people):

But now it was time for food, thanks Barry, Jack and everyone that organized this great picnic:

Also, since the picnic was at Silver Springs State Park, we had a nice opportunity for a walk out to the Silver River, and back:

Warm enough for ‘gators

Posted on January 11, 2015February 18, 2017 by Ian C.

We’ve had a few cool mornings and less sunny days, but today the sun came out and it was warm enough for some ‘gators to haul out of the lakes and sun themselves. There’s one on the far side of this nearby lake, and in another test of my new camera’s super-zoom:

The Heron’s are back!

Posted on January 8, 2015February 18, 2017 by Ian C.

Last year we watched while Great Blue Herons nested and had one youngster in a tree in the middle of the conservation wetland behind our new home. We noticed activity recently so today I took some photos, and confirmed that they are back nesting there again …

Here’s our view; the tree with nest is visible in the second rear panel from right (not the closer/bigger tree to it’s left); now, with my new high zoom camera, let’s get closer, and closer still … and finally at maximum zoom (50x optical, and cropped)! A quite amazing level of zoom, compared to the top view where you can hardly even see the nest:

I’m sure there will be more photos of the nest, over the next few months …