The Pier Aquarium

We went to the St. Petersburg Pier Aquarium today. It's a tiny aquarium, but has some interesting creatures in it. Here's a beautiful seahorse that was hiding in the background. It blended into the background so well, it was very hard to see.

  

These are called "mermaid purses" and contain baby sharks. I've seen them on TV, but never in person. We could see the tiny tails moving around (the black circles you see are the sharks' bodies).

Some people will be lucky enough to get to see rays in the water, but few will get to see the "secret smiley face" hidden underneath its body, unless you see one in a tank as we did. I couldn't get a picture of them, but you should see the teeth he's got!

I realize that pelicans aren't exactly something that go along with my theme of showing you things you wouldn't ordinarily see in the real world, but this one was hiding behind a pole, looking like it didn't want to be seen....besides, I really liked the picture so I wanted to share it!

The life of a butterfly, part II

The last time I posted about butterflies, I didn't have any pictures of the cocoons. I know how so very disappointed some people must have felt about this. ;) Ken was able to find two cocoons since then:

This is the cocoon from the "passion" butterfly. Unfortunately, I didn't get my lazy self out there fast enough to get the picture WHILE the caterpillar was in there, so this is a picture of the empty shell it left behind.

This is the monarch butterfly's cocoon. Isn't it beautiful? I swear the yellow markings on it sparkle like they've been sprinkled with fairy dust.

The life of a butterfly

We are lucky enough to have some beautiful butterflies in the yard which have "allowed" us to photograph them. One monarch even let us watch her lay her eggs on our milkweed plant. Here are some pictures that were taken of a few different kinds of butterflies we have and the stages of their lives (minus the cocoons because we can't seem to find any!).

Monarch butterfly:

This is one of the eggs on a milkweed plant.

Part 2: the caterpillar

This is the mamma butterfly.

Gulf fritillary (passion flower butterfly):

Egg

Caterpillar

Ken took this one...maybe this pic should have come first! ;-)

 We're not sure what kind of butterfly this is. It only stayed in our yard for a few minutes.

The beauty of nature

All of the food we grow either starts or ends as a flower. Some are beautiful, some are plain, but they're all amazing in their own way.

Bananas

Dill

Onions

Cilantro

Lettuce

Broccoli

String beans

Cherry tomatoes

Potatoes

Cucumber (notice the baby cucumber to the left)

First harvests

Ken and I have been playing around with "farming" in our small backyard. We have managed to get a pretty substantial amount of food out of it.

These are some random shots of our first fruits and veggies from April until about a week or so ago.

Purple potatoes

One of many, many, MANY cucumbers

Cherry tomatoes

String beans

Edamame, string beans, eggplant and strawberries

A birthday gift

My friend, Laura, sent seeds for my birthday this past year. Here is the result....

Purple basil

We have already made yummy caprese salads, added it as a topping on pizza and included it in tomato sauce.

Morning glory bush

Our first watermelon

This is our first watermelon "baby" sitting on a bed of dry leaves.

This is a second watermelon about a month later. Notice the leaf in the upper left corner...it's still pretty tiny!

Our baby is all grown up....