Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.
When I got home tonight after being away from the house for a day, I found that the tomato plants on my deck wilting. It continues to be very hot here in New Jersey. I did water the tomato plants Sunday before I left, and from where I was in Pennsylvania yesterday thought that there would have had been some rain on Monday. Apparently not. I added 3 gallons of water to each of the planters. Hopefully they recover.
While doing the watering a Dragonfly and a very large white moth (?) flew by. The moth was about twice as big as a Monarch butterfly, and I have not seen a white moth this big before — but I didn’t get out in time with a camera (what did I say in my previous post — the best camera is the camera with you). I did get a couple of images of the Dragonfly and you can see one below.
Earlier this year I was on a Semester at Sea (SAS) Enrichment Voyage “Central America and Panama Canal” and last spring a SAS Enrichment Voyage “Caribbean Islands. ” These were both done as part of “Ultimate Travel Photography Workshops” run by Michael Mariant. Several images from these trips are on previous blogs from this site. While on the voyage this spring I heard that there was going to be an Enrichment Voyage starting this December, going into next year that would start in Nassau Bahamas, stop in several Caribbean Island then go to Brazil and up the Amazon river, and then back through some more Caribbean islands before ending in Fort Lauderdale Florida. This trip was not part of the “Ultimate Travel Photography Workshops” but I was still very interested. I didn’t sign up while on the last trip, mainly because of issues at work and amount of remaining vacation time this year. SAS extended the early sign-up time until 31-July-2011. I sent a reservation application in by the deadline late Sunday. Unfortunately, I got a call today that the voyage is well subscribed, and that my request for a single supplement would not be 150% (as advertised), but now 200% because of bookings. I’m not going to pay 2x because I am traveling single. I did a little bit of research and it looks like the Road Scholar group may have taken up the rooms since they are charging the same amount per room for the voyage for either single or double occupancy. ARRG.
I may be disappointed, but now will have extra vacation time next year to do an extended road trip across America, and possibly an Alaska Marine Highway ferry trip to Alaska and Canada.
