Weekly Photo Challenge: Shadow

This week’s photo challenge (as you can tell by today’s post title) is Shadow.  One of the great things about being in Florida is all the sunshine.  The great thing about all the sunshine is it made it relatively easy for me to capture some shadows for this week’s  Weekly Photo Challenge brought to us by The Daily Post.

As I sit here typing, the early morning sun is creating all sorts of shadows and patterns in the room.  I’m tempted to get out the camera and take a few more shots, but that way leads to never getting this post ready to publish.

We had another beautiful sunrise this morning.  There were clouds on the horizon again.  I like watching the light play subtly on the clouds as the sun makes its way above the horizon line.

Day 168

Meeting my outdoor commitment here in Florida has been easy.  Today, though, brought some storms and by tomorrow it will be significantly cooler.

This morning's sunrise

M and I did get out and swim for a while this morning.  Since there was no lightning to go with the heavy rain, we figured once we’re wet, we’re wet.  Why bother to seek shelter?  Especially if the idea was to get wet in the first place?

Storm moving out to sea

Around noon some serious looking clouds moved in on us from the west.  We postponed our walk to lunch until there was a break in the rain.  (Have I mentioned that this is another car-less vacation for us?  We’re becoming experts at the car-less vacation.  We get loads of exercise that way and never have to worry about parking or paying to park.)

I really enjoyed watching the way the clouds and rain moved over us and then out across the ocean.  It’s not something I get to see everyday, nor is it something I would usually get to see so well demarcated.

Another interesting facet of the storm was a large gathering of birds.  There were the usual gulls along with an assortment of terns, pigeons, and turkey vultures (the turkey vultures, we were told, are wintering here).  It was difficult to capture in still photography.  I wish I’d thought to turn on the video but I was busy watching and trying to take the occasional photo.

Wind on the waves

The ocean calmed down considerably once the first round of heavy rain and wind moved through.  The temperature dropped almost 20 degrees.

After the storm

The clouds move in, the sun shines, the rain falls while the sun is shining and makes you wonder where on earth (or in heaven) can it be coming from.  The snowbirds have a two-word phrase for it all:  That’s Florida.  I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that since we arrived.

We met a man from Canada a few days ago who explained to us that we are not snowbirds.  A snowbird is someone who stays for a month or more (he stays for 3 months every year).  Since we are here for only 10 days, that makes us snowflakes.

Funny.