This time of year, I really start feeling the winter blues. Trapped in the house/studio without enough fresh air; cold temps; the lack of sun….it all starts to get to me after a while. But, last week, Andy & I were surrounded by the colors and scents of spring, thanks to the very sweet Shama Klee.

Shama is a ridiculously-talented florist from Centerville. We had the pleasure of working with her back in October at MaryHelen & Kurt’s super fun Hyannisport wedding. (Check out the blog post for some samples of her amazing work.)

Recently, Shama asked about getting some photos of her flowers for her website. I happen to LOVE flowers. There’s something about them that just brings me a profound sense of joy & peace. I love picking them out when I go to the supermarket. And, a trip to home depot or IKEA is never complete without first checking their supply of orchids…my personal favorite, right up there with lilacs, which I love for their smell and their easy-breezy shape when grouped in a pretty vase.

I go into a bit of a trance when I’m cutting and arranging flowers…I guess it’s my inner crafty girl that comes out. (I can trace her beginnings back to the mini arrangements of violas I used to make after picking the wild weed-like flowers in my backyard when I was about 7 years old.) If I didn’t love photography so much, I’d love to be a florist.

Anyway, Shama & I talked about going into the Boston Flower Market together….oh to dream! But, things are still super busy for us with album designs and we’ve set a finish date that we’re working hard to meet. And, taking an afternoon off to play with flowers wasn’t going to be in the cards anytime soon. So, Shama had an idea that had me so excited, you would have thought I’d won the lottery.

She sent an e-mail that said, “Had an Idea. How about I bring you & Andy a different flower arrangement or two weekly or biweekly. You can enjoy them and photograph them at your leisure until we both have time to get together and spend a day? Love to know what you think? Shama”

What do I think? Uhhhh, yes please!

So, last Thursday, just in time for Valentine’s Day, Shama dropped off four…yup, FOUR…crazy beautiful arrangements that filled our house and studio….and me….with such joy. Everywhere I look, there are flowers. February just got a whole lot happier for Team Bello!

Equally as joyous as receiving the flowers was the fun I had photographing them. Here are some of my favorites. I hope they bring a little sunshine to your February too. Enjoy!

You may have noticed our new logo on these photos. As soon as we meet our album completion deadline, we’ll be moving on to revamping our website & blog with our new logo…hopefully in the next month or so. But, we thought we’d start the transition a little early. Hope you like it.

The lovely arrangement features pale pink garden roses with pink and white fresia, lime hydrangeas, white lisianthius and gorgeous pink ranuculus, accented with fern leaves…and I forget what the folded leaves are, but I dig those.

I love this next one. There’s something about those rising lisianthius reaching up toward the light that makes me happy. I’m also a big fan of ranuculus…which shows up a lot in wedding bouquets. I have to say, almost a week later and those are the flowers surviving the best in my bouquet. The tiny delicate petals have all bloomed and they’re gorgeous!

I decided to use the hanging capiz shells we have in our office as a backdrop for the next few photos and I just love the way these turned out. So fun & happy.

This next one features glorious yellow Gloriosa Lilies, which are amazing! This arrangement was huuuuge too. It’s a striking looking flower, with an Asian/alien feel about it.

And the leaves on this particular lily curl at the bottom in such a sweet way.

This next photo features a new blossom about just starting to open. I really like this photo, it feels very serene & spa-like to me.

Can’t you just feel spring?

When it’s fully bloomed, the petals spread out as if reaching with great exuberance. This is where it feels almost alien to me.

More curls…

And a traditional favorite, Romeo red roses. These beauties filled the studio with such a delicious aroma. Mmmmmm! I love the curly willow branches and trailing stems of ivy. Gorgeous!

Shama did two arrangements of the roses, a tall 2-dozen bouquet and another two dozen cut short in a super cute rectangular vase. The tall vase also featured kangaroo paw, which is a really cool, fuzzy red plant that accented the deep red rose color perfectly.

Mother Nature at her best…

I can’t wait till the ivy starts growing around here again! Bring on the green!

Love it….

I don’t think I’ve ever had so many roses at one time…lucky lucky me!!

perfection…

A great big thank you to Shama for bringing such happiness to my day, my week, my winter! Looking forward to doing this again! Your talent & generosity make the world a better place! xoxo Christine & Andy

Andy & I belong to the Professional Photographers of Cape Cod, a group of some 50-75 photographers living and working here on beautiful Cape Cod. We joined PPOCC, as it is affectionately known, our first year in business…hoping to learn as much as we could about what it means to be a professional photographer! We wouldn’t be where we are today without PPOCC and all of the incredible photographers we’ve met through the group!

Although it started out more as a social club, PPOCC has grown over the years and now offers its members educational workshops, classes and a fabulous network of professionals, who do still enjoy socializing.

Last Monday, several members of PPOCC gathered in Provincetown for a little photography safari. We had done this a similar trip a few years ago to Martha’s Vineyard.

Andy & I decided to head down to P-town on Sunday evening to make a little “weekend” out of it. Typical summer weekends don’t really exist for wedding photographers, so you take what days off you can get and make the most of them. And, that we did!!

We got to P-town and checked into the lovely Crowne Point Inn just as the hotel’s wine & cheese happy hour was kicking off. Don’t you just love when that happens! We settled in by the pool and lounged the evening away. Instantly, the stress melted off of us. It was heavenly!

The next day, we got up early, enjoyed a yummy breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon (this really is a fabulous inn if you ever find yourself wanting to stay in P-town) sunned ourselves by the pool and then headed out in the afternoon to meet our photographer friends. Unfortunately, the meeting time rubbed a little too closely with our wine & cheese happy hour, so we didn’t really take too many photos before heading back. Pathetic, I know! But, we felt so pampered and it was such a fun treat for us…we just couldn’t resist.

We met back up with everyone later that night at Race Point Beach, where we watched the sunset and had a great night of conversation by bonfire. Unfortunately, it was a little too cloudy for the presentation on photographing stars & the night sky that our friend, Chris Cook, was going to make. Fortunately, there were s’mores to cushion the disappointment.

Here are just a few snapshots we took earlier that day:

I just loved the character oozing off this sweet little woman sifting through what looks like her art supplies. Or maybe it’s recycling and trash. But, I just thought her aura screamed, “I’m an eccentric painter lady,” so I like to think they’re her art supplies.

Being goofballs!

Beautification underway…

Talk about eccentric. Some nutball had broken ceramic lining his/her driveway. There must have been tons of it, not to mention a whole yard full of trash. It was kind of crazy. We of course all stopped to take photos. And, in true Andy fashion, he decided to lay on the ground for this cool perspective. Unfortunately, he cut his arms in the process. Broken ceramic driveway? Really?

Pilgrim Tower as seen from our balcony….sweet!!!

Old San Juan was great…a perfect intro to Puerto Rico! We loved walking around the old town, lined with its blue cobblestone streets and brightly colored buildings. Like any city, the air is thick with excitement, movement and the promise of undiscovered opportunities. Young and old, residents and visitors all mingle together while life moves on at a hustling pace.

Alternatively, life on the tiny island of Vieques, just off the south eastern coast of Puerto Rico, is more languid, but in the best kick-off-your-flipflops-and-have-a-mojito kind of way.

Before the US Navy landed on the island in 1941 to build Camp Garcia, sugar production was the main source of income for the island people. But, the Navy took over nearly two-thirds of the total land from the island’s residents, including most of the land used for farming. Initially, the Navy brought new jobs, mainly in construction of the base. When the sugar was gone and construction complete, many of the island’s residents left. The Puerto Rican government tried between 1945 and the 1960s to re-establish an agricultural economy, but its efforts failed.

In the 10 years that followed, the economy shifted to manufacturing, with the opening of a General Electric plant being the most consistent source of employment. The plant is still in operation.

In May 2003, after more than 60 years of military operations, the US Navy closed Camp Garcia on Vieques after years of struggle over the target practice activies on the base. The final straw came in 1999, when a Navy jet missed its target and dropped two 500-pound bombs close to a Navy observation post, killing a civilian security guard and wounding others.

A few of the Navy’s old ships, rusted and abandoned can still be found in the waters around Vieques and although access to some of the former base is still restricted, visitors can see what’s left of the old bunkers.

The population of Vieques has not changed much through the decades and still remains close to 10,000. However, unemployement runs high. Tourism has gained a foothold on the island, with small hotels and restaurants popping up in Isabella Segunda, the capital located on the north side of the island, and in Esperanza, the island’s southern beach community.

The W Hotels is in the process of completing a mega resort on the island. Its completion will likely bring more tourists with money to spend.

Right now, most of the restaurants and hotels in the small village of Esperanza, where we stayed, were small, unpretentious guest houses owned by expats who’d come on holiday and never left, tempted by the warm aqua-colored water, cool breezes, and the tranquillo lifestyle.

We spent 6 nights in Esperanza, filling our days primarily with card playing, snorkeling, beach glass hunting, reading, and swimming….oh and the occasional Medalla or two (that’s the local beer). We met some really lovely people while there, including Kim & Stefan, a Scituate couple who call Vieques their home away from home. Kim has spent the past 20+ years coming to Vieques for her annual vacation. She knows the island and many of the its inhabitants well. Kim & Stefan were kind enough to take us under their wings and show us some of their favorite spots. We had a blast and expect to see them again.

We also met Ura, aka Michael, a junior in high school, with his boyish good looks, an infectious personality and, we discovered, a soft spot for balding English guys who can do really funny Russian accents. We spent an afternoon with him, talking and playing Rummy 500, while practicing our Spanish and learning a little about life growing up on Vieques.

We hitchhiked one night to and from a local cultural festival, which was held at an old fort in the town of Islabella Segunda. Eli, a young local guy in a suped-up sports car, picked us up and happily drove out of his way before heading to work at the GE plant to take us safely to the festival. And, later that night, a family of 4 picked us up and drove us back to Esperanza. Everyone we met on Vieques was lovely, which speaks volumes of the character of the people of Vieques, given the US Navy’s mistreatment of them and their beautiful island.

Here are some snapshots from our brief, but thoroughly enjoyable visit taken with our little Canon point & shoot camera. Enjoy!

On the ferry ride to Vieques from San Juan we spotted this sunken fishing boat resting on a sandbar (or reef, not sure which)…

Me showing off a giant starfish Andy found while snorkeling.

A shell resting on the shore at Secret Beach, which as we discovered on our second visit, isn’t so secret. But, man, is is BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Kim & Stefan led us on an early morning hike to visit one of their favorite spots on the island, an old abandoned light house, where we watched the sunrise. Ahhhh, vacation bliss!!!

Andy grabbed this fun shot of all of us in Stefan’s sunglasses….

The view from El Malecon, the boardwalk that lines the main street in Vieques….not too shabby, eh?

A view of the other end of the Malecon…

This photo just epitomizes the speed of life on the island. This old guy parked his plastic chair in this spot every day and spent most of the day there watching the world walk by…sweet, eh?

Colorful umbrellas kept iguana poop from hitting us while enjoying breakfast at our favorite (okay, the ONLY) breakfast spot in Esperanza. We spent most mornings lounging here for a couple of hours playing cards and munching on eggs & bacon or pancakes. One morning I narrowly escaped being hit by a defficating iguana hanging out in the trees above…and fyi, their poop isn’t small!

On our second visit to Not-So-Secret Beach, we stumbled across these turtle tracks leading to (tracks branching slightly to the right) and from (straight ahead) a nesting spot, under a mangrove bush on the beach….very cool!!! Sadly, we missed our little missus by minutes! Rats!

Andy decided to take a nap by the water and I couldn’t resist making a little sand sculpture out of him. The sand here was perfect for the drippy kind of sand castles I used to love to build as a kid. And, well, two is sometimes better than one. LOL!

An evening in Esperanza wouldn’t be complete without an icy cold Medalla enjoyed on the back deck at La Nasa, overlooking the Caribbean.

Andy waiting for La Nasa to open….

Here we are on the puddle-jumper heading back to San Juan. It was a really fun flight. Strangely, this is the only photo Andy & I have of us together in Puerto Rico….hysterically, he’s looking away, I look crazed and the curious guy behind us seems mildly amused. Priceless! The two guys behind him, Chris & Todd, a fun-looking couple from Chicago, were supposed to meet up with us later that night at the Nuyorican, but we ended up crashing early and never made it….bummer!

I’m not really sure what prompted this next photo, except Andy & I really enjoyed the flight and were being total goofballs. After our quick 20-minute flight, Andy decided he wanted a photo of me getting off the plane, looking like I’d just landed in my private jet. He, of course, lay down on the ground, as he so often does for photos, and here’s how I worked it…..Really? Sadly, I think I’m way more funny than I actually am!

Well, that’s it folks….that’s our Puerto Rican vacation. We hope you enjoyed a look into our holiday almost as much as we enjoyed ourselves! Thanks so much for visiting and for your continued support!!! And as always, keep spreading the love! xo Chris & Andy

The colors were so great in Old San Juan it was hard to not take lots of detail shots. So, here’s just a few more from our 3 days in old town. We hope you enjoy them!

Here’s the hotel we stayed at right in the heart of town…Da House (you can see photos of our room on the site….first room with an outdoor terrace & blue bedspread..although it was a white down comforter when we were there…very cozy). It was a cool place, with a real backpacker’s vibe, although way more chic….very much up our alley. And, starting on Wednesday nights through the weekend, San Juan’s night scene came alive downstairs at the Nuyorican Cafe, a local hot spot for salsa dancing and live music. Things didn’t get jumping until 10 or 11PM, and didn’t stop until nearly 3AM….Arriba!! Here’s the lobby at Da House. And sitting at reception is the very sweet & funny Eduardo. Hola amigo!

The hotel’s cool marble & wrought iron staircase….we were on the 4th floor and got a nice little work out each day, though probably not as much as the housekeeping staff.

There’s nothing terribly special about this next car, and honestly, Andy thought it was kind of a boring photo. But, I just love the light in the image and the contrast between the complimenting colors of the car and the building behind…it just felt very Miami to me. And, with the light, I thought the car looked so shiny…like it could be in an ad. The only thing I would change is to move the car more squarely in front of the pink house, so you don’t see the plywood covering their neighbor’s windows.

An itsy bitsy gecko cautiously watches us while perched on a peace lily.

More great Puerto Rico colors…And I love the contrast of the two signs in different languages. It is indicative of life on the island. Children are taught to speak English beginning in the first grade, so everyone we met, except the cab driver on our way to the airport, spoke perfect English. Kind of ironic that the only time we really got to practice our pitiful Spanish was leaving this lovely country.

A great way to start the morning….lounging on the terrace and watching the world walk by.

I wish we had a neighborhood on the Cape like this…Brightly colored buildings and blue cobblestone streets! Gorgeous!

A different perspective from the same corner…

Back at Pigeon Park, this young woman anticipated a less aggressive feeding experience. There was a lot of screaming involved.

Mornings were often started with a fresh brewed cup of deliciously smooth coffee from the hip Puerto Rico Cafe Cola’o, which had a vibe very similar to our favorite coffee connection here on the Cape, Coffee Obsession in Falmouth. Mmmmm! Puerto Rican coffee has a unique flavor and is one of the countries proud exports. Here’s a link to a cool article about Cafe Cola’o coffee lovers might find interesting.

Now this is a cool car….And I just love the door and wall colors behind.

A male gecko tries to attract the attention of a nearby female….”Hey there hot stuff get a load of my stretchy neck!”

And, tomorrow, for our final installment from our excellent Puerto Rican adventure, we will feature photos from our stay on the delightful island of Vieques. Thanks for visiting! And, if you like what you saw, let us know about it! Warmest wishes, Chris & Andy

The week before we left for Puerto Rico we got together with Kirsten & Dennis for their love session in Cotuit. We had a blast and through chatting, we discovered that Kirsten, an interior designer, had worked on a project at the upscale hotel & casino - Condado Plaza in Puerto Rico. But, she left the firm she had been working at to move to Spain with Dennis, so she never got to see the finished product.

We were planning to spend a couple of days mainly touring Old San Juan, but we couldn’t let this opportunity to get some photos for Kirsten pass by, so we jumped on a publico (public bus) to check out the fruits of Kirsten’s labor. We were blown away. Kirsten said she had designed the lobby’s killer glass-lighted mosiac tile display, and several sitting areas and lounge on the first floor. It’s a very modern, stylized space and we just loved it….almost as much as we love Kirsten & Dennis! (no, not quite…but it’s very cool!)

Check it out….

Kirsten also designed this mural on the hotel’s exterior. It was designed to match the mosiac tile mural in the lobby (next photo). The design also carried through to other areas of the hotel, including the marble floor tile in one of the hotel’s function rooms (below).

The registration desk and the glass tile mosiac. There are lights behind the tiles that make the mosiac a true work of art…cool right? The registration desk itself is also lit from within and the color changes to match various colors in the mosiac. (Check out Where’s Waldo in the photo…sniper boy is at it again!)

I just happened to be wearing all white the day we visited Condado (to show off the paltry tan I had finally acquired after 2 years without having had a proper day at the beach….crazy considering we live 5 minutes from the beach). And, my all white ensemble really fit in well in the ultra modern space….oh so chic! Below is me trying to look aloof for the photo….I’m embarrassed to tell you how many times we tried this before I didn’t look completely ridiculous. I’m still not sure I pulled it off! lol

I’ll just hang out here by this wall while I wait for my mojito….total goofball! But, we had a blast doing our mini modeling session. I think the hotel manager thought we were un poco loco! He came up to us to ask if we needed any assistance and we explained why we were there. He mentioned that the hotel was having a party the following night for some swanky Puerto Rico magazine….I couldn’t tell if he was telling us about it in the hopes that we might come photograph it or what. Had we planned to still be there, we might have come back to rub shoulders with Puerto Rico’s fabulous people.

Part of the lobby

A cool bar off the lobby, although it wasn’t opened. This is where the hotel manager stopped us. I think he said this was where the party would be. Sounds like it’s not a public bar so much as it is available for private functions….but I’m not sure. Very cool looking though! And those glass windows on the right look out over the water, with seating outside.

The other end of the bar.

And finally, a cool little lounge area off the main lobby.

We had fun visiting the hotel….we only wish they had a rooftop bar to hang out at and soak in more of the uber cool vibe. Way to go Kirsten!!! Now, we can’t wait to see what you put together for your wedding…it will no doubt be a stylish soiree, peppered with fabulous personal touches and oozing with the love you & Dennis so obviously share with each other and with those closest to you! See you both again soon!!! Thanks for inspiring a fun vacation detour!

We’ll be posting a few more Old San Juan photos tomorow and our final installment on Monday will feature some shots from our stay on Vieques.

Here are some more photos from our recent vacation to Puerto Rico taken around El Castillo de San Cristobal, a fort built in stages by the Spaniards over nearly 200 years to protect against land-based attacks on the city of San Juan.

When it was finished in 1783, the fort covered about 27 acres of land, basically wrapping the city of San Juan. Entry to the city was sealed by San Cristobal’s double gates. In 1897, after nearly 100 years of relative peace in the area, part of the fort (about a third) was demolished to ease the flow of traffic in and out of the walled city.

Here’s an aerial view we shot from the 8-seater puddle jumper we took from Vieques on our way back to San Juan:

Just outside the fort wall is the Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery, the final resting placing of many of Puerto Rico’s most prominent natives and residents.

Andy grabbing a photo of me grabbing a photo of him! But, what I love about this photo is the light on the great yellow peeling wall.

And here’s the man…

This 2-foot long iguana (not including his tail) watches us wearily from the rocks surrounding the fort.

It was particularly windy at the fort, which seemed to attract lots of visitors and their kites. The trees on the back side of the fort were littered with lost kites and miles of kite string.

A visitor leaves the fort.

One of the many sentry boxes, or guerites, dotting the fort’s perimeter. These guerites provided soldiers with a view of ships entering the waters around San Juan.

A different view of the cemetery.

Some more sentry boxes.

Tomorrow, we’ll have some photos of the Condado Plaza in the Condado area of San Juan. The hotel’s lobby & much of the first floor was designed by one of our very talented brides, Kirsten, who is getting married later this summer in Cotuit. We photographed Kirsten’s love session with fiance, Dennis, right before we left for our trip. So, when we heard about the hotel she designed, we had to go see it. Stay tuned!

Andy & I looooovve to travel. Travel and take photos of the new and interesting things we see…that’s our thing. We met while traveling through Spain, then after living there a while, we left to spend a month touring Morocco. And since then, we’ve traveled together through Italy, Mexico, England, Wales, and Nicaragua. (Geesh, that list is way shorter than I’d like.)  During the past few years, we’ve also spent some time in Canada, Colorado, Austria, Hawaii, Washington, DC, California & Switzerland. And between us, we’ve separately visited most of the 50 states and 22 different countries. The world is a big place and we’d like to see as much of it as we can.

Most recently, we spent a very quick 9 days visiting sunny Puerto Rico, namely San Juan and the island of Vieques. It had been 2 years since our last big vacation (Nicaragua) and we knew we couldn’t take as much time off as we’d like with the wedding season so close, so this felt like a nice mix of the Latin culture we so enjoy and an easy non-stop flight.

After two days of exploring Old San Juan, we took a ferry to the tiny island of Vieques. We met a very cool couple from Vermont, Laura & Brian (Brian is also a photographer) and their too-cute-for-words daughter, Harper. They decided to come to Puerto Rico after swapping a sweet surf board Laura won at work for a week at a guest house outside of Isabella Secunda, on the north side of Vieques….How cool is that?

We stayed on the other side of the island, in the town Esperanza, which had one main drag along the water, dotted with a few outdoor restaurants & hotels, all owned primarily by expats living la vida buena! (The good life). It was a bit hard to find a truly authentic Puerto Rican experience, but come the weekend, a few stalls opened up that sold these delicious meat-stuffed fried tummy tantalizers, called Pastelillos, of which we had our fair share.

We also managed to arrive in Vieques just prior to a cultural festival that was held over the weekend at the old fort in Isabella Segunda. We spent one evening there and it was great!! We got to sample local festival food (including a pigs ear stew that Andy braved, but that I stayed far far away from) and listen to local musicians play some jump-out-of-your-seat-and-dance salsa. We found the people of Puerto Rico to be incredibly friendly, warm, loving and completely dedicated to family.

Our first couple of days in Esperanza were filled by walking 2 miles down the beach, parking our very white butts under a palm tree and just chilling…mixed in with some snorkeling, swimming, and beach glass hunting. We were in heaven.

By the third day, we met this really sweet couple from Scituate, Kim & Stefan. Kim has been coming to Vieques every year for 20+ years. They had rented a Jeep and offered to show us around. It was excellent and we saw places we never would have seen had we not met them. We got up at 5:30AM to go drive out to this little lighthouse they love and watch the sunrise. Unfortunately, the road had closed since their last trip so we tried hiking in….we went the wrong way, got lost, and later discovered that our bush whacking landed Andy some nasty Puerto Rician poison ivy. But, it was a fun adventure with our new friends and the next morning we tried again, this time our adventure was met with success. And the views were certainly worth the trip.

Kim & Stefan also took us to feed apples to some of the island’s wild horses and to several secluded beaches, one of which we arrived at just after a sea turtle had left a clutch of eggs buried in the sand. I swear we missed it by minutes. Her tracks down to the water were fresh and because we’d had a little rain that morning, we could tell that she must have come up during the night to lay the eggs. It was a cool find and we let the naturalists at the local conservation trust know about our discovery when we got back into town, so they could rope the area off. Go little turtles, go!

I think the highlight of the trip was our evening kayak and swim in Vieques’ incredible bioluminescent bay. Apparently, Vieques’ bio bay is one of the most spectacular in the world. The bay, which maintains a fairly constant temperature…around 80F, is the perfect habitat for single-celled bioluminescent dinoflagellates. These half-plant, half-animal organisms, of which there are some 720,000/gallon of water, emit a flash of bluish light when disturbed, as a sort of defense mechanism. Apparently, you can’t see the light during the day, but with a new moon, it’s a site not to be missed. Swimming in the water with these flashy guys was nothing short of magical. You can’t actually see them, because they’re microscopic, but when you move in the water your movements leave a trail of their blue lights. And, if you lift your wet arm out of the water it will sparkle as the water drips off of you. Very cool!!! It’s like swimming in a big glow stick. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring our cameras to that, but, we did get a bunch of great shots from the trip that we’d like to share with you over several posts.

Here’s the first installment, featuring photos from Old San Juan. Enjoy!! Chris & Andy

Se Aquila means “For Rent”….cute, right? We would have loved to have seen inside! A lot of the city houses in tropical countries like this tend to have open courtyards in the middle of the house. Yes, please!!!

Stray cats were everywhere in Old San Juan…particularly by the Fortaleza (Old Fort). It’s sad, but there definitely were plenty of tourists around feeding them.

There were even more geckos than there were cats.

My honey cracking up….he’s so cute, isn’t he?

Puerto Ricans seem to have an affinity with all things American, particularly big old cars…although I admit, I think these beauties were lined up for a shot in a new Johnny Depp movie being filmed while we were there. Unfortunately, we didn’t see Johnny.

What I like about this next shot is just the juxtaposition of this woman in beautiful Old San Juan, with its cobblestone streets and colorful building fronts, talking on a modern day cell phone. Cracks me up! The quizzical look on her face doesn’t hurt either!

Renovations to a gorgeous building in Old San Juan…I just love the wrought iron door, the arched doorways and the contrasting black & white tiles against the beams in the ceiling. The worker walking through the shot just completes the picture for me. Talk about a sweet pad!!!

Our last day before leaving, we headed over to the Condado area, where we found this terrific Mexican restaurant (strange, I know) with killer views from  our table…..aaaaah, I just feel more relaxed looking at this photo!

This particular plaza was named for hundreds of pigeons that call it home. You can buy food from nearby stores and feed the pigeons, but be warned, they’re a lot less afraid of you than you may be of them. Looks like they’re living pretty good here at Parque Las Palomas, as these were some of the fattest pigeons I’ve ever seen. Love this perspective!

Stay tuned….more photos to follow manana! (That’s tomorrow in case your Spanish is as bad as mine.)

Anyone who has spent more than an hour here with us at our home will know that we seem to attract lots of animals to our yard. It’s like Wild Kingdom here at Bello headquarters. But, this isn’t the result of some happy accident. Because, those of you who know Andy well, will also know that he goes out of his way to attract critters.

Admittedly, most of our visitors are of the feathered variety - hummingbirds, pheasants, woodpeckers, hawks, cuckoos. The list goes on. We’ve also seen some furry creatures, including squirrels…the bane of Andy’s existence.

Well, this year, with the recent snow we’ve had, evidence of a previously unseen species has suddenly appeared. And, based on its tracks, I think it’s safe to say, it’s not a bird. Check out these funky tracks leading to our shed.

Curious to know what might have caused such a shuffle from our shed to our deck, Andy went online in seach of answers. And, answers he found.

Do you think you know which animal these strange tracks belongs to? (I’ll give you a hint….the swishing pattern is a dead giveaway. And, no…it’s not a snake. Although, I admit, I did wonder for a second.)

On the way home from a wedding late the other night we came upon an unexpected sight….the Hood blimp parked in an air strip along Route 130 in Marstons Mills.

It had been a very long day and we were completely exhausted. So, the impulse was to keep going, straight to our beds. But, the sight was too hard to pass up. We stopped, got out our tripod and camera and tried to capture what we had seen.

With it’s lights still on, the blimp lit up the night sky and with an end-of-summer fog hanging above the warm ground, the scene was at once arresting and ethereal in the most surprising kind of way. Check it out…

We got home about 45 minutes later than we would have. But, it was worth it…don’t you think?

Finally, after about 5 weeks, the cacophony of the cicadas has finally subsided. We have endured many days where the air hung thick with the loud raucous mating calls of these strange looking red eyed bugs, whose life cycle seems almost pointless. Check out our earlier post to see what I mean! Now, life, and the sweet sound of summer, is finally back to normal! We can once again drive around town with the windows rolled down and hang out in the backyard without packing a tennis racket for protection. Oh, and Chris no longer squeals and runs for cover as she legs it for the car!

It seems the cicadas have had their fun, laid their eggs, and have recycled themselves back into the circle of life. Peace is restored!

Its amazing to watch them emerge from the nymph stage

What are you looking at?

However, it doesn’t work out for all of them. Imagine this, you spend 17 years underground in total darkness just waiting waiting for this 5 week period that your whole life depends upon, where you crawl out of the ground intent on singing, flying around like a hovercraft, singing happily, mating (of course) and then lay eggs, only to stumble at the first hurdle and your wings won’t grow and you become ant bait! Now that’s a bummer!

And these nymph shells are still hanging around over a month later!

But when it does work out. Bow-chica-bow-wow! More cicadas in 17 years.

Until then …