HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

For quite a few years now, my sister-in-law and her husband, Mary and Richard Smith, have been sending me santas at Christmas-time so that now I have a fairly good-sized collection. That's where the picture above came from. I took it during the holidays last year. It's quite a nice group now, don't you agree?


A WALK AROUND THE LAKE

Dickie and I occasionally take our morning walk through a nearby gated community that boasts a couple of large lakes that accommodate quite a number of waterfowl, including Canadian geese, assorted ducks, an occasional cormorant, three swans, and every now and then a blue heron. I've made a run at the heron on several occasions. It often surprises me and flies away before I am ready with my camera. Last week was no exception in that regard, but I had my long lens and managed to pick him up from the other side of the lake. He's a fairly large bird, as is evident in the picture below when you compare him to the mallard.







WEB SITES FOR POSTING PICTURES

I have several sites that I normally use to post photos for the internet. One of the best I've ever run across is Flickr.com. That's what I used in the santa claus photo above. Another decent place to post and share pictures is Photobucket. I used that site to link the heron picture. You can double-check that yourself by right-clicking on the picture and then clicking on "Properties" in the dialog box that comes up. You'll see the address of the picture in the middle of the next box. Of course, one can also upload pictures straight to this Blogger.com site, but Blogger cuts the picture down to what I'm sure they consider a more reasonable size. That doesn't always please me. I like the larger display most of the time.


CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Our town green here in Windsor is all lit up at night during the holiday season. All the lights are white and make for a pretty sight. I took some pictures up there the other evening. Here's one of the tree that is decorated with silver balls and icicles and this time I am using Photobucket:





We have a house at the end of our street that usually rivals every other one when it comes to the number of Christmas lights and decorations. This year is no exception. Take a look:



Have a great holiday yourself. See you later!