My Home is my Castle

[Olham 164]

Olham, I confirm these are my pics, photography is my other hobby... you can see more at http://www.flickr.co...tos/corsaire31/ if you still have a doubt !

Hey, hey - I didn't really doubt it - it was meant as a compliment - they look so professional.

Very good work - and surely good and special equipment too.

[corsaire31 7]

Equipment is an already old Nikon D90, cheap Nikon DX objectives ( 18-105 mm and 55-300 mm ) and a second hand Sigma 150-500 mm... Other equipments include a camo chair, a gillie suit and various camo nets. Most important part of the equipment is observation and many, many hours of waiting !

[Olham 164]

I KNEW you'd be the NIKON type, Corsair.

I also have a NIKON F601, but shame on me - I didn't use it for a long time.

 

I had actually thought, you would use extremely good tele objectives.

But you beat that with patience and clever camouflage - hats off; great work!

And it must be rewarding, to see the birds so close.

[Flyby PC 23]

Outstanding pictures Corsair31.

 

I have a soft spot for Robins. When you're building a wall and picking up stone that's been lying a while, there are always beetles and worms exposed, and the little robins are always the boldest and first in there for the feast. If it's a big wall and you're there for a while, you'd be surprised how close you can get the robin to come, to the point it's almost tame. You may not believe it but I once had a robin sunbathing not 10ft away from where I was working. He was perched on the ground on top of a flat bit of stone, with wings exposed, sitting there sunning himself. I'd never seen the like before, that's exactly what he was doing. All that was missing were his sunglasses and cocktail. I actually wondered if he was so stuffed full of worms he couldn't take off.

 

Just don't go home and tell the Mrs you've spent all day watching a bird sunbathing.

Edited June 11, 2012 by Flyby PC

[Hasse Wind 46]

Great pics, everybody! I also love to take photos of birds, plants and animals. I don't have the best of cameras, though.

 

The tracks near the stream in my winter pic were made mostly by hares and foxes, I think.

 

Here's a great spotted woodpecker in winter:

 

[Olham 164]

That's a great photo, Hasse Wind - these fellers are rare to find here.

 

But please, let's keep on topic - photos which show something of your very home;

or a special place near your home, where you like to go to very often.

(Why not make another thread about photography in general?)

[MikeDixonUK 5]

Great thread, Olham - and great pics, chaps!

 

Here are a few photos from the family home, as opposed to the view from my room at University, which is a car park.

 

They aren't very professional as they're more 'oh look something interesting, take a picture!' photos, here are some nature pics:

 

This is one of the three random cats that happen to live in the garden, one is black, and the other is black and white - no idea who owns any of them, or who they own, as the case may be, sometimes the ginger one even wanders into the house and walks up the stairs!:

 

 

The local fighter ace downs another victim:

 

 

 

And here are a few pictures of England's green and pleasant land, from the view out of my bedroom window:

 

 

 

[corsaire31 7]

These last pictures really look like England ! Nice place you have...

[Olham 164]

Isn't Great Britain beautiful? You "Tommies" have marvellous landscapes on your island!

[JFM 18]

Very interesting to see the different locations in the world. Thank you for sharing!

 

Few views from this corner:

 

Front.

 

 

Back, with the two killers. Took this photo this morning. For the non-Floridians, the white-framed structure is the "pool cage" and keeps out bugs, leaves, yadda. When I first moved here I had never seen anything like it. These cages are all over the place, and now I'm used to them.

 

 

Another brutal winter day.

 

 

Sunset.

 

 

Another sunset. No Photoshopping. Sometimes the sky is on fire.

 

 

I live in Naples, but this is Sarasota.

 

 

Cumulonimbus. This looks to the north, toward Cape Coral.

 

 

Gulf of Mexico at Longboat Key. The Gulf is very placid on this side of the penninsula.

 

 

Hurricane Charley, 2004. Been through five hurricanes here, two Cat 4s (Charley was one of them).

 

 

Hurricane Charley. Getting worse. Took this from the lanai of our old condo. This was my first hurricane and had I still been drinking I would have been into the Crown Royal at this point. Hurricanes are the occasional tax we pay for such glorious weather otherwise.

 

 

[corsaire31 7]

Very nice place, probably a bit too warm for me... I just put on pics of my garden so here a few more from the town. Toulouse is built with special stones from the Garonne river, which give it its nickname of "the pink city". It is a fairly large town (1.2 million people with the surroundings ) with Universities and High Tech and aeronautics industries ( this is the home of Airbus )

 

 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2012 by corsaire31

[Olham 164]

Phantastic voyages here. First stop: Florida!

Great variety of pics and weather there, JFM. The "burning sky" is a whammer - although our sunsets are also

orange-yellow sometimes, I have never seen one like that.

As for Hurricanes: we do get occasional small Tornados, strong enough to destroy huge old trees and house roofs.

But they are never as big as you have them. I saw "Twister" which I liked for the story - but I guess that "surviving the

storm"-bit was utter crapp. They would have been shreddered by small fast flying parts alone, I bet.

 

Next stop: Toulouse, France!

Corsaire, I have been along the Atlantic coast (Biscaya) in France, but my then-girlfriend didn't like cities.

So I didn't see Toulouse. Your photos show: I missed a great "town". Next time...

Edited June 12, 2012 by Olham

[Hauksbee 103]

There and I thought the French and British pilots had it good living in French chateaus! What squadron do you fly with? I'm transfering

 

.

[Olham 164]

That's the nice campus of which university, CaptSopwith?

[JFM 18]

Hauksbee, I fly with the Gatorstaffel! Plenty of room for a transfer to the Eternal Summer.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

What a wonderful thread and even more wonderful photos and stories. Love to get these little glimpses into my OFF mates' lives. You've prompted me to go out and snap a couple pics of my own family manse to share with you lot.

 

 

Here's a view from the road of our old prairie farm house, (built in 1887):

 

 

 

 

And here is the 'summer kitchen' that sits in amongst the greenery of our back yard:

 

 

 

For those unfamiliar with the history of midwestern US farm life, the summer kitchen was a small building that sat near the house and was used to do all the cooking in the hot months of the year. Farms in the late 1800's required a lot of hands to get everything done that needed getting done, and the women of the household would cook almost constantly to feed the crews that worked the land, particularly during planting and harvesting times. Doing all that cooking in the house during June, July, and August could get it heated up so badly that you couldn't even sleep in it come nightfall. Thus, the summer kitchen.

 

 

 

.

[Olham 164]

Thanks for the detail about American farming, Lou - now I only wonder how the women survived

cooking in an even smaller cabin like that in the summer heat.

All I know about American farming, is from Grandma Duck - an iron lady with an iron kitchen oven.

Always good for a cherry pie.

 

Nice to see better pics of your farm house than those of Google Streetview shots.

Do I even see a barn behind the house - that dark roof?

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Isn't Great Britain beautiful? You "Tommies" have marvellous landscapes on your island!

 

Is that why you chaps wanted it so bad a few years back?

[Olham 164]

Is that why you chaps wanted it so bad a few years back?

Hey, don't say "you" - I wasn't even born then!

And if anyone here should ever start something like that again, I'll steal a small sailing boat

and sail all the way to Newcastle on Tyne, to help you beat them back.

All I want for that is some fine British bitter, or red ale, in the evenings. Deal?

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Hey, don't say "you" - I wasn't even born then!

And if anyone here should ever start something like that again, I'll steal a small sailing boat

and sail all the way to Newcastle on Tyne, to help you beat them back.

All I want for that is some fine British bitter, or red ale, in the evenings. Deal?

 

You have a deal Sir...and I apologise for my rather 'Brusque British Humour'

[Olham 164]

No need to apologise, Widow - that's one thing I like about the British - their humour.

Even if it is often rough - it is also most often hitting the nail of truth.

I learnt to know you in a "stampede of ranting humour" - I wouldn't recognise you any other way.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

These are all fantastic photographs of everyone's "home turf." Thank you everyone for posting them.

 

The photos also got my mind thinking, "wouldn't it be fun if someone could make a grand tour of all of the places shown on this thread?" Sort of like the Grande Tour that all proper young gentlemen would take in Europe a little over 100 years ago. You could have some fine French wine in Toulouse with Corsaire31, bask in the sun (and in the pool) at JFM's, enjoy cheese and fresh milk at RAF Louvert's, enjoy a Bratwurst and Warsteiner beer with Olham in Germany, share some lamb stew or dare I say haggis at Widowmaker's, and finish off with barbeque down at UncleAl's in Florida! And, at every stop, a chance to talk and play OFF with as fine a group of internet pals as anyone can imagine! A fine trip indeed!

 

Now, who will be the first to loan me $5,000 to $10,000 for the airfare back and forth?

Edited June 13, 2012 by Herr Prop-Wasche

[Olham 164]

HPW, Haggis is a bit further north, beyond the Roman wall, I think.

But you should try Shepperd's Pie! Hmmmmmm! .....

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

You're right! Corrected post to reflect Olham's superior culinary selection.

Edited June 13, 2012 by Herr Prop-Wasche

[JFM 18]

I'd do that in a second if I had the time/spare cash--except for that Haggis part, of course. (No offense to those who enjoy such things.)