Rain Rain Go Away

We've been doused with rain over the past week - a weather system has been sitting on top of the VI's for quite a while instead of moving on and bothering somebody else.  Parts of the complex where I live have been flooded out, mostly the walkways and parking lot.  Obviously this car's owner wasn't around to move it to the high side of the parking lot.

Jawfish

This little fish is one of my favorite fish ever.  The jawfish, with it's distinctive yellow head and white body, builds what could be considered a marvel of engineering for a home.  They build a burrow in the sand and swim vertically out of it and then reverse themselves into it (tail first) when danger comes close.  They look a bit like a cobra coming out of a basket when they have just their head poking above the sand.  

I saw a National Geographic video of a jawfish making it's home, and it was amazingly ornate.  Fully reinforced with bits of coral and rock, and then covered completely with sand to blend into the floor.  Maybe one day I'll have the patience to sit still and just watch these guys at work.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

I was gone for a few weeks (both on the blog and in real life) to go to my sister's wedding.  She got married on a cruise ship and we sailed from Virginia to Bermuda.  While it's not a shot of the gorgeous beaches on St Thomas or St John, I thought I'd share a little of the beautiful beaches on Bermuda.  The sand was great and the water was shallow and that fantastic blue color.  The only problem is that the water was COLD (in comparison to the caribbean waters to which I've become acclimated).

Stingray

I went diving on Saturday morning and brought my underwater camera (for the first time in a while).  The seas were pretty rough, but underwater was nice and calm.  Saw this sting ray hiding in the sandy bottom on the first dive.  The colors underwater are usually so muted that a black and white conversion usually makes the picture pop a bit more.

Famous Tomatoes

My roommate has a very successful garden growing on our patio: tomatoes, basil, chives, mint, and other lovely edible plants.  We had some of the other variety of tomatoes in a caprese salad for dinner last week, so I thought I'd show off these delicious little grape tomatoes (or are they cherry tomatoes?).

Flowers After the Rain

Just after a brief rain shower in the afternoon, I went out into the patio and snapped a few pictures of the flowers.  I hadn't used my 50mm lens in quite a while, so I enjoyed playing with the shallow depth of field.

What a Long Holiday

So, technically I didn't specify which month my "I will be back on the 21st" message was referring too, but that's a pretty lame excuse.  The reality is that I fell off the habit of posting daily and it has been tough getting back into it.  To that point, I haven't really been taking photos and I've been procrastinating  - waiting for that "perfect" shot to get back into the swing of things.  In truth, I just need to put something up in order to get the ball rolling again.

To that end, here is a shot from last week that I captured while taking some lackluster sunset photographs.  Lets see if I can keep things going into tomorrow.