Charm City Penguin Cake

I have lived in baltimore for the vast majority of my life, so when a reality show came onto TV with a Baltimore based cake company, I was overjoyed.  I watched every single episode of Ace of Cakes when it was on TV, never thinking that I would see one of these gorgeous cakes in person. 

 Imagine my surprise when I saw the cake on my way out of the Zoo yesterday.  It was intricate an amazing.  I am going to pretend that it is still in existence, and hasn't been eaten.

 Thankfully there wasn't any other visitors around, so I could take some time photographing each layer.  Like the penguin holding a yellow balloon.  Sooo cute.  

 Or a little penguin who was caught coming right out of the shower.  

 Mona Lisa painting penguin standing just a few inches from a penguin reading "penguin beat."

 Mr. Penguin chef, baking fish shaped cakes.  

Blogger penguin, that is totally me!!!!!

 Such a beautiful cake, I am zoo glad that I got to see it in person because these photographs do not do it justice.  

Love Always,

Meg

New Penguin Exhibit at the Baltimore Zoo

Today I went to the Baltimore Zoo.  The penguin coast grand opening was today, and I wanted to stop by.  I decided in the car that I was not going to fret about getting the best pictures, I can come back at a later date when it is less crowded, today was about enjoying the visit.

 I must say that the new exhibit is beautiful, and I truly believe that it will improve the quality of life of the penguins.  I have never seen them swim with so much excitement.  

 I could not remember when feeding time was, but thankfully it was ten minutes after I arrived.  So cute.  

 Not only do they have more room to swim, we are closer to them as well.  

 This is the area where the zoo workers fed the penguins.  

 Fact, this penguin jumped off of this rock, it was amazing.  I did not capture it on my camera, but it is something that I will try to photograph in my future visits.  

 The Zoo has a wonderful indoor exhibit where you can see the penguins swim upper water, but as it was feeding time, the penguins were not swimming by.  I don't blame them.  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day :  )

This is the entire viewing area.  It was funny to see the crowds of people from this perspective.  I have more pictures to share, I'll try to post them promptly.  

Love Always, 

Meg

Saturday Sunflowers

This morning I woke up early to make a second trip to the sunflower field.  My last trip was only a few days after the full bloom, and I was dying to go back this weekend.  

 Sunflowers are just soooo cheerful, and lovely.  

 A few people have asked me why there is a sunflower field in Monkton, it is actually a crop for the Clear Meadow Farm.  Once they are ready, they will be harvested for the sunflower seeds.

This is a picture from last weekend, I will keep editing the pictures and I will post them as I look through them.  

Love Always,

Meg

Sunflowers, Part two

 I have been editing more pictures from the weekend when I have gotten home from work each day.

 This is one of my favorites.  I went on on of the first days that the sunflowers were blooming, and I caught a few sunflowers as they were blooming.  

Lovely.

Love Always,

Meg

September Sunflower Field

Today I made my way to the Sunflower field in Monkton, Maryland.

 Beautiful  :  )

 Every year I am astounded by the shear size of the field. 

More photos to come, these are just some quick edits.  I need to spend some more time on my favorite pictures from today.

Love Always,

Meg

Hummingbird Hunting

Today is the final day of my vacation, so sad to see this come to a close.  God bless my mother, who was willing to go on a Hummingbird hunt with me this morning. 

We decided to go back to the Hummingbird and Butterfly garden at lake somerset early in the morning, which is when we saw the humming bird yesterday.  Thankfully we were successful.  

 This is the first Hummingbird that we saw, I named her Lovey Dovey, LD for short.  

(disclaimer, I watch far too much Big Bang Theory  :  )

 Next we had a very persistent Hummingbird that I called Sheldon, he was stubborn and skittish.

 This is a bottle brush tree, which is where we saw most of the hummingbirds. 

 I never thought I would get to see a hummingbird hang around for such a long period of time.  

 I think they must like to come out early in the morning because it is cooler, as we were standing in the sun we could feel the humidity increase second by second.  

We love you Sheldon, try to keep cool.

Love Always,

Meg

It's a menagerie out here : )

I guess I posted too soon.  I looked outside the back window, and saw an Ibis.  

 From what my untrained eye can tell, they have a curved beak and are smaller than the Egret. 

 I think this is the first time that I have seen one around the lagoon.   

He was wandering around the lagoon, in the shallow area, so I assume that he was eating bugs. 

A nice ending of the last full day of my vacation.  

Love Always,

Meg

Hummingbirds, oh my goodness.

This morning my wish was granted, I saw a hummingbird.  I can't say that I got any amazing pictures, but the thrill of seeing a hummingbird in real life was enough.  :  )

As you could see in previous pictures, there are quite a few bumble bees in the area.  When I heard the Hummingbird, I thought it was another bee.  I was completely shocked to see a hummingbird in my Mother's yard.  This was the closest that I got to the bird.   

These pictures were back lit, but it was a mazing to capture the silouette of the bird.   

In flight  :  )

I don't know if this is Seamus Jr. or what, but I called him Shamy after the glorious union of Sheldon and Amy on the office.  This little tree frog fit on a single blade of grass. 

 This afternoon we went to visit the crazy crab in Hilton head, and we sat right on the marsh.  While I love Harbor Town in Ship Yard, the second Crazy Crab has outdoor seating and there is always a breeze on the marsh.  

I had a nice cool october fest while enjoying the view.  We also visited Harbor Town, to see the beautiful wharf.  

There is nothing like a beautiful reflection in the water. 

Finally, I got a picture of a beautiful blue bird.  Today was wonderful.  Thank goodness for paid holidays.  Life is good, no doubt about that.

Love Always,

Meg