Sunday, March 27, 2011

Trip to the Tomasello Winery & the Showboat Casino in NJ


My Ticket

Went to the Tomasello Winery for some wine tasting and for lunch which was followed by a trip to the Showboat Casino in AC, NJ with Crestwood Village IV on March 24, 2011. We left at 11:00 am and returned at 9:00 pm. I didn't have to break into my piggy bank. Ended up coming home with more money than I left home with. Not a whole bunch, just a little over $30.00. 

Never really touched the money in my wallet. Just used my coupon and matched the face value of it plus a wee bit more in my winnings for the day...

Of course, I took my camera along and snapped off some photos. Made them into storyboards. Below you'll see a set of 4 in color and an identical set in black and white. Did all of my photo work in Adobe Photoshop. No more darkroom for doing same plus I used a digital camera for taking the photos. Of course, I'm not in any of them because I was behind the camera... LOL 

Click on the photos to enlarge them.
Use your return button to reduce them.

First, the photos in color
 #1
 #2
 #3
#4

Now, the same photos in Black & White.

 #1
 #2
 #3
#4

Why did I do that?
 For newspaper use.
Used to do the same when I had my own darkroom.
Now, I do it up on the computer.
A lot easier, that's for sure!

Monday, December 27, 2010

2010 Holiday Blizzard Photos

Snowfall December 26-27, 2010 in Whiting, in Ocean County, NJ 08759


















Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Wild Turkeys

Been hearing about the wild turkeys running around in our area.


 Have heard reports of not one, but, about a cluster of a dozen or so of them.


Finally saw them myself, on Monday, November 1, 2010, mid afternoon.
 

 They came from the woods behind my house.


I ran in and grabbed my camera and snapped off a few photos.


Before they disappeared from behind our houses.

Last year, there was one with a couple of babies following her around. Looks like the litter grew up since then.  Plus added more siblings to the heard of wild turkeys.

Did they come from the Popcorn Zoo in Lacy Township, just down the road apiece? Are they just out for a stroll, canvassing our neighborhood? And thinking of possibly retiring in one of the senior citizens villages here?  If they don't end up on someone's dinner table on Thanksgiving Day?

Saturday, September 11, 2010

New ASG Sewing Group in Town

     We finally got our new sewing group under way with our first meeting being held on September 10. It went smoothly. Both the president of the South Jersey American Sewing Guild chapter (ASG-SJ) and the rep from Cares Alternatives (CA) did great presentations. We sat informerly in sort of a round robbin and just chatted away. The two hours just seemed to fly by. Loads of questions and answers. More and different sewing projects were discussed other than just making up the drawstring bags for the service persons and the memory bears for the Hospice patients families. Actually, we didn't even take time out to have refreshments because the round robbin was going so well. At this meeting, we started off with six of us being present which included Sibyl Walczak, Ruth Barry, Betty Chosak, Edna Smith, Connie Martucci and myself, Peggy Cox.




     When doing this write-up and submitting it to the newspapers, we still have two more weeks to our next meeting, the second one for the group, which will be our first work session which is scheduled for September 24, same time and same location. Because we are a brand new and informal sewing group, we are more or less presently playing it by ear you might say. What we expect to be doing at this workshop is making up simple patterns on a roll of brown paper, similar what they use in the butcher shop, or the like for some upcoming sewing projects. I'm afraid that we are still nameless. Hopefully, we will be coming up with a name for the group at this meeting too. We are the eleventh and newest sub chapter of the South Jersey American Sewing Guild, which are called Neighborhood Groups (ASG-NG). Each one of these groups has its own unique name to tell them apart from each other.



     With winging it monthly at our informal meetings on the second Fridays of the month, we will mainly be discussing what we will be doing during our workshop meetings on the fourth Fridays of the month. Our October meetings will be held on the 8 and the 22 from 10 am to noon at the Whiting Town Community Center, which is located in the Foodtown Shopping Center at 108 Lacey Road (Route 530) in the Whiting Section of Manchester Township, which was formerly known as Sandy's Ice Cream Shop, which is next to Spirits Unlimited and a few doors away from the Silver Threads Fashion Center. We will be mainly receiving sewing projects from both Rose, the ASG-SJ president and Dori, the CA volunteer supervisor. For more information, please e-mail Peggy at Oceanpeg1@msn.com . On the Internet, be sure to check our our Whiting/Manchester Township areas South Jersey's ASG-NG updates at this website



     This sewing group is one of those area and intervillage sewing groups that sewing enthusiastics are welcome to join and to become a member of, no matter what their sewing skills may be, from novice to experienced. Some of ASG members are and have been sewing instructors on different levels. ASG members are Sew Happy Sewers and Sew Happy to Sew for themselves and for others, mainly like what we will be doing with various community sewing projects with the use of our own sewing machines.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Twin Baby Rabbits


When John and I came back from his and Jen's house, around 7:30ish on Monday evening, September 6, we spotted a rabbit in my yard, a few feet from my doorway. It looked like two tiny baby rabbits were breast feeeding. Mama rabbit took off as we walked down towards my doorway, with her leaving behind the two extremely small rabbits that were only about one to two inches long. I never saw rabbits that small beforehand.

We went into my house. After a few minuites, I looked to see if mama rabbit came back to be with her two baby rabbits. I ended up taking my camera outside with me. Mama rabbit wasn't there, but, one of the baby rabbits was still there. She must have taken the other baby rabbit to a safer spot in the woods behind my place. I snapped off some photos of the remaining rabbit.

 About a half an hour later, that one was gone, too. Mama rabbit must have removed it to a more secure spot where she most likely had taken the first one to.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Tomato Horn Worms & the Braconid Wasp larvae.

Here's some photos of a green Tomato Horn Worm (THW) that is covered with white Braconid Wasp (BW) larvae. Came across one of them on the branch of one of my tomato plants today.  I cut the branch off with the THW on it and laid it on my sidewalk. Then I snapped off about a dozen photos of it. Then, I did some reasearch and discovered the following info on the Internet:



The THW is the host of the BW. The THW eats the leaves on the tomato plants and also feeds on the green tomatoes plus eats leaves of other vegetable plants.



The THW's are usually from 2 to 4 inches long.
This one is very close to 4" long. This one is headed for disaster.



A full grown BW seems to have laid its eggs INSIDE  the THW.



Then the BW larvae eggs popped out to the outside on this THW.



All of the small individual larve eggs, about 1/4 inch contain a BW.



There seems to be several hundred of these white larve eggs on the BW that are just starting to pop out through the THW's skin..



That will eventually hatch as adult BW's that  fly away within seconds of hatching to find more THW's .



To lay another batch of their larvae eggs inside of.



So, it's recommended that if you see a THW with BW larvae on it,



To leave it alone and let the BW larvae and eggs do its thing,



Which is for the BW to feed upon the THW and to weaken  the THW and to kill off the THW as the BW's grow to maturity before they fly away!