Revealing the Revel on Opening Day

   On Monday, April 2nd, 2012, my friends and I went to the Taj with the intent of walking on the boardwalk to the new Revel Casino.  It was a chilly day but it was a manageable ten minute walk about two blocks down toward the inlet of Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Monday was an unusual day for a grand opening. They wanted to open on Sunday, April first but they did not want the opening associated with any April Fool’s joke.

     Little did I know that the next day my friend would find herself in the AtlaniCare Hospital with quite a different view of this magnificent structure.  The hospital there is a good one with recent renovations.  My friend was resigned to the fact that she needed some attention to her health issue but being in a hospital where you have views of some of the top casino hotels helps.

     I am very happy to be able to share these photos because for over a month I thought I lost these shots.  I could not find the memory card that had the photos so I assumed that there was a malfunction with the camera and they just were not to be found.  But today I found the card in pocket of a jacket that I wore.   I am happy to have these photos especially the ones on the casino floor because that day I was flashing away and security said absolutely nothing to me.  But on a later visit the guards were very stern in their warning against taking photos on the casino floor.  That must be a challenge for them when small camera phones are ubiquitous and video slot winners whip them out to record a picture of their jackpot screen. The structure is stunning.  There is a layered curvaceous foundation and then the soaring tower.  Inside a clean minimalist decor is not in any way extravagant.   One stairwell had an art feature that I liken to a hundred dangling fishing lines with gilded irregular squares anchored at odd angles.  It is very appealing but I think it is a look that I can replicate with some items found at the local craft store.  In comparison I think the Taj decor is dated but they have these magnificent chandeliers that only can be made by glass artisans.  And they do not have one chandelier they have many.

 





      

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Security was tight that day:

Earth Day April 22, 2012

    It's Earth Day tomorrow but I am posting today because of the forecasted rain event. We are so dry around here. We desperately need it. My hope is that the rain will also help to sprout seeds on the scarred and barren ground that they just about clear-cut near my house. Because the prediction is for an inch or two of rain, erosion and flooding might occur but I am holding out for the possibility that a load of good topsoil may wash into my yard. Yeah, I am the bottom of a hill.

The Iris plants are loaded with buds and here is the first bloom: 

 A friend gave me some 3-foot tall saplings of the Rose of Sharon shrub or tree, hens and chicks, and some lavender.  I have been trying to grow hollyhocks with no luck so I was delighted to try these these resilient relatives in the hibiscus family.  They are going right next to the property line to give me privacy from the ever increasing traffic to the school.  Next year the high school will be at full capacity when they have their first senior class. Here's a photo of the hens and chicks.  Don't they look like they have been there forever?

With the devastation behind me I have new appreciation for the seedlings that I find around the house.  These were collected in out of the way little nooks and many were hiding just under shrubbery.  I have potted up, American holly, dogwood, swamp maples, oaks, pines, red bud, huckle berry, and laurel.  I will baby these plants:

Now some might think this is a trashy looking thing to junk up a garden.  So to feature this item here on Earth Day I am a little embarrassed but I am having so much fun with this solar powered butterfly.  Its action is so realistic.  It jiggles and flutters round in circles.  I know it is realistic because I saw a robin go after it---only once it was fooled : 

Maybe I will get a to share a few strawberries with the birds:

This is for documentation only.  I do not care for my cultivated blueberries properly so last year the berries were plentiful but this year these are the only blossoms that I have from four bushes.  So I definitely will not be tasting my own blueberries:

Same as above.  I did not care for my asparagus enough to get those fat stubby shoots.  What do you expect from pine barren soil?  My grandfather came over once and called it "sweet potato soil".  Just about pure sand!  It needs to be "amended" with manure :

Cranberry bogs up in Chatsworth needed a drink, too:

A trip to the bay in Tuckerton, NJ gave us this view.   http://www.tuckertonseaport.org/      Love this town:

Two more scenes from Tuckerton:

    

    Finally, my house with the red maples starting to leaf out and a dogwood in bloom.  Never went for the gusto and got myself a beautiful pink cultivated one like my neighbor's.  Happy Earth Day :

Springtime in the Pines

    I am still grieving the loss of the woodlands behind my house.  So now instead of walking a few steps to wilderness I have to drive about a mile down the road to the lake area.  I once took a day course with a biology professor from Glassboro State College now know as Rowan University.  We stopped at several sites in the Pine Barrens:  cemeteries, pygmy pine forest, the remains of old settlements, Oswego Lake and then a surprise stop.  We stopped at the Egg Harbor City Lake that is within walking distance of my house.  I was able to see the area with new eyes.  You would have thought that he had a house on the lake for how he went on about the area.  As we surveyed the more isolated part of the lake we observed cedar trees, turtles, the tea-colored water, and the birds.  The professor spotted a Great Blue Heron's nest of all things!  I have since gone back to see if I could find another roosting heron but never had any luck.

Lone Canada Goose on the Egg Harbor City Lake:

Rustic Cottage---Picture Perfect :

Unpaved Road

Daffodils are now replaced by mountain pink phlox:

Needed to research the following image.

Ok, I will say that this is sassafras--extremely common in our woods and I am shocked that I did not recognize it.  I even have this in my yard!

Another one that I have to research.

      Edit--- after my research:  This one is the invasive species of Japanese Honeysuckle.  I did an image search and had a very hard time identifying it because these lobed leaves are only common in early spring later leaves will not have this lobed effect as much.

Woodpecker nest hole!  This one is in use and I am

 happy that the developer did not get this one!!