Enjoy the Outdoors. Love the Planet.
All about Nature, about the outdoors<>I love it, photograph it and protect it.
Good Beach Outing with Lots of Pix
I had a really nice trip to Cocoa Beach recently and have quite a few pix I’m happy with. The next major thing for the blog is to get some of my photos from that hike at the Tosohatchee Wildlife Management area. That’s still on.
And shortly after I get those pix up, I’ll have a bunch ready from the aforementioned beach visit.
For right now, I just have to post with this shot. I’ve never been able to get a cruise ship, a pelican and some of Neptune’s quixotic waves to sync up like they did for this fine foto.
Yeah, it was a moment. The gods of photography were definitely smiling on me at that precise instant.
I’ll take it.
It’s so true that we’ve got to seize those moments when they come. That’s not a skill I’ve mastered, not by any means. But I’m working on it. And this shot is one of those little signs that I’m making some progress.
Hope you’re enjoying life and focused on making the most of the opportunities that come your way.
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Ben Lawrence Basile
Bulldog had a ball baking bread!
I truly did. Baked this skillet bread back around the holidays and wanted to try it again. The only difference is a added 1/4 tsp of Fruit Fresh–basically ground up vitamin C–to help it “live” a day or two longer. A tip from a baking web site.
Not sure how that’s going to work but I do like the way it turned out. Gonna go cut into it and toast some cheese over it right frickin’ now! Just try and stop me!
Hope you’re having a fabulous (Valentines) day and like what you’re eating!
“Baker Ben” Basile
PS: Notice I acknowledged what day it was, but didn’t actually send along an appropriate sentiment; well, if you have a freshly-baked loaf of bread, what would you possibly need a sweetheart for? Just sayin’…
More Photos of the Tosohatchee WMA coming soon
I posted a write up about the recent open house at the Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area about a week ago. It might have given the outdoor enthusiast a pretty decent feel for what that very cool event was like.
What I didn’t do was post more than just one or two pix about the hike we took. Just a quick post today to let you know that I’m putting together a better post about the hike specifically.
I had a lot of fun and took over a hundred pix on our trek through one of Florida’s natural spaces; soon I’ll have that feature up. Until then, the banner photo is one of the shots I like best.
#GetOutdoors!
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Ben Lawrence Basile
Bulldog has a serious Thin Mint addiction!
They got me! I tried walking real fast by their table, but one of them smiled at me! That’s some serious high-pressure marketing right there! Unfair!
Yeah, it’s #GirlScoutCookie time, people! Support your local troop! #ThinMints!
Groggy and with chocolate on my fingers, I am,
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
PS: Why does Publix allow them to set up that table by the entrance every year?
Photo and meme credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Today’s National Pizza Day!
It is, indeed, thee day we celebrate this glorious food and I’m going to chow down on some monster chunk of pizza tonight or my name’s not Benjamin Basile!
I know you love pizza too. If you don’t, there’s just no hope for you.
Being Sicilian, I come by my love of pizza honestly. As you many know, pizza in any part of Italy is not at all like the pizza we’ve come to love here in the States.
Many would describe it as primitive. Overly simple. Lacking in character, deficient in taste….
What you’d most likely find in any restaurant serving pizza in “the old country” would be a simple but tasty dough, stretched out on a real wooden peel, topped with a modest amount of good, hearty tomato sauce… here’s the part that’s hard to swallow, so to speak: it may or may not be topped with cheese!
And if it is, a bit of fresh basil–fresh, meaning not chopped to pieces–may well be the only topping other than sauce and (maybe) cheese. An excellent quality cheese and basil, but you can see what I meant about authentic Italian pizza and American pizza being quite different.
Well, regardless of what your idea of what pizza should be like may be, I hope you get to observe National Pizza Day properly… That is, by getting some in yer belly!
Getting mighty hungry in O’do, I am,
Benjamin Basile
© 2018 Ben Lawrence Basile
Mr Basile is not the owner of this fine foto
About the Open House at the Tosohatchee WMA
This post took a while. Bulldog’s had a lot on his plate of late. But that event at the Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area was very cool, and there’s much on which to report.
First of all, this open house took place on Jan 27th and the occasion was the 75th anniversary of the Florida Wildlife Commission. I was surprised at how robust the turn our was that day. And all the staff I spoke to were quite pleased with it.
The banner photo you see with this post is of some of the FWC crew who were on-hand for the event. There were plenty of staff there, and all the ones I spoke to were very helpful in answering questions and telling parts of the story of the Commission.
You may know that the FWC here in Florida has its own fire crews. They do respond to fires that fall to other agencies, but their primary mission is to be the dedicated team to carry prescribed burns and to respond to wild fires for the FWC. Two of the crew were on hand for this open house and answered a thousand questions; about half of those were from me!
One of the activities on that fine Saturday afternoon was for the kids. Volunteers were on hand to help them “make” a pizza showing them the critters one can encounter in natural Florida and WMA’s in particular. There were no kids at all under the tent when I stopped by and the helpers were really bored. So they prevailed on me to go through the pizza-making process and learn–as the kids do–what one can see in the under-appreciated and undeveloped parts of the Sunshine State.
Of course, there were EMT’s on duty and ready to respond to any situation which called for their skills. I think they were really bored, what with the moderate temps that day, but they no doubt had lots of chances to tell attendees of all ages about what they do.
There were way more things to do at this great event which commemorated 75 years of service by the Fish and Wildlife Commission than I could possibly cover here; suffice to see it was a cool event and I enjoyed myself immensely–and learned some great stuff, especially in my many chats with the helpful crew.
On the way out, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to pose with one of their airboats! Going to take one of those airboat tours before long; that would certainly be material for another post on another day…
Get outdoors, people! Here’s a cliche, but it’s true, nevertheless: you’ll be so glad you did!
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credits Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Philly’s Eagles notch their first ever Super Bowl victory!
Last night’s 41-33 win by the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII came as a bit of a shock to many fans. No, not just fans in New England.
The Patriots were favored to win this one, but Tom Brady fell just a wee bit short with that 4th quarter comeback this time. He threw three TD’s and cracked the 500 yard mark, all to no avail.
Brady’s Hail Mary with no time on the clock took one high bounce off a defender’s hands while Gronk tried in vain to get high enough to pull off a miraculous catch. The ball then thudded to the ground two feet into the end zone.
Just wasn’t gonna happen. I think it was just Philly’s year. I’m a long-time Pats fan, but the Eagles truly deserved it. This was, as you may know, their first-ever win in the BIG one!
Philadelphia QB Nick Foles was the MVP and that was also well-deserved; Nick played well when it counted this season and was smoking hot all through the play offs.
Eagles fans are in the process of celebrating as I write this. Celebrating BIG time!
I think the future for the Philly franchise is quite good, it’s a fairly young team.
The future for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick should be pretty damn good if they both want to keep going. Brady is, after all, on the high side of forty. And when he goes, they both will, most likely. Even Gronkowski hinted that he probably will too, when Tom opts out. Yeah, that part of the post-game interviews was fascinating.
Time will tell. What this dog knows for sure is that last night’s game was Super in every sense of the word. For what more could any fan possibly ask?
Just a bit too full of chips, pizza and beer, I am,
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Fave Fotos: One More from a Summer of ’17 Beach Outing
Time to bring out a photo from a trip back in July. I like this shot. It recreates for me the feel of expectancy just before you get to the end of the ramp where you can see the sand, smell the sea and hear the waves crashing on the shore.
Not too many things in life that can make me feel that good.
It’s been around two to three weeks since I’ve been to the beach. And it’s killing me. Spending a boatload of time and energy tryin’ to figure out how to get back.
I’ll get it done. Until then, I’ve got some pretty damn good pictures.
“Beachdog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Ben Murders a Haiku. The Tree’s Fine.
I just love this gnarly ole tree.
It’s almost as twisted as me!
Yes, this noble tree was one of the cool sights I saw Saturday at the FWC’s open house event at the Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area. Had a great time and took about 200 shots. Including the header photo here that, sadly, had to be associated with my lame attempt at Haiku! I apologize to the tree, and to you, noble reader.
Much more about the open house will be coming in a new post later this week. No more bits of silly doggerel! I promise.
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
About That Lifetime Pass to America’s National Parks!
Back on August 24th of last year, I mentioned that I had applied for that awesome Lifetime Senior Pass to our National Parks. The fee had been $20 for quite a few years, but someone made the decision to jack up the cost to $80!
This came to my attention about one week before the change went into effect, and I wanted to make sure I threw down my twenty bucks and got hooked up before the cost skyrocketed.
It did. I did! And about two weeks ago, I finally had my hands on my Lifetime Pass to the coolest parks on the planet. (Yeah, processing it took a long time!)
If you didn’t beat the deadline, let me encourage you to do it anyway. I think our parks are well worth the new and higher fee, but when I was given an opp to take advantage of that much lower rate, I jumped all over it!
If you want to get to the site where you can still get your pass, follow this link.
Hope you’re all doing well and that you’re taking advantage of your opportunities to bust out of that little box where you spend most of your time, and get out into the wild! Just do it!
Planning a trip to Canaveral National Seashore soon, I am,
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Enjoy the Outdoors. Love the Planet. 
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