Enjoy the Outdoors. Love the Planet.
All about Nature, about the outdoors<>I love it, photograph it and protect it.
Grits and Bacon Bits! A Marriage Made in Heaven!
Am I the only guy who throws some bacon bits into his grits just before plating ’em?
It’s a very cool trick I discovered while camping last winter and it works just as well in the kitchen, folks!
Of course, I don’t mean bacon bits take the place of the coarsely-ground pepper or the pound of butter you must thrown on there, too!
Speaking of camping: I’m hoping to get back to Trimble Park in Tangerine soon. We’ll see if I can make that work. Should be going back to a four day work week soon; that’ll help.
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Bulldog Barks in This Quick Product Review
Today’s subject is Liqueurs; and I’m dead-set on doing something I almost never do!
Telling everyone I know to avoid a product at all cost!
Please know that I am deadly serious when I say “do not drink this stuff! Don’t ever, ever drink O’Donnell’s Irish Cream!”
I thought it would be a lower priced Bailey’s Irish Cream sort of product, but it’s just awful!
Tastes like soap! Really! Safeguard, if you must know.
If you’re thinking of opting for this nasty stuff because of price, call me! I’ll come over with a bottle of tried-and-true Bailey’s and everything will be fine!
My takeaway: for some things, you just gotta stick with the original!
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Hikers, Hunters, Birders and Campers Love the Tosohatchee WMA
Just 20 minutes east of Orlando is the Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area and it’s a site well worth seeing for outdoor-loving folk like you!
Florida’s Wildlife Management Areas are quite different from State Parks, as folks who want to hike, camp, hunt or target shoot are free to do so in large and completely undeveloped spaces. If you’re a hunter, angler or like to plink, you simply have to have a hunting license and you can engage in those outdoor activities to your heart’s content.
I spent about three hours in the Tosohatchee WMA Thursday and had a ball. I didn’t get as many pix as I often do, but the banner photo here is the one I like best. And I’m headed back to Tosohatchee soon to spend a little more time.
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Bulldog Certainly Does Wish You a Most Happy New Year!
This is a quick blog posting to say that I do hope this brand-new year of 2018 has gotten off to a good start for you! You just might feel–as I do–that 2017 was so awful that this year has just GOT to be better! If so, I think we’re both right!
I did not say a word about the new year on Monday when it was new new, but I ushered it in with some perfectly-cooked black eyed peas with onion, garlic, ham and Bulldog’s special seasonings! And some scratch cornbread which also could not have been better!
And, no, I did not have any champagne, but some ice-cold Coors in those awesome retro-looking bottles worked just fine.
So far the new year’s going alright. The best thing I’ve done so far is today’s trip to our Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area. Had a fine time and got a few good pix; I’ll have a couple of them up here in a new post very soon.
Please accept my best wishes for a safe, fun and thoroughly-amazing 2018! And I hope you get to spend some of it doing some cool stuff outdoors!
My Heart Was Smacked Around Tonight by Joni and Jane!
Note from Ben: I haven’t had a lot to say about music here on da bulldog blog in my first two years, but being a musician and a big-time music lover, it’s a huge thing in my life. So I’m going to have more to say about it moving forward. It’s all about enjoying yourself on your passage through life. And music can be a big part of that!
I love to dash off a quick posting when a song I’ve loved for a while crawls through the speakers in my laptop and into my ear and really moves me.
It happened again tonight. It was a Joni Mitchell song; what can I say?
I’ve loved singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell since Court and Spark came out. Yeah, a long time.
To me the J.M. song that’s the most distinctive is “A Case of You”. If you’re not familiar with it, there’s no way to describe it, really.
Here’s the funny thing: even though I practically worship the ground upon which Joni walks, it’s the Jane Monheit cover of this amazing song that moves me the most.
Well, Joni and Jane tag-teamed me tonight; my heart and brain both feel as though they’ve gone a few rounds in the ring with these two hard-hitting queens of jazz.
Last call! If you want to hear a song that captures perfectly the insane passion in a woman’s love for a man, click on this.
Blusician “Bulldog Ben” Basile
PS: I hasten to add that, though it’s not absolutely necessary, appreciation for this cool tune can be heightened considerably if you’re a beer lover. All the more if said beer lover has had a brew or two by the time the first notes emerge from the speaker…
Of Girls and Gulls
When I get to the beach, taking photos is a big part of the day. For me, it’s quite possibly the biggest part of any trip to the shore.
When the camera comes out, there are usually plenty of possible subjects around.
Seagulls are photographic gold for me. I love watching them. And it’s just too much fun to capture their high jinks on film.
In this photo, it looks like I’m not the only beach-goer who likes to see what the gulls are up to. She doesn’t have a camera, but she’s capturing the moment on that cerebral film we all carry with us wherever we go.
Get outdoors. Get into the woods, go to the beach, just get out there! And when you go, capture some memories.
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
So Where Did 2017 Go?
It’s a given that the farther we are along life’s path, the more time appears to accelerate. I’m thinking that most of this is a matter of perception. But it still comes as a bit of a shock that we’re in the waning moments of 2017.
How did we get here so fast? How is it that each year hurtles by at warp speed? Where does the time go? Where has my life gone?
I know I’m not the lone ranger here; lots of folks who, like me, have survived for six decades or better get into this psychological space regularly. But still, my head is whirling around and it truly seems like something is terribly wrong in the universe.
I’m in this space again as we have gotten so close to the end of the year. Now that those year-in-review things have begun, and folks are checking to be sure that they’ve booked a New Years Eve event, I feel like I’m on some inner precipice, staring into the abyss of time and feeling like I’ll fall over the edge at any moment.
I suppose one strategy to deal with this is to live one’s life in such a way as to make the most of each fleeting moment. And to prioritize our lives so that we spend the most of those finite moments doing the things that matter most. I get it. Doing that each day does not come easily for me, but that is the goal; that’s my New Years resolution. Again!
Meanwhile, I’d be so grateful if the gods of time would please, please, oh please just slow the whole damn thing down just a wee bit. Please!
A Christmas Morning Wish for Everyone
Sending this out again exactly ten years from when I first wrote it! Merry Christmas, everybody!
I wish all of you a wonderful Christmas. This piece of mine was originally posted on Christmas Day, 2007 on another site.
A Christmas wish for everyone today…
This has been a challenging year for me in a lot of ways, yet I find myself feeling even more than the usual holiday spirit right now as I sit at the keyboard, waiting for Santa to come down my chimney. Wait! I don’t have a chimney! Oh well, I still believe! Well, the part about Santa, who can say? The rest of it, I’m still pretty big on all the good stuff that we think about when the holidays roll around each year. No doubt a lot of you feel the same.
I’m real grateful for friends and family this year. I take a lot of that for granted a lot of the time, but right now I absolutely “get it”……
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Bulldog Is NOT On a Disney Cruise Line Ship, but He Just…
He just caught one passing by on his latest beach outing! Full of happy cruisers of all ages, no doubt! Wonder where Mickey and Minnie’s cabin is on this one!
I have to be frank and say this outing was awful as far as pix are concerned, but I had fun. This is quite likely the only photo from this trip which will ever live off my hard drive… We don’t hit a home run every time we step up to the plate, do we?
Going to watch my Bucs on Monday Night Football from my fave beach hang-out before heading home. That would be Slow and Low Barbecue, of course!
I knew this trip would be a quickie, but I wanted to at least hear it and smell it. The sea, of course! I did. And after dinner and some football I’ll head the wrong way on the Beachline Expressway, get myself home and and try to get one or two light tasks done before the late news rolls around, signaling the start of the bedtime ritual. (Of which Stephen Colbert is an important part!)
And after my eyes fly open sometime around 6:15 tomorrow, I’ll go through another thoroughly mundane day, daydreaming of lazy days spent in the woods or at the shore, scheming some way to rearrange the hours and the dollars coming my way this week into some new configuration that just could result in another outdoor adventure!
When we get the chance to have one of those fabulous forays into the wild or over to the shore, it’s such a cool thing. The longer the stay, the better!
And those three or four hour excursions aren’t so bad. When that’s all I can do, I do it!
Get outdoors, friends! You won’t regret it!
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Bulldog’s Christmas Wish Is a Return to Trimble Park
Visiting parks and natural sites, with or without camping, is one way Americans like to spend the holidays. I throw my lot with my fellows who’re into such things.
I’m very much hoping to spend at least a part of the week between Christmas and New Years Day camping in Trimble Park, a fave spot of mine. It’s here in Orange County, but about a half hour away from me.
There are two complicating factors for me at this moment: the first is that I haven’t booked yet and the demand for camping spots around the holidays in very strong. Very, very strong, in fact.
The second potential issue is that I had a minor accident in my PT Cruiser on Monday evening and am not too sure at this point just how long it’ll take me to get my wheels back.
I’m going to do my dead-level best to solve these problems and get back to Trimble Park before the year’s end. For right now, I’ll be content to post a pic I especially like from a previous visit. It features some waterfowl specimen I find fascinating, though I can’t say for sure what it is!
If you can identify my fine feathered friend, a comment with a tip would be most welcome!
I hope the next few days go well for you as we get closer to Christmastime. And remember to get outdoors!
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Enjoy the Outdoors. Love the Planet. 
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