Young nuthatch, who hit the window, but seemed to only be stunned. He flew off after a few minutes.

The caterpillar of the Cecropia Moth, a large (5-6 inches) nocturnal moth. There are two on my Black Lace Elderberry. This one is about 4" long. It is fascinating to watch these two get bigger every day.

My Kwanso daylilies. I was fortunate enough to answer a FREE ad 23 years ago & brought home literally a truckload. But most have stopped blooming. Miracle Grow doesn't help. Anyone have any suggestions of how to get them to bloom?

This has a bird.... A golden eagle figurehead on a Coast Guard sailing ship in the harbor of Rockland, Maine.

A view of the whole ship

Bob, okay, your picture has finally drawn me in from lurking at the KT to posting. I'm normally on the CF or over on the garden side of GW.

But, your USCG sailing ship needs a bit more detail...

The name of the ship is the Eagle. She is the primary sailing training vessel for the USCG. Her home port is New London (Groton), CT.

Built at the Blohm + Voss Shipyard in Hamburg, Germany in 1936, and commissioned as Horst Wessel, Eagle is one of three sail-training ships operated by the pre-World War II German navy. At the close of the war, the ship was taken as a war booty by the U.S., re-commissioned as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle and sailed to New London, Connecticut, which has been its homeport ever since.

Eagle is a 295-foot barque used as a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard. She is the only active commissioned steel hulled sailing vessel in American military service. She is the seventh U.S. Navy or Coast Guard ship to bear the name in a line dating back to 1792. Each summer, Eagle conducts cruises with cadets from the United States Coast Guard Academy and candidates from the Officer Candidate School for periods ranging from a week to two months. These cruises fulfill multiple roles; the primary mission is training the cadets and officer candidates, but the ship also performs a public relations role. Often, Eagle makes calls at foreign ports as a goodwill ambassador.

I live in Mystic, CT - about a 15 minute drive from the Eagle. She is visible from the I-95 overpass of the Thames River.

Sorry for the intrusion...I love this tread everyday. Such great pictures and a very talented group of photographers!

/tricia

Tricia, thanks for the information on the ship. It is a neat looking vessel, that is for sure. I like getting the "back story" on a picture that gets posted here.

Nicole, did your Kwanso bloom at all this year? I can't remember if mine did or not. Do they have a life span? I would think they would.

Mine is a picture of the moon last night.

Bob and Tricia, that ship was here in St. John's, Newfoundland last month. I went on it for a tour and took some pics. It's the 2nd or 3rd time it has been here.

I love the colour of this glad in the front flower bed. It's such a vivid orange, but it looks rather washed out here. :(

The leaves have got "paint splotches" of pale cream colour. I've never seen that on glad petals before.

This is the Orca Too in Newport Harbor, Calif. That is all I know. :-)

Jodi-

Thanks for that info triciae. There were signs on the ship that contained some of the same information, but since we were pressed for time because I had to get back to my father-in-law's place to start prepping for the shrimp/mushroom risotto dinner I had planned, I only briefly read the first few signs, and after that just took pictures of the signs.

I had heard that the vessel was based out of New London, but never heard the state mentioned. One of the signs attempted to answer why the Coast Guard keeps and maintains a sailing ship, and uses it for training when none of the other ships it uses are sailing ships. They had a longish explanation mentioning "learning the sea", "learning to work together", but I think the real reason is its beautiful and cool and it maintains a tie to the past.

I had been sailing on a sunfish the previous day, and was imagining the Eagle trying to chase down smugglers and gaining until the ship had to tack or the smugglers turned into the wind and got away. "Dang it, they escaped again." :-)

Edited to add picture of sign:

This post was edited by bob_cville on Mon, Aug 11, 14 at 11:31

Murraysmom.....I have about a thousand Kwansos. The one in the photo was moved 3 years ago, so it's blooming right now.

I'm guessing that digging them all up....about a ten foot square area....and putting down new top soil and seperating them is all I can do....

I'm NOT looking forward to that. :0)

This post was edited by nicole__ on Sun, Aug 10, 14 at 19:47

Bob, DH and I are long distance mariners (Nordic Tug) and love the Eagle. Have spent many Saturday afternoons crawling around the Eagle when it's in port and open for guests playing pirate also! :) We went to watch the Charles Morgan arrive back to home port (here in Mystic) this week - what a great experience. If you like tall sailing ships - Google... Mystic Seaport, Charles Morgan. Oh well, I'll risk being OT a bit and give the link.

Casey, isn't the Eagle beautiful! I hope you've enjoyed your tours.

/triciae

Here is a link that might be useful: Mystic Seaport

That is amazing that the Eagle was in Newfoundland and you toured it, Karen!! What a small world we live in!! Nice pictures.

Nice pictures everybody! Jasdip, I love the color of your glad. Stunning.

Nicole, a thousand Kwansos??? Wow!! That conjures up quite the beautiful picture!!

Nicole, you need to dig those daylilies, divide them and replant them. They aren't blooming because they are too crowded.

They are beautiful.

A Seagull in the Sun on Saturday.