Dear Friends, Relatives and Acquaintances, January 1st, 2010
Thank you for the many Christmas cards & New Years wishes we've received by email and snailmail. Until now, we missed our deadline for sending any kind of season's greetings out. Well, here t'is....
We hope you enjoy our. . . .
Annual New Year Newsletter of 2009,
- a visual snapshot of some of the more memorable events and highlights of our year.
* NOTE: Words in bold blue below are clickable links to friends' websites.
 |
January - Bill moved his old, mini photo
studio down to a room at Reptile
Industries' facility near Naples, Florida for a long-term
photography assignment. He has photo'd over 450 individual specimens
on black backgrounds for Mark & Kim Bell's websites, and
their entire facility and staff, since January 2009. Here's an
example - Redeye treefrog (Agalychnis callidryas)....
|
|
We haven't yet managed to finish the studio transformation project, but the cleared portion seen above is sufficing temporarily. |
February - We started
remodeling our old 'white building' into a photography studio for people
pictures in conjunction with also launching a new business enterprise. . .
. www.BillLovePhotography.com.
Our first client was a bellydancing troupe from Orlando that wanted
publicity shots with 'exotic' snakes all over them. Our son Flavio
(<left) volunteered to help Kathy
and I wrangle the snakes that day. Here's the finished shot
below....
|
 |
February - Bill and pal Gino
Sassani / Lost World
Reptiles drive out to Dallas - Ft. Worth to vend at the N.A.R.B.C.
herp show in Arlington, Texas. Old bud Carl
Franklin let us camp out at his home, and let it slip that he had
some Spartan (à la '300') Halloween costume gear on hand
from a party. Well, who could resist joining Leonidas to defend the
pass at Thermopylae briefly?
|
|
Bill & Kathy
had their 30th wedding anniversary party on Saturday, three days after the
actual March 18th day. It was like a mini herpers' convention.
|
 |
April - Our nearly 20-year-old roof finally demanded some fixing, which turned into a total repair and re-shingling job over 6 days --- not the kind of financial hit we needed in this slow economic year --- but necessary. Son Flavio oversaw the construction crew.
What a mess ! |
John and Robyn Weigel welcomed him to their ultra cool Australian Reptile Park (above) and to stay overnight. To the right, that's Bill finding a wild 'bobbie' (= shingleback or bobtail skink - Tiliqua rugosus) under a pile of tin on the farm of Roger & Kim Jackson. They own and operate the Naturaliste Reptile Park at Yallingup in the extreme southwest corner of the country. >>>>>>>> |
May - Even with money tight,
when the offer to fly to Sydney and stay a while came (with all expenses
paid) if Bill would be one of the guest banquet speakers (and give a
PowerPoint presentation on the Rise of Herpetoculture at the
4th Australian Frog & Reptile Show, the biggest herp show event in all
of Australia), he couldn't pass us the chance to return after 15+
years. He also spent a week exploring Western Australia with old
friend Adrian Hemens, the owner of Oz's most active herp / pet
website --- Australian PetPages.
Dave Mackintosh of Pilbara
Pythons hosted us up in Port Headland and accounted for the
majority of herps I found and photographed in the northwest of Oz.
|
Our first U.S.-based grandson 'Rohan' was born weeks later after Brian got home. |
June - Returning from Oz through
California, Bill stayed a week with son Brian and his very gravid
wife Charu, and even attended their baby shower (yes, it's cool
for guys to go to baby showers nowadays). With Charu's parents
visiting, Brian and mutual pal Dale Sylvester drove back to Florida
(delivering a co-worker's vehicle, on her dime for gas &
lodging), herping the entire way, part of the way with Skip Kruse
too. We briefly picked up this hitchhiker in Texas....
|
 |
June - Kathy adopted a new kitten, "Putsy Putz", to our home. We're down to just two cats at the moment, possibly a new record low for us. This energetic kitty loves leaping for the bedroom fan cord (below).
|
 |
Late June - Bill returned to
Texas to fieldherp with Slovenian friend Matjaz Rojc in lieu of
going to Mexico after the International
Herpetological Symposium (I.H.S.) was cancelled. Matjaz (left)
and Daryl
Eby (right), a www.FieldHerpForum.com
alumnus, are photographing a pair of roundtail horned
lizards (Phrynosoma modestum) that paused on a dirt track near Big
Bend National Park. Bill later stopped in Brownsville, TX en route
home and fieldherped with old amigo Gus Rentfro / Rio
Bravo Reptiles and photographed many spectacular eyelash vipers of
old amigos Jim & Darlene Campbell (see their tree viper site www.LaVibora.com)
and visited Pat Burchfield at Brownsville
Zoo.
|
En route to and from California, we also visited Craig & Linda Trumbower in Marathon, TX, Chris Roscher / L.A. Reptile near Los Angeles, Bob & Marilee Applegate in Campo, CA, Ron & Mary Huffaker near San Diego,CA, Bob & Sheri Ashley and Jeff & Kim Gee at Portal, AZ, and Dave & Tracy Barker in Boerne, TX on that 3.5-week cross-country trip. |
September - We drove to Arizona
and California to vend at two herp shows, and also have an economy
vacation staying with Kathy's brother Bill Libbey (<
center in pic to left), who lives in Phoenix. We camped
in the Chiricahua Mountains on several nights, and, of course, searched
for herps. The highlight found was this attractive male desert box
turtle seen near Bob & Sheri Ashley's new Chiricahua
Desert Museum at Rodeo, New Mexico (near Portal, AZ).
|
 |
Sept - (<
Left) Us at our tables at the Anaheim (Los Angeles) N.A.R.B.C.
herp show. We later vended at the Tucson
Reptile Show too, around and during which Bill got out and found
some gorgeous rattlesnakes, including an Arizona black rattler (Crotalus
cerberus)....
....and this blacktail rattler (Crotalus molossus) with pal Shawn Moseley.
|
 |
October - Bill flew to San Diego
and photo'd Ron & Mary Huffaker's entire collection on white
backgrounds in a makeshift 'studio' for their soon-to-be-revamped Rancho
de los Tortugas website. The trend nowadays with many
breeders and dealers is to highlight herps against plain black or white so
they're not obscured or 'lost' in the background / habitat, and more
standout to admire.
Above: That's an aberrant Sinaloan milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum sinaloae) by the way. Bill also spent a day fieldherping with old bud Gary Sipperley / San Diego Reptile Breeders. |
 |
November - Thanksgiving dinner
in Marietta, Georgia at the new home of nephew Brian and Nicole
Kosoris.
Left to right across the picture: Nicole Kosoris, Dawn Kosoris (Kathy's sister, mother of Brian), Brian Kosoris, Kathy, Robin Kosoris (Dawn's husband), nephew Jason Libbey (in white), nephew Joshua Libbey, Leonard Libbey (Kathy's brother) and Mia Libbey.
Seeeeee.... we do normal stuff too, sometimes.
|
 |
December 19th - We hosted the
11th annual Calusa Herpetological
Society Christmas party at our home. About 65 people
attended and had a great time smacking a pinata (<
left), playing 'redneck horseshoes' (that's daughter Dasha
trying to get a ringer (below)....
....and exploring the 3/4-mile trail system on the property that's geared up for another new business venture of ours --- www.ReptileRally.com....
|
 |
December - We spent the Christmas holidays in Augusta, Georgia with Kathy's bro Leonard & Mia, with other bro Bill Libbey (in middle) flying in from Phoenix. That's all of us waiting for the auto-timer camera shutter to click so we could dive on a brunch of seafood and veggie rice wraps - a specialty Korean meal that Mia concocted. |
Kathy and friends launched a new website --- www.Amazon-Alliance.com --- dedicated to the keeping, breeding and promotion of a species that's threatening to draw her enthusiasm away from corn snakes. Her small colony of 8 is in its infancy yet, but her dedication to them should change that soon.
|
 |
| Well, that sums up our
year. Friends too numerous to list dropped by to visit and go
fieldherping, plus we undoubtedly missed mentioning a few of you that we
visited. Despite the financial leanness of the year, we managed to
cut back and save in some areas to get by, and found all sorts of new ways
to pinch dollars here and there, and still have fun. Bill traveled
more miles in 2009 than in any year of his life! We head into the
new year with hopes for monetarily greener times ahead, but prepared for
more of the same from the economy.
We sincerely wish the best for you and yours this holiday season! Bill & Kathy Love |
P.O. Box 516, Alva, Florida 33920 U.S.A. TEL: 239-691-4414 EMAILS: WEBSITES: |
