The oil tanker British Tranquility, anchored off the coast of St. Maarten.

I like the shrubby Serviceberries too, I've planted quite a few over the years. One shrub in the sunken garden has to be over 30yrs. old. Is showing some age finally, and has been blown over at least three times, but still blooms and puts out those suckers like you say. I try to keep it more open and bare at the bottom. It was purchased from a nursery that had entered it in a garden show and they had pruned it up so nicely. For the past seven years it's been propped up with a wooden "crutch"! I'm just too attached to it to cut it down, altho I have done some hard pruning in recent years. I have heard the berries are safe to eat, but never tried them. At what point did you pick them - when they are dark red I suppose? Like you say, the Robins and other birds gobble them up even before they turn completely red so I probably would be hard up to gather many of them. What do they taste like?

Jim, we went through the canal in January and somehow I missed seeing that lighthouse. I'll blame it on trying to see over all the bodies that were also trying to see what was going on. We were out on deck by 7:00a.m. and that still wasn't early enough - the early birds beat us to all the good spots!

marcopolo, I can't speak for everyone else, but thank you for your comment. This is my favorite thread too; it's the first thing I look at each morning. I love seeing all of the wonderful photos people share and I enjoy sharing my photos as well. Coming up with something that matches the unofficial theme each day gives me great pleasure!