What do you say, we start the week off with a Photo Safari Report?  Feels like that's a way to start a new week on the right foot!  (tha'ts me on the left and  Joy on the right by the way)

This photo safari report will be the twice as nice hike.  You will see why very shortly.

​
We began the hike at Lemon Bay Preserve.  It's a local place, very pretty and since it's no where near the Mayakka River which seems to be responsible for flooding most of our other hiking spots, we had high hopes.  And it started off really well too.  In fact, at one point Joy remarked that we didn't need to hike, we could just continue to stand in one spot and take pictures of everything flying our way!  The air was filled with all  sort of  birds!  (of course I only captured these 3 but still)

AND, because  there was a fierce storm the night before, there were loads of beautiful water drop pictures to be had:

To say nothing of this very acrobatic squirrel who was doing a high wire act for us:

Then, eventually, we walked on down the path and around a corner only to find:

Well dang.  Now what?  I mean we are fairly intrepid, sometimes even to our own disadvantage. But this isn't just muck and a little puddle or stream we can hop over. We cannot even build a frond bridge over that. And it appeared that the wet just continued so...end of the hike?  Nah, we dont' give up that easily.

Instead we moved on to the Urban Forest which is a wonderful and relatively new place to walk and wander just off island.  It's a forested area which has been created solely by volunteers right alongside the ICW (Inter Coastal Waterway) and the riding/walking trail that follows it.  The Urban Forest is literally only a few feet away from the trail and the waterway but it might just as well be miles. It's a whole other world.  In a word, it is amazing.

I'll start with the botanicals because they were legion!  These flowers are sprinkled throughout the forrest and to our surprise, at one point, there was a specifically designed Butterfly Garden that was loaded with their intended prey along with bees a plenty.  In fact, there was one of the Urban Forrest voluneers hard at work in the butterfly garden as we walked through.

And there were other birds, different from what we saw at Lemon Bay - nice bonus eh?

AND did any ask about insects?  Yeah we got those.  And a bonus snail too!

On our return, for a time, we actually crossed through the urban forrest and came out along the hiking/biking trail to see an entirely different world!  It was almost jarring. But I did take some photos:

It was an unusual hike (for us) but still a good one and I think we got some good photos to go along with a nice hike a good company.  The only question that remains is, where will we go this week?

​Hope you enjoyed the Twice as Nice Hike!  I'll post again soon :)  Hugs all 'round

Don't know if you ever heard of this place before.  We had not.   But once we did learn of it, naturally we had to check it out.  Field Trip!!!!!

My post earlier this week listed all of the superfun things we did over the long weekend. One of those things was our visit to this particular place.  It's down in Naples Florida which is roughly a 90 minute drive.  No biggie.  On a nice day with relatively minimal traffic it was an easy drive (which is silly of me to say because I wasn't the one doing the driving, but still....)

Seed to Table is a grocery store.  A grocery store worth driving a total (round trip) of 3 hours to check out?  Yes.  Yes and yes and yes!  It was the most interesting and unusual grocery store I have ever been to.  Why, you ask?  Well, let me count the ways.

First of all, it was packed.  We were lucky in our timing as we ever so slowly crept down an aisle just as someone was pulling out.  Naturally we zipped right into that spot.  Great start.  Out in front of the store is a deep covered porch type area filled to overflowing with plants and flowers - all of sale of course.  They were gorgeous and healthy and of tremendous variety, easily a step or two above the average grocery store flower section I would say.

Then we stepped through the doors into a wall of sound.  I mean...holy cats...why on earth is the music so loud? We fairly shouted at each other.  Then we responded by shrugging back at one another and I thought to myself, at least it's good music.  Meaning, music of our general era.  Music we could dance to, music we knew all the lyrics too. Cool.  Then Tim realized why it was so loud.  It was a live band playing upstairs.  Upstairs?  Yup this grocery store has two floors.

hWe knew right away, this place was gonna be a different sort of experience.  And that was highlighted as we randomly chose to turn to our right and enterred the bakery zone.  OH My Gosh. It was almost endless. Racks and tables and shelves at every turn filled to over flowing with beautiful, tempting, luscious calorie filled goodies.  And that's before we ever got to the specialty case which had cake after pie after cobbler after tart after cupcake after brownie in flavours that had us nearly drooling. And that was before we even got to the cookie section.  Holy Cats!

Eventually we came out into the produce department.  Which I would say is more like your average produce department just there was a lot MORE of it in both amount and variety than most stores.  And it was stacked with either military precision or creative artistry. Not merely loaded onto a display willynilly.  

,Produce sort of seguied into the butcher department and that nearly took Tim's breathe away.  He has always been a big time carnivore so obviously the butcher department sort of wowed him.  All of the meats appeared to be of excellent quality, again I was impressed with the wide variety of cuts and meats.  There were, for example, 7 different kinds of bacon to choose from in the display case.  It's not just "one pound of bacon please"  but what sort?  I would never be able to choose.  

Next up was cheese.  So much cheese.  Again the possibilities just boggled my mind.  There were different cheeses at every turn, every display, every refrigerated case and every rack.  I am not a cheese person, being lactose intolerant has impacted my ability to had an affection of cheese, but I was mightily tempted there.  Still, how would I or anyone ever choose??

The various grocery sections just went on and on in similar and very impressive fashion which had us goggling and open mouthed and pointing like typical tourists as we stage whispered to each other to "look, look" while we very slowly continued our wander.

And that's when we noticed, restaurants.  Here and there, tucked throughout the grocery store were tiny little restaurants.  Each with a particular focus. What are you in the mood for?  Sushi?  They had it.  Pizza ?  You betcha.  Burgers?  Or course.  Taco's?  Absolutely, Pasta?  Why not! : 

Or perhaps by this point in the shopping excursion, you are just  thirsty.  There was a place for coffee and tea, another for smoothies, beer and wine  (because who doens't need a little pickmeup & mellowmeout while shopping) and of course fountain drinks of a sort:

And if this wasn't enough, there were quirky funny things here and there and an entire political merch section if you were interested in that sort of thing.

Just when I thought we had to have run out of departments we found the store made ready to cook, eat or reheat foods.  Once again, quality and variety were impressive.  The ready made soups alone were an entire huge section!  Whoa!  There was even an indication of a new department, which is "coming soon" called the Greenhouse.  Plants, flowers and herbs maybe?  But in it's own whole literal Green house section.  Mercy!

When we finally  made our way to the door (purchases in hand - naturally we had to try a few treats from the bakery department), I noticed a calendar of Events and Entertainment by the exit.  Events?  Entertainment?  Yes, it's a regular thing at Seed to Table.  I couldn't help myself, I laughed right out loud.

On our drive back home, I found myself looking up Seed to Table and learning about the Oakes Family who own and run the joint.  They literally do own every single step of the process from planting the crops to maintaining, harvesting, packaging, processing, shipping AND obviously the store itself.  It's a hardscrabble, rags to riches, very impressive success story that makes you root for the family as you read.  Their hope is to eventually make the entirety completely employee owned.  Awesome.  How can you not love that?

We spent way more time than anyone would ordinarily expect at a grocery store.  But then, this was no ordinary grocery store was it?  I wish I had taken more photos for you but I was too busy being agog.   If you ever happen to be in Naples Florida and have a non-beach day or part of a day when you are at loose ends, I strongly recommend checking this place out.   You really cannot truly believe it until you see it. I've done a very poor job of describing how wow it was.

Anyway, as field trips go, this one was pretty good. AND the bakery treats we bought?  They were Excellent!

The above photo has nothing to do with what I'm about to say but everything to do with what I will eventually say today.  Did you follow that?  

How was your Labour Day Long Weekend Holiday?  Hope it was absolutely grand ;)  Ours certainly was and there was so much involved in it!  Our holiday had a little bit of almost everything good.    We had a fabulous Minock Day (you already know how I feel about those - the best days ever!), an amazing hike and a field trip (which I will write about another day).  We attended a surprise birthday party (which was wonderful!) and even managed to have a little bit of very mellow downtime.  Whew!  We should be exhausted!  LOLOL

Today I will write first about the hike!  So obviously this will be a photo safari report.  And since the place we hiked was flooded, yupppers, I'm going with the obvious.  This will be the Flood Waters Hike.

We have had so much rain lately. I mean even for the rainy season, it's been a lot of rain. And then you add in Tropical Storm Debby that brought something like 6 inches of rain to our area on top of it and it is not beyond comprehension to learn that most of our favourite hiking spots are largely underwater or at least majorly mucky.  Originally Joy and I were just going to walk around Venice Island taking photos (and there's nothing wrong with that!) but at the last minute, Joy learned the Myakka State Park had reopened so hurrah, that's where we headed.

As we drove in, the Ranger at the entrance reminded us to Stay In The Car due to the flooding.  It's not because they necessarily worry about us getting wet or dirty or yucky wading through flooded areas, it's because the flooding brings wildlife much closer than usual to the road through the park.  Especially dangerous wildlife such as:

Yup, gators.  And they be sneaky and quiet too soooo yes, we stayed in the car 99% of the time.  On the few occasions when we got out of the car, one of us took the photo, the other one was on lookout.  You know Joy's philosophy..."Always know where your alligators are" .  It's good advice.  Oh and did you notice the dragonfly over the snout of the first alligator?  Brave soul.

Although we knew the place was flooded, I mean in our heads, we mentally were aware, it's still kind of Whoa to see it in person.  Picnic tables and bicycle racks that you would have to wade or swim to and water right up to the edge of the road were common sights.  Whole areas were roped off, "Danger, Will Robinson!"  And still we saw one man walking out into the water. What the heck man...alligators and water snakes mean nothing to you?

On the other hand, we did see birds. Lots of birds.   A lovely variety of birds AND my very first owl!  So exciting!  Up until this particular hike, whenever someone else saw an owl and tried to point it out to me, I just couldn't see it.  Sort of like those art pieces from twenty or so years ago where if you unfocused your eyes while starring you were supposed to eventually see the hidden image.  Remember those?  I could NEVER see it.  The hidden image remained hidden for me, forever.  That's how I always was with Owls.  WAS being the operative word.  

To be fair, Joy spotted it. Stopped and backed up the car and pointed,  "Oh my gosh, "  She said, "Look at the owl!"  and she snapped away through the window.   I saw nothing and said so.  "For heavens' sakes, Sam, it's right there"  She pointed again and moved the car into another position.  "Nope, nothing' I said while squinting, peering, starring and not finding it.  Finally I told her to not worry about, she got the photo and that was fine with me.  And we started to very slowly pull away and suddenly, there it was.  The Owl in question!  Holy Cats!  Joy slammed on the brakes and I got the shot.  Wow! My first owl photo!  (oh and other birds too)

We did of course see a few other critters of one sort of another and I got a couple of botanicals as well

And I guess that about wraps it up.  The Flood Waters Hike was a little bit unusual but a whole lot great.  Hope you enjoyed it.

I'll be writing up at least one other part of the long weekend another day later this week.

​Hope you had a wonderful Labor Day Holiday!!

Wandered over to the beach again recently and came away with some interesting photos that I thought I'd share with you, if you don't mind.

As I'm sure all of you already know, there is something special about the light at the end of the day. It's called the Golden Hour for a good reason.   And in this particular series of shots, the sky was such an amazing addition to the already spectcular quality of the light that, well, I think it made for some really decent shots.

It was raining way off in the distance, we could actually see the rain out over the water on the horizon and some very impressive flashes of lightening as well.  No matter how hard I tried, I never did get any shots that showed the lightening, dang it.  So you will have to just imagine that part.  It would have been a bit of luck of course since there is no predicting exactly when or where those strikes will occur.  But hope springs eternal. I will continue to try.

Here we go:

At one point there was a very bright rainbow to our east, but I wasn't able to get a good photo of it to share .  So that's minus two for me today.  No rainbow and no lightening.  Ratz.

This isn't a very long post but sorry, it's all I got today. And it's likely to be the only post I do this week because somehow this week is turning out to be madly over scheduled, crazybusy !  But hopefully next week I can go back to at least two post s a week and even better, have something interesting to write about.

So in the meantime, please have a wonderful, fun and safe Labor Day Weekend!

​Hugs all 'round

I'm going to make a statement here that you may disagree with.  And that's ok.  We don't all have to always have the same beliefs or opinions or feelings about things.  Really.  We can be friends and disagree about some stuff.  We can even like each other and believe different things. Honest! It's true!   (or perhaps you disagree with the concept in which case, you probably don't care to be my friends, becoz we disagree about his - see how that works?)

The statement is "  Cats are Magical.

Now I dont' mean that in a Lucky Charms - Magically delicious or Magically delightful sort of way.  Nor do I believe that cats are witches "familiars" or companions. Nope, this is not a black magic, wand waving, spell casting, incantation sort of thing at all.  I mean its more about a cats inherent inscrutability, their mysterious ways,  their inexplicable actions - that sort of thing.  It must be magic for I cannot come up with any other explanation.

For example:  We have two cats.  If you read my blog you already know this.  Brysco and Wyatt, the house panthers.  We got very lucky with these two as they are so very funny and adorable. They almost always prefer to be in whatever room we are currently inhabiting, they cuddle close to us and sweetly request pets, they do not bite or scratch us, they understand and obey the word "no" and they come when called.  Well, they usually come when called.  Every once in awhile it's as if they have either disappeared or we have misplaced them somehow.

Case in point:

Recently, on a day when Tim had been hard at work in his office all day and I had just come home from the museum, I stepped through the door and.......................nothing.  Usually there is at least, AT LEAST, one kitty to welcome me home.  But nope.  No cat.  Odd.  I went in to greet Tim and asked him and he had not seen or heard them in a bit. He had not. They must be sleeping, we concluded.  And while I respect their nap,  I missed my kittyboys and wanted to see them!  All you pet lovers out there understand this, right?  So I went on a hunt.

I can tell you where they weren't:

​They were not in any of the three kittybeds in the house. They were not in the big kitty bed in the family room, not in the grey bed around the corner, nor was there a cat in the hiding place bed in our closet (for when they feel the need to be extra safe):

So I had to think where else they might be.  And once again, I learned where they were not.  They were not snoozing on either the guest bed or our bed:

I was beginning to get a little nervous.  Could they possibly have escaped the house?  Should I be looking outside and calling for them?  I calmed myself down.  That's ridiculous.  No opposable thumbs remember?  They cannot turn door knobs!  They MUST be in the house.  

I redoubled my efforts.  Think, Sam, Think! Where else do they like to catch a few Z's?  They do like snuggling on the various quilts around the house. So I checked those out.  

No kitties.  Ok , clearly I was thinking like a human and what I needed to do was think like a cat.  Where would I be if I was a cat?

Perhaps in one of the cat trees?  

Nada.  Where else can I possibly look?  Well maybe inside one of the playcubes.  They do love those and it has happened before that they were playing in a cube and fell sleep inside.  The tricky part there is black cats in a black cube are pretty much invisible.  So you have to look very closely and/or just reach in and hope to encounter something warm and soft.  I bravely checked those out.

As you can see, no kitties.  Dang!  This was beginning to feel like the Where's Waldo of kitties!

They do have a couple of unusual sleeping spots. Every once in awhile on a very hot day they make their way to the bathrooms.  Brysco prefers the sink in our bathroom

Wyatt on the other hand, can occasionally be found in the guest bath shower:  But as you can plainly see, no kitties in either location.  Ratz!

I could feel the panic creeping up again.  Wait a minute.  Remember that old adage about hiding in plain sight?  Could it be as simple as, they are right in front of me and I just am not seeing them?  I checked windows.  Kitties do love windows.

Zippity Do Dah, kitty-wise.   Ok they aren't right in front of me, so maybe I should look in less likely spots?  I checked under beds, behind chairs, under coffee tables and moved on to other things like, the top of the fridge

All locations were catless.  Where on earth could they possibly be?  This is a small house.  There are just so many possibilities.  Where are they?  

I said to Tim, " Rumor has it that we own a couple of cats but I see no evidence to support that" .  He chuckled and assured me that they must be around here somewhere and went back to work.  Dang!  I couldn't think of anywhere else to look and I was about to start at the top of my list and begin searching all over again when, suddenly, there they were. As if they had been there the entire time.  Watching me.

I rushed to cuddle them. "Where were you guys? I've been so worried about you" I gushed.  They slow blinked at me, purred mysteriously and meowed for their dinner.  As I fed them I concluded that one of three things must be true, 

Either :

1:  Cats truly are magical creatures

2:  There is a portal somewhere in this house to another parallel dimension that they are able to step in and out of at will

3:  Cats are aliens and who knows what sort of powers and alien might have

I'm not  sure which is true, but it's gotta be one of those three.   I think it's the first one.  Cats be Magical.

Hot Dogs. Frankfurters. Franks. Weiners. Sausage. Brat. Footlong. "The Legendary Tube Steak". Whatever name they go by in your house, hot  dogs are pretty basic and ain't nothin' wrong with 'em.  There are a lot of different brands of course and some manufacturers get kind of fancy and have different additions  - cheese, jalapeno's, various herbs and spices.   None of them are wrong but I'm sure you favour one sort over others if you have the choice.  

We lean toward all beef hot dogs that are big enough that the bun/doggie ratio is balanced.  Don't want too much of one thing in each bite.   Tim prefers natural casings hot dogs which we find at our local farm market and he absolutely loves them cooked on the grill.  

I don't usually make them very often, even though they are easy peasy for a meal.  I try to get as much variety as possible in the menu rotation which means that good old hot dogs just somehow don't happen very often.  And because of that,  I usually do not have proper hot dog buns on hand, which further means that I would have to make a special grocery store trip to buy them for that one  meal.  And therein lies the issue.  I just don't want to go to the market for One Item.

I don't want to grocery shop at all. I just don't care for it very much.  And quite honestly, I think it probably has more to do with the current price tags than anything else.  Sticker shock at the end of each trip is jarring.  It has gotten to the point where I have stopped looking at the total. I just zoopzoop my card and head out the door with my few measly bags. Avoidance technique.  It's working for me.

The point here isn't to whine about the high cost  of every freakin' thing in the world right now.  It 's about getting creative with something as basic as a hot dog.    Over the weekend, I thought hot dogs would be a great idea for dinner.  I never know for sure what we are doing on the weekends so a dinner that is quickquick and easypeasy sounds like a smart plan, right?

When it came time to cook the hot dogs I realized (a little belated and shame on me)  that what I thought was a bag of hot dog buns from the freezer was actually a bag of hamburger buns.  Dang.  Sometimes I move too fast and don't investigate enough. (which is why, on a number of occasions, I've returned home with raspberry jam instead of strawberry. Right brand, right size, right colour, wrong flavour)

It's not and "end of the world" level problem.  It's easy enough to cut the doggies in half long ways and use the hamburger bun, right?  But then I remembered a little video I happened to see recently and yay!  Fun!  Perfect opportunity to give it a whirl.

The idea in the video was to make the hot dog go into a circle so it fits round on the round bun.  "But how?",  you may be asking yourself.   Well, it turns out to be much like a carpenter puts a lot of tiny cuts into a straight piece of wood to curve it.  Put a lot of tiny cuts into the hot dog.  So Clever!

So here is what it looked like...tiny cuts, then bent round and secured with a toothpick that I soaked in water (so it wouldn't catch fire):

,Obviously I had a little difficult determining how far apart the cuts should be AND how deep they should be.  Experimentation  eventually led to better circles :)

Once I had them all cut and secured, I put them on the grill, just like an ordinary hot dogs and in short order (one of the best parts about hot dogs is that they cook quickly) they were ready !  Here they are hot off the grill:  Tim loves the char!

The next part, putting them on the bun of course was easy.  Tim likes his with mustard and pickle or relish.  I made the executive decision to use pickles this time so there would be something filling that middle bit of the circle:

Then I served them with deviled eggs and baked beans.  It was a perfectlyeasy summer dinner and so dang cute too.  Come on, aren't those adorable? :

I am constantly amazed at other people's creativity!  AND I learned one more new thing.  My dad always told us to learn at least one new thing every day.  This was my one new thing on Saturday!

And if you've never heard of the idea before, now you have learned one new thing too. Whether you ever try it or not, you know it now. One new thing a day!  Done!

Happy Friday to you!  This post will be relatively quick and painless, just a little something to get your weekend started.

Earlier this week, after dinner, instead of just settling in to relax 'til bedtime, I decided that I wanted to walk over to the beach.  We used to walk over around sunset multiple times a week but we kind of fell out of the habit.  Which happens every year right around this time.

Part of it, I think, is because by the end of the day we are pooped.  I mean well and truly knackered.  The idea of walking from the family room to the bedroom to sleep is almost more than I can bear to contemplate.  But also, the heat and humidity makes even the short walk to the beach, a sweaty miserable trudge rather than a lovely evening stroll.   During the summer we tend to visit the beach via car which, considering how close we are to it is honestly, a little silly.  But silly or not, the fact of the matter is, we haven't walked over in a bit.

However, on that night, when I told Tim of my intentions, he volunteered to come with me. What a nice man he is.  Indulging me in my insanities.  

We donned sunglasses, I grabbed my camera and we pointed ourselves to the west.  It's less than a mile walk through pretty neighborhoods and we actually do enjoy seeing what is interesting (to us) things along the way, "look at the  beautiful hibiscus blooming", "what a pretty colour they chose to paint their house", "Check it out, Big White Bird at 2 o'clock",  "Oh look, the pink house is for sale!". Yeah we chittychat as we walk.    Then in no time at all, we are at The Esplanade and the entrance is just ahead of us:​

Up and over and all of a sudden, there is a wonderful breeze upon us and the Gulf of Mexico before us.  It's a beautiful thing to behold.

While there were some small groups of people further down at the main entrance near the lifeguard shacks, there was only one lone fisherman by us.  That's the way I like it best.  Not to be anti-social or anything, but sometimes when I go to the beach, the only music I want to hear is the sound of the surf and the birds, y'know?

We did wander for a bit along the edge of the water and then returned back up higher where it's more level (easier walking) and I took more photos.  There was still a bit of flotsam from last weeks' storm that had washed ashore and that caught my eye along with some other things:

We didn't stay long enough to watch the sunset, but headed back home instead.    There was one last look of longing:

And then it was back up and over the little bridge and we headed home.  So glad we went.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this to you before, but my husband is a freakin' genius.  I'm serious.  If ever there is an issue, a problem, a conundrum that I take to him, he has an answer for me.  For anyone really.  He doesn't intrude into situations uninvited, but if you ask him a question, he will find an answer.  It's very cool.  And I guess I am so used to it that I don't really think about it anymore.  I suppose you could say that I take him for granted.  Shame on me!

Now I don't mean that I expect him to solve all of my problems.  I don't go whining to him about every little piddly thing. I have a perfectly good brain of my own, I am reasonably well educated and well read.  And I have always lived by the adage that if you don't use your brain it'll go bad on ya.  So I use my grey matter on a regular basis.  However, now and again, things come up that are just beyond my own capabilities, knowledge or experience.

This weekend was one of those times.  

Now I have to back up a little bit.  When we first bought this house, one of the things we did immediately was get a new HVAC system.  It was June in Florida - a hot and humid place - and we had newly arrived from Colorado - a dryer far cooler place.  Good AC was paramount.  

Originally the  HVAC  in our newly purchased home was rather old and inefficient.  It also lived in the kitchen (of all places) in a teensy tiny closet squished in next to the washer and dryer.    It was a terrible place for all of it.  So Tim had them construct the new system in the adjacent utility room instead.  Brilliant idea right off the bat.    So that's what the HVAC did.  

The brand new HVAC system was built on a plywood platform that they constructed and goes all the way up to the ceiling.  I don't think I've ever seen an HVAC system built that way before but in my head it sort of made sense.  Hot air rises, Cold air sinks.  So if the cold air in each room starts at the top of each room and sinks slowly to the floor, the entire room would feel cooler would it not?  Ok.   Maybe I'm wrong as to the why of it, but that's how I worked it out in my little head.  I've never actually asked.

And at any rate, the only part of it that figures into this story is the platform part.  That is essential.   You see, Thursday we found a little water on the utility room floor.  Not that big a deal, it's happened before and usually it is corrected by Tim replacing the filter and bleeding off a little water into a bucket, adding some vinegar, I mop up the water and then all is well with the world again.

This time it was a little odd tho because he had already replaced the filter recently. Hmmm.  Oh well.  And we went about our day until I found water on the floor again and again and again!  Grrrrr.  Each time I would sop up the water with towels, then dry the towels to be used again. For his part, Tim would look the system over, fiddle with this or that, look into things and hmmmm again.  The filter, interestingly was all bent up.  It went in nice and neat and straight as a pin but came out bent over like an old man with osteoporsis.  Not Good.

Tim's diagnosis was that the HVAC itself was somehow bending.  That's very weird and not good at all.  We spent that first night, every two hours, replacing soaked towels with dry ones, running the wet ones through the spin cycle of the washer then the dryer, then folded them and stacked them ready for their turn to keep the water at bay.

Friday, after doing just a few absolute essential things for work, Tim took the day off to really concentrate on this issue.  One of the things he discovered was that the system was leaking, not directly onto the floor but into the box platform.  Which, as I said before, is made from plywood which then bleeds it out onto the concrete floor of the utility room.  The scariest part is that the entire system rests on this box which is now compromised, that is weakened, by water.  We were terrified that the entire thing was going to kind of collapse into itself.

Now obviously, an HVAC repair guy needs to be called, but nobody in their right mind wants to pay emergency rates, I promise you.  If you've never had to do that, I'll just  say this, it's sort of like taking out a second mortgage on your home.  You really want to avoid an emergency visit.

So first order of business is to make sure the platform continues to hold up!  Tim dove in and checked it out and ultimately put together supports via lally columns and 2X8'sto prop it all up securely.  He then shop vacced/toweled out the wet inside the box.  Great!  Whew!  

Next up was rerouting the leak.  He found a way to force the leak to exit at the front of the contraption into a bucket.  Once the bucket was full, we could easily empty it outside.  Taadaa!  Great idea!  Except,   you have to constantly pay attention to how full the bucket is which means, you aren't leaving the house for very long and you are absolutely going to wake up  multiple times during the night to be certain it isn't over-flowing.  And then too, it's a HEAVY bucket. Water is phenomenally heavy.

The obvious (to Tim not me) and logical next step was to put wide circumference tubing into a hole in the side of the bucket toward the bottom with a valve so when the bucket is full, the valve can be opened and the tubing can be pointed out the back door and the water emptied super easily right back into nature where it belongs.  Awesome.

But that wasn't good enough for my man!  His last tweak was having the tubing go directly outside on it's own so that nobody has to mess with it at all.  What a relief!

The utility room is dry, the dang leak is draining outside directly and nobody has to be awake and on duty all night long ready to leap to DefCon 4 at any moment.  

Now we can just go on the schedule of the repair guy and he will get here whenever he gets here (who knows?) and fix it, as he fixes it, and the only stress with be the price tag of the repair.

I could have been a very different scenario.  If Tim wasn't such a smarty britches and figure out how to at least put a really really good bandaid on this problem I cannot even imagine what today would be like.  I might have been writing this from an ark.  Or underwater.  

Like I said, My husband is an absolute genius!  Reason number 356 why I adore him.

​

With all the furor  over the big Storm, my planned Photo Safari Report got lost in the shuffle!  Oh dear!  I try to write those up as quickly as possible so that I don't forget to include any of the little thoughts I have while hiking.  But alas, since Joy and I hiked last Thursday, nearly a full week ago now, I probably have forgotten a thing or two that I was originally planning to say.  Drat.

BUT  I will write it up as best I can anyway.  Please Bear With Me.  I'm old, I forget things sometimes.

At any rate, as I said, Last Thursday, before we knew there would be a doggone storm, Joy and I headed out to Carlton Reserve, which is one of our favourite places to hike as it has loads of trails and we always find interesting things to snap.  We arrived nice and early, as we'd hoped, with not one other soul in sight. Which should have been our first clue.

We chose our first trail and headed on down, snapping a little of this and a little of that along the way:

And then we rounded a curve and dang, nothing but muck and water as far as our eyes could see.  We couldn't even go around it because the water pooled in every direction.  I mean, this time of year it's not unusual for there to be some trails flooded, but this was a little unexpected.  Oh well.  We turned around, headed back to where we started and set out along a different trail.  Once again, capturing a few photos as we strolled along:

Sadly we didn't get very far before we found a lot of this:

Double Dang.  "Water, Water Everywhere, Not a Drop to Drink" so sayeth I while quoting the Ancient Mariner (Samuel Coleridge).  Every direction we looked, every trail we attempted was flooded.

Now what.  Sadly, we trooped back to the car and debated what to do next.  Shall we just give up?  Or try somewhere else?  Part of the issue here is that if one preserve is flooded, odds are that the others are too.  One of the things that Florida has a lot of is water. Loads of it.  Not just ocean and gulf, but lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, creeks.  You want water baby?  Florida's got it!

We decided to at least try one other local hiking spot.  It's a small preserve and we've been there roughly a zillion times, recently!  But a hike is a hike is a hike  AND it was on the way home so why not.  Joy pointed the car to Curry Creek Preserve.

We were greeted by a guard Lizard.  We assume he was the guard.  He was the strong silent type and didn't say so,  but he had that look about him y'know?

Honestly, I did not have high hopes for doing yet another Curry Creek hike, but on the other hand, I do love being outside tramping around in the forest and I love spending time with my sister soooo what the heck, why not.  Gave myself a little attitude adjustment and was rewarded with some nice birdie shots.  Not a lot, just three or four I think:  (turns out it was five, sorry)

A number of bugs, one of which I didn't even know what was (still don't):

Much drier trails, thank goodness.  It turns out you can only bleach your socks so many times before they disintegrate. Every time we hike through muck and wet, I come home with socks that are beyond disgusting, hence the bleach.

The only water we saw stayed right where it belonged, right in the Curry Creek basin.   Excellent Job

Found a few more botannicals:

And that's about it.  It was not what we planned but it was still lovely.  A bit of a stutter-step at the start though so that's what I'll call this one, The Stutter-Step Hike.

After this big storm, we definitely won't be attempting any preserves this week so you are safe from another Photo Safari Report any time soon.  Hope you enjoyed this one tho!

Just in case you've been hearing in the news about Tropical Storm/Hurricane Debby down in  what used to be the Sunshine State (now relabeled the Soggy State) and were concerned in regard to our welfare, please be assured that we are all good.  The house is dry  (inside at least) and we are fine. 

And today, as Debby makes landfall north of us as a hurricane (upgraded from tropical storm) I am less and less enamored of it as the day goes by.  It begins to feel as if we will never again see the sun!  I know that's not true, but you know what I mean.  AND I feel so badly for those folks at hurricane ground zero and hope they are all safe and sound.

But meanwhile, where we are, dang it all folks, it's seriously wet outside. I mean wetwetwet.  The gullywasher/thunder/lightning/full orchestration kind of wet.  Geez.  It started raining about mid morning yesterday and really hasn't stopped yet.  Sometimes the rainbands are heavier than other times but still  rain is still rain and that means wet.

I have new appreciation for rainbands, by the way.  Whenever the storms calms the heck down for a little bit, the ground can absorb the water more, the storm drains can catch up and the run-off that goes out to the bay and the gulf can adjust to just a wee little bit more.

At the beginning, it just felt like a very normal summer rainstorm honestly.  No big deal.  We even went out to lunch yesterday to just a little local place that we like and watched the rain come down out the window while we noshed.  

We kept thinking,  Little Tropical Storm  Debby having a cute little tantrum and we spent the day  doing inside stuff.  We kept thinking it would all pass by and be over soon.  We considered going to the beach to take pictures (but didn't) or the jetty for pictures (closed).  Guess I was feeling a little rainy day lazy.  

You know that delicious rainy day sleepy feeling where all you want to do, as the rain pitterpatter (or sometimes tap dances) against the house and all you really want to do is drink tea, eat cookies, nap and read alternately.  It's cozy and lovely and kind of gives permission for not doing much at all.

And that's all fine and good for awhile, but when it goes on .....and on...AND ON!  Well let's just say it gets old, quickly.   Flood watches, Tornado Watches, High Surf Advisories and Rip Current Statements just kept coming.  Dang.  It was a long night of listening to the wind whistling through and the thunder rumbling and now and again crashing (sometimes it sounded like it was literally on our roof),  lightning crackling and rain relentlessly pounding down.  We had a few minor power flickers though no full on outtages, thank goodness. At least so far!

We've been getting notifications of things being closed today.  No garbage pick ups today for example. Normally Monday and Thursday are our days.  Not This week! But since I had already taken the bins to the curb (after checking on line and it saying..yes go ahead, pick up is today like usual) they have since changed their minds and that meant I had to schlepp through the downpour in rain jacket and wet sneakers to haul it all back in.  Oh well.

Starting to get a lot of other notifications now too.  Stay off the streets , the notifications say, Limit water usage, the notifications say.  Okay, we can do those things. So...no more laundry is being done today, can't turn on the dishwasher, limited cooking and cleaning will be happening. We have bottled water always (learned that the first year here!) so we won't die of thirst.

I know that there is some local flooding on the roads by the beach (which is the entire west side of the island) and we also read that the part of the road that goes to Caspersen Beach (the southest point of the island) has washed out!  Oh My Gracious!    Our neighbor's mailbox fell down, there is a lot of deadfall from trees and shrubs that will eventually need to be picked back up and binned.  The courtyard has become a pond and the backyard a lake.  But otherwise, it's all good.  Thoughts and prayers go north to the people being effected now by the storm (and on into Georgia and the Carolinas!)

Soon this will be over and things will go back to what passes for normal.  But in th e meantime, just wanted to reassure everyone that all is well.  Wet, but well.

I'll attach a few photos I took between rainbands on our property.  If it lets up later, I'll head to the beach and see what photos I can get there!  

​Hugs all 'round.

​

And if you look to the left there is the potted garden, comfy adirondack double chairs and even a table which is covered with plants but still, a table! The old fashioned shuttered window, the sail shade, the party lights and wall decorations make it a cozy, comfy, cute little space that nobody would ever guess existed from the outside of the walls.

If you look the other way, however, it's an entirely different thing.  There is something that passes for a garden filled with decorative grasses, non blooming plants and quite honestly some weeds beside a gravel path to nowhere.  That's the way it looked when we moved in and has looked that way for eight years.  It's a sad looking roughly ten feet of........................this mess.  

It's always been on the list to do something about it but we've been distracted with other projects and real life.

When we bought the house we knew that the property as a whole needed work and we made the decision that every year, we would do one big project.  Sometimes the project ended up being things you cannot actually see, like replacing plumbing systems, updating the electrical,  relocating and buying a new HVAC system; all things that clearly needed to be done and we absolutely benefitted from the project's completion.

Other years, other projects were very visible  such as creating a whole new kitchen,  bathroom and family room!  Even just repainting walls created big changes. Everyone could see those things happen, you could not miss it.  And the differences are positive, amazing and worth the time, money and effort.  

This year however, we were still kind of reeling from the family room project which took far more time, money, effort and patience than we ever anticipated and it kind of burned us out a little bit.  Other than very small things (like Tim replacing old electrical outlets throughout the house for example) we originally opted to start nothing else new.

But then I got an itch to work on this courtyard garden situation. I talked to Tim about it and he was on board so I'm tickled to bits to say that our new project this year is, at long last, the courtyard garden. I am so excited!

So much so in fact, that as soon as Tim and I discussed it, I immediately went outside and started tearing out the old ......ok let's call it a garden.  The crappola that filled that space at any rate.  Some of it came out easily, other bits had roots that I swear went all the way to Middle Earth! ARGH!  I struggled through nearly half of it before calling it quits for the day.  Perhaps this was a bigger bite than I could really chew?  The next weekend, Tim jumped in to help and we knocked it out in no time at all.

we Once we cleaned up we headed out to a local nursery to read plant labels and see what's possible and what's not.  It is a Full Sun situation so only certain plants need apply.  I was happy to see that there are a lot of options that fill the bill.  I am hoping for lots of colour and fragrance, perennial plants that attract butterflies and bees!

Tim and I talked possibilities for awhile and eventually got carried away and have decided to expand the garden.  So my next step will be to take out the gravel/shell path (which can all be added to the driveway) and fill that entire area with  beautiful things!  There will be a stepping stone pathway through, but mostly it'll be colourful, green, growing, lovely stuff!

I worked for a few more hours on it this morning and came in looking like the Pigpen character from the Peanuts comic strip.  Another day or two like that and I think we will be ready for watering system which means I turn it over to Tim.

After he is finished I will be adding more good dirt, which we politely refer to as Amending the Soil.  What passes for "soil" here is really more sand than anything. And while sand is great for  drainage so we surely do need some, really good dirt is necessary too.

After the dirt situation is corrected to my satisfaction it'll be stepping stones and then, the best part, the plants!  I still do not know for absolute certain what plants will be going in, but I know that it will be colourful, a veritable rainbow of vegetation.

This is not a project that will be completed over night. It's gonna be awhile. But I am hopeful that it will be finished, completely done and gorgeous by fall.  And I cannot WAIT to show you pictures of the finished project.

For now consider this......Future Garden!​

There are so many wonderful things about living by the water.  Many of them I anticipated, at  least on some level, but other things were unexpected.  For example, this being our rainy season, it should not surprise anyone to learn that we usually experience at least a little bit of rain every single day.  Some days it's a LOT of rain.  And this year it's been a Lottalot of rain!

And that's all good stuff.  The green growing outside things are happyhappy which in turn makes the wildlife happy. And all of that makes the people happy.  The only thing not awesome about it really has a negative hiking impact as in it either causes us to cancel the hike entirely because we are literally rained out, or the hiking day itself is perfectly lovely but the trails are less than ideal.  Dang.

And that was our dilemma on this past Friday.  Every single day of that week we had experienced absolute deluges of water which left our usual preserves buggy, mucky and flooded.  The trifecta of crappy hiking.  So instead of hitting any of our usual trails we went to Caspersen Beach to walk the path there.  Bonus to living by the beach!

Now this isn't a stroll on the beach at the water's edge that I'm talking about here, although, there is a beach and we can (and did) access it now and again.  Nope, it's an actual hiking trail that is about two miles long (which means 4 miles total to the end and back).  And while you cannot see it most of the time, the beach is on one side of the trail and the intercoastal is on the other.  (you have to wander down other little paths to reach either most  of the time) No matter how much it rains, the sand only gets so wet. No muck, limited bugs and as long as we didn't decide to go for a swim, we didn't get wet.  Not bad!

We haven't done this trail in over a year at least, so it was nice to be back.  Obviously, this is a Photo Safari Report and also obviously I'm calling it the Caspersen Beach Hike.

I think we saw more tortoises than we ever have before, maybe a lifetime total.  Once they woke up (all of the tortoise alarms must be set for the same times because we saw none at all for quite some time and then suddenly we saw ALL of them!)  And while I'm sure they all look the same to you (frankly to me too) I'm sure they know the difference. 

Here are some of them:
​

Definitely saw more birds than expected too.  Well wait a minute. I expected to see the sorts of birds that hang out at the beach  (and we did) but the other birds were a lovely surprise. Especially the number of Cardinals!:

Not too many flowers seem to grow that close to the beach, but there were a few successful botannical shots:
​

Then, for the butterfly and dragonfly category, there are a few contenders :

Pretty trails and general scenery photos abounded. I will try to keep it to a minimum:
​

And then there are the randos which, this time, are all of the same thing, the "shell tree" that we found on the beach.  Someone found a bit of driftwood that had a lot of branches and then took the time and effort to wander the beach seeking out shells that had holes in them and decorated with them.  It Was Awesome!

I sincerely wish I had ever been creative enough to think of doing such a thing!  Maybe another day, another walk. Who knows?

Anyway, that's it for the Caspersen Beach Hike. Hope you enjoy it.  For now, here's Sam and Joy, signing off on this Photo Safari Report.

Joy and I hit a local preserve last week so clearly it must be time for another Photo Safari Report!  I shall call this one the Mostly Insects Hikes because it seems that of all the pictures I took, most of them were of insects of one sort or another!  Weird.  Not my usual at all.

These dog days of summer, we try to get up and out as early as possible but not so early that the sun isn't up yet. It's dangerous to wander through the preserves before it's light out, for one thing and dang it, neither of us really wants to be up and out that early either!  So we were out the door before 7:30 and it was already hot.

Well of course it was hot. It's July in Florida. If you expect anything else you are delusional.  But early mornings are absolutely the coolest part of the day so it's as good a time to get going.  Fully swathed with sunscreen and wearing hats, we set out.

I took a lot of botanical shots and for some odd reason (I'm sure operator error) they didn't turn out well. It's a shame because this time of year there are colourful flowering things at every turn and in every direction.  Clearly I need to work on that and figure out what I'm doing wrong. In the meantime,  here's what  I got:

There were birds all around us.  We could hear them, heaven knows, as they are a rowdy bunch!  At times it was quite the cacophony.  Don't get me wrong, I love it, but it can be really loud.  This time we even Saw a lot of birds for a change, but alas, I only sometimes got a good shot.  Here are a few:

But by far and away, my best shots of the day, to my tremendous surprise, were some of the hardest ones to get.  Insects!  Butterflies and Dragonflies, the sorts of creatures that move fast and frequently.  I guess it was a bug centric photography sort of day!  The camera gods were smiling on me for sure:

We kept the hike short due to the heat. Our goal is always to be back at the car no later than 10 am during the summer and sometimes that's just not long enough. So I guess there's nothing left to do except to leave earlier.  Which is our plan for This week and we'll see where that gets us.  Could be better, or not.  One never knows.

But we will find out.  And then once I post, so will you ;)

Take Care, Have fun, Stay Safe!

​

I think maybe it's time for a kittyboy update, eh?  It's been a little bit.  

Obviously, they've grown a lot since I last posted their pictures.  That's Brysco on the left and Wyatt on the right. I know, I know, they look a lot alike.  But much like people with human Twins in the family, eventually you see more and more differences between them and most (not all) of the time, we know which is which.

They are very playful which is so fun.  And while they play together and sometimes on their own, what they mostly prefer, is to play with us! That is, interactive play.  Whether it's dangling a beguiling feather on a string or something as ordinary as making the bed, or anything in between, that is their ideal playtime.  And most of the time, we are happy to oblige.

Once again, much like human children, they sometimes get a little bored with their toys and they long for a new challenge, something new to learn,  anything a little different.  Usually I accomplish that by not having all of their toys out at once.  I choose one to "hide" in the utility room for a few weeks and when I take it out again, they are delighted all over again.  Or sometimes, I come up with an idea of something I can make for them.  The "find it" box is a great example.

I had a good sized shoe box, put some of their favourite small toys inside, taped it shut and cut some holes in the top.  They were overjoyed with this toy and beat the crap out of it.  So much so that when we got a slightly bigger box, I recycled the first totally destroyed box, and created a new one.  This time with holes cut in the top AND the sides.  Oh my goodness, this was an instant hit!  Of course, I've had plenty of other ideas that were not so popular.  Oh well, Live and Learn.

With this in mind, a few weeks ago while we were grocery shopping, I happened to spy in one aisle, something totally unrelated to anything else in that aisle (which is why it caught my eye) It was a package of 5 or 6 spiderman themed superballs.  Not huge ones and not so small that they could accidentally be eaten, so in other words, a perfect size. Each one was a different colour with a different picture of Spidey on it.  I threw it in the cart. Why not, maybe they would enjoy it. If not, it was relatively inexpensive.

As soon as we got home and groceries were put away, we opened the package and tossed one of the superballs.  They went mad for it!  Chased it all over the house, watched it bounce and ricocchet all over the place!  Wow!  Who knew?  Superballs were the perfect kitty toy.

Within a few days, we managed to lose all but one superball.  What?  It's a small house.  There are a limited number of places these toys could be. And yet all that remained was one lone yellow superball.  The kitties were sad and I was concerned.  What happens when the final one gets lost?  I guarded it like it was gold.  When I threw the ball and the boys loped after it, I chased it too and snatched it up before they could get their paws on it and bat it into some blackhole that apparently exists here.  Not much fun for them!

I proposed that, the next time we grocery shop, we buy another package of superballs just to have a few more and that I would go on the search with flashlight and long handled grabby thing to at least attempt to find the other ones.

In the meantime, Tim went on line and bought two bags  (for less that the cost of the original first package) of superballs.   It arrived on Sunday!  With great excitement I opened the bags and just dumped them on the floor.  Kitty Excitement Pandemonium ensued!  Oh  My Gosh, we laughed so hard.  And we all played until we were all exhausted.

So obviously I needed to find a container to corral these babies so there would be no slipping and falling on them in the dark of night!  I rummaged around in the pantry and came up with a perfect container:  (sometimes I save things and I don't know why I save them but I always know that eventually the opportunity will present itself)

Taadaa!  And for those of you will really sharp eyes you will see that this originally was a very large M&M container.  And if you truly know me, you will not be surprised by that.  

I don't put the lid on of course, so if they want to play with the superballs on their own, they can fish them out (and they do) but at least when I get around to picking them up (a zillion or so times a day -which has become part of my new exercise program), they are all in the same place and I don't have to hunt them up at playtime.

Oh yes, I have already gone on the hunt for them armed with, once again, flashlight and long handled grabber thingie, but that was my own fault. When I enthusiastically, but not wisely, opened and dumped the bags when they arrived they went EveryWhere!  Everywhere!    The bonus of that was that I found two more of the original Spiderman superballs which is odd because I had already searched everywhere several times.  Back to the blackhole theroy.

Anyway, that the latest on the kittyboys.  They are a little older, a little bigger, but still sweet and fun and playful and they bring us so much joy.  And apparently Superballs.  Lots and Lots of Superballs ;)

​

This past weekend Tim and I got to spend time with our best friends, the Minocks (yayayay!) AND got to visit MOSI up in Tampa.  Wow it was a two-fer!  MOSI, for those who are wondering, stands for Museum of Science and Industry.  Exceptionally cool.

I am a museum fan, always have been.  In fact, my earliest memory goes all the way back to Chicago, where I was born but specifically, the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago.  My sister wasn't born yet and I am three years older than her, so it was before then.  I don't know exactly how old I was, but somewhere between brand spankin' new and 3.  I don't' know if that memory is why, but let it be said clearly here, that I will go to pretty much any museum.  The museum of spark plugs, the museum of cat toys, the museum of matchbook covers.  Yup I would go to those AND enjoy them AND learn things!  I love learning things :)

That long ago visit to the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, made such a huge impression on me that I've never forgotten it.  At the time, I was most impressed with Colleen Moore's Dollhouse than anything else there, but I do know that I enjoyed it all.  Colleen Moore's Dollhouse, if you are unfamiliar with it, is an amazing work of art.   If a person were 6 inches high, they could live in this dollhouse as it has electricity and running water.  Seriously!  The teeny tiny books in the library have actual words in them, the kitchen has pots, pans and dishware, the dining room table is set for a meal fit for a King or Queen.  Oh, did I mention that the dollhouse is a castle?   Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle - Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (msichicago.org)  (by the way, I just checked and the dollhouse is still at MOSI, Chicago!  

MOSI in Tampa does not boast such a thing as livable miniature castles, but it did have a planetarium and we definitely couldn't pass that opportunity by.  It was a great show, we learned a lot and, speaking for myself, caught a teeny tiny catnap in as soon as the lights went down.  Oops. Don't tell. Shhhh.

It's a very hands-on type of museum which is always fun. We got to be kids once again and, even though there were a LOT of actual children there, the staff encouraged us to participate as well.  There was a ton of real time, actual participation scientific principles illustrated. For instance there was a bed of nails to lay on, we got to experience the wind level of a hurricane and sharpened our Alpha and Beta brain waves in a game (which I won - woohoo!).  And so so so Very Much More! We  tried them all.

Next there was  a huge exhibit on Flight through the years, up to and including NASA projects.  It wasn't just reading and observing (which is cool enough) but we also got to do a few things like actually go through some of the computer steps to launch a rocket. How cool is that?  Got to get Tim fitted for a space suit too:

The next part was about brain games and I think that was my favourite part.  We tried (I believe) every single illusion and brain game and brain trick they offered.  It took quite awhile but it was worth every single second.  Here's Tim playing his part in one of the illusions:

It's amazing to me how our brains are just naturally wired so differently and how little science fully understands about it yet.  Remember a few years back there was that viral dress that some people saw as yellow and gold and other people saw as blue and black?  Yeah, that dress was there.  And yup, different folks saw it differently this weekend too!

The last part of the museum was dedicated to dinosaurs and other ancient creatures. That is always fun. Shall we put a little twist on it?  Everything was made out of Lego's.  How cool is that?  Answer?  Very!   I gotta tell ya, Tyrannosaurus Rex doesn't look nearly as frightening made of Legos. Still impressive just not scary.  There was a lot of informational signage in that room. My favourite explained that, "A lot of people ask us if we follow some sort of  instructions when we make these kinds of things.  The answer is, Nope".  I love that!  Be Creative, Go off-script, Learn Stuff.  If it doesn't work, you learned something and can try again another way.

By the time we finished up there we were filled to the brim with new ideas and starving so we moved on to find food!  We ate and talked and laughed and caught up and had even more fun which doesn't seem remotely possible and yet, that's exactly what happened.    By the time we went our separate ways, the skies had filled with ominous grey clouds, there was thunder rumbling over head and clearly rain was on it's way.  And while it rained, it did not dampen our enthusiasm for another great Minock Day!

In the Mood to talk about Fashion again?   This will be the Part II to last week's fashion post.

Last week I did say that Fashion is fun.  And I stand by that. It's true.    But sometimes clothing purchases are more about a specific goal than having fashion fun.  Like, for instance, buying a dress to wear to a wedding or a new suit to make a presentation.  Perhaps you recently lost or gained a few ellbees and need to accommodate that.  Or maybe you are on vacation and the weather you packed for is in no way the weather you are experiencing.  Been There, Done That!

Or maybe your new clothing purchase is even more practical than that.  For instance, maybe you recently had a surgery that results in needing some different clothes.  Not the most fun reason, but hey, new clothes is new clothes!

Two years ago when I was about to undergo a bilateral mastectomy, a kind and wise person suggested that I might want to invest in some button front shirts because after surgery for awhile there would be No Way in Heck that I would be able to put on a pull over shirt.  (AND they were absolutely correct!)  At the time I owned only 2 button front shirts; one had long sleeves, the other one itched.  Yup new shirts were needed.  It was an unexpected expense but absolutely essential as it turned out.   We ended up buying six button front shirts ultimately.  And I am still wearing them.

My surgery this time was abdominal and nobody mentioned anything about certain clothing options being better than others so I just  didn't give it a seconds thought.  UNTIL the day prior to surgery when the hospital called to give me the time I needed to arrive (5: 30 am !!) and the usual no food or drink after midnight speech and at the very last she said, "You will probably want to bring a loose summer sundress for comfort".  I said" ok, I can do that."  And I did. And I am so glad I did.

I ended up wearing nothing but dresses for two weeks.  The very idea of something pressing against - even gently - or rubbing against the incision was unimaginable.  And then too, there was the swelling.  Suddenly my abdomen instead of being almost flat (not completely I will admit) was all pooched out  thus limiting what I could even get on, even if I was willing to risk the pressing and rubbing. Dang!

I asked the surgeon about it at a follow up appointment, as in, how long is this going to last?  And When can I start working out again?  and the response was, first, "hell no you cannot work out yet you crazy person" and  The puffy tummy thing can go on for awhile. The area is inflamed and irritated from surgery and can take - get this - up to a Year to completely heal.  A YEAR???

I know how to dress in disguise.  I am well versed in how to hide anything I don't really want anyone else (or frankly me either) to notice.  But I cannot imagine wearing the same dresses over and over every day for even 3 months let alone a full year.  The impracticality alone makes it crazy.  So I went through my closet.  

Ultimately I found 3 pair of shorts with elastic waistbands.  They sort of worked.  Unlike the loosey goosey-ness of a dress, they definitely  press on my poor tortured belly, BUT luckily, all three pair are rather loose and as long as I wear the right top with it, not too bad.  I decided that I could alternate the dresses with the 3 pair of shorts at least through the warm (hot!) months and then I could reevaluate when the weather begins to cool off. 

 I mentioned these thoughts to Tim and added that if the budget could bear one more pair of shorts, I thought I would be pretty much all set. He thought that would be just fine and the very next day, off we went to our local Beall's.    We bought headed off to different parts of the ladies clothing section and met back up at the fitting rooms. Over and Over and Over.  Ultimately I found one more dress (couldn't resist)  and 4 pair of bottoms that fit nicely, were comfortable, not horribly expensive and, I felt, would go with tops I already owned.  I asked Tim to help me choose.  He bought them all for me because he is a Very Nice Man.

I had the best time walking each piece through my closet to see what would "go" with what.  The goal is always to have at least two tops (minimum) for each bottom and woohoo!  Success on that!    I even took photos for you guys to see my haul!

I ended up with the one dress of course, two skorts (skorts are awesome! Where have these been all my life?) one actual skirt - it's like cargo shorts only a skirt and one pair of actual shorts.  Tim chose 3 of the 5 items I bought. He has Great Taste!

Ready for the fashion slideshow?

Photos were taken on different days, which is why the different hair styles. The day of the green cargo skirt I hadn't even combed my hair yet when I took the photo for heaven's sakes. I have some nerve!  

Anyway, I lovelovelove my new clothes and I had fun sharing them with you!    Have a great day ya'll

 
As of today, I have been knocking around the planet for a whopping Seventy-One Years!  Holy Cats that's old.   Dang.     I find myself reflecting a bit on my life today.  After this many years of wandering around, mostly blundering my way through, what have I learned?  Well, one of the biggest take-aways for me is that Most people are truly lovely humans and that people from everywhere around the entire globe are more similar than they are different. 

I have learned to appreciate, to forgive, to laugh, to be kind and to be grateful first before I do anything else.   I have discovered what is and what is not worth arguing about, (most things are not) and that whatever is going on in my life, in my town, my state, my country or the entire earth, it will change and be something else soon. I know now that the end of everything is the beginning of something else.

I have accepted that nothing is forever but this moment, right now, is precious.  I know that respect is earned, hard work feels good and that there is nothing at all wrong with occasionally doing nothing at all.   Eventually I figured out that failure is nothing shameful but only a learning experience and that losing sometimes teaches us more than winning.

I know that Love really is one of the most powerful and important things anyone will ever know. And that I have been exceptionally fortunate in my friends, my family, my husband, my children (both my biological kids and their life mates who I consider my bonus kids).  

All of life is an adventure and if you approach it with the attitude that it's going to be mostly great, then mostly, it will be.  Everyone we meet has something to teach us, something of value to offer and is a unique individual.

AND,  finally, I still believe in the birthday rules!  You didn't think I would do a birthday post without them did you?  Silly...  Here we go:

BIRTHDAY RULES

1. Number one and most important on this hit parade:  It's all about the birthday person.  It really is.  No exceptions. If it's your birthday, everything that day is about you. Period.

2. Of course, to be absolutely fair, I am not a person who really likes being the center of a big crowd of people. But a small, comfortable, familiar crowd is fine. In fact it's awesome.  A small group of people that I really care about it absolutely perfect.  If that group consists of me and one other person, sometimes that is the best group of all.

3. And there should be at least one treat that a person rarely has, like cake. Or ice cream.  Or cake AND ice cream.  And for heaven's sakes, if a person is going to indulge, it should be the good stuff. The real deal. No fake, crappy substitutes.  And speaking as a person with Lactose Intolerance, if I'm going to suffer later, I want the suffering to be worthwhile, which means the ice cream must be primo.

4. There should be a few cards, some of them should have sparkles, some flowers, some funny, some touching or maybe thought provoking. I like cards.  I set them up on top of the big display cabinet in the living room and admire them for far too long afterwards.

5. There should be some sort of contact from people far away, whether it's phone calls or emails or texts or facebook posts or telepathic thoughts, heaps of good wishes from folks far away makes a birthday extra special.  To think that all of those people bothered to take the time to acknowledge your existence on your birthday shows that you matter in this life.  That's important.

6. There should be no chores on your birthday.  Not one single solitary gotta-do should be done by the birthday celebrant.  Those things can either wait a day to be done, or someone else needs to do them.  I'm immovable on this fact.

7. The birthday person gets to choose what or where to eat for dinner.  And no matter what they choose, that's what dinner is.  Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.  It is the ONE day of the entire year where nobody else's likes/dislikes/or personal opinion should take precedence regarding food.

8. It should be a happy day.  Only positive comments and thoughts please.  It should be a day of smiles and laughter. If there is something negative or sad that needs to be said, keep it to yourself for one more day.  Not even boredom is allowed.
​Happy Birthday to me!  

Birthday Hugs all 'round!

There's Joy (on the left) and me (on the right) with cameras so you know what that means. Photo Safari Report! Yayayayayay!  It's been about a month since I've felt up to it but Myakka being a part driving/part hiking sort of place, it was an excellent choice for the first hike post surgery.  With that in mind, I'll call this the "It's Good To Be Back Hike"  coz it was, indeed, good to be back out there.

Let's see what we found:  

Deer!  I just adore them and was delighted to see so many of them.  No bucks, just does and fawns.  Look at those sweet faces!

Alligators!  This is Florida after all, and Myakka seems to harbour more than it's fair share of them. I wouldn't go swimming in the Myakka River but they make great photos from a safe distance.  Saw one woman cooing at them while taking pictures and she said to the alligator, "Do you want to be my friend?"  I said, kindly but firmly,  "No, he absolutely does Not want to be your friend. They are not friendly".  I don't know if she was serious or not, but just in case.......

Birds!  Not nearly the usual variety or number, but birds nonetheless.   I will try to keep it to a minimum;

As always, there are some botanicals, one of my favourite categories:

There was a plethora of Dragonflies!  I mean, clouds of them!  It was kind of awesome.  And they were remarkably cooperative about having their pictures taken.  Here are a few photos:

I'll finish up with a couple of randos, a little of this and a little of that:

I was so exhausted when we got back that I immediately just laid down, fell deeply asleep and that was pretty much it for the day.  Still, it was absolutely worth it!  Hope you enjoyed the "It's Good To Be Back Hike" even half as much as we did.

It'll probably be a couple of weeks before I get out there again, but once I do, expect more (and hopefully better) pictures then!

Just for fun, do you want to talk fashion today?  We haven't really talked about clothes in awhile and to me, fashion is fun.  I think it is for most people.  Well, perhaps unless you are in the industry where fashion is your livelihood, then maybe it's more stressful than fun, but since most of us are not a part of the fashion world, I think most of us would agree, that at least on some level, fashion is fun.

Not that I've ever been, in any way, fashionable, unless it was by accident.  Doesn't matter.  I still enjoy meandering through clothing stores, magazines, catalogues, youtube and other social media type videos and just seeing what there is to see.  I would love to be more stylish on a regular basis but gosh, who can afford that?  Honestly, the hardest part of always looking fashionable and "in style" is the cost.  Most  trends hit hard and then disappear so for folks who have the desire to always be au courant, there is a price to be paid.

When I was still working, I made a lot more of an effort for sure.  The the way I got around spending an absolue fortune on clothes was that I leaned hard toward the classics.  That way while I may not have been strictly In the Peak of Style, I also wasn't totally out of style either because the classics are eternal.  They can be perked up and made fresh with addition of one or two slightly trendier pieces, like truly classic trousers with a different, newer, more stylish top, or shoes, or jewelry.  It was fun to play with the things in my closet, combine them differently, come up with new fun ways to wear each piece.  I felt pretty confident that I presented myself well to the general public.

And then I retired.  And suddenly it didn't matter nearly as much how I looked every day and I guess I started slacking off in the fashion department.  At least part of the problem as my own unfamiliarity with the concept of casual clothes.  When I was working, I didn't change when I got home, I kicked off my heels, rolled up my sleeves, put on an apron and kept going.  Casual clothes were for weekends and most of the weekend was filled with errands, house chores and yard work.  High fashion not necessary!  Basically it was comfy  shorts or jeans and the least stained tee shirt in the closet.  Clearly once casual became my every day attire, changes needed to be made.   Even I could see that.  So over the past few years (since we moved to Florida) I have struggled to find my way. 

Now, multiple years down the line I have found that while of course I do own shorts and capri's, to my surprise I now own more dresses than I have at any other time in my entire life!   Childhood included!  When did this happen?

That rainbow of dresses spread out on my bed in the photo at the top of the page is every single dress I own.  And I am shocked that it turned out to be so many.  But I also love every single one of them and wear them often.    I'll start with the oldest piece:

The ubiquitous LBD or Little Black Dress.   This is the oldest garment currently in my closet. I bought it way back when we lived in Connecticut in some sort of thrift or 2nd hand or outlet type store (I don't recall which one).  It was two sizes too big at the time but I bought it anyway and then took the unprecedented (for me) step of actually taking it to a tailor to have it altered to fit me.  Why?  Well it's a great  dress.  Excellent Quality.  Evan Piccone as a matter of fact. And it cost me less than $10 bucks when I bought it.  And I have not regretted the purchase for even one second ever!  I've worn it as is, I've worn it with blouses underneath, sweaters or blazers over top.  With sandals, with flats and with heels.  It dresses up and down beautifully.  Obviously it has been worn and washed a zillion times as the colour is faded now. I suppose I could re-dye it black again to refresh it up. Or continue wearing it as is which is more likely what I will do.  I will own this and wear this probably for the rest of my life.  Quite the return on investment!

Second oldest dress in my closet.  I bought t his one in Colorado. Not positive where I found it but most likely, Kohls.  I bought a lot of Colorado stuff at good old Kohls.  Initially what drew me to this dress was the unusual colour combination - turquoise and chocolate brown.  Not the usual thing.  At the time I had two different pair of heels, one chocolately brown, the other were bronze slingbacks, that worked equally well. At the time I had a dark brown fitted, one button blazer that worked perfectly with it.  It was great for an easy peasy work day outfit but now the heels and the blazer are all long gone and because of that I've nearly put it in the donation bag a dozen times.  What saves it each time is how comfortable it is and how indestructible!  It's literally wash and wear and packs like a dream. A keeper for sure!

I bought both of these oddballs here in Florida.  The striped one, rather circus inspired I'd say, is so voluminous that normally I wear it with a belt and often with a button down blouse underneath.  The polkadot/flora also looks especially nice with this cantelope colour filmy blouse underneath. I know it sounds like it doesn't go, but it absolutely does!  Wouldn't it be very cute with a pink or red jacket?  Both are fine with sandals, sneakers, flats or barefeet!  Very Comfy but nice enough to wear when I work at the museum.  I love clothes that are flexible about their use.

How Very Tropical! ​Obviously, Florida Purchases.  The pink one I bought on a whim one day shortly after we moved here. I was walking down the avenue and a store that was closing had a spectacular sale going on - last day of!  I don't remember what I paid for it but it was a teensy fraction of the original cost. Love it with a denim jacket and 5 lbs less than I currently weight. dang it.    Oh I can get it on right now, just it looks a whole lot better 5 lbs ago.  Sigh.  The other one I bought for a wedding which sounds unusual.  Not in Florida.  An old friend of Tim's was getting married and it was a Tropically Themed Wedding. Everyone was supposed to wear Tropically Inspired clothes.  The pink one would have been perfect if the stars and my scale and my wishes were in alignment. But alas, they were not. So off we went to a local store and this one fell right into the cart.  The back is longer than the front so it has a kind of salsa feel that makes it even more fun!

It's Sparkle Time!  Love these two.  The gold and black one Joy gave me.  Originally it was hers but I think it turned out to be uncomfortably itchy to her. Luckily it wasn't to me!  Normally I wear this with a black pullover sweater over top and it appears that I'm wearing a sparkly skirt rather than a dress.  The blue one I bought to wear to Youngest sons wedding. And I have worn it a surprising number of times since then. Mostly Christmas Parties but still it's refreshing to buy something for one specific occasion and then be able to wear it other times and places as well.  It is dressy so clearly it don't wear it to the grocery store or to do yard work or scrub toilets.  But every fancy dinner or theatre visit or special holiday one of these babies comes out without a second's hesitation.

Grocery Store Treasures.  Hard to believe but I found both of these (different years) at my local Publix Grocery Store.  I don't know if ALL Publix stores carry clothing but ours does.  Maybe because we are a beach/tourist town?  Whatever the reason,  they were such good buys.  Each was less than $20 bucks. The blue one in particular is great because while it's a terrific summery sundress on it's own,  during the cooler months I wear it as a tunic over white skinny jeans and it's still awesome.    The green one, I think I was drawn to the colour more than anything and those fun little tiers in the skirt.    I wear a white tank top under it and sometimes a lightweight summer sweater overtop. Comfy, cottony, easy to care for, love them both.

bLast but not least, the new kid in town.  I did a little shopping over the weekend and this one came home with me.  It's linen, so nice and cool it's very lightweight and comfortable, floaty but not too loose and the design is so fun!  

There you have it. I own eleven dresses!  What?  How on earth did that happen?  Never thought of myself as a dress-wearing person on an ordinary day but it turns out they are so loose and cool and comfortable and honestly, nice looking. Kicks up my style a wee bit and that never hurts!

I have been writing for awhile now, my fingers are getting tired.  Originally I intended to include my new purchases from this past weekend (in addition to the light blue dress) but now I'm thinking, it'll just be Part Two which I'll put together another day.  Which day?  I don't know for sure, but it'll happen.  Stay tuned.

Hey there ! How is everyone?  What's new and exciting?  It's been about three weeks now since I've posted and well, it's about doggone time that I started up again, right?

This was actually a longer break than I intended.  I tried to post last week but it seemed that my blog construction site was down.  I assumed it was just a bit of maintainence - it happens.  But then I tried again the next day and the next and hmmmm.  I mentioned it to Tim and he looked into it for me. He has his ways......

Turns out the construction site is now owned by another company and of course they have their own ways of doing things including the way that folks like me can actually get in and use the process.  Dang.  Tim was kind enough to figure it all out for me and as of this morning, I'm back!  yay!  A week later than anticipated but still I'm happy to be here :)

Let's catch up!  First of all, about the break.  As some of you guessed, yes, it was yet another medical leave of absence.  I'm ok, healing up from another surgery and very (VERY) slowly finding my way back to myself.  It's babysteps but I'm getting there and according to my doctors making great progress.    Yay me! 

Other than that, I suppose not really  much happening.  Obviously, I'm not hiking right now soooo no photo safari reports will be happening for a bit.  BUT it is now officially summer. We crossed over to the hot side!  In  Florida here that means we have also entered the rainy season.  And we have had a good bit of rain. That's fine. I dont' live outside afterall.  And all the green growing stuff is singing and dancing with joy!  I took a few photos in the gardens between rain bands:

Father's Day was last Sunday and it was very low key here in this house as I wasn't up to doing much yet. Poor Tim.  He deserves so much better. We decided to just postpone his celebration rather than ignore it.  Perhaps this weekend will be a belated Father's Day !!

I finally learned how to fix my hair into a bun using a chopstick.  I know, I know, not much of a goal but still there it is.  Now that my hair is longer I've been looking for ways to style it.  And since I dont' have much going on right now, I decided to use this time to explore that. To that end,  I've been watching how-to video's for  how to work with longer hair especially putting it, easily, into a messy bun, a tidy bun or any updo at all. Perfect for hot summer days.

I mean, of course I can ponytail it - and I do. Or braid it and I do that also.  But I was looking for variety. I love having options.  Lots and Lots of options!  So I watch the video's and I try. And I try. And I try. And I fail. And I fail. And I fail.  ARGH!  They make it look so easy!  Alas, I do not have the hair-do gene and I had about given up and then I stumbled across this chopstick bun thingie and voila! It worked!

At least it has now been successful twice.  And it stays up all day too!  Unlike with hair bands or clips which have to be redone over and over.  Kind of exciting.  On the other hand, the chopstick trick only works sometimes.  There are days when the first time I do it it's a big taadaa!  There are other days when I can do what I always think is the exact same thing, over and over with no good result.  Bah.  My hair is so annoying!    Except on the days when it turns out perfectly as I wish with no drama.  Then I like it.  I'm fickle.

Still a goal is a goal and I'm tickled to to have at least one more hair option :)

Otherwise, I've been reading a LOT which is a delight. Walking a lot and further each day - albeit very very slowly. Think sloth slow. Turtle Slow. Speed of Smell slow (thank you Ron White for that last description).  I'm thinking this isn't about speed though, it's about endurance and building it up and THAT I'm absolutely doing.

​So I guess that's that.  The kitties are still adorable and very entertaining.  They have been especially sweet to me too. Aren't pets amazing how they instinctively understand, ok Mom needs a little extra purring today and remember to be gentle with her!!  And they are.  I don't have to tell them, they just know!
​

So that's about it.  Joy has been very sweet and coming up every week to either visit with me in the house or take some of those incredibly slow walks with me.  Neighbors have brought by 
Banana Bread and good wishes.  I've gotten lovely cards and texts and emails and phone calls, all of which I hold near and dear to my heart.  Especially the funny ones ;) Even when it hurts to laugh!

Oh I nearly forgot, two days before surgery, as I was deep into cleaning and doing laundry, the washing machine quit!  Just up and quit!  How Rude!  So I figured, welp, I'll be spending the next day at the laundrymat.  Nobody's idea of a fun time.  Instead, on that same day of the washer demise, we went to Lowe's and bought a new washer which was delivered very early, the very next day so I was able to catch up on all of the laundry without leaving the house. Proof once again that we live in a wonderful world.  I do love the new washer.  It wasn't something we planned for but hey, stuff happens. And you gotta roll with it. 

So that's pretty much all that has been going on here.  What's new with you guys?  In case you didn't know, I missed you ;)

​Hugs all 'round

It's time for a Break!   I am going to be taking a few weeks off! 

Wishing everyone a terrific fortnight. Hope you all stay healthy and happy and most importantly, are having fun!

And until we meet here again, 

Hugs all 'round

It's time for another Photo Safari Report!  This one I'm calling the Magical Woodpeckers Hike. You will find out why.

We are right on the heels of summer which means the temperatures and the humidity are rising.  And that, in turn, means that our hikes start earlier and are shorter so that we can continue to enjoy them rather than just endure them.  We hit the trails ahead of the birds this time but once they finally showed up, it was worth the wait.

We wandered down one path and up another trail, enjoying the walk'n'talk that we do, but taking very few photos for what seemed like a long time.  Some hikes are just like that.  Lots of walking and very little snapping.  We assumed that would be the case once again.  Until we turned down one particular trail and Joy suddenly came to an abrupt stop. So naturally I stopped.  She pointed and I saw it, a cute little woodpecker right in front of us.  Awwwww.  We both stood unmoving while taking a couple of pictures.  

We were absolutely silent as we always are in those times and perhaps it was the combination of the quiet and our stillness that got things started, but suddenly we began to see more woodpeckers and then more and then still more until we realized that they were literally everywhere.  Some on the trunks of trees, some on branches, even more in the air, flying, swooping, zooming around us!  There were so many that there were multiple woodpeckers on each tree, sharing branches, flitting through the leaves, fronds and sprills and again, zipping past us as if we too were part of the forest.  There were so many woodpeckers that they filled the air. It was almost as if the sky were raining woodpeckers.  I have never experienced anything like it before and let me assure you, it was Magical!  Wow!  

Obviously, therefore, I have woodpecker photos.  I will try (try) to keep them to a minimum.  Here we go:

We did see and hear a few other birds including one that had a song neither of us recognized.  It is never a shock when it's something in nature that is new to me, but Joy (as a former Ranger) usually is familiar but this time even she had never heard it before.  We spent quite some time trying to find the source of the song. She eventually was able to get a photo of the adorable little dickens, I did not. Ratz!  I don't remember the name although it started with the letter V if that helps any birders out there.  It was a surprisingly small bird for such a Big song (I saw Joy's photo) so it was another really nice surprise!

Here's a small handful of the other birdies:
​

Only a few botanicals for you today, one in black and white:

This is a strange time of year.  The temperatures feel like summer, which is our usual rainy season, but it's drydrydry like winter which is always our dry season. Which means the rivers and creeks have very low water levels.  Therefore, water birds are struggling, and the green growing stuff is droopy and crispy and certainly not thriving which means non-water birds are struggling.   We didn't even see any butterflies or bees yesterday!  Which definitely tells you that something ain't right!

Rain is predicted for this afternoon (hope that's true!) and on and off for the next week so perhaps, finally, the rainy season is truly on its way.  I know, I know, according to the calendar summer doesn't begin until June 20th and this being the last day of May, we have weeks until summer. Right?  Nope, not here in Florida.  It's is hothothot like summer right now and has been for a few weeks.  It's a little ahead of schedule, true, but Mother Nature has her own calendar, and she doesn't consult us.   Nor is she required to.  This is her world, we just live in it.

Hope you enjoyed this Photo Safari Report of the Magical Woodpecker Hike because I'm not absolutely certain when the next one will be.  Meanwhile, hugs all 'round!  Have a great weekend!

Hey there!  Have you all recovered from the long weekend?    I know that not everyone actually gets to have 3-days off in a row because of the sorts of jobs that they have, but for everyone else,  it's a big woohoo!  Something that I think we all look very much forward to.

Three consecutive days off with no job-related responsibilities or stresses. No waking up to an alarm clock. No rushing through every single moment of the day, trying to, somehow magically shoehorn extra non-existent hours, into a 24 hour period of time.  Ahhhhh!  Wonderful!

And you can do whatever you like with those 3-days.  Some people travel, just  a short get-away. Other folks relax at home or catch up on projects.  Maybe you hosted friends and family. Or perhaps since the weather is nicer now, it was time to get your garden started!  Traditionally it's a day of remembering those who have passed, especially those who have served our country in our military.   And how best to remember and celebrate their lives than to live, laugh, love our lives.

And no matter if you chose to commemorate the Memorial Day Weekend with a cookout, a trip, a project or just a lot of relaxation (ahhhhh!)  it was still 72 hours away from your normal workaday life.  And change of pace itself is enough to recharge batteries for most of us.

Still there is always a balance on the other end.    Yes, because Monday was a holiday, there is now only a 4 day work week ahead (another yay!) but it also means cramming 5 days work into 4 and sometimes that feels more like punishment than reward, right?  I remember it well.  Coming into work extra early on the Tuesday following a long weekend just to try to catch up. There were always a Long list of messages on the phone and an almost endless pile up of emails on top of the normal weeks work!  Which meant coming in early, working through lunch and often staying late for a few days just to get back into a normal weekly rhythm.

Even for me, retired tho I be, I have a sort of pattern to my weeks.  Mondays is also a day of tidying of course after a weekend but mostly it is a day of laundry. Lots of laundry. Load after load of laundry. I change out all of the towels and sheets that day on top of the regular clothes sort of laundry.  Tuesdays, on the other hand, is mostly about grocery shopping and dusting and vacuuming, ironing and cleaning bathrooms, because come Wednesday my Museum Day is on tap and I accomplish little at home other than meals on a Museum Day.  

When a three day weekend comes along, on Tuesday, I find myself trying to do both Monday and Tuesdays chores all on Tuesday.  Even though it's not as if I'll get in "trouble" if everything doesn't get caught up by the end of Tuesday and I'm in no danger of being fired after all, I don't like to drag things out too far.  It just ends up cluttering up the rest  of the week.  I just  want to get back to a normal pattern of things as quickly as possible so that a Monday/Tuesday doesn't also become a Tuesday/Wednesday and then a Wednesday/Thursday.....you get the drift.   There is a comfort, for me,  that comes with an orderly, predictable pattern.  

I know without a doubt, without a whisper of a hint of a question, that by Tuesday afternoon, all of the clothes that we own that are not on our bodies, are clean, ironing, folded, put away and ready to be worn again.   There is no wondering if ones "lucky" socks are ready to be worn again because they are always washed, dried, rolled up and tucked into the sock drawer, right next to the, presumably unluck or, at least,  less lucky socks by Tuesday afternoon.  Just the way it works in this house.

When Thursday comes around, I am free to go hiking with my sister without feeling that heavy load of chores dangling over my head like the sword of Damocles.  It's all already done. I can relax, enjoy my hike, the photography, the company and the day.  Friday is my baking day and then the "work" week is complete and Tim and I can enjoy the weekend together.

It's Wednesday now and yes, I knocked out all of the Monday & Tuesday stuff and I am back on track.  It is a good thing.  I do love a three-day weekend, without question, getting to spend 3 whole days with my sweetie (woohoo) without jobs getting in the way.  But my favourite part about AFTER a long weekend, is Wednesday when I'm all caught up again.

And now I am. Huzzah!

They they are again, the two intrepid explorers of hiking trails!  That's Joy in black'n'white on the left and me on the right just in case you weren't certain.  It's tricky when you cannot see our faces.

Clearly this is going to be yet another Photo Safari Report. Exciting!    This will not be a usual one however.  So I'm going to call this the Different Sort of Hike because it was a little different.  Mostly, in the end, because we ended up with so few pictures!

I'm not absolutely positive why  we got so few photographs on this hike.  All of the proper elements were there.  It was a terrific huge preserve, we wandered the paths for several hours and managed to get in multiple miles doing so, it was a gorgeous bright and sunny day.  I guess I have no good excuses but facts are facts and the fact is, not a lot of photos.

I didn't get many bird photos and most of the ones I got are not worth sharing.  I seemed to have gotten a lot of pictures similar to this cardinal:

As you can see, it is unmistakably a cardinal, but my photo is more of a crystal clear branch and a rather blurry bird.  Not good.

​On the other hand, this hawk  photos was better:

The paths were beautiful, as they almost always are. And they are so pretty that they are photo worthy both in colour and black 'n' white.  Here, decide for yourself:

There were some very pretty wildflowers.  I probably got more botanicals than anything else but honestly, not too many of those either.  Still, here's what I got:

We suspect that, even though we are out there on the trails by a quarter to eight, we need to start earlier now that the temperatures are rising.  Any bird with a lick of sense has found a nice cool place to hang out during the hottest part of the day as the flowers begin to droop in the heat as do the photographers.  It's tough getting great angles for shots that aren't bleached out when the sun shines so brightly and let's see if I can think of any other excuses.....heh.

Doesn't matter.  Only a few photos for you on this Different Kind of Hike, but we still had a great time.  Though we will be leaving earlier in the morning for the rest of the summer. I know, I know, technically, it's not "summer" yet.  I don't care what the calendar says, when it's 85 degrees at 10 am and the "feels like" is 100, it's doggone summer.

And before I forget, have a GREAT Memorial Day Weekend!  Relax, eat good food, get outside for a bit if you can and have big fun!!

We'll get together again sometime next week after the long weekend.

​Hugs all 'round

Was in the Dollar Store recently and saw this 3-pack of bubble.  Always makes me feel so nostalgic.  I'm not sure exactly what it is about bubbles but I adore them and always have.  Makes me feel such a simple joy.  And I don't have to be the one who creates the bubbles, just watching bubbles brings a momentary delight.  Bubbles are carefree and sillyfun and serve absolutely no purpose other than to bring happiness!  Love that.

I enjoy them so much in fact that, seriously, if you know of some environmental reason why I should not do bubbles, please do not tell me. So many things that I love are now deemed bad for me, bad for others, bad for the planet, bad for the universe. Don't ruin this for me too.  I'm begging you.

Anyway, the 3-pack of bubbles.  Naturally I had to buy it.  I had no choice.    And of course, once I got home, I had to introduce the kittyboys to them.  I wasn't sure what their reaction would be, but hey, let's find out!

At first they were very wary.  Their natural curiousity made them check it out but in a slow and cautious sort of way.  Initially there was a lot of just watching.  Everytime a bubble vanished upon popping,  they grew more interested.  What is this sorcery?  Eventually they approached a bubble still in the air and did what kitties always do, they sniffed at it.  The bubble, of course popped.  

That was shocking enough to have them step back a bit butit did not keep them away for long.  Soon they  progressed from sniffing to touching.  And of course, once again, Pop!  I think they liked that because in very short order they were sitting up on their back legs to swat at bubbles and occasionally jump into the air to smack a bubble here and there.  If they couldn't kill an air bubble they settled for stepping on an intact bubble that landed on the floor.

In short it was Extremely Amusing!  You know what they say, "Simple Pleasures for Simple People".  I don't care one bit.  I think I am a person who is made happy by very simple things.  There's not one single thing wrong with that. 

The cats enjoy the bubbles so much that I asked Tim to be the bubble creator the next day so I could take some pictures.  And then the following day I tried doing it on my own, blowing the bubbles AND taking the pictures which was a little trickier but I got a few. Different light on different days, but still...pictures.

Ready for them?

Here we go, photos with captions:

Brysco and Wyatt love playing bubble so much that they will get my attention by meowing  and when I track them down, I find them sitting by the shelf where I keep the bubbles.  Come on mom, let's play!  And so we do.  Nearly every day now we take a few minutes out to play bubble just for a little bit.  

The down side is that since we are playing in the house, afterwards I have to wash the floor.  No worries, our floor is now cleaner than ever.  Bubble time is immediately followed by washing floor time.  Not a big deal, it is totally balanced out by how much we all are enjoying the bubbles.

And lest you think it is a weird thing for some one as old as me to still be enjoying bubbles, I have this to day,  #1  I dont' care if you call me childish or childlike but I like what I like, and I like bubbles.  You don't have to if you don't want to, but I do.  To thine own self be true and all that  #2  I'm not the only one.  There is a house up in Sarasota that we often drive past that has a bubble machine at the end of their driveway blowing a constant stream of bubbles out onto the sidewalk and beyond to the street. They probably wouldn't be doing that if other people weren't also enjoying it  (I'm pretty sure they don't it just for me) #3 I've been called, odd, weird, strange, unusual and unique my entire life. I'm not at all put off if you do it too and lastly, #4 the kitties are loving it and it makes me happy to see them so happy.

In the words of Don Ho, "Tiny Bubbles....make me happy"  Of course he was talking about the bubbles in a glass of wine, but bubbles is bubbles and happy is happy and I'm good with it.

And now I have that song in my head.  Oh well, maybe that just means it's time to do bubbles.  Come on Kitties!  It's Bubble Time!