What the what?   There are two Curry Creek Preserves?  How could I have lived here this long without knowing this?    Well I suppose it doesn't really  matter how it happened that this bit of information  escaped me.  The important thing is that I  know it now.

Joy and I have been hiking what we thought was the one and only Curry Creek (which turns out to be Curry Creek East) for years. { The fact that the sign clearly says on it "Curry Creek East) obviously meant nothing to us.}  It's a smallish local preserve but we've taken some great photographs there.  My one and only picture of an armadillo was taken there.   Also the baby Swallow Tail Kites were there. And come to think of it, I think my only picture of a Bob-White was snapped on those trails!

So Joy was as surprised (and intrigued) as I was about this Curry Creek West business when I told her which of course meant that we had to check it out.  Yesterday, despite predictions of rain, we loaded up and headed over.  The sky was gloomy and the air became progressively more humid as the minutes ticked by so we knew rain was coming and we did not dawdle. But you know what?  As it turns out, it's not a dawdling sort of place.

​It was fine, I suppose. Turns out to be even smaller than the other Curry Creek Preserve. But there were trails, well marked and there were a couple of birds hanging around the edges of a couple of ponds:

I think my biggest issue with this Western Curry Creek is that at no point were we ever beyond the view of the homes in the area.  When we hike, Joy and I really like that feeling of being out in nature, that feeling of being where the wild things are and it's hard to maintain that illusion when I can glance over and see some nice lady hanging out her laundry.

Drat.  We cruised through it fairly quickly and we did take a few photos and slapped at a LOT of mosquitoes and we were back at our starting point in no time at all.  Sigh.   Kind of disappointing over all.    What do we do now? we asked each other. " Well, I suppose we could go back to the other Curry Creek, " Joy  said,  and so we did.  

Now here are the rest of the photos. 99% of which are of the Real Curry Creek Preserve.  So this Photo Safari is going to be called the "At Least We Tried Hike"  because we did give the imitation Curry  Creek a try. And now we know that we don't need to go back.

We did see more birds at our 2nd stop and more Blue Jay's than anything else!  I don't think we've ever seen so many Jays in one place!  Here's a sampling:

But of course there were other birds too.  And I have to mention here that the gloomy day certainly impacted being able to take a nice clear shots since the birds were hanging out in the trees which are shady and the sky was very grey so please bear with me on the quality of the shots. I added as much light as possible and sometimes it just didn't help much.  Anyway, here you go.  Birdies;

Initially we saw no birds at all and I think I even said to Joy at some point that I suspected this was going to be a botanical hike.  And there's not one thing wrong with that, it was just an observation.  Luckily I was wrong, we saw plenty of other photo worthy things!  There just happened to be loads of flowers too. Hope you like flower photos coz here they come! I will try really hard to only post the really good ones:

The biggest happy surprise were the number of insects we saw. Loads of dragonflies and butterflies, lots of different sorts of wasps and bees and a few other bugs that I'm not absolutely positive what were!  Only got a few photos, (they move so quickly!) but here they are:

 Last but not least there is Curry Creek itself.  Curry, by the way, is the name of one of the first settlers to the Venice area.  I think that fact deserves to have a creek and a couple of preserves named after them!  The Creek and reflections of things in the creek:

And we've come to the end of another Photo Safari Report, this time the "At Least We Tried Hike".  I'm glad we checked out the Other Curry Creek. We learned something new, which is always a good thing, we finished up just as the sky was beginning to  sprinkle on us so our timing was terrific, we got some exercise, some time together and few decent photos.  

Another Great Day!

​

Welcome,  Welcome Autumn Equinox!  Let me add a few more Welcomes in there just to clarify how very happy I am that Autumn has officially arrived!  Woo and hoo!

I have always been a big fan of Autumn.  Regardless of where we lived or how the seasons played out, Autumn was always top dog with me and I don't really know why. I guess it's just one of those things that's just typed right on my DNA.  Thou shalt love Fall!  And it was so.

Now that I'm giving it a little more thought, I suppose this is one of the reasons I adore autumn:

That, my friends, is an open window.  And it is a beautiful sight to see.  Over the weekend, it was so absolutely gorgeous out in the morning that we opened a few windows for awhile. And, most importantly, we were still comfortable after doing so.  The inside of the house was not too hot, not too humid, it was wonderful!  Fresh Air!  I love when that happens.  

And it was earlier than usual this year.  Usually, the first opening of windows doesn't happen until sometime in October.  Very Exciting!  The window opening generally begins slowly, just a few hours in the morning and evening each day, closing them as soon as the temperature begins to rise and re-opening once it falls again.  But as the days go by, we find the windows open longer and longer until, they just stay open all the time and the fragrance and the breeze (and the outside sounds, lets be fair) swoop through the house all the time and eventually it's so cool that I have to put on a sweater. Love It!

The weather being cooler and less humid  also means spending more time outside comfortably and that's huge!  I have big plans for lots of yard work and Tim is looking forward to getting that second coat of paint on the outside of the house. Over and Done!  It's not that a person cannot spend time outside in the summer, it can be done. I know because we do it. But it's not.......pleasant.  We'll just leave it at that.  So we are looking forward to being outside and being happy about it.

Here's something else that I look forward to every autumn:

Rainbows in the house!  Shortly after we moved into this house, Tim put a window film on the glass part of the front door so that we have light but privacy.  Due to the position of our planet around the sun this time of year, in the late afternoon, the light of the sun comes directly through that window and breaks into prisms that make rainbows on the floors and walls for a short time.  I cannot begin to describe how much that tickles me.  And it only happens this time of year.

And speaking of the earths changing alignments in Autumn, this is the best time of year to view my favourite Constellation,  Orion!  It pleases me to no end to look up into a dark, cloudless sky, night after night after night and immediately spying a bright, clear view of my old friend, The Hunter!  Can't explain it, but it's true.

I love that we begin to eat different foods this time of year.  After a long hot season of various salads and simpler, lighter fare, now I can begin to make more casseroles and stews and soups!  And pies!  I rarely make pies in the summer.  For some reason, to me, pies are a cold weather treat.  As are cobblers!    Additionally, the grocery store offerings in the produce section will have changed.  Apples are back!

Ok let's be honest.  Nowadays you can get strawberries in December and apples in June BUT they aren't great.  They sort of whisper their representation of the real fruits (and veggies!)  I am happy to wait, thank you very much, for the real deal.  And right now we have the last of the fresh beautiful juicy fragrant peaches and the beginnings of apples and pears and I am such a happy girl :)

Yet another reason to love fall (as if I needed another reason) is a wardrobe change.  I do like my clothes.  It's the reason I bought the things I bought.  Because I liked them.  But after wearing the same things, day after day after hot sweaty summer day, I am ready for a change. I am so looking forward to the temperature dropping so I can start wearing long pants, long sleeved shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts and occasionally even a jacket!  It's been so long now, that I'm not positive I remember which shirts go with which pants??  I'll have the joy of figuring it out all over again.

Here's a final reason:  New TV season!  So tired of reruns

I reckon those are the biggest reasons why I adore this beautiful season of Autumn!  What's your favourite season??

Yeah, that's me and no, I didn't break down and cut my hair.  That's me one year ago. What a difference 365 days makes, eh?

You know how on Facebook they have that "memories" thing and you can see what you posted one year ago and five, ten or more years ago?  Yeah?  Well this photo popped up.  I had just had my hair cut. And the only reason I know that is because it said so right in the post.

I had been wearing my hair in a bob with bangs for a very long time and I directed my wonderful hairdresser to always trim it right around chin length.  Sometimes it was a wee bit shorter, sometimes a tiny bit longer but the length was always right around that chin neighborhood.  It was easy to care for,  though I was forever butchering my bangs when I trimmed them between appointments.  I had a standing appointment once every 7 weeks to keep me from looking more like a sheepdog than a human being.

It was at some point after that  photo was taken that I decided I was going to grow out my bangs and, what the heck, lets grow out the hair too. I cancelled my next appointment and did not make another.  

That picture is  literally  of my most recent haircut which was September 21st 2022.   Yikes!

This is me last month:

And my hair is one month longer today.  Wow, I  just cannot get over how much my hair grew in one year!  Holy Cats!

I cannot seem wrap my brain around it fully.  I guess it's because the hair grows such a small amount each day that we didn't  really notice it.  I mean, when my bangs started getting my my eyes, oh yeah, I noticed that.  But I gritted my teeth and clipped and hair banded  and barretted it until it was finally (FINALLY!!) no longer an issue.   

And the rest of the hair was never an issue. Not really.  I wear it in a ponytail or one of those giant clips most of the time during these hothothot days anyway so I don't think about how long it is or, conversely how much shorter it was Just One Year Ago!  Whoa!

That year went by so quickly too. I mean just Zoooooom!  And here it is one entire year later.

I suppose that dramatic change is a good indicator of what can happen if I really put my mind to it and just do it.  I could potentially lose those dang 10 pounds that REFUSE to go away.  One year from now I could be 10 pounds lighter and far more fit and potentially stay that way, if I really tried every single day for the next year.

Or maybe if I devoted a little time daily for a year, perhaps I could finally truly learn a second language?

With a years worth of practice maybe I could master french pastries?  Or the Tango? Or, once and for all, Calculus coz I sure as heck didn't get it the first time around!!!!

Maybe I could learn to knit?   Paint?   Play Pickleball?  Start a vegetable garden?

If I really put my mind to it, I suppose I could devote the next year to doing pretty much anything and one year from now I would be so much better at whatever it is I chose to do!!!

Wow!

Of course, the one thing I apparently haven't learned in a year is how bad I look in Black or Grey!   Wow!  Try a little colour why don't ya, Sam.

​Anyway, that was my brilliant (?) insight for the day today.  

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and wondering where we will all be and what we will be doing one year from today!!!

​Hugs all 'round

Look at that nice, clean, neat, tidy Utility Room!  That's the task that Tim and I tackled on Saturday this weekend.  There's more to be done, of course, there always is, but it was a great start.  I do love when things are clean and tidy.  And a utility room is such an easy room to slob up.  Any time there is something that you don't quite know what to do with, it gets stashed in the Utility room, "for now".  And then "For Now" ends up being forever and that's easy to get out of control. I have one trip to Good Will ahead of me and other stuff went out with the garbage this morning.  Tim put in some hanger-upper things so some things are now on the wall, big yeah.  He also repaired the frame of one of the many pictures that fell and hung that back up.

You may (or may not) recall that at some point, I thought I was being so dang smart, bought a bunch of Command Strip Picture hangars and suddenly there was art on the walls all over the house.  Much to our surprise,  some time later,  those same pictures began to fall from the walls.  We would hear a crash and run to find broken frames, broken class and art on the floor.  Sigh.  It wasn't even all of the pictures at once.  It could be weeks or even months between art disasters. Eventually we just  proactively took it all down and then we had no art on the walls.  It was very sad.

Now, very slowly, Tim is repairing frames and hanging things back up.  It isn't even the repair work that is the issue here.  Because  most Florida Homes are built out of Concrete Blocks, this isn't a matter of taking a small hammer and an ordinary picture hanger and tapping it in.  Nope, this requires a power drill into Concrete.  It's a process.  Eventually most, if not all, will be back on the walls.

And I took advantage of the much tidier Utility Room to vaccum like a mad woman and wash the floor.  It was a Busy and Dirty day.  We were filthy and tired when we were done but happy with the end result.

Sunday, however, we wanted to get OUT.  No idea of where to go or what to do, just, "lets get outta here!"  And so we did.  And I said, "Let's go on roads we've never been on before"!  Ahhh, an adventure!

So, ultimately,  we ended up out in farm country!  A pretty place to be :)  Very green and wide open with fields and sky and more fields and sky.  Awesome:

We saw lots of farm equipment, some of which I had no idea what was, lots of tractors of course and a windmill!  I cannot tell you the last time I saw a windmill!

There was very little traffic on the roads which was a delightful change but we saw loads of cows and horses, quite a few bee houses, one raccoon and countless birds.  Because it's tricky taking pictures out the window of a moving car, I only managed to get one photo and that of a horse.  So this horse is representational of all critters that we spied:

We drove alongside a train track for a very long ways and I speculated as to whether or not is was still active.  The following answered that question in short order:

 We drove in and out of countless little farm towns with interesting names like Nocotee and Cubitis and Ft Ogden.  And then we drove in and out of multiple cloudbursts despite the sun shining and then were disappointed to see not one single rainbow.

We went over countless little bridges spanning small creeks, some named, some not and then also over some good sized rivers.  We did stop at one of the rivers to walk the kinks out of our legs.  Even lazy old me can only sit so long before my butt goes to sleep and I really need to move around for a little bit.

We were having such fun that we lost  all track of time and were surprised when our tummies started rumbling.  Oh, is it time to eat already?  Yup, it was dinner time.  By the time we filled our bellies, it was time to head home.

But it was a great adventure and a perfect way to spend our Sunday!

How was your weekend?

About 15 years ago I did something a little out of the ordinary.  I bought myself a set of mugs.   We already had cups/mugs whatever you would like to call them.  In fact we had plenty of them.  And all of them were either conventional or oversized.  Which is great if you have big hands and/or drink your hot drinks very quickly.  

Neither of those things applies to me.  I have small hands and I sip my drinks.  In fact I am so goldarned pokey about how slowly I drink that by the time I'm reaching the bottom third of whatever hot drink I am working on, it's not longer hot.  Sometimes it's barely tepid.  Bleh.  As far as the small hands thing goes, those oversized cups mean I have to use two hands to safely use them and that's just not efficient.  I don't know about you, but I'm almost always doing at least two things at a time which means I need at least one of my hands free of mug holdery.

One day I just got a wild hair and happened to see this set of six mugs/cups that were smaller, more delicately proportioned and I liked them well enough to fork over the dough to buy them.  Yay!  That's them in the picture above.  Purple, Orange, Green, Blue and Red!  Oh wait, that's only five mugs.  Didn't I say the set had six mugs?  Yes I did!  Oh dear.

Yup, sad to say, earlier this week I broke one of them.  Of course it was my favourite mug, the yellow one.  Ain't that always the way?

I'm not even sure how it happened?  It was in my hand and the suddenly it wasn't and when it smashed onto the granite counter top it shattered into, roughly, a zillion pieces of all different sizes.  

The pieces were of every size possible from the largest, above, to almost microscopic and they were everywhere.  It wasn't enough to smash the cup to smithereens, no, the pieces had to be well distributed too.  They were everywhere on the countertop including under (how did that happen?) the coffee maker, they were in the sink and the debris field stretched the full length of the kitchen from the utility room door to the table,  a few pieces even, somehow, made their way into the living room.  Sigh.

It took quick awhile, but only one cut, to get it all cleaned up. It's over now, nothing but a memory.  I won't bother to replace it, I mean there are 5 other cups in the set.  It's not as if I was cupless after all. But I really loved that yellow one. 

There was just something about the sunshiney yellow colour that was happy. It was a great way to start my day.  Back when I was working, this was the mug I took to the office and it lived on the right hand back corner of my desk.  Sometimes it held hot water, sometimes cold, once in awhile I drank soup out of it and with fair frequency it was pressed into service as an M&M bowl.  And it survived all those years at the Audiology office with nary a chip.  But in my own home...smash-ola! Dang!

I guess they are right, most accidents do take place in the home.  Who knew?

Well I'm going to miss it ;(   I tried to switch to the blue, orange or green cup but it just doesn't feel the same.  Takes time to adapt to a new routine. I'll get there but it won't be as sunshiney.

Hmmm I  see that I am using the words "mug" and "cup" interchangeably.  I wonder what the difference is between them, really.  I'm going to bet it has to do with the saucer.  Cup and saucer, not mug and saucer.  Let's find out:

• "A cup is smaller and more narrow, while a mug is taller and more wide.
• A cup has a handle on one side, while a mug has a handle on the top.
• A cup sometimes rests on a saucer, while a mug does not.
• A mug is designed to hold more liquid than a cup.
• Cups are often used for serving tea or coffee, while mugs are suitable for various hot and cold beverages."

So it turns out I am partly right...the saucer thing wasn't wrong....it just  wasn't the only defining characteristic.  So if I ever replace the broken yellow one, I will now know to look for a cup rather than a mug even though I don't need or want a saucer, the saucer part seems to be optional.  Interesting.  

Well there, we both learned a something today, the difference between a mug and a cup!  My Dad always said you should learn one new thing every day.  Looks like we  are done now and can stop learning immediately.  For today anyway.  We still have to learn the one new thing for tomorrow too.

Have a great day, with nothing broken and an even better weekend!

Hugs all 'round

What the heck?  Road Closed?  High Water?  Wasn't that hurricane a couple of weeks ago?  Shouldn't things have settled back down by now?  Well you'd think so, but there ya go.  Joy and I set out of Myakka State Park for a photo Safari on Friday and while the main road through the park was still open, most of the side roads were sporting a similar sign.  Dang!

Even without the signage, we are certainly smart enough to avoid flooded trails, paths and roads.  So we weren't certain what, if anything, photo worthy we would find.  Not to worry, there were plenty of photographs taken.   For obvious reasons with will be the High Water Hike, even though there wasn't a lot of actual hiking involved this time around.

Naturally, the high water itself was an interesting photo subject:

And because the water was so high it was in places it usually isn't which also means that sometimes the wildlife was in places it usually isn't. I speak in particular of the gator sort of wildlife. They get their own category today. Don't worry, we are alwasy very careful. Remember Joy's motto:  Always know where your alligators are!

There were beautiful botanicals of all sorts and I took loads of those photos.  I will only torture you with a few:

There was the non-flood water as well, of course.  The Myakka River on it's own is always a stunner.  And the light was especially good.  There is some light that is just made for photography. I'm sure you've heard of the Golden Hour of photography?  That's the light at the end of the day, between when the sun starts to set and full dark.  Early morning light is often very nice as well, clean and clear and crisp.  But this was mid-morning when the sunlight is usually starting to be harsh;  it bleaches out the colour and leaves photos looking very flat and washed out.  Well, we got lucky because just when, normally we would be having dealing with full sun, instead the sky starting to cloud up leaving some especially nice conditions for photos.   You can judge for yourself:

As far as wildlife goes, well, hmmm.  We saw a ton of dragonflies but they were flying the entire time, Nobody landed. Saw bees, also flying.  But not a single deer, not one raccoon, we were armadillo-less and saw nary a single squirrel.  However there were birds. Loads of birds. Lots and lots of birds!  So I have bird photos. So many in fact, that I think I'll break it up into two different slideshows for you.  

Bird Slideshow One:

Bird Slideshow the Second:

And here we are having come to the end of the High Water Hike!  It will probably be a few weeks before the next Photo Safari so I hope this one will hold you over until next time.  Make no mistake, I will be posting again later this week, but the Photo Safari Report ?  It'll happen again, just not for a few weeks.

​Hope your weekend was an absolute Delight!

I went to the library late last week to stock back up.  These are the four books that I chose.  Whle I particularly like historic fiction, I actually like almost every kind of book so I'm open to all sorts of books.  I didn't really have time to go to the library but I went anyway.  I was starring down the barrel of a 3-day weekend.  No way was I walking into it without some new books to read!

As soon as I got home with this batch, I started thumbing through them trying to decide  in which order to read them. (I stack them in the order I wish to read them y'see) and I ended up being so engaged with the first book, that I sat down and read it. Dang.  One book down and it was only the first day.

To be fair, it was a super quick read.  Basically, just brain candy.  Historic brain candy but still.  It was vastly superior to say, a Harlequin novel and of course muchmuchmuch better than ANYTHING by Danielle Steele (but then,  what isn't?) and yet it still falls in that basic category.  Those sorts of books always remind me of my mother.

I know I've mentioned before that I come from a family of readers.  And generous readers at that. Meaning that we shared our books.  Back when everyone was still around, and my sister, her daughters and our parents all lived near each other and only I lived far away, they would trade their books around and once everyone had read everything, the books would be packed up and shipped to me!  My turn, My turn!   The first ones I always read were the stilly little romance novels that were my mother's choice of reading material.  We referred to them as bathtub books because each book could be read in its entirety in one nice long soaking bath.  As a bonus, if it accidentally fell in the tub or got dunked, it really didn't matter.  I received many a book with stiff and wrinkled pages.  Pre-dunked as it were.  

The point here is that, despite my snotty comment about Danielle Steele,  I'm not a snob about what I read. Although I find that I am more selective than I used to be.   I used to have the attitude that every book that fell into my hands had to be read. I mean really and truly read, appreciated, considered and remarked upon.  Even if it was not an enjoyable read.  If someone else put the effort into writing the book, the least I could do is read the dang thing, was how I saw it.  But as time has gone by, I have become more, ummm, discriminating I suppose is the correct word.  It finally occurred to me at some point that pleasure reading should indeed be a pleasure and if I wasn't enjoying it, why was I reading it??  I mean seriously, I am not getting any younger here. Why would I waste my time and eyesight on a book I'm not enjoying?

I also used to approach a library visit like a military mission requiring lots of research and forethought.  I would bring in lists of recommended books to search for and should those not give me the desired results,  my list of books that I happened to have come across in newspapers and magazines and then the back up to the back up plan which was to have topics in mind that I could then look up - first in the card catalogues (remember those?) then later on the library computers. The results were, mixed.  Sometimes I bought home books I loved and other times books I merely liked and still other times books that I hated.

Then, earlier this year, I made a mistake.  Before I walked over to the library, I made sure that I had my various lists, my library card,  my book bag (to carry home the books!) and my sunglasses.  I ambled over, enjoying the walk, and arrived in due time.  Once through the doors, I removed my sunglasses and immediately realized that I had forgotten to bring my reading glasses.  Dang.  Without them I see perfectly at a distance but everything up close is a blur.  Doubledang.  For a minute I considered walking back home to get them and then returning even though I honestly didn't have time for all that back and forthing.  How badly did I need new books?  Well, very badly apparently because I ended up standing in a random aisle, effectively blind,  and then choosing 4 random books.  Literally turned to the left and selected two books and then turn right and picked two others.  I checked them out, walked home, put on my reading glasses and discovered that I had miraculously gotten 4 really great books!  Wow!

So while I do remember my reading glasses now, I don't put as much forethought into my book selections.  I pick an aisle, a shelf, and kind of randomly pick 4 books.  I am usually in and out of the library in under 15  minutes. And, shockingly, my selections are at least no worse than they were when I was putting so much thought, time and energy into choosing.  And, bonus, it's always a surprise.  I do love a good surprise.

The surprise 4 selections from the previous visit took place in 1) France 1942, 2) Austria/Hungry WWI,  3) Sweden through 3 generations of women and 4) Ireland WWII.  Of that lot the only one that disappointed was the last one.  It had potential but kind of dragged on and on and on...bah.  I returned that one without finishing it. With NO remorse!  Remember, I no longer finish reading things I am not enjoying.   Hey, if I go to a party and I'm not having a good time, I go home!  Same thing.

ANWAY, here's hoping that the two remaining books in this week's stack get me through the weekend.  No worries, my back up to the back up to the back up is to just re-read something that is already sitting on the shelf.

Wishing you great books and an even better weekend!

​Hugs all 'round

Disclaimer:  I got the above photo online, repeat, I did not take this particular photo of Naples Florida.

How was your Holiday weekend?  Hope you got to have some fun!  We managed to do a little bit of everything.  We relaxed, ran errands, got housey stuff done AND had an adventure!  Woohoo!

Monday - the actual holiday - for absolutely no reason in particular we drove down to Naples Florida which is illustrated in the  photo at the top of the page which, again, I found online. I was looking for something to exemplify the City of Naples.  I think this photo pretty much does it.

When we first moved to Florida, more than 7 years ago now, we made it a point to explore our new state, and that year one of the many places we visited was Naples.  But that was quite some time ago and it was time for a revisit.    If you are unfamiliar, Naples is quite a monied town and it shows well.  Everything about it is pretty, a little more, a little special, a little extra. Not in an ostentatious way (well not usually) but in a subtle quiet way where you exclaim over what a beautiful town it is, but you maybe cannot quite put your finger on the why of it. 

When I say it's a pretty town, I seriously mean that. Even the most pedestrian, utilitarian things look nice.  It 's hard to describe. 

I mean the beaches are beautiful of course, but then, most  beaches are. It's a very simple formula:  sand + water. But somehow Naples is exceptionally beautiful.   By the time we got around to looking at the beach, the sky was starting to cloud up and honestly, we couldn't find any public parking. It seemed to all be residents only and requiring some sort of sticker. So I only snuck one quick photo and it doesn't really show anything special:

And then there are the houses.  Not every house of course, but a shocking number of houses there look more like palaces, or  museums, or perhaps federal buildings, maybe fancy hotels.  Because we were driving, not walking, down the street and I was too busy goggling to think to take pictures!  Therefore,  I only managed to snap one quick through the front window across poor Tim as he was driving but here you go:

And then there is the downtown. It is an absolutely charming area stuffed full of shops and restaurants and all of it looks more like a movie set than a real downtown. Again, too busy looking to take more than one photo, sorry.  Actually looks a bit like Downtown Venice come to think of it. Just there is more of it.

We happened to notice one 'For Sale' sign in front of a relatively normal sized house so, what the heck, we looked it up.  Google is a wonderful thing.  I read it to Tim and we laughed and laughed.  It was a normal sized house, 3 beds, 2 baths, around 2000 sq feet on a nice lot a few blocks from the beach and a few blocks from downtown, which is similar in both size and situation to our own house.   But this one, it said right in the listing, was ravaged by Hurricane Ian last year and has been empty ever since, meaning it is a tear-down and not a liveable abode.  The asking price?  Get ready to laugh 'coz we did.  Over six million dollars!  LOLOLOL   Too funny.

We did stop at the Gordon River Greenway Park which has beautiful trails.  Some parks were paved, some were on a raised wooden boardwalk through a swampy area and some just  dirt  trails and we wandered a bit.  One trail takes you to the Naples Zoo!  Another to the Kayak Launch, yet another to a bridge that goes....somewhere....  It was very nice, not crowded and I did take a couple of photos:

Out of curiosity, I looked up Naples on the phone and entertained Tim and I for part of the 90 minute drive home, reading about it.  I was specifically looking for some historical facts before moving on to demographic information and so forth but in keying the word "history' into the search, the first thing that came up was the weather history of Naples. Interesting.

As it turns out, there have been 69 (!!) hurricanes in Naples Florida in 1930.  1930 was 93 years ago and it seems that Naples averages a hurricane in less than every two years.  That seems excessive to me.   Additionally, as I read on, we learned that Naples is listed as being at Extreme Risk of flooding.  Yikes!  No Thank you!  

We did learn that Naples was founded by a confederate General, a congressman from Kentucky and a newspaper man also from Kentucky in 1886.  Also found out that much of Naples was created from dredging, bulldozing and filling in which would probably explain the high risk of flooding.  oops.

To it's credit, Naples has a lot of wildlife sanctuaries, parks, preserves and parks. I mean a LOT.  And that is all good.  And, as I started this post, it's such a pretty place to spend a little time.

But I'm thinking we don't need to go back again for awhile. Been there, done that, learned a lot and moved on.  

​How was your holiday weekend?

Well, taadaa!  We made it through another hurricane.  This one, Idalia, we are being told, was very unusual in that it followed a path never before seen in  recorded weather history!  Wow!  Which means it also hit an area that has never had a hurricane before. At least not a direct hit.  Those poor folks :(  My heart goes out to them!

We had lots of wind and rain, flooding on the roads closest to the beach but otherwise, it's all good.  I've already picked up the deadfall in the yard.  3 garbage cans later...jobs done.    But I'm leaving most of the sandbags in place until the end of hurricane season - just in case.

So many lovely people have been checking in with us, to make sure we are ok. That is so thoughtful and considerate!! Just warms my heart.   But in talking with folks,  I think there is a little misunderstanding of how a hurricane works.  If I may do a small tutorial before I move on?

Think of a hurricane as a pinwheel.  Imagine each of the petals of the pinwheel has streamers attached to the tips.  When it spins around, obviously, the streamers reach way way way farther than the edges of the pinwheel right?  Ok.  Now imagine that pinwheel is 350 miles across.  That's roughly the size of the state of Colorado.  Now then, the center of that pinwheel made landfall in Cedar Key Florida which is more than 3 hours north  from us.  Only the streamers of the pinwheel lashed us.  The strongest part of the storm is the actual pinwheel.  Does that makes sense?

Good!  Now bear in mind that this pinwheel travels counterclockwise which means the top of the pinwheel (or north side) is pushing at things including water and the bottom of the pinwheel (or south side including us) is pulling water.   Which is why the backside of the hurricane can also be very damaging; Storm Surge!  The storm literally pulls the water onto shore.  Storm surge is often the worst part of the storm.  Meterologist sometimes refer to the backside of the hurricane as the "dirty side".  Dirty as in dirty tricks!

Hope that helped!

One of the hardest parts of getting through a "weather event" is the not knowing.  You don't know for sure where it's going to hit, you don't know for sure how bad it's going to be, if you are going to lose power, or be underwater, or have trees down, or house damage even!  And it's a lot of waiting. Waiting. Waiting.  I paced a lot.  Used up my nervous energy cleaning and organizing and doing things that didn't really need to be done.  Tim on the other hand is pretty relaxed about it.  His feeling is that there is nothing he can do to control it, so he is more focused on being prepared as much as possible and dealing with the rest afterwards.  He is so smart. Wish I could do that.

The sun is shining brightly today. At least for right now.  Weather predictions suggest rain later, but that's ok. I'm loving the sunshine right now.    It was still windy and rainy yesterday so mostly, I stayed inside and re-organized part of the pantry, cleaned bathrooms and made a coffeecake with brown butter icing.  I shouldn't brag on myself, but it tastes reallllly good.

And because we are always curious, instead of doing the noonwalk,  Tim and I headed out in the car to see what we could see.  I brought my camera of course.  At one point we assumed that we were between rain bands and headed down a boardwalk toward the beach only to have the sky, suddenly, open up and, needless to say, we were drenched!  But that's ok.  Once that band cleared, we continued and the pictures happened.    Even saw a couple of birds!

It was windy and rainy enough that the camera lens kept collecting wet sea air and moisture (which also means salt) so I had to keep cleaning the lense.  It was hard to get really good shots, but I did the best I could. Please bear that in mind:

I did have a teehee moment the day of the hurricane.  At one point I suddenly realized that last year, when Hurricane Ian came through, I was wearing the exact same clothes!  LOLOL  It seems that I have an official hurricane outfit!  What  a silly thing to remember.

Labour Day weekend is coming up!  Hope you have something wonderful planned!  I'll see you at some point next week!

Have fun and be safe ya'll.  Hugs all 'round.

What is it with the letter "I"?  The first hurricane we truly encountered since we lived here was Hurricane Irma, last year it was Hurricane Ian.  Now we are expecting Idalia!  All start with the same letter! What are the odds on that?  The rain part should begin later today but the actual landfall of the storm won't be until sometime Wednesday. At least that's the story for right now.   
And according to the map, a t this very moment, it seems to be heading north of us. Which means we will mostly just get heavy rain and wind.  But things change and honestly nobody, including the weather people, know anything for sure.  I guess we will all learn about it at the same time.

Tim and I headed over to the jetty last night to see what we could see.  There was a brisk wind, much cooler temperatures and some awesome clouds:

Other than a few people stopping by to take photos like us, the jetty and the beach were the least crowded we've seen in months!  I was able to line up a couple of fun shots of other photographers tho.  Perspective, sometimes, is everything!

We saw two little girls blowing soap bubbles and watching the wind carry the bubbles away.  They were sort of enchanting.  I didn't even try to take a photo of the children but I got one of the bubbles. You may have to do a Where's Waldo level search to find them, but I assure you, the bubbles are there:

Once the rain reached us, we headed home but quickly outpaced the storm and found, instead, a magnificent rainbow!  Naturally, I paused to take pictures of that too:

Our weekend started out so good too.  We had a Minock Weekend!  Yay!  They drove down Friday late afternoon so we got to have dinner together and then hang out just talking and laughing, way way way too late.  But up bright and early to share breakfast (and talk more). The we split up girls/guys to hang out for awhile.  She and I walked the avenue and poked around the shops. (and talked more!) Then we all met up again at the house and talked and laughed still more until it was time for them to hit the road and go home.  How on earth do we come up with that much to talk about??  I dont' know, but we always do :)

It was a GREAT beginning of the weekend.  And now we wait to see what Idalia will bring us.  Fingers crossed that it's all much ado about nothing. 

If you dont' hear from me later this week, it only means that we've lost power. I'm sure we are absolutely fine and eventually I will be back to post the rest of the story on the storm.

Everybody hunker down, stay safe and we will meet again soon!

Hugs all 'round

In a moment rather unusual for me, I actually have nothing to say today!  So I will leave you with wishes for a wonderful weekend and a few pretty pictures.

​Hugs all 'round

On a fairly regular basis, ideas pop into my head about what to blog about.  It might be something I've recently done, or places we've gone, things we've talked about or read.  And it sparks an idea and I immediately write it down in a little notebook that I keep at my desk for just such things.  

Then, when a day comes along that is a blog-writing sort of day, if I don't have another plan already, I consult the book of ideas, get re-inspired all over again and get to work.   This morning, I sat down, blog construction page opened and blank and ready to roll, my fingers were poised over the keys and.........................nothin'.  Bupkus. Zippity-do-dah, zilch, zero, nada.  So naturally, I consulted the idea book and, holy cats!  I had already used up all of the ideas! Now what?

I blame August.  It's  such a blah month.  It's hot,  it's boring, and it's still freakin' summer even though by now everybody is over it..  August is like the guests who stay too long at the party. NO matter how many hints you give, they linger. 

Even my desk calendar for August is dull.  Other than my museum days schedule, it is virtually blank and that NEVER happens. Usually my desk calendar is an absolute wreck with all of the days full of different colours of ink and markers, little sticky notes slapped on here and there and things written in the margins with lots of not at all helpful arrows.   August's calendar page, on the other hand is very nearly pristine.  

I suppose I ought to appreciate it for it's calm in an otherwise whackado world but it surely cuts down on subject matter for blogposts!  

Perhaps if I led a more interesting life it would be different.  There would be scads of things to write about every week!  Heck, there would be things to write about every day!  Imagine living that life?  Always on my way to here or there, thither and then yon.  Always doing, and seeing and being and going.  Busybusybusy. Gosh just thinking about that makes me tired.  I guess I'm more hardwired to a quieter life.  But not quite as quiet as August.

I honestly didn't realize just what a snore my August life was until I was on the phone with my sister recently. She had been away for a few weeks and we were catching up.  I asked her what was new - an innocent enough question - and  my goodness!  She is busy and going and doing and it was so exciting and fun to hear about!  But somewhere along the way she turned the question around to me, "So what's new with you?"  And I had to pause to think about it.

Quite honestly, nothing was new, or exciting or interesting or worthy of mention really.  So I said, "nothing really, just y'know, ordinary stuff". And my voice trailed off and the answer just kind of hung there in the air in silence and then we promised to get together later this week.

Ordinary Stuff is the truth.  There is nothing whatsoever wrong with ordinary stuff.  Most of our lives is just ordinary stuff.  People get up, they go to work, to meetings and they get their jobs done.  I stay home and get my job done here.  I clean, do laundry, cook and bake, and do some yard work.  Grocery shopping gets done and errands get run and books get read and seriously, that is my regular life.  There is a comfort in the predictability of it all.

But usually, in non-August months, here and there, something different drops into our lives.  And that livens things up a bit for awhile. Because one unusual, unexpected thing frequently leads to others which leads to others which then lend themselves to yet more non-ordinary people, things, places and ideas.  How very exciting! Except in August.

So anyway, that's that.  Ordinary August.  Luckily, the ever so boring month of August is heading to a close and I see September on the horizon.  September will be far more interesting, I have no doubt at all.

And in the meantime, I am going to get on with my day, try to get excited about washing towels and sheets,  cleaning bathrooms and doing the ironing.  Hold me back, I'm not sure I can stand the excitement!

Hey!  Look what I almost sort of remembered how to do?  French Braid!  Wow! I'm so tickled with myself right now!

Sure, sure, it's not perfect.  It looks a little wonky and I seem to have oopsed a section down toward the bottom, but still, I did it !  And yes, it required a couple of pins to keep it all in place (and a significant amount of hairspray) but it still counts.

Are you tired of hearing about my hair yet?  I know I'm getting tired of trying to figure it out.   The electric rollers thing is working out pretty well, but I don't always have the time, the energy or the umph required to deal with all the steps involved:  First I have to think of it in time.  Then I have to go to the linen closet and pull out the rollers and the clips and plug it in.  Next comes waiting for it to heat up.  After that comes the actual rollering which is both time consuming and a little painful.  I still burn my fingers a little bit every time.  Then is the time spent just  walking around looking like a satellite waiting for the rollers to cool off.  Followed by unrollering and putting everything away, giving the freshly unrollered and unbrushed/uncombed hair a general blast of hairspray and waiting for that to settle. Lastly, brushing or combing it.  All that means thinking ahead!  Which sometimes just doesn't work out for me.

Plus it's just nice to have lots of options for my hair.   One of the best parts of having longer hair is having more hair style possibilities!  I love that part the most.  So now and again, I fiddle around with my hair trying to come up with another new idea.  In this case it was a new/old idea.  A long, long time ago, I braided my hair on a regular basis. It was quick and easy, kept the hair out of my way and looked nice. Bonus! One braid, two braids, big braids, tiny braids,  pinned up, left down, crisscrossed across the top.....there are a lot of choices  with braids.

So I thought I'd play with it a little bit and see if my hair was finally long enough to actually braid.  Turns out it is, just  barely, but it is.  Ooooo, exciting!  Something else to mess around with :)  I love when that happens.  So while I was playing with various sorts of braids, it struck me!  "French Braids!"  Which was immediately followed by, "Do I remember how to do that?" which was then followed by, "Can I still do that?"  There is only one way to find out!

It took multiple tries and failures and by the end of that first day, my arms were tired out just from being up in the air so much.  My right arm in particular (you will recall that was broken in two places back in January) doesn't bend exactly right anymore so I have to accommodate for that.  And then too, I'm working with fingers that, thank to arthritis, also refuse to properly cooperate. ARGH!  So Frustrating sometimes.  But I kept at it.

My personal policy in regard to physical limitations is to find a way.  If I cannot do something the normal way anymore, then I need to find a different way of doing it!  Honestly, most of the time, I actually do find another way. Not every time. But most  of the time. And I was pretty sure that I would figure it out this time too.  It's not a life altering function.  The fate of the earth does not hinge on whether or not I can french braid my hair anymore.  But it was important to me. And that was sufficient reason to keep trying.

I'm actually rather pleased with the results.  Imperfect yes, but I still did it!  And I think, with more practice, it will get even getter.  Not perfect probably, but good enough.  :)

I do see, in this photograph, how very grey I am getting.  Funny how I don't really notice it when I look into a mirror.  Ah well, I earned every sparkly bit of it.  One of these days, soon perhaps, it will all be either silver, grey, white or a combination.  By then, maybe, I will have that french braid thing down cold!  Yay me!

Have a great weekend.  Hugs all 'round ya'll

I keep reading articles about how "malls" are a thing of the past,  that they are failing rapidly all across America and that they represent an America that no longer exists.  I'm not sure what that thing is that no longer exists, by the way.  Just telling you what people who seem to know what they are talking about are saying.  Or rather, writing.  

 We have two malls near us, the closest one is the Sarasota Square Mall and the other is University Town Center Mall, better known as UTC.    Both are in Sarasota which is only a half hour from here.  There are Zero malls in Venice off or on island.  We are mall-less.  Your choices for shopping in Venice are either free-standing big box chains off island (and there's nothing wrong with that) or the pricey but adorable little boutiques the line the downtown area on island. (and there is nothing wrong with that either)

I have done some gift shopping at the boutiques as well as more functional, purposeful personal shopping at the chains and both perfectly suited whatever purpose was intended but neither of these things has the convenience of a mall.   In much the same way as I have heard that some people from other countries react during their first America Grocery shop, I was entranced by my first shopping mall experience.  I actually do remember it.

It was in Connecticut.  I vividly recall stepping through the heavy glass doors and just stopping to marvel at the sights and sounds around me.  How beautiful, how clever, how very convenient. Is the day very hot out?  Very Cold out?  Very rainy out?  Doesn't matter. Inside there is no "natural environment", it's just shiny and pretty as far as the eye can see.  And you certainly could stay for hours without realizing it because, much like casino's, there are rarely any clocks or windows.  But that's ok, because not only are there endless shopping options, there are also so very many restaurant choices,  comfy sitting areas, hair and nail salons, movie theatres and very clean bathrooms.  It's almost like a biodome. 

I spent a lot of time way back when, hanging out in a mall, both with and without the kids.  Sometimes we would just go for ice cream or pizza and then walk around.  Take the kids to the movies?  Sure?  Back to School clothes shopping?  Absolutely.  Christmas ?  You betcha!   Or just window shopping! And then when the kids were older, it became one of their hang out places.  There was even a term for it, Mall Rats.  Not a pretty term, but people threw it around liberally.

It doesn't happen for me much anymore.  Due to my driving chicken heartedness, I cannot drive to either of the mall's in Sarasota so I must implore someone else to drive me for one thing. And for another, I just  don't shop very much these days.  Just not how my life currently is.

But occasionally it comes up and with our local malls I have seen both the proof of those articles I referred to earlier and the disproof!

The Sarasota Square Mall is older and is showing it's age.  The grand opening was in 1977 which was 46 years ago.  I'd say for sure it has done it's time.  And in the past 5 years or so, one store after another has closed or relocated leaving only  JC Penney, Costco and a multiplex movie theater.  All that enormous space and  there are now only three things in it.  So sad.  I haven't shopped at Penney's in quite some time but we hit Costco once every few months.  We have never been to the theatre there, I don't think.  There is some talk about turning the existing building into a combination of office spaces and living space.  Interesting idea.

By contrast, the UTC Mall is still vibrant, exciting, shiny and almost  fully populated.  Even though it is now 20 years old, it still looks brand new and spiffy.  It doesn't hurt that the area immediately around it has sprung up countless other plaza's full of shops and restaurants and businesses.  In fact, the Mote Aquarium is currently building immense, beautiful and very contemporary looking new home right on the other side of the UTC parking lot.  It's a happening place.

We recently visited UTC at my instigation.  It was a super hot day but I wanted to get some walking done so for the first time in several years, we hit it up.   Managed to do a little more than 2 miles worth of walking.  We bought nothing but  did look around.  Every once in awhile I like to check out ladies clothing stores to see what's currently in fashion.  Usually a walk through the mall gives me some glimmer of an idea.  But oddly this time it did not.  Even though we went into every single store that sells ladies clothes, I saw every style of fashion imaginable!   So I guess maybe the style right now is, "Anything Goes"?

It's odd that I wanted to check out Ladies FAshion because the only times in my entire life I have ever been in style hav been completely by accident.  Maybe it gives me some sort of grim satisfaction to know just exactly how out of style I am?  Well this time it didn't work.  This time every single woman in the entire mall, regardless of how they were kitted out, apparently, was wearing current fashion.  Nice!

At any rate, I neither proved nor disproved, the articles statement of Mall's being a thing of the past.  Perhaps some are and some aren't.  And I really am not certain what the magic ingredients are to ensure a mall's success.  And of course I only know, first hand, the mall concept's temperature in my own area.  What's it like where you live?

I assume that on-line shopping has severely impacted brick and mortar shops.  But if that's the case,  why would one mall continue to succeed while others fail?  Internet shopping cannot be the only variable.  

It's not as if the answer to this question has the fate of the planet riding on it.  I just wonder about things sometimes and then I look it up and sometimes, I cannot find the answer.  And then I wonder about that too.  

iInsomnia.  Who hasn't had a few sleepless nights here and there?  

Basically insomnia is just not sleeping.  Not because you WANT to stay awake, but because you simply cannot sleep, no matter how badly you want to.  

For some people, insomnia is a very rare experience, usually during a time of stress.  Other folks are brand new to the torture of long and sleepless nights.  And for others of us?  It's a lifetime experience.  For me, it's now 70 years of being, what one of my childhood doctors used to call, a "bad sleeper".  Bad Sleeper!  Shame on you!

As I get older, I'm noticing more and more people complaining about Insomnia.  Most of these people are somewhere in the range of Tim's and/or my age so I was curious if this is just one more delight in the aging process.  Turns out that it is.  Yup.  Dang.  We just cannot catch a break.  (more on this below)

Actually, as I researched, insomnia covers a wide range of sleep disorders.  There was even a little questionnaire:  1) Do you have difficulty falling asleep?  2) Do you fall asleep easily and then wake up during the night, unable to fall back to sleep?  3) Do you wake much earlier than you would like and therefore get fewer hours of sleep than you need?  4) Do you have nights of little to no sleep at all?    

By the way, my answer to all of these questions is  a resounding Yes.  I am a walking sleep disorder apparently.  Or perhaps I am all of them?  

Regardless, the causes suggested for all of these types of insomnia are legion.  There are loads of reasons why people do not sleep.  Stress and Anxiety of course, as expected are at the top.  Everyone has times of stress and anxiety throughout their lives and probably have sleep difficulties because of it.   My assumption, though to be fair I didn't look any further into this idea, is  that probably people who are always stressed and anxious, always have difficulty sleeping.  Makes sense to me.

Another reason that some people do not sleep well is side effects of medications.  Interesting, interesting. A subset of this reason was caffeine, recreational drug and alcohol intake.  Not really medications but there it was. 

Apparently, weight can be an instigator in the sleeping wars too.  I get the connection if a person's size has also caused sleep apnea but otherwise, I really do not see the correlation. 

Folks who have chronic pain - also logical but sad struggle with insomnia. AND too much exposure to "bluelight" meaning tablets, phones and television can disrupt sleep patterns too.

And then there is the worst, the one thing that I cannot do a dang thing about for me or anybody else, Aging.  What?  Apparently, as we age, our own natural circadian rhythms get disrupted and therefore, we have difficulty sleeping.  What kind of crap reason is this?  It's not bad enough that we have wrinkles, grey hair, arthritis and occasional bouts of can't-recall-itis, now our bodies are sabotaging our own sleep?  

Well that just stinks on ice.   Experts still recommend between 6 and 9 hours of sleep a night. HAH!  That's hilarious.

Sleep is important.  So important in fact, that, according to my research,  going  without sleep, leads to cognitive impairment, irritability, delusions and even hallucinations!  Ask any parent of a newborn.  They already know this.  But did you know  a mere 24 hours with no sleep is equivalent to having a .10 blood alcohol level  - which would of course be above the legal limit to drive.   Yikes!

 36 hours without sleep can cause: 

• extreme fatigue
• hormonal imbalances
• decreased motivation
• risky decisions
• inflexible reasoning
• decreased attention
• speech impairments, such as poor word choice and intonation

After 48 hours of no sleep, the body's immune system becomes compromised on top of everything else so now insomnia becomes  potentially a health risk.

If  your insomnia becomes a chronic condition other problems  can rear their ugly heads:

• high blood pressure
• heart disease
• stroke
• obesity
• type 2 diabetes
• mental illness

Well, as far as I know I don't have any of those issues, but just knowing that it's a possibility kind of stinks.

The articles I read, over and over again, stated the importance of getting a good nights sleep.  Well, and I think I speak on behalf of all of us, I would love to.  On the rare night when I sleep soundly for an entire 6-8 hours, I wake feeling brand new, energetic and happyhappyhappy.  If I could do that every single night I would be overjoyed.

But the fact of the matter is, I can't. No matter how much I wish I slept through the night, every night, I don't, I wish I could.  I have tried adjusting my diet (as suggested), my exercise routine, cutting myself off from all 'bluelights' and every sort of relaxation methodology known to humankind.  Not one single bit of it works.  I've even tried Melatonin with absolutely no improvement. My thought is that I've lived an entire lifetime of poor sleep.  If that's just how it's going to be for the rest of my life, well, at least I have had plenty of practice. 

And, honestly, if I'm not sleeping anyway, I may as well use that time to catch up on my reading or heck, blue lights be damned, watching TV.  If I'm already not sleeping, a little more blue light exposure isn't going to make any difference.  And in the middle of the night is when the old TV shows are rerun:  Dick Van Dyke Show, My Favourite Martian, Dobie Gillis, Starsky and Hutch, Mannix,  Barney Miller, the X-Files, The Pretender, Quantum Leap, oh yeah, the list goes on and on.  

Some of those older shows actually hold up pretty well and are still very entertaining.  Other's, not so much.  I love seeing the old  cars, decor, fashion and even the way people talked!   When was the last time you heard anyone call someone else a Turkey?  heehee.  

I've gotten to see some of my favourite old movies, too.   Classics like "Casablanca" and "12 Angry Men" and "Some Like it Hot".  Newer (but still considered old now) movies such as "Stargate" and "Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller" and "Dead Poet's Society" are still really good films.   Now and again, I click on a movie I've never even heard of before.  Usually they are terrible but occasionally I'm surprised at how really good they are.  

I have no idea what the answer is, but it was kind of comforting to know that I am now of an age where most  people have difficulty sleeping. It's not just me, anymore.  I am in good company.

Everything I've read suggests strongly that a person with insomnia should really discuss it with their doctor.  With absolutely no animosity to any physician that I've ever actually talked to about my insomnia, they didn't have anything helpful to say.  Oh well.  I guess it just is what it is.  

And if you are one of the zillions of people who battles, even occasionally with insomnia, I feel for ya. I really do.  It probably doesn't help at all, but please know that if you are awake in the night, I most likely am too.

Wishing you good sleep and sweet dreams this weekend!

How was your weekend?   Ours was great! And unexpectedly great.  I don't mean unexpected in a depressing way.  It's not as if our weekends are horrible. They aren't.  But normally they are uneventful.   In general we manage to get stuff done and checked off the gotta-do list, run some errands, maybe catch up on some overdue sleep, and probably eat at least one meal out (or take-out).  And then it's Monday again and Tim is at his desk working his job and I'm all over the place working my job and we are looking forward to the weekend once again.

But this past weekend was different.  Not the weather, No, that wasn't different.  It was hot and humid in a way that only Florida in August can be which means that we will very wisely be spending most  of our time inside......somewhere.  But it started out with not one, but two flat tires.  Flat tires are not a good thing.  But they are a real thing.  Flat tires happen.  How poor Tim managed to get two flat tires on his car at the same time while driving in a normal fashion on a normal road is still a mystery. But it's true.   

He knew that it happened immediately.  We had been out running errands and were very close to home at that point so we carefully continued  the few remaining blocks.  Once we pulled into the driveway and got out to look, yup, very flat.  Dang.  But Tim just shrugged and said "good thing I have a spare".  It was late in the day though so the plan was to take care of it the next day.  Saturday morning, while I was outside checking on green growing stuff while Tim was taking care of a housey chore, I noticed that it wasn't just one flat tire, it was two.  Sigh.  When I broke to bad news to Tim, he just shrugged.  "And that's why we have Triple A" he says.  

No longer was this just a "change the tire" situation.  Most people have one spare tire, but few people have two on hand.  We did not either.  So now the car had to be towed.  While Tim was being very "it is what it is" about the situation at hand, I had a giant cash register going off in my head.  Buying New Tires! $$$  Towed to a car related place!  $$$  I fretted very quietly to myself.  Tim kept very calm.  It's who he is, it's what he does.

Turns out, both tires were able to be patched!  Hurrah!  Much more reasonable price. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!   Great!   To say I was relieved would be understating things :)

Then,  I had mentioned recently, that while I hated to say it, I probably needed new sneakers.  My current ones were starting to make my feet hurt which means the innersole was breaking down. Dang.  Once again, here I am thinking $$$.  When I really looked at the shoes, not only was the insole beat to death, there were holes in the uppers and when I flipped them over, in the actual soles too.   Gotta have decent footwear.

So once we had the car back Tim says, "Let's go get you some new shoes!"  Yay!  We headed to the place we almost always go, Peltz!  It's a really big store with lots of shoes of all sorts, sizes, colours and styles and, normally, much better prices than the average store.  I like that. I like that a lot.  What I didn't like was that almost every pair of sneakers in my size that fit and were comfortable, were black.  I really did not want black sneakers.  I know, I know, I'm being too picky.  What difference does it make what colour they are?

Well the last time I bought sneakers, which was, as it turns out, two + years ago, I also had to settle for black shoes and I just plain didn't want to do it again.  We live in a sunshiney place.  I wear light bright colours most  of the time.  I really didn't want heavy, black, dark, depressing shoes again for two more years. please?  So we left and went to another store.  The sneakers I already had were the brand "Sketchers" so Tim decided to just go to the Sketchers store.  My concern was that since it was the Brand store, the price would be higher.  I was wrong.   They were having a back to school sale and even though I'm not going back to school, the sale applied to me too. YAY!  AND then they were also doing a special thing that weekend, buy one pair, get a second pair half price!  AND they had shoes in my size they were every colour, not just black. Woohoo!  I left with two pair of shoes for LESS than the price of one pair anywhere else.  SCORE!  One one pair has kitties on it!  There was some sort of special thing going on with those kitty shoes where part of what you pay for the shoes goes to support pet shelters!  Bonus!

Sunday dawned very sunny, very hot and even more humid.  Like just shy of rain humid. Typical for August in Florida but no less miserable for it.  Once again, we had no plans, but we had learned that a new donut place in town had opened so naturally we had to check it out.  Sunday morning sounded like a great day for donuts!  And eating donuts is an Inside thing!

The new donut shop is called Parlour Donuts out of Illinois and they are very different than standard donuts.  They are more like croissants or perhaps brioche donuts, if you can imagine such a thing and they came in many different varieties, including gluten free, vegan and even Doggie Donuts!  We stood in line, marveling at the options and decided that, to truly experience these new-style donuts, we needed to each select three.  A half dozen, if you please.  And we each chose something different to cover more choices.

I had one called French Toast, which realllly tasted like french toast which was kind of wild.  The cinnamon roll definitely brought the cinnamon and my last one, the Turtle definitely had the caramel and pecans and chocolate that one might expect from a turtle candy.  Tim had turtle cheesecake, lemon and something else, I cannot recall.  All of them were good, very filling, very satisfying, but quite honestly, not a donut.  It's something else, a different species of breakfast pastry. And as such, needs a different name, in my opinion.

We had to sit around digesting for a little bit after that. (I pigged out and had two yesterday but  managed to save one for this morning. Sooooo Good)  And then just started automatically just doing things that need to be done.  Tim worked on one of the last final little details of the project room (family room) and I piddled around doing other small but necessary housey stuff. 

Then Tim finished what he was doing and says, "let's go".  So we got in the car.  It's not unusual for us to, at some point in the weekend, just in the car and go somewhere because Tim needs to just not be in the house for awhile.  Think about it.  He works from home. He spends the majority of his waking hours in one room.  Then, when he's not working at his job, he is working on the house.  So while it's a different room, it's the same building.  Sometimes he just needs to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.  Which is probably why he doesn't mind, occasionally, going to the grocery store, or hardware store or... you get the idea.  

It was already past noon and since it was impromptu, I knew we wouldn't be going that far.  And it wasn't.  We ended up at the Bishop  Science and Nature Museum.  And it was awesome.  It's not a huge place but big enough.  We saw a planetarium show (I LOVE those) and then just  meandered around learning about early Florida inhabitants including those of the prehistoric sort, Florida wildlife and that kind of segued into getting to meet the two  current temporary resident manatees!   It turns out that the Bishop does rehabilitation for injured manatees and once they are healthy again, they are released back into their natural habitat. I like that too.  We spent a couple of hours there and enjoyed every minute, in spite of the feral children whose parents were allowing them to literally race through the place weaving around other visitors and exhibits. Grrrrrr.​

It was nice and cool, it was, surprisingly, not crowded, and there was a free parking garage across the street.  All good things.

So for a weekend where we had NO plans at all, we managed to do a lot and it was all awesome!  And unusual for us ;)  A TREAT for sure!

Well I'm feeling pretty dang good about myself right now!  I finally got around to doing some long overdue yard work. LONG overdue. Like really really long.  Longitylong.  Wow!  What a slacker.

I'm not sure why I put it off so long.  While I didn't get it all done, and in fact, have only made the merest dent, it actually took less than two hours to fill three, count 'em, three garbage cans full to over flowing. So it's not as if it was a full day's worth of toting that barge and lifting that bale y'know? Still, tickled with my accomplishment.  

I think part of the reason I procrastinate about yardwork is the weather.  Naturally, the rainy season (that would be now) is when everything grows like mad and gets totally out of control. But that also means you have to pick and choose carefully when you undertake yardwork endeavors. I do not recommend waving around metal objects while standing in the rain during a thunder and lightening storm.  Just not a good idea in general. So, good rule there, no yard work in the rain.  

On the other hand,  this time of year it is unpleasant, to say the least to be outside when it's not raining.  It's hot, really hot and humid, really really humid which means it's buggy, really really really buggy. Yuck.  All things I try to avoid. Especially when exerting myself.  And yard work does require physical effort which, even on a nice pleasant day, means getting dirty and sweaty.   On a hot and humid day it's dirty and sweaty times a thousand! Million! Zillion!   Or heatstroke.  Also something to be avoided. 

So clearly the best idea is to tackle a job like this early in the morning on a day when it's A) not raining B) not threatening imminent rain C) Very Early  D) Very Very Early in the day.   So today I rolled out of bed before the sun was fully awake and into my hiking clothes  - becoz those clothes are already beat to crap - added ball cap, work gloves, sunscreen and I was out the door.  I grabbed a rake and my big old chonkers on the way.  

I particularly wanted to get the totally out of control stuff along the back fence, a little more under control.  Some previous owner of this house, for reasons unknown, planted some purple flowers along the back that honestly are more like weeds than flowers.  They have long tangledly stems and they weave themselves together until it's like a crazy quilt mat of purple flowers. And that would be fine, I suppose, except that seeds get dropped into the midst of the crazy quilt and then other things try to also grow there too.  Thing like baby trees.  And I really do not need a forest encroaching on the yard.  

I waded cautiously into the morass, my eyes zeroing in on a particularly tall specimen representing a great place to begin.  I have no idea what sort of tree it was planning to become, but Not On My Watch.  I know I sound like a monster, cutting down baby trees at a time when we all want to SAVE THE TREES. But Florida is a different sort of place.  With the least bit of encouragement, things grow.  An untended yard, in one season, becomes a rainforest.  And it's not just that the idea of living in a house surrounded by forest that we are opposed to.  It's the stuff that lives IN the forest too.

All sorts of critters live in the stuff I'm pruning and cutting and so forth.  Critters that object strongly to what I'm doing.  I'm speaking of spiders and snakes and wasps and well, heaven knows what else is lurking out there!  Spiders, snakes and wasps have important roles in our eco system and I agree that they should be allowed to exist.  I am even okay with them existing in our yard.  BUT they are not allowed to bite, sting or freak me out in anyway. Nope. Not allowed.

We have seen racoons, oppossums, mice, rats (shudder) bobcats, coyotes and several species of snakes in our yard when it's pristine.  If the yard gets completely out of control,  lord knows what else could be back there. Bears?  Panthers?  Wild Pigs? Triceratops?  Yikes!

Anyway, I was very brave but also cautious and, as I kept an eye out of anything I didn't care to see up close and personal,  I cut and chopped and raked and filled our  three extra garbage cans and then dragged them up to the front of the house, as I said.  And then I had to stop.  We only have the 3 extra cans. Once they are filled, I have to wait until next week after garbage pick up to do another section.  It looks better, it  does.  You can tell that I worked on it.  But it's also very obvious how much more there is to do.

Hopefully next week, I will continue to chop, cut, dig and rake and fill the cans again and the same the following week over and over until either the yard looks better again or the rainy season is over, whichever comes first.  Of course, in the same way that a bathroom is only clean until one person uses it, the yard work is only caught up until it rains again and then things grow again.  The very things I chopped down will sprout anew! ARGH!  It's frustrating sometimes and perhaps that is another reason why I put it off??

Perhaps a significant truth to why this chore has been postponed is that, quite honestly,  I am kind of lazy.  I'll admit it. I would rather read than rake.  I'd rather cut out cookies or biscuits than cut errant branches.  I prefer chopping vegetables to chopping foliage.   Still it needs to be done and now that I've properly kicked myself in the butt to get myself started, hopefully, next week, I will  get out there and tackle it again.  And then Again. And Again.

​It's either that or we learn to live like Tarzan and Jane.

 Okay, I know this is a polarizing topic.  Generally people feel strongly one way or the other. Very little "middle of the road" on this one.  They either love it or hate it.   The topic is:  Leftovers.
You know, you make a meal and when you are done eating, some of the food remains uneaten.  Some people throw that uneaten portion away. Other people carefully pack it up and tuck it into the fridge and eat it another day.  Leftovers.  Literally the food that is left  over.

Now that I think about it, there is a third category.  There are folks who carefully package up the remaining food, put it in the refrigerator and then never eat it.  At some future, unspecified date, when the food has turned from an appetizing treat into a science experiment gone wrong, they throw it away.  But I think that is just another version of the 1st sort of person. So I've changed my mind again, there really are only two sorts of attitudes.  

I am strongly in the pro leftover camp.   If you are anti-leftover, quite frankly, you will go hungry in my house.  I enjoying cooking and baking (as most of you know) but there is an efficiency to leftovers that appeals to my frugal little heart.  When you really break it down, for the same cost, we can eat better quality for less money by buying one large, more expensive thing that can be multiple meals than having something different every day but of less quality. 

For example:  If I roast a chicken one night and serve it with mashed potatoes, biscuits and a vegetable, the second night there is definitely enough remaining chicken for, perhaps, a chicken pot pie!  And then chicken salad sandwiches!  The leftover mashed potato becomes lovely potato pancakes . The leftover veg can be used in the chicken pot pie. The bones and bits of meat left make a lovely chicken soup and of course leftover biscuits are great with everything. Look at all the meals I made from one chicken!

There is a creativity required, a challenge presented that goes along with leftovers, which I love, too.  I stare at the food in the fridge and wonder to myself, "What else can this be?"    Recently I made some stuffed shells florentine.  It's a dish I adore but rarely make and I was in the mood, what can I tell you.    But I was very disappointed because the box of pasta had only 12 unbroken shells. Dang.  I had a great big bowl of the riccota/mozz/spinach stuffing and not nearly enough stuff to be stuffed with it!   The next day I turned it into a pasta bake that was glorious! 

I guess that's part of liking leftovers.  You have to either not mind a repetitive meal OR you have to find a way to turn it into a different meal.  Some meals are perfect for this idea.  I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating.  Chili is one of the best.  You doubt me?  A big pot of chili is of course a great  meal already with side of corn bread.  Yummy.  And if you make a big enough pot you have, potentially, leftovers for days.  Naturally, you can just continue to eat it, as a bowl of chili. Nothing wrong with that.  But if you crave a little variety, leftover chili is also great on a hot dog, and  it's delicious on a baked potato.   A popular twist is to add elbow macaroni and now you have chili mac!  Yummy.  Or, my personal favourite  to put it on a salad with tortilla chips and it's sort of a taco salad.  So Good.

When the boys were young, I almost never served leftovers.  There was, very rarely, food leftover. I had three boys!  And the older they got, the hungrier they got and the fewer leftovers there were to be had!  It's only been, really, since the boys grew up and left home and it was just Tim and I around the dinner table. And suddenly there were always leftovers and I had to find a way to use them.  Turned out, I have a knack.  

Now anything can be taken too far.  My Nana, bless her heart, would save everything.  Every single scrap. One pea left? Save it.  And put it in the little container in the fridge with those two green beans and 3 kernels of corn and 4 bites of carrot.  One day of the next weekend that sad lonely leftover container of vegetables would be added to a green Jello ring mold, chilled then turned out unsidedown onto a bed of lettuce and the empty center would be filled with mayo.  Welcome to vegetable Jello!  Disgusting!   I would rather go hungry than eat that and often did. Yuck.

And quite honestly, if a dish is not good the first night, being served again, in another fashion another night will not make it any better.  Some meals are just destined for the garbage can or the disposer and Good Riddance to them.  I'm not quite That Hard Core.

I have respect for the people who are anti-leftovers.  You feel the way you feel.  And I don't have to understand it, to believe it is true.

So, which camp do you fall in?  Leftovers: yay or nay?

Clearly Joy and I  (Joy on the right, me on the left) managed to get out on the hiking trails again this week. Hurrah!  So obviously this will be another Photo Safari Report. Eventually.   Had an interesting conversation with Joy that started when I missed a shot.  Nature is some times so dang fast!  And I wanted to start out writing today about that conversation.

I have always believed that I was just a slow thinker.  When something happens that I do not expect, I do not react quickly.  It's as if my brain needs a few extra seconds to sort things out first and in photography, especially nature photography, sometimes, you gotta act fast.  And I just don't.  I assumed it was just me, since some people react/respond very quickly and I do not.  I laughed as I explained this to Joy and said, "Yeah I know, I'm weird  but at least it means I'm always calm in a crisis".  But Joy said that she believes that most  people's brains work similarly.  She referred to it as, "The Questionnaire".

Her theory is that most people's brain process goes a little something like this:  Walking down a path in the forest, tralalala.  You see something up ahead that looks unexpected or not quite right.  What is it?

Is that a duck in a tree?  and as you slowly approach

Well, I'll be darned!  It is a duck in a tree?  Why is there a duck in a tree?  And more importantly, is this photo worthy?  How is the light?  The angle? What setting should I use?  Is he moving?  Will I scare him off if I get closer?

Final Shot.  I was lucky in this particular case because the duckie in question did hold still. But more often than not, by the time I've gone through the entire questionnaire, the subject is gone.  Dang.

Is that how it works for you too?

For me it's even murkier than that.  Often the questionnaire gets even more muddled  because my brain is kind of like Grand Central Station at Rush Hour.  A zillion things going on in a zillion different directions all at the same time.  It's crowded, it's noisy and sometimes it's tough sorting out the important stuff.  Which means while I am considering taking a photo, part of my brain is admiring the lovely fragrance in the air and trying to identify the various scents.  As I consider the consequences of all the light and shadow, my stupid brain seizes on the word shadow and suddenly the Theme song to the old radio show,  'The Shadow Knows' is playing, another part of my mind is cataloguing black & white photography as well as pen and ink drawings.  Another part is rifling through the brain cabinet of old mystery movies, books and TV shows.  As I'm debating what settings to use I'm also thinking about every article I've ever read on Photography technique which reminds me of painting techniques which leads me to the word Technical which of course segues into machinery of all sorts and somehow lands on the topic of Steam Punk and  Doctor Who (both at the same time)..................... And like that.  Which is why, occasionally I miss a really good shot.

Which in part explains why, if you looked at the pictures Joy took and the pictures I took of the same hike on the same day, a hike we took together AND we always take the time out to point things out to one another, you might think we were on completely different hikes, separately.  

Don't know why I felt the need to explain that to you, but there you have it!  Something you probably didn't know about me before.

Now, back to the hike.  Should I start with the birds that I actually did manage to capture?

I have a few botanicals if you are the mood for those: (they don't move as much)

A couple of shots that involve water of one sort or another:

A few surprises, rather than rando's today:

All in all, it was a terrific hike and a great time.  Hope you enjoyed. 

​Wishes for a wonderful weekend to us all!

About six months or so ago, I decided to let my hair grow long again.  It's been a very long time and every once in awhile, I just feel the need to mix things up a bit.  The real capper on making the decision was  the continually rising cost  of getting my hair cut. The price had gone from "wow" to "crazy" all the way to "insane".  I'm not saying that these people do not deserve the price they charge. I'm saying I'm not willing to pay it.

What I had apparently forgotten in making this  decision were two key things:  First, straight hair is a pain in the arse to deal with.  I have straight hair.  It's very soft, like baby hair, it's very fine and it's Very straight.  Secondly, my bangs.  Was I going to grow out everything?  Or everything except the bangs?  I decided to go for broke and just let it all grow and as far as the straightness, well I would figure that out as I went along.

Yeah, sure, Easier said than done.  As the bangs got longer and more and more in my face, it began to drive me crazy.  I just  cannot stand having my hair in my eyes. 

I tried all sort of things:  various clips, pins and barrettes , hair bands, hair gel and even hats.  The clips, pins and barrettes work fine for a short time but as the day goes on, they begin to slip their moorings and ultimately end up on the floor somewhere. So I have to constantly put them back in.  Also it takes roughly a zillion clips to keep my hair, even short term, where it belongs.  Lots of clips, lots and lots.  Way too many. So Annoying.

 Hair bands, well, hmmmm.  The plastic ones eventually give me a headache.  I guess I have a big head and they squeeze ?  The softer hairbands, as long as they are anchored with hair pins, actually work BUT they cover my hearing aids causing two things to happen: one, I cannot hear becoz the receiver is covered and two, they squeal becoz the receiver is covered.  Dang.

Hair gel?  Sort of works as long as it's in partnership with clips, pins or barrettes. On it's own it does little to nothing.  I know there are more powerful hair glues' out there. But I choose not to invest more money in something that I am unsure about. Also I hate it when my hair looks like  a helmet or a wig. 

And that leaves hats as an option.  I like hats.  I own a few.  I wear my ballcap every time Joy and I hike.  And I generally wear a wide brimmed hat when I walk outside.  But as an inside thing?  nahhhhhh.  I don't think so.  Scarlet O'Hara pulled it off, but she was probably the very last woman to do so.

Which left me wondering what options I had left. I did a little googling about growing out bangs and saw a wonderful video of a young woman doing magical things with a curling iron.  Curling!  Great idea!  Well I don't have a curling iron.  I do, however, have a flat iron.  Now why a person with straight hair would own a flat iron, I have no idea.  It was so old I wasn't even sure it would work!  Turns out, if you fiddle with the on switch long enough, yes, it does turn on and it does heat up. Yay!  Let's give this a whirl!

The results were not good.  I do not have a natural aptitude for hairdressing as it turns out.  Oh well.  Back to a different instructional video (love You Tube) on working hair magic with a flat iron instead.  I watched that video several times  in a row, hoping to have absorbed enough technique to duplicate it.  Nope.  No bueno.  I was able to get the end to curl up for a Very short time but the bangs went crazy. With the least amount of encouragement they went total frizz. Yikes!  If I tried to cool the flat iron at all, the bangs defied all effort and remained stick straight. So those were my options, frizz or straight. Sigh.

There was one last possible option.  Electric rollers.  I had some long ago and while I didn't use them often, I was always (or almost  always) pleased with the results.   I did a little online research, found a set that wasn't horribly expensive but seemed to have everything I remembered needing in the past.  I talked to Tim about it, he was agreeable and did his own research.  They were ordered and arrived yesterday.

How cute are these?  I was so excited to try them out this morning.

Now bear in mind that it's been a very long time since I've used these and that meant things were not going to go perfectly the first or tenth time.  I forgot how dang hot they get, burned my finger tips a little bit.  Didn't remember correct placement of the different sizes.  Also did not recall whether to roll them up or down.  So I did what I always do, I faked it.  Just jumped in, as if I had a clue, and slapped those babies in as best I could.  Several rollers had to be re-done, one of them more than once. but eventually I got all of the hair (or at least most  of my hair) properly corralled.  

Yeah, I know, not the best job ever.  I'm sure with time and practice my technique will improve.  Or at least, gosh, I certainly hope so!  Yikes.  Can you imagine if this is it?  This is the best that i can do?  Wowza.

Anyway, I couldn't remember how long to leave them in, so basically I left them in place until they weren't hot anymore.  Seemed like a good plan.  At least I didn't burn my fingers taking them back out!  Bonus!  

I carefully unrolled each one, putting the rollers and clips back in their proper place and then I left it alone.  Just left it completely alone.  I did a quick google search on tips for using hot rollers.  One of the rips said exactly that (Love it when my instincts are correct).  It then suggested using a bit of hair spray before brushing. Before brushing?  OOOKKKAAAYYY.  I don't get it but I was open to new ideas and willing to try.

Results:

Yeah, it's not perfect, not by a long shot, BUT my hair is out of my eyes and I think I can live with this.  

Obviously this will not be a daily thing.  Too much work, too much effort, too much time, too  much fussing, but I'm so happy to have this as an option!   I'm sure with more practice I will get better at it.  Never Great but better. And in the meantime, it's still an improvement.  No clips, no hair gel and no hats required.

First of all, Thank you to Joy for the above photo!  She is so dang clever!

Are you buckled in and ready for another Photo Safari Report?  The weather has not been conducive to hiking lately so we were lucky to sneak this one in.  We left even earlier in the morning on Thursday to get ahead of the predicted rainstorm AND the worst of the heat and humidity.  And I'm happy to report that our plan worked!  Welcome to the Early Morning Hike.
​
The ground and the green stuff was heavy with the previous nights rain when we started out so in very short order our socks and shoes were soaked. No worries.  We are not put off by a little inconvenience and we forged on.  The bonus is that we got some pretty water drop pictures.  We'll start with just a couple of them, if you don't mind:

We heard more birds than we saw, so we knew they were out there, somewhere, but the lush and somewhat overgrown trails and full, robustly leafed out trees made for too many good hiding places to get a lot of bird pictures. But  I got three.  That's it, just three.  Of course I'll share (whether you ask me to or not!):

I think we both recognized early on that this would end up being, mostly, a botanical hike (flowers later). What I didn't realize was how many insects I would manage to capture.  A few I didn't even know about until after I got home and was editing. A nice surprise :

Ready for some pretty flowers now? I will try to keep them to a minimum, only the best ones, I promise:

By the time we finished up at Curry Creek, it was still early enough that, even though it was getting hot, we figured, what the heck.  We are already sweaty and dirty, what's a little bit more?   So we decided make aquick stop at the Rookery. Make up for the lack of bird photos from Curry Creek, maybe?  Oh yeah, we found more birds :)  Hope you like bird pictures because I got some :

A naturally, I cannot do a Photo Safari Report without at least a couple of rando's for ya:

As they summer steams forward, in more ways than one, we will still, occasionally, find a way to get out there and fight out way through overgrown trails, flooded pathways, up hills and over fallen trees.  Prepare yourselves, because now and again, there will be more Photo Safari Reports to come.  Hope you enjoyed the Early Morning Hike.​

Have a GREAT Weekend!  Hugs all 'round

Like a most places in the world right now, we are having some super hot days.  Which isn't all that unusual,   this is July and it is Florida, so there is an expectation of sunshine.  But the thing is, this is supposed to be the rainy season and we have been seeing precious little of that.  I t's been day after day of hot, sweltering, scorching, roasting, searing, parching, blistering, sun.

And then last  night, while we were sitting around relaxing in the family room (and it is so nice to be able to write that, by the way) we heard thunder.  And our ears perked up.  But not our expectations. We've been fooled before.  

During this record breaking heat, we've gotten our hopes up way too many times.  Heard the thunder, even seen the lightening, the sky gets darker and darker and then, and then, and then.....nothing.  Dang.  So we didn't dare hope too hard.

In fact, by the time we went to bed, the sound of the thunder had passed and the ground was just as dry as it was before and the air was just as hot, even in the darkness.  Which mean that waking up to rain bright and early this morning was an unexpected delight!  Somewhere during the night or in the wee hours of morning, finally, the rain came!  I wanted to go out and dance in it!  Do a full on Gene Kelly, "singing in the rain" musical number in the courtyard!

By the time I was showered and dressed, it had backed off a little bit and there was just the merest sprinkle tickling the shrubbery.  But I grabbed my camera and my rubber flipflops and stepped out side anyway. 

It was still warm but comparatively, much better.  It was still humid (duh...rain is the ultimate humidity). But instead of feeling oppressive and stifling it felt exhilarating!  I love that smell!  Floral, Green, Dirt and Rain is a heady combo.  The first thing I noticed was how all of the green growing stuff had perked up.  Happy Happy Happy!!  The second thing was that the birdbath, which I had cleaned but not refilled - (malaria mosquito alert which is a whole other thing) - was completely full to overflowing.  A sure indicator of a terrific storm! Hurrah!

I took a few photos.  Of course I did!~

Maybe now we are back to a more normal Florida summer where yes, it's hot and it's humid, but every day or perhaps even every other day, there is some rain. Then we can return be being lush and green and floral and we will have enough water to get us through the rest of the year when i is no sort of humid at all.

I feel a little like those folks, way back when, who, out of desperation, would hire a "Rainmaker" to resolve a drought and save their farms during the dustbowl era of the 1930's.  Curiously, the 'dustbowl' was caused by poor land management.  Effectively, too many people making really bad decisions about how they treated their little piece of our planet.  Some people are saying that our current world-wide heatwave originated with similar mindset and behaviours.  A shame.  Why didn't we learn from our own past?

That is the purpose of history, right?  To learn from.  It's why we are taught history in school. Not just to practice by memorizing names and dates to pass a test but so that we can learn from our mistakes.  Make better decisions, better choices, have a better outcome. sigh.

Meanwhile, I am delighted in our rain today and, according to the weather report, we should have more rain all week long. Not every minute of every day, but rain at some point every day this week.  No idea what will happen after that or even how accurate the prediction is. So, much like everything outside soaking in that lovely rain and getting happy and healthy again, I will just enjoy what I have.  

Funny how in years past, I've written about how annoying the daily rain is, soaking Tim and I when an unexpected shower passes overhead while we are out for a walk or interrupting an outside event, or just the cabin fever from being stuck inside.  This year, I cannot imagine complaining about it. Give us, this day, our daily rain!  

I'm sure you've already realized this, but just in case you have not, isn't this kind of a cool similarity?  

On the left is a pretty painting of mountain peaks with the river valley between them and on the right are the peaks and valleys of a heartbeat as shown on a heart monitor print out.  Peaks and Valleys, Peaks and Valleys, yup that's life!

And it's perfectly normal and expected to have those sorts of highs and lows throughout your life.  Good times and Bad,  Happiness and Sadness, Joy and Sorrow, Delight and Anger and then all of the regular normal ordinary days in between.

Here is the thing I am slowly realizing about myself.  The older I get, the more I do not like the extremes.  The high highs and the low lows are no longer desirable. They are uncool, as we used to say back in the day.  I no longer have any interest in personal theatrics.  Perhaps it's more that I no longer have the energy required for them.  

In short, I no longer find any enjoyment in the "Verys" of life.  Very sad, Very angry, Very annoyed, Very anything, even the good Very's just wear me out.  Very Happy! Very Excited ! Very Silly!  I'm exhausted just typing the words.

On the other hand, ordinary happy, excited or silly is still great.  Regular sad, angry or annoyed is, well not great because those are negative words, but hey, stuff happens in life so there is going to be some of it and I can deal just fine with a standard amount of the bad stuff.

It applies to everything in my life nowadays, not just  emotions.  I am no longer easy going about extreme weather.  You know what I'm talking about,  the Very Hot and  Very Cold times of year are just less easily tolerated by me now.  The super hot and humid days just lay me flat.  When I spend any significant amount of time outside in the middle of August, I'm going to have to have a little rest before I move on to anything else once I've returned to the safety of the Air Conditioned indoors.  I used to be so blasé about it!   And on those few super chilly, hovering around the freezing mark days at the pinnacle of winter, I'm bundled up and drinking hot things and cuddled under sofa blankets, teeth chattering and shivering.  Once upon a time, I just wore long pants and a sweater and I was good to go.   I'm concerned that as I get even older I will continue along this vein until I'm one of those annoying old ladies who keeps her house thermostat at 80 year 'round while also wearing two sweaters and heavy socks and complaining about how cold I am. That's terrifying.

I find myself eschewing foods that are too spicy,  too hot, too bland (but then who likes that?) or even too cold.  Brain freeze anyone?  I was always kind of picky about food, lately I'm pickier than even me.  AND if I don't like it, I will not eat it.  I won't make a big deal out of it, but you cannot compel me through any means to eat something I am not enjoying.

I don't like clothes that are too tight or actually that really touch me much at all and I avoid shoes that are very tall which means any sort of heel at all really.  The shoe thing is not because I don't like the way it looks or feels but because at this point I'm kind of concerned that I may fall off or out of them!  It's a reasonable concern.

Which kind of leads into buying anything I consider "Very" expensive and currently that's almost anything.  The cost of everything is kind of outrageous and feel outraged is a "very" emotion that I am just not in the mood for so unless it is something absolutely essential (and few things are) frankly I would rather not have something than spend a Very large amount of money on it.

I avoid buying or selecting anything that I deem Very trendy because that means at some point I will have to replace it or risk looking Very Out of Date and Out of Style.   Although, as time passes, I'm not sure how much I care about either of those things either.

I avoid places that are Very crowded or Very noisy whenever possible and I'm uncomfortable when roads are Very busy and cars are going Very fast.  Of course it's my interpretation of what constitutes the "very" element of all of these things.

What I find myself gravitating toward is level, average, ordinary, normal, perhaps even boring and dull.  I shoot for the middle.  Drama does not suit me, take it elsewhere please.  Pleasant is good and nice is delightful.  I am easily amused, happy to be content and what's more, I make no apologies for it.  I dear that I  am becoming increasingly boring and yet fear is a "Very" emotion and therefore, I dismiss it out of hand.

My peaks and valleys  are looking more and more like a croquet field now.  And it's all good.

You go ahead an have whatever sort of weekend you like.  Mine will be perfectly fine.

 

So here I am people!  This is Sam at Seventy.  Yikes!  Getting to be quite the old crone eh?  Still, as they say, it could always be worse.  Of course the thing they never mention is that it could also, be better! Hmmmm.  Not sure just yet how I feel about being seventy years old.  It sounds positively ancient.  Right up there with Methuselah and the  Pyramids.  Still I had an absolutely delightful birthday weekend and feel well celebrated, so I guess I cannot really complain.

Since my actual birthday was yesterday, today's post will hold with my usual birthday blog tradition of posting the Birthday Rules!  Ready or not, here they come:

    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.

There you have it!  Remember those rules when your birthday rolls around.   These rules must be true because With Age Comes Wisdom and baby, I have plenty of age.  I must be extremely wise by now.

Much like that sun, right now it feels a lot like I'm melting.  It's hot out.  Not just hot, it's super hot. It's super de dooper hot.  And I guess that sounds kind of silly because after all this is July which is a summer month and summers, traditionally, are hot.  And then there is the fact that we live in Florida, the Sunshine State, a place people visit intentionally because of all the sunshine.  But this is hot beyond that.  The entire planet has been setting new hotness records!  Kind of crazy.

Recently, we had a day where the "feels like" temperature was 113.  That seems excessive don't you think?  Right this minute, while it's only 87 degrees Farenheit outside, the "feels like" is 101.  What on earth?  How does that even happen?  

On the brighter side, I don't, currently, see a 'heat index warning' which we've had every day for at least a week now, so that's a nice change.   Geez!  

I know that this sort of heat is going on all over this country, not just  where I live.  I think it's even happening in other countries as well. I apologize because I haven't really been following the story. Not my usual style, I know. Normally, I am fascinated by information of any sort. But, uncharacteristically, mostly right now, I'm grateful for air conditioning, drinking lots of water and trying to think cool thoughts. 

Things like: polar bears, the Ullr Fest in Breckinridge Colorado, The Frozen Dead Guy  Festival in
Nederland Colorado (for real!)  popsicles, ice cream, ice bergs, ice water, ice sculpture festivals  (ice is a strong theme here) and the days I work as a docent at the Museum where, inside it's still Very Cold and I wear long pants and bring a sweater every day.

I think about the first house my parents had in Connecticut which had a big pool that was unheated and sometimes, diving into it was like diving into a glass of ice water. Very brisk and refreshing.   I remember having very chilly feet while wading along the water's edge (while wearing sneakers because of sharp rocks, shells and barnacles) up in Maine, where the water is cold year 'round.  Remembering standing over the heat register in California on a cool morning, dressing in front of the woodstove in the kitchen of the very old farmhouse in Connecticut and being bundled in so many layers of coats, snow pants, scarves, hats and mittens in St Louis that I could barely move.

Odd memories pop into my head like the specific smell of wet mittens drying on the radiator, the scent of breathing through a wet woolen scarf, the taste of an icicle we knocked off the side of the house,  coming inside after playing in the snow with rosy chapped faces and runny noses and the feel of my frozen hair when I would go outside right without first drying my very long hair.  I remember that squeaky and then crunchy sound of being the first person to break through the crust of a heavy snowfall and the struggle of getting galoshes on over my shoes (and then once again, trying to get them back off).   

I remember shoveling snow over and over throughout a long winter and hands that were so cold, even while wearing gloves or mittens, that my fingers ached.  I recall huddling behind  anything bigger than me - telephone poles, parked cars and trees -  while waiting for the bus on a frosty windy winter morning as a kid.  And if there were none of those things around, just turning my back on a particularly fierce and stinging gust.  Instead of complaining about the 'heat index'  I vividly recall whining about 'wind chill factors'.  

Over long Thanksgiving weekends, when we lived in Colorado, Tim and I would go up into the mountains to visit the town of Estes Park where, on the evening after Turkey Day, there would be an "illuminated parade".  People would be all bundled up against the cold and wind and sometimes snow, drinking Hot Chocolate, Hot Coffee, Hot tea while lining the streets, waiting for the parade and then on the walk back to the Hotel we would find ourselves walking next to enormous Elk who, apparently, also watched the parade.  

As a Kid I remember intentionally trying to make designs, like "smoke rings" breathing with our mouths in different shapes into the frigid air.  On the farm, I recall using a shovel to break the ice on the top of the water source for the cows and horses, sometimes several times a day and bringing in load after load of wood to keep the woodstove going.

Smaller, faster memories: Getting "brain freeze" from drinking a Slushy too fast,  having a purple tongue and lips from purple popsicles,  the glitter and prisms on the ice coated bushes and trees as the sun rises the morning after an ice storm,  making snow angels and snowmen, trying to walk or at least stay upright on an icy side walk,  wearing thick heavy oversized sweaters and knee socks with tall boots and still feeling chilly and I remember being so cold all of the time that it seemed as if I would never be warm again.

Ahhh Memories!  Ok that'll help for a little bit.  I'm ready now to head outside to water the potted garden and get all hot and sweaty again.

Please stay safe in this terrible heat.  Hopefully, it will settle down to a more normal sort of summer weather very shortly.

Have a good weekend and hugs all 'round.