Guess who had a birthday last week? If you said, Joy, you would be correct! I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday, because, if you've been reading me long enough, you are well aware of the birthday rules (hint: the birthday person gets to make all decisions) and she wanted to go for a hike. Well that's easy! We can do that! I had to work on her actual birthday so instead we hiked the next day. Which means this photo safari will be the called, "The Day After Her Birthday Hike". Once again, in keeping with the birthday rules, Joy chose where we hiked and her selection was a brand new place, Thaxton-Scherer Preserver. We knew very little about it and sometimes that is part of the fun. Foolishly we assumed (and we knew what happens when we assume) that it would be a relatively small place and that once we finished up there we would move along to a second hiking spot. HAH! Six miles later we dragged our weary butts to the car, giggling at our foolishness all the way. It was a terrific hike in a beautiful new place that had well marked trails, bathrooms (!!) and decent parking. Hard to ask for more than that. Here are some photos that show some of the highlights: First of all, thanks to the time change (and I wont' rant about how much I hate it) it was a little, oh, I hesitate to say dark so instead I will say, not very light, how's that? But it was a pretty place that started out with a trail that circumnavigated a pond. As the skies grew progressively lighter, we began to see birds: The worst part of this preserve was it's location which was kind of trapped between two highways. It was awhile before we stopped hearing the drone of traffic. On the other hand, there were plenty of distractions like beautiful botannicals: But the thing I was most impressed with were the trees. I am a big fan of trees, pretty much all trees, but there was something very special about this place with areas of pine trees that stretched back as far as we could see. It felt a little like something out of a child's Fairy Tale. I kept expecting to see Hansel and Gretel skipping through the forest. As always there are some rando's for you. My most favourite category: So there you have it, the Day After Her Birthday Hike wherein, we celebrated the birthday of the living person I've known the longest, my hiking partner, my sister and my friend. She is an avid baker of cupcakes, a brilliant sewer of quilts, the owner of giant cats and a master photographer. I was delighted to share another photo safari with her.
Happy Birthday Jo!
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We celebrated spring here this weekend! Yeah, I know it's a little early according to the calendar and some places are still battling winter, but here's it's absolutely gorgeous. Cool mornings and evenings and lovely warm days of blue skies, sunshine and Flowers! Sunday Tim and I went North to Felt's Preserve. Well we actually just went for a drive - a no place in particular, absolutely no destination in mind, we went for a wander and somehow ended up at Felt's. We haven't visited it in a very long time and honestly I wasn't prepared for a real hike. I was wearing white pants (not good in a forest unless you want them to be dirty) and sandals (terrible hiking footwear). So we vowed to just walk a little bit and only on well tended, clean trails. Luckily I pretty much always have my camera on hand. And of course we ended up walking farther than we intended, got dirtier than expected and stayed longer than we probably should have. And I have zero regrets. Here is some of what we saw: This is going to be like a first reader, mostly photos with very few words. They do say that a picture is worth a thousand words so if that's true you can count the imaginary words that might have accompanied each photo. There wasn't a huge variety of birds but I got a variety of photos of the few birds that we saw. (does that make any sense?) Blue Jays: Cardinals: Indigo Bunting: Mourning Doves: So that was it for birds. There were loads of birds, but of a limited variety. And that's perfectly fine! There was more variety in the flowers and other botanicals: Lizards too. This is three different lizards and most of them were hanging around a sign about bees which was kind of funny. False advertising? The insect variety was impressive ! And these are just the ones I actually managed to get photos of! There were loads more: We were tickled to find some turtles basking in the sun by the pond and a few scampering squirrels that held still long enough to get a shot: So I guess that's it, at least for now. We will continue to enjoy our beautiful springy weather, which I confess is a tiny bit sneezy and a whole lot pollen-ish. Whatever you have going on, weather-wise, enjoy! This too shall pass.
Hugs all 'round Guest Hostess! Wow! That sounds fancy doesn't it? Well in truth, it kind of was :) Awhile back, my friend Debbie asked me if I would do a favour for her. Of course I would. The favour turned out to be helping out at the annual Venice Area Garden Club's annual garden tour. At first I hesitated...what exactly does "helping out' entail? Hostessing is all they wanted of me and I suppose I could do that. Probably. So of course I said Yes with the following caveat., "And I hope I don't embarrass myself or you" I was assured that I would be fine. As the date approached, I started to get nervous. I didn't want to do a poor job of it. I'm not a member of the club y'see and I don't know much about Florida gardening. What if someone asks me a question? Yikes! I am the sort of person who, especially if doing a favour for someone, always wants to do the Best Job Possible. My Dad always said to do every job as if you were signing your name to it, no matter if you are taking out the garbage or scrubbing the bathroom floor, do it in such a way that you are proud of the results. I have always tried to live by that rule. I seriously work hard at never (or at least rarely) half-assing anything. I really and truly make every attempt at being my best self and doing the best job possible at everything I do. And since I knew nothing about my role, very little about the garden club and absolutely nothing about the home to which I was assigned, I guess I can be excused if I say I was a little nervous. Debbie reassured me that I would be fine. And I am grateful for her faith in me. The woman in charge, Linda, reached out to me and the others working at the event via email and kept us apprised of the goings on . She was amazing with her level of informational detail and I was very grateful. But it's still not the same as actually being there and having done the job. The great unknown y'know? Since I am not a member and therefore do not own the official uniform which member are required to wear, I was told to wear black pants and a white top which to me always looks like waitstaff. But sure, I can cobble that together. Actually the memo said black pants, shorts or skirt and white top. So I perused my closet. I do own one pair of black shorts. They are old, have at least one bleach stain and the hem is getting a little raggedy so, nope, I wouldn't be wearing those! So I looked at my black skirts. I have two but they are both very "business" looking which makes sense because they are leftover from my working days. And quite honestly, one of them is now a wee big snug. I can get it on and zipped but I'm not positive that breathing would be an option. Soooo long pants it is! I knew I would be slathering myself with sunscreen of course, and wearing a hat so I fiddled around with hair-friendly hair styles for awhile. On an average day, when I am just doing housey and yard stuff or hiking with Joy I don't much care how I look. And that's exactly how I appear - as if I don't much care. On this occasion, I would be representing an organization - one I honestly don't know much about - so I absolutely wanted to represent myself and them well. Therefore, I made much more of an effort than usual. Next up was walking over to the address to which I had been assigned to find out how long it takes to get there. I knew that parking would be an issue so one less car is a good plan. So I timed myself there and back, averaged the two and then added a few extra minutes just in case. In case of what I don't know, but as we were instructed to be there no later than 9:30, I left at 9:00 exactly. 30 minutes is more than enough time. Finally the big day arrived. I was as ready as I would ever be. I showed up with a nervous smile exactly as planned, a tiny bit early and the place was already buzzing with activity. I attempted to jump in and "help" wherever I could. Eventually things were very nearly in place and the boss, Linda, took us on our own private tour of the garden before assigning us to our places. I was on ticket desk. The desk was actually a card table but ticket table doesn't sound quite right.
The instant we were officially "open' (actually before we opened - there was already a crowd by opening bell) an absolute torrent of people showed up. It was like Niagra Falls. They just kept coming! I kept wondering where do all of these people come from? There were no breaks, there was no pause, it was just a steady flow of humanity. Most of them quite pleasant. To my relief, and surprise, I picked up on what I was supposed to say and do rather quickly. I sold tickets, answered questions, directed people and kept track of the things I was supposed to keep track of. I smiled and greeted and tried to be as charming a hostess as possible. The time flew by. Later that evening, I got a lovely e-card from the boss thanking me (and everyone else of course) for our efforts. I was so impressed that, as tired as she must have been by the end of that day, she still took the time to send those ecards. Very sweet. I am also sure that everyone involved in this yearly event was glad it was over and absolutely exhausted! If I understand correctly and I think I do, the money raised by the Garden Club goes to a scholarship program. A Very Worthy Cause! So that is the tale of Sam the Hostess! Kudo's to the VAGC! Awesome job ladies! I look forward to finding out how much money was raised this year. (It'll be in our local newspaper soon - which is one of the things I love about a local paper) Hope all of you had a spectacular Weekend too! This will be a super quick post as I am about to run out the door in just a couple of minutes here. Today I am acting as Hostess at a Garden Tour, which is something I've never done before! I'm sure I will be writing about it next week. But in the meantime, the Kittyboys and I wish you all a wonderful weekend and hope you have some fun! The Brysco and Wyatt are Experts on fun and available for consulting. As long as your idea of fun is fighting over a toy mousie, playing with a ball with a bell in it, watching birds or other basic kitty shenanigans. I leave you with a few photos and my very best wishes! We are smack dab in the middle of our busiest time of year here in Florida. While we do have visitors, guests and tourists year 'round, March seems to be the most touristy of all months. And us locals know this. We adapt to it. We are prepared for it. And mostly, very honestly, for the most part we not only don't mind, we welcome it.
And in the way of gracious hosts (and that really is what we are) we are, mostly, patient and forgiving and helpful. We either avoid going to restaurants altogether or we go in off-hours. When stores are super crowded, we patiently wait in the long lines. We give endless recommendations and directions to bewildered strangers. We offer to take their photos. over and over again and again. And we do it without complaint. Most of the time. It's important for us to be considerate and empathetic to our tourists because, we've been tourists too! We have been the ones who clog up the smooth flow of traffic and create long wait times. We have been those camera wielding tourists who gaze around ourselves in wide eyed and sometimes open mouthed wonder at our surroundings. We get lost, we drag our suitcases behind us and we ask for restaurant ideas. We have been those folks who collapse into bed in exhaustion at our hotel at the end of an over-excursioned day and then bounce back full of energy and excitement the next morning. Yup, that was us. Tourist destination places like ours know how to cater to guests, it is the area's lifeblood. Visitors are partly what keep our shops and eateries open. Some of what continues to fund beautiful parks and beaches and flower bedecked sidewalks is the money that Tourism bring in. There are always a ton of events planned for tourist season too and we local residents enjoy those events just as much as the visitors. So you see, it really is a sort of symbiotic relationship. And we all know it. After all, part of the reason why so many tourists want to visit us is the same reason the rest of us moved here. Venice is Wonderful! But, and here's the big but, there are ways to be a welcome visitor and there are ways to be a miserable visitor who makes locals dread tourist season. We see both. We vastly prefer the former. Being a good tourist is largely about courtesy. Those of us who live here full time, greatly appreciate a courteous tourist. Occasionally we get a tourist who is rude, insulting and nasty tempered. While I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, (maybe they are having a really bad day?) I am far more likely to help out a tourist who is polite and appreciative than one who just yelled at me. Seriously, we have all had moments with visitors that are so bad my first thought is just "go home. you aren't happy here so just go home." Here are a few of the not so good tourist examples: Tourists, are you aware that the rules of the road are not suspended just because you are on vacation? Just in the past week we have witnessed far too many people turning right from the left lane (or left from the right lane), blowing through stop signs AND red lights without so much as a tap of the brakes and nearly mowing over pedestrians crossing the street, Another big one is when someone just stops their car in the middle of the road to take a photo, just to "run into the store quickly" or they are waiting for a parking spot. Literally stopping their car in the middle of the road thus backing up traffic for blocks!!!! Another "bad tourist, very bad" moment that we see far too often, is people dumping their garbage on the side of the road, or on the beach, or in our parks and preserves. Nature is not your garbage can! I cannot even count the number of times I've seen stuff just tossed out of car windows as the side of the road. Geez People! Of course we end up picking it up because we don't want to live in a place with garbage lining our roads and in our yards. We shouldn't have to. Speaking of yards, tourists, please recognize that a lot of folks live here. These are our homes, our actual real homes. This is not Disney Imagineering. Please stay out of our yards and if your doggie plants one on our property, please please clean it up. I know you are on vacation but there are some chores you still have to do. That's one of them. One of the most surprising exchanges that I ever had with a tourist was at the museum. He came in and was greeted as all of our guests are, with a smile and a sincere welcome and a bit of information. He grunted at me and walked away before I finished talking and that's fine. Rude, but fine. He cycled through the entire museum in record time. When he was in front of me again, I asked, as I do most guests, if he had any questions. He said, "Yeah, is there anything fun to do here?" I responded that there were a lot of things to do in the area and rattled off a few. He cut me off and said, "No I mean something fun" I asked what sort of things he had in mind and he couldn't really tell me what he thought might be fun, he just knew that none of my suggestions were correct. He then went on to tell me that I was an idiot, the museum was boring and he hated Venice and would never return. He slammed his way back out the door as I thought to myself, " Please be a man of your word. Dont' come back" Along that same line, some tourists seem to think that they should get preferential treatment over locals and the reason they always give is because, "We are bringing money into your town" Well guess what, the people who live here full time(or even part time) also bring money into this town so....not impressed. I have witnessed far too many blantantly rude, unkind, attitudey, superior and downright snotty moments from tourists and while I don't' suppose any of us are going to challenge you to a duel over it, it's really so unnecessary. We are all happy that you are here and hope you have a wonderful time, but don't expect us to kiss your butt! So you see, it's really mostly just a matter of courtesy and consideration. Be a Good Tourist, have great adventures, get out there and see the world! Have a GREAT time. But please remember while you are out there to be your best self. I promise to do the same when I visit you. That's Joy in profile on the left and me from the back on the right and, quite obviously, we were out tramping through the forest with our cameras again. Clearly, therefore, this is yet another Photo Safari Report. I'm calling this one the Really Short Hike, because, due to time constraints, it was indeed really short. I suppose other folks might have chosen to just not go at all but we really miss it when we have an off week so we made it work. Joy wore a watch and checked it often and gave ourselves a hard stop time then headed for the trails. This was very nearly called the bluejay hike because we saw nearly so many BlueJays! It was as if they had taken over the world! They are easy to spot because of their colour and size and they tend to be a little chatty. Hard to hide when you are that loud! Also saw quite a number of woodpeckers. I know they are one of the birds I frequently post here but this time it was two woodpeckers together! And that part was unusual so I happy snapped them over and over. Generally I just take one shot and or maybe two to be certain that the first one was good and then move along, but this time, they just kept looking cuter and cuter and well, I couldn't stop! So this is the same two woodpeckers, just multiple photos of them. I couldn't choose one favourite! Let's see, in our brief hike we also saw a hawk. In fact we saw him three or four different times but I only captured him once. He kept moving because he was being harassed by other small annoying birds. Poor thing : And there was a very cute little grey bird whose name I've forgotten so let's call her, Agnes. She looks like an Agnes to me. Flowers are just starting to bloom which is evident by the thick layers of pollen EVERYWHERE and of course the ACHOO! But that means I did get a couple of flowers. Some old ones, which I think are still beautiful even in their dried state, and some new. Those yellow trumpet looking ones were EVERYWHERE! And never fear, I do have Randos today! Huzzah! Even a short hike will provide a few uncategorizable shots: For such a Really Short Hike, I was shockingly filthy when I got home. But that's fixable. It was a great photo Safari, if brief and I think we got some decent photos. We definitely had a good time.
Now get out there and have an excellent Weekend! See ya'll next week Hey! Welcome to today's Blogpost! Tim and I did something really different over the weekend, and it was so awesome! It was a Minock Day first of all, which is always one of the very best days. We met up with our friends in a town none of us had ever visited, Safety Harbor. Strange name, yes I know. I looked up the name (of course I did) and it turns out that back in the 1800's when piracy was a serious problem on the high seas and even in the Florida Gulf, once ships managed to arrive in this particular harbor, they were "safe" from pirates - Safety Harbor! Interesting! I also learned that evidence of stone age have been found there! Whoa! But while Spanish Explorers such as Hernando de Soto, visted the area, it was first homesteaded in 1823 by a French gentleman by name of Odette Phillippe. It was Monsieur Phillippe who introduced grapefruit to Florida! Nowadays it is an absolutely charming small seaside town that we all fell in love with immediately. We went there specifically to visit the Art and Music Center and a place called Whimzeyland. How could anyone resist checking out a place called Whimzeyland? The Art and Music Center was incredible. It was decorated from floor to ceiling (no exaggeration) with unique art installations. There was so much going on in every direction that it was almost sensory overload. It took forever to walk through because with each step there was more and more AND MORE to look at, marvel over, wonder about and sometimes chuckle a bit. I was particularly taken with the ceilings. Here are a few: Every single room, including the bathrooms by the way, had us wide-eyed, craning our necks and twisting in contortions to get photographs. It was Wild and Wonderful. The gift shop alone could have kept us entertained for hours. The walls were as fascinating as the ceilings of course. Here is a very small sampling (you might catch an unintentional selfie in one of these photos) When we could finally tear ourselves away from the Art and Music Center, we walked over the Whimzeyland. It turns out that Whimzeyland is actually the homes of the people who created the Art and Music Center. The public is welcome to walk their property and admire how terribly clever and artistic they are. Most of the art is upcycled objects which impresses me to no end. It was easy to know when we had arrived. I suspect that even without the "Whimzey" sign, everyone would know which houses they are. There was a little bit of everything as we walked along: A mosaic tiled sidewalk and pathway: Chandeliers galore: (one just to get a taste): Statuary: Some things were relatively simple: Others were a wee bit more complicated: Wow! That was really something else!
Once our creativity itch was scratched and our sense of wonder satiated, we wandered off to find food! We found ourselves, arbitrarily, at a place called The Whistlestop which was, appropriately enough, right beside a traintrack and had a terrific meal. We ate outside in a covered area and enjoyed the gorgeous day. Afterwards we walked through the cutest dang little town to the waterfront, where, as it turns out, there was an art and seafood festival going on! Well of course we had to check that out as well. And by then, we had managed to spend the entire day out and about, discovering this new to us town and enjoying each other's company so it was time to head in our respective directions (them north and us south) What A Great Adventure! And while I may not need to ever visit Whimzeyland again (probably) I think Tim and I will return to Safety Harbor some day, probably soon. Bonus Post this week! Woohoo! And this time is actually IS a Photo Safari Report! I am calling this one the Twenty-one Bird Hike because (and you've probably already guessed this) I actually counted and I took photographs of 21 different kinds of birds! Wow! We actually saw a lot more but these are just the ones I got pictures of! Holy Cats! That's a lot of birds! It was only 40 degrees when we set out...brisk! So we were well bundled but as the morning rolling along, we began peeling those layers off. It's like a truly ridiculous strip tease :) When we arrived there weren't many other folks around but by the time we left, it was downright crowded. This is peak tourist season right now so it does make sense. And honestly I love to see so many people out taking proper advantage of our beautiful parks and preserves. BUT it's not my favourite kind of hiking. Oh well, it's not my own private preserve after all (dang it!) We chose our first trail arbitrarily and it turned out to be a GREAT decision because ....the Eagles Are Back! Woohoo! First Eagle photo of 2024: It was kind of one bird after another from there. Sometimes we just stood in one spot, snapping away at various birds surrounding us. Very Cool. I won't inundate you with 21 actual bird photos. That would just be too much. And honestly, just because I took a photo doesn't mean it was a good one. I always sort them through carefully and only share the ones that I'm not too embarrassed by. Here's a cross section of Birdie photos. I'll do it in two sets of seven: Although they are beautiful creatures, enough with the birds already! Yeah I can hear you thinking. How about we move along to botanicals? We aren't deep enough into spring yet to get a lot of flowers, but I'll show you what we did find: We did get a wee bit frustrated at times because the trails kept being blocked off. All for very good reason, mind you, but still, we did a lot of backtracking! Let's see, we also saw a very cute turtle: Bubble blowing fish - Really! And then there was the coolest thing we saw the entire hike: a baby 'gator lounging in the sun on Mama's snout! I'm not making that up. The pictures aren't perfect but I think you can make it out: There you have it, a bonus post this week, the Twenty-One Bird Hike!
Hope you have a fabulous weekend! Have fun and be safe :) The things I find myself doing for these two. Geez! Here is a most recent example. Our dehumidifier is clearly on it's last legs. It has worked mighty hard for us for nearly 8 years and it's obvious that it's on life support. So rather than wait until it gasps it's last, Tim went ahead and ordered a new one. It arrived and in the process of unpacking it, we were left with a good sized empty box. My plan was to do what I always do with empty boxes, which is to recycle it! The rules of recycling in our town require that not only do cardboxes need to be broken down but also cut to a certain size. It's no big deal and I've gotten pretty good at it. With that in mind, I walked toward the box, intending to pick it up and put it, temporarily, in the utility room to deal with later but before I reached the box, there was a cat in it. They do that. Like most cats, anything they can fit in they will get in. Things that they quite honestly cannot fit in, they will still at least attempt to get in. It's who they are, it's what they do. No big deal, I can move the box later, I thought to myself and life went on for the rest of the day with the box occasionally occupied by one or the other cat (sometimes both) and once in awhile one of their toys would turn up in the box as well. They were having fun, so why not. A few days later, while cleaning I decided that the room looked too junked up with all of the various and sundry toys and now this giant box in the middle of things so again, I went to pick up the box. The instant my hand touched the box, suddenly a cat appeared in the bottom of it. I took the cat out. The cat jumped back in. Clearly this is going to be an issue. I tried to discuss the situation with them calmly. I sat on the floor and told them how the box was junky looking and took up too much space. They sat and starred at me intently as I talked. when I stopped talking, one of them jumped back in the box. This time with toy mousie. sigh. Clearly they loved the box and as much as I wanted a room that didn't look like the town dump, I also want to be a good pet parent and keep our pets happy. The box made them happy. Dang. So I decided that if the box was going to stay for awhile, it should at least look better. I gathered a box cutter, packing tape, some coloured markers and got to work. Now, before you judge the quality of my work, please keep in mind that I have No artistic abilities whatsoever! NONE! When those were handed out, I must have been out of the room. What used to be just a cardboard box is now the Kittyboy Hideout, complete with two doors, several windows and a skylight. I was unsure if I had "ruined" the box for them or not. You never know. What I think of as an improvement they could perceive as a total disaster. But I kept on with fingers crossed. Finally it was done enough. As a finishing touch, I put an old towel inside so it would be nice and soft for them and then I sat back and waited to see what Brysco and Wyatt would think of it. I think maybe despite my questionable efforts that maybe it'll be okay? Turns out they love it even more than they did before! They nap in it, play in it and sometimes fight in it (and then you can see the entire box rattling around - earthquake!) The peek their heads out the window, zoom in and out through the two doors and occasionally through a window when they are racing. I find toys in the hideout, sometimes things that are specifically NOT toys (my chapstick and a crumpled up napkin come to mind) and definitely the cats. Sometimes I kind of "knock" on the side of the box...Anybody home? And they might peek out to see who is at their door! Or I'll lay on the floor, reach inside and give pets to whichever kitty it is. Occasionally we just see a paw come up through the skylight or an ear or a tail. Every once in a long while, especially on a chilly day, both boys snuggy up together in there. So cute! My long range plan is to do more "artwork" and I use the term loosely. Maybe some trees and shrubs around the sides of their house. If I was a better artist, I could draw birds or lizards or spiders or something on the "roof" but I am reluctant to attempt it as marker is not erasable dang it all. I had the intention to make one of the doors a drawbridge of sorts and even figured out how to do it with elastic. Problem is, I don't actually have any elastic so until I go to a store that sells it, that particular door appears to be a broken drawbridge. Oh well. If I get inspired and acquire more boxes, maybe I can add on more rooms? A second story? The possibilities abound! It still takes up far too much space in a room already cluttered up with various kitty toys but they love it and what the heck, why not. Our home is not a magazine cover home anyway. Now it's even more so. My eventually conclusion was, So Be It! Long live the Kittyboy Hideout! They concur. So they've taken over the room, the giant cardboard box AND my small laundry basket. I guess we know who is in charge in this house. Life is short. Enjoy it to the max. We do!
Late last week, Joy and I took a walk. Just a simple little meander around town, a stroll, a perambulation, a saunter maybe. Well we didn't cover the entire town. Just a very small part of it. And we still managed to knock out 4+ miles. Awesome. Joy snapped the above photo of us reflected in one of those big mirrors they put in places that are difficult to drive out of and well, we just looked to tall and skinny in the photo that I HAD to use it! Sometime fun house mirrors work For you, not against you :) Just sayin' What was I talking about? Oh yeah, the wander that we did last week. We brought our cameras...just in case. I mean, one never ever truly knows, but we had no expectations. If we had returned with zero photos, it would have been just fine. This wasn't really a photo safari after all, it was just a walk. With cameras. Totally different thing. And yet! We saw lots of photo worthy stuff! Loads of birds of course. This is a very birdie sort of place after all. Some water related: And other birds that were more land oriented: Also snapped a few boat photos. This is an island - a body of land surrounded by water - there are bound to be boats here! It just logically follows. And sometimes, they even make for pretty photos: There were a few other things: And that's it! We didn't take hundreds of photos (thought we did probably take dozens) and we weren't gone for hours and we didn't come home with wet, dirty shoes filthy clothes and the smell of the forest upon us. It was just a little stroll around the perimeter of the north end of town, some laughs, good conversation and a few photos.
Hope you had an Awesome Weekend! Ours involved lots of rain, way more TV than usual and donuts! And non of those things is bad. It was Valentine's Day just a few days ago! Hope yours was wonderful! Ours was just about perfect, It involved flowers, baked goods, M&M's and Jersey Mike's subs for dinner! Woohoo to Sam having a night off from cooking dinner :)
Don't get me wrong please. I do love to cook and I especially enjoy cooking for the people I love. But everyone once in awhile it's a treat to Not have to cook. Or think up the idea of what to cook. Or wash up after the meal. Getting take out means, sitting relaxed in our own home in front of the TV with my shoes off, snuggled into the sofa (probably under the sofa blanket) Munching away in my own sweet time with Tim on one side of me and kitties on the other. Afterwards, we just throw away the bag and wrapper. Doesn't get much easier than that! Eating in a restaurant, especially a really nice restaurant is a treat for sure. But I have to be in the right frame of mind for it. Not the actual meal necessarily but the surroundings. In a nice restaurant, I have to be prepared to dress up a bit, maybe make the effort to look nicer than I normally do by the end of the day. Usually by dinnertime I look like the wreck of the Hesperus. By days' end I am tired. Too tired sometimes to appreciate a good meal. I just want a cookie and a nap. (I'm kind of like I giant 4 year old). In a restaurant I need to use my manners: No elbows on the table, sit up straight, try really hard to not drop your fork on the floor a half dozen times please and be a part of pleasant conversation. When I'm really tired sometimes the effort of participating in conversation, putting two related words together in a coherent way is a little beyond my ability. And then there is the whole hearing thing. There is so much ambient noise in a restaurant, even the really nice ones. Sound bounces around off walls and ceilings, there is the murmur of multi conversations going on all around us, footsteps, forks and knives on plates, the "ting" of glassware against other glassware, the background music..... All of that competes with the conversation I'm trying to follow at my own table. My hearing aids are really good ones, high quality stuff, but the effort involved in trying to make sense of the auditory information coming at me sometimes is exhausting. And at the end of the day I don't have a lot of oomph left. I know, I know, I sound like NO FUN AT ALL! How on earth does Tim put up with me? That I don't know. He is a good man. I have asked him that before, actually. Literally asked him. "How can you stand me? What is wrong with you?" He always laughs. I guess that's why he is my Valentine every single year forever and ever. Well, it's one of the reasons. Another reason is that he never gives me a hard time about my inexplicable love of M&M's. I always get some for Valentine's Day, my Birthday, Christmas and sometimes, for no reason at all except that he knows I adore them. He never points out to me that my desire to lose a couple of pounds is in direct conflict with my desire to eat my weight in Chocolate. He also understands, completely understands, that one absolutely MUST have treats while watching movies either at the theatre or at home. Snackies are Essential to movie watching. He is endlessly patient with me as he waits for me to get my act together so that we can leave the house. He stands by the door, key in hand, as I go to the bathroom one more time, change my shoes, put on sunscreen, check on the cats, find my camera/purse/empty egg containers/etc, decide which pair of sunglasses to wear, fix my hair AGAIN, grab my phone and decide at the last second that I don't like the shirt I'm wearing and need to put on a different one. He doesn't say a word and he doesn't get mad and life goes on. He supports my interests, even if it's not high on his hit parade. He takes me to art galleries and stands there waiting for me to be ready to the next room as I moon over my favourites. Same goes for hiking, photography and even me writing this Blog. He was the one who set up the site for me. I didn't even ask him. He just did it. And why? Because it was important to me. He doesn't complain. No matter what horrible, science experiment of a meal I put in front of him, he eats it (or at least attempts to). When I ask a question of any sort the answer is always yes. Can you fix my computer? Do you want to get together with these people? Do you want to go for a hike with me? Do you want to come grocery shopping? Would you drive me, basically anywhere? Can I get a new pair of sneakers? The answer to every one of those was yes. Yes with no hesitation, yes with no conditions, yes with no reservations, yes with no complaint. Just yes. He is so very thoughtful. If I'm sitting on the sofa and I look as if I might be chilly, he will bring me a blanket without me saying a word. If he goes out to the kitchen to refill his waterglass, he fills mine too, if we are planning to eat out he asks where I would like to eat first. It seems as if he is always thinking of me. By way of example, I never asked for a camera. He just thought I would like one and bought one for me, thus kickstarting a new passion. I rarely leave the house without my camera now. And in fact, the camera bag, the clip on glasses case for the camera bag, the monopod for the camera, the wonderful softysoft camera strap, all of those very wonderful and thoughtful things came from him - without me saying a word. He is interested in what I think and respects my opinion. If it turns out that we feel differently about a topic, it only creates a terrific conversation as we exchange thoughts, idea, opinions and beliefs, it doesn't become an argument. We talk about anything and everything. Best of all, he makes me laugh. I look to Tim as an example of how to be a perfect life partner. I'm not sure I"ll ever be as good at it as he is, but as long as I keep trying, I can't go wrong. Hope you and your Valentine had a Perfect Day! This was Joy and I out in the wild last Friday. We were just ahead of a controlled burn. Seriously! As we were leaving, we drove past the fire trucks and saw the actual burning going on. Kind of exciting. We had no photos of the fire or the equipment or the firefighters, sorry. You will have to settle for some other stuff instead. Joy came up with the name for this Photo Safari - The Doubleback Hike. That is because we did a whole lot of doubling back on the trails due to puddles. Not itty bitty no big deal fun to splash in puddles. Nope that would have been fine. These were ankle deep (at least) muddy, murky, goopy, I-don't-know-what's-in-there puddles that we couldn't jump across, walk around (without going too far off trail) or build a frond bridge over and we just weren't in the mood for slogging through muck that day. Sooooo instead we did a lot of doubling back. Here are some of the puddles: Poet e.e.cummings famously wrote "...the world is mud luscious and puddle wonderful..." and that is an adorable mental image but mucky wet feet for hours doens't thrill us at all. The day started out cool and warmed up a bit as we went along. But it was the sky that really struck me. It was at least a zillion different shades of cloudy and light through our hike. The colours kept changing which meant our photos kept changing too. We kept wondering if it was going to rain. It caught my eye and therefore my camera: But it was a great day for birds. A GREAT day for birds. Hope you like birdie pictures because here come a lot of them. There were times when all we had to do was stand in one spot snapping away because they were everywhere around us. The only birds we saw that were NOT in the above set were bluebirds. We saw so many bluebirds. More than we have EVER seen! It was crazy! AND, the most exciting part (to us anyway) is that for the very first time, we saw a bluebird nest! Holy Cats! I will show you othe nest photos first just because that's the part I am most jazzed about. The photos in this next set were kindly sent to me my Joy because my photos didn't turn out which really ticked me off. Can't blame anyone but myself. Operator error! Thanks Jo! How Cool Is That??? Her pictures are just so dang good. Hang on to your poptarts because the next set is Just Bluebirds and now we are back to my photos. If it's too tedious looking at a bunch of photos of the same kind of birds, feel free to skip ahead. I dont' mind. I probably wont' even notice Enough with the birds already! I agree. How about if I move on to flowers. Things are starting to bloom a little bit here and there so there were a few more flowers than lately. I'll just post a few: Lastly, my favourite category, the Randos. I haven't posted much in the way of random, uncategorizable pictures lately. I think I will make up for that here. It's a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Photograhic Flotsam: There you have it, the Doubleback Hike! Those bluebird nests really were amazing! Thanks for the photos once again Joy!
I will find another topic to write about later this week, I promise! In the meantime, have fun and be safe! Can you stand another story about these two scamps? As you can see they have now taken possession of one of my laundry baskets. Never know what a new day will bring :) Life is not dull with these two around! But today I speak of one of my new weekly tasks. Now that Tim and I are kitty owners, once a week, I retrieve missing kitty toys. It's not as if I have it marked on my calendar (kitty toy retrieval day) or anything. But roughly once a week, I will either come into the room and find both cats laying down looking under things leading me to believe that there is something Under There and I'm praying that it's nothing alive. Or Brysco and Wyatt come to me with their sweetie faces on and they keep gently patting me with their paws until I pay attention. Once they have my full attention they lead me to wherever their lost toy is which is clearly requesting I return the toy to them. They are very smart are they not? So at some point, every week, if you were standing outside looking in our windows (and why are you doing that by the way!!) you might see the following tableau: In this photo, Brysco is only sitting up because I am standing up. Normally at this point there are two kitties and me, lying belly down on the floor peering under things with a flashlight and I have something to pull the toys out with. In this particular case we are looking under the display cabinet and I'm using a telescoping back scratcher. If it were something bigger like the sofa, I would be using my monopod, which also telescopes. Very handy tools! The display cabinet is very large and heavy but not deep so the back scratcher work great! It is not unusual to find a half dozen (or more!) toys under this display case. But other favourite places to find lost kitty toys is under the console cabinet, beds, sofas and Tim's desk. When they give me the sad sweetiepie my-toy-is-lost face those are my first go to's. But I have found things under the vanity in the bathroom, trapped behind the kitchen garbage can, and once even in the pantry which is odd because we keep that door closed and latched so I'm not sure how that one happened. We have found toys in closets, cabinets, laundry baskets and our shoes. Is nothing sacred? Nope. Not with cats. It is not unusual to see them walking around with a toy in their mouths. It could be a toy mousie, or soft puff ball or, lately, one of their favourites are these plastic toy springs. They are wild for them! And that is what I found under the display cabinet that day. The boys and I are peering under both sides of the cabinet into the darkness. I cast the flashlight beam to the left and to the right and eventually, aha! There it is, back right corner. Now I have to juggle the flashlight AND the backscratcher AND two excited kitties. They know that I've nearly gotten their beloved toy and they are beside themselves! And since they are literally right beside me, they want to "help". Read that as "get in the way". So while I am attempting to fish out the spring, I am also trying to avoid impaling either of them with the back scratcher. Geez guys! Give me a minute. I'm sort of working blind, dark cabinet, dark shadowy under cabinet, two black cats whose fur is in my way once again. Usually it's just a tail but occasionally a paw and I'm peering underneath in a narrow about two inch high space and trying to manipulate everything AND see what I'm doing at the same time. Absolutely ideal conditions for toy retrieval. (not) Occasionally Wyatt mews encouragingly. I translate that as "Awesome job Mom, you've almost got it now!" Looks easy enough, right. I mean it's Right There! Despite all of my "help", eventually I coax the toy back out and return it to it's rightful owners and the boys frolic and frisk and play with it while I return to whatever I was doing before. But I can guarantee you that by the end of the day that spring will have disappeared once again.
Recently under the console cabinet I found six springs and a mousie. I threw them into the room for the boys to play with. They just about lost their furry little minds with joy. Less than two hours later, they were wanting me to play with them so I went to get some of their favourites - the springs- to throw for them. I toss them into various corners of the room and they chase after them happily, batting them around and having a ball. Wyatt prefers that I throw the springs to him, high n the air so he can jump up into the air after it. Not sure why, but he just loves it. And the crazier the jump required, the better he likes it. Earlier today he leapt off a table to get a toy that I tossed and he landed on one of their play tubes. He emerged triumphantly with the toy in his mouth as I rushed over asking....."are you ok?" Yeah, he was fine and proud as he could be. But on this day, I couldn't find a single toy spring. I turned to them and said, "Guy! Where are they? I just found six of them for you!' They shrugged their shoulders and basically said, " We don't know!" Anyway, on toy retrieval day, I do that same thing, over and again, flashlight, kittyhelpers and either the monopod or the backscratcher, looking under things until it's all been returned to them and they are just so happyhappy once more. I honestly don't mind doing it. It makes them happy, costs me nothing and honestly, it's a bit of exercise hauling my big old butt off the floor over and over again. I'm sure I'm not the only kitty owner who does this though the only people I've ever heard mention it are related to me. Tell me, do you do this too? Those kittyboys :) It's a grey, rainy, gloomy, chilly Monday morning today. Bah! So I'm going to cheer myself up by writing about my most recent hike with Joy! That's right, my friends, it's another Photo Safari Report. And I'm going to call this one the Bridge Hike. You will find out about the why of that very shortly. First of all, we decided to go to Deer Prairie Preserve because we hadn't been there in quite some time. It was closed for, well it seemed like forever! Then too, there were the wild hog incidents that seem to crop up in that particular preserve with more frequency than we are strictly comfortable with. But what the heck, what's life without risk eh? Deer Prairie is open again? All righty...that's where we are headed. Now one of the things about Deer Prairie Preserve is that right away, as soon as you park, you have to decide which way you are going to go, to the left or to the right. We generally go to the right because that trail is Always accessible. The trail to the left is on the other side of the water. The Myakka River flows through it and in some places it widens to appear to be more of a pond or a lake. And in this particular case it creates a stunningly beautiful, peaceful, reflective large pond: And then, out of nowhere, it narrows and drops creating, for all intents and purposes, a waterfall. Very cool: It's all very dramatic and cool looking, I promise! And until this visit the only way to get across that pond/waterfall/river thingie was to wait until the dry season and the water is a wee bit lower and then carefully walk across the top of the falls. Yeah, not the smartest thing we've ever done, but it's what we did. Hey, it's their fault for putting what was obviously an awesome trail head right onthe other side of the water, right? Who could possibly resist that allure? Not us for sure! This is where we walked across. See the marrow little stip of concrete here? Yeah, it goes all along the lip of the "falls". It's mostly under the water right now. The entire time we've been hiking this preserve, that's how it was. So imagine our surprise when we arrived and saw this instead: Holy Cats! How awesome is that? What a gorgeous bridge! Here are some other shots of it: Well of course we had to take that trail! How could we not? Off we went. Saw a lot of very cool trees. Ready for some tree shots? Some insect related things: A few flowers, not many this time 'round. That ought to be changing soon as we are heading toward spring: Got a nice variety of birds. My absolute favourite is the bird on the lily pad! I had never seen that before! There actually was one more bird, a hawk. There he sat, so regally at the tippy top of a tree looking down. Just very steadily, continually looking down. Never once took his eyes off whatever it was he was checking out. So naturally we had to check it out too. Here's the hawk: And here is what he was looking at: He was obviously the supervisor on this job! LOLOL I did take another photo that I particularly liked. It's another reflection shot but when I turn it sideways, it kind of looks like Day and Night represented. See what you think: So there you have it. The Bridge Hike! It was awesome!
Thanks for coming along :) See ya'll soon! All hail the carpet cleaner! Behold it's majesty! Be in awe of it's level of coolness. I know that I certainly am!!!
I've never owned one of these before despite the fact that we've lived in a number of places that actually had wall to wall carpet in at least some of the rooms. I guess I thought that it was not an essential piece of household equipment. I had a perfectly good vacuum cleaner - which IS essential if you have any sort of floors - and used a modicum of common sense regarding where it was wise to eat or not eat, removing ones shoes before coming into the house on muddy, snowy, rainy days and dictating firmly where messy projects were allowed to be done. Should there accidentally be some not-vacuum-up-able dirt on the carpet, I would use a spot cleaner. And then once in a Very Great While, we would rent a carpet cleaner from a local hardware store and go through that rigamarole. It all seemed to be enough. Sufficient to the cause so to speak. I suppose we are rather clean people in general because it's not as if anyone coming into our house ever cringed at the idea of walking on our carpets even barefoot and there was no disgusting mystery odor wafting through the indoor air. So I guess I just didn't give it much thought. When we first married, we lived in a teensy two bed/1 bath apartment that had linoleum floors in the miniscule bath and kitchen. Every other room had wall to wall crayon red carpeting. I did not choose it obviously. We vacuumed and spot cleaned and, I think maybe once a year, did the rental carpet cleaner thing......maybe. The first house Tim and I bought together on the other hand had beautiful wide board wood floors in most rooms and, once again linoleum kitchen and bath. We put an area rug in the living room but it wasn't very big and it was mostly covered with furniture. You had to literally move all of the furniture to properly clean the rugs and, I'm embarrassed to say, it didn't happen very often. We all took turns vacuuming and the degree of cleanliness depending largely on the person wielding the vacuum. Tim was more inclined to move furniture than me. When we moved to Colorado, for the first year we lived in a rental that had tile kitchen, bath, entryway and very pale beige wall to wall carpeting everywhere else. Because this was someone else's house, we were very mindful of taking good care of it. We lived in terror of getting those carpets dirty and tried our best to levitate across rooms rather than walk across them in an effort to keep them pristine at all times. We cleaned voraciously and frequently. There were rules! No eating anywhere but the kitchen table (tile being so much more forgiving than carpeting). Tim rented a carpet cleaner multiple times during that year after he found me in hysterical sobs the day the cat puked on the carpet as I scrubbed and scrubbed attempting (and finally succeeding) in getting the stain out. We still didn't get our deposit back when we left. Oh well. When we moved into our own house in Colorado, the floors were a mix of tile, wood and wall to wall carpet. The wood and the tile was soooo easy to take care of and that carpet was the bane of my existence. I hated it. But at least it was ours and the rules were relaxed a bit more. From time to time Tim rented a carpet cleaner and overall, the place looked good. When we moved to Florida I was so happy to have tile floors everywhere. If you spill on tile, you wipe it up and you are done. You don't have to be reminded every day by the ghost of a stain or have stiff or sticky carpeting. There is no lingering stink or deeply ingrained bacteria growing from errant cookie crumbs or coffee splash. The bonus is the lovely year 'round cool tiles underfoot when you live in a place notorious for warm weather. But, we discovered quickly, with only hard surfaces, sounds bounces around which makes hearing and understanding what you are hearing a challenge. There is a funny echoey sound with any noise at all. If you drop a book, they can hear it next door, if you drop a pot lid it's a cacophony! So we got some area rugs and sprinkled them around, here and there. There is one in the living room and two in the family room. It had helped tremendously with the sound bounce issue and, as a bonus, there is a nice visual division between the various spaces of such a big open area. And it's kind of a cozy look too which is just nice :) I vacuum every week, sometimes twice if needed. The floors get washed every week and any spills are cleaned up immediately. If there happens to be some unvacuumable dirt on the area rug, again, I just spot cleaned and went on about my day. We had been discussing renting a carpet cleaner once again recently and I left Tim to the details since generally he is the one who does that job. Those machines are HEAVY! And instead, to my surprise, the carpet cleaner at the top of the page showed up at our door. How Exciting! Tim decided that, considering the cost of the rental, within just a few uses the purchase would have balanced out. After that, any uses are basically free. I was excited to check it out. I read the instruction manual (unusual for me) before using it then, feeling marginally confident in my understanding, I got to work. It was actually fairly easy, lighter weight than the rental ones, and did a Great Job. The water in the extraction bin was DISGUSTING! I always believed myself to be a clean person. Perhaps I was just in denial because that was gross. Tim helped me and all three rugs are now practically pristine. The kitties watched the entire process with great fascination. I don't know yet if I will just automatically clean the carpets on some sort of regular schedule or will I wait until the spirit and the level of dirt compels me. But at least when carpet cleaning does happen again around here, we don't have to drive to the hardware store, pay to rent, drag the dang thing out to the car, load it up, schlepp it into the house and then once used, do it in reverse. Nope, now I just go to the closet, use it, clean it, return it. Nice. Why did we wait so long??? Have a GREAT weekend! You know who these two people are so you know what this is. Yup, Another Photo Safari Report! I'm calling this one the Combo Platter Hike(s) for several reasons. First of all, Joy and I are a combo! And then, the photos are of a combination of things. Thirdly, we go out on these photo safaris for a combination of different reasons (exercise, photography, being in nature and just spending time together) and lastly, it is a combination of two different hikes. One with Joy of course, the other one I did with Tim! The hike with Tim was much shorter. I will still easily fatigued and getting over being sick but I desperately wanted (Needed!!!) to be out of the house for a bit. So to be on the safe and courteous side, Tim took me for a Very Short hike where there was NOBODY else. Not another living human soul. Just Tim and I and nature. Nice! One of the first things I took a picture of was a bird I couldn't identify. That's always fun. He was just sitting there in the tippity top of a tree and he patiently waited until I took a couple of photos before taking off again. I had to send Joy the photo later for identification. Turns out this guy is called a Shrike. I was thinking more....Zorro. The only other bird picture I got on that hike (again it was a Very Short Hike) was this one which turned out to be one of my all time favourites: That was a bit of good luck eh? Can never go wrong with Mama's and Babies :) All of the rest of the pictures I took on that day were perfectly fine, mostly botanicals, but not as special: Oh and three other birds. Perfectly nice birds, but just ordinary: And then, about a week later, the hike with Joy. We went to Curry Creek which is a small local preserve that we've been to a zillion other times and we've never been disappointed there. As small as it is, and even smaller than usual that day because the water was too high to cross the creek to the other side, we always get at least a few really decent shots. The highlight of this hike was another new to me bird: The Carolina Wren who, since she was in Florida, must have been on vacation. She had the most beautiful and unusual song too. I wish there was a way to attach an audio file because I would love for you to hear her sing. We stood on the trail for the longest time trying to figure out who was making that unusual music. Most local bird song is so familiar too us that we know who the artist is, but not this time. Finally, after a lot of very quiet lurking and searching we found the source: That was exciting. We always feel a little bit like detectives when we hear a bird but cannot immediately see it and then we go on the hunt until we find it! We saw other more familiar birds too: It was a pretty day, the air was a little crisp which is fine, we know how to dress in layers and, for a change it was a sunny day. Nice! I snapped a few botanicals. Not as many as usual but a few here and there: So I guess that's that. The Combo Platter Hike(s). They were both a lot of fun and it was a wonderful surprise to see something brand new to me on both hikes! Now that I'm back to my old self I'm ready to hit the real longer trails and get out there in the thick of things, probably getting lost (or at least temporarily misplaced) and have some more photos for you next time!
Hope everyone is doing GREAT! Hugs all ' round. ..Let's see a show of hands. How many of you hate being sick? Looks like all of you. Yeah. Me too. I'm just, very slowly, getting over being sick myself and I'm telling you, it just doesn't suit me.
Last Tuesday I woke up after a very restless night of not much sleep to find that I had a terrible headache, which I suppose could be attributed to the lack of sleep, and an awful sore throat which was unusual. Every time I swallowed, I winced. Who knew that saliva had such sharp edges? I lay there in bed taking personal inventory for a moment and trying to justify anything that was not quite right. Finally I hauled my carcass out of bed and shuffled into the shower. I'm not a shuffler. I don't shuffle. But I did that morning. It seemed to be all that I could manage. The shower revived me a bit, I felt more awake at least, but the sore throat wasn't improved, nor was the headache and then the cough began. Oh man. I already had a sore throat. The coughing didn't help at all, so I tried to suppress it as much as possible. While the effort wasn't entirely successful, at least I was trying. I decided that what I needed was some nice hot tea. It was while I was reaching up into the cabinet to get a mug that I realized how much my back hurt too. And I was so dang tired I just wanted to lay down on the kitchen floor and sleep. I gave up then because when I added it all up, I knew that I was genuinely sick. Dang. Because I knew I was scheduled to work that day, ironically covering for someone else who was out sick, I had to make a decision very quickly about whether or not I should go to work. I know, I know, it ought to be an easy decision. But I came from a generation where how you felt didn't matter. If something needed to be done, you did it anyway. Work Ethic was Everything! Unless you were in the hospital or deceased, there was no excuse for not showing up and doing your job whether it was a job outside the home or inside of it. You took an aspirin, grabbed some tissues and a few cough drops and you went in anyway. It was what we did. The obvious fact that all of us who were showing up to work sick were probably infecting everyone else in the workplace apparently never dawned on management. It was what it was, and we did what we did. Eventually, the light dawned on Most people during a particularly hideous flu season that we were infecting each other. The response to that where I worked at the time, and other places too I'm sure, was that flu shots became mandatory. Nobody was missing work!! But I believe that that's where it began be start being a little more "normal" to not be at work or school if you were contagious in anyway. This was a huge step forward but not every work place adhered to this policy AND all of us oldsters who were used to working sick were taking a little longer to get on board with it. And then Covid happened. February 2020 was when everything changed. Anything less that perfect healthy was suddenly terrifying. If you had seasonal allergies, people avoided you. If you swallowed 'wrong' and coughed as a result people would give you dirty looks. And the rule of thumb was, if you are sick stay home, stay away. Everyone was terrified by germs. With good reason, no question. But it was a big pendulum swing in a different direction than most of us had ever experienced. When I was a kid, if another child in the neighborhood had chicken pox or measles, parents would deliberately send their kids to play with the sick kid! The prevailing thought was that the non sick child would contract the "childhood disease" and be done with it. Oh my! Childhood diseases were like a rite of passage I suppose. What a bizarre thought process! Now of course, there are vaccines for all of those things and they are (mostly) a thing of the past. And good riddance to it! Things are different now and it's for the better. Still, I kept thinking of my responsibilities at work. If I call out sick, and I'm covering for someone else who is sick, who is going to cover for me? How inconvenient! How inconsiderate! I felt guilty. And then Tim reminded me that most of the people I covered for through November and December called out sick with Covid (because that doggone beast is still out there). I Hmmmm'd to myself and got on my trusty computer to research the symptoms for the current strain of Covid. Sore Thoat, Cough, Congestion, Body aches, headache, fatigue.......check check check check check check check....... damnit. Tim remembered that we had a Covid home test in the linen closet so I got that out, read the directions a dozen times because I was having trouble focusing and tracking, did the test and the dang thing popped positive. Geez! After managing to avoid Covid for just shy of 4 years, it finally caught me. Ratz! So now I absolutely could not go to work. I emailed the boss who made it Very Clear that I should stay home. And I KNOW it was the right thing to do, but now I felt guilty for being sick. Man, I guilt so well. Too bad it's not a paying gig. But I couldn't think about it, or anything else too much, I felt too crummy and I felt worse as they day went by. For the next four days mostly I napped. Tim would wake me to see if what I wanted to eat. By then my voice was almost completely gone, I croaked out, "anything with no edges". He brought me mac'n'cheese and ice cream. I lived on that for 4 days. Gradually I began to not be quite as tired, though I wore out quickly. Still. it felt good to be vertical. Eventually the headache faded and over time the sore throat diminished, the congestion is beginning to clear a little bit but the cough of course lingers. It always does. I retested and now I am negative. Huzzah! Thankfully, Tim is still healthy, no symptoms at all and for that I am truly grateful. I had to cancel working two days, hiking one day, a party, a get together with old friends and attending a City Council Meeting in the meantime. I feel truly awful about all of that. But I remind myself the advice my old College Philosphy Professor once gave me, "A hundred years from now, who'll know the difference?" And I also have to tell myself, on a regular basis, that just because something is the way we used to do it, doesn't mean it was the only way. And it certainly doesn't mean it was the right way. See, I am still capable of learning. I'll never stop feeling guilty about Every freakin' thing, but I am learning how to see things differently. Change can be good. Hey, it's the Kittyboys, Brysco and Wyatt! I think it's time for an update. On Saturday we will have had them for 3 months! Which means they are almost 9 months old. Time flies. Boy oh boy have they changed our lives in that time. And all for the better :) The first thing you may notice here, other than how much they've grown, is that neither of them is wearing a collar. (sigh) Wyatt always hated his collar with a passion and a good portion of his day, every day, was dedicated to finding out how to remove it. Once that puzzle was solved, his collar was off more than it was on. Initially it was a once in a while thing. Then maybe a once a week happening. And suddenly it was about every 30 minutes. Dang. Eventually we gave up. The sole reason we put collars on them to begin with was to tell them apart! We decided that as long as Brysco still had his collar on, we would know which cat was which. Cat with collar - Brysco! Cat without collar - Wyatt! Easy peasy. I did feel a little guilty that Brysco was stuck still wearing his - simply for our convenience of telling them apart . Never fear. In short order, Wyatt taught Brysco how to take his off and then...bam. Neither cat was wearing a collar. DoubleDang. Then Tim and I realized how lazy we were being. I mean parents of identical human twins always figure it out, right? So we have made a concentrated effort to find the subtle differences between them and now I believe that 90% of the time we are correct. In any case, they answer to their names and we can rely on that if necessary. This post is kind of a day in the life thing. How do the kittyboys spend their days? (just in case you wondered) Being cats of course, much of their days is dedicated to sleep. Usually brief little aptly named catnaps. They snooze in their actual cute little beds of course, sometimes together, sometimes separately, but they also nap in the kitty trees, on the sofa, our bed and in any sunny spot they find on the floor: But when they are awake, it's all about playplayplay! They play with each other naturally and that often looks more like a wrestling match and it's impossible to get a good picture! But another favourite game of theirs is the jumpscare where one of them hides behind something and they wait for either their brother, or some unsuspecting human to come along and then they pounce! They favour a butterfly toy, mousies, anything with catnip in it, one particular wool ball that they are slowly shredding, anything with feathers which very soon has no feathers at all and little toy springs which get batted all over the house and under things. Once every week the kittyboys and I, armed with a flashlight and my monopod fully extended, go around the house, fishing errant toys out from under things. They also have a toy we call the CrazyBall. It's a computerized (I suppose) ball that get's charged like a phone. Once it's turned on and put on the floor, it takes off in crazy directions all over the house with both cats in hot pursuit. It occupies them for a Very Long Time. The bad part is that they do not put their toys away when they are done and then we have to find Crazyball. Sometimes we don't discover it's whereabouts until the next day whereupon it gets recharged and ready for the next go 'round. But their absolute favourite game now is what Tim has dubbed the GooberUber. Tim was innocently moving one of their playtubes one day and Brysco jumped in! So, very gently, Tim dragged the tube across the room. Brysco Loved it! Wyatt follows behind and it's like a little parade through the house now. When they see Tim coming, Brysco jumps into the tube in the hopes for a ride! Silly kitty! Most cats are curious by nature and these boys are no different in that respect. Brysco in particular wants to help and check out whatever we are doing. He recently has become fascinated by running water. I find him in the bathtub, the kitchen sink or watching the rain out a window. Wyatt is currently captivated by the ceiling fans and at least part of his day is dedicated to starring at the rotating blades and meowing at them. It's a conversational sort of series of various mews and meows and chirps. I would love to know what he is saying. They insist upon laying on the ironing piles which is why I have it covered with a towel until I get around to actually doing the ironing And anything new remains suspicious whether it is a package that has arrived, a new toy or me wearing a new pair of socks. Their policy is Approach with Caution! So I guess that is pretty much how they spend their days. Ah, the life of a cat! That may be the plan for my next life should reincarnation turn out to be a real thing.
I will try very hard to restrain myself and not write about them again - at least for a little while Have a great weekend. You know that the kittyboys will! Welcome to Florida, the Sunshine State!!! I imagine the conversation went a little something like this: Cold Place Person (CPP): "I've had it with the snow and cold already this winter! Let's go somewhere warm and thaw out" Friend/Partner (F/P): "That sounds wonderful. Let's go somewhere with a beach. Sun and sand and margaritas!!" CPP: "Excellent! What beach tho?" F/P: "Let's go to Florida. Winter there is supposed to be paradise" Later: CPP: "I did a little research and I found this little town called Venice. It's an island! Beautiful beaches, an adorable downtown, a lot of history and, according to what I read, there always seems to be some sort of outside entertainment, music, festivals, outside dining" F/P "Wonderful! Book it" And then they arrive and find: Disappointment R Us!
I somehow feel as if I must apologize to all of our tourists right now. I see them huddled under umbrellas, shivering in their beachware as they wander our downtown (which is indeed adorable). We see them at the jetty sitting in their cars looking at the ocean and the beach wistfully from inside their cars. A few diehards go ahead and walk the beach regardless of the rainfall and the temperature. I suppose if you were planning to swim you would be getting wet anyway, right? At the museum this year, we are seeing record numbers of visitors from all over the world. All of them remarking/complaining about the rain and the chill. Sometimes it is in a jovial sort of way, "Hey where are you hiding the sunshine?" . Other times in a grumpier sort of fashion, "I spent a lot of money for a beach vacation and now here I am in a boring, dusty old museum" (By the way, our museum is neither dusty nor boring) A lot of guests ask us on the way out what else there is to do in the area that in Inside since all of the outside is wet which means some of our usual events have been cancelled. I had to put my thinking cap on the first few times that question came my way but I managed to cobble together a small list. A few of us docents and the boss have since come up with a couple of other thoughts which we happily share. I would just like to take this opportunity to remind Florida Visitors that us Floridians have no control over the weather. We aren't making it rainy and chilly just to spite you or keep you away. And frankly we are as surprised and disappointed right now as you are. The best part of Florida Living has always been October through June. Those of us who are full-timers here manage to survive July- September by staying in the Air Conditioning as much as possible, drinking gallons of water and remembering how beautiful our state is the rest of the year. This year, not so much. I suppose I should just be grateful that we have no snow, the temperature has only once ever dipped below zero (it was Tallahassee in 1899 and the temp was minus 2), and the only ice is in a glass. It probably has happened to everyone at one time or another that a vacation didn't turn out to be exactly what you anticipated. And now it has happened to you here. I am officially apologizing, even though it's not my fault. I'm sorry that you are disappointed. I'm sorry that you ended up doing a Walmart run for warmer clothes. I'm sorry that instead of dining al fresco, you are inside the restaurant looking through rain swept windows at the grey and drizzly outside. I'm sorry that instead of playing volley ball on the beach, you are in your hotel room playing Crazy Eights with a complimentary deck of cards. I'm seeing a lot of cranky folks who do not seem to know how to pivot. If you cannot be outside, get out your magical mini pocket computers that we all have on our person at all times anymore, and find inside things to do. They exist, I promise. It's not the beach, but it's not bad. Because Honestly, we have NO control over the weather. Sure, sure, this time of year, some full-timers grouse about the increased traffic and longer lines and occasionally questionable behaviour of our visitors. Here abouts if you listen closely, you might hear the word 'snowbird' or 'tourist' occasionally spat out as if it were a swear word. (gasp!) But honestly, most of us love our visitors, guests, tourists and seasonal folks! We do! And none of us are happy about the miserable weather. And we are Sorry that you are unhappy, disappointed, bored, frustrated or angry. We are sorry. But it's not our fault. Seriously, if we could do anything to control the weather, would there EVER be another hurricane? Think about it. That's Joy pointing out something to me that I either didn't notice or just cannot seem to see! But to be fair, when you are out in the forest, it's hard to give verbal directions. "It's on that branch? " Which branch? "The one on the tree" Which tree? "The tall one?" LOLOL She is so patient with me for which I am truly grateful. Yesterday, for the first time in a bit, Joy and I were able to hit the trails once more which means this is a Photo Safari Report! I had several choices about what to call this one but I'm landing on the "Lotsa Birds Hike" because, wow, there were a LOT of Birds! So hunker down and be prepared for Birdie Photos' Galore! We waited until the night before to decide if we were going to hike or not because the weather has been so, un-Florida-Winter-like lately. Which is to say, wet. We always get at least a few days that register with us as being chilly (Not to anyone else on the planet understand, just us Floridians), but it's this uncharacteristic winter rainfall that is unsettling our tourists and occasionally our own plans. But Wednesdays nights weather report said cloudy, cool and NO rain until afternoon. Thursday mornings report echoed the same so we headed over to Carlton. We were the ONLY car in the parking lot when we arrived, which is absolutely fine with us. We set out, loaded for photos, and discovered several things straight away. First, that the trails were a bit mucky so we would be picking and choosing our trails carefully. Second, that the sky looking alarming (but beautiful). And Thirdly, there were birds EVERYWHERE! Holy Cats! We didn't have to go far to get loads of shots and that's a good thing because within the first hour, the sky opened up and the rain arrived ahead of schedule. Dang. We tucked our cameras under our jackets, pulled up our hoodies and booked it back to the parking lot. Still, we were pleased with what we managed to get in that brief period of time. Here's the trail and sky. Ominous for sure: But honestly, we were there for the birds. Ready? Here's a sampling: So there we were, sitting in the car in an empty parking lot at the preserve listening to the rainfall debating if we should just call it a day and go out to breakfast? Or try again elsewhere and hope that the rain stops. You guessed correctly, we weren't ready to stop yet. So we moved on to Myakka State Park which has a road going all the way through it. In most parks and preserves you arrive, park and either hike it or bike it the rest of the way. But Myakka, while it has hiking trails a plenty, also has a road to drive all the way through. It's a wonderful meandering road where the forest comes right up to the edge of civilization which also means, wildlife is often, right there out the window. Our thought was that if it was Still raining when we arrived we could, literally shoot out the car windows. Or, if the rain held off, perhaps we could risk a few short hikes. It's a beautiful drive down a canopied road, surrounded by various land and water - scapes: We had no idea what, if anything, we would see along the way, As we chatted about what we hoped we might find, almost every thing we listed, showed up! It's like they were listening to our wish list. Including a bird that someone recently told me cannot be found locally anymore. HAH! We found it. And lest you think that there is no four-legged wildlife at Myakka, we also saw this: And this: I know I'm pushing the definition of "wildlife" with the squirrel but I think when they live in the forest and not in a neighborhood park or somebody's back yard, they still qualify.
We timed our visit perfectly because shortly after Joy dropped me back off at home, suddenly out of nowhere, the rain was pouring down once more. Awesome!~ We were both very chilly and very wet by the time we were done but I regret none of it! Hope you also enjoyed the Lotsa Birds Hike! I wonder what we will see the next time? Have a great weekend everybody~ Good Mornin' ! Happy Monday to ya! How are things with you today? How was your weekend? It was not your usual bright and sunny Florida here this weekend, there was some rain and some gloom, some dreary and dark a wee little bit of sun and it was perfectly perfect for a walk or two. Tim and I spent a little time watching a paddle boarder. The beach was nearly deserted which is very unusual this time of year. Normally it's packed with beach minded folks. But instead we saw things like the paddle boarder. I am very impressed by surfers and paddle boarders and wind surfers. It's so pretty to watch. At one point it looked like he casually walking along, sweeping the ocean: Other times you could really see the skill of staying on that board and upright! The beach, as I said, was not crowded but there were a few folks on and near the pier, flying kites and fishing (not at the same time you understand) We also took a little walk at a tiny park called Venice Myakka River Park. It's shorter than it's name :) But adorable. The path follows the Myakka River which was surprisingly low considering how much rain we've had lately. But on the other hand, during our actual rainy season, not this strange wet winter (dry season) we are experiencing, there was remarkably little rain. I think I read that we are something like 20 inches short of our usual rainfall right now? Despite that, the walk along the river was delightful. Every turn, each curve, the wide spots and slim, the high banks and low is different from the one before. I so wish the trail were longer so that we could have continued to see what was around the next bend. As it was, despite multiple signs warning us of the resident alligator(s), we saw none. Tim was on Alligator spotting duty while I took photos because we agree with Joy and her policy to always know where your alligators are. Actually Tim did borrow my camera to take one picture and it's a doozy: It's kind of a "fool the eye" sort of shot of a tree sunk into the river and then the reflection of the living trees on the surface of the water. Very Cool! I did my own version of a "fool the eye" shot too. Simply by taking the photo and then turning it on it's side: We saw a few flowers, not many, but there were plenty of other green growing things to be seen: And of course, there was the star of the show, the river itself. The Myakka River is 72 miles long and has always given me Mark Twain Vibes. I could see someone cobbling together a raft, Tom Saywer-wise, and spending quality time floating it's length, seeing what you can see and enjoying every minute of it. All in all, a perfect way to while away a weekend day. I highly recommend it.
Way back about seven years ago, on December 15, 2016 (yes I actually looked it up to be sure) I did a blogpost that started with the following sentence: "It's hard to decorate a palm tree". Now here it is, a bit more than 7 years down the road and a lot of things have changed. Still one thing remains the same, it's still had to decorate a palm tree. But that hasn't stopped people from trying! After a two year break, finally, this year the Arboretum was decked out for Christmas again! YAYAYAYAYAY! One year they didn't go it because of that whole pesky pandemic thing and not wanting to encourage people to "congregate" and thereby sharing the contagion. The next year was after our biggest ever hurricane, Ian, and our city arborist (we have a city arborist??) declared that the green growing stuff was far too fragile following the storm to risk decorating. Bummer. While we understood, of course we did, we couldn't not help but be disappointed. Walking through the absolute chaos of Christmas Decorations in that park every year has become one of our favourite Florida Christmas Traditions. Naturally, after that long two year sabbatical, it was so exciting to see the decorations finally go up again! YAYAYAYAYAY! We did what we always do and walked through twice, once in the day time and once at night. And something we noticed this time was that while some displays were familiar, others were brand new. I don't know if it was new people decorating this year or the same good folks with new ideas. I suppose the reason doesn't matter, it was great fun. Somehow, as much as we were looking forward to the walk through the park, with one thing or another, we didn't get around to actually getting our fannies there until just a couple of days before Christmas. The daytime walk was grey and windy and our night walk through got cut short when it unexpectedly began to rain. Still we went, we enjoyed the heck out of it and I got a few photos. The two pictures at the top of the page are of the same tree, one in light the other, obviously at night. The decorators, cleverly wrapped the trunk of the very tall palm in coloured water proof wrapping before winding the lights around. Very Effective! Here is another example of how different the displays look, day to night. I offer you the traditional Christmas Flamingos (what? You don't have flamingos? Awwww I'm sorry) In the first one of course the large lit up flamingo is the star. In the second one the flamingo with lights is practically invisible and it's those little plastic lawn ornament flamingos that take center stage. It's all very fun and creative and artsy and traditional and old fashioned and new fashioned and I just can't seem to get enough of it. Here's a few of my favourites from this year: Hopefully nothing will prevent the Christmas Lights from going up next year and maybe, just maybe, next year I will do what I keep promising myself I'm going to do. Maybe next year I will sign up to be a decorator and be assigned my own tree! Gosh I hope it's Not a Palm Tree! Those things are buggers to decorate!
It's 2024! A brand New Year! I don't know about you, but even after all these years, I still get excited at the prospect of a New Year. I have no idea what the next 365 days will bring. Nobody does. You might have a fair guess at some of it, but not all. There's always some surprise that comes with a new calendar and I do love that! So far, the New Year is looking pretty good. Since it's now January 2024, that means that Christmas 2023 is officially over. I haven't managed to remove the outside lights yet but Tim and I took down what was left of the tree already. Usually I leave it up for awhile but this year, it was just looking kind of beat up, bedraggled and more than a little sad. I packed up the few ornaments we had on the tree but Tim bagged the tree remains and most of it is, right now, in the garbage can awaiting pick up. It'll take two separate garbage days to get it gone. Brysco and Wyatt watched the tree come down and same way they watched it go up. With great curiosity and fascination! I even took down the cards. I had them taped to the big old cased opening between the living and family rooms this year. High enough that those frisky kittyboys couldn't reach no matter how hard they tried. And believe you me, they tried. I love Christmas cards! We don't receive as many as we used to but it's enough to make me look forward to mail delivery every day during the Holiday Season. And they look so festive hung up. We ended up with 24 actual real life paper cards this year and I loved each and every one. They were all so very pretty. The breakdown went a little something like this: 2 cards - had only words on the front 5 cards - had foliage of some sort - one was a mix of pine branches and holly the rest were Pine trees, some decorated, some not 2 cards - had snoopy characters! And yes I know the cartoon is called Peanuts but let's face it, Snoopy is the star of that show 2 cards - had birds on the front 6 cards - had animals on the front. Broken down further it was: 1 fox, 1 horse, 1 long horned bull, 2 cats and one cat&dog. Nice! Amusingly, most of the cats were wearing sweaters and Christmas themed glasses - heh 1 card - was beautifully hand painted (wow!) 6 cards - photos of the people who sent the card. I enjoy those so much! And of course, other than the wreath and outside lights, which as I already mentioned, I haven't managed to work my way up to taking down, all indicators of Christmas 2023 have been removed. Now we are concentrating on 2024. I'm sure it will take me my usual few weeks to stop writing the wrong date on things. But otherwise, so far, it feels a whole lot like last year. It's much cool out, windows are open, I'm wearing long pants and sometimes a sweater. Tim of course, is still wearing shorts. As is normal for our town in winter, there has been a big uptick in people hereabouts, between tourists, snowbirds, visitors and those of us who live here full time, the restaurants and shops are a lot busier, the parker lots are fuller, the roads are busier and the lines are longer. But that is what happens when you live in a tourist destination town. Tim and I walked out the old year literally but going for a hike. It was a gorgeous afternoon and a great way to end the year. I didn't take a lot of photos, but here's a few: It was a perfect way to end a year, peaceful, beautiful and in nature. Later on of course, we could hear the fireworks that were crackling all around us. I guess that represent ed more of the excitement and fun of things!
We mostly relaxed and enjoyed the first day of the new year just hanging out together at home, running a few errands and eventually taking first, a drive and then a walk, and holding on to every last minute of a precious Monday off (for Tim) Today, the on the 2nd day of 2024, we are once again celebrating. Me by doing laundry and then going to a dental appointment and Tim by being back in his office, hard at work. We have a few things to learn about celebrating eh? Or perhaps we just make it a point to low -key celebrate and enjoy every day. Yeah, I think that's it. We did not however, make any resolutions. I learned a long time ago to not set myself up to fail. No good can come of that! Hope all of you had a Wonderful New Year Celebration, however you did it! Happy 2024 everybody. May it bring us all Good Health, Great Happiness and Load of fun! klutz [ kluhts ] nounSlang.
There you have it. Just in case you weren't familiar with the term, "Klutz", there is the official definition. And, I don't know this for certain, but it's possible, that if you look the word up in certain dictionaries, it shows a photo of me. I cannot deny it. It's true. It must be typed right on my DNA because from the very beginning of my life, if there was something to drop, or bang into, or trip over (and sometimes even if there wasn't anything visible to the eye to trip over), I was the person who did it. Yup, it was me. My parents tried to help me, they did, bless their hearts. The only thing they could think of, other than creating a padded outfit for me to wear, was to enroll me in ballet class. I actually loved the class. I loved the music, the pretty little pink tutu and even the exercises. The problem was that I, ummm how do I say this politely? I sucked at it. I did. While the other little girls gracefully glided across the floor, I lumbered much like an ox or perhaps a bear. My classmates smoothly and delicately floated their arms from one position to another. I accidentally smacked the person next to me in the face. Ballerinas did pretty little jumps that were gazelle-like. I stumbled and tripped and crashed into the mirrors. sigh. The saying in our house was that I was capable of tripping over the colours in a rug. Eventually I learned to live with my own clumsiness. It was just another Sam-fact. I have blue eyes, I love to read, I am clumsy. Just another thing on the list. On the plus side, I will say that because I am so very accident prone, I have developed great reflexes. I may bumble and fumble and drop or nearly drop an item, but very often I can also catch it before it hits the floor (or counter top or whatever). When I stumble or trip, I usually can right myself. It's not graceful or pretty, but I rarely hit the ground. Because I have made a tremendous effort to do so, I have become much better about being aware of my surroundings and as a result, almost never walk into posts or poles or other solid objects anymore! Rather proud of that. But there are those other times of course when the cup or plate does smash into a zillion irretrievable pieces, or cake does smush into oblivion on the floor or I do carry the bruise(s) from smacking into the coffee table or door frame on my way past. It happens. Tim is so accustomed to hearing it from his office at this point that upon hearing a crash or a thump he only calls out, "everything ok?" and if I said "Yup" (which is the usual) that is the end of things. He no longer races out, heart pounding, to come to the rescue. But then, we've been married a long time. :) But I outdid myself recently. Something Klutz related but new has been added to my repertoire. How exciting. I was ironing. Not an unusual occurrence for me. I've done it a zillion or so times and with only very minor burns as a result. Normally, twice a week I tackle the pile so as to keep it manageable. Normally I have the TV on while I iron but this time, it was such a small pile that I didn't bother. I did, however, have to keep at least half an eye on the kittyboys as they think that the dancing ironing cord is the most fascinating thing ever and I didn't want them pulling the iron down on top of themselves. So I suppose I was a little bit distracted. But I do not blame them. At all. No this was all on me. I had just finished up a pair of slacks and was about to move on to a blouse. I settled the blouse into the position I wanted on the ironing board and I reached for the iron, while also checking to see where those cat-rascals were and somehow, instead of grasping the iron, I merely poked the iron with my finger tips. Can you picture that? Here I am thinking that I am going to be grabbing the iron handle, but instead I completely miss the handle and my fingers, with the same amount of force necessary to grasp the handle, poked iron just above the handle. As a result, I essentially pushed the iron off the ironing board and onto the floor. Well not the actual tile floor but the area rug on the tile floor. Dang. I couldn't even use my super powers of clumsy recovery becoz I was on the wrong side of the ironing board! I gasped in horror, raced around the board and picked the iron up but, alas, it was too late. There is now an iron shaped impression permanently imprinted into our area rug damnit. An impression that cannot be fluffed out.. You know what I mean, if a piece of furniture - say a chair leg - were to sit for any period of time on a rug and you decide to move the chair, there remains an impression of that chair leg in the rug even after the chair is no longer there. But if you fluff it a bit, rake the area with your finger tips and vacuum it in multiple directions, usually the impression disappears. This one ain't goin' nowhere. Crap. I stood there, iron in hand, looking at the damaged carpet and then looked at the iron. It was as bad as the carpet. Initially I thought the iron could be saved. I waited until it cooled and then using a scrubbie worked for quite some time on it but alas. It could not be salvaged.
Eventually Tim poked his head out of the office and I told him what happened. He looked at the rug and said that if it bothered me, he would turn the rug so that the ironed part was under the sofa. But that he agreed, the iron was toast and he returned to his office to order me a new one. This is the thing about us Klutzes. We don't mean to be, but we can be expensive to have around. It helps if the people in our lives understand that we cannot help being the way we are. Most of us really and truly, genuinely and honestly, do take great efforts to NOT drop, crash into, trip, break. We do! I use two hands to hold anything breakable, I try to move slowly, carefully and purposefully, to be ever vigilant! But still, things happen. If you have a Klutz in your family, you understand. And I know it's hard being the person witnessing the destruction and disaster that follows in our wake. But I guarantee you, it's even harder being the person who caused it. This is just a little plea for understanding ;) If you like, you can consider this a Public Service Announcement. I will gladly serve as the poster child for kultz's anonymous. Although, come to think of it, if I'm the poster child, I'm no longer anonymous am I. Well you know what I mean. Have a terrific rest of this year if you please. There are only a few days left and then suddenly it'll be 2024! Be safe and have fun and be kind to the klutzes in your life :) Merry Day after Christmas to all of you!! Hope your holiday was absolutely perfect ;) We were busier than normal this Holiday season. I worked more than usual at the museum, for one thing. Apparently there is a lot of flu and Covid and lord knows what other germies lurking around and people are getting sick! Poor babies. So coverage was needed! The museum gift shop, by the way, was madly busy! It's as if we were only just this year discovered as a place to shop for cool stuff. Tim and I actually went to one Christmas Party this year too! It's unusual, for us, but we are big fans of the people who threw the party and already were familiar with everyone else who was invited so that was lovely. It was just a little dessert bash so it was easy to knock out a few batches of brownies to bring along (everyone brought dessert by the way, not just me). The wife of the hosting couple, Debbie, is so very artistic and creative and just has that perfect eye for decorating. Their home looks like something out of a magazine as did they Christmas Tree! Wow! It was gorgeous! So we had a very nice time, chatting, admiring, eating goodies and sitting around their firepit. Our hostess provided everyone with take away boxes and we were encouraged to load up on the goodies for the very short walk home. It was a lovely evening. On Saturday, we had our annual Christmas before Christmas with Joy and Bob. It was at their place this year. The building they live in is called, The Vue. And this is the View from the Vue: We ate and talked and laughed and talked and played Christmas Trivia and talked and then went on a Trolley Ride to see lights! Woohoo! The Trolley joined the steady line of cars winding through area neighborhoods that are seriously into Christmas! Wow! Some folks are really creative and festive! I cannot imagine how much time and effort was invested in some of the displays! I don't even want to think about their electric bills and so I won't. I only took a few photos. here are two: Sunday we relaxed a lot but also took a walk over to the arboretum to admire our own local Christmas decorations during the day! Another day we will go over at night to see it lit up. I will do a different post on just the arboretum except one picture so we can all admire the museum where I work in the background. Yesterday, Christmas Day, we woke up late, relaxed some more, then headed over to spend part of the day with some dear friends. We talked and laughed, we admired their tree and their gifts, we ate some really good food and played with their kitties. And obviously, we had a wonderful time! By the time we got back, it was naptime for us. Maybe too much good food? Very Likely!! We also made it a point to stop by the jetty. It rained nearly all day so it was a gloomy, wet and cooler than normal Christmas Day which did not dampen our enthusiasm at all. 2023 was a terrific Christmas Season all the way through, top to bottom, side to side and beginning to end. Hope to hear that yours was the same. Merry Day after Christmas Everybody! |
AuthorYup, this is me. Some people said, "Sam, you should write a Blog". "Well, there's a thought", I thought to myself. And so here it is. Archives
March 2024
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