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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Great Day!

​

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is me last month:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wow!

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

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

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

​Hugs all 'round

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How was your weekend?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hugs all 'round

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bird Slideshow One:

Bird Slideshow the Second:

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

​Hope your weekend was an absolute Delight!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wishing you great books and an even better weekend!

​Hugs all 'round

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

​How was your holiday weekend?