I'm here, so obviously, we have power.  Yay!  As far as we are concerned, Hurricane Helene is all over except for the clean up.  Sadly, many other people weren't as lucky.

The morning of the storm was so mild that it was deceptive.  We decided to take a little early morning drive to see what was open, what was closed.  Lo and behold, our favourite donut shop was open so of course we had to stop in!  The lower right donut you may recognize was the hurricane icon that weatherpeople use on their big old maps.  We think it's clever and hilarious that our donut shop makes those for every big storm.  It's also absolutely delicious.

The day continued with rain on and off, gusty wind periodically and occasional sunshine which really threw us off, because that was not anticipated at all!  Just didn't seem to be that big of a deal. But still we took it seriously because Hurricanes are something to pay attention to with respect if not a little fear.  I tucked all my potted garden into a protected corner in the courtyard and Tim stacked all the patio furniture in front of it.  He took down the Sail Shade so that the wind wouldn't tear it away.  We put sandbags at the front and back door, just in case.  And then, there's nothing left to do to get ready.

 I never really know what to do with myself the day of a storm.  I don't really want to get anything big started like laundry or baking because if the power goes out mid-stream so to speak, I am  left with a problem. So I piddled around doing little things and feeling quite unsettled.  Eventually I had done everything I could do that didn't require power. And after that? I played with the cats, paced a lot, read a little bit.

As mild as things were at our house, we were getting reports from the other side of the island (we are on the east side, gulf is on the west side) of flooding. Pre-storm surge.  Dang.  Crazy stuff.   Eventually the rain and the wind picked up and we, safe and dry inside, just kind of enjoyed the Mother Nature show.  Even the cats spent most of their day in various windows watching.  

Throughout, we checked in with several different weather reporting sources to keep track of where the storm was exactly, how strong it was, and so forth because, I don't know, somehow it helps. I don't know why but it does.  We kept checking in with friends, family and neighbors back and forth and that texting is definitely a comfort!   The lights flickered over and again, but stayed on, thank goodness.

Eventually,  when the storm had settled a wee bit and the rain had let up a mite, a little after 10 pm we decided to try to get some sleep.  Tim was already comfy with his side of the adjustable bed adjusted just as he likes to watch a little TV.  I hadn't quite gotten that far yet when pop!  Full dark.  Dang.  We held our breathe waiting to see if it would come right back on. It did not.

First things first, I got on my phone, went to the Florida Light and Power website and reported the outtage.  Then I put on my shoes, went outside and looked down the street to see who else had no power.  Everyone on our side of the street and about 3/4 of the other side of the street was also dark. However, houses right across the street from us had all their lights on. Colour me jealous.

Meanwhile, inside, Tim managed to McGyver a way to re-adjust his bed back to flat. (think about it, power bed needs power!)  He is such an evil genius :)  Well maybe not evil, just genuis :)  And we wandered around the house, tentatively opening windows, hoping for a cool breeze now and again.  The coolest part of the house at that point was the living room as it's in the middle between the kitchen (which has windows- now open) and the family room (which also has windows - also open).  Cool air sinks, so of course we want to be low to the ground.  We made pallets on the floor and added our pillows and tried to rest.  
'
The kitties were very entertained at the idea of their humans being down on their level.  But we were absolutely Not Resting.  This old back is not happy on the floor. Eventually we got up and tried to sleep on the family room sofa.  No go.  Tim moved back to the bedroom, again, windows open, but I stayed in the family room and played games on my tablet until it's charge ran out.  I couldn't sleep and it's dark. The entertainment possibilities were limited.

At some point a few hours later, Tim came into the family room and began shutting windows. My assumption was that it had begun raining again so I jumped up to help then realized...Power was Back On!  Great Words.  Finally, once the house cooled back off, we were able to catch a couple hours sleep.

This morning is sunny, still a bit windy and more rain is expected this afternoon.  I need to start the yard clean up as there is a great deal of tree debris.  But first I took a walk.  I could hear chain saws so some big things must have come down.    I wanted to go to the beach even for just two minutes but the sidewalk in front of the access boardwalk was flooded still.  I will wait. There are reports of flooded areas here on the island this morning and the destruction of an adorable little food shop called Jetty Jacks that, obviously, was on the jetty. So sad.

Keep in mind, this storm made landfall on the Florida Panhandle which is about a 5 hour drive north of us.  We were only hit with the outter bands!!! And yet we are hearing from people who had thigh deep and chest deep water.  Homes that simply no longer exist. It's absolutely crazy.

But we are safe and dry and I'm going to go outside now and start filling up bins with tree debris.  Let's see how far I get.   Hurricane Helene has done her work here and has moved farther north to plague and harass other folks in other states. She is a busy girl with a very bad attutide.

Ya'll have a great weekend.  Hugs all 'round.

I don't usually give you guys two photo safari reports back to back, but I have to write this one up before I start forgetting the details!  Yikes!  This getting old business is wild sometimes.

OK, this outing was our first hike after my big fall (last report) and as you can see from the photo Joy took of me shooting,  taking pictures was a two handed deal for me. I quickly figured out that if I held the camera in my left hand, I could still push the button,  adjust the settings, etc with my right coz that only takes one finger!  The Pointer Finger hard at work!!

We went to another local preserve but one we rarely hike called the Lemon Bay Preserve. It's actually right here in Venice  (off island but still Venice) but for some unkown reason, we tend to go elsewhere most of the time.  We are so very glad that we chose Lemon Bay this particular hike and here is why:

Wow!  This handsome fellow was one of the very first things we saw as we headed down our first  randomly chosen!  He was trotting along ahead of us, in no particular rush, and did not dart off into the undergrowth which is what Joy and I expected.  I know that he was aware of us behind him because at one point he turned his head and saw us.  But it was just sort of an acknowledgement, "S'up" and our presence didn't seem to bother him.  Naturally we stayed back, kept a respectful distance and were quiet so I don't' think we were threatening to him in anyway.  Of course, push come to shove, I also know that if there were a fight between us, he would win hands down and he knows that too.  

At any rate, it was a stellar start to this particular Photo Safari and obviously this one will be called the Bobcat Hike in his honour.

We kind of hit the highlight of the hike right off the bat with the Bobkitty so while we saw and photographed a lot of other things, nothing nearly as cool as that first sighting.

We always try to head out fairly early in the day which means we get that gorgeous early morning light:

Also due to the early hour,  there were a remarkable number of birds.  Most of them were zooming around getting breakfast and whatever else it is that birds do to get started on their days, which means I probably am not going to get their photos.  I'm not good at moving targets, unlike Joy. But I still got quite a few birdie shots:

I always manage to get a few botanicals because why boys and girls?  That's right, because they don't' move and therefore I am able to capture them!  

Let's see a bunny, a dragonfly and a squirrel

And I think that's about it.  We didn't stay as long as we sometimes do but we made the most of every minute we were there!

Sooo thank you for reading the Bobcat Hike.  I hope you enjoyed this Photo Safari. 

Just as an aside, we are expecting some sort of storm on Thursday this week that nobody, including the experts, seems to be absolutely certain about.  Could be just a bunch of rain, could be a tropical storm, could be the dirty side of a low level hurricane that lands far north of us, could be a much bigger hurricane, could be anything in the middle there or nothing at all.  I have heard every single one of those possibilities, from the experts, who are as muddled as the rest of us, just in a more educated sort of way.  The best part about whatever it is, seems to be that it will be a quick storm, in and out. Less than a full day from top to bottom and I'm good with that.

The point being that even a low level storm can knock out power so if you dont' hear from me later this week, assume that to be the case and I promise that as soon as I can come back and report on the storm, I shall.

Meanwhile, hugs all 'round. Be safe, Be Happy!

Welcome to Part Two of the Surprise Big Finish Hike.  Thank you for be interested enough to want to know the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey used to say - hoo boy, I'm really dating myself now!)

Just as an aside I had a cute graphic and several real photos of my damaged self to share but for whatever reason, my computer flatly refuses to upload them today.  So we will soldier on using just our imaginations to picture what I write.  Sorry about that.

So when last we left the tale,  to recap, I had just made a spectacular swan dive onto the hiking trail after catching my foot in a sneaky tree root.  After I caught my breath, I seemed to be fine so I got up, did my best to dust of as much dirt as possible, checked my camera for damage (it seemed to be fine) and we finished hiking out of the preserve.

By the time we reached the car, I had to admit that my hand was a little tiny bit sore and perhaps my ribs hurt just a mite.  Understandable as I fell, literally on my side with my right arm outstretched, camera in that hand.  Felt like no big deal.  I was sure that once I showered and changed, I would just as right as rain.  I was wrong.

I told Tim about my forest shenanigans upon my return and his concern leapt immediately to two things:  Urgent Care and Ice Packs.  I agreed to the liberal application of ice packs but only after showering (I was 12 different levels of filthy) but declined the visit to Urgent Care. After all, I was only a littlest bit sore, there were no marks on me at all. Nothing was dangling at odd angles, there was no blood and I was fully conscious. Didn't seem like a big deal at all.

By the time I got out of the shower however, I began to see a bruise forming in the palm of my hand which I thought was odd until I remember that I was holding my camera in my hand.  When I matched the two things up.....dingdingding..we have a winner.    I filled a bowl with water and ice and just let my hand submerge in that until it was numb.  Let it dry off and warm up, then did it over and over again.   I figured that along with a healthy dose of Alleve  ought to fix 'er up.  And of course some ice cream because we all know that Ice Cream has great curative powers!

The bruising continued to grow and pop in new places throughout the day as did the swelling.  Hmm I wondered, Maybe I really did hurt myself worse than I thought?   After a long, largely sleepless night due to the rib pain - both front and back which means that every time I lay down I was literally poking a sore spot with a sharp stick.  As softysoft as my lovely mattress is, it felt more like a bed of rocks that night.

By morning my hand was very swollen, front and back, as well as all the fingers save the index and the thumb.  My ribs hurt so much it was uncomfortable to sit or raise my right arm and an impressive new bruise wrapped itself all the way around my right forearm.  Pretty.  So yeah, ouchie.

By mid-afternoon I said Uncle and gave in to Tim's request to go to Urgent Care. Just to make sure nothing was broken.  It wasn't very busy so we were called to the desk to check in right away.  Where we ran into the first surprise (another surprise) issue.  She asked for my photo ID and insurance cards.  No worries, I was smart enough to have brought my purse.  Tim helped me open the zippy compartment where such things are kept and...................what the what?  Where's my driver's license?  Followed quickly by, Where's my insurance cards?  I escalated quickly to full panic.  Tim fortunately being of a much calmer nature began to methodically go through first my wallet and then my entire purse.  But nope, neither one was there.

I tried to look super calm on the outside but on the inside I was totally freaking out!  Did I lose it?  If so where?  Under what circumstances?  Was it stolen?  Is someone else out there masquerading as me? Holy Crap!

The lady behind the desk looked me up and found that I was an existing patient (at an urgent care center - tells you a little something about me, eh?) and the person in front of her matched the photo in her computer so we were set on the score.  Tim handed over his insurance card (same insurance) and that little issue was resolved and we were off to a patient room.

Very quickly a succession of various absolutely lovely, efficient and professional medical people came through to ask questions and take blood pressure and so forth.  The doctor, after a quick stop did order x-rays as expected and I was whisked off for those.  Once again, it was handled beautifully by the nicest people and then we went back to the room to wait for results.  And wait. And wait.

While we waited we played a made up game where we each had to come up with the name of one band or musical solo act for each letter of the alphabet.  Tim had just come up with ZZ Top for the letter Z (I had nothin' ) when the doctor came back in to give us the amazingly good news that Nothing was broken. Wow!  That's awesome!  But that I had some world class contusions, pulled muscles and ligaments and those can take longer to heal than a broken bone.  Well that part is not quite as good but hey, no broken bones. Let's take the win and celebrate!  Woohoo!

As we were driving home the marbles in my head finally fell into the proper holes and I remembered that the last time I was absolutely positive I used both my photo ID and my insurance cards was the day of my last surgery this past June.  The hospital always says to bring those but no  personal belongings (meaning no purse!) so after the hospital returned those items to me, I must have handed them off to Tim for safe keeping.  Which means, perhaps he still has them?

He was surprised at the thought.  Surely he returned them to me.  Once we settled back in, me with various and sundry ice packs here and there as I got as comfortable as possible, Tim left the room.  Shortly thereafter he returned with....yup, My drivers license and insurance cards.  Whew!  What a relief!

So now here we are exactly one week from the original Surprise Big Finish Hike and most of the bruises are but a distant memory.  The few that remain are fading.  My hand and my ribs still hurt like crazy but I know good and well that eventually, this too shall pass.

In the meantime I'm being a lot more careful about where I put my big feet, especially in the forest.

So there you have it.  And lest you think that I was smart enough to lay off the hiking for awhile, you are so silly. Of course not.  Joy and I were back at it yesterday.  I discovered that if I hold the camera in the left hand, I could still push the button with my right index finger and pictures still happen!  Woohoo!    Got some decent pictures too. Which I'll post, probably early next week as a Photo Safari Report.  If you like those, stay tuned!

And have a Great weekend!

Howdy do to all of you!

Here we are on another busy Monday, hope your weekend was awesome.  Looks like this is going to be yet another Photo Safari Report but this one has a surprise, big Finish!  Almost like a Busby Berkley Musical Extravaganza! (if you've never heard of it, look it up. Google exists for this very reason).  Well except there was no actual music.  And that's not true either because there is always music playing in my head but since nobody but me can hear it (unless I am singing along out loud) I suppose it doesn't count. At Any Rate, this one will be the Big Surprise Finish Hike.

Joy and I, running out of ideas about where we could possibly go to hike that isn't flooded and/or closed headed to Oscar Schere State Park.  We asked the Ranger at the gate if any of the trails were flooded. He said that yes, pretty much all of them. Ratz.  BUT he said, the Green Trail is at least partly dry.  Ok!  We headed for the green trail.  We decided that we would just follow it as far as we could, then turn back and at least we would have gotten a little exercise in the sunshine.

As it turned out all of the green trail was almost completely dry except two small areas that we were able to basically walk around.  So yay to that!  Glad we took the chance.  

One huge surprise for us was an offshoot part of the Green trail that we have only ever seen closed was actually open for a change. You bet we headed down that trail ASAP.  The rangers close the trail during Eagle Nesting season as there are several active nests in the area.  It was 3 miles of new to us trail so it was exciting!

The photo at the top of the page shows an old eagle nest that was in the same area.  It's hard to express how massive these nests are.  I suppose the fact that the nest can be seen from quite some distance away is a fair indicator of it's size.  There were no eagles in sight (yet) but they'll be coming along soon.  They close the trails in October and they stay firmly closed through May. We got really lucky.

I didn't take a lot of photos on this hike Or at least not a lot of successful ones, but I had a great time walking and talking and looking at things.

Here are a few birds for you, just so you know my camera was in my hand:

I think I probably took more botanical photos than anything:

And then, of course, there was the butterfly, the leafwalker bug and the squirrel (not together!):

Maybe you could tolerate another Eagles Nest?  And a random "x marks the spot" of jet trails in the sky because, why not?

Clearly we were having a great time.  As hot and humid as it normally  is outside this time of year, it really wasn't too bad that day.  There was a nice breeze and enough shade as we walked along, that even though it was about a 3 mile saunter through the forest, we weren't as pooped as we normally would be just from the effort in heat/humidity.  If you've never experienced it, I promise you that hiking the same distance on a cooler, dryer day is a piece of cake.  In nicer weather Joy and I have hiked 7 miles and more with no issues at all other than perhaps being a might hungry afterwards.  Something about the heat and humidity just saps your strength and endurance normally.

Or maybe I shouldn't generalize.  Maybe it doesn't happen to you at all.  Maybe it's just me.  It's possible that other people, even most people, have no issues about exertion in those conditions at all.  So I will try to say, I instead of You from this point forward.

At any rate, the point is, that as we neared the end of the trail, while we could definitely tell the temps and accompanying humidity were rising rapidly, we were not in any way negatively impacted by it, for a change.  It just meant, yup, it's time to head on back before it gets unpleasant.

We weren't more than a half mile from the place where we began.  Joy and I were chatting as we walked along, side by side and I was adjusting the settings on my camera which I was holding in my right hand, adjusting with my left when suddenly I was not walking along anymore.  I was, for a very brief time, airborn.  And then, I was, by gravity, slammed back to earth. Honestly that's exactly what it felt like.

Yeah, that's kind of a big surprise finish eh?

I heard Joy saying, "Sam, Sam are you ok?"  After a moment of gasping for air, I said, "yeah I'm ok but I dropped my camera".  Other than having the wind knocked out of me for a minute there, I felt surprisingly fine.  I rolled from my side, where I landed, to my back and pushed myself to my feet.

My biggest concern somehow, was how dirty I was.  Joy handed me my camera and my glasses as I attempted, futilely, to 'dust" myself off.  Joy assisted and pointed out the tree root (nearly completely hidden on the trail) that I tripped over, and the dig in mark from where I tried to catch myself on the other foot (none of which I was aware of).  She reassured me that I fell rather gracefully (there is a shock) and asked me at least a dozen times if I was ok.  I said I was fine as many times back though I admitted that my hand was starting to hurt a little bit.  Still, there was no bruising, no swelling. I was sure I was fine. 

She drove me back to my house, we promised to talk again on Monday (today) if not before and went our separate ways.

Turns out I wasn't quite as fine as I thought.

But that'll be a story for another day.

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the Surprise Big Finish Hike. Stay tuned for Part II later this week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

​Hope you had a wonderful Labor Day Holiday!!