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!!