Well, the tree is up, yahoo!    Obviously, it's an artificial tree which is one of those good/bad things.  Good because it's so easy to put up, comparatively, and because it's only paid for once, not every year.  Also no pine sprills everywhere. Oh!  And it does not need to be watered.  All good things.  The bad?  Well, it certainly doesn't smell as nice.  On the other hand, it costs less. A LOT less.  Real trees are crazy expensive, at least around here.  They real trees also don't last very long hereabouts. I think they are trucked down from Georgia and by the time somebody buys one, it's already deceased and starting the slow road to decomposition. If there are still any pine needles on it on Christmas day, it's a big win.  Probably the biggest negative is that it looks fake.  Come on, they do. Even the nicest most expensive fake tree in the world, still looks fake.  And believe me, this is not the  most expensive by a long shot.

But as I say, it's up.  Tim rearranged the family room, before hauling the box-0-tree out of the utility room.  He assembled it and then together we had to hunt up the box that holds the ornaments. Every year I swear I'm going to label the bins and then every year I don't.   Wyatt helped by staying out of the way; he does not trust change easily and we knew he would only gradually accept the furniture rearrangement and introduction of something new (the tree).  It took him an hour or so of sniffing and prowling and investigating to relax.   Brysco, on the other hand, jumped directly into the fray.  He stood in the bin, sniffing things and gently pawing around looking for........ well I actually don't know what he was looking for but he didn't hurt anything and perhaps was only curious.  As it was, he watched every single ornament go on the tree, sometimes from various different perspectives on the floor, other times from chairs or windowsills, but he carefully watched.

I ran out of enthusiasm and energy before all of the ornaments in the bin were on the tree but boldly, when I got too tired, I declared it decorated and then realized that I had no idea where the tree skirt was. Last year I very carefully folded it and put it away somewhere, safely.  I wonder where? Dang.  I truly was not up for another scavenger hunt through bins so at the last minute decided to use one of the quilts that Joy made for me (the Winter Quilt as a matter of fact!) instead of an official tree skirt and actually, I like it. I like it a lot!  Perhaps this is my new official "tree skirt".  

I know tree skirts are not essential to the process, but if there is one thing that makes a fake tree look more fake than anything, it's the stand so that baby needs to be covered so we can secure the illusion.  The kittyboys strongly approve of the quilt and have spent a great deal of time already nestled into the quilt, snoozing.  Last night Brysco managed to get under the quilt creating a little kitty-sized bump under the tree.  Wyatt, of course, had to investigate the bump and a wrestling match of mythic proportions ensued.  But the tree did not fall down, nobody got hurt and all is well.  

The cats have been pretty good so far regarding ornaments. The first night they managed to remove 4 ornaments, unbreakable ones, which I cleverly put down low specifically for them to have fun tormenting.  But that's it.  When we got up this morning, nothing at all had been disturbed.  Wow!  Impressive. Especially when compared to their first Christmas.  That was wild.

I did manage to put the wreath on the front door but that's as far as decorating has come along.  Eventually, perhaps, I will explore more bins and, if I get into a hollyjolly frame of mind, there could be little signs of Christmas throughout the house, sometimes in the most unexpected places.  OR this could be it. OR something in between.  Who knows?  

I think it might be a good idea to do it little by little, partly to assuage poor Wyatt, who for all his amazing hunting instincts and acumen, is terrified by pretty much everything and everyone except us.  He has trust issues.  Another part might be to ease us into the holiday, little by little, conserve energy. Which sounds like a good idea.    The last, and most important part, is to see just how disciplined Brysco (and Wyatt once he stops being scared) are about leaving things alone, particularly breakable things.  If I introduced something that they simply cannot resist attempting to play with/destoy, then that one thing can go right back into it's bin and I will replace it with something else. Frankly we have more Christmas Stuff than we have room to display stuff at this point so there's no issue with a rotation system I reckon

We did what we always do after the tree is up.  Once it's dark, we turn off house lights and turn on the tree lights and just  kind of sit mesmerized staring at it.  The kittyboys sat right there with us, also starring, hypnotized by the lights and the magic Christmassy festivity of it all. Well Wyatt was wowed by it.  I suspect that Brysco was sizing it up and plotting.

I believe this is the 3rd or maybe even 4th time since we moved to Florida that I've put up the tree before the beginning of December.  I couldn't tell you why I'm doing it this way these days, but it feels right.  I used to be very strict about dealing with One Holiday At A Dang Time, Please!  I would have thought I lost my mind if the tree went up before Thanksgiving!  But I'm a lot less rigid now that I'm retired.  These days I adhere to that '2 rules' survival technique.  You know the one, Rule #1, don't sweat the small stuff and Rule #2, it's all small stuff.

Christmas is a specific time of year, true, but the spirit of Christmas, that should be a 24/7-365 deal.  I'm invoking the Spirit of Christmas if you need a reason as to why we've put up the tree this early once again.  But I suppose, in actual fact, the real and true reason as to the why of it, is just coz I felt like it.   Just Because.  And as my Mother used to say, 'Just Because is the best reason in the world".

Anyway, I wish you all a Terrific Start to your Holiday Seasons, regardless of when yours gets underway - if you celebrate at all.

​Hugs all 'round

I'm sure by now you probably recognize the kittyboys,  Wyatt and Brysco.  How about I finish out the week with a little kittyboy update!

Our house panthers are now 2 and a half years old and we've had them for a wee bit more than two years.  They are sweet and silly and goofy and adorable, as all kitties are.  The still run to the door to greet us when we return from an errand as if we've been gone for weeks.  They request pets throughout the day and the only thing they love more than playtime and dinner time is cuddle time.

You might think that by now, patterns and rhythms would be pretty firmly in place and that there would be nothing really new to say about them, right?    A fair assumption in most cases, but these two goobers are always finding new ways to entertain us.

For example, sweet baby Brysco who falls asleep in his favourite cave with his head resting on his little toy stuffed cat:

that same Brysco cat has a new favourite game that he loves to play with Tim specifically (because it seems that only Tim can play it correctly.  I attempt and I get that look that says, nice try but no thanks).  The game is one I refer to "chase". It involves Brysco approaching Tim with a couple of sideways hops.  Tim responds by putting his hands up into little capture-type claws and chases Brysco around the house.  The first part of the game ends with Brysco receiving a nose boop.   Then comes the twist.  Now Brysco wants Tim to run so Brysco can chase him!  So Tim complies in reverse and if you didn't know better, it might look funny to see a grown man racing through the house with a small black cat in hot pursuit.  Hilarious.  I just stay out of the way.

Wyatt is definitely a hunter and loves any game that involve capturing and "killing" something.  Sometimes the thing being captured are these plastic spinney things that get "shot" out of an equally plastic gun.  Wyatt NEVER misses.  He will chase them and bite them and if necessary, leaping into the air to smack the spinney into submission.    I can really visualize his ancient ancestors at times as he hunts and captures his plastic prey.

A brand new obsession of Wyatt's lately is water.  He has always been interested in water actually, I keep half expecting him to jump into the shower with one of us at some point.  But this new fascination of his is specific to the sink in the guest bathroom.  He will linger at the doorway of the guest bedroom for hours, waiting for one of us to wander by. Then, if you make eye contact with him, he will lead you (seriously), checking over his shoulder as he leads to make certain you are following, through the guestroom to the guest bath and then jump up on the sink.  If you don't understand what he wants, he will tap at he faucet .  He wants us to turn on the water, even just a tiny bit so he can bat at it, bite at it, or stick his head underneath and get soaked.  He will do this a thousand times a day!

Needless to say I am forever cleaning black cat fur out of the sink.  The only times Wyatt isn't begging for us to turn the water on is if Brysco is already sleeping there. Also not kidding

Bysco does not share Wyatt's tolerance for being wet.  Occasionally Brysco will come into our bathroom while I'm having a nice soak in the tub.  He stands up as tall as possible and peers over the edge of the tub, sees the water and gently taps at my arm as if to say, "Not sure you are aware or not mom but that's stuff is wet!".  When I reassure him that I'm okay, he kind of shrugs and walks away like, "Well I warned her" and is no longer interested or responsible.

Brysco has a lot of favourite napping places, two of them in Tim's office.    I think his favourite spot really is Tim's desk chair.  Sometimes when Tim is heading into his office for the morning, Brysco will race ahead of him and jump into the chair, perhaps thinking it's a dibs situation.  It's not.  Thwarted, he will jump up on the desk and wander around the monitors, sometimes carefully stepping around things, other times, not quite as careful.  Eventually he might settle in either the  hammock in the office window where he can spy on the neighbors or in the nice soft kitty bed atop the file cabinet.   Both are easy distances to pets from daddy throughout the day.

I created a ballpit for them as a new toy.  Well it's the same toys just put together in a different way..  They have this giant cube toy already that they love so I dug out all of the various balls from their toy basket and put them all inside the cube.  Oh my goodness, that has been a huge success. Sometimes while playing in it they manage to turn the cube over and over!  They get rowdy sometimes.

One thing Tim and I have both noticed is that when Tim and I are together  in a room, any room, suddenly there are two humans AND two felines in that room.    Example, yesterday while Tim was in his office, he called me in for just a moment to ask me something.   It was a brief conversation but by the time we were done, there are four of us in there. I guess it's not a family meeting unless the whole family is there?  It's adorable.

Over the coming weekend we plan to put up our Christmas tree, that ought to provide the usual amount of kitty entertainment that we have come to expect.  I will be honest and say that for just one brief moment I considered not putting up a tree at all but just throwing some ornaments on the floor for them to play with since that's where the ornaments often end up anyway.  But decided against it.  It'll be so much more fun (for them at least) to undecorate that tree all on their own.

I know, I know, we spoil them terribly but here's our thought. We have them for such a brief time, and as rescue kitties too, we always feel as if we are making up a bit for their rough start in life.   They know they are safe and loved and honestly, we know they love us too :)

It's all good

​Have a great weekend. Hugs all 'round

Can we talk about this stupid foot for a minute? Yeah, you know the one.   It's that Franken-foot on the right.

When we last talked about this (or a least I talked about it) it was a mystery.  I came back from a perfectly nice long hike and was aware that my foot hurt a little bit, nothing big really but I could tell that my shoe was too tight.  When I took off the shoe, it was obvious that my foot was a little puffy on top, maybe there was a little bit of a pale blush coloured stain, (easily noticed on my fishbelly white feet) but I honestly had no idea what had happened.

As you read in the post from 3 or is it 4 ?  (5?) weeks ago, I addressed the issue by wearing Tim's slipper on the injured foot and shoving a small ice pack down my sock.  It seemed to help.  Eventually I was able to wear my regular shoe once again so I assumed that - whatever the issue was - all was well now soo I resumed my normal life.  Zooming along through my day afoot, doing regular daily things, exercising, doing the noonwalk, hiking and so forth.  And then the foot, mysteriously, began hurting again. Dang!

Shoe back off, ice pack down my sock again, but I refused to stop doing what I do. I declared that this was some piddly little annoyance that wouldn't stop me.  Perhaps I was doing things a little differently, but by god, I was going to keep doing them.  It's called being stubborn.  It's also called being stupid.

Once again, things improved, I resumed what passes for normalcy in my life and the pain came back worse than ever.  Geez!   By this past Saturday morning, I was questioning myself.  I tried in vain to recall why I thought it was a good idea to NOT have the problem checked out by a medical professional in hte first place instead of just assuming it was something that would resolve on it's own.  I didn't have a really good answer.  So I gave up, Tim took me to Urgent Care whereupon I got x-rays and learned that I had fractured at least one (probably more) metatarsal bones in that right foot. (note: metatarsals are not toes, those are phalanges!)

 And how did I do that, one might ask?   Excellent question.  The Answer is, I have no idea.  Best guess is that my crumbly little osteoporosis-ed riddled bones literally broke by walking. What?  Well it's not like walking down the sidewalk or through grocery store aisles, y'know.  When Joy and I hike, we are off-roading it.  We think of Florida as being flat, very, very flat.  Flatter than a Kansas cornfield.  And mostly, that's true.  But that doesn't mean it's level.  

State Park and Preserve hiking trails and far from level.   Ground isn't!  What's more, as the trails get closer to the water, the land tips down toward the rivers, sometimes radically down, the so-called level trail is more like climbing down into a ravine.  And what's down must eventually comeback up so we are sometimes slip-sliding down and literally climbing and clambering back up.  Also, trees fall across trails, often very large trees, so we are scaling up and over those too.  There are rocks and roots, and creeks to leap over.   There are dozens of ways that, without any intention at all, a person can hurt themselves.  Which I, apparently, found out.

As to why I didn't immediately seek out medical attention, hmmm, that's a harder one.  Part of it i think is just my nature. I am an under-reactor, always have been.  Some folks are over-reactors, all high drama and mountains out of molehills.  Other folks are just perfect reactors, they know exactly what to say and do in any situation. Then there is me.  I'm always calm but unless it's something truly obvious like arterial blood fountaining, or unconsciousness, or bone that is unmistakenly broken, I always assume that : This too shall pass.  That given enough time, it will self-correct and I just need to be patient.

The same way that if I start to feel unwell, I don't right away jump to the flu. I start out thinking I'm just a little tired, probably didn't sleep well and I plow forward. Then if it exacerbates into fever and sore throat and blah de blah other stuff my first thought is, throat lozenges, a nap and of course, my personal cure-all, a healthy dose of ice cream.  I always say, Let's wait and see how I feel tomorrow. And I say that every day until I'm fine once again then, looking back I say o myself, every single doggone time, Geez I really was sick, maybe I should have gone to the doctor.  Oh well!

so anyway, at Urgent Care, I was assigned the sandal boot, my foot was wrapped and i was told to Stay Off It as much as is humanly possible. To elevate and ice and let it heal.  Most of that stuff I was already doing so, good instincts there I suppose.  The boot was new (it's ugly but it works) and I'm being Much Better (tho admittedly not perfect) about the staying off it part.  

By happenstance, I had my annual GP appointment this morning and that doctor, for whom I have tremendous respect, strongly advised that I see a podiatrist.  Dang. But I probably will. I want to go on record though as saying that I don't want to. And further that I'm reasonably certain that my foot will heal without any further doctor appointments and co-pays and additional x-rays and "monitoring".  But I'll go. grumble grumble.

So for now I will do what they told me to do, I will wear the sandal boot, I will try to sometimes stay off it, I will try to sometimes elevate it and ice it. I will make the appointment with the podiatrist and at least attempt to listen to them with an open mind. Not so open that my brains fall out, but open-ish and eventually I'm sure it will heal.

But in the meantime, there will be a hiking hiatus so the return date on Photo Safari Reports is TBD.  The sandal-boot terrifies Wyatt and he is avoiding me as much as possible or at least swinging wide past the scary looking foot.  I don't blame him.  I clump around like Frankenstein's monster with a limp.  It's not pretty.  Both kittyboys are also more than a little put out by my inability to play rowdy with them which is what they like best.

Tim, as usual, is an absolute rockstar about picking up my slack and he is a true legend at yelling at me to sit my ass back down!  hehheh  I keep grumping that by the end of this I'll have an arse the size of a Mack Truck but I suppose once healed and back into my usual routines and rhythms, that will correct itself (gosh I hope so!) 

In my heart of hearts, I know this is temporary but geez it's also really kind of pissing me off.  Deep Breaths, Sam, Deep Breaths.  

Ok at least for now, done yakking about my stupid foot.  Next post will be more fun, I promise!

Take care ya'll!

Happy Monday to you!!  How about a teeny little Photo Safari Report to start your week off with nature photos!

I'll be really real with ya'll. Since my mysterious foot injury (of several posts ago) I haven't been able to hike very far which, obviously,  negatively impacts any Photo Safari's at all.  Last week report was more of a drive through "hike" with small walks interspersed rather than an actual hike.  This week's is a real hike, but a super short one. Which also means fewer photos.

I'm calling this one the Slo Poke Hike because that's how I'm moving these days, Reallllllllllly Sloooooow.  In the Tortoise and the Hare scenario, I'm the tortoise.  No, wait, that's  unfair. The tortoise looks like a speed demon compared to me.  And all of that speaks to how very kind and Patient Joy truly is.  Tip of the hat to Joy and her endless bucket of patience!

It's funny, some hikes, we can stand in one spot for a half hour and take 50 really great shots (and 100 others that we delete).  But this particular hike, required the entire preserve to come up with just these few.  Different day, different hikes, different shots.  Just how the dice rolls, y'know?

At any rate, there were a few birdies:

But mostly I captured botanicals. Botanicals tend to not move around so much and therefore hit my sweet spot, photography-wise.  My best photography subject:  Things that don't move:

Oh! And one cutiecute butterfly who insisted on landing on the ground in the midst of a bunch of old orangey pine needles and therefore is pretty well camouflaged.

And there you go, quick and relatively painless, The Slow Poke Hike Photo Safari Report!  Hope this is the kick off to an amazing week!

I noticed something recently that I hadn't realized before.  Isn't it funny how that happens.  You merrily stroll through your life, doing pretty much the same things most days, and suddenly, something you've seen or done a zillion times previously, looks or feels different than it ever did before .  It's wild.

I wasn't intentionally deeply analyzing or examining anything. I wasn't doing in depth research or pondering great thoughts.  It was merely an observation.  But one that kind of hit hard.

I'll set the stage for you.  I've been making an effort to do my workouts on a standard schedule, not just when the mood strikes me and not at all surprisingly, it does make a difference!  I was doing my crunches - and not the potato chip sort -  two sets of fifty.  Yes, that's what I said and proud of it.  Anyway, I try to fool myself into thinking it's not actually fifty by counting to 25 and then from 25 back down to one.  It's a pathetic attempt to trick myself into doing more and I know how sad that sounds but it actually works for me. So anyway, I noticed, for the first time that it seemed as if counting up to 25 takes longer and goes slower than counting from 25  down to one.  What?

As soon as I was aware of this peculiarity,  I slowed myself down a bit and did it again.  Up to 25, down to one.  Yup, it still seemed as if counting up was harder and took longer than counting down.  Bizarre!  Then I paid attention to when I was doing other reps and sets, if I break my count in half and do part up and part down, does it happen doing other exercises?  Answer: yes!  

So now I had to really look super closely at what I was doing, get more analytical about it.   Am I going faster?  I made a very strong effort to keep a steady rhythmic count. UP 25 DOWN 25.    I'm accustomed to keeping a strong and steady beat from many years of music.  After awhile it becomes ingrained and you don't really have to think about it, you just do it, you keep a smooth and steady beat so I was pretty sure I was doing it evenly, but I wanted to be certain.

Turns out I was not going any faster (at least not perceptibly) but I still had that same feeling.  Counting up is harder and takes longer than counting down.  So Strange! As my Dad would have said " How 'bout that".  It was a multi-purpose phrase that he used whenever he didn't know what else to do with information given or learned.

I let it go,  just kind of allowed the information simmer in the back of my brain for awhile.  It's not really a life altering observation after all, more of a "huh, interesting" thing.  I mean, really, what does a person do with that sort of knowledge?  Exactly nothing.

So the front of my brain just kept doing it's front brain stuff as I wandered through my days, doing all the sorts of things I always do, tralalala.  And then the back of my brain, which is so much smarter than the front part and clearly had been working on this, unbeknownst to me, suddenly pops up and says, " so the first half of your count goes more slowly than the second half eh?  Just like life". And I stopped.

Seriously, I froze in my tracks and did a double blink.  Blinkity blink.  Yes!  Exactly!  

When I was a little kid, days crawled by.  Especially in math class with that giant clock on the wall above the chalk board that always went one beat backwards before it moved forwards (and that alone made me crazy). It took eternity for that clock to deliver us from the evil that is mathematics.  The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas might as well have been a trip to the planet Neptune - a journey of around 14 years by the way.    Even a good day felt long, in a good way.  There was enough time to really thoroughly immerse yourself in the wonderfulness of a glorious day. 

Then, somewhere along the line in my life, my perception of time changed and the seasons started zooming past me.  I assumed it had to do with being so very busy:  working at least one, sometimes two jobs but also a mother of 3, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a friend, the chief cook and bottle washer.........  my days were very full.  The days were absolutely Joyous, please do not misunderstand, but very full.  Sometimes overfull. I'm sure that most of us felt that same way.  It makes sense that for a super busy person, time would seem to fly by as they say.

But then suddenly one day, I was retired. I had all the time in the world now to do exactly as I please.  I could sit and read all day if I wanted to.  I take long walks on the beach or strolls into town. I can go for a hike with Joy, bake cookies, go to lunch with a friend, have a nap, whatever I dang well please.  I assumed this meant that time would begin to slow down for me once again since my life slowed down considerably.

As it turns out, I assumed incorrectly.  Actually, it feels as if time is going by faster than ever.  Here it is Friday and it seemed as if it was Monday about an hour ago. It's mid-November right now but I think it was just last week that I was fretting about the beginning of Hurricane Season which starts in June.  I know I move more slowly these days, and I wonder if perhaps, subconsciously, I am trying to force time to slow down with me.

Just like my exercise counting, my life went slower the first half and is most definitely going faster in this last half.  I read somewhere long ago that a life is like a toilet paper roll.  It goes faster as you near the end. When I first heard this long ago and far away, I thought it was downright bizarre thing to say.
​
I get it now.

Hello to everyone from the freakin' cold state of Florida!   And that is something rarely said. Yes, yes, yes, we are the "Sunshine State" and so forth.  Well, that part hasn't changed at all.  The sun is indeed shining today.  The sky is bright blue and cloudless.  And we still woke up to about 36 degrees with warm toes on icy tile floors.  And it's only warmed up to 44.  Brrrrrrrrr.

We pay attention, well some degree of attention, to weather reports so we knew it was going to be frosty this morning and took the necessary actions. Those being: close most of the  windows at least most of the way (we are fresh air fans after all), wear socks to bed, put an extra blanket on the bed and at least one of the cats.   It worked out just fine.  I woke up to not one but two cats curled up on top of me.  Brysco and Wyatt did not object because they are no fools.  We were all snug and warm and cozy together even though the air was downright cold.

The frigid temps didn't impact me one bit until I actually touched that tile floor with my naked toes.  Those tiles were so cold they almost felt hot. It's a strange sensation but if you've ever experienced it, you know exactly what I mean.  I will say that my hot shower never felt quite so good and I didn't dawdle one second longer than necessary getting dressed.  It involved a lot of hopping from one foot to the other until I finally got socks and shoes on. 

Tim even turned the heat on for a short bit just to take the edge off the worst of it.   That almost burning smell when the heater goes on for the first time each season always give me a nano-second of panic until I remember, nothing is on fire, just dust in furnace burning off.  whew!

This is how I know it's officially cold:  Tim is wearing a long sleeved shirt.  With shorts of course, let's not be crazy. But still.  Tim. Long Sleeved Shirt.  In Florida!  That's quite the statement.  I, on the other hand, am in layers.  I perfected the art of layers when we lived in New England, and it is a skill that continues to serve me well.   Today it's real socks and not those shortie sneaker invisible socks that I usually wear.  No short for me. I'm in jersey pants - referred to in some circles (not mine) as "athleisure wear" - my new white tee shirt and a toasty warm oversized hoodie.   My legs, I admit are a little chilly right now but that's only because at the moment I'm sitting still, writing, as soon as I'm up and moving it'll be fine. Or probably fine. If not, I'll add tights underneath. Again, I know how to layer.  The key, by the way,  is thin layers not bulky/heavy layers over bulky/heavy layers in case you didn't already know.

In the news, if you get any news of Florida weather wherever you are, they most likely mentioned how our iguanas tend to fall out of trees when it gets cold like this.  It's because the poor little things are cold blooded critters, so when the temp drops below 50, they get sluggish, below 40 they get "cold stunned", lose their grips and literally fall out of trees!  Once the weather warms up, they will "thaw" out and go right on their merry way. I suppose it's kind of like being in suspended animation.  Still the falling out of trees thing has got to hurt!  

Today we will see people bundled up in puffy coats and complaining.  While I don't love being cold, I will say that I am enjoying the novelty of it all.  I'm drinking loads of hot water to warm up my insides and I am making cold weather food like Cottage pies and baked mac'n'cheese casseroles.  Food that are more stick-to-the-ribs yummy rather than our usual light fare to balance out the Florida heat.

I'm sure any visitors from other places woke up a little bummed today expecting to lay on the beach in bathing suits, soaking up the sun.  Well the sun is out, so I suppose, technically, you still could do that but my bet is that anyone on the beach is fully dressed today. 

I'm going to enjoy this chilly day, maybe make some cocoa!  It'll warm back up again, not to August HOT and HUMID levels naturally, but to normal November in Florida which is more 60's peaking in the 70's range. Lovely.  It's why people come here during the winter.  But there may be more cold weather on tap for us yet to come.  Winter hasn't even officially arrived yet.  It's still autumn after all!

Yes, I know, other places have got far worse weather right now including inches to  feet of snow!  Yikes!  But those are places that have colder weather and snow anyway.  They expect it, they know how to dress for it, how to drive in it, how to cook for it and function despite it.  Here, it takes a minute to remember, "How did we used to do this?"|

Personally I have an extremely limited cold weather wardrobe so I hope for only small batches of days with wintery temps at a time  -  a few here and a few there - sprinkled throughout the fall and winter seasons. Because for the life of me, I cannot remember where I stashed my gloves. I know I saved ONE pair and I put them somewhere safe which is always the kiss of death.  I'll never find them now.

According to Tim the weather guys said that today is the coldest November 11th on record in Tampa for the last 130 years!  Wow!  I just checked to see what the most arctic the thermometer ever registered in Venice Florida and, according to Mr. Google, the lowest number was 28 degrees. And that's brisk anywhere!  Comparatively, today's 36 degrees is not too bad. After all, it's above freezing, right?

Anyway, as the week goes by, it'll begin to warm up to our normal again.  And our normal is lovely, it's wonderful, it's part of why people refer to Florida as "Paradise".  But days like today that are a little unique for us, are also a delight. I'm going to get out there and enjoy it.

I have no idea what your weather is like today. If it's really cold/snowy/icey, please bundle up and stay warm and safe.  If it's just an autumn crisp, have some warm cider or hot tea and enjoy the beautifully coloured leaves.  If you live in Florida, take heart, this is temporary.

Joy has been away, and my foot is still slowly healing (but even slow progress is still progress, right?) so there have been no hikes in a while.  But yesterday, Joy and I threw caution to the wind and headed to Myakka State Park.  It's always a gamble; we never know what we will find or if we will find anything photo worthy at all!  It was a gloomy overcast day with a prediction of showers, so we weren't starting from a strong position, and we knew it. But we always go in knowing that we might return with just a very small handful of photos. 

As it turns out, there were plenty of pictures to be had. I took over 200 photos and Joy over 400! Holy Cats!  It took forever to weed through my batch, heartlessly deleting those that didn't measure up with impunity and adding some "light" to every single dang photo because it was so very cloudy and grey out.  And the water level in the mighty Myakka River was low, very low, sometimes non-existent low which was a shock.  But that's okay.  It felt great to be out there once again, to spend time with Joy, and to be in nature once again.

I can only say that nature must really like us back because wowie!  So many birds! SO MANY BIRDS! oh and a few other things too, of course, but mostly BIRDS!  So this Photo Safari Repot will, of course, be called the So Many Birds hike.

​I think the birdie pictures ought to be grouped by a random commonality.  I'll begin with birds in the water.  Here We Go:

Then of course birds NOT in water:

The funny thing with the turkeys, at some point I said to Joy, isn't it funny that we haven't seen any turkeys today and she said, well we haven't seen them......yet!  And she was correct. As soon as we came around a bend, there they were, an entire flock all at once!  Ask and ye shall receive!  

​As I stated initially, birds weren't the Only things that we saw, there were a few other critters:

Oh and this is our version of Autumn Colour.  Are you ready?

Maybe one last bird?  It's not a good clear shot but I still really like it. You don't have to if you don't want to, I won't be offended.

And here we are, we've made it all the way to the end of the So Many Birds Hike!  Thanks for coming along on this Photo Safari!  Have a great weekend, see ya soon!

I think it's time for another hair update. It's been awhile.

In case you wondered, yes this photo is of me from behind.  And for those of you egging on the silvers and greys and whites, as you can see, tremendous progress is being made!  Sadly, most of the pretty is under the first layer of dull old brown hair.  Isn't that the oddest thing?   If my hair is center parted, there are just these little sparkly bits here and there, some definite white and silver in a couple of oddball streaks but mostly just a very boring mouse brown.  But if I part my hair on the side, all of this glorious tinsel shows up!   Wild!

It's gotten quite long too.  It's far too miserable all summer long to wear my hair down so I honestly  didn't realize how long it had gotten. Then I struck up a conversation with a neighbor one day when we were bringing in our garbage cans and she mentioned how long my hair was. At the time my hair was still a little damp and I had not yet wrestled it into submission for the day. It was just uncombed, a little wet and hanging out for anyone to see.  I guess I don't ever really think about it much, but after that comment,  I  made it a point, once I was back in the house, to grab a mirror and look behind me (a little tricky).  This is what I saw:

Not a terrific photo and never my best side for photographs but hey it is what it is.  Anyway, you can see, untidy brown hair with a few grey streaks and a lot longer.  Just a few inches yet to what passes for my waist.  That nice neat straight line across the bottom is thanks to Tim who very bravely and kindly agreed to trim my hair for me when I handed him my pair of Good Scissors (which I generally hide) , indicated my hair and asked him to please just cut a straight line.  He did!  He cut about 4 inches off that day. Beautiful straight line too :)  Kudos!!

I have to admit that when I first saw this photo, my initial thoughts were seahag and wicked witch, not  pretty images.  Oh dear.

Throughout the hot and humid months I wear my hair up. You've seen the hiking photos with me in either two pig tails or two braids of course. But on the daily it's either a pony tail of some sort or a variety of buns or a single braid.  The length of the braid depends on how cooperative my hands are that day:

And apparently, I now see, that sometimes my ponytail is crooked.  LOLOL

 Of course, now that they weather is cooler, I've started wearing my hair down more often or at least half down (half up), sometimes with a hair bands or clips keeping it under control.    That's when I started really feeling the impact of long hair.  Frankly, occasionally,  it gets in the way.

If I lean forward to, say, pick something up off the floor, I'm instantly flying blind because my vision is obscured by a curtain of hair.  If I'm outside and the wind is blowing, I'm completely confounded by the octopus of hair flinging about.  And when I'm sleeping, it often half strangles me.

Still l kind of like that cape of hair, tickling my elbows as I go about my day.  This was not my first long hair rodeo after all. When I was in college I wore my hair long and, for a change, since my hair is so naturally straight, I was right in style.  An accident I assure you, I've never been au current intentionally.  It was easy to care for, inexpensive too as I did not have to pay for a salon visit and honestly, like now, I just didn't think about it.

I think the end of high school and into college was the first time I had long hair. I loved it but I had it cut rather short when I had my first baby just for practicality and kept it no longer than shoulder length ish until all three of my boys were no longer babies. Then I slowly grew it long again. Until I was looking for work and felt that I needed a more professional look. Chop! From waist length to pixie with no remorse.  The hairdresser cried.  Once I felt more secure in my job, slowly my hair grew very long once more.  Then we moved to Colorado and I was ready for a big change.  Another chop!  And this time a funky chop that had me styling my hair with some sort of waxy product to keep the funkiness properly funked.  Eventually  - and that time it was so many crazy lengths that it took forever - I eventually grew it out to about chin length and kept it there for years.  Until I had this most recent desire for long hair again a few years back.  Well it was partly a desire for long hair and partly a desire for no constant hair salon expenses. Bonus points:  I always liked wearing my hair long.

But that was then, and this is now, and when I reallllly looked at my hair I hmmmmmed a bit.  It felt odd.  Not as smooth and silky as I recalled from the olden days. In investigating that oddity and concern that I had, somehow, damaged my hair with all the hairbands, scrunchies and clips, I learned that silver, grey and white hair are completely different that 'regular' hair.  The texture is different, the care of it is different!  

It turns out that grey is just unpigmented hair and the so called colour of it is an optical illusion from the mix of pigmented (in my case brown) and unpigmented hair together. Interesting.  When the brown is completely gone it should be silver and ultimately white which always looks shinier.  Grey hair doesn't reflect light so it looks dull (bah!)  Unpigmented hair is more fragile, more apt to dry out and requires special care.  I alternate now between my normal shampoo for the proper care of my normal brown hair and purple shampoo which is the correct choice for my grey/silver/white hairs.

Well, hmmm.  I am looking forward, even more eagerly now to the day there is no more brown and my hair has all the same texture and shine.  I currently look more and more daily like a calico cat with hair of many colours, only one of them shiny and soft.

At any rate,  that the deal with my  long hair, partly grey, partly white, partly silver, partly brown that I'm finally able to wear down and realize how nice and long it is and learning how to take proper care of the mixed up crazy hair colours I'm sporting.  Long hair just in time for the cooler - and sometimes even cold - weather, helping me to stay warm.  Perfect!

And then this past Saturday came along and out of nowhere I had this wild hair, speaking of hair, and well, long story short, this is me today:

 It was a whim, I admit but sometimes I just need a change and this is certainly a change.  I am having to re-learn how to "do" shorter hair once again.  I'm mostly happy with it and honestly if I decide I don't like it after all, I'll just grow it out again.  Maybe this shorter cut will encourage those silvers and whites to pop out and the browns to go away.

Hope everyone had a GREAT weekend!