Tim has been on vacation this week, yahoo!  A staycation-vacation and there ain't nothin' wrong with that!  We've done some day trips (as you read earlier this week) and some home projects and even had some good Total Blob time too.  Perfect Balance!

Yesterday was another day trip which was awesome.  We didn't go far, just up to Sarasota which is only about a half hour away. We went specifically to visit the Botanic Gardens.  We've visited before, of course, but it has literally been years!  And since we last were there, they have done a lot of renovating. A Lot!  A lotta lot!   And they aren't done yet either.  There is one whole area fenced off that has big Phase II signs on it.  (That sounds like future fun!)

On the drive up we talked about what we supposed might be new and different and what might be familiar from before.   Speculation conversation :)

The first thing that was very new was the parking garage.  Prior to this  was a series of tiny very crowded, parking lots tucked in here and there between other buildings in the area necessitating winding wandering wondering walks before ever reaching the start!  The entire walk would be wandering around wondering if we were going the right way as we wound around trees and shrubs!  This time was much easier. Enter Parking garage. Find an empty spot, take elevator (or stairs) to the first floor and follow the signs.  Easy Peasy.  The view from the top floor (where we finally found a spot) was pretty amazing by the way.

That's Sarasota Bay that you see in the photo by the way.  This particular Botanic Garden sits right next to the water and they have cleverly incorporated that fact into their garden plan, including a Mangrove Boardwalk.  As we strolled along that part of the garden we not only saw the mangroves, of course, and the bay but also had a lovely view of downtown Sarasota.

This particular Botanic Garden ( as do many others) always features a particular artist along with the gardens.  This season was  Alexander Calder and it was called, "The Nature of Movement".  Apparently he was one of the first artists to work toward the development of kinetic (or moving) art! Very cool.  A lot of his work was on display in one of the old houses and I did not take any photos inside, but I think I got a few from outside. Let's see:

Ok it appears that I only took one.  But there it is folks.  He had quite an amusing sense of humour that really appealed to me in his pen and ink drawings. The sculptures?  Well, I appreciated the concept a least, so that must count for something.  

There was a lot of "art" throughout the gardens and most of that I truly enjoyed.  Here is some of that:

One of the things I truly loved were all of the archways, some man made and some natural. Partly I like that it's a visual separation from one area to another and the other is the childlike open eyed wonder of wondering what magic exists through each new portal:

It makes perfect sense to me that any botanic garden would have an number of water features of one sort or another. This one is no different on that theme.  Loved them all.

Even saw a wee bit of wildlife. Heard far more, manage to capture these.  In one you can see an orange blobby.  That particular orange blobby is a butterfly that photo bombed. I had NO idea it was there until after I saw the picture. I was trying to capture the bird at the far end of the shot. heh

At this point you may be asking, were there any actual flowers at this botanic garden?  Heh.  Were there any flowers?  Of course there were flowers. I was just saving the best 'til last.  Hold on to your botanic seats coz here we go. (obviously this isn't all of the flowers, just a sampling)

What a great afternoon!  We capped off the day by having an early dinner at our favourite BBQ place which we haven't visited in over a year (not sure why since it's our favourite, just how it worked out, I suppose). Miraculously, I managed to get Zero BBQ sauce on my clothes! Shocking but awesome.

Hope you enjoyed our visit to the Botanic Garden!  Have a wonderful weekend and we can catch up next week!

​Hugs all 'round

A boat?  What's the deal with the picture of boat?  Hang on,  I'm here to tell you all about it!

Yesterday, Tim and I had quite the adventure and to properly explain it, first I have to back up all the way to Christmas 2025 which honestly, is just a few months ago.  Tim and I were so fortunate to be on the receiving end of so many wonderful gifts!  All of our human kids and their wives were thoughtful, generous and so very sweet with what they choose for us and we LOVED every single gift.  LOVED! So much so, in fact, that we (or the kittyboys) have been using and enjoying these gifts for the past few months endlessly. And every time we do, we smile and think of the sons and daughters in law that gave that gift to us. Love it:)  Gifts that keeps on giving!

All of the gifts got used right away, with one exception. The gift from youngest son and his wife was one that we had to wait to...hmmm not sure how to say it.  To use? To utilize? To enjoy  perhaps?   That's it, we had to wait to enjoy.  At this most recent Christmas my stupid foot was still a problem and this particular gift required me to be more physically present. No holding back!   And soo we waited. And waited. AND WAITED!

What was this gift?  It was the gift of adventure! A day cruise to a private island and how cool is that? Answer?    Yesterday was the day and it was awesome! So exciting!

We got up bright and early, and stowed our beach bag and Tim's backpack in the car before heading down to Ft Meyers in the early morning fog, hoping against hope that the prediction of showers for the day was wrong.  We arrived in plenty of time, lined up, checked in and boarded the bright yellow pontoon boat (with a potty - critically important).  Our fellow passengers were right behind us and we were loaded up and heading out before we knew it.

Our hosts, two very pleasant young men, not only piloted us expertly but also narrated the trip, pointing our things of interest in every direction as we zoomed about 30 minutes away from the dock.  We chatted with some of our fellow day cruisers who were mostly tourists and every age from babies to oldsters like us . All of us dressed super casually, many in bathing suits and beach coverups and hats.  Almost everyone had some sort of carry on. Most of the kids also brought floaties, beach balls, sandpails and the like. We were all ready for a good time.

We were told in advance to bring whatever you need coz there is nothing on the island: no food, no bathrooms, no shops. Tim and I gave a great deal of thought to what we should bring. We wanted to make sure we had everything necessary but nothing extraneous.  Sometimes that is a tricky line.

We ended up with Tim's backpack for the boat but also packed a beachbag which we left in the car. The backpack held immediate essentials like food: I made two PBJ's and wrapped them individually in waxed paper then put both in one zippybag, threw in some crackers and called it done but there was also a giant thermos of iced water, an empty zippy bag for phones, sun screen (more on that later) and two beach towels   The beachbag in the car held another big thermos of iced water, a change of clothes for each of us and two more beach towels.  I had my camera, we both had hats and we felt prepared.  Surprisingly, we actually were good!

Once we arrived at the island and I had gotten past the skittish part of descending the boat ladder to the sand, we found a Gorgeous beach that was covered in shells of every size, shape and colour we could possibly imagine!  The water was crystal clear, cool but not cold with small gentle waves. Walking through the water we could see so many fish and even a manatee that swam right up beside everyone in the water!

The one and only disappointing part was that most of the big trees had died. There were the bones of massive trees, long deceased, yet still remaining.  But most of the vegetation was ground cover and a few small, obviously very young, palm trees.  We were told that the tree loss was part of the destruction caused by the bad hurricane season two years past.  Very sad, but it makes total sense.

We carefully explored the carpet of shells, marveling at all we saw but I secretly was hoping to find a piece of sea glass to add to my collection.  It's hard to find nowadays as most people use plastic everything so there is very little actual glass to be found. HOWEVER, I did find one small piece of white opaque sea glass and it's already been added to the jar. Yahoo!

We wandered around on the island, waded knee deep in water, walked over to the other side, admired all of the birds and eventually returned, intending to just sit and relax in the shade of a long dead tree. But as soon as it appeared that we were going to plant our butts on the sand, our hosts came running over with a beach umbrella and two very comfy folding chairs!  Wow! What service!  They also provided a large bin for garbage and an enormous cooler filled with ice and bottled water for us to use. So thoughtful.

We relaxed.  Any stress, any tension, any thoughts of obligation or work just lifted up and drifted off. It was glorious.  The weather could not have been better, sunny with big puffy white clouds dotting the sky but not hot and not humid.  It was perfection.

All too soon, it was time to pack everything up and reboard (back up the scary ladder).  All aboard!  All of the babies fell asleep, the children were drowsy and quiet and the rest of us content and smiling on the trip back which came with two stops to ogle pods of dolphins that came right up to the side of the boat!  Wow!

We talked about how amazing the trip was and what a great time we had all the way back|!  10/10 recommend!!

Took some photos (of course I did!)  Ready?

A few shots of Tim and I enjoying he day

Side Note;  We were both really smart about sunscreen use.  Tim and I have each experienced serious sunburns, while on boats and/or on beaches and not only liberally applied sunscreen, but reapplied during the day.  We were thorough, faces, necks, arms, legs. We did great!  Except, We BOTH forgot to sunscreen our feet. BOTH OF US!  Ouche.  But our faults for forgetting and even so, totally worth it!

​Hey kiddos!  Thank you for the Christmas Gift, It Was Awesome!

This week's Photo Safari Report was easy to name.  There is one particular Preserve that we have to time our visits to carefully.  The entire preserve runs alongside the beautiful Myakka River.  It's a gorgeous place but because of it's riverside proximity, once rainy season starts, it has a tendency to flood. So we always go there during the very very dry season (which is to say this time of year) ahead of the rains.  So in honour of this glorious but limited access preserve, we will call this one by it's actual name, The Sleeping Turtle Hike.  (Oddly enough we've seen very few actual turtles here, awake or asleep)

Joy and I hiked along our usual familiar trails until, at one point, we noticed a trail that was kind of tucked in behind a covered pavilion (said pavilions dot the preserve here and there). And in fact, we weren't absolutely certain at first that it actually was a trail but maybe a rocky/pebbled corner or a spot where the grasses had been worn away.  Happy news. It was. Yay!  A new hike!  Well not really.  Eventually here and there we noticed little bits of things that seemed perhaps a tiny bit familiar and by the end we realized that yes we had done at least part of that hike before but a Very Long Time Ago.  Long enough, in fact, that, yeah sure, call it a new hike.

Most of it took us alongside the river so there were, as there almost always are, various typical river photos of mirror-like reflections,  arching  elderly oak branches or fallen palm trees reaching out over the water and a few boaters:

The place was lousy with birds, seriously.  They were everywhere. But they were also constantly moving - and we all know that my best photographic abilities involve things that stay in one spot.  Therefore, very few bird pictures:

I did manage to find a few flowers here and there, or at least flowering shrubs.  Some of them smelled Amazing!  Others had, no fragrance at all, but pretty is still pretty, no matter:

The rest of the photos are just unrelated randos that appealed to me for whatever reason and but I'll share them anyway. Who knows?  Maybe they will make you smile too :)

I actually have one more rando for you but it requires a bit of explanation.  We were surprised to find, here and there as we went along, silk flowers and silk butterflies tucked into the oddest places.  It was such a funny, quirky thing to come across that I had to get at least one photo.  I have no idea why anyone would do such a thing, perhaps thinking they were improving on nature?  Regardless, it certainly caught my eye:

Thanks for joining me on this Photo Safari!  The Sleeping Turtle Hike won't happen again until next year sometime during the dry season, as per usual, but there will be plenty of other hikes, I assure you:)

Have a great weekend ya'll!!

Howdy do!

Hope you all had a terrific weekend.  Tim and I met up with our friends, the Minocks on Saturday at the Botanic Gardens in Tampa and had an outstanding time!  Well, of course we did, we always have a great time on Minock Day!

Would you like to hear about it?  Great!

The park itself is divided up into different sections which makes perfect sense and I'm pretty sure we visited them all, eventually, after wandering twisting curving paths, through gates and under arches and over bridges, marveling at all we saw.

 There was a wedding taking place in the Wedding Garden, which is kind of perfect.  The bride was beautiful, as all brides are, the groom was smiling so hugely his face was in danger of splitting open, and everyone who attended was dressed up and smiling and looking genuinely happy. (Yes we peeked in before it started of course we did!)

One of my favourite parts was the children's garden, naturally.  And we took time to play with the things that ought to be played with thus satisfying the small child inside us all.  There were things that made music and things to climb and clamber over and things that we honestly had no idea what to do with.  Enjoyed it all.

There was a tropical fruit garden with enormously tall Mango trees (no idea how they harvest fruit that high up!) and towering banana trees among others. There were even fruits that I did not immediately recognize and had to read the signs. Thank goodness for those signs!  

The herb garden was especially lovely. Some plants were in pots, others planted in the ground. It was fragrant, lush with bees and pretty garden decorations:

I was very taken by the lily ponds too; quiet, peaceful and contemplative. Sometimes that's exactly what I need:

The overall theme, naturally, was flowers. But there were a stunning variety of trees and shrubs too.  Along with that, almost as a package deal, is always birds, a few squirrels and lizards and bugs too  numerous to mention.   Here are some of the flowers and one of the birds:

Also was quite taken by the details in every direction: mosaics, benches shaped like butterflies, fountains, trellis's and more. There was just so much to look at we could have spent all day!

But we tore ourselves away from the blooming things and moved on to the other side of the gardens because there was also a Heritage Park to enjoy.  What's that you ask?  Well, it's a village of old buildings, some of them tricked out inside to represent era specific life!  Wow!  That's very cool.  

In addition to homes of various ages/sizes/ social strata there was also a General Store, a Model T era Auto Garage, a church, a doctor's office, a school, a train station and several other sorts of shops.  I was particularly taken by the way the kitchens were often separate from the main house in an effort to keep kitchen heat away from the rest of the building.  In a place with summers such a Florida has, I think that might still be a good idea!

I took no photos of the village, shame on me, as I was having too much fun oogling history. That's what this was, living history! Very Very Cool.

And what, you may ask, was the high ticket price for such a wonderful adventure?  It was free for nothing.  My favourite price.  Gratis. Can you believe it?  I have no idea how they manage to stay open and functioning and gorgeous without charging a dime, but they do. (donations cheerfully accepted naturally)

By the time we finished, we were ravenous and decided to have lunch at an nearby, adorable little restaurant called, Savory, which was quite good!  Both food and service checked all the boxes. We ate and talked and laughed and ate and talked some more.  Ultimately, we stayed, probably longer than we should have, but we were just having too much fun to break up the party.

As per usual, Minock Day was a terrific success!  We will find another adventure for a another Minock Day very soon, without doubt ;)

*You Are Here* 

 Well actually Joy and I were there.   You were probably where ever you actually are.   At any rate, the place Joy and I were was a different preserve. Kind of a Preserve within a Preserve, which is rather unusual. To the best of my knowledge, the only way into this place is though a gate, across a dirt road (with a locked cattle gate at the end) and then through another gate.

As you can see from the sign on the board, it is South of Border.  Border is the name of the road that is it South Of.  Clever eh?  As you can probably tell from the photo above, I was taking a minute to review the map on the board, get our bearings and try to map out our hiking plan.  Technically, of course, we had already hiked a little bit to actually arrive at that spot, but regardless, what i SHOULD have done, instead of just looking at the map and trying to remember it, I ought to have taken a photo of the map with my cell phone.

Yup. Shoulda. Didn't.  Oh well.  It all worked out.

Obviously, this is a Photo Safari Report and since I'm feeing singularly uninspired today, I'll simply call this the South of Border Hike. It's accurate :)

Joy and I have attempted to hike this wonderfully "secret" preserve within a preserve several times over the years and each time we had to turn back due to it being too "piggy". And by that we mean we are seeing either too many actually wild pigs or too much fresh wild pig indicators.  And setting out intentionally into a hike that you already KNOW is rife with cranky wild oinkers is just stupid.  It would be like going swimming in alligator infested water with hot dogs in your pockets.  Joy and I are many things, stupid is not any of them.  But on this particular day, there was not even the smallest suggestion of any walking bacon lurking about so we dared enter!

First of all I want to say that the South of Border hike was stunningly beautiful.  Almost like a mystical fairy land.  It didn't look quite real.  On the other hand, while we heard a cacophony of birdsong, we saw relatively few actual birds.  Of the few we did see, I was able to capture on a couple of photos. I may as well throw those out now since we are talking about it:

It was a really good morning for spiderwebs though. My gracious. They were everywhere. Each one unique and beautiful. I will show you just a few. I know not everyone is as excited about those webs as I am:  (those little spiders are just so industrious!)

It's been quite dry so there weren't a lot of pretty blooming things, but I have a small handful of flowering this'n'that:

And there is this one. My favourite photo of the day. A Mother/Daughter Portrait:

So yes, not a lot of my usual stuff, which is absolutely fine. It was still a beautiful day and a great hike and I always have a good time with my sister :)  Plus I was delighted to finally get to hike that South of Border Trail.  Seriously, who wouldn't love to spend time in a place that looks like this:

Hey thanks for coming along for the Photos Safari Report.  Hope you enjoyed the South of Border Hike!  

Have a perfectly Splendid Weekend!

Tried a new recipe tonight.  It's so fun to experiment with food, coming up with new and different things to present at a meal  BUT,  and I'm talking the big but, it's also terrifying.

I mean what if it doesn't turn out good?  Or what if it turns out exactly as it's supposed to but it doesn't suit the palate of those stuck either eating it anyway or throwing it out and having a PBJ instead.  What a let down that is.  It's happened before. Sadly.  Not often but it has happened.

I made a Quiche once that was so pretty. I mean, magazine photo worthy pretty.  And it must have smelled pretty good because the kiddo that was in the house that night at dinner time followed his nose to the kitchen with great interest.  I was so excited to present my dish with it's pretty little side salad. And then they took the first bite as I anxiously watched and both of them, at the exact same time, Tim and Kiddo, looked first at the slice of quiche on their plates, then at each other, then raced each other to the garbage can to spit it out. Oh dear, oh dear.  we ordered pizza.

We laugh about it now of course, and thank goodness Tim did not use situations such as that to suggest that I stop experimenting. And in fact, he encourage it., Mostly because most, hear that carefully, most, of my experiments turn out just fine. And in fact some turn out so good that they are dishes that are part of the usual meal rotation now.  A few things are even prepared, by request for special occasions ;)  

Still if an experiment goes wrong not only is my family disappointed, but we now have to pivot to find an acceptable substitution for the meal we've thrown away AND it was a waste of food. Maybe that's the worst part these days. We all know how freakin' expensive grocery shopping is and wasted food is also wasted money. Ouch!

Tonight's meal was a nail biter.   Tim had picked up, somewhere on some grocery excursion a package of beef ribs. Definitely not something we have on the regular.  And I did some recipe diving before even attempting it.  I knew, since it was being cooked in the oven, that it needed the low and slow treatment which generally suggests a slow cooker but I know that Tim really likes that little crust that only comes from a dryer cook method.  It needed flavour too but also something that will break down the meat and make it tender. Hmmm and also Hmmmm.

Keeping all those things in mind, I  singled out one recipe that had the ribs cooking at 325 for two hours (turned half way through) in the oven. Ok I'm interested.  It had an interesting sounding sauce poured over it before cooking:  tabasco, molasses, vinegar and soy sauce.  Ok Now I'm downright intrigued.  Tabasco for snap, molasses for sweet, vinegar to break it down and soy sauce for...I don't know..salt?  This was it, I decided.  Well I hoped, let's say that. I put it all together, lined the pan carefully with foil (I'm not stupid) put it in the oven and crossed my fingers.

About 30 minutes in, I turned on the fan to low because the "burnt" smell was pervasive. Dang. That's the molasses.  Molasses is a sugar and sugar burns. I began to have great doubts but hey, it's already in the oven, I am committed.  

Half way through  turned the ribs and I thought oh gosh, this really does look like it's burning. I re-read the recipe carefully. Did I miss something really important?  Nope, I'm doing exactly what it says.  Trust the process I said to myself and turned the fan up to medium.  

At the 3/4 mark I turned the fan up to full speed and I could also smell the tabasco and soy sauce, oh dear, oh dear. I began looking through first the fridge and then the freezer for some sort of acceptable substitution.  But I went ahead and prepared the sides just in case a miracle happened. (asparagus and potatoes in case you wondered).

With GREAT trepidation, shortly after 5 I called Tim to dinner. I confessed that I was concerned about the ribs and to let me know what he thought. Then I sat and watched.  He said he was sure it was fine.  They didn't look fine. They looked burnt. They looked beyond burnt. They looked like the last bits of logs in the fireplace after the fire goes out.  Seriously.

First he carefully inserted a fork.  To my great relief, the fork went in, directly in, no hammer or chisel required.  Then he cut off a chunk and popped it in his mouth, chewed with satisfaction and smiled.  That smile was everything. 

As I was finishing cleaning up, I asked for notes. I always do that when I either invent or try a new recipe. How could it be better next time? l Should there be a next time?  Was this a one and done? Should I ever try it again?

He had one note and one only.  Him buying ribs that had more meat on the bone.  LOLOL   And YAYAYAYAY!!  I can still hardly believe that the dish I took out of the oven after two hours that looked more like briquettes than food was actually edible, let alone good enough to repeat another time.  It was, as I said before, a gastronomical miracle!  Yay Again!

I will continue experimenting and trying new dishes and sometimes I will win and other times I will fail, but I learn from each attempt,  Mostly I'm grateful that Tim is such a brave soul who indulges my  attempts with no complaints!

It was nearly Dinner Drama instead of Dinner Delight!  BUT, what's life without risk?  I don't bungee jump or zipline, I don't fling myself down mountains with sticks strapped to my feet or explore underwater caves but I do experiment mightily in the kitchen. 

It counts!

Welcome today to the Fashion Edition of my blog!  

Okay yeah, I said that with a straight face but now I'm laughing.  The Audacity of me calling anything related to me a fashionable is hilarious.    The only times in my life that I have ever been considered stylish or in fashion as been were a total accident.

That said, I do believe in dressing appropriate to the occasion and like most ladies, I think it's very fun to, every once in awhile perk up my wardrobe.  Sometimes that little perk comes by way of a hand-me-over from Joy, once in a long while I actually do buy a new pair of shorts or a new top, but this time I went in a different direction.

I noticed, as I was going through my closet recently, how many oh so very plain round necked blouses and sweaters and etc that I have. In the olden days I might have filled in that "negative" space between the end of the garment and the beginning of my skin with a necklace. But for several reasons, I don't do that much anymore.

The reasons: 1) It's hot here.  And jewelry is metal. which heats up in the hot.  Also it sticks to me in the humidity and well, it's generally less comfortable to wear necklaces here in Florida land which is probably one of those 'princess and the pea' things  but it is what it is and I am who I am. 2) Old lady neck.  Can't get around it, at 72 I am old and one of the things that happens to most old ladies is we get that very unattractive crepe-y neck thing.  Round neck, u-neck, square neck, pretty much anything other than a turtleneck, shows the crepe-y skin off and seriously, it is not something that ought to be showed off.  I find that a necklace highlights the crepe-y (not creepy. well sometimes maybe) skin rather than detracts from it, so no.  3) for whatever reason, most of my jewelry is silver. Silver tarnishes. When exposed to the salt air/hot and humid air/island air/Florida air that we have here, silver tarnishes a LOT and very quickly. No matter how careful I am, how often I clean my jewelry, or how it is stored, it tarnishes. And sometimes for whatever alchemy/chemistry reason the tarnish cannot be removed. Which means I have fewer and fewer pieces of jewelry - necklaces in particular - to wear anyway

So the issue remains, how do I dress up, change up, address the round neck issue?  Sometimes, especially when the weather is cooler, I can tie a pretty scarf and that little change not only provides warmth but also a pop of colour,a little change-up that makes an older top look newer AND hides the crepe-y neck.  win/win/win

But once the cooler weather is gone, now what do I do?  Well sometimes I pretend I don't notice my crepe-y skin and just wear the shirts anyway. Other times, I wear a different shirt underneath. Specifically a shirt that has a collar. Looks snazzy and solves all the issues. BUT once summer arrives in all it's hot and humid glory I do NOT want to wear two layers of shirts. I would feel as if I were trapped in a sauna!

And while considering this issue, my brain wandered back to fashion in other centuries long ago when things like collars and cuffs were detachable. That was a clever idea.  And that made me wonder if such a thing still existed.   Enter mystical Google.  He (or she) knows all!

Turns out you CAN buy just a collar. Well sort of.  Back in my youth, it would have been called "a dickey".  Don't know why it as called that, but it was.  I only ever owned one.  It was turquoise - which is a beautiful colour as long as I'm not the one wearing it.  Makes my skin look yellow which in turn makes me look jaundiced and everyone around me wonders if I have some liver disease.  I'm fairly certain I did not choose the colour.  It was worn with a vee-necked white sweater that I had because lord knows that a female's clavicle should never be on display (insert much rolling of eyes here).  

I hadn't thought about that old turquoise dickey in decades but as soon as I looked up women's collars and the results popped up there it was in my head immediately. I was not a fan of that old heavy knit turquoise thing, but these new ones looked so very different. Lightweight, pretty, feminine and perfect.  

I scrolled through the possibilities (there were nearly endless choices) for a long time and ultimately ended up getting a set of 4 because I couldn't seem to choose just one.  I tried them all on with the shirt I was wearing in the moment which was a purple tee-shirt and honestly they even made that tee-shirt look good.  So Excited to wear one for real in my actual life and see how it worked out.

Wednesday, which is known is this house is Museum Day, was the maiden voyage.  It was a cold, windy day so I knew I would absolutely be wearing a sweater and ended up in a somber outfit of black slacks and a plain back sweater.  Boring but toasty warm.  Jazzed it right up immediately.

Still, the question remained, how comfortable would it be worn all day while moving around, walking, gesturing ( as I do while talking), driving, cleaning, etc.  The answer was, it went great!  Loved the way it looked and how it dressed up a very  monochromatic  and far too often worn look.  Bonus points it was perfectly comfortable and easily washed.  

I think I've found my solution!  I'm excited for the opportunity to wear each one in turn and see how it changes the look of my old outfits.  A success story for sure.  Big Yay!  And it harkens me back to a rather vintage phase of fashion and that is definitely my style - fashionable or not!

Have a terrific weekend y'all. See you next week!

Over the weekend Tim and I had a singular experience.  And it had to do with my car.

The above picture is, obviously, of a car engine.  It is merely representational as I am too lazy to go outside and take a photo.  The story which follows, a true story, is about my car's engine.  The car I drive, which used to be Tim's car, is a twenty year old Ford Explorer.   She still works just fine and is paid for. That's all that I need. It gets me to and from the very few places I am still willing and able to drive to (and from).

Generally speaking, when Tim and I go anywhere together, we take his car.  For many reasons.  First of all being that Tim is the one driving and he likes his car.  'Nuff said.  It's also a newer, nicer, definitely more reliable vehicle. But in a pinch or if I'm driving, of course, there is the Explorer, just sitting there. Patiently waiting.  

Sometimes, it has to wait a very long time.

And that is probably part of the problem.  

Another part, of the problem, as it turns out, is that we have no garage.  Which, when we first were looking for a home here, we had on the "would be nice but not absolutely necessary" list.  When Tim and I are house hunting we have categories of lists. (Doesn't everyone?)   The most important category on the list is "Absolutely Must Have" which has things like the number and type of rooms we require at bare minimum and the fact that for whatever reason, we feel the need to have both a living room AND a family room.  Then there are the things that "would be nice but are not absolutely necessary", things like a pool or, as it turns out, a garage.  And the reason we didn't believe we absolutely needed a garage, is because winters here are no big deal. In fact they are very small deals. Zero snow. Zero ice.

Turns out there are other reasons to require a garage. We know this now.

Soooo last week, Tim's car had to go into the garage for some work. Just safety maintenance really.  Things like new brakes, new shocks and a new oil pan (the other one had developed a leak - yikes!)  Which left us with one car, mine.  Soo we had wheels. Technically.  But the car I drive, again, is 20 long years old which is getting up there for a car and has a few issues.  Small things like the clock no longer works, the radio also is kaput and a little more annoying, the AC also has crapped out.

You might think that living in Florida as we do, AC is really high on the gotta have list, but I drive so rarely and such short distances that honestly, it isn't an issue at all.  Most of the time.  The only time it is possibly a problem is situations such as, this past weekend, when we only had my car and there is some place we need or want to go that is farther than I normally drive.

Another issue, as it turns out, is that there have been times - sometimes long periods of time -when I don't drive at all.  For instance, the past 5 or so months when my right foot (my driving foot) was broken.  I couldn't walk on the dang thing, I absolutely could not drive with it.  I've only begun driving again at all about a month ago which means, my car just sat in the driveway for 4 months like a giant paper weight.  Patiently waiting. 

And now it's spring in Florida. (it comes early here)  Lots of things happen in spring. The grass greens up, trees bud, flowers bloom and birds nest.  Not just bird, actually, lots of little critters nest this time of year.   Naturally, the mom and dad critter try to choose cozy safe places to build their nests.

I think I've painted the picture for you fairly well.  In fact, you probably see where this is going.  Most likely you see where this is going much better than we did on Sunday because we had very few concerns when we got in the car on Sunday afternoon planning to head up to Sarasota.  In fact, I remember asking Tim if he thought the old girl was up to the drive and he was fairly certain that it would be ok.  We would go slowly and carefully (not too slowly of course, don't want to honk of traffic patterns). And it was a nice enough weather day that we could just drive with the windows down so that the lack of AC wouldn't be an issue.

Off we went.  

As we do, we talked, we commented on things we saw out the window, ideas that popped into our heads, plans for the future, reviewing recent happenings, sharing things we had recently read about. We were having a perfectly pleasant time.  Until I said, "do you smell something burning?"

Tim immediately pulled off the road and into a gas station, far from the pumps. He jumped out and lifted the hood. I also got out to hold up the hood because it has a nasty tendency to close at it's own whim.  At first glance everything seemed to be ok though Tim pulled out a few very thin bits of palm frond here and there that clearly had to do with where I park my car in the driveway *under a tree*.  On second glance he saw more tree ferb and carefully (the engine was superhot) pulled out yet more. And it wasn't just bits and pieces of palm tree. Nope, there were also oak twigs, bougainvillea blossoms,  clumps of grasses, and things unidentifiable but organic. As he pulled out more and more of it, more and more was revealed.  Ultimately is became very apparent that what we had here was a critter nest of some sort and naturally it was dead centre in the hardest part to reach. Of course.

Well dang.

We decided that we needed to just turn around and go home.  Closed the hood, got back in the car and very carefully headed back to Venice.  About half way I called out softly, "there it is again".  This time Tim pulled off into a self-help carwash place. He drove right into one of the bays.  I was a little mystified until he started up the water wand.  Once again, I held up the hood while he water forced more of the next debris out and at the same time, cooled the engine.  Brilliant! I tell you the man is a genius!

Eventually, we were ready to finish the drive home and made it with no further issues.  Tim gave the car about an hour to cool off then he set to with his shop vac to remove any remaining nest debris.  The engine is now about as clean as any working engine can be. Huzzah!  

The assumption here is that because I was parking under a tree AND the car just sat unmoving for several months while my foot healed AND is was nesting season it was a confluence of separate moments that came together perfectly just in time to attempt to set my car on fire!

Why didn't we know before this? Our best guess is that, even though I am driving once again, I don't go far enough for the engine to heat up and it's rarely more than once or twice a week that I drive at all.  It didn't impact the nest at all.

Needless to say I have moved where I park my car in the driveway and we've decided that every once in awhile someone who drives further than I do  (that would be Tim) will take my car out on the road to make sure it's all good.

Dodged a bullet there. Well dodged a car fire I suppose.

It was an interesting experience but one I would prefer to never experience again, thank you.

Lesson learned. Periodically check for critter nests!  Got it!

Let's hear a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOY!!!   Woohoo!  Best Happy wishes to the Birthday girl whose birthday, this year, landed on Friday the 13th which is why I am not the least bit superstitious about such things as triskaidekaphobia. (fear of friday the 13th - yes it has an official name).

Having a sister, this particular sister, has been one of the best gifts I ever received so naturally I wanted to make her birthday special for her.  When I asked what she wanted to do to celebrate, to nobody's surprise at all, she wanted to hike.  Wish Granted!

Happily the Birthday gods were smiling on us because even through most of the hike was rather gloomy and cloudy, there were birdies galore!  Another Wish granted! Joy especially likes to photograph wildlife.  Therefore this Photo Safari Report shall be entitled, The Birdie Birthday Hike.

First of all, I don't think we have ever seen as many cardinals before.  It seemed as if they were at every turn. Which does not mean we were able to capture each one, but we saw them, marveled at them, admired them and as always learned about them more and more.  For instance, the Mr. always makes sure the Mrs. is safe and usually hidden away, before he zips to another spot to either secure food for them both or to distract the potential enemy from the Mrs.   Chivalry is not dead, it's alive and well in the lives of Cardinal Birds.  Here are a few of the cardinal photos I got:

Then there were the eagles. Yes plural.  We have seen eagles in that particular preserve before so it wasn't a surprise, but it's always a pleasure!  Since it's nesting season for eagles right now, there is a barrier to prevent anyone from getting too close to the nest. But we could still see it from the trail (just gotta know where to look and what to look for)  It's a very long distance shot but still an eagle in the nest.  Then we began to look for the mate.  If there's only one in the nest (probably with the young) then the other one has to be  nearby.  Took us awhile but eventually, there he was in all his magnificent glory.

The Best of the Best though were the owls.  For whatever reason, I can never see owls.  I know they are around, probably in every preserve I've ever hiked. I just don't have the "eye" necessary to find them. And in fact, I've only ever seen one other owl on a hike. The only reason I actually saw it was that Joy was with me and pointed it out. I still couldn't see it but she persisted until at least, there he was!

This time however, we knew about the owls (and in fact specifically looked for them) because we happened across another hiker while we were out.  The other hiker had a pair of binoculars around her neck and she saw our cameras and after an exchange of howdy's asked if we were looking for birds. Joy was a little ahead of me on an important phone call, so I answered that well, we were looking for whatever struck our fancy while taking photos, but yes, sure birds were great.  She then told me that at the other end of the trail we were on, there were a pair of owls. Wow! She tried to describe the tree (in a forest of trees which makes it tricky) so in exchange I told her where to find the non-nesting eagle. Fair Trade.  I caught up to Joy and told her about the owls and off we went on the hunt.  

Naturally it was Joy who found them and once again, persisted in verbal directions until finally I too saw them.  Two Great Horned Owls!!!  They are huge by the way.

There were other birds, of course.  Loads of woodpeckers of every sort including the big old Woody Woodpecker looking piliated woodpecker who is unmistakable.  Anyway, here's a sampling of the others:

There was one more bird that we saw a lot of and that is the Scrub Jay.  Similar in colour to a BlueJay but totally different personality. These guys Love to be seen, love to have their photos taken. They pose and preen and show their personalities. Naturally, therefore, I took lot of Scrub Jay photos.  Here's a few:

Also got a few botanicals because it just wouldn't be me if there weren't:

And I guess that's about  it.  The highlights from the  Birdie Birthday Hike.   It was a great hike. Joy and I both had to ice our feet when we got home (she oddly, has a similar foot injury to mine!) but it was Totally Worth It!  

Thanks for coming along. I'll leave you with wishes for a terrific weekend and one last photo.  Bunny says, Bye, see you next week!

As you can plainly see, that's Joy and I (Joy on the left, me on the right) out in a forest ON FOOT for the first time in a long time. Way Overdue!  Joy patiently waited until I was ready and last week, at long last, I felt as if I had turned another corner in the healing of my stupid foot.  So with no small amount of trepidation but even more excitement, I felt ready to do an exceedingly small, short, brief actual real out in the forest hike.  

I should be embarrassed by how brief a hike it was, but, for a change, this time 'round, I am actually listening to both my doctor AND my foot and therefore, I am taking it very slowly and carefully.  Recovery is a long series of baby steps (especially at my esteemed age!).  I am, therefore, calling this Photo Safari, the Baby Steps Hike.

Joy and I took all of the local preserves (and there are quite a few) into consideration when choosing our destination for this first foray and ultimately decided upon Lemon Bay preserve, primarily because it is very LEVEL with no obstacles, usually, and with grassy paths.  Our goal was to find something where we didn't have to climb up or down a ravine, or climb over fallen trees, or hop over rushing streams, or wade through the ones we can't hop over, and didn't have to walk on loose sand.   Also keeping in mind the fewer hidden tree roots, the better! Lemon Bay is check check check.

But as soon as we arrived the very first thing we see is a GIANT and Very LOUD mowing machine. We arrived on the day they mow the paths. Dang it!  Change of plans.  Turned around and headed to Carlton Reserve instead.  Normally Carlton is one of our absolute favourites but alas, this time, not so much.  It's not Carlton's fault either.  

Right now Florida is experiencing a massive drought while other parts of the country are virtually snowed in. Very Bizarre. Ponds, Lakes, Rivers, Streams and other water sources are drying up which means less beautiful foliage and a lot less wildlife.  Cannot blame anyone really. It just is what it is.  Mother Nature's whims and all that.   But it surely makes for fewer photo opportunities.

Of course, Joy and I can always find something to take pictures of, even when we come home with far fewer than normal. Kind of makes sense anyway, shorter hike, fewer pictures, right?  Perfectly Logical.

At any rate, here are the very few photos that I took.  I guess if nothing else, it makes this a shorter post, which means quicker reading and fewer photos to cruise through.   Hope you Enjoy!!

Little by little, the hikes will get longer, the photos will get better and more varied, I promise! Hang in there with me please!

​Have a Great Week!

As I'm sure I've mentioned before (at least a hundred times no doubt), Tim and I live a fairly quiet, calm, uneventful life.  It's peaceful and very happy.  Some folks may even refer to it as dull and boring (we don't but other's might). At the very least it could probably be considered relatively predictable. We are good with this by the way.

In an ordinary week, on a normal day the most interesting thing that might happen is noticing that a neighbor's tree was cut down or they repainted their front door a different colour.  When I call something exciting I usually mean the grocery store has exceptional BOGO's that week or maybe we got an unexpected refund in the  mail. Woohoo!

But this past Wednesday began with a different sort of excitement and this is the story of that:

The day began as most of our days do with Tim jumping in the shower to get ready for work and me staggering sleepily around, feeding hungry kitties and making Tim's coffee and peering around through squinted eyes waiting for both vision and brain function to stop being muzzy.  I went to throw something (don't recall what) away in the kitchen garbage can and that's when I saw it. Ants.  Not just one or two frightened tiny little specks running for their lives when they saw the Giant coming their way but a veritable Conga Line of Ants calmly and steadily marching forward. What the what?

Suddenly I was a lot more wide awake. I followed the line of dancing ants under the kitchen door, to the utility room and then down the entire freakin' length of the utility room, under the exterior door and outside.  Dang it!  I got to work immediately irradicating the little varmints.  I use a pet and human safe spray in the house which works, but smells so strongly of peppermint that it put me off candy canes for life.  I sprayed with determination and prejudice down that entire line, massacring ants with no mercy.  Once I got to the outside of the exterior doors I switched over to an outside spray that reeks of chemicals and is probably cacinogenic. (this was all done while I was still wearing pajamas by the way thus presenting myself at my very best to anyone passing by. Oh well)   

Once I completed my killing spree of course, I immediately showered to get that nastiness off of me. Hum dilly hum. I relaxed and took my time and reflected on the odd start to the day.  While I was pampering myself with shampoos and conditioners Tim was in the kitchen.  He had "slept funny" and woke up with a sore neck. In my family's lexicon that means you have  "crick" in your neck.  Best solution for that is a warm compress and perhaps a little Advil.

Now we have a number of different heat source products in the house from electric heating pads to full sized hydrocollators. But the best one for this particular issue and is in fact why we have it, is a bean/grain filled long tube with plastic loops on each end that fits perfectly around the neck. Just thinking about it makes me sigh with relief.  A quick 2 minutes in the microwave and the sufferer is quickly on their way to relief. 

We keep all of these items in a hall closet on the same shelf. Each one wrapped first in a towel and then in a bag.  Generally speaking, we take the item OUT of the bag but leave it in the towel (to keep it clean) to microwave.  Now the last time the neck warmer heater thinger was used, it was by me.  And I "cleverly" used to twisty tie threaded through both plastic loops and then twisted closed to keep the neckwrap in place while I continued working around the house. When I was done with it I intentionally put the twisty tie IN the bag so that whoever used it next didn't have to scrounge up another twistytie.  You probably see where this is going, right?

When I finally got out of the shower and was combing, lotioning and powdering and so forth I kept thinking......"that's  a funny smell, I wonder what that is?"  After a second or two I recognized it as burnt plastic. Oh no!  Did I leave a bread bag leaning on the toaster oven?  I mean, I didn't make any toast that morning, but perhaps Tim did?  I was prepared to spend some time later attempting to scrub melted plastic off the toaster oven but for that moment, I just wrapped myself in a towel and stepped out of the bathroom then wandered down to the kitchen where the smell was noticeably stronger.

There was Tim in the kitchen and not his office in front of the microwave with the door open. Odd.  I asked him if he noticed a funny smell.  And that's when I heard the story.

Now first you have to keep in mind that Tim never panics. Ever. He calmly assesses a situation and then addresses it equally calmly and correctly.  So, again, bothersome neck issue.  Obvious solution is the neck warmer thingie.  He finds it in it's usual spot, pops it into the microwave and returns very briefly to his office as he will hear the little Ding when the mircrowave it done.  Instead, right away he smelled the same odd burning smell that I did.  So, immediately, he returned to the kitchen and when he looked at the microwave, instead of seeing the neckwarmer circling endlessly, he saw flames.  Wait, not flames... FLAMES!    That's not normal!

He immediately opened the door (which automatically turns it off), pulled out the flaming object and dropped it on the stove top. He patted out the flames on what was left of the neck warmer and then again inside the microwave, got yet another towel, scooped the entire burned mess up and put it outside in the courtyard to think about what it had done!  By the time I stepped into the kitchen all of that was done and Tim as trying to clean up the mess left behind.  (despite putting out the flames with his bare hands, he did not get burned by the way thank goodness)

He told me what happened and both of us were agog at the idea that those bean/grain filled warmers could catch on fire!!!  Bizarre!  I told him that I would finish the clean up and he gratefully returned to his desk and back to work.  I got dressed and then began attacking the melted/burnt/yucky remains.  As I worked, I was thinking the entire thing through and then, as I was scrubbing a particularly resistant bit of melted something, I remembered the twisty tie.  Dang.  This was my fault.  I did leave the twisty tie, not still attached to the actual neck warmer, but definitely in the bag it was kept in.  Ratz.

I trudged, head down, into Tim's office and confessed.  He was very understanding about the whole thing.  As long as we are both safe and the kitties are fine and the house is still standing, it's no problem are his thought on the matter.

To my great surprise, once I got it cleaned up and did a trial cook with a bag of microwave popcorn, the microwave itself still works~!  So really, we are only down one microwaveable neck warmer and two towels (and one twisty tie)

And there ends the tale.  It was an exciting morning for sure.  And now I'm good on the excitement meter for awhile. Life can resume it's usual serene, lovely, levels.  Please.

,My Dad was seriously into genealogy.  He did years of research and interviews, letter writing campaigns and library hauntings. He prowled attics and basements and poked through other people's giant boxes of unlabeled photographs.  He consulted endlessly to, eventually, put together a very comprehensive picture of his family's lineage. It was a truly impressive piece of work.  It included everyone from the first family member who landed on the east coast of the US way way way back before this country was an official country of it's own, to the newest littlest members of the family.

I loved reading the names (some really awesome unusual names in this crew) and hearing some of the stories about serving in the various battles, from the revolutionary war forward and excerpts from the diary kept by a woman travelling by covered wagon, slightly farther west than they began. It's all just endlessly fascinating to me.  All of those hundreds of people on the list and somehow, I am related to all of them! Wild!

All of them shared hopes and dreams, all experienced terrible losses, they worked hard, laughed out loud,  loved their families and  lived their lives and then the next generation did the same, over and over, until my generation and then my kids generation.... It's like a fountain of related bloodlines. And, honestly, related experiences. 

It's true.  From the first family member who stepped foot on what is now American's soil to the family members here right this minute,  we all have a familial thread that binds us.  I'm not just talking about DNA, I'm talking about the way we live our lives.

From what I can see, we all work hard.  They worked without electricity or indoor plumbing originally but whether you are sitting behind a tractor wheel or a computer screen, hard work is hard work.  They were all courageous and took brave chances.  Sometimes the bravery was getting on a giant wooden sailing ship, leaving everything they knew behind to come live in a new land. Nowadays that bravery might be shown serving in the military, moving to a brand new state where you don't known a single soul,  beginning a new job, starting a family or following a dream wherever it leads. All of those things require a person who is courageous enough to first take a deep breath and then that first step into something new. Not just playing it safe, y'know?

Throughout the generations, even though I never met the vast majority of these people, I know that we are more alike than we are different. I've never had to use a button hook to put on my shoes and lord knows I've never attempted to wear a corset but I have struggled amighty to walk 'normally' in high heels and zip up a pair of snug jeans.  Close enough.  I'm working on either a gas or electric stove cooking meals to feed my family and previous generations cooked over open fires or wood fired stoves, but we are doing the same job, feeding our families come heck or high water.

I only remember ever attending one family reunion on my dad's side of the family. It was at my Grandparents farm up in Michigan. I couldn't have been more than 10 years old and probably younger than that. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who attended.  The line of cars seemed to go on forever and each vehicle was like a clown car with a seemingly unending stream of people spilling out.  The food offerings were many and varied and splendid and amazing and there was more food than even that size group could ever possibly consume.  There was deafening conversation and laughter in every direction with kiddos running amuck and babies crying.  And there I stood, dumbstruck in the middle of it all, mouth open, brain reeling and I even remember wondering to myself how could it be possible that I was related to each and every person there.  Untangling the whole puzzle of exactly how we were related was a place I didn't even try to go for years!

This all came to mind again this past Sunday when, Joy and Bob, Tim and I, and Joy's eldest daughter gathered together to spend time with our cousin Carol from up in Michigan.   Carol is always a delight to spend time with. Not only is she our source of information regarding all northern relatives on that side of the family but Carol is also a wonderful raconteur. She tells the most entertaining tales of her adventures which are both interesting and hilarious.  She is also one of those rare folks who remembers things about each individual at the table.  She asks about us and our lives and remembers things we've discussed before.  She is a treasure.

For, I don't know how long, Carol comes to Florida for awhile every winter and we try to make it a point to get together as many of us as possible each time.  It's not anywhere near the same level as that giant family reunion all those years ago, but it still reminds me a bit of it.  And I feel the link, the connection from my kids to me to my dad, to his brother to his kids (my cousins) and then further back, grandparents, great grandparents, great great's and many greats further than that.    

There are a few old photographs around and occasionally you can even see a family resemblance here and there which is remarkable.  But as I look back even further I wonder sometimes, what traits do we share?  Do we have the same blue eyes?  The same general hatred of licorice but love of music?  How many of my forebearers loved books as I do, or quilting as Joy does?  How many of those folks who came before were wizards with numbers as my boys are?  Did any others have my general clumsiness or were they light on their feet dancers like my sister?

I suppose I'll never know the answers to my questions but I do know that I'm so glad Carol still comes to Florida every winter and chooses to make a little room in her Crazy Busy life to spend some of it with us and help to keep that family connection strong. Like a tree.  A family Tree :)

Happy Photos Safari Report Day!  

Joy and I hit good old Myakka State Park one more time. As we impatiently await the final healing of my stupid foot, we did another mostly drive with a little walking photo session and had a predictably wonderful time!  

There were more visitors than we are accustomed to so we did have to work around other people but it's a big park. We can share  :)  

The day started out a little cool but wisely we dressed in light layers so we could peel off outer layers as it warmed up. The weather was nearly perfect.  Great light too!  Not a great deal of wildlife, unfortunately, but there was just enough to cobble together the Safari Report.  Therefore, I am calling this one the "Just Enough Hike".  

That said,  I'll start with the birdies.  There were a lot of the same few kinds so I'll  try to not duplicate very much. Here are the best shots:

Then there is the non bird wildlife, which in this case means alligators. Lots and lots of them. There were literal piles of them!  We kept our distance and were grateful for telescopic camera lenses. Here's some of those guys;

As always the park itself was gorgeous. Can you bear some pretty scenery photos for a few minutes?  Thanks!

And now it's done.  As I predicted, I had Just Enough photos for the Photo Safari Report.  Thanks for coming along :)  Hope you enjoyed

Happy Weekend!

Howdy do to all of you!  Happy Tuesday!

Yesterday, Monday, I was knee deep in laundry.  I do laundry every Monday. No sure why it ended up that way, but it has. And, as I have observed on many an occasion, either Tim and I are exceedingly dirty people or extremely clean people because Laundry Day at our house is a full day event.

​How on earth do just two people create enough laundry to make Laundry Day, well, an entire day?  Truth is, I'm not absolutely certain.  

I am rather particular about sorting.  Delicates are only ever washed with other delicates, dark clothes and light clothes are strictly segregated (the only time I ever approve of segregation) and even the towels are divided into whites and colours and washed separately.  Luckily the utility room is good sized so as to hold all of the many piles of laundry waiting their turn.

I've been accused before of being a Clean Freak when it was learned that I change sheets every week. To be perfectly honest, I would change them more often if it wasn't so time consuming!  I adore clean sheet night!  Also love using clean towels and I even throw the sink sponge into the laundry pile at the end of every day.  And by the way, I wear clean pajamas each night!  Yeah, I guess I am kind of a wierdo.

We also seem to go through a great number of towels each week. To be fair, we use tea towels (sometimes called dish wipers or kitchen towels) for things other than drying dishes!  I put one down on the counter for the clean hand washed dishes,  I sometimes use them a trivets for hot pots and pans while dishing up a  meal, or under a cutting board to soak up any spillage.  We use them as napkins, as blotters, as place mats and hand towels.  Somtimes I even dry dishes with them! Shocking I know.  

Clearly each of those uses (whether you agree with how we do it or not) means the towels is now dirty and off it goes to the dirty towel pile in the utility room, replaced by a seemingly endless pile of kitchen towels.

This time of year when it's chilly, we wear multiple layers of clothes, meaning bigger piles of dirty clothes and in the summer when it's hot and humid and we get sweaty just thinking about moving around, we sometimes change clothes during the day as what we were wearing has become sweaty and gross. Again, creating bigger piles of clothes.

I think we've solved the mystery of why it takes me all day Monday to do the laundry each week. Heh.  I honestly don't mind Laundry Day. It's not as if I have to haul it all down to the river and beat it on a rock after all. Once it's sorted, it's just a matter of putting things in one machine, pushing a button then transferring it to another machine and pushing a different button.   However, because I want to keep these endless loads moving forward in as timely as fashion as possible, I never allow loads, wet or dry, to just sit.  As soon as the load is finished, it's moving on to the next part.  Wet things into the dryer and dry things either immediately hung up, folded and put away or stacked in a neat pile and set aside for ironing later.  This means setting a timer and then, trickier part, listening for the timer to go off.

Sometimes I simply do not hear the timer. Which means that poor beleaguered Tim, who hears everything, even when he doesn't want to, has to endure listening to the repeated buzzing until it has driven him half mad whereupon he comes out, turns off the timer and tells me, "machine is done" before returning to his office. Poor Tim :(  I try very hard to not have that happen but hey it's not as if I'm just standing aroundm twiddling my thumbs,  waiting for each load to be done.  Heck no!  I'm doing other stuff between loads. It's called Multi-Tasking and we women are exceptionally good at it ;)

The first washing machine that I remember in my life was probably 60 something years ago?   Something like that. It was a wringer washer which was, at the time, quite the amazing machine!  We lived in California then and the washer lived in the garage. It looked a little like this:

As I understand it,  Mother would fill the tub of the machine with water and laundry soap of some sort, add the clothes and then plug the machine in.  At that point it would shimmy and shake, undulate and shiver until it had reached it's limit.  Then Mother would Unplug the machine, pull the drain plug to let the water out.  Then,  one item at a time, each piece would be fed through the wringer to squeeze out as much water as possible.  The first wringer machine was hand cranked, the second, wildly modern, was cranked electronically.  Mother was terrified by that electric wringer and cautioned Joy and I to keep our distance so that it did not pull our arms in and crush them! (coz you know we were definitely planning to feed our own arms in, fingers tips first).

Next up would be hanging the clothes on the clothes line. I cannot recall when Mother got a machine dryer but I know she was very excited about it AND the invention of dryer sheets. She used so many dryer sheets for each load that our clothes nearly oozed out of our hands when we tried to fold them. HAHAHAHA

I never owned a wringer washer myself, but I did have to hang clothes on a clothesline as a regular thing in my farm days when the boys were young.  I know my mother didn't enjoy it but quite honestly, I did.   I know that makes me sound even weirder than you already believe me to be (and I probably am) but I honestly enjoyed hanging clothes on the line with wooden pegs that squeaked a little each time I pushed them down onto the combo of fabric and clothes line. I can still hear it.

The first few items taken out of the clothes basket weren't just wet, they steamed in the morning air and they smelled delightful.  It didn't really take all that long to hang out a basket's worth at a time and it was peaceful outside time for me in the sun.  Later, in reverse, I would remove each item, give it a shake to snap some of the stiffness out of it, fold it carefully and place it in the basket. Every single tee shirt, each towel, smelled of sunshine and pine trees and whatever flowers were blooming that day.  And the fragrance stayed, it clung on even after it was hung up or tucked into a drawer. The aroma lingered even after being ironed.  I miss it.

Basically, of all of many myriad household chores, daily, weekly, monthly etc, one of the ones I truly do not mind is doing laundry. Even nowadays without the excitement of possibly crushing my arm in a wringer washer and without the scent of clothes hung on the line.

When someone says Happy Monday to me, I agree :)

Valentine's Day just happened!  And on the weekend too!  How nice :)

In our typical low key fashion, Tim and I had a lovely quiet Valentine's Day.  We've celebrated lots of different ways over the years but one thing has always stayed the same.  It is, by now, a long standing tradition of exchanging cards.  (Which we do for pretty much every occasion.)  From the very beginning,  since before we were married, without even discussing it ahead of time, we each gave the other two cards, one funny, one serious.  It just cracked us up that we both did the exact same thing . What are the odds?  

As the years have gone by,     we have continued to exchange cards, always at the end of the day, always with no distractions (TV off or at least muted) always together, always reading each card with comments and laughter, appreciation and kisses. (awwwwww) The cards are always displayed for a few weeks on the tabletop afterwards. The only thing that has changed is some times instead of just two cards, every once in awhile it's 3.  

Why 3?  Well one card nowadays is usually from the kittyboys.  The cats, strangely,  are not welcome in stores to choose their own cards so we have to do it for them.  Besides they cannot drive and have no pockets for wallets. Brysco and Wyatt trust our judgement, implicitly.   So 3 cards each, right?  If you count the cards on the table above, it turned out to be more than 3 each because, according to Tim,  Hallmark was doing a BOGO on cards and he wasn't going to waste a perfectly good BOGO! Gotta do the extra card now too.  4 cards !!!  Frugal and standard logic don't always go together in this family.  Sooo That's 4 to me from Tim, Brysco and Wyatt.  And two to Tim from the kittyboys and me because I am a slacker, didn't notice the sale and am a cheapskate.

(I may have only done two cards to Tim compared to his 4 to me BUT I made him a lovely batch of brownies and that might help to even it out a bit?)

If you are counting, even with the explanation, it still doesn't work out right, does it?  Well that adorable little puppy card came to me from an old friend back in Colorado.   Now the numbers work even though it's a little crazy.  

You might also notice that two cards are identical.  Yup. We did it again. It has happened so often now that it's almost expected.  We gave each other the same card..................again!  Cue even more laughter!  Clearly we are two people who were meant to be together! We can shop in completely different stores on different days, at different times of day and still end up giving each other the same card!  LOLOL  We are ridiculous.

So that's kind of how we spent our Valentine's Day, together.  We ran errands and did chores for most of the day, I made a very nice meal for dinner, we did our annual card exchange, laughed a lot, smooched a bit and enjoyed a really nice brownie (or two). It was a perfect day.  oh   Tim also contributed a short stack of boxes of Whoppers and Milk Duds, perfect for snuggling up to watch a movie together. Yum~

I know that Valentine's Day is a "made-up" holiday (aren't they all ultimately) and people feel a  lot of pressure to properly express to their life partner how much they care, how important the other person is to them and the extent of their love !   Commercials and movies and "reality TV" make it feel so very serious, very emotionally precarious, teetering your relationship on the brink balanced on this one day of the year! (not to say expensive!)

  I cannot say that either Tim or I feel pressure leading up to Valentine's day.  We both know how we feel and how the other one feels but we like that it is a sweet day  where we make it a point to express how we feel,  tangibly.  With something you can hold in your hands, as well as your heart.  We've done it bigger with flowers, and heart shaped boxes of chocolate and nice dinners out, we've done it smaller with phone calls and delayed celebration but we've always done it with cards. And we've often done it with duplicate cards.  Because we are weird.

Some traditions are a little stranger than other's I suppose but as long as we are good with it, that's all that really matters.

Hope your Valentine's Day was exactly what you wished it to be.

This is the first sunset over the water photo I've shared in quite some time.   Naturally, the reason being my stupid foot.  It continues to heal, very slowly, but progress is progress no matter how pokey it may be. I make it a point to do a little more walking each day and now I'm branching out into walking on different surfaces.

Perhaps you never had occasion to really think about it,  but in truth, walking on actual ground is completely different than walking on concrete which is different, in turn, to walking on sand.  I've been mostly walking on smooth flat surfaces:  wood, concrete, asphalt, tile but I've started branching out occasionally to wandering aimlessly around the backyard, carefully. I don't want a set back for heaven's sakes. This has gone on quite long enough!

But I've been doing so well that the other night after dinner, spontaneously (which is unusual for me) I suggested to Tim that we head over to the beach to watch the sunset.  It's something we used to do regularly but haven't been able to do in quite some time so I think we were both surprised by the words coming out of my mouth.  It's almost criminal to not take advantage of being as close to the beach as we are!

I took off my socks and put on my sandals (socks and sand sounds like a bad mix), Tim grabbed his wallet and keys and at the last second, I snagged my camera.  Once we arrived and I was faced with actually walking on the sand I hesitated.  I even remember thinking, "this could be a really great idea or a really bad one."  I shrugged,  "over the top!" I thought to myself and there we went.

There were far fewer people out there than I expected, this being peak season right now.  (February and March bring guests in droves) but that was probably due to the fact that it was more than a little chilly and very windy.  We did not care one single bit.  

It smelled the same as I remembered and all the elements were still there:  the sun, the birds, the boats, the sand and the water. The beach didn't care that I wasn't around for awhile, it did not hold a grudge, just welcomed me back.

All of the peace contentment, beauty and simplicity was still right there.  And as shuffled cautiously out across the shifting and uneven sand spotted with broken shells and seaweed and the occasional bits of this'n'that  I immediately decided that it was totally worth the risk.

I took a few photos, of course I did:

 We didn't stay long, but I'm so glad went. Now I know I can tackle a careful walk on the sand safely and therefore will return. Probably soon.  The siren call of the beach is just too strong to resist.  Or perhaps I just don't care to resist any longer.

Like the beach I send you wishes for serenity and peace!  I know I am a day early but Happy Weekend to you!

The above picture of the weather map of the  US's most recent winter storm.  Yikes!  Looks like a serious booger doesn't it?   That's because it was!  The green bits are suppose to be rain and cooler temps , the blue parts suggest snow and cold temps and the purple parts indicate ice and freakin' freezing temps!  Talking to friends and family all over the country and seeing photos and video footage, especially traffic cams just about had me shaking in my sneakers.

And usually, that's where it ends, when these sorts of things happen.  While the rest of the country is shoveling out and huddling together to stay warm, wearing 32 layers of clothes and drinking medicinal Toddies, normally us Florians are wearing shorts and sandals, squinting into the sun and relaxing on the beach, right?  That's what all the cartoons indicate so it must be true!  

We in point of fact, sometimes it is true which is why people vacation in Florida during the winter.  But this past weekend was winter weather insanity everywhere, including Florida. We were not spared.  This past Saturday and Sunday, New England experienced what we used to call a real N'or Easter which is to say, extremely cold temperatures, high winds and ice and snow pelting down with no remorse.  While that was going on up there, down here was a what could only be called a South Easter!  

Unusual for us, we had Cold (for us) temps in the 20's and 30's, Extremely high winds and rain hammering down.  The wind was so fierce that Tim took down the sail shades in the courtyard and brought in the windchime so that we didn't lose it.  Trees dropped all sorts of branches and fronds and leaves, anything not strapped down rolled, flapped or flew away and some places even saw snow.

Yes, I said that.  Snow in Florida. In THIS part of Florida. Which is shocking.  Not all that long ago I, stupidly, said that this part of Florida NEVER sees snow.  In fact, I think I had the hubris to declare that not only had we never seen it, but we never would. tsktsktsk.  Pride goeth and all that.   At 4:15 am Sunday morning, just a few miles from here, on the East side of Venice Ave (we are the west side) somebody was up recording snow flurries in their yard. Insane!  What is going on?

I saw other videos and accompanying reports of flurries just south of us in Englewood and North Port Florida so we weren't the southest point of the flurries. In fact, in Englewood there was snow on the ground. On The Ground, folks!  Not a lot of snow granted, but still officially snow on the ground. don't believe me?  Well here's a photo Joy sent to me:

That's not sand, it' s freakin' snow in Englewood Florida on Manasota Key.  What???  The world has gone mad.

And while there was no snow on the ground at our house, the water in the birdie water dish partially froze so it was that kind of cold.  I went outside with the intention of cleaning the water dish and refilling it only to find:

Yes, yes, I do understand that our little piddly windy cold day and tiny bit of flurrysnow was nothing compared to the untraversable roads and massive piles of snow and cars doors frozen shut and power outages and various winter storm related nightmares that people suffered in other parts of the country and my heart goes out to them. I've been there done that!  What I'm saying isn't that this is worse, or even the same. What I'm saying is that it's unusual for us. Crazy for us. Unprecedented for us. And it's a little hard to wrap our brains around.

Also, I had forgotten how much extra laundry is involved in winter weather.  All those layers!  Thicker fabrics! Long sleeves and long pants!  Just an observation and isn't it funny how I had forgotten.  After a little trial and error, I finally remembered how to properly layers clothes for warmth without bulk, thank goodness.  And once again, so happy that we brought our down comforter with us here to Florida from Colorado even though everybody else thought we were crazy.  Well, we are crazy but also smart enough to have defied everyone else's advice and shipped it on down here. Thank goodness!

I don't know if we'll ever see snow down here again but I'm glad I was around to see it this time!  Hope the rest of you have your power restored, your cars dug out and your roads cleared!  Looks like winter isn't letting up anytime soon.

Thinking of Spring!

Hugs all 'round

I have accidentally discovered something wonderful and I want to share this wonderfulness with you!    The rainbow of socks you see here at the top of the page isn't just cute (and they are very cute) and they aren't just normal utilitarian socks, nope they are special socks.  Behold, I give you Compression Socks!

Compression Socks?  I hear you scoffing at me.  Like old person socks? Circulatory Problem socks? Medical issues socks?  Big Fat Hairy Deal, I hear you say.  And I know that's what you are saying because up until a couple of weeks ago, that is also what I would have said.

It began, as I said, a few weeks ago when I finally (FINALLY) got the okey dokey from my foot doctor to "slowly transition" from boot to shoe, which of course I translated as just wear your regular shoes. Sort of.  I did also agree to always wear the recommended orthotic in my shoes and since the orthotic only fits in one of pairs of shoes, I am, at the moment, wearing the same pair of shoes every single day no matter the occasion, circumstance or what the rest of the outfit looks like.  AND I also agreed to try to never, or at least almost never, go barefoot for the rest of my life. sigh.    This is by way of compromise, in my mind at least, with the doctor's instructions.

Me, wearing my one pair of regular shoes that the orthotic fits in. Nice to be in regular shoes once again though!!
​

For the past, I don't even remember for sure, many months I'd been clomping around in an orthopedic boot after carefully wrapping both feet with compression bandages. Every Dang Day I had to go through the ceremony of finding the correct end (there is a correct end as it turns out) of the compression bandage and slowly winding it around each foot, making sure it was not too tight, not too loose, making sure it was smooth with no wrinkles (coz they can create a sore spot), somehow, magically pulling a sock on over top without dislodging the wrapping and then strapping into the "boot" . To be honest, poor Tim often found himself roped into the wrapping part as he was far more patient than I and therefore did a superior job.

Oh it felt so good to be done with that nonsense.  On the other hand, as I awkwardly limped a little through my first few days in regular shoes, I felt like something was missing.  I did a little mental inventory. What did the doctor say in his post-boot instructions again?  Orthotic plus shoe ....,check, check. Nope, I didn't miss anything he said. but by the end of the day, as I was, once again, icing my feet because  they ached so badly,  I wondered what was going on.  Was it just adapting to wearing regular shoes again? Was it still just a part of the ongoing healing process? Was it the orthotic?  

I gave it  some serious thought.  It seemed to me that the achiness was remarkably similar to how my arthritic hands feel on the bad days. Hmm I wondered, do I now have arthritis in my feet?  And then the light in my head clicked on.

Years ago now, Tim bought me a pair of compression gloves for those bad days and they are a godsend!  I now have three pair, one pink and two grey and on rainy, cold days, such as we've been having lately, I find myself wearing them A LOT!  Usually only at night, but some days (such as today as a matter of fact) I wear them all day long and  they feel so good.

So I cleverly put two and two together and came up with compression socks. What a terrific idea. I've been wearing compression bandages on my feet for months so the 'leap' to compression socks is more of a hop than a leap.   Right away I went online to look up this compression sock idea, which I already knew was a thing even though, in my memory they were just so awful looking. I know, I know, how shallow of me to be concerned with looks. So sue me.

To my tremendous relief compression socks now come in all sorts of adorable patterns and colours! Yay!  My memory (admittedly a distant memory) of compression socks was of truly ugly beige or white, hospital grade, functional, get the job done but not done pretty and while I was certain that they would do the job, I dreaded the thought of committing to a lifetime of hideous socks.

Ok, side note, something else you probably don't know about me is that I used to make it a point to wear fun socks.  For literally years I looked for Colours, prints, ruffles, lace, anything that was out of the ordinary and jazzed up what can otherwise be a very functional piece of clothing. (Are socks clothing?) In fact, people referred to them as Sam's Jazzy Socks.  I often got fun socks as gifts from people because it was something relatively inexpensive and was something associated with me.  Then I grew up, got married, had children and didn't have the time or funds to indulge in fancy footwear. Instead I started buying my socks by the bagful, all white, at Walmart. They weren't pretty but they got the job done and I stopped thinking about my old jazzy socks days.

And now life and the universe gave me an opportunity to, once again, indulge a wee bit.   Just a little.  There were some Very Expensive and far more elaborately designed compression socks online but I compromised, Fun colours at a much cheaper price.  I was not going to settle for ugly socks and that was that.  Tim had No problem with the socks and now I have an entire sock colour wardrobe to choose from ever day !  Huzzah!

That is of course, the superficial part.  The functional part is Aces! I cannot begin to tell you how much better my feet feel in these compression socks.  Where have these been all my life?  Honestly if I knew that they felt this good to wear, I would have been wearing them all my life. ALL  MY LIFE!  I think back to when I was running every day. That extra support would have felt so good while knocking out my daily miles. And then after running would have been like a little mini foot massage.  ahhhhh.  And then while racing around after toddlers?  Daily Farm Chores?   Mall Shopping?  Heck, grocery shopping on those miserable concrete floors....oooo that would have been so nice.  Hiking!  Walking around town, at work, at play, even while I'm sleeping and I'm not kidding about that either. I would never ever have thought about trying compression socks if it hadn't been for my broken foot and toes.  But now I'm wondering why nobody told me about this before! Which is why I'm telling you.

I think I have a new obsession.  I see a lifetime of cute compression socks stretching ahead of me.  And I think you would enjoy them too! Anybody who spends time on their little feets and ends up with sore, achey,  tired feet by bedtime would truly appreciate how much better they feel wearing compression socks.  Give it a thought and maybe give it a try. Let me know what you think afterwards.

Behold, the weather map from yesterday.  Looks like big time winter happened almost everywhere in the entire USA this weekend!  Well, except for Florida.  We are the holdouts.  While you guys were slipsliding all over the icey roads, losing power and bundling up to stay warm, we had an absolutely beautiful weekend of sunshine and gentle breezes and mild temps that invited everyone to spend time outside.

And I feel so dang guilty!  Which is crazy because it's not as if I created the storm that had me wincing at Traffic Cam footage and remembering snow and ice storms of my past nostalgically.  And it's funny how many years later and warm winters make huddling by a fireplace through the night because an ice storm took the electricity, teeth chattering, wearing layer upon layers of clothes, a memory that makes me smile now instead of having flashbacks.

At any rate, I know it doesn't help a bit but today, right now, it's 69 degrees and that number will decrease throughout the day. Yes our temps will plummet as the day goes by, falling like rocks til they bottom out somewhere in the 30's.  Which is not the same kind of cold that Most of you experienced, but it's very cold to us.  No snow or ice though and that is probably what makes the most difference. We don't have to shovel anything and any bad accidents on the road are strictly due to terrible drivers and not because of weather conditions.

I hope everyone out there is fine, warm and safe and if you did lose power, that it comes back quickly. I pray that the sun comes out and melts the snow and ice.  For those who got snow, I hope somebody made some snowmen in their yards. And mostly, I hope this is the only storm you get this winter!!

If anybody has a minute, please let me know how you are doing, that you are safe and warm and unbothered by the woes of winter!!  Reach out and reassure someone :) In this case, me!

Warm Hugs all 'round

Is it possible?  Could it be?  After nearly 3 long months, is this really a Photo Safari Report??

Well, it's Photo Safari-ish.  I mean, there are photos, and Joy and I were really out there in Myakka State Park but since I'm still in the boot and on activity restrictions, we didn't get out of the car.   Ok that's a lie, sorry.  I did get out of the car once, but only once and Very Very Carefully. (please don't tell my doctor!)

In truth, after me whining and complaining about being home bound and missing hiking, Joy took pity on me and suggested doing a drive-through "hike" at Myakka.  I don't think she even finish the sentence before I yelled YES!  We planned to head out bright and early, just past sunrise last Thursday.

But of course, it rained last Thursday.  Sigh.  Okay no biggie, we regrouped and pushed it off one day. Bright and early Friday morning, while the little birdies were still rubbing the sleep from their eyes, Joy and I set out, cameras in hand, eager and ready to roll.

It was 39 degrees which is brisk for Florida. Not only was the heat on in the car but the car seats were cranked up as well.  Toasty Buns!  We weren't just being big old whiney babies, we were driving around with our cameras turned on and the windows rolled down so we didn't miss any quick shots. Joy drove slowly as we scanned the forest on both sides of the road. There was hardly anyone else around, which was not a surprise at all. Who else besides us would be crazy enough to be out there that day?  

It wasn't just colder than normal for sunny Florida, it was also more than a little breezy which meant occasionally Joy and I had to roll up the windows for a few minutes until our shivering settled down and then we'd open the windows right back up. It. Was. Awesome.

Not so awesome on the other hand was that the very first thing that I managed to do was break my glasses. Dang.  I need my glasses desperately for any close-up work and looking through a camera lens is very close up. This now meant that every photo I took I would be snapping almost blind. Or at least Realllllllly Blurry. All I can do is the best I can do.

I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, after I got back home and looked through the shots WITH glasses on to find that there actually were a few halfway decent pictures in the lot.  Yayayay!  (I do believe I deleted a record number however. Oh well)

Let's see what we have. And please be kind, bearing in mine that nearly every shot here was taken from the open window of the car which is limiting, my hands were nearly frozen from the cold, and I couldn't see what the heck I was doing.

I'll start with some scenery and botanicals if you don't mind:

Moving on to the animal we saw the most of this trip, Deer!  There were the adorable does and fawns, as per usual but this time, for the first time, also a stag!  He was moving fast so it's a slightly burry photo but still recognizable as a male deer. He was absolutely gorgeous. Pretend the blurriness is an intentional effect to simulate movement in a still shot:

And lastly, the birds.  Not a huge variety, sadly, but birds nonetheless.  I laughed when I realized that what was probably my prettiest bird photo that day was of one of the least "pretty" birds out there, a vulture.  Oh well, for a vulture he was handsome indeed.  Here is a sampling of a few different birds:

That's it, that's all I got.  In my mind, at least, while not the best Photo Safari report ever, I was so happy to be out there once again that my delight made up for the limited photos and so-so shots.

Hope you enjoy the Photo Safari-ish Report at least half as much as I did.  (Thanks Joy!)

It occurred to me recently that, once upon a time, I actually believed that crappola about age just being a state of mind.    It's more a state of body, I think.

I will admit, however, that there are varying sorts of being old.

For example:

 There is the grouchy old curmudgeon who only remembers the good parts of "the olden days" and refuses to learn anything newfangled and grumps their way through every day. They don't much like anything or anybody and spend most of their time watching television and complaining about it. Crankysaurous the dinosaur. 

On the other extreme there is the One in Denial who eagerly embraces new technology, knows all of the current bands and has favourites (the cute one of course).  They are fluent in current slang, spontaneously have nights out dancing 'til dawn and partying like it's 1999.  They make subtle criticisms of the rest of us showing our age (as if we weren't the same age). They wear the latest fashions and still see their much younger selves when they look in the mirror.

Most of us just kind of muddle along, getting through life the best we can.  Generally we are pleasant enough but like everyone we have bad days too; a little more tired, a few more aches and pains, a lot more doctor appointments and occasionally we are a tiny bit forgetful now and again.  We are older and we know that we are but we don't dwell on it.  It is what it is.  We learn new technology though we may not be the best or the fastest at it, we still manage. We are open to new ideas but not so open that our brains fall out.  We explore new fashion but only if it hides the things we aren't such fans of.    We will listen to new music but secretly still think our own prime era of music is the best one.

The question is, when are we officially old?

Certainly not when AARP thinks we are.  Doesn't AARP stand for American Association of Retired People?  Most retirees are up there in age. And that age of retirement keeps moving up not down. And yet, AARP keeps reaching out to a younger and younger group of people which seems counter intuitive. I remember getting my first "invitation" to join AARP on my 50th birthday.  And while at 50 I was certainly no spring chicken as they say, I wasn't anywhere near to considering retirement.  In fact, as I recall, I was mortally offended that AARP felt that, at 50, I was OLD.  I did not feel old at 50.

And that's a silly thing to say because I also remember that the very first time I said out loud that I must be officially old was when my youngest child graduated high school.  I'm sure I was being intentionally silly when I said it. The last child being a college student is a huge milestone, but I certainly wasn't old by any stretch of imagination.

I think the next time I said that I was old, was at youngest child's wedding. Once again, it was a milestone reaction.  I didn't look half bad.  I have a photo around here somewhere, hang on:

I was still working full time, had lots of energy and rarely needed to visit a doctor office for anything other than an annual check up. Tim and I had loads of friends, lots of projects going on, traveled often along with our jobs, literally climbed mountains, kept up the house and yard.  A marked difference from today and yet, back then I referred to myself as "officially old". Silly me. Perhaps I was joking.

When I retired, a little bit earlier than originally intended, I still was super energetic, always embracing a new idea, walking multiple miles every day just for fun and taking care of hearth, home and husband while still qualifying to collect social security and just shy of  qualifying for Medicare. But that was also when I started to occasionally walk into a room and then wonder what I went in there for.  So I guess that was the real beginning. Just the outer edges maybe. Not truly old yet but definitely heading in that direction.  But that new milestone of being retired made me say, "I guess I'm officially old now".

The year I turned 65, Tim and the kids surprised me with a trip together and it was absolutely still the best vacation I ever had. The best.  Being 65 is kind of a big deal.  Once again, the onus of being 65 felt officially old.  This was me then with my girlies:

That's less than 10 years ago, though somehow it feels a lot longer. There's been something about the seven years since then that have made me a lot closer to being officially old. Perhaps I've already arrived and I'm just not ready to admit it yet.   Since turning 65 there has been loads more medical stuff,  a distinct slowing down that I've noticed, and I have far more patience than I used to have (which is a good thing).  There are fewer adventures happening or at least more recovery time required afterwards, definitely more walking into rooms and wondering why, absolutely more writing things down so that I don't forget, more creaking, more aching and more naps.

But there has also been a lot more confidence, way more laughing, far more consideration, grace and forgiveness going on.  I think before talking more,  I am more honest with myself as well as other people and I give far fewer opinions. I suspect that while I may be doing fewer variety of things, I am enjoying  those things a great deal more and on many more levels. 

It isn't as though my age comes up a lot, it does not.  I don't think about it all the time. In fact recently I had to stop and do the math to be sure how old I was and even then it didn't seem correct.  But it does come up now and again.

Recently, while attempting with my clumsy arthritic fingers to put on earrings, I dropped one. (earrings not fingers).  Naturally the errant earring rolled under the bed.  Dang!  I bent over to see if I could reach it, but of course not.  I had to clumsily get down lower.  Bear in mind here that we have a small bedroom and there is not a great deal of space between the bed and the closet doors. So working around my booted foot in the narrow space,  I knelt on the hard tile floor (knees objecting strenuously). Still could not reach it. Double Dang!  I ended up laying full length on the floor and stretching as far as I could underneath to finally just barely touch the dang thing.  Once my finger tips grazed it, I pushed off the closet door with one foot, very carefully and shoved my upper body under the bed and at long last, snagged it!  Huzzah!  

Then realized, crap, now I have to get back out.  First, while still under the bed, I put the earring on, then with both hands flat (or as flat as they go) on the floor, I pushed and wiggled myself backwards without banging the booted foot on anything because that would really hurt and kind of curled into a half circle so that I would fit.   Somehow, with zero grace at all, I got back to my knees (poor knees) and was fighting my way back upright when I hear from the doorway, "Are you okay?" from Tim.  With one last push, I thrust myself upright, hair in my face,  a little flushed from exertion and without giving it one seconds thought I said, "I'm fine, just old".  Tim nodded and went back to work.

I supposed that means that now I actually am officially old.  Dang.

​Oh well.

Happy New Year!

Here we are guys, 9 days into 2026. How's it going for you, so far?   

As per usual, I made Zero resolutions. I just don't need that kind of pressure, y'know?  We didn't go to any parties or stay up 'til midnight or anything like that.  The New Year rolls in every year whether we are awake to witness it or not.  I did hear some fireworks around midnight which was a tad bit alarming because we are in a drought situation here right now.  To be fair, every winter is a drought situation because it is NOT our rainy season.  But this year is apparently a bit more droughty than usual. And I don't' even know what that means.

So far our New Year is looking pretty good.  My feet are still slowly healing  (and that is not a typo, the injuries now involve both feet - sigh) and the house is fully unchristmassed.  I adore the sparkle and the twinkle, the glitter and the shine, the doodads and thingamajigs here, there and everywhere, the giant tree and everything else that goes along with Christmas decor, but I also love when it's all down and safely packed away. The house feels huge now.

Our toaster died. It was a long slow decline.  Tim and I found ourselves turning the "heat" up every time we put a slice of bread in. Initially I think I had my side set on 3. I like my bread, lightly toasted. Tim prefers his with a darker toast so I think his side was a 4.  But by the end we both had it cranked up as far as it would go and often had to put it through a second time for any hope of some level of toastedness, often just on one side.  So we knew it was time.  This time we opted for a toaster oven.

The very first thing I made in that toaster oven was cinnamon toast.   It had been a very long time since I had it and it was divoon which is at least one step better than divine.  Cinnamon toast always sends me flying back in time to childhood on a rainy or snowy day and Mother would sometimes treat us to the sweet, buttery, cinnamony goodness.  Mother was reknowned as a terrible cook in general but she made great cinnamon toast.  Some foods from childhood didn't make the cut as an adult but cinnamon toast is still awesome.

Right now it is unseasonably warm here. Today we are supposed to break some sort of record.  I just walked around the house closing all the windows. Very sad.  Monday the cool should be back and the windows will, once again, be open. Florida is known for it's lovely winters (see 'snowbirds') but not temps in the 80's.  Usually the highest we see is maybe mid 70's. I'm not complaining, it's still way better than August, so I'm not complaining. Almost nothing is worse than Florida in August. Except Florida in September.  Yeah, September is worse.

The hibiscus and bougainvillea are blooming like mad, the sky today is an endless blue, I'm sure the beach is packed with tourists and snowbirds, the kittyboys are napping. Tim is fully entrenched in his workday and I have a pile of ironing mocking me.   Yesterday I finished a big project editing a manuscript for a friend. I went through twice with my red pen and my sticky notes.  Tomorrow we'll pop by the post office and ship it back.

We have plans on the calendar to get together with our friends, the Minocks, in a couple of weeks and we're excited about that!  I still have my museum days to look forward to every week and I've begun re-reading the Outlander book series in hopes, desperate hopes, that the author will have finished the 10th and final book before I'm done with the 9th.  The books are enormous and I tend to read them more slowly than I do most books because they are so jam packed with not only exquisite writing, but history and all of the important details of the story that move it forward. Cannot miss a single word!  Most books aren't like that.  In fact, I dare say, that with most books, I can skip whole pages, sometimes whole chapters and still know what's happening. Or even accurately predict what's going to happen.  These books aren't like that.

I got a refund in the mail a few days ago from over paying a medical bill somewhere along the line.  That was exciting!  Money up!  That almost never happens.  Made me smile :)

Looking ahead to a weekend of various errands and possibly some down time, which is always appreciated.

So as you can clearly see, our New Year is about as exciting as our old year. But you know what?  I'm good with that.  Suits me just fine.  All I wished for was Good Health and Happiness.  We have both of those, yay! 

Hope your New Year is exactly what you hoped it would be.
​Hugs all 'round

We had an exciting and scary few minutes recently.  It was sort of like the movie, the Great Escape .  

Gotta back up first to tell the tale properly.

Not sure if you remember or not, but shortly after the kittyboys came into our lives, Tim bought these windows hammocks for them.  And of course, they adore the hammocks. Hammocks must have been invented with cats or people behaving like cats, in mind.  Relaxing, napping, resting, sleeping and catching a few Z's are what hammocks are perfect for and cats excel in those activities (or perhaps non-activities) like no others.  It's absolutely normal to find both hammocks occupied.  One hammock is in Tim's office window and one is in our bedroom window.  

Here is an example of Brysco lounging in the bedroom hammock.  From this vantage point they spend hours napping and spying on our lovely neighbor and her dogs.  They can also nap and see cars drive by, bicyclers, walkers and of course any random bird, squirrel or lizard that happens by.  Mostly they nap.

 
Sometimes the guys get really excited about something happening outside the window and both of them crowd the hammock, of necessity pressing against screen.  Neither Wyatt nor Brysco is especially large so even their combined presence at the window never crossed my mind as being possibly problematic.  

Which, I suppose, means it was my fault entirely.

It happened last Wednesday, Museum day.  I was still at work but my day was nearly done  and Tim was about to get ready to leave to pick me up. He was trying to finish one last thing before  he shut down when Brysco came running into his office, meowing.  Tim reached down to pet him but Brysco jumped up into the office hammock, still sounding distressed.  Odd.  So Tim went to the window and looked out.  He saw nothing alarming, just the usual stuff.  So he petted Brysco, grabbed his wallet and keys and zoomed out the door.

Luckily, the museum is only about a 5 minutes drive from home so the entire round trip was less than a quarter of an hour because as we approached the driveway, Tim noticed something worrisome.  He pulled into our driveway, tossed me the keys and leapt from the car.  I stood sat for a second wondering what on earth as going on, got out, walked to the door, unlocked, walked in and heard a cat meow. The sound was coming from my right, which means, Tim's office or our bedroom.  

As soon as I turned down the hallway, I immediately saw a cat in the window but it didn't look right.  It took me a second for all of the marbles to fall into their proper holes in my brain and to realize that the thing that was wrong was that the cat was on the wrong side of the window!   Sometimes I'm not too bright. What??  I hobbled as quickly as possible to the window murmuring reassuring words but Brysco was panicked beyond reason.

I turned and hobbled outside as fast as I could (not all that fast sadly) and moved to that side of the exterior of the house just in time to see Tim loading Brysco into the house through our bedroom window.  The screen was laying on the ground.  What on Earth?    Tim quickly assured me that both boys were inside now, freaked out, but safely inside.

While Tim replaced the screen, I went back inside to check on the guys.  They were wide eyed and terrified! Poor Babies!   Wyatt, as always, dived under the bed in the guest room for awhile. Brysco clung to us like a limpet.  Eventually Wyatt crept slowly out from under the bed and joined us.  After much reassurance and a few kitty treats, they calmed down a little bit but didn't let us our of their sight for the rest of the day.

As best as we can reconstruct the situation.  Both boys must have been in the bedroom hammock, crowding the window when the screen gave way and Wyatt fell out.  Brysco ran into the office to alert Tim who, when he looked out the window, saw nothing amiss and left to pick me up.  Since no human was of any help, Brysco also jumped out the window to "help" his brother.  Tim's guess was that they were just going from window to window, hoping that we would see them and let them back in when we returned.    At least they panicked correctly and didn't run away!!

Tim spent part of the weekend screwing some sort of screen locks into place so that we have no repeats of this by the way which eases my mind tremendously!

Now that it's all over and everybody is fine, traumatized but fine, I have to chuckle a bit because when we selected these boys at the Cat Shelter, we were told by the workers there that since Brysco and Wyatt were a) ferals and b) at 6 months a little older than most,  we shouldn't expect them to bond with us. HAH!  Loves wins again.  Those babies are so bonded to us that it ain't funny.  They had a perfect opportunity to make a dash for freedom or at least an adventure but all they wanted was to be back inside with us.

So ends the tale of The Great Escape, Kitty Edition

​

How was your Christmas?   As you can plainly see, Tim and I had a lovely holiday.  But I think nobody enjoyed it more than the kitty boys.  Wyatt and Brysco both received gifts from our human children and the kittyboys were most appreciative.

Brysco, in particular, got a little aggressive about investigating anything he thought might possibly be his:

 He started playing with his new toys immediately which, naturally, brought his brother over to also play. They played first with one new toy, and then the other. The tested everything out, batted things around, laid claim to favourites and were quite obviously delighted. They frolicked with abandon as do all little ones (both furry and non-furry) with new toys on Christmas Day

All of which, ultimately, led to the annual Christmas fight. (sigh)

The fight broke up when Tim said their names in his low rumbly voice.  They separated immediately, shook themselves and headed off, separately, to sulk and nap alternately.  When they woke up, all was forgiven.

It was an exciting morning!

We put the new ornaments on the tree, stacked new books in a handy spot to be read, drank tea out of the new mug, enjoyed Calzones for lunch with dear friends and all was well with the world.  The best part of the day was that we got to talk to all of the kids!!!  All of them!!! (insert enormous smile here)

All in all, it was a wonderful day and now that we are a few days past, retrospectively I can say that it ranked pretty high on the Christmas Happy Scale. No days were better than when the boys were small and still believed in the magic of Santa. Those days were The Best hands down, but for adult Christmases, yeah, this one was pretty dang good.

Today, New Years' Eve eve, is chilly here, It's 51 degrees inside the house!  Of course I have windows open everywhere so, naturally it's a bit nippy inside. But the relatively (relative to normal Florida winter weather) brisk temps are a treat in that they are unusual here. Not really wintery, no snow or ice, just Floridians in puffy jackets and tourists huddled under beach blankets on the sand, determined to have their beach vacations no matter what!

Tim and I aren't wearing puffy jackets.  I have on a sweatshirt though with long pants and Tim is wearing a long sleeved polo shirt - with shorts but still.  Wyatt loves the colder weather and sits in the open window, nose up, eyes closed, breeze ruffling his fur.  But then Wyatt is more naturally insulated than Brysco who is, at this moment, snuggled in a softie blanket on our bed in a sunny spot, having a little nap.

I'm enjoying these quiet calm days that whisper, "just breathe" and gently nudge their way between the two big holidays, Christmas and New Years.  Today I don't have to bake, or write a card, or select a gift, or wrap a gift, or stress about money, or decorate anything or host anything or attend anything or clean anything (if I don't want to).  Today I can just relax and be.  The quiet days between Christmas and New Years are a gift in themselves.

Hope all of you had a lovely Christmas Too!

Wishes to you and everyone you love, for a Very Magical Christmas from Tim and I, Brysco and Wyatt, with love

Hugs all 'round