Do you have a "Dream Home"?  I mean, in the broadest sense of hopes and wishes and dreams, is there a mental image of a house that has a better look, layout,  location or number of rooms?  Is there something would better strike your fancy?  Maybe it's not an entire house, maybe it's just one room that, in a perfect world, with deep enough pockets, you might tweak a bit?  Or perhaps you love your home, just as it is, but you wish it was closer to or farther from town?   I suspect that most us do.

Tim and I love where we live, walking distance to our cute little downtown, walking distance to the beach, easy driving distance to multiple different cities and airports. We are very happy  with where we live.  And we even like our little house.  It's just a cute little old beach house, emphasis on the little and the old.  

We've updated and improved things, one project a year for ten years now, and we still like our house just fine. Honest, we do!  If we spend every day of the rest of our lives in this house, that would not be a problem at all. And, as I said before, we love where we are.  But is this our Dream Home?  No. Not at all.

And that is a huge part of why we enjoy going to see model homes and Open Houses.  We are, mentally building, our Dream Home.  Seeing ideas, up close and personal, as opposed to just reading about them, has helped us to decide is this something we like (and if so, why) or is this something we do not like (and if so, why).  Other houses sometimes showcase things we might never, in a million years, consider. OR it's something we considered, discarded and now are reconsidering because seeing it in person is completely different than on paper.

I guess we take this fairly seriously because we have been "building" our Dream Home for nearly the entire ten years we have lived here.  The whole, if we were starting from scratch, what would our house HAVE to have, or what would be nice, but is not an absolute necessity, and what do we absolutely positively NOT want.  We have tossed around ideas, agreed, disagreed, made our case(s), discussed endlessly, drawn sketches on paper and pointed out in other houses that we see and even done a little research - (mostly about construction ideas and landscaping thoughts).

When Tim and I do the Noonwalk, which we try to do most everyday, it's a common discussion if we have nothing else pressing to discuss.  What do we think about this, that or the other thing.  When we are on a long drive, one or the other of us might be struck with a new Dream Home thought and that discussion might last 100 miles or so.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, that if we have a weekend day with no other plans, we sometimes will look to see if there are any models or Open Houses that we haven't already seen scheduled.  And that is what happened this past Sunday.

You are familiar with Open Houses, I assume.  The owners vacate the premises for a few hours, the realtor puts up Open House Signs with arrows around the neighborhood and in the yard, greets everyone who wants to check out the house and hands out paperwork telling about the home, the neighborhood and so forth.  Sometimes they want you to "sign in" sometimes they don't.  Sometimes they offer cookies and water. And they try, very hard, to answer all of the questions asked.  

Tim found Three houses, online that were listed as Open Houses that day all of which looked interesting, two of them in an unfamiliar neighborhood, one in a neighborhood we already like. We had no other plans, no other errands and it was a gloomy day that threatened to let loose so why not.  Off we went.

Tim was Pilot, I was Navigator, as per usual.    The drive was perfectly ordinary, it was rainy true enough, but ordinary otherwise, and when we arrived at the neighborhood, we both remarked on how cute it was. The lots were large, the houses set well apart, there were sidewalks on both sides of the street and mature growth trees.  The homes and yards were well kept and the houses of wildly diverse architectural styles, ages, and eras.  We were suitably impressed.

When we arrived at the address in question, however, there were no Open House signs, not one. How Very Odd.  I re-checked the  date and time on several different real estate websites and all of them agreed that it should be an Open House. Not only were there no signs, but no sign of life!  No realtor's car in the driveway, no lights on inside. Very Very Odd.  Well, we thought, perhaps they were delayed by the rain and would therefore be getting a late start. No worries. We moved on to the 2nd house on the list.  We continued to note pretty homes, the surprise of a body of water very nearby, what an adorable neighborhood feel it had and then, we arrived at the second address which also had Zero signs, Zero cards in the driveway or in front of the house AND Zero lights on inside. What the what?

Hmmmm.  We drove around the area for a bit then, just in case there was, in fact,  the late start, returned to the first house but nothing had changed. Bizarre.  How odd that both houses in that same neighborhood were apparently listed incorrectly?  Whatever, we said out loud to each other and moved on to the 3rd house and guess what?  Also no signs, no signs of life, no nothin'. What exactly is happening ?  

It felt Very Twilight Zone.  what are the odds that all 3 houses, three different realtors, three different streets, two different neighborhoods would all have Open Houses listed very clearly on line but not in reality. 

We headed for home, perplexed and disappointed, wondering what on earth was going on. Then we wondered, were they called on account of rain?  Wait a minute that makes no sense, this is not a baseball game.  We aren't viewing the house through the windows from outside getting soaked in the downpour.  The only time rain enters into the situation at all would be the short trot, under an umbrella mind you, from car to house, house to car.    But is it possible?  Could that be the case?  Has this ever happened to any of you?

Is this a new thing?  I admittedly do not keep up with all of the New Things happening in the world out there, but Open Houses that are, in fact, not open due to weather?  That's a new one for us.   Hurricanes?  Yeah, absolutely, that would be cancelled.  Tropical Storm, yupyup. Same goes for volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and blizzards, but just ordinary rain?  Colour me surprised. I just don't get it. I was just regular rain.....Gene Kelly did a whole song and dance in it!  Ryan Gosling and Rachel MacAdams had a famous kiss in it!   Football games get played in it.  Most of Woodstock was rain soaked.

I guess I just need to file this under, Learned Something New now let it go.  But that doesn't mean I like it.

You may have noticed that I have not posted any Photo Safari Reports in a few weeks.  Generally speaking, Joy and I usually hike on Thursdays which means I have Photo Safari Report (PSR) ready for you on Fridays!  But, with one thing and another, it turns out that the last PSR I put up was an entire month ago! It was June 26th, I just looked it up! 

I don't know if you've missed reading them, but I've missed writing them and mostly I've missed doing them!  The hiking, the photographing, the spotting of opportunity and the time with my sister are all  things too good to not do!

But life happens.  There have been appointments, travels, and mostly, there has been rain. Lots and lots of rain. Well it is our rainy season, so it makes perfect sense but dang!  Joy and I were both very hopeful for yesterday. After many weeks of NOT, we were sure that finally we'd be getting back out there. And then on Monday we checked the weather prediction and it was wet. Very wet. And worse than wet, it was filled with lightning. We don't mess around with lightning.  But during our usual Monday phone call, we agreed to wait to make an absolute decision until Wednesday.  The plan was that when I got home from work on Wednesday. I would check all of the various weather reports (because they don't always agree) and text her.

As soon as I got back from the museum on Wednesday, as promised, I checked the weather predictions and for a change, they all agreed.  Thunder, lightning, and rain. Full Orchestration. For Thursday morning.  Dang.  Joy and I texted back and forth for a bit trying to decide. After all, things do change. And around here, they change often.  So we agreed to do a zero hour decision Thursday morning. Whoever got up first would look out the window and text the other one.  Reasonable thought process! So we both prepared as we always do, camera batteries were charged, hiking clothes laid out, equipment gathered, we were ready, just in case.

I woke at 5:30 am Thursday morning to what sounded like an unending line of giant dump trucks filled with boulders crossing a metal bridge.  That is to say, rolling thunder.  I slitted my eyes open long enough to read the nearest clock and saw the time and immediately thereafter I was nearly blinded by a lightning flash in the very dark wee hours.  Dang.  I groaned softly, swung out of bed and padded to the window.

It was just a gentle pitter patter of rain at that moment; more drizzle than rain.  I checked the weather app on my phone and it confirmed that it had not changed it's mind about the storm. And in fact, if anything, it was going to be longer and bigger than originally stated. The entire county was now under a flood watch.  Well, that is just craptastic.

I texted Joy, knowing that eventually she would see my report and suggestion that the hike be cancelled even though the rain was just drizzly.  She responded almost immediately and agreed.  At that point it was more about the lightning than the rain.  It's not like we would melt in the rain.  It's not fun to be soaking wet, feet squelching in our shoes (a sure way to invite blisters by the way), clothes plastered to our bodies and hair running with water but it's not a death knell, just miserable.  The problem with the rain is our cameras and my hearing aids.  If they get wet, it's not just a problem, it's an expensive problem. 

We could bring plastic bags, that's easy enough.  They fold up small, tuck them in a pocket and cameras and hearing aids are protected.   Absolutely, that could be done.  But in Florida, the issue is the lightning.  Not only do we get a lot of lightning, and wildfires often start from lightning strikes here abouts, but  - and this is the scary part - people get struck by lightning with alarming frequency and that is ALWAYS a bad thing.    So drizzle or no drizzle, lightning says no.   No Hike.  Ratz.  Yet another week of no hike, no pictures, no photo safari report and no time with my sister.

Wait a minute, no pictures?  I bet I have some pictures.  And it's true, I do!  Just a few, but they are pictures and so they count.  Between rain bands on this past Tuesday, I saw the kittyboys raptly starring out the family room windows in the afternoon. So I quietly crept up behind them to see what they were seeing.  It was a nice variety of birds at and near the feeder :) I watched with Brysco and Wyatt for a bit then, for a change actually thinking, I grabbed my camera and took some photos. I had particular reason in mind, it was strictly, just because. Which is an excellent reason all on it's own. And now, well it's not a photo safari report and these aren't exotic or unusual birds and they weren't in a preserve or state park, just our backyard.  Still counts!

So I leave you today with wishes for a great weekend and a few birdie photos.  I hope all the places around the country today that are desperate for rain, finally get some! I'd send you ours if I could, but stamps do not stick to it!

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Way back toward the beginning of July when I was writing about Tim's and my birthday, I neglected to mention the biggest and most unexpected gift I got on my big day.  My washer broke down after the very first load.  Dang. And before you ask why on earth I was doing laundry on my birthday and isn't that against my own birthday rules, let me remind you that the rule is that I get to do exactly what I please on my birthday and one of the things I was pleased to do (initially anyway) was laundry.  It was my dang day, I'll spend it the way I wish.

The way I knew that the washer was broken was that it was holding my laundry hostage.  That's right, the cycle was complete, the door was locked and it refused to unlock.  Well, that was unexpected.  My first thought was to try to trick the washer into unlocking by running a second, shorter cycle and surely, when the cycle was complete, the door would pop open and all would, once again, be well with the world.  Great idea.  Except for the part where it didn't work.  Double dang.

So I went online, typed in the model/serial number/etc  to check for trouble shooting tips.  Door that refuses to unlock was a category (not those exact words, but close enough) and they had three ideas for how to correct the problem. The first was to unplug the washer, let it sit a minute and think about what it had done, replug it and voila, the door should magically unlock.  It did not.  Is there a triple dang?

The second tip was what I had already done, run a different cycle.  It did not work the first time I did it. It also did not work the second time. And in fact, the second time it not only did not unlock the door, it also did not run the cycle.  Clearly things were not only bad, but getting worse.

The third tip involved opening some mysterious hidden panel that was beyond my ability OR interest.  By then I had given up. Feeling dejected and a little bummed, I told Tim about the issue.  Of immediate importance was getting that door unlocked so that I could rescue the clean wet clothing.  The dryer still works, after all. But if the wet stuff sits too long it'll become moldy wet stuff and that is never good.  

I suspect that Tim tried the 3rd tip and was able to find the secret hidden panel because he was able to open the door. Huzzah!  I quickly tossed everything into the dryer and was feeling pretty good about things.  Tim suggested that before I attempted to actually wash anything else, I should run an empty cycle first just in case the door locked me out again.  Good Thought!  

Once again, I set the washer to run the shortest cycle, hit start, it lit up and then about 90 seconds later, turned itself off.  Well crap.  Just to be thorough, I tried every cycle available and the same thing happened each time.  Insert big annoyed sigh here.

I really didn't want to even think about it for another moment on that particular day and so I did not.   Except to book a repair person. It turned out that the washer was still under warranty so yes, I abso-freakin-lutely was going to go the repair route.  our washer, by the way, is only two years old. I know that appliances do not last like they used to in the olden days, but two years is crazy.  I called the number on the warranty paperwork and got a robot phone answerer.  It asked pertinent questions, I answered them and then it sent me a website and an identification code.  So I went to the website, answered more questions, put in my secret decoder ring code.  The website authorized the repair, acknowledged the warranty *yay* and offered me dates for the repair person to come out.  I took the first one which was Tuesday.  (remember this all began on my birthday which was a Thursday this year).

  Obviously I was going to have to do somthing I realllllllly did not want to do and that was, go to the laundromat.

 I waited until the next day, gathered baskets full of the remainder of the wash that did not get done the day before, laundry pods, dryer sheets and my keys and headed to my local laundromat.  It had been probably ten years since I'd been there and things change so I wasn't positive what I was walking into and I'm sure that I showed my hesitation on my face.  I stood there like a statue, two very full baskets in my arms, purse slung cross body, sunglasses popped on top of my head and cast my eyes around the room trying to, I don't know orient myself to a new environment?  Within about 5 minutes, a very nice lady came up to me, introduced herself, told me that she ran the place and she kind of toured me around.

The last time I was there, quarters were the thing. A person had to have quarters to run the machinery. Lots and lots of quarters.  I used to go to the bank first and get a couple of rolls of quarters before going.  This time I was able to get the job done with a credit card.  So Much Easier!  Every machine had it's own card reader and it was just a matter of getting the knack of making that particular machine pleased with the speed of the swipe. Not too fast, not too slow.

So I got the laundry done, the lady was nice, the machines were easy to use, the laundromat is ON island which means I was able to drive there without having a heart attack and so I really have nothing to complain about. But I will anyway.  

First of all, I am grateful beyond measure that we have a laundromat and, again, that is was reasonably clean and easy to use and the lady who runs it was so nice BUT I do not like going to the laundromat. Not even sure why, just know that I don't.  And I never have.  There have been huge portions of my life when going to the laundromat was a regular bi-weekly thing.  During college when I'd take text books with me to study while the machine hummed along and during the warmer seasons, walk over to dairy queen to get a cone to eat while waiting.  When the boys were babies and I'd carry baskets of laundry, handfuls of toddlers and a hipful of baby to juggle while taking care of laundry business.  Again, when I was a single mom and the boys were older and we would go early on a Sunday morning when nobody else was there, the boys could entertain themselves and help fold/carry baskets/keep me company.  And of course, as I said earlier, when we first moved here and the house didn't have a washer/dryer hooked up yet.

So I'm familiar with the concept.  And to be honest, some laundromats are more disgusting than others.  I'm thinking way back now, to a particular laundromat when someone had relieved themselves in an "inconspicuous" inside corner despite there being bathrooms on site, there were remnants of gum in a dryer that I did not notice until I took the dried clothes OUT of the tumbler (sigh) and someone walked off with one entire load of my stuff out of the dryer.  (bigger sigh). In comparison, our local laundromat is heaven sent. But it is still a laundromat and I have to load stuff in the car, drive over, haul it out of the car into the building, afterward haul it back out into the car, drive home, carrying it inside and THEN put things away or in the ironing pile.

I think the worst part is the inefficiency.  When I do laundry at home, once the loads are started I can then move on to doing other things.  As every woman knows, multi-tasking is how things get done around the house.  Laundromat is single tasking. Humph.

ANYWAY, Eventually Tuesday rolled around and the repair guy showed up, found the problemS  yes, that's right plural problems.  There were three issues.   Told me he had to order parts and would be in touch to schedule the actual repair once they had come in and no, he had no idea when that would be.  I felt as if I was held hostage by the washer once again.

So I continued going to the laundromat  multiple times a week, getting better and better at the swipe timing as time went by and then one glorious day Tim got the call and booked it, Dan-O.  Last Friday, late afternoon, a repair guy came with three boxes (I assume the parts in question) and spent a few hours taking out the old, putting in the new and making sure it all worked. Beefore he left,  I told him he was my new favorite person. He grinned.

I do not believe I have ever been so happy in my life to do laundry as I am right now.  I have not only done the usual clothes and towels but blankets, comforters, mattress covers.........basically anything that fits in the washer has now been washed.  I am absolutely delighted.

Y'know it occurs to me that I ought to be at least a little embarrassed by how affected I was by not having a working washer.  After all, I'm just a few generations out from women who used to wash board to scrub clothes and boiled them in big pots.  I'm not sure if they would think I was weak and spoiled, or if they would be envious of how good I have it.  Maybe a little of both

This is familiar experience around here during Rainy Season, which is right now.  Actually it began June 1st but we honestly didn't see all that much rain for the first six weeks. In fact, we saw so little rain for the first part of 'rainy season' that we were official under drought restrictions especially regarding such things as sprinkler systems and garden watering.

It got worse too.  Wildfires began to pop up almost every day or so  primarily due to lightning strikes (lighting yes, rain no which is a bad combo) and smelling that acrid awful smokey air outside was beginning to be a regular thing.  You knew immediately who was flouting the lawn watering rules just by walking down the street.  Any good looking beautiful green carpet of a lawn was somebody who was sneakily watering more. OR they had artificial turf, it was for sure one or the other. The rest of us had patchy, brownish, crispy looking lawns.  Things that normally blossom like mad this time of year were stretching themselves to blossom at all.

It was all getting to be pretty sad.

Then last week, just in time to save us all, the rain finally came.  Huzzah!  But then it kept raining.  And raining.  And Raining.  Eventually every day was gloomy, dark & grey with thunder in the distance and lightening strike notifications pinging on my phone continually.  It was either currently raining, had just finished raining or was about to rain every moment of the day or night.  There were a few nights where we woke up from such rockin' and rollin' and full  orchestration that we couldn't sleep. It sounded as if the storm were directly above our house (and who knows?  Maybe it was!)

I was reluctant to leave the house at all because, seriously, who wants to dash through rain coming down so hard it looks like a wall?  Once while driving, Tim - who is an excellent driver and never flinches - actually pulled over into a parking lot to wait until it let up a wee bit.   That's how you know  was a gullywhomper of the first order.  

Umbrellas are fairly pointless in that kind of rain. The wind will pull it inside out in no time flat and even if your bumbershoot remains whole, the rain is often coming in sideways and you are going to be wet regardless- umbrella  or not!

The green growing stuff was delighted.  Suddenly all the blooming things began blooming like mad, colour in every direction.  The lawns are filling back in looking green and lush and the birds are responding enthusiastically.   Lakes, creek, rivers and ponds are filling back up too and that's loverly to see though it also means, beware of gators. They are sneaky and can literally be in any body of water you can see, whether it's a just a gully on the side of the road or a full sized lake.
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Last Sunday, even though it was rainy with a prediction of yet more rain, we went for a drive.  We ended up by the water up in Sarasota and stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the view. I hopped out of the car between rain bands and took a few photos:

Today is sunny, at the moment and 88 degrees, and not quite a humid as it might be for a Florida July, but rain is expected this evening once more and that will keep the green stuff green.

I'm sure eventually things will settle into the normal rhythm of the daily 4 o'clock rain band coming through and then going on it's merry way until Rainy Season is once again over and things cool off and the humidity lifts a bit. That would be Tourist Season which is a whole other thing.

Wishes you a balance of the perfect amount of rain and sun!

​Have a great weekend!

We are lucky enough to have a live performance theatre here in our city. Not just in our city, mind you, but right here on Venice Island.   We can easily walk there, which I love. While were aren't season ticket holders by any stretch, we have seen a number of terrific shows there and had hopes to see at least a few more.

But back in 2022, Hurricane Ian tore through Venice and, as you can clearly see from the above photo on the left, pretty much destroyed the nearly 100 year old building.  Everyone, theatre go-er or not, wondered what the future would bring regarding our theatre.  There were loads of theories and gossip, of course.  That's what always happens.

But now here we are, six years later and, after some very impressive fund raising, donations,  grants and Government assistance it appears that the Venice Theatre is repaired. Well that's what it looks like in the photo on the right, right?  

The truth is that it's only partially repaired.  There is still a ways to go.  And Tim and I found that out, up close and personal, last week when we were able to tour the building!  I adore "behind the scenes" stuff.  Our tour guide, a very personable and knowledgeable soul took us through all of the "do not enter" and "staff only" doors that I've long wondered about (I'm so nosy!)  We were even able to don hard hats (check out photo at the end to see Tim and I sporting very fashionable hardhats) and witness the part that remains under construction.  It was so much fun and quite the transformation.

Lets go backwards before we go forwards.  I will begin at the beginning. It's a very good place to start.  Our adorable little city of Venice Florida is only just now one hundred years old. So there you go, we were official in 1926. The roaring twenties!  And as such, it was a beautiful and very fun place that had quite a good number of Enormous and Gorgeous Grand Hotels for the folks with enough money to travel and vacation.   In 1927, on the exact site of the Venice Theatre, was an automotive garage (to take good care of the vehicles of those grand folks). It was called the Orange Blossom Garage.  Things were rolling along beautifully in this amazing gulf-side city filled with Mediterranean Architecture, lots of things to do, palm trees galore and a gorgeous beach.

By the time of the Stock Market Crash that changed the world in 1929, the city of Venice was already in trouble due to some iffy financial decision and mismanagement of funds. The Crash just finished it.  The city went from a thriving community of about 4000 people to around 400 virtually overnight.  It was practically a ghost town filled with huge empty hotels and so many other business closed down, including the Orange Blossom Garage.

In 1932, the Kentucky Military Institute (KMI), a military school, first rented and then bought several of the big empty hotels and the garage, among other buildings, to use as the winter quarters for their school which began to breathe new life into the city.  The KMI continued to house those building until the school closed in 1971.  The garage, which was being used as an armory, a chapel and a basketball arena, once again, sat empty.

Meanwhile, as the city had begun to revitalize itself over the years, the Venice Little Theatre, as an organization  was created in 1950 in borrowed space at our little airport which had previously been used during WWII by the Army Aircorps.   The community loved having its own live theater and eventually, in 1973, bought the old Orange Blossom Garage and slowly turned it into the Venice Theatre.

And now,  ack in current day, the Venice Theatre is actually a little campus of three separate buildings and once repairs are complete, there will be the one large stage, one smaller stage and in a separate building that will primarily be used for education, several other yet smaller stages. It is a genuine marvel!  And a serious one at that.  The folks involved are so very serious about the business of entertainment and education that in the world of Community Theatre, the Venice Theatre ranks #2 in the entire USA by the official organization that ranks such things.  Wow!  By the way, the #1 ranking community theatre in the US is in Omaha Nebraska.

Now that the history lesson is complete, I would love to share a few of the behind the scenes photos that I took:

I'll start with the under construction area which will ultimately be the main theatre.  What I neglected to get a photo of was the fly bridge which is where that massive staircase goes. It is incredibly high up and is such a lovely big space that it will be able to accommodate dozens of backdrops at a time along with catwalks, lighting and so much more:

Then some of the smaller rooms that I remembered to take pictures of (some of them I was too busy ogling instead of snapping):  

First here is the costume design studio. It is a surprisingly huge room@ One wall alone was just one sewing machine after another (with people manning several while we were there), the other three walls were lined with bin-stuffed shelving.  Every bin was labelled with such things as "sequins", "buttons" "lace"  "zippers" and far, far more.  The room was further crowded with worktables, some of which had partially completed projects laid out, mannequins in various states of dress, and rack upon rack of colours of threads. It was glorious!

One of my favourite rooms was the costume closet which is actually an entire room full to overflowing with carefully labelled and organized garments, hat, shoes and jewelry:

Another of my favorites was the Small Props room which, as the title suggests, holds small *but essential* props.  It was so quirky and fun:

One of the three building encompassing the Venice Theatre campus is the Set Design and Construction building. It is a builders paradise with a dedicated paint room, at least one of every tool ever created, storage of the pieces currently unused but possibly useable again the future and it was filled with one of my favourite scents, sawdust!

Some of the rooms I neglected to get photos of were: the backstage waiting area, where the actors and dressers wait for their cues to go on; the orchestra pit which is really just small room with a video screen so the musicians and singers can see what is going on and prepare for their turns to perform; the music directors office which has a grand piano in it - of course it does - and so many more.

We also got to sneak into the smaller theatre which is up and running and watched the builders and electricians prepare for the next show:

It was a fascinating and so very fun peek into what goes into creating these award winnning plays that the audience gets to enjoy.  I had to laugh a little bit because the tour, which was touted as a 90 minute show 'round turned out to take more than 2 1/2 hours. We were actually nearing the 3 hour tour mark and well, we all know how that worked out for Gilligan and his friends eh?

If you are lucky enough to live in close proximity to a community theatre, I urge you to, at least once in awhile, go see some of the shows.  The people who work there, hundreds (literally) of them volunteers, really do put their hearts and souls into creating some magic for their audience.  And the shows themselves are a perfect escape from our real, stressful, normal lives for just an hour or so. I believe we can all benefit from a little bit of that ;)

In case you wondered, these are all flowers from around our yard.  It's like living in a botanical garden!

Wishing all of you a Beautiful Weekend!  See ya'll next week!

Hugs all 'round

You knew that my birthday was last Thursday, but I'm not sure that you also knew that Tim's birthday was last Saturday.  Yes our birthdays are the 9th and the 11th of July which is kind of crazy, eh? It has been Birthday Central at our house, lately. Tim and I, both separately and together, have been thoroughly birthday-ed every single day for about a week now.  And it has been absolutely Awesome!

We have been treated to brunches, lunches, dinners and desserts. We've received phone calls, and texts and emails, mostly from folks far away who we love and miss so much.  There were also lots of cards (some sparkly, some funny, some sweetly sincere) which are currently on display on the kitchen table defying any resident kitties attempts to knock them down.  There were shopping expeditions, gifts and surprise visits. We received a homemade and absolutely luscious pie (see above - it was exquisite) and a birthday card that was also a puzzle, so fun, so cute, so clever and unique!  We were hugged and celebrated and made much of.  And I think Tim and I both have gained at least 3 pounds from being so very wonderful-ed. 

"Why yes, I believe I will have that ice cream, thank you. After all it is my birthday"  and "Thank you yes, I'd love a bit of that pie/cake/cookie!  Birthdays come but once a year". It may take me 'til next birthday to work all those goodies off. BUT it was totally worth every calorie :)

Every single special effort that anyone made for us, was special and heart warming and often brought me to tears. We both feel so very loved and what could possibly be better than that?    It was a lovely, magical, amazing birthday week for us both.

In fact it was so wonderful that it completely balanced out the fact that Tim's car is back in the shop and my washing machine quit (I spent way fun time at the laundromat today yay).  And honestly, neither of those usually really annoying things which would normally have set me off are making me give much more than a shrug and a sigh today because we are still riding our Birthday Specialness High :)

Thank you one and all for EVERYTHING that made us feel like we are important in your lives and helped make our birthday truly a celebration!!  We feel as if you all  love us and I promise you, we love you right back  
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Today is July 10th which means that yesterday was my birthday. Wow! Another year, gone, *snap* just like that.   As of yesterday, I now have to answer "73" when asked my age. Dang that sounds old.  Which is only because it is.  That said, there lots of different sorts of age 73!  I consider myself to be very fortunate to be the sort of 73 that is still active, as social as I ever was (which isn't all that much really), capable of getting into all kinds of trouble AND with most of my facilities still intact.  Not too bad.

I have interests and hobbies, family and friends, a sense of purpose and a calendar filled with loads of things that are not just doctor appointments.  For this I am truly thankful though I couldn't say exactly why I have been so lucky. It could be due to some really great genetics I suppose - my family tends to be quite long lived, historically.  Or perhaps I can take a little credit on my own because, outside of a penchant for cookies and ice cream, I have taken pretty good care of my health.  Or maybe it's simple blind stubbornness in my refusal to give in or even acknowledge the carnage associated with being elderly.

Wait a minute, 'elderly'?  Whoa!  I am not elderly. Am I? Okay I just looked it up. Yes, I am. Apparently, a person is considered elderly past the age of 65.  And I definitely qualify for that.  Dang!  Elderly?  I don't think I like that word.  I'm okay with old.  I'm fine with senior. (I don't like either one, but I can deal with them). Elderly however feels fragile and vulnerable and kind of decrepit.  Not a pretty picture. 

So I'm tearing up that picture. I've mentally put it through the shredder and it's gone.  Yes, I am now Seventy-Three Freakin' Years Old!  But I'm also fabulous!

And now, as per tradition, the Birthday Rules because they will ALWAYS apply regardless of age:

BIRTHDAY RULES

1. Number one and most important on this hit parade:  It's all about the birthday person.  It really is.  No exceptions. If it's your birthday, everything that day is about you. Period.

2. Of course, to be absolutely fair, I am not a person who really likes being the center of a big crowd of people. But a small, comfortable, familiar crowd is fine. In fact it's awesome.  A small group of people that I really care about it absolutely perfect.  If that group consists of me and one other person, sometimes that is the best group of all.

3. And there should be at least one treat that a person rarely has, like cake. Or ice cream.  Or cake AND ice cream.  And for heaven's sakes, if a person is going to indulge, it should be the good stuff. The real deal. No fake, crappy substitutes.  And speaking as a person with Lactose Intolerance, if I'm going to suffer later, I want the suffering to be worthwhile, which means the ice cream must be primo.

4. There should be a few cards, some of them should have sparkles, some flowers, some funny, some touching or maybe thought provoking. I like cards.  I set them up on top of the big display cabinet in the living room and admire them for far too long afterwards.

5. There should be some sort of contact from people far away, whether it's phone calls or emails or texts or facebook posts or telepathic thoughts, heaps of good wishes from folks far away makes a birthday extra special.  To think that all of those people bothered to take the time to acknowledge your existence on your birthday shows that you matter in this life.  That's important.

6. There should be no chores on your birthday.  Not one single solitary gotta-do should be done by the birthday celebrant.  Those things can either wait a day to be done, or someone else needs to do them.  I'm immovable on this fact.

7. The birthday person gets to choose what or where to eat for dinner.  And no matter what they choose, that's what dinner is.  Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.  It is the ONE day of the entire year where nobody else's likes/dislikes/or personal opinion should take precedence regarding food.

8. It should be a happy day.  Only positive comments and thoughts please.  It should be a day of smiles and laughter. If there is something negative or sad that needs to be said, keep it to yourself for one more day.  Not even boredom is allowed.

​Happy Birthday to ME!

You see before you, Exhibit A, an ordinary pump dispenser.  This one happens to be body lotion. We use a lot of moisturizing lotion in this house.  Both of us. Even Tim.  I know this comes under the header of TMI, but since we have moved to Florida, Tim and I have fallen into the habit of taking 2 showers a day.  The first one, in the morning, is just part of waking up. While Tim drinks coffee, I do not. So for me, my morning shower is my "perk me up" instead of caffeine.  But, again, as Florida residents who spend actual time outside year 'round, we get sweaty, so before bed, we shower again.  We do this year 'round.  In the hot weather it is a necessity. In the cooler months, I suppose it's just habit.  The point remains, we shower, twice a day.

Which means we are very clean. But it also means we are drying out our skin which makes our skin itchy.  I hate itchy. I would rather be in pain than be itchy and I mean that seriously. Moisturizer, especially a super de duper moisturizer, applied liberally and often, helps tremendously (as does taking a less hot shower interestingly, but that's a different future post).

Anyway, that means we go through a goodly amount of moisturizing lotion on a regular basis.  We've tried a number of brands and kind of landed on Gold Bond in the end as one that we both liked.  As a product, I am a fan. A big fan.

However, the pump dispenser itself, as a means of accessing the lotion, is seriously flawed.  I mean it starts out just fine.  Tralalala, merrily we go on our way, pumping out lotion willynilly, until the bottle is about 3/4 empty. Then, suddenly, nothing. It seems to be kaput!  No matter how firmly or gently pumped, nothing else comes out. The bottle appears to be empty.  

Turns out, it is not. It was my friend Marsha, who cued me in on this.  "Good heaven's," she said to me when I whined about it to her, "it's not empty, don't just throw it away".  When I questioned her, she explained that she just cuts open the container to get access to the remainder. I raised my eyebrows with interest and curiosity.

On the one hand, I do like getting my money's worth.  Not a big fan of waste. On the other hand, is there enough leftover cream in the container to make it worth all of the pain-in-the-assidness of cutting open the bottle?  Only one way to find out.

First, I needed my tools, the most important of which was something to cut it open with.  I tried a number of things but it turned out that a box cutter was the best option.  As little scary, as I am not graceful and the bottle is every so sightly curved and I could easily imagine it slipping out from my clumsy hands and accidentally cutting something that bleeds rather than the container.  I vowed to myself to be extra careful.

Also got some paper towels because I anticipated at least a little bit of a mess and a different empty lidded container to hold any leftover moisturize.  Then I gathered up all no longer producing bottles of moisturizer that were in the house. Turned out to be two.

I laid each one carefully on it's side and took a deep breath, got a good grip on both bottle and boxcutter and began. Turned out to be more a series of punctures in the bottle than straight forward cutting as one might do on a cardboard box. But it worked so I suppose it doesn't matter.  In the end there were two half bottles of lotion and no blood lost so that's a win!

I was truly surprised at how much lotion remained at the bottom of the bottle.  At least a week's worth of application, would be my first guess. Easily. Probably more.  That's how much I was wasting by assuming that the pump dispense knew what it was doing when it stopped producing.  The container, after all isn't clear. I cannot see in!  And even if I unscrewed the top and peered inside, the lotion and the bottle are both white.  It would be somewhere between difficult and impossible to know for sure if the bottle were empty or not.

I suspect this is by design. I hate to be that suspicious of anyone's motives but come on!  I began to think about other pump dispenser products that I have used throughout my entire life and it's a crazy big number.  I wondered if it were true of ALL pump dispensers or just this one.  Well, I did a little investigating, and it turns out that the reason it happens is one of three things:

1.  a tube that is too short
2.  the bottle shape. A flat bottomed bottle tends to result in more residue 
3.  pump suction loss.  As the bottle empties, the pump loses suction and draws air instead of         product 

I hmmmmed on that for a wee bit because all of those reasons seem to be easily resolved with a design change so what the what?   I continued to read, perhaps there is something mechanical or physics related that I was missing in my thought process.  Turns out, Nope!  

"This design is a manufacturing and cost‑reduction choice — automated filling machines often round up to the nearest volume, so bottles are filled slightly over the labeled amount to ensure the pump delivers the stated volume. It’s also a practical compromise for mass production, as it’s easier to fill and test bottles at the factory."

And that is a direct quote. 

Ok, since I am not in charge of the world but also do not want to pay even more for the moisturizer, nor do I want to go without it (and making the necessary design changes would absolutely result in charging customers more), I guess I will just continue to do what I'm currently doing and preforming surgery on all pump dispenser bottles to garner every last pennies worth of product !!!!

You doubt me?  Here is what I scraped out of the two bottles I just cut open yesterday:

As an aside, I also learned that the pump dispenser design itself is literally thousands of years old.  Ancient Egyptians used it way back in 2000 BCE. The design has, of course, been refined  and modernized since then but still, I'm kind of impressed that the same basic concept used by Cleopatra and Ptolemy is still sitting on our bathroom vanity!  

Anyway, I guess the whole point here was to suggest to any of you who have noticed the same issue and maybe wondered if it was worthwhile that yeah, as lazy as I basically am, even I see the value in putting forth the effort to get every last drop in this particular case.  

No actual surgical license necessary  :)

Today is only the 3rd but I wish you all a safe and very fun 4th of July tomorrow!  And Oh my Goodness, It's not just the anniversary of our Independence Day but the 250th birthday of The United States of America!  That's a big deal.  Especially when consider that the concept of the way our country was originally structured, the idea of it all, the hard tack and whimsical ideals that became our Constitutional Republic, was really an experiment.  Nobody had ever done it before.

Oh other countries have created something perhaps a little similar here and there around the edges, but nobody ever in history has done it the way that we have.  And what we have, particularly as compared to most other places in the world, is pretty amazing still, 250 years later.

Oh it's not all rainbows and roses for sure.  There have been some moments of great tragedy where many people feared that it was all over for us. But somehow, someway, we managed to bandage the country back together. We are not a perfect nation by a long shot. But, we seem to keep adapting and changing as the years pass, while still holding on to those core beliefs that the whole idea of us sprang from. We constantly take the temperature of the times, the needs of the people, the state of the planet and adjust accordingly.  Maybe not as fast as many folks would prefer but eventually, it always seems to happen. 

For the naysayers in the crowd, ask yourselves why so Very Many people from other countries want to live in our country?  Because it's better than what they have. Very simple.  

I absolutely refuse to argue politics these days.  It is a very rare individual anymore who is willing to have a discussion, a simple exchange of ideas with someone who doesn't feel exactly the same way without it devolving into a screaming  match, a severing of ties, and pointed accusing fingers. I don't need or want that in my life so I keep  my political opinions to myself.  But honestly, I do not feel that I have to believe the same way as everyone else (freedom, remember?) to love my country.  I don't have to turn a blind eye to any flaws to still be proud to be an American.  I can hope for and work toward, changes that I believe should be made and still say the Pledge of Allegiance without feeling like a hypocrite. We are all works in progress, so why would our country, which was created by people who were also flawed (because we all are) be perfect? That's just kind of ridiculous.

I love that we all have a voice. We have opportunities to try to change things, we can freely speak our minds, ask questions, and agree to disagree.  But considering that there are about 350 millions souls in the USA right now it is flatly impossible to please every single one of them every single day.  Just won't happen.  That's 350 million opinions on how to do it right, how to interpret the laws, the constitution, the Declaration of Independent for heaven's sakes. We are never ever going to all agree on one thing.

But maybe the majority can agree that tomorrow is the 250th Anniversary of one of the Greatest Countries that ever existed!  Perhaps in 250 more years, we can come together more on topics, agree more, or at least disagree more politely.  But probably not because people are people and in this country, the people have had generations of training to be free with their thoughts, their opinions, their ideas and their rights to expression.  

What a beautiful thing.

Happy Birthday America!

Absolutely NOT wedding related, but still it was something old, something new - well new to me anyway, and that counts!   Ever hear of a spatchcocked chicken?  That doesn't sound right, does it?  Well it 's a real thing and I cooked a couple of them on Saturday for the very first time!

First of all Spatchcocking is not new at all. It harkens back to the 18th century in England and Ireland, which means I am very late to the party.  But I'm glad I finally got there :) And Second of all, what it means is that the birds backbone is removed and then it's all butterflied or flattened out.  And when cooked, it looks a little something like this:
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Spatchcocking, allows the chicken to cook faster and more efficiently which also means juicier and more flavourful. All good things.

It was Tim's idea. Not mine.  I had only ever heard the term once while sort of watching an episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown.  I like the show, don't get me wrong, but a lot of the time, (to be honest most of the time) I'm only ever sort of watching any TV show while also doing other things.  At any rate, all I remembered about that show was the funny word.   "Spatchcocking" is a funny word, let's face it, and that it looked very complicated. And since I am, to be perfectly honest, kind of lazy, mentally I wrote it off as something I would never do and then continued doing whatever else I was doing while sort of watching the show.

Never say never.

This past Saturday we had guests coming for luncheon.  So obviously during the preceding week, Tim and I were discussing the menu.  I had thrown out the idea of cooking chicken on the grill, probably thinking chicken breasts or tenders.  Tim asked what I thought about the idea of doing spatchcocked chicken.  I said, "excuse you?" before I remembered that I sort of knew what it meant.

After a quick google search I courageously said, "Why not?"  I had never made it before but I can be brave.  Well, not the kind of brave that jumps out of airplanes but the sort of brave that means cooking something I've never made before for guests!  That is it's own sort of courage. It is, I swear!

Anyway, I landed on a recipe that sounded do-able and Tim found a place with chickens already cut and flattened and ready to go so I didn't have to do the hardest part. Woohoo, Even Better! I was ready to roll.  

I read through the recipe multiple times to be absolutely sure what I thought I was doing and then, I took a deep breath and commenced. 

The particular directions I was following required "dry brining" which was another thing I had never done before.  If you've never done it, it means pulling the skin gently from the meat of the bird so that the brine which is a salt/pepper/baking powder mix, can be tucked between the skin and the meat first and then rubbing the mixture all over the outside of the skin as well and then putting the uncooked, brine bird, on it's  foiled tray into the fridge overnight, uncovered.  

About an hour before serving the entire bird comes out of the fridge and is then rubbed thoroughly with herbed butter.  After that it's into the oven for roasting for 45 minutes,  broiled for 5-10 minutes, let it sit out of the oven for about 5 minutes and voila, it's done and ready to be served.  

Yes its true there is a little more prep work than usual, but not difficult work. The hardest part was pulling the skin gently away from the meat while not tearing it but I did the best I could.   I will be honest,  I didn't do a particularly good job of it, but I did the best I could and since it all came out great, I suppose it was good enough.  Perhaps next time I will do better?

And I promise you, there will be next time because it was so tasty!  And a little impressive looking!   Our guests could not stop talking about how good it was, so I guess it really was good and not just me being full of myself.  I am so glad that Tim had the idea and that I was brave enough to try it.  

I find it so easy to fall into a same old, same old kind of routine with cooking. Everything is so expensive that if a new dish doesn't turn out well, it is money down the drain and that hurts!  Ouchie, right in the tender wallet. I totally understand the why behind constantly making the same tried and true dishes over and over again. But I definitely feel the need to be braver and try more new dishes, more new techniques even if we don't have guests. Just for us.  As long as I'm very careful and judicious in my choices, why not?

Eleanor Roosevelt famously said that a person should  do one thing that scares them every day.  I'm pretty sure she wasn't talking about spatchcocked chickens but, who knows, maybe she was?

Try new things.  Even new things that are really very old ideas :)







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Howdy do you all of you!  Happy Friday!

What we have here, as you can probably guess, is another Photo Safari Report.  Joy and I went to Myakka State Park this time.  We found out that they had rebuilt the towers  and that's what you see here, the two of us at the tippity top, me on the left and Joy on the right, pointing out the horizon line (as if you cannot see it for yourself).  And since we, so very bravely did indeed climb all of those freakin' stairs, I am calling this one the Taller Than the Trees Hike!  And if you truly knew the enormous height of some of those trees, you would be very impressed with us.

I will go ahead and start with the towers, since I've already mentioned it.  The first tower is a mere 74 feet high.  The Second tower reportedly is 76 feet though at that point it feels like a lot more.  There is also a bridge between the two which is only twenty-five feet above the ground and about 100 feet long.  In the pictures the bridge appears to be stationary but I can only assure you that it is not, you can feel the movement beneath your feet as you cross.  At one point while navigating the bridge, there is a branch that most folks have to  duck under. Joy and I being shorties had no issues - heh.   The view at the top was worth every step I promise even though I mumbled to Joy at one point that it felt as if we were going to just keep climbing that thing for the rest of our lives.  The crazy part is that I was the one who said, "I think we have to do the towers". Yup me.  what was I thinking?  hehheh

Here's a few more photos of the tower, the bridge and the view from the top:

  It was one of the best hikes we've done in awhile as far as variety of photo subjects is concerned so that was an unexpected delight.

We both heard and saw loads of birds, but as per my usual, I only captured a few. Sometimes I get so caught up in just seeing what I see, that I forget to take a picture!  Silly me!  As I said, there was such a huge variety of birds there which I did not get photos of and that is a shame. In fact, I even missed out on one of my favourites, the Kite.  I could just stand and watch the Kites soar for hours. AND I have no photos to show for it, dang! Oh well. Anyway, here are some other birdies:

Finally I got some dragonflies. I like butterflies and there were loads of those too though I got no photos to prove it. But Dragonflies are my favourites so I was tickled when to get even one photo.  There were so many and in such vibrant and beautiful colours everywhere around us, all zooming about, busy with their day, I was delighted with this group. I swear to you that this is 4 separate dragonflies. Oh and one bee!  Bees are also tricky, too quick and their paths too random to predict:

There were far more flowers than we've seen in other places too so that's a big yay!  Not what it normally would be right now, but it's looking up and it's looking colourful:

Other wildlife that we saw?  Well there was a bunny, a squirrel, a turtle, lots of alligators and a snake.  All of them were a surprise, there is no rhyme or reason to what we might come across or where, but the snake was the biggest surprise of the day.  Joy was ahead of me on the trail and there we are just stridin' along and suddenly she comes to a toe-stop. That is to say a sudden, unexpected halt that started at her toes and made her heels come up off the ground. It was so abrupt that I nearly crashed into her. She said not a single word, so I peered around her silently, saw the snake in question and very softly said, "oh". I'm not certain who was more shocked, us or the reptile in question.  We backed up a few feet and allowed the snake to do whatever it wished and what it wished to do was turn around, and return from whence it came.  whew!  That was a close one:

All that remains now are the randos, my favourites!  Got some great ones this time too!

And there you have it, the Taller Than the Trees Hike! Thanks for coming along :)  Hope you enjoyed.

Have a Terrific Weekend!

I think it's fair to say, especially as we cruise our way into the summer months, that one of the best inventions ever have to have been thought up, is Air Conditioning.  And Further, I think it is of particular importance, survival-wise, if you live in a place that is hot and humid. Hot is bad enough, humid just is that little extra dollop of crap on a dumpster fire.

I know, I know, I'm spoiled and pathetic and oh well.  I believe that if the original inhabitants of this area, the Caloosa Indians, had access to Air Conditioning, they would have loved it.  I am absolutely positive that the homesteaders who arrived in the late 1800's would be been delighted about.  I look at the old (very old) photos of the people who built this city and one generation back, the men in their dark jackets and high collars, the women in long sleeves, long dresses with petticoats for heaven's sakes and I marvel at how they survived at all.

Before you write me off as a total wimp, I want you to know that not every house I ever lived in throughout my life had Air Conditioning. Of course some of those houses were in areas of this country that don't really require it. Even when I lived in Connecticut, there were never more than a couple of weeks through the summer where the heat and humidity made it hard to sleep and any physical activity at all, including showering, caused us to sweat.  A few fans in windows and we managed just fine.   Doesn't mean we wouldn't have appreciated AC on those miserable days. We absolutely would have!!!  The same way that we, even here in Florida,  on very rare winter days, appreciate having a heating system. Rarely used but always grateful it was there.

 All that said, Florida summers are an entirely different kettle of hot pockets fresh out of the microwave.  Not just hot but molten hot and of course there are the days when the humidity is so high that when outside it feels as if we are trying to breathe underwater. Unpleasant is the mildest term I can think of to describe it.  All that whining about the heat and humidity is firmly balanced out by how gorgeous it is the entire rest of the year so in case you wondered why anyone lives here,  that's why.

Air Conditioning, by the way, was invented by Willis Carrier way back in 1902 in New York City of all places!   But it wasn't until after World War II that the concept began to be integrated into commercial enterprises such as movie theatres and department stores and then, eventually into residential buildings.  We seem to come around to accepting new ideas slowly, even really really good ideas.

When we bought this house, ten years ago, one of the first things we did, even before we physically  moved our stuff into the house, was to have the existing AC system updated.  Because we had never lived in Florida before, we relied on the expertise of the fellow we hired to do the job. His recommendation was the one we took and honestly, for awhile, the house was much much cooler. The improvement was instantaneous and glorious.  And it served us very well, for a time.

The past few years though,  even though we are very good about having it checked out by the professionals every year and maintained exactly as instructed, the system was working harder and harder but the room temps were getting higher.  We adapted to the slightly less comfortable levels, as people do but we could not ignore the rising cost of electricity.  And no, it was not just, prices are higher now. Well  yes, they are, but it wasn't the sole reason that the monthly bill as becoming astronomical. It was a slowly failing system trying like crazy to do what it really could not do anymore.

There was a notable and increasingly uncomfortable shift in temperature throughout the day and night as the system cycled, high and slightly lower, back and forth, from acceptable to almost tolerable. And clearly something had to change.

Tim did his research, as he does,  and we ended up having an entirely different sort of AC system put in which meant the old one had to come out.  All of it, including the miles of ducting in the attic, the condenser outside and the great hulking brut taking up a considerable bit of real estate  in the utility room, gone!  In it's place is a non traditional, unconventional system called a Mini Split (for reasons unknown to me).  There are 5 units through the house hanging on walls, that look exactly like the one at the top of the page; one in each bedroom, one in the family room and the last in the living/dining/kitchen area.  Two condensers this time, wall mounted outside and elevated (in case of flooding) .

The system is quiet, the entire house is comfortable, does not cycle up and down constantly,  and in fact, for me, maybe a wee bit too cool for me (not Tim) sometimes but that's why sweaters were invented and each room can be a different temperature if we wish and Tim can adjust right from his phone (or with the remote).  It's a lovely change.  The big old AC on the wall are, well, they aren't art.  BUT I suspect that after a while, I probably won't truly notice them.

It seems that this Mini Split AC concept was invented in Japan in the late 1950's-60's to accommodate their small, closely spaced homes and apartments.  The idea spread through parts of Europe first and now is slowly making its way into American Homes. 

Well, so far, we are impressed.  It was a huge decision and a big investment but theoretically, our electric bill should be noticeably smaller now and, most importantly, we are finally cool and dry once again in the house.  I don't even think about the AC anymore, we just live our lives, comfortably even when it's truly hot and miserable outside.  We've been "testing' it unintentionally lately as we've been under a steady stream of Heat Advisory Days.  Inside is gorgeous.  Once we step outside, it's all bets off.

Oh, and while the kitty boys were NOT happy about strangers in the house making a racket for multiple days in a row, they are loving the cooler air.  Fair Trade I'd say.

Anyway, that's what's new at our house.  How about you?

Well howdy do folks! Haven't talked at ya since Monday's blogpost, so I suppose that means this will be another one!  And as you can probably guess from the photo above of Joy on a hiking trail, Yes, this will be a Photo Safari Report!  I'm calling this one the Yellow Flowers and Cardinals Hike. The reasons will be obvious, shortly.

 Our part of Florida is currently under a heat advisory, so even though we do set out pretty early in the morning, we were also clever enough to choose a preserve with a lot of shade. The little breeze off the river was a nice addition.    And even though we have had some rain, technically, far less than normal, which makes us still smack dab in the middle of a drought.  Despite that we were delighted to see not just a higher level of water in the river but also a few boggy spots here and there and one place where we had to step over water moving across the trail.  Yay!  Never thought I'd be happy to see swampy stuff!

Once again not a lot of wildlife. We saw one squirrel, two lizards and a few birds. I only captured one lizard, zero squirrels and only one sort of bird. Lots of photos of that ONE sort of bird tho. Obviously, from the title, cardinals.  Here are a few of those. None of them are great shots but hey, is what is y'know?

oh yeah, and two lizards:

 No squirrel photos. He was moving way too fast, leaping from branch to branch, tree to tree clearly on a mission!

Because we were hiking primarily along the river I got a lot of photos of two specific things:  Reflections because the river was especially slow moving which made the surface like a mirror:

And Obstacles.  In this particular preserve, the trail is narrow  and cluttered with downed trees which Joy and I go either over or under, as best we can.  This was also where we had the tiny rivulet of water crossing the trail at one point. Naturally I had to take a picture of it to celebrate More Water which is so desperately needed right now. Anyway, obstacles of one sort or another:

    The other thing we found, in abundance, was yellow flowers!  Masses of them, everywhere.  Sometimes in surprising places!  Of course I clickity clicked on those.

There were a couple of other colours of flowers here and there and I didn't want them to feel left out so I snapped those too:

I suppose all that's left now are the randos, which, as you know, is my favourite category:

OH!  And one dragonfly!  I was especially tickled that i got this one because while there were a zillion or so dragonflies zipping around, they were all moving at light speed. I move more at donut speed.  When they finally did slow down or stop, they would be in the most difficult spots to capture.  I always try anyway and usually end up deleting the picture in the end. But this time 'round, I got him!  (or her, I have no idea)  Anyway, here it is. Hard won but nonetheless a Taadaa!

Anyway, have a great weekend! Celebrate all fathers while doing so!  They deserve it!

​Hugs all 'round

I'll give you three guesses what Tim and I did this past Friday.........give up?  We met our friends, the Minocks, up in Tampa to visit the Titanic Exhibit!  Woohoo!

It was the travelling version of the exhibit not the permanent structure one and I've been told how the permanent one is even more awesome than the travelling version, but Honestly, I find that hard to believe coz this one was Awesome!

Well start with, yes, Tim played hookey so that we could go on a weekday, the assumption being that it would be less crowded on a Friday. It was also toward the end of the exhibits run which, presumably also helps there be smaller crowds.  And it worked!  While there were other folks there enjoying it all, it was very do-able and Sam-friendly!  

If you haven't been, I'll tell you a bit about it.  We were given our lanyards to begin with AND a paper that assigned us the identity of an actual passenger of that fated ship. I was Mathilde Weisz of Belgium - a Second Class passenger.  Tim was David Bowen of NYC and he was travelling third class.  Much like Jack of Rose and Jack fame.

As we walked through, we saw actual Titanic artifacts and also wonderful photographs that really help to tell the story.  We learned all about how the Titanic and her sister ships, the Gigantic and the Olympic, came to be, who the officers were on the ship and where she sailed from with all stops along the way.​

We learned all of the crazy unexpected things that happened along the way, each thing unfortunately, leading directly, though unintentionally, toward it's tragic end.  For example, at the last minute, one of the officers was re-assigned to a different ship and naturally he followed orders and immediately headed to his new post, without realizing that he had the key to the binocular locker in his pocket! Oh no!  Additionally, it all happened in the dark of night, on a flat calm sea (which makes distances harder to determine) AND there was a hazey fog kicking up.  None of those things were ideal for spotting ice bergs!  We also found out that there was an unprecedented amount of ice berg activity in the area.  Oh there were more small things that all added up to disaster, but  I'll leave a few for your own eventual discovery.

 Just for fun, we also got a pose on "deck" of the great ship:

We also got to pose at the bottom of the Grand Staircase.  Not the real actual staircase of course and oddly there were no photographs taken (that anyone ever found) of the real Titanic Grand Staircase.  The one seen below is of the Grand Staircase of the Olympic!  

At Eventually we made our way to a total surround video that was brilliant, very sad and made me kind of dizzy.  It wasn't just on all four walls but also the floor and ceiling!  Total Immersion.

At one point we got to look up our New names to find out what happened to our people. Were they rescued?  Did they survive?  (mine did, Tim's did not - very impactful)

The second to last part was an oppportunity to do a Virtual Reality deep sea dive to explore the wreckage!  Wow~!  I actually declined that part.  I'm clumsy enough in The real reality, I don't need an extra opportunity to damage myself.  But everyone else had a blast :)  Here's Tim getting into it.  By the way, He LOVED the VR experience.

At the very end, of course, we ended up in the gift shop, which is where the posters came from.  But my favourite part was an AI thing that, if you wished, took your photo and then after a moment produced multiple version of your face in Titanic era fashions.  That was fun.

It was a terrific history lesson, interactive, interesting, and creative!  if you have the opportunity and have not yet done it, I recommend it highly!  Rank super high on the Sam-Scale of museums.

Hey there!  How was your weekend?  Our Sunday was a day of adventure!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday we had such uncharacteristic weather that I felt the need to be out in it to fully enjoy it before summer heat and humidity once again reared it's ugly head. Tim was up for it so I grabbed my camera and we headed to Felt's Audubon preserve.  It's up in Palmetto, about 40 minutes North of us so not a place we go often but one that never fails to result in birdie photos.  It's right in the name after all, "Audubon" named after the famous bird conservator James Audubon!

Well I did get a few bird photos. Very few. But they count!

​

We set out to hike a few of the trails just in case we happen to see something photo worthy.  The trails were fun, a few low bridges where we had to nearly crawl under a fallen tree but mostly just normal hiking trails:

And then we wandered down by Olive's Pond.  Normally this is a huge pond and related creeks that is absolutely teeming with wildlife of all sort.  Sadly, here is the current state of Olive's Pond:

If anyone ever doubted that Florida is currently experiencing drought conditions, here is some very sad proof. No water means no wildlife :(

We did see a couple of cute squirrels, some interesting fungus and a few bee hotels!  yes that is a real thing:

It didn't take very long to make our way through all of Felt's so rather than just return home, Tim did a quick search on his phone and found a place we'd never visited called Emersen's Point in the same town only about ten minutes away!

Off we went!  As we knew nothing at all about Emersen's, I read aloud about it on our way over and learned that, as the name suggests it's on the water with amazing views and a surprising number of hiking trails.  The biggest surprise were the Indian Mounds which had steps and ramps to go up to the top.  It's especially cool to us because Florida is so very flat. Obviously there was no question about whether or not we were climbing up!

A few shots of the lovely water:

We read all of the signs that told the story of the original inhabitants. Fascinating Stuff!  admired a grasshopper that patiently waited for me to get the shot. And some truly lovely tropical flora.

So glad we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and spent the day outside on Sunday. Especially happy now because the weather has returned to the normal hot and humid and, at the moment, cloudy, dreary and grey. Rain is on the way!

By the way, in case anyone wonders: Tim and I did not feel any tremors from the earthquake in the gulf yesterday even though, if you look on the impact map, Venice was one of the spots that supposedly felt it.  Not sure why we didn't but, neither of us knew a thing about it until we read it in the news!    Oblivious!

Wishes to everyone for a great week!

 First of all, Happy National Donut Day!  As you can see from the above photo, Tim ran out early this morning to surprise me! Sooooo Goooood (and at the same time - deliciously bad for us). With absolutely Zero regard for fat and calories, we celebrated properly :)

Secondly, and the bulk of this post, who is ready for another Photo Safari Report?  It's been a couple of weeks, true.  I know that usually my Photo Safari Report usually arrive once a week as if they were  mandated but lately,  Joy and I are just not finding a lot of terrific photos while we are out. I have no idea where all of the wildlife have gone, but they are Not hanging around their usual stomping grounds.  Don't get me wrong, it's still a beautiful walk and we always have a good time, but we genuinely missing having Loads of opportunities to capture wildlife.  Therefore, between that and the occasional rainy Thursday which is not good for photography OR hiking, I fear there will be fewer of these reports this season. unless things change, which, who knows? It could happen!

But for the meanwhile, as I said, wildlife was sparse. We didn't even hear much. In fact, this time around I got three birds and three butterflies (two of the same type) and that's it for wildlife.  It's all very sad.  It could be due to the continuing drought which is slowly - VERY slowly - correcting itself.  We are hopeful that through this traditionally rainy season, hopefully, we will get back to our normal amount of wet stuff and therefore the normal amount of wildlife. I suppose if it's too dry here,  the critters of all sorts have wisely moved somewhere with more rain which means more food. That's what they do.  Still, while I understand and support that I'm still calling this one the "Where has all the Wildlife Gone" hike!

I'll start with the 3 and 3 :

However! There has been just enough rain here and there to promote flowering wildflowers! Yahoo!  I'll take a pretty botanical shot as a consolation prize with no issues.  Now I have no idea what most of these flowers are other than, pretty!  And I'm far too lazy to bother looking them up. And honestly, even if I did take the time to look them up, I would probably forget their names in short order.  After all, I am the person in this house who, very recently somehow lost the dry kitty food scoop. How is that even possible???

​Anywhere, here they are:

A few other random things that I just liked the look of:

Thanks for joining me on the Where has all the Wildlife Gone Photo Safari Hike!  I wish you a wonderful weekend!
​

 Welcome to June!  Can you believe it?  May zipped by so quickly that I got a bit of wind burn as it passed me.  Bye Bye May and Howdy do to June.

June is a very busy month, especially for a non-real holiday month.   There are days of note of course (which is different from an actual holiday)  Let's see, Flag day on the 14th, Father's Day on the 21st which is also the first day of summer, and of course, Juneteenth on the 19th.  That one was only made official in 2021 by Federal Law though it's been unofficially celebrated since 1866.  Traditionally, June is also the month of weddings and graduations!  Woohoo, an entire month of celebration! Never a bad thing.

Then of course here in the sunshine state, June 1st is the beginning of both our Rainy Season and Hurricane Season, which makes perfect sense. Additionally, locally, this is month two of the six months of Sea Turtle Nesting Season. Yup, that's a real thing.

Personally, June is the month of my late mother's birthday.   She's been gone now for 14 years but still, sometimes, like around her birthday, I acknowledge that there is a still a little empty spot in my heart which is just her size.

The origin of the name June is a little muddled.  There are several theories. It could be (and most scholars believe this to be the most likely) that June was taken from  Juno, the Goddess of Marriage and childbirth.  And I just this minute connected why June is a traditional wedding month!  Interesting.  But it's possible that the name June came from" iuniores"  which means "younger ones" going back to the childbirth connection I suppose.  And it's also possible that the name was selected to honour the founder of the ancient Roman Republic, Lucius Junius Brutus. 

As I said earlier, June  21st is the first official day of summer which is also the longest day of the year.  On that same day anyone in the Arctic Circle may be experiencing the Midnight Sun with continuous daylight!   The full moon of June is also called the Strawberry moon. Awww that's sweet.  It was named so by Algonquin Native Americans as this was the time of their strawberrry harvest. Makes perfect sense.

I did not know this part until I looked it up but the month of June actually has 3 different birthstones!  Interesting, I honestly believe every month got one gemstone assigned to it but nope, June has 3: Pearl, Moonstone and Alexandrite.   June is not my birthmonth but I've also had a great fondness for moonstones.  Once upon a time I had an antique pendant necklace with a massive moonstone in it which sadly, I lost in a robbery.  I hope whoever has it now loves it as much as I did.

While June has 3 birthstones it only has two official flowers (again I foolishly thought it was a one and done situation - wrong again!).  Those flowers are roses and honeysuckle and I do love both of those. Pretty much any fragrant flower is my flower of choice.

If you follow Astrology  you already are aware that the front part of June are Gemini's and the last part (from the 21st forward) are Cancer's.  Twins and crabs.  Or perhaps crabby twins? Twin crabs?  I don't follow astrology but I do occasionally read my daily horoscope in the newspaper since it's on the same page as the comics.  It seems to always be completely wrong or wildly generic soI only give it an occasional passing glance.

There are of course, other days of note. I think there is at least one special designation for every single day of the year. Some of the ones I particularly like in June are:  Donut Day which is June 5th; Rocky Road Day which is today!  Is it too late to run out for ice cream? and International Children's Day which already happened on  June 1st.

It will come as no surprise to learn that there were some famous folks born in June, amoung them :  Anne Frank, Marilyn Monroe, George Orwell and  George H.W. Bush.  And  my mother too which I already mentioned. She was famous in our lives :)

When I think of June, my first thought is always nostalgic, the beginning of Summer Vacation.  Somewhere in the month of June each and every year of my childhood, every single kid in the neighborhood was set free. We ran amuck all day long, getting dirty, yelling, running, laughing, playing, running up and down the streets riding bikes, climbing trees, roller skating, playing tag, drinking from whichever garden hose was nearest and only going home when the porch lights came on.  After dinner perhaps a wee bit more subdued, we went back outside to catch lightning bugs, play afterdark tag which wasn't all that dark since all the porch lights were on and sometimes eat jello parfaits under the streetlight  on the corner.  

When I was a little older getting out of school for the summer meant, summer jobs, time to earn some money!~ A little older and summer meant getting to hang out with my own kids all day every day which was the Best Time Ever! 

​ Nowadays June means keeping in mind Hurricane prep to have certain things on hand, just in case and the Air Conditioning bill climbing, the windows being firmly closed and taking an umbrella with me, or at least a small zippy bag for my phone and hearing aids, whenever I leave the house.

Wishing each and every one of you a Very Happy June!

Hugs all 'round

I made oatmeal cookies yesterday.  They look pretty good I think.  (what do you think?)  I know that raisins in Oatmeal cookies is traditional, but I do not do that unless I want to make absolutely certain that I can resist  eating them.  Tim likes raisins, I do not.  Wait a minute. It's not mere dislike for me with raisins. No, no, it's much bigger than that. I despise raisins.  I loathe them. I cannot even bear the smell of them.

Joy shares my dislike of Raisins.  I vividly remember once when we were both very young, someone offering her raisins and Joy politely declined.  When pushed a little bit, Joy said no again and that she didn't care for raisins.  The hostess, looking shocked said, "Why do you not like raisins?"  and Joy famously (well famous in our family) answered, "they taste like dead people".   The woman was shocked. Open mouthed and wide eyed,  just frozen in place as this little tow headed angel of a child (I'd say roughly  3 or 4 years old at the time) said such a thing.

Now personally that's not my reasoning. In fact, I have no reason. I just don't like 'em.  I feel about raisins much the same way that I feel about licorice with is to say disgust is too mild a word.  And I have always felt this way about poor raisins (and licorice for that matter) Oddly, Tim enjoys both of those things. I certainly never stop him from enjoying either one. In fact, when I grocery shopped yesterday, I bought him some raisins. But I have rules. (of course I do)   When he eats any of those things which turns my stomach, 1: do not ask me to taste it, try it, smell it, cook with it.... and 2:  do not breathe on me immediately after eating it coz I can still smell it.  And to me it is gross.

I suppose it's the "Cilantro Effect".  Apparently for some people Cilantro tastes wonderful but for other people it tastes like soap.  Oh dear!  I'm in the 'loves cilantro' group but I appreciate the 'tastes like soap' group and if someone were coming to our house that I knew felt that way I certainly wouldn't cook anything requiring cilantro!

I am, what some people call, a picky eater.  I don't think I'm picky. I think I just know myself.  By this point in my life, I know what I like and what I don't.  I also know the foods that do not especially like me!  For instance, I actually quite enjoy sauteed onions and peppers on, for example, a hot sandwich.  In fact, if I were making that sort of sandwich for myself it would mostly be onions and peppers with a little cheese.  I would eat it with delight, I would relish every single bite and then later I'd be curled up in abject misery.  Peppers and onions do not like me.

Sometimes my likes and dislikes make no sense even to me.  For instance, oatmeal since I brought it up.  I love oatmeal cookies, they are kind of old fashioned, I know but they are also both crispy and chewy, kind of earthy and brown-sugar sweet - not too over the top.  They are terrific on their own but also wonderful as a side to an apple or a peach.  I am also a huge fan of oat bread which is basically oatmeal with honey and leavening.  BUT I do not like oatmeal, the hot cereal.  Really really REALLY do not like oatmeal the cereal.  If it were forced into my mouth, I would be incapable of swallowing it. Maybe it's a mouth-feel thing?

Another truly inexplicable like/dislike food for me is tomatoes. I actually love tomatoes. I even love the smell of the plants!  I like seeing slightly green tomatoes sitting in the windowsill as they finish ripening. I love them on a sandwich, in a salad and sometimes just eaten straight from the garden like an apple.  I love tomato sauce on spaghetti and pizza and a good tomato based vat of chili. I have been known to enjoy some ketchup with my fries (also tomato based)   BUT I do not like tomato soup.

I know, I know, it makes no sense. And yet it's true.  And I no longer fight it.  There was a time when I could be swayed by other people.  "here, just try a bite, I promise that you will love it"  I did not.  I never have. Any time someone coerces me into trying a food I'd rather not try, I regret it.   So nowadays I simply decline. "No thank you" with a smile and no explanation.  As they say nowadays, "no" is a complete sentence. So true, so true.

And even if someone demanded an explanation, I don't really have one. At least not one that makes any sense. Just "I don't particularly care for it, but thank you", which is polite-speak for  I hate it, if you force me to eat it I will gag".  And nobody wants that.

I'm happy to report that at this august age, very few people try to push me to eat things I do not want to eat and that is lovely.  One of the very few benefits of being old.  But every once in awhile it still comes up. I get the very disappointed face, the look that says I'm being a picky pain in the arse (and while I certainly am capable of being a picky PIA,  at that moment I am going out of my way to not be).  I don't make a big deal out of being a picky eater.  I usually don't say anything about it at all in fact, unless someone questions me or pushes me (verbally) Normally I say nothing about food at all. And I have no problem whatsoever eating nothing at a gathering if nothing appeals to me. (and still have a Great time!)  I'll eat when I get home in those circumstances.  But I will not be forced to eat foods that I do not like (or that do not like me)

I know that many of us grew up in an age where we were forced to eat everything on our plates regardless of our preferences or hunger levels.  We got that "children in Africa or China or Tibet  are starving"  guilt trip (tho I never once understood how my eating food I did not like helped them in any way)  I honestly believe that those food and eating rules led to some pretty awful food-related issues later in life.  

Meanwhile, this picky pain in the arse just made some excellent oatmeal cookies and will enjoy every single one :)

Have a Great Weekend!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! At least I hope yours was a good one!

As you can see, Tim celebrated by getting us a new flag!  It started out being in the front of the house. There was this very clever flag pole that went down pretty deeply into the ground to hold it in place.  It looked like this:

It didn't look bad there either but there's always the concern that with an unexpected strong wind/rain storm during the night, the ground would get super saturated the sand would loosen up and we would wake up to find the flag in a soggy puddle on the ground come morning.  Very disrespectful!  This way, on the post in the courtyard, feels far more secure.  AND is uplighted too.  Awesome.

You might notice underneath the flag, on the courtyard wall is a 'No Solicting" sign.  That's also new. And somewhat overdue.

It's a new issue.  We do not live in an HOA community and 99.9%  of the time we are happy about that. It was intentional. BUT part of the price you pay for not paying HOA dues is the occasional door to door salesperson.  A once in a long while dingdong from a nice person who can take no for an answer pleasantly, is not a problem.  But lately it's been more of an infestation of solicitors. I swear, sometimes it's multiple times a day!  And while some of them are kind and thoughtful and no issue with rejection, others are absolutely horrible.  Pushy, aggressive, refuses to accept "no", making demands (seriously, demands??) and in general pissing me off.

I am a nice person, or at least I really try very hard to always be but with pushy sales people who come, uninvited, to my door, usually at the worst possible time of the day, I will answer the bell, stand on the inside of the screen door, I will listen politely and then I will say, "No thank you" with a smile no matter what they are attempting to sell to me. The ones who push, who keep getting closer to the door, which means also closer to me, the ones whose voices either raise or get "gritty" with their aggression, the ones who demand that I give them reasons why not, I shut them down pretty quickly with a less polite,  "I already said no" and move to 'you really need to stop talking' followed by one more "no" as I shut the door, quietly. I never shout but I am firm. AND YET they still keep coming to the door. sigh.

Tim put up the sign in the hopes that at least some of them will read it and move on. The ones who persist anyway?  I have no idea.   But at least we are trying.

Over the long holiday weekend, we did some fun things. One of them was taking a walk around a water front park that, even though it's right here, on island, we haven't been to since we first moved here. We've driven by it a zillion or so times, but we haven't stopped and taken the walk in ten years. That's kind of crazy. 

It's pretty park with a goodly number of covered pavilions with picnic tables, all of them filled with celebrating families and friends on this holiday weekend. There are clean public bathrooms, a decent amount of parking, and there is a big old pond in the center with a paved roughly one mile path that goes all the way around it with several overlooks to see the beach and the Gulf of Mexico beyond.  There is one beach access point too that was pretty well  travelled that day.

We saw a lot of different birds though a disproportionate number of ducks,  huge grasshoppers, people walking their dogs, lots of little ones being silly, loads of picnics and picnic-ers, the pier, and of course the beach with loads of canopies, umbrellas, and people. Lots and LOTS of people. There was so much great music playing, lots of laughter and snippets of conversation as we passed by. Everybody was having a great time, including us :)

​

Hope Your Memorial Day was a great time and that you honoured everyone, (at least in your hearts) both past and present, who have served to protect us and this great country.

I guess it's fairly obvious that this post will be a Photo Safari Report.  You see Joy there by the Carolton Reserve  sign  being silly for my camera :)  But that's also typical foro us. We just aren't all that serious, especially when we are together.

I think I will just go ahead and call this one by it's actual name, the Carlton Reserve Hike.  I mean that's what it is after all and every once in awhile, I make a point to be excruciatingly accurate. This can be one of those times.

We had a good time. We always have a good time, even though we are getting to the really hot and humid part of the year with frequent rainfall which means mucky and sometimes flooded trails.  But there weren't a lot of spectacular photos taken, at least by me. I haven't seen Joy's pictures yet.  

But there was one thing that I dont' recall ever seeing before.  Steaming trees.  What?  Because we always get there in the early part of the day when the temps are about as cool as they are going to get (which is not to say actually very cool) and it gets hot and humid quickly, if you catch the light just right, you can see steam literally rising from some of the trees!  Big Wow!  It looked so much more impressive in person of course, but here are the camera's versions of it:

We actually heard and saw a LOT of birds, but I only captured three. And I shocked that I managed to get those!  They are so busy in the early morning and apparently I am super pokey slow.  Oh well.  Here are the three :

The trails were beautiful.  We are slowly entering our rainy season and the showers have perked up the green stuff a bit.  Always makes me happy :)  (makes the green stuff happy too)

Also caught one adorable squirrel, having a little bath. He didn't seem to mind that I took his picture. There was an enticing bridge with a frightening canted floor that I declined to cross.  We are not quite as intrepid as we used to be, sadly.  A few flowers and maybe another rando or two

It took us about three full hours to walk a mere three miles, stopping to observe and take pictures along the way.  We left, sweaty, dirty and very happy even though it produced not so many photographs.  Oh well.  It is what it is and what it was, was a good time.

Hope you enjoyed the Carlton Reserve Photo Safari Report.

Have a Very fun and Very safe Memorial Day weekend!

 It's Spring now and in fact it officially turned from Winter to Spring in late March. so I suppose that what I'm currently in the midst of counts as Spring Cleaning.  I have to also add that here in Florida right now it's feeling more like summer than spring but that's not unusual, just doesn't have the same familiar ring...summer cleaning?...spring cleaning?  

No matter, it's not even truly 'spring' cleaning that I'm doing although there is some cleaning involved.  What I'm actually knee deep in is what my Nana used to refer to as 'culling out'.  That is sorting through your belongings and only keeping what you really need and/or want and getting rid of the rest.  The way I was raised, was that when you 'culled out', the stuff in the OUT pile went literally out. We could throw it away, give it away, or sell what we weren't using, but we could not keep it.  Nana had some pretty strict rules!  But she wasn't wrong.  We 'culled out' about every six months probably because, growing up we were always moving and the less you have the cheaper the move!  Makes sense!

While I no longer go through my stuff twice a year, I had the culling out feeling come upon me and decided to take advantage of the mood. I'm finding myself digging into boxes and baskets I haven't thought about in while.  I am climbing up onto step stools to investigate the inhabitants of high up and then even higher up shelves, making decisions, sorting through and then cleaning whatever is left behind including the boxes, baskets and shelves.  Ultimately also myself becoz is the sort of task that, even if I look clean afterwards, I feel gross and dirty.

The decision making part is the hardest part. I suppose that isn't a surprise. Oh some things are no brainers, like the shampoo I bought experimentally that turned out not so good.  My hair didn't feel clean, it wasn't shiny, and the smell was, ummm, let's say, less than desirable.  Which makes the reason why I stopped using it super easy to understand but makes the reason that I didn't immediately throw it away far murkier. I'm not even certain why I tucked it into the far recesses of the cabinet under the sink instead of tossing it into the garbage directly.  Probably guilt.  I spent the money but I didn't get the expected return on the investment.  Leaving me to now, after far too much time has passed, drop kick it into the Out It Goes garbage bag with no remorse.

A decision that was a little harder were the skin care products.  First of all, there is not one single thing wrong with any of these products.  All of them are terrific brands and useful to me.  But I haven't been using them. Why? Because I'm an idiot.  All of them are things I do not normally buy, things  that were lovely, thoughtful gifts.  And I have been "saving them."  And now here I am, much later looking at these lovely gifts and asking myself what exactly it is that I have been saving them for?  I mean they don't have the shelf life of bananas,  but neither do they have the shelf life of gravel.  At some point, they will need to be either used to thrown away.  I decided that as of today, I'm using them all. Every damned one of them and when the bottle or tube is empty, then so be it!  I think that's probably better than eventually throwing away an expired full container of a good product, right?   

Before I began this massive spring clean project, I went around the house sizing up the scale of the thing.  Which shelves need to be investigated, what exactly do I think is in various drawers and baskets, which rooms contain the worst offenders.  That way I could make a mental schedule for completion and be certain that I had everything I needed meaning, plenty of garbage bags for things thrown away, enough boxes to hold the items being donated and the actual cleaning products I'll be hauling from room to room to clean up after myself. 

And while doing that initial walk-through, I noticed this:

That is the top shelf of My side of our closet.  I see a couple of evening bags, that is clutch style purses, both of which I can probably donate as I do not anticipate being invited to any red carpet events any time soon: my green toiletry travel case which I will hold on to at least for now just in case I ever travel anywhere; my kitty ears headband I am keeping just becoz and I don't want to hear any crap from anybody about that; but there are also four shoeboxes.  And that kind of surprised me.

Four shoeboxes?  I could have sworn there were only three shoeboxes.   What is in the 4th box?  No way around it, I had to get out my handydandy step stool, climb up there, haul them all down and figure it out.  

As it turns out the 4th box holds hearing aid supplies which sounded great until, on closer examination I realized that the supplies went with my last pair of hearing aids, not my current ones. Dang!  Useless to me.  BUT I can (and will) donate them via my audiologist to someone else who needs supplies and cannot afford them. ok. That goes in the donate pile so that was easy but what about boxes 1 through 3?

Well those actually do hold shoes.  It's the remainder of my collection of high heels.  Back in the olden days, when I was still working and needed to look professional and put together, I actually put a lot of thought and care into my hair, my nails, my make-up routine and wardrobe including shoes.  Hard to believe I know considering how I look these days but it's true.  I had quite the collection of footwear.  When I retired, I went carefully and thoughtfully through the entirety and donated most of it as I anticipated spending most of my days on the beach and heels on the beach are stupid.

I kept three pair.  Two pair of very high end, excellent quality pumps, one black and one red and one pair of strappy silver sandals. Ooo lalala!  I actually have worn the black and the red heels once or twice since we moved to Florida but it was awhile ago.  Nowadays with my, apparently, permanently broken foot (I say that because I am still having trouble with it and it's now been 7  months since the original injury) my shoe wardrobe consists of 3 pair of lace up sneakers that I have to put an orthotic into before wearing and 3 pair of sandals that I can wear around the house but if I am plan to walk further than from the kitchen to the living room I need to put on the "real" shoes, that is my sneakers.  At this point I'm not positive I could even get my foot INTO the heels let alone attempt walking in them.  I'm very sad to say that all of the heels will have to go ;(    Bye Bye Shoes!

They don't look too bad considering how old they are now, right?  Well, that's because I take good care of my things.  Each shoe was kept wrapped in tissue paper and put in shoe bags and then their original boxes.   Hopefully someone else will love them and care for them as I did.  It is the end of the high heel shoe era for me and for some reason I am finding that to be very sad.

Anyway, that's what I'm up to lately.  How about you?
​

Quite a long time ago now, I don't remember exactly when, I wrote about a TV show that I was crazy about. The show was called, Outlander.  I don't know if any of you are fans or not.  If you are a fan, you will probably understand this.  If you aren't a fan of this particular show, I'm sure there was a different show that you were especially fond of, so you will also probably understand.

My show, (well not mine personally but the one I am referring to), Outlander, is nearly done.  After 12 years and 8 seasons, we are coming to the end.   The finale, the very last episode EVER airs tonight.  And the anticipation is absolutely crazy.  Not just mine but that of Outlander fans around the world.  (there are literally millions of us - Millions!)

There's the wild and weird thing that happens to me (and I'm sure others) as we anticipate the Last of something.  I both desperately want to know what is going to happen in the story, but, equally desperately, I don't want it to end.  And so I suppose if I don't watch it, it never ends.  A Schrodinger sort of thing?  I felt the same way at the end of both Quantum Leap and X-Files, so I should be used to such things by now, but I'm totally not.

I am reasonably certain that there will be tears.  Mine.  Whether or not this last episode has a sad moment in it or not, I will be weepy.  Good-bye's are hard.  And even harder is the fact that I won't be watching the finale when it drops tonight.   What? That sounds crazy.

Some people that we love, who are also Outlander fans, suggested that we watch the finale together.  The phrase, "misery loves company" comes immediately to mind. But they aren't available until tomorrow so I have bravely agreed to wait.  Which means also not reading any of thing online about it. And the Spoilers are Everywhere!   And to everyone threatening to ell me what happens ahead of time, I have closed my eyes and plugged my ears - lalalalalala, I don't hear you, I don't see you!

One my of neighbors, also a huge fan, called me this morning to talk about it.  When I told her that we were waiting until tomorrow she was shocked.  How could I possibly wait after all this time? She did agree to resist discussing it with me further until she is positive that I've seen that last show which is a sacrifice on her part as well!  Much Appreciated :)

She's not entirely wrong though.  12 years of dedicated fandom is nothing to sneeze at after all.  We deserve the satisfaction of this last episode!  But I have promised and so I shall wait.  My assumption is that the anticipation will make it all that much more powerful an episode!  Though to be fair, each and every episode was so dang good, and the expectation of this finale is running so high that I'm not sure it could be any bigger.

I'm treating this occasion as a big deal, because to us, it is!   There will be food - burgers on the grill - and cake!  We will all be a little sad, but cake makes almost everything a little better. I will be in the state of "sad, but cake filled" which is to say, I will survive.

One of the things that will help to fill the Outlander void is that there is a whole other show, written, produced and directed by the same folks who did Outlander, called "Blood of my Blood' which is the Prequel to Outlander.    Basically the story of the parents of the Outlander folks.  I've already seen Season One which was pretty good.  Season Two comes out in the fall.  

The other thing that'll get me though are the books.  Outlander the TV series was based on Outlander the books. Very HEAVILY based.  Usually books turned into movies or TV shows are either just plain terrible or merely anemic versions.  This time, magically, all the stars in the universe were properly aligned and I loved both the show and the books with the same fervor.  A rare thing indeed.  And I have all the books.  I can re-read them anytime I want. Actually I don't have all of the books because the last book, Book number 10 hasn't been released yet. I'm not positive that the author is finished with it.

So how on earth did they finish a TV series which is strongly based on a book series when the book series is not yet done, you ask?  Well with great imagination I should think.    I have trusted the writers through more than 100 episodes of this beloved series, I believe I can trust them through one more.

Anyway, Cheers to you, Outlander!  The writer, the producers, directors, actors and everyone behind the scenes. You did a brilliant job. I loved every moment of it and while I shall miss it terribly, I do not regret one single second of it.  Thanks for the memories!

Howdy do and what's new?

I guess  the biggest, most recent news  was Mother's Day this past Sunday!  If you are a mom, I  hope you were well celebrated.  If you have a mom, grandmom or mom-figure in your life, I hope you celebrated them!  

I was lauded and applauded thoroughly.  Flowers, cards, texts, phone calls all made my weekend bright and happy!  Tim brought in donuts for breakfast since we all know that Mother's Day donuts have zero fat or calories!!  Tim then went on to tell me that we would do whatever I wanted to do. Geez, what do I want to do?

The only thing I could think of was that I needed a haircut and birdseed.  Tim shook his head and chuckled.  I could do ANYTHING, go ANYWHERE, and that's what I came up with?  Yup, that's all I could think of.  So, off we went, I got a  haircut (I'm  uncertain how I feel about how it turned out frankly, but I really liked the young lady who did the work)  Gosh I'm looking old but then what did I expect?  I'm 72 for heaven's sakes!  Obviously I did NO editing or photo shopping. This is me, it's what I really look like.  It'll  have to do.

Then we headed to Walmart to pick up some birdseed for the feeder outside.  Not because I enjoy shopping at Walmart, I most certainly do not, but because they had a sale.  Pragmatic decision.   Once we got home, I filled the feeder and within about 10 minutes it was packed with birds:  grackles, a wood pecker, a bluejay, some sort of finch and a few others. The kittyboys were in heaven!  Cat TV!

When dinner time approached I got the same question," Where would you like to go for dinner?  I will take you anywhere you want to go."  Hmmm. I gave it some serious thought. What was I in the mood for?   Took me a little bit but eventually I figured it out.  where?  Arby's.  I hadn't eaten there in probably a year? Maybe a little longer?  And for some reason, it just sounded like what I wanted.  I got the headshake again, "Ok if that's what you want".  It was what I wanted.  What can I tell you?  I guess I'm kind of low-rent.  

We ate in the family room while watching one of the Jack Ryan movies, the one with Ben Affleck. Haven't seen that in a long time.  It was a treat!  Followed it up by watching yet another Jack Ryan movie, this time the one with Alex Baldwin.  Frankly, Ben Affleck did a better job as the main character than  Baldwin.  I think Chris Pine did a nice job  as did Harrison Ford but John Krasinski, thus far, has done the best job of portraying him. My humble opinion.  I am open to entertaining your opinion :)

It was a good day.

I appreciated so much the love and care that went into making Mother's Day special for me, but I confess to having some difficulty with the day.  Not sure why.  Maybe because I don't have my own mother or mother-in-law to celebrate anymore?  I always did a pretty good job of pointing the celebration in the direction of someone else. Maybe I just don't know how to be celebrated?  I am awkward and a little weird about it all but I try reallllly hard to act as normal as possible . I fear that my desperate attempt to act "normal" is sort of like a teenager coming home a little drunk and attempting to act "normal" which ends up being the exact opposite of normal.  I hope everyone who showered me with time, attention and affection felt properly thanked. 

ANYHOO,  Mother's Day is over, Father's Day is on the horizon, a little more than a month away so I have plenty of time to obsess over that.  

Let's see what else. Surely there is more news. Oh yeah, I remember now. We now have gutters on our house!  Huzzah!  Tim hired some very nice young men who came and took care of it on Monday and, impressively cleaned up perfectly after themselves. Now I'm excited to have a rain storm so we can see the difference! Hopefully the difference will mean not having a pond in the front courtyard that we have to wade through coming in and out the front door. That would be nice.

Oh!  And on another note, I have new dishtowels!  Perhaps not exciting to you, but I'm overjoyed.  I think in total it was 18 new dish towels (I use a LOT of dishtowels), 3 different types.   There are two kitty ones, 4 botanical ones and 12 of the others. And I will go through them all on a regular basis.  We use them for as napkins, trivets, to set hand washed items on after washing, for wet shoes when we come inside, as place mats occasionally, to set heavy glass vases on to protect the table underneath, etc.  Oh yes, I also dry dishes with them. So I go through many in an average week.  The old ones that were thin and raggedy and, in some instances, a little holey, went into the garage rag pile. Still useful but no longer kitchen pretty.

I reckon that's all the news for today.  

Hope all is well with all of you!

​Hugs all 'round

That's a big dang tree! The branches at the top kind of remind me of Medusa :)

Welcome to another Photo Safari Report!  I'm excited to jump into this one so I'll tell you the best part upfront.  I'm calling this post the Eagle Family Hike for what will very shortly be an obvious reason.

Very early in the hike, within probably 15 minutes  we saw this gorgeous creature.  An American Bald Eagle:

I have no idea if this gorgeous creature is the Mr or the Mrs and when I took this photos, I also had no idea that this was just one member of an entire family!  

Joy and I took a zillion or so photos, talking about how lucky we were to capture it and then we moved on. More walking, more talking, more photos.  And then, a mile or so later, Joy spied this:

I'll be honest. I wasn't absolutely certain what sort of giant bird I was looking at.  I knew from the beak and the stance that it was some sort of predator bird but as I was running through my mental catalogue of possibilities it wasn't matching anything I knew.  So I asked and learned that this was a juvenile eagle.  How exciting!  This was, basically, a teenager eagle. How beautiful is this guy or girl (I never can tell)

Not much farther long we came across:
​

Oh Me, Oh My!  There were two of them!  Siblings, clearly.  This was way off the coolio scale. If I had ever seen a juvenile eagle before, I had no idea what I was seeing then. But I can absolutely swear to you that I'd never seen 2 of them at the same time! Wow!

Oh it gets even better!  How could it possibly get better, you ask?  Hang on to your bird-watching hats, friends:

In the same tree, THREE members of the same eagle family!  Dad (or mom) and two kiddos!  Holy Cats!  

We stood there happy snapping for a bit and then Joy suggested that we retrace our steps back to the first eagle sighting,  see if that one is still there. If so, oh my gosh, we might have seen the entire eagle family!  

As Joy is talking and I'm nodding along, we see the youngsters take wing and head in the direction we were already planning to go.  Off we went at the fastest hobble we could manage (both Joy and I have foot injuries that were ouching big time that day).  

Once we arrived back where we believed we began,  we were delighted to see that, yes, Mama or Daddy, was still in the same spot.  

We wondered what he (or she) was starring at so fixedly. It wasn't a prey stare......?  We followed the line of sight and found not only the nest but also, the youngsters back IN the nest! Wow!  And yes those nests are massive!

What an amazing start to a hike!

Eventually we moved on and saw other things that we deemed photo worthy.  Here are a few more birds. I will say that I missed easily a dozen shots of other birds. I was just moving too slow. Oh well.  Here it what I have:

We had a good soaking rain last Saturday so there were a few more botanicals then lately, but once the rains start showing  up regularly, it will be a regular flower show. Yay!

There were the friendliest bunnies!  While some careened away in wild directions in abject terror (coz we are, apparently terribly scary) others hopped right up to us!  Is someone feeding these bunnies and they thought we had goodies?  Oh and a surprisingly blase squirrel!

I believe I have a couple of randos still in the collection from yesterday.  Shall I add those in too?  Whyever not!  

I reckon that's it!   We've come to the end of the Eagle Family Hike which was awesome!  Hope you enjoyed this Photo Safari Report and I wish you all a wonderful weekend!