January 03rd, 2022

Welcome to a Brand New Year!  2022!  Wow!  That sounds so Sci-Fi.   "Stardate twenty twenty two".  A new year and a new hope.  I start every new year the same way :)

We also ended the old year the way we always do.  Meaning that we stayed home.  We were awake  at the change over from one year to the next but that was because of the fireworks.  And it was super foggy too so I have no idea if the people setting off the fireworks could actually see any of the show?  Not my issue anyway.

Tim had a three day weekend and hurrah for that!   We spent part of New Year's Eve Day working on a yard project - but that will be a post for another day.

On both Saturday and  Sunday, we hiked!  One of my most favourite things!  Tim found two hikes we've never done (one for each day) and they were both great.  Also both were not local so there was the joy of discovery.  There is something extra especially fun about hiking in a place you've never been before.  Finding out what's over the next rise or around the next corner... I'm like the bear that went over the mountain to see what he could see. 

Today I will just tell you about the first hike, on New Years Day.  It was at a place in Sarasota called Red Bug Slough.  We spent part of the drive up debating how to pronounce "slough".    I kept trying to make it rhyme with rough and tough.  But I looked it up and in truth it is pronounced "Sloo".  So Red Bug Sloo.  We saw zero red bugs there by the way.  According to my phone, a Slough is a swamp.  Hmmm.  There was definitely water but it was absolutely not a swamp. Perhaps it was at one time?

Turns out that Red Bug Slough is in a very residential area and is hemmed in completely  by roads  and houses and yet still is of a decent size with lots of trees, paths and ponds!  Loads of ponds!  It was so very pretty there.

It was odd that we didn't see a lot of  birds but there were a lot of butterflies and dragonflies.  I didn't get one single dragonfly but managed to sneak up on a couple of butterflies and a few birds.  That must count for something:

Managed to make up for my lack of wildlife with some wildflowers:

The things we saw the most of, however, were turtles!  So Many Turtles!  Get ready for turtles!

And one tortoise:

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny but not hot with a nice cool breeze and it just seemed to be the perfect way to usher in a brand new year!  I have great hope for 2022.  So far it feels pretty good :)