Well, it looks like the whole house is all ish-kabibble once again!  Geez!    Everywhere you look right now are nice neat stacks of clean sheets, pillows (so many pillows), mattresses, bed frames, box springs and toss pillows.  What a mess!

This is what happens when you finally break down and buy a new bed!  Woohoo!  So exciting!  It ought to be delivered some time today and we are so ready!  

Getting a new bed meant, for us means that the guest room bed is on it's way outoutout.  Our old bed, which isn't very old really, we bought it here in Florida afterall, will become the new guest  bed.  It's a good quality very comfortable mattress and will be a comfortable nights sleep for any guest you ends up snoozing on it. 

The fellows who are bringing our new bed will take the old guest room bed away, huzzah, and that will automatically make the chaos in the living room much better.  Mattresses and box springs leaning up against  random walls looks so very, ummm, I don't know,  dormitory between semesters or something.  

So the guest bedroom will now be sporting not only a nice, much newer, mattresses and box spring, but it also inherited the headboard and footboard that used to be in our room.  Love that!  I know that a head board (and/or foot board) is not strictly necessary, but I really like the way it looks.  It seems more finished I suppose.  Like when you are all dressed and then you put your shoes on.  Now you are finished dressing :)

HOWEVER, the guest room is NOT inheriting the old comforter.  That thing is thirty years old and has holes in it.  It's ready for the garbage.  On the other hand, the original guest room comforter is in Fabulous shape and will continue to do it's job very nicely. So for those of you keeping score, Guest room has new bed, new headboard/footboard but the same comforter.  

Our new bed, (Squee! So Excited!) is not only a King instead of the Queen sized bed we've always had, but it's an adjustable King.  Wow!  Both the head and the foot go up and down.  So Fancy!   It's supposed to be terrific for aiding sleep for people with seasonal allergies, sleep apnea, indigestion, and snoring problems!  And as a bonus, it's easier to watch TV or read in bed.  Awesome!

Because the bottom of it is one king sized bed and the top is two extra long twins, the sheets are sized specifically for that situation which means no more buying sets but only separates.  That'll work.  We did have to buy a new comforter though and that took stops at Multiple stores to find.  It was so much more of an ordeal than I anticipated.

First of all, our bedroom is an odd grey/green/sagey sort of colour. I don't dislike it but I probably wouldn't have picked it.  On the other hand, we didn't really have the time (Or desire) to repaint the bedroom before the new bed came so we had to find a comforter that would go with grey/green/sagey.  As it turns out, there aren't many colours that do.  Another issue was finding a comforter that wasn't too heavy or dense so that Tim wouldn't be too hot.  He's one of those people who is almost always too hot, so something lightweight.  You would think a lightweight comforter or coverlet would be easy to find in Florida, a hot place.  As it turns out, not as easy as you might think. 

Another issue was dealing with what was available in stores.  The short time frame meant trying to not have to buy on line when you are at their mercy of when things are delivered.  And worse, is it exactly what you thought it was from what was shown or written on line.    So I  think we went to 3 different stores, or maybe it was 4. Five?  However many it was, it seems that the stores hereabouts believe that everyone should have a comforter with scenes/pictures/patterns that typify Florida.  There were fish and palm trees and hibiscus and ocean waves galore.  Sometimes the colours were just oceany - blues and greens.  Other times colours one might consider as tropical - bright bright yellows, greens and oranges.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with ANY of those options except, they aren't us.  I don't really want to sleep under the sea or in a Jimmy Buffet song.  Obviously we finally found something that would do.  That's what we settled on, something that would do.  Neither of us hated it.  AND it goes with the oddly coloured walls of the room. A very high standard indeed.

So right now, there is nothing to do but wait.  Tim emptied the rooms. I have done the laundry and cleaned the rooms (swept, vacuumed, dusted AND washed the floors).  The kitties have done everything they could possibly do to help (read that as be in the way) and therefore, I think we are ready.

And while I really hate the clutter and chaos of an ish-kabibbled state, I also know that it's short term and once the new bed is in place in our room and the old bed is in the guest room and the really old bed is gone, then I can put everything to rights and by tonight all will be well.  We will sleep the sleep a people on new sheets, under a new comforter, in a new bed.  Yay!  Can't wait!

Happy Day After Mother's Day!!  

This is how my Mother's Day began.  Sweet cards and my favourite cinnamon roll. Yummmmy! So Wonderfully Bad for me!  I got emails and phone calls and texts and IM's and oh my goodness so many good wishes for a Happy Mama's Day!  

Tim took me (and my camera) to Spanish Point for my Mother's Day Outing.  I know that means little to nothing to you but Spanish point is a wonderful place, just two towns north of us (maybe a 15-20 minute drive).   About a hundred years ago, a phenomenally wealthy woman from Chicago named Bertha Palmer fell so in love with, what is now the Sarasota County area of Florida, that she bought some 14,000 acres of land!  (which is now roughly a quarter of Sarasota County).  She carved out 350 acres along Little Sarasota Bay to build her winter home which she referred to has her winter cottage. So naturally it was a freakin' mansion!  She preserved the existing homesteaders buildings, including a chapel, and repurposed some of them into things like a guest house and homes for her own servants and grounds caretakers.  She also had magnificent gardens created.

Interestingly, her winter home called, The Oaks, no longer exists.  But many of the other buildings do and they continue to be  lovingly cared for.  Bertha's beautiful gardens, including an aquaduct (!) are being slowly reclaimed.  In short it is a beautiful place to wander for a bit.  Currently the gardens and walkways are dotted with oversized samples offamous landscape Photographer Clyde Butchers work.  I am a fan :)

Soooo since I took a bunch of photos anyway, I hope you don't mind if I share a few .  I lumped them together by category so they are no representative of a linear timeline of the walk, just FYI.   Let's start with a few butterflies.  There are gardens galore so naturally there are butterflies.  And now they even have a small butterfly house!

Kind of naturally segues into gardens doesn't it?  Some of these gardens are formal, some are definitely less formal. All of them are beautiful :)

Part of the formal garden is watered via aquaduct!  It was so unexpected but absolutely wonderful.  Here are a few photos of it:

And of course, since this property is right there on Little Sarasota Bay, there are water pictures next.  Just a few, I swear!

  A little bit of one structure, a cute little rustic gazebo, appeared in one of the water photos in the previous category so lets call the next category "structures".  A rather loose category that includes buildings of all sorts, pergolas and more. Some quite grand, other's more humble:

We walked down paths, boardwalks and picked through barely distinguishable trails (new area not ready for prime time) and went up and down endless stairs and paths of all sorts.  Here area few:

And then there was the art.  Clyde Butcher was inspired by Ansel Adams and at one point in his career decided to focus solely on black & white landscapes.  His work is amazing!  You know how some music or writers or painters just seem to speak specifically to you?  Well that is how I feel about most of Clyde Butchers work.  I am endlessly wowed and inspired by him.  He actually lives in Florida by the way.  He and his artist wife live on acreage in the Big Cypress National Preserve where they are not just artists, but also reknowned conservationists.

Sadly, because I am not anywhere near as good a photograph as Mr Butcher, and didn't notice until it was too late, you will see My reflection and occasionally Tim's too in these photos.  Dang!  Oh well, here they are and I hope you enjoy Mr. Butcher's work!

Anyway, it was a wonderful Mother's Day!  I hope yours was even better though I'm not sure how that would be possible!

​

Ya'll in the mood for another Photo Safari Report?  Well ok then!  I am calling this one the Two Eagles Hike because, obviously, we saw two eagles.  But more on them later.  I think I'll begin with my one and only black and white photo this time 'round.  It looks so dramatic in black and white!  Just a tree and some clouds in colour, but remove the colour and pow!  Drama!

It wasn't a very long hike but we did see some very cool, far less dramatic things as we covered our miles.  I think I'll start with the birdies.  There was a very nice variety so instead of giving you multiple photos of one sort of bird (yawn, boring) instead it will be  multiple bird photos each of a different sort.  Except the eagles.  Maybe I ought to start with them. 

Ok the Eagles Story.  This particular preserve Joy and I have hiked a few times before.  The first time we also came across two eagles that were, surprisingly, perched high in a tree that we walked directly under. So these massive, totally silent birds were right above us. It was a wow!    We were hoping for a similar experience this time around.  But sadly when we walked under those trees there were no eagles.  Awwww :(    Then we walked a little further and in the distance spied the nest, but it had clearly been abandoned and was kind of beginning to fall apart.  Dang.  We thought maybe the eagles had moved on to another area.  Ratz.  So we continued to hike.  Further down the trail as we went merrily along, Joy suddenly came to an abrupt stop.  She peered into the distance and so I looked too but i saw nothing special.  She brought up her camera and said, "Yes!" with such glee that I did the same.  And there is was.  Well one of them was

Well, we figured, where there is one, there must be the other, so we kept looking and of course, once again, it was Joy who found it.  The other Eagle!

And a few minutes later, we found the new nest

Yay!  We were so very pleased to learn that they hadn't decamped to another, unknown, spot!  We can watch the progress now and perhaps eventually see baby eagles !!  And then watch them grow :)  Very fun!

The rest of the birds were absolutly wonderful but not nearly as exciting.  No insult to the birds intended of course:

Otherwise let's see, we saw some interesting trees:

We did see a lot of rabbits but I only got a picture of one so he will serve as the representative of them all which is a terrible responsibility!  Sorry Bunny

I spied some Spanish Moss hanging from a vine looking for all the world like laundry drying on a line:

A few pretty wildflowers and interesting silver greenery:

Then two shots of the same butterfly on a flower because I couldn't decide which picture I liked the best:

It was only a 3 miles hike so not a really long one but it was long enough to enjoy being outside and hanging out together and taking lots of photos.  It'll do.  

I will leave you with one of my accidental photos. I wonder what I was trying to take a picture of when this happened?

HAHAHA!  Oh well, stuff happens.

However you spend this weekend, be happy, be healthy and have fun!

Wow! That's a lot of stuff, eh?

For the past few days we have had the absolutely delightful pleasure of enjoying the company of  people we adore that live out of state.  We Had Such A Good Time!  

We did so many fun things, ate at least a zillion meals, talked and talked and walked, laughed a lot and just relished every single moment.  

What did we do?  It was more what didn't we do to quote Ferris Bueller!  Let's see, hmmmm.  We did so much cool stuff!   We went to a science museum, toured historic homes, went to an aquarium, perused a wonderful used book store, collected shells on the beach and played an awesome mini-golf course.  And that was just in two days!  Most of the rest of the space in each day was filled with laughter, food and conversation.  Really it was about perfect.

Brysco was happy to  meet our guests. Wyatt not so much.  He hid for the duration.  I'm pleased to say that he has recovered fully from the experience and is back to being his goofy old self.  

And today we are back to our normal usual ordinary lives which is a little hard after so much fun and excitement.  And honestly, the minute our guests drove away, we already missed them so much.   But we have great memories now to add to the memory file that I can pull out and enjoy all over again when I start missing them too much.

I wish the weather had been nicer. It was a little warmer and more humid than was truly ideal but at least it didn't rain I suppose.  I wish they could have stayed longer.  I wish we saw them more often.  I wish I had carved out more time to spend with each of them individually just to catch up one on one.  But I'm overjoyed with the time together that we did get to have.

It was a great weekend.  One of the Best.  I don't know what you did this weekend, but I know mine was better ;)

Hugs all 'round.

"The Shadow Knows" that Joy and I were back out hiking this week so that means this must be another Photo Safari Report!~  I struggled with what to call this one because there doesn't seem to be one predominant theme of photos so I think this one is just the Mostly Randos Hike. Lotsa Rando photos this time 'round.  Which is just fine.  We skipped last week so we get what we get.  (Thank you to Joy for the above photo by the way)

It's getting warmer and just a smidge humid now that we've enterred the merry merry month of May, so we decided to hike Sleeping Turtle Preserve quickly before the rainy season starts.  Two reasons:  It tends to flood when it rains and, really because of that, once the rain begins the mosquitos are rampant and they think that Joy is a tasty treat!   Got to get in there before the rain falls every year just so we can say it's been done.

It's a preserve of much greenery, trees upon trees upon trees!  There could be giant scary predatory carnivorous and hungry wildlife within an arms reach of us and we would never know because the foliage is so thick!  Which is the exact same reason it's hard to photograph birds.  They were all around us, we could hear them, but they were very VERY hard to find.  Little buggers were hiding in the foliage laughing.   I didn't get much but here you go:  

The trails were beautiful, of course, and for a change we didn't have to wade through any streams or jump across any large puddles or creeks, or even build any frond bridges!  For a change we just moseyed down the paths.  Actually we did climb into (and therefore out of) a few ravines that would normally be full of water and had to duck under a couple of gravity defying leaning trees and the step over (sometimes climb over) large trees that had already fallen.  But comparatively, that's nothin'.  We did notice that while some of the trails were still nicely cleared others were so overgrown that occasionally we wondered if we had taken a bad turn and lost the trail. No worries, we figured it out. We always do.

Probably because it was such a lovely sunny dry day, there were scads of non-mosquitos insects:  spiders, bees, butterflies, dragonflies, bugs I don't know what were AND a dung beetle!  Didn't manage to capture them all, still saw them and that counts.

I probably got more botanical shots than anything. Partly because botanicals hold still which makes them much easier to capture but also because they are so beautiful, in every stage of life.  Some of these have gone by, some are in full bloom and some have no actual blooms. All of them are beautiful.  (Same goes for people!!)  I will break it up into two slideshows just for convenience sake:

I don't want to forget my black'n'white shots. Only a small handful today:

And of course by now you know you are nearing the end of the Photo Safari Report when I get to the Rando Category.   I probably have too many of them here so I will try to whittle it down to a more manageable slideshow.  Here we go:

We had a great time on the Mostly Randos Hike.  Hope you liked the pictures!

Fears and phobias and dreads, oh my!  We all have them.  Everybody has something that is, to them, if not downright scary, at least makes them uncomfortable.

Maybe it's a fear of heights, that is a very common one.  Perhaps crowds make you feel a little unsettled.  Or Spiders?  Snakes?  The darkness?  Water?  Whatever you particular fear is, I get it.  I sympathize with how it makes you feel and I understand.  I would never dismiss how you feel, I would never just tell you to "get over it" or whine about how inconvenient your phobia is for me.    All things, by the way, that at one time or another have been done to me.    Even if I don't completely understand why you are afraid, I would accept it as true. 

I said that with such confidence didn't I?   And I absolutely, truly, sincerely mean every word of it.  Or at least I did until recently.

Strange things come into my feed online and a short time ago a little video popped up with a youngish person (I'd say mid 20's) with an engaging smile.  He gazed very comfortably into the camera and then said, with no hesitation that he didn't understand why "old people" had an obsession with punctuation.   "Old People" use it all the time, even in texts!  He was clearly baffled by this phenomenon.   He finished up by saying that he didn't understand punctuastion and that he was, frankly, terrified by it.

Terrified.  By Punctuation.  Really?  


Well at first I just assumed (though one should never) that perhaps he wasn't properly introduced to the concept of punctuation in school and that he was describing it as being terrifying as an exaggeration just for the sake of impact in his video.  But out of curiousity I googled it and did a YouTube search and sonuvagun!  He is not the only young person who is afraid of punctuation and Confused by our (our being us old folk) insistence on using it.  It  seems as if this  fear, or at least discomfort, is a thing now.

My initial answer to the Why of it all (why do you use punctuation?) is.....for clarity!  It's all about communication!  Communication, the clear and unmistakable exchange of thoughts, ideas, requests, comments etc. is key to every single relationship you will ever have.  To break it down further,  there is a huge difference between:

1) Let's eat, Grandma

and

2) Let's eat Grandma.

And just in case you didn't understand that difference (which breaks my heart)  Number 1 is an invitation to Grandma requesting that she join them for a meal.  Number 2 suggests strongly that Grandma is the meal, or at least the entree.    

Big Difference.  That's why we use punctuation.

But it seems, according to these articles which primarily are in the form  of videos, punctuation comes off as being "hostile".  Which is the opposite of proper communication.    When I write and use punctuation and yes even in my emails and texts, I absolutely use punctuation.  A properly placed comma can mean the difference between   a dinner guest or a guest as dinner.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.

Hostile and Frightening.  Well, I know that often we are frightened of things we don't understand and that fear can cause people to be defensive which can present itself as hostility.  Could it be that these young people were never taught how to use punctuation?  I know that nobody teaches Sentence Diagramming anymore which is a dang shame.  It's the difference between understanding how a combustion engine works and knowing how to rebuild a combustion engine.  And further, it explains a LOT of the writing I see nowadays.

Oh I cannot just blame the current batch of younger people.  Understanding how to properly communicate via the written word began falling apart even when I was in school.  Even when I was in college I noticed it.  One of the things I did in my college years, to earn a few bucks here and there, was to help people with their term papers.  One very nice and honestly very smart young fellow, for instance, asked me to look over a paper for him.  The very first sentence stopped me in my tracks.  I said, "Oh dear, this first line here, which ought to be your topic sentence, isn't even an actual sentence and is, instead, more of a phrase. "  His response was, "Of course it's a sentence...see? There is a period at the end."  And in his mind, that was the definition of a sentence.  When I explained that a sentence requires both a noun and a verb, (or subject and predicate)  he looked at me blankly.  Another wow.  He could tell me a million or so things about his subject and he knew his topic inside and out.  He just had no idea how to write it down in a way that everyone who read it also understood his topic.  Wow again.

So I suppose it started a long time ago and it's only continued it's long downhill slide until here we sit, punctuation-less, attempting to desperately communicate.

I'm not a good texter anyway.  I have no idea how other people fly though texting. It takes me forever, I hit the wrong dang buttons, have to go back and correct my spelling and still, thanks largely to an over-eager and often incorrect, auto correct, have to then send a follow up apologetic text to explain what I actually meant.

I do not use acronyms often and the only sorts of emoji's I utilize are smiley faces, sad faces, confused faces...anything face related.  I know that some people send texts that are soley comprised of emojis.  I do not even pretend to understand that.  Although if you are punctuation averse, I suppose it would be a draw.  I am guessing that a hieroglyphic text does not require punctuation.   Ancient Egyptians did not use punctuation in their written words.  But of course their civilization is now lost  to time.  Just sayin'  There is probably no connection there.

Anyway, I'm trying, really trying to understand this fear of punctuation.  By the way, I checked and there is currently no actual term for a punctuation phobia.  At least not yet.  Perhaps soon as it becomes more common.

I understand fear of bears, or flying, or even public speaking.  I can wrap my brain around fears of needles, fears of clowns and even the fear of fears.  But I'm not there yet with the fear of punctuation. I'm working on it.

Meanwhile, please note my liberal use of all sorts of punctuation in this post.  The way I see it, communication is difficult enough. Anything I can do to make myself clearer, my message more easily understood, I will do. Up to and including a period at the end of the sentence.  If that comes across as hostile, then obviously I am not communicating very well at all.  My apologies.

Credit to Joy for the above photo :)

Yesterday I promised to write up the Photo Safari Report for last week's hike.   It was such a great hike or actually a series of hikes, all of them in the same place, Mayakka State Park.  Joy and I drove (well technically she drove, I passengered) to a good place to hike, then of course we hiked around and took photos and then drove to the next great place and so forth.  So it's not one long hike, it's more a lot of small ones.  Still counts tho!  I guess therefore, I will call this one the Lotsa Hikes Hike.  That'll do.

It was, once again, an absolutely gorgeous day and perhaps because of that (?) we saw so much more variety than usual, meaning this time, it's not just birds :)  Oh there were birds, no question, but a really nice variety of them instead of mostly one sort.  What is it they used to say?  Oh yeah, Variety is the Spice of Life.  It's also the spice of photography!  

I may as well post the birds since I was just talking about them.  There were birds throughout the park, from the very first moment we passed the Ranger Station until we went back out. We were surrounded by all sorts of songs. Sometimes it's hard to find them even though you can hear them very clearly!  But if we are very patient and just stand in one spot, keeping our eyes peeled, eventually they usually reveal themselves.  So many different colours and sizes and personalities!  Love it.  Here is a sampling:

But we saw so many other wonderful creatures. After awhile you stop being surprised and just  accept the possibility that a dragon around the next corner would feel logical and reasonable ;)

You know that some trees really catch the attention of my eye and my camera.  Sometimes it's just one spectacular tree on it's own, other times it's a grouping:

Even thought there were flowers and interest foliage all around us, I took surprisingly few photos of them, so today, just a small handful:

I don't want to leave out my newest category, the black'n'white captures.  The smoke, by the way, we saw from quite a distance away and we assume (though one should never) that it was a controlled burn in another part of the park.  At least that's what we hope it was!

No rando's today!

I guess that's a wrap for the Lotsa Hikes Hike!  Hope you enjoyed it.  There is another hike planned for later this week and who knows what I'll have to share with you afterwards!

Hope everyone is happy and healthy and having fun!  
​
Hugs all 'round.

Normally today I would be writing the Photo Safari report from last week, and at some point, it will be written.  It was a great hike and I look forward to telling you about it.  But today I wanted  to write about quilts. Mix things up a bit.

Historically quilting of some sort has been going on for a long time.  A really long time.  Historians suspect that it goes back to dates like 3400 BCE.  Wow!  They don't know specific dates of course but that's the estimate.  Close enough for me.

They do know that quilting was brought to Europe by the Crusaders in the 12th century.  One of the oldest examples of quilting exists in the museum in Russia that has been dated, by the experts who do such things, to somewhere between 100 BCE and and  200 CE.  The quilted scrap was found in a Mongolian Cave!

In America, quilting was a very common practice in the 17th Century and forward. Interestingly (to me anyway) Colonial Quilts were not made of scraps or used clothing. Nor were they used as bed coverings.  Instead they were art pieces, used to decorate their homes!  It wasn't until the 19th century that scrap quilts used as bedcovers became commonplace.  That was a surprise to me!

Why am I talking about quilts?  Well certainly not because I make them.  Lord knows that my sewing skills are rudimentary at best and scandalously horrible at worst.  As many of you are aware, I struggle to replace a missing button.  Quilting is Way out of my wheelhouse.  

I do love them though and I always have.  They look cozy and homey and comfy. They are colourful and soft and beautiful, functional pieces of art!  Which is why Tim and I chose a (very thin) comforter that appears to be a quilt for our bed.  We've had it for a long time, nearly 30 years in fact.  And it still works.  Occasionally I think about replacing it but I haven't found anything I liked quite as much and so it remains.

Joy, on the other hand, makes beautiful quilts.   And she makes the process look as simple as breathing. It's not of course, she just makes it appears that way.   Our grandmother (our Nana) also made quilts.  Why I did not inherit that gene I do not know but our mother didn't either.  My genetic pre-disposition goes more toward cookies than quilts.

Luckily for me, my sister  loves me and I know this (well I already knew this) because she has now made three  (Three!) quilts for me.  Wow!

The first one is a patchwork quilt which I am a huge fan of.  I am familiar with the provenance  of almost every scrap of fabric used.  Either I was told where it came from or I was actually with Joy when she bought it.  I cannot make a quilt to save my life, but I love helping to choose the fabric so Joy often brings me along as a second set of eyes.   I love the randomness, the variety of colours and patterns and the occasional surprises along the way.  When I first received it I spent quite some time just getting to know it, marveling over each fabric, rejoicing in the sparkly bits and loving the stitched in surprises.  

Also luckily for me, Joy believes in using quilts, not just packing them away for safe keeping.  This first quilt was pressed into service as a chair cover once the kittyboys came to live with us.  They are particularly fond of one of our barrel chairs and rather than constantly chase them out of the chair we decided to cover it instead.  It works ;)

Here is the quilt as a chair cover:

And here it is, in all it's glory, tossed over the kitchen table so you can really see how beautiful and intricate it is:

The one day out of the blue, Joy surprised me with another quilt.  The pattern for this one is a jigsaw puzzle. I have no doubt that she just about went crossed-eyed putting this one together but it was worth every single eyedrop needed. I adore it!   The jigsaw quilt was used a lot two years ago when I spent a lot of time in and out of various surgeries and recovering and pretty much lived on the sofa for awhile. 

This quilt cuddled me and kept me safe and warm while I healed.  Now that the weather is getting warmer, it spend most  of it's it's time on a shelf in the Console Table below the Television.  No worries, there are glass doors so it can still be seen and admired.

But this is how it looks spread out on the kitchen table. Fabulous!   You can really see the jigsaw pattern.  And I especially love the backing on this one.  Who, besides Joy, would have thought to use this fabric?  It's perfect!!!

The third quilt is quite new to me.  Joy brought it over last week.  I actually knew this one was coming.  Joy wanted to make a Christmas Quilt for me but not a traditional Christmas Quilt.  She struggled to find a pattern. Not that she generally sticks to patterns, but often uses them as inspirations or jumping off points for her own designs.  Sometimes one pattern can be adapted into something else entirely.    But this time 'round, nothing came even close, so she had to design this one entirely on her own. And oh my gosh, the results are stunning!  

Sadly, I couldn't figure out how to get a photo of the entire quilt. It was Massive!  And  Magnificent!  What you don't see in this photo is that the white background has tiny white snowflakes and sparkles. All of the white fabric is sparkley! I adore sparkle :)   Each tree is completely different from any of the other trees.  The trunks are different fabrics as well.  Sometimes the trees over lap each other a bit, exactly as happens in nature.  They even overlap the border a little here and there which I especially love!    It's a forest of fabric trees!

The quilting is done in swirls that represent the wind and the rain and the snow that falls in the forest.  When you think of all the hikes that Joy and I have done in forests I think this perfectly represents not just our love of nature but also the time we spend together.  And Christmas, it could be Christmas too, why not?  Christmas Trees grow in the forest...!!  AND  at least one fabric is Christmassy.

There is one delightful whimsical surprise on this quilt too.  Way down above the border on one end is this:

How cute is that???  

I am well aware that quilts, much like aprons and punctuation are considered old fashioned and very out of current style.  Do you want to guess how much that matters to me?  If you guessed Not At All, you would be 100% correct!  

I wear an apron every time I cook, I use punctuation constantly, always and correctly and I adore Quilts!  

How many times have you heard that old saying, "With Age Comes Wisdom"?  I cannot begin to count how many times I have read it or heard it throughout my life.  I think I mostly, it was when I was much younger.

It became something to aspire to, something to look forward to. " When I'm older I will be wise".  Mental images of owls that looked a lot like Albert Einstein came to mind.  I pictured myself sagely nodding and answering questions and the crowd hanging on to my every word.   Or at least entering my golden years with an uncanny ability to select the best, fastest moving line in the grocery store.  Practical Wisdom.

And then I do something abysmally stupid and then I wonder when exactly this aged wisdom will begin to kick in.  

By way of example: About a month ago now,  I was cleaning baseboards (my first mistake obviously) when I had a little oopsy.  So picture this:  there I was squatched down carefully wiping down the baseboards under the part of the kitchen island that overhangs so that a person can sit at the counter.  Got it?  Good.  Then when I finished, I - still squatched over - backed up and in one quick movement stood up. All fine and good except that I hadn't yet cleared the overhanging countertop.  ouch.  I whammed my head full tilt into the granite and I tell ya, I saw stars, moons, suns. and all of the constellations I think.  

Tim heard the bang and came running in and found me sitting on the floor under the counter, with my hands on the ouchie part of my head and he brought me an ice pack immediately, got me to a chair to just sit then asked what happened.  When I told him, he just shook his head.  It's not the first time he has rescued me after having done something less than brilliant.

I was fine, thank you very much, but I felt very stupid.  And I said, to myself, "either I'm not yet old enough to be wise or the wisdom gene skipped a generation" and I went on about my life. 

But then yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about food.  Varieties of foods.  What foods we do and do not care for. And  she suggested that perhaps I ought to try a particular food again rather than just say that I had it once (long ago) and didn't like it and therefore have no desire to eat it again.  And I responded that I know myself quite well by now and I know, without a seconds hesitation that if I didn't like it then  I will not like it any better now thank you very much.   

There was no heat to my words, just a strong, firm, unshakeable conviction.  I delivered my words with a smile and a small laugh.  Neither of us was angry with the other.  We continued our conversation about other things.  But afterwards, it dawned on me that rarely in my life have I been so very confident about anything.  There was not one single doubt in my mind that what I was saying was true.  Hmmm. Interesting.

Now let's add to that.

This blog that I write is out there in the blogiverse.  Anyone of several billion people who are online can access it.  Which means that they can also comment on it.  And they do.  Most of the comments are kind, supportive and interesting and I greatly appreciate every single one.  But every once in awhile I get pushback from someone who takes issue with what I say, or how I say it.  It used to bother me.  It bothered me a lot more than it should have.  I wrote long letters of explanation and apology to these total strangers which sometimes caused them to write again, meaner, worse things.  And I fretted about it far too much.  I questioned if I had any business writing a blog in the first place.

Fast foward to today and I don't do that anymore. If someone doesn't like what I write, it's such a pity and what a shame.  But hey, life is fraught with disappointment is my attitude.  And then (a surprising new thing)  I never think about it again.

This goes for other internet sites that I am on.  I'm not on many but there is a photo site that oddly gets some people riled up and a few q & a sites that engender far more lashings that are strictly necessary.  

I no longer worry about whatever they have to say. Sometimes I don't even read anything mean or negative.  But when I do, I shrug and move along in my day and never give them a second thought.  In an unusual move,  recently I did respond to someone who disagreed with me.   And it wasn't even what I said, it was how I said it that he objected to.  And I responded that, basically, I cannot please everyone so I have decided to please myself.  That what I wrote pleased me and if it did not please him that perhaps he shouldn't read my responses.    And I wrote those words with no malice or ill intent, but with great confidence in myself.  

Wow, I have come a long way baby.  This is the same person who has spent 70 (almost 71) years basically apologizing for existing.  I apologized for everything all of the time whether I had any control over the situation or not, somehow, everything seemed to be my fault and therefore, I apologized.  And when people said to stop apologizing, I apologized for apologizing. 

It was ridiculous.  And it was sincere. I felt terrible for whatever awkwardness or discomfort or distress that other person was expressing. Even when I had nothing whatsoever to do with it.

If anyone challenged anything I said (or wrote) I was certain that they were correct and I was wrong and I would withdraw my statement and apologize once again.  

I am not sure why things have begun to change for me but they absolutely have.   Suddenly for no reason that I can figure out,  I am beginning to see things more clearly.  Including that old saying about age and wisdom.

I think perhaps the wisdom we gain in older age isn't just life experience type wisdom (although there certainly is that).  I think, maybe, the wisdom we achieve is in truly knowing ourselves.  Finally after all these years, I know what I like and what I don't, I know who I am and who I'm not.  I know what my dreams are, what my skills are, what my failings are  and I have no difficulty sharing that information (when pertinent) regardless of how anyone else feels about it.  They can question me, doubt me, chastise me, scold me, turn their backs on me, but it does not change who I am or how I feel. 

And I make no excuses or apologies for it. There is not one doubt in my mind that what I said was exactly what I intended to say.  Awesome.  And about dang time.

I will continue to do stupid or foolish things now and again because that too is part of who I am, but I am no longer embarrassed by it.  Much like Popeye, I yam who I yam and I'm okay with it.  I am old now and in one of the ways that is most important, I am wiser.

I think I got this.

What do you say we start off the week with another Photo Safari Report?  I'm calling this one the Awesome Hike, because it really was.  Near perfect conditions, those being, hardly anyone else anywhere around, sunny skies, cool temperatures, loads of things to see as we hiked along and of course, Joy and I hanging out together.  Always a bonus.

I'll start out with the flowers because there have been so few for the past howevermany months.  Spring is definitely here if the floral varieties in Preserves is any indication.   Most  wildflowers are yellow for whatever reason, but on this hike, most of the ones we saw were pink! Awesome! 

And it follows, naturally, that if there are loads of flowers, there will also be a lot of insects!  I cannot even begin to tell you how many butterflies, dragonflies, flying stinging things and creepy crawlies of every size and colour we saw but I only was able to capture a relatively small number (comparatively)  of photos.  All Dragonflies!  Insects are small and they move very quickly and that's my excuse.  Anyway, insects:

There were so many birds! So Many Birds!  It was like a birdie convention!  At first they insisted on only being on the side of the trail that had us shooting into the sun.  Not good.  But eventually I got a few good ones in all directions :) Yay!

And that leaves only the rando's.  It's a very strange lot today, a little of this and a little of that. The flotsom and jetsom of photos.

Oh wait, that's not all.  Since I've been leaning toward black & white photography recently, I decided to add that category to the Photo Safari Reports.  Hope you don't mind. 

So I guess that's it for this time 'round.  Thanks for joining me on the Awesome Hike.  Wouldn't it be fun to come along live and in person some time?

Wishing you all a spectacular Day!

​

It's Spring!  And 'tis the season for Spring Cleaning, right?  It's tradition!  It is a very very old tradition as it so happens.  As far as reseacherers who look into those sorts of things can tell, it goes back  about 1000 years!  Wow!  It appears to have originated in Iran as Nowruz, a Persian  Festival celebrating their New Year. Which apparently is (or was?) in the Spring.   There are also mentions  in ancient Jewish Tradition connected with the Cleaning of the Home in preparation for Passover which is also in Spring.  Thus was born, the Spring Cleaning Tradition!

In a more practical fashion, it just makes sense that in the times before wonderful modern conveniences such as HVAC systems and vacuum cleaners, when people had very small (and rather dark) homes heated through the long winters by fireplaces that as soon as the temperature outside was warm enough. people would open doors and windows and begin to clean.  Everyone  would be enthusiastic about airing out their homes and scrubbing them thoroughly!  Real wood fireplaces are wonderful, giving off a cozy heat and ambience like mad but they are a filthy business.  If you've never experienced one I'm hear to tell you that the wood, the smoke and the leftover ash is just  plain gross !

Nowadays, most of us are lucky to not have to rely on wood burning fireplaces to survive the winter.  So in modern times, the idea of Spring Cleaning maybe not be actual cleaning but something related to it.  At least that's how it works in our house.

Our home is clean. I clean all the time.  Once a week I do a big clean and before company comes I do a bigger scrubadub clean.  And every single day I find myself doing something cleaning related.  Tim and I are both tidy people so the house is always picked up.  "A place for everything and everything in it's place" isn't just a saying, it's practically my motto!  I have always found the "clean as you go" method works well.  Doesn't take much time and the mess doesn't pile up.

BUT there is always something that needs to be tackled at least once a year.  And for us this year, there were two things.  The first was the Utility Room.  At one time it was a very small garage.  Now it's the place everything goes that we dont' know where else to put.  Which can be an issue.  It's also where the HVAC system is, the big freezer and the washer/dryer.  It's storage for paint cans that we may need to use again at some point, Tim's many tools,  Coolers, folding lawn chairs, luggage and Christmas Decorations.  I keep all my cleaning supplies and tools in that space along with extra light bulbs, work gloves, air filters and other various odds and ends that really have no place in the house.

And it's an easy room to ignore. Nobody sees it but us. So it's easy for things to get stacked up and spread out with the promise to "get to it later".  Well later finally arrived this past weekend.  We put on our grubby clothes, hauled around both garbage can and recycle bin and rolled up our sleeves and got to work.  Oh my!  We threw out soo much crap.  Went through every single bin and box, re-organized, and in the end, vacuumed the entire place.  It looks so much better now.  I wish I had thought to take a "before" shot because you cannot appreciate how good this looks incomparison to how it looked before.  Suffice it to say that it would have been embarrassing!  Here's the "after".

Whew!  A lot of work but a job well done!

The other Spring Cleaning task we took on was sorting out the pantry.  You've all seen photos of my pantry before. I love my pantry.  It's big enough to hold, not only my baking cart, but shelf after shelf of everything that doesn't fit in the kitchen.  Canned goods, baking supplies, spices and oils, cases of water, giant pastry boards, vases and platters and serving dishes, griddles and roasting pans and kitty food!  That's a lot of stuff.

I tried, oh how I tried, to keep is sort of organized.  But life happens. And oddly shaped boxes and cans and containers of many sizes made it hard to keep related stuff all in one section.  To say nothing my shortness being a factor.  If I had my druthers, nothing would be higher than I can reach. But that means the shelves would end about half way up the walls which is a horrible use of space so there is also a step stool in the pantry which I use on a daily basis.

I have found that there are some things which, once opened, and partially used, cannot be stored in their original container.  Things like flour and sugar for example.  Once opened, it needs to be transferred to another container both to stay fresh and not spill.  Humidity here is a real issue with product longevity!  I used a LOT of zippy bags for that.  And while zippy bags do work, they dont' stack well and they are slippery and like to slither off the shelves from time to time, the buggers.

The soltion was Containers. Lots of Containers. Containers of all sorts of sizes and shapes.  I now have those containers!  Labeled Containers!  Airtight containers!  I am so excited about them!  Happy Dance!  These are just some of them.   I do love a good container.  Things to put things in bring me joy.  The labels are the cherry on top of the Sundae.

You cannot really see it here, but there are containers behind the front row of containers and with the smaller ones, I can stack them making excellent use of space!  I love when that happens.

Tim even got me selves that go on the shelves to make more/better use of the shelves!  That's confusing. I'll just show you a photo

I didn't take a photo of it but there is also a stepped shelf for smaller things like spices and herbs.  It is glorious!  

In fact, it's so successful that I've thought of a few other things I could put in containers and we may get more of them!

The bonus, which I didn't think of at the time is that, because the containers are clear,  I can easily see what things we are low on now to put on the grocery list instead of thinking, "I'll make Oatmeal Cookies. I see that we have an oatmeal container in the pantry",  only to begin the cookies and find that there's not nearly enough in the original box!"

I've already added to my next grocery list all of the things I didn't realize we were very low on!  YAY!

Anyway, so that's our version of Spring Cleaning.  If it's not yours, or if you've given up the tradition entirely, well that's just fine.  But this is the way we do things at Casa Humphreys!

We enjoyed doing it and we're glad it's over 'til next year!

​Hugs all 'round

Ready for another Photo Safari Report?  This one will be a little different.  The photo above is probably my one and only really good picture from the hike.  I honestly don't know what happened.  I guess, for me, it just wasn't a good picture taking day.  It happens.  The same way sometimes no matter how hard you try, it's not a good baking day.  You did everything right, but the product quality just wasn't there.  Oh well.  Consequently, I'm calling this one the Crappy Photo hike.

It was a GREAT hike, please make no mistake there.  It was a perfect hiking day, actually.  The sun was shining but the air was crisp and cool, the preserve wasn't crowded and Joy and I had, as we always do, a great time just hanging out together.  We saw a lot of things that were very photo worthy too.  And we always say that some times it's enough to have just seen it.  Getting a picture is just icing on the cake.  Well this time around, my cake is mostly icing-less.  Sad but true.

I'll show you a few of the not great photos and I will even add a little commentary. I think we can all agree that the following photos are more laughable than postable:

Dagnabit!  Oh well, it is what it is what it is.  I did get one almost clear flower photo.  One.

It is a little sunglared.  Maybe it would look better in black and white?:​

Actually I did get a few bird photos that weren't butts or blur. They aren't spectacular, but they are at least recognizable as being of birds!  It's the little things:

There were a few relatively non-blurry as well, though I will say, due to their teensy size, getting a really good picture of an insect is tricky business!

Randos?  Naturally.  I almost always have those uncategorizable photos for you.  And most of these came out fairly well.  Maybe because they know they are my favourites:

And that's that.  The Crappy Photo Hike.  Great hike filled with beautiful things, but not very many good pictures.  Maybe you were able to at least get a giggle out of my lousy pictures today! I hope so!  If you can start a new week with a chuckle, that it not so bad :)

​

Behold this magnificent beast!  Howdy do to my new vacuum!  Ain't he a handsome devil!

Our old vacuum, may it rest in peace, was 10+ years old and apparently in vacuum years that's the same thing as being Methuselah.  I did look it up (of course I did) and it seems that a decent vacuum that is properly cared for generally lasts around 8 years so our old one did it's time and did it well.  Mostly.  Well right up 'til the end anyway.

I remember when we first got it, I was so impressed with what a great job it did. But as we all age, we slow down a bit.  It happens.  That's just real life I suppose. Even with appliances.

It's not as if I over-used it.  I dont' really like to vacuum so I usually only do it once a week.   And I only do it the once a week because while I don't like vacuuming I do like a clean house.  And mostly, we are clean and tidy people so it's not horrible.  It's not as if our home is a Hazmat situation. Just well,  in my mind there are two levels of clean.  Day to Day clean and Company Clean.  Our home is always day to day clean.  I know people who vacuum every single day.  Their homes look amazing all of the time.  Our home looks............lived in. Not horrible.  It's acceptable.  But definitely lived in.

Since the kittyboys came into our lives however, we have a new demon to battle.  Fur.  My hair is everywhere as it is.  And now that my hair is longer, there is all that much more hair that I am forever finding and picking up to throw away and muttering to myself how I don't know how it is that I can lose that much hair every day and not be bald.  Now we have two kitties worth of fur to add to it.  Me oh my.

The old vacuum, which used to do such a great job, objected.  Strenulously.  It had gotten to the point where before vacuum each and every time, I had to tinker a bit.  If there was so much as one strand of hair wrapped around the roller it would refuse to pick up anything so I would have to stop and cut it away.  A hole cropped up in the hose which I repaired with electrical tape and that would occasionally have to be replaced.  Sometimes the vacuum just needed a break between rooms.

Recently, after I finished just one room, the old vacuum just plain stopped.  It said, nope.  And I said, "I am so over this".  Tim immediately began researching (of course he did) and then ordered a new vacuum for me.  Gotta stay ahead of the dirt!

Once it arrived I couldn't wait to hit those carpets!  It's just area rugs not wall to wall carpetting but still, they are pretty big and that's where the dirt shows the most.  I had to empty the cannister after tackling just one area rug.  Mercy!  I can only conclude that the old vacuum was not doing much of it's job for longer than I realized.  I would be embarrassed except that you just  don't know what you don't know.  Y'know?  

Three cannister emptyings later, the place was looking pretty good!   This new vacuum just about sucks the colours out of the rug.  Dirt doesn't stand a chance.  Those Bissell folks know what they are doing. I LOVE my new vacuum cleaner and so does the house!  In all honesty, I still don't enjoy vacuuming, but I do love the results when it's done.  This place is looking good :)

And bonus points, the kitties are enjoying the box it came in.

The old vacuum is dead.  Long Live the New Vacuum!  Woohoo!

Happened to catch this shot of some random person in a bunny suit, standing on the side of the road waving to passersby this weekend!  

Happy Easter to ya!  Hope yours was lovely and either as traditional or as non-traditional as you prefer.    Ours was of the Non variety.  Tim cooked hot dogs on the grill, I made macaroni and potato salads and opened a tin of baked beans which made a perfectly fine picnicky sort of meal with a gingerbread cake (completely with real whipped cream) for dessert.  

Why do you suppose it is that holidays seem to center around food?  Every single holiday I can think of has food as a centerpiece. Thanksgiving Turkey, Christmas Roast (or whatever you family traditionally does), Easter Ham just to start out!

The various candies for the various holidays:  The first candy I think of when Halloween rolls around is Candy Corn.  I dont' care for it at all, but it's the one that pops into my head.  Tradition!  Christmas is Ribbon Candy, which, now that I think of it, I don't like either.  Or Candy Canes !  I can deal with the occasional Candy Cane.  Valentine's Day of course are the heart shaped boxes filled with chocolates.  Easter is jelly beans.  And we all already know that I only eat the yellow ones, but they are still jelly beans so they count!

Independence Day is picnics (followed by fireworks) and Memorial Day is all about cookouts as is Labour Day and I think I'm running out of holidays here. Oh wait, New Year's Eve/Day.  Hmmm   I have no food association with New Years.  Correction!  Black -Eyed Peas!  When I lived in Texas I was told to always eat Black Eyed Peas on New Years' Day for Good Luck.  Whew!  For a second there, I thought  there was a non-food holiday and that will not do!

Maybe the holidays are food-centric because Holidays are a time for family and/or friends to gather together and celebrate.  All celebrations should involve food, don't you think?  We eat together, we drink together, we talk and laugh and enjoy!  

I actually looked this up to make sure I wasn't making a leap that had no foundation to it.  Turns out I was correct:

"Food has always played a significant role in celebrations and holidays around the world. Beyond its basic function of nourishment, food holds a deeper meaning in many cultures, symbolizing traditions, beliefs, and rituals."  according to momentslog/cuisine

Celebrations are about happiness and food makes us happy!  Meals should be a joy and a pleasure and when that pleasure is shared, it expands exponentially.   The old "Love is food, food is love" adage seems to hold true.  

I know that when I cook and bake for my family and friends, it is an act of love.  I am providing you with nourishment because "I care about you, I love you, I want you to be healthy and happy!" 

So while there were no easter baskets, no chocolate bunnies and no easter egg hunt at our house (mostly because there are no little ones in our lives), there was food, there were people that we love, and there was a lot of talk and laughter.  

It was traditionally non-traditional but it was good.

Hope yours was too

Thought I would talk about two different things today.  First thing is this car.  The one in the picture at the top of the page.  (sigh) I love this car.

It's a 1956 Chevy Bel Air.  (sigh again)  I have no idea why it appeals to me so much but if I could choose ANY car, of all the cars ever in existence, this would be the one at the top of the list.  I love the two tone, I love the white wall tires, I love the chrome trim, the hood ornament and the chevy emblem on the front.  I love the roundy headlights, the snazzy grill, the big old steering wheel and the bench seats.  And it's all absolutely ridiculous!

Why?  Because I would never in a zillion years be able to drive this car!  And for three really good reasons.  First, it's standard shift.  I never learned to drive standard.  I barely learned to drive at all, frankly.  Several people have tried in vain to teach me, but I guess I'm just not coordinated enough to manage clutch and shift. Clutch OR Shift I may have eventually figured out but not both.  This car is standard.  I suppose it could be made automatic after the fact, but that would ruin the car. It's a classic. You should never mess around with a classic.

The second reason I would never be able to drive this car is because I can hardly see over the dash and steering wheel.  A very nice man, who was very amused as he observed me oooo-ing and aaahhh-ing over his BelAir, allowed me to sit in his.  I was tickled to bits.  I gingerly slide onto the seat, squared myself behind the wheel, sat up very straight and then burst out laughing because no matter what I did, I only just barely saw the hood of the car, no road at all.  The seat would have to be raised somehow. 

Which brings us to the last reason.  I not only cannot see over the dash and wheel, I also cannot fully reach the pedals!  LOLOL  The seats would have to be raised and blocked forward!  Which means, since it's a bench seat, that the entire front seat of the car would be raised and blocked forward which in turn means that only very short people would be comfortable sitting in the front seat of my car LOLOL  !!

Good thing I wasn't planning on buying one.  But I will ogle them whenever I have the opportunity to see them.  Tim and I walked over to the annual Venice Car show this past Sunday and spent a few hours wandering around admiring the 200+ vehicles on display.  It was awesome!

It's odd how much I enjoy that particular car show because I'm not a car person per se.  I don't care what I drive as long as it's reliable.  And if you asked me to describe someone else's car I would only remember what colour it was and how many doors it had. 

Most cars today look very similar to me.  I'm sure if I knew (or cared to know) more about cars, that I would notice the subtle variations but unless I see the model/brand of car written right there on the automobile, I have no idea what sort of car it is.  It could be a Mercedes, it could be a Toyota.  To me they all look pretty much the same.

And heaven knows that engine talk goes right over my head.  I'm not stupid, I understand how a combustion engine works.  I also get the whole Electric car thing and the hybrid car concept.  Beyond that, I do not know and I'm not especially interested.  

But I know what I like, and I like older cars.  They had some style, some panache, some flair.  They were interesting, they were wildly different and new ideas meant not just a new type of engine or safety feature but also a completely new look!  I hear commercials touting new looks now, but it is rarely true. Very Disappointing.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm all about safety features.  Yay safety! Fuel efficiency is important too naturally.  But gosh I miss interesting looking cars!  Fun looking cars!  Unique ideas and features!  Apparently, there is no way to mesh Fuel efficiency and safety with fun and interesting.  And then make it affordable.  LOLOL  Oh I am hilarious today!

There were six Chevy Bel Airs at the car show on Sunday, each one was a different colour and not all of them were '56s but close enough to wow me!  I was satisfied for another year :)

Now what was that other thing I wanted to mention?  Oh yeah.  You remember recall that this past Monday  I posted on Facebook that I was blocked out of my blog construction site because somebody reported it as being dangerous and/or unsafe (insert eyeroll here)?  Well, Tim fixed it for me the same day.  He did it without complaining, with no, probably deserved, remarks about how untechie I am and he did it quickly.  He is my hero. For a thousand different reason on a thousand different days, but still, he is, as always my hero. Charging up the hill to my rescue, once again.

Thank you also to my son Corbin  who sent suggestions on how to correct the problem.  Another hero!  Tim had already wrestled it to the ground by the time I read his excellent ideas, but  I appreciate it anyway, and if Tim hadn't been available to take care of the problem, I would definitely have tried it!   Thank you too, Corbin!

I admit that when I saw that big red screen with the "Thou Shalt Not Pass" warnings all over it, I panicked! Oh no!  I'm being forced to do something against my will!  They are keeping me from my blog construction!  The world is coming to an end!   Much like Chicken Little , I leaped to an unsubstantiated conclusion that I would never be able to get back into the site or write on my blog again!  Oh NO!  

One really good thing I learned (other than to not panic about such things) is how much I would miss writing the blog!  Every once in awhile, it crosses my mind that I've been writing this thing for a number of years now  - since October 2016 in fact!  And perhaps I ought to think about working my way to an end point.  But I guess it's still too important to me to quit.  At least not yet.

So anyway, those were the two topics for today.  My favourite car!  And, I'm sorry I made such a big dang deal about not being able to write my blog on Monday.  Sorry about the over-reaction. 

Have a Wonderful Easter Weekend!  Hope the Bunny brings you goodies!

Be forewarned, this is another kittyboy update!  If you are not interested in yet another chapter in the lives of Brysco and Wyatt, feel free to go on about your business. I bear you no ill will. Those of you still interested, please read on (and on a peronal note,  Yay!  so happy you wanted to read more)

The three remarkably similar items in the above photo are supposed to be toy butterflies attached to cords which are in turn attached to sticks.  If you look closed you will notice that one has no feathers, one has two tiny remaining rather bedraggled feathers and the last one has larger, less molested looking feathers.  These are the kittyboys most favourite toys in the world.

We bought the first one on a whim.  It was at the checkout register at the local pet supply place where we buy kittyfood.  The stores had, rather cleverly, put a bouquet of butterfly toys right there at the checkout with a rather inexpensive price tag dangling enticingly.  At the last second, we added one to our pile of cat food cans.

When we took it home, the boys went wild for it!  They displayed none of their usual cautious circling and sniffing of something new in the house.  Instead they went straight for the attack.  The Butterfly Must Die was their rallying cry and they proceeded to ravage it.   It was completely featherless in less than 24 hours.  We thought that once the feathers were gone, they would lose interest and well, that was $5 bucks poorly spent.  Oh well, live and learn.

But instead, to our surprise, they continued to beg to play with the butterfly.  Which involves a human (usually Tim or myself) holding it tantalizingly above them, moving it back and forth quickly on the floor or making the butterfly appear to swoop and dance through the air.  The crazier and wilder the butterfly moved, the better they liked it.

They crouch on the ground "behind" something, eyes wide and dark, whiskers forward, nothing moving but the tip of their tails until suddenly they pounce on the poor unsuspecting butterfly.   Other times they leap spectacularly into the air with flips and twists, totally unconcerned about where they might land.  They will race through the house at top speed chasing us as we  run, "flying" the butterfly behind us like a flag.  And the kittyboys cannot get enough.  They will play until they are exhausted and collapse to the floor, panting, sides heaving, and still, the instant the butterfly twitches, they are up and ready to play again.

 They get so overexcited by this butterfly game that I have had to teach them how to take turns.  It took awhile for them to grasp the concept but they do pretty well most of the time now. I will play with Brysco for a few minutes and then say, "its your brother's turn now" and then I play with Wyatt while Brysco catches his breath and watches intently.  Then I switch back to Brysco and Wyatt takes a break.  Mom doesn't get a break until the game is over.

Usually the game is over when either I need to get back to whatever I was supposed to have been doing in the first place or Brysco has done one of his truly amazing leaps into the air and grabs the butterfly with his mouth, lands and then refuses to give it back.  When I drop the stick, off he marches, butterfly firmly in his teeth, stick and cord trailing him, as he takes it to Tim.  Every single time.  Yesterday when Brysco tried to deliver it to Tim, the office door was closed so Brysco left it as the door as an offering.  Occasionally when Tim is too  busy to do the usual pets and praise when he delivers his butterfly, Brysco will take the butterfly into the KittyBoy hideout (which now lives in Tim's office) and hides it there.  I am convinced that Brysco is laughing while I search the house over for the toy later. 

Which is why we now have 3 butterflies.  Well that and Tim is an old Softie when it comes to these guys.  And that is also why, here and there throughout the day, Tim will take a little break from his workday, come out and play Butterfly with the boys. The boys love it, Tim loves it, he certainly deserves a break and it's good excercise.  Win/Win

I tried to get some photos of the kittyboys mid-air leaps and catches during the butterfly game but it turns out that I cannot play butterfly and take photos of it at the same time.  But then, I am also the person who struggles to chew gum and walk at the same time. oh well.  So I had to settle for more low key butterfly play for the photos.  Maybe one day soon I will get my camera out while Tim plays with them and try (TRY) to get some action shots.

And that's it for this kittyboy update!  

What's new with you?

When was the last time you visited a County Fair?  It had been a LOT of years for Tim and I.  I think that the last one was when we lived in Connecticut which means it was at least 18 years ago!  Whoa!  That's a long time!

For all I know you are all County Fair aficionados and attend them on the regular.  Maybe you are the sort of people who buy the multiday passes! Who knows, maybe you are the folks who work at the fairs!  Awesome!    We don't seem to be any of those people.

So I wasn't quite sure what to expect when we went to the Sarasota County Fair this past Sunday.  Surely, in nearly twenty years, County Fairs must be very different than what I remembered.  I mean, everything in the world has changed dramatically in two decades!  It's all so techie now.  

I have fond memories of fairs, the sounds, the scents, the ambience are all so very ripe with excitement and anticipation that nothing could possibly stand up to the nostalgia of it all, right?  I was prepared to be disappointed. 

And that didn't happen at all.   Most of it was exactly as I remembered!  How is that possible?  I do not know but I was delighted by it all.

We arrived just before the doors opened and we made a bee-line to certain areas so that I could get photos that were relatively crowd-free.  Here are a couple of black & whites just to keep the sentimental nostalgia going:

The crowds surged in behind us and that level of electric excitement and noise is essential to the atmosphere so I couldn't begrudge it.  

The next thing we did was to just walk around checking the place out.  There were plenty of rides, most of them the ones I remembered from years ago like the Tilt-a-Whirl!  That still is going strong!  Merry-Go-Round, Roller Coasters, Bumper Cars and Ferris wheels - check,check, check and check!  I did have to laugh about the one Kiddy Ride that had cars shaped like cartoon alligators.  Hah!  Only in Florida:

The Midway was huge!   The memories were all there:  of the barkers trying to get people to play the games, the sounds of the darts popping a ballon or a ball knocking over pins or the ring pinging against bottles, the big eyed kiddos trying to throw a pingpong ball in the goldfish bowl or net a plastic duck and their excitement when they "win" a prize, the fellows knocking themselves out to get a prize to give to their girl, the rows of stuffed animals of every shape size and colour dangling from the ceiling just waiting for their turn to be given away.  And of course, the bright lights and even brighter colours were everywhere!

Food?  You betcha.  The fragrances wafted throughout the fairgrounds and mingled in a way that shouldn't smell good but it so does!  Mostly bad for you foods, naturally.  I think that is key for a successful fair.  But surprisingly there were some healthy choices as well.  Loads of fried everything you can imagine too, naturally, including, gator on a stick.  Can't miss that option!

We debated quite awhile before finally making a selection or two.  Snowcone or slushie?  Soft Pretzel or Donut?  Cheese Curds or Loaded Fries?  Decisions Decisions Decision!

​We visited all of the buildings as well which means we got to see a few animals:

I was a tiny bit disappointed to learn that most of the animals had already been judged, sold and moved on out. There were just a few left but I got as much mileage out of those few as I could, I promise you!

There were also building housing crafts and hobbies that very fun to visit.  Not only to admire other people's cleverness and creativity but to talk too the hobbyists and crafters and learn more about how they do what they do!~

There were so many things I did not take photos of and now regret it, like the shell art, the quilts,  paintings and sketches,  crocheted everything, and wood crafts.  The only thing we didn't see much of, which I do recall from county fairs past were the baked goods, jams and pickles, Produce in general.  Do you remember fairs having the Largest Pumpkins or best looking Eggplants?  Yeah, I do too.  

There were multiple fun houses which I genuinely considered attempting to find my way through (but ultimately decided against) but it was great to see the lines of people waiting to find their way through the mirror mazes!  We didn't go on any of the rides either and that is mostly my fault. I get too dizzy and dizzy is not good.  But I can enjoy watching other people ride the rides!  Sometimes I opt to  live vicariously :)

There was a huge section of stuff to buy.  Everything from cowboy hats and sparkly belts to old timey wooden tops, to massage chairs, hot tubs and freeze dried candy (!!) and everything in between!  How does anyone resist?

In New England they usually have things like Tractor Pulls and some guy with a chain saw making little statues of bears out of stumps  and neither of those were present.  I admit, I kind of missed that.  But otherwise, it was so very nice to go back intime for a few hours and re-visit a genuine old County Fair.

We came home a wee bit sunburned, with a bag of old time candy (yum!) and some new memories of a good old time!

​

Guess who had a birthday last week?    If you said, Joy, you would be correct!    I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday, because,  if you've been reading me long enough, you are well aware of the birthday rules (hint:  the birthday person gets to make all decisions) and she wanted to go for a hike.  Well that's easy!  We can do that!

I had to work on her actual birthday so instead we hiked the next day.   Which means this photo safari will be the called, "The Day After Her Birthday Hike".  

Once again, in keeping with the birthday rules, Joy chose where we hiked and her selection was a brand new place,  Thaxton-Scherer Preserver.    We knew very little about it and sometimes that is part of the fun.  Foolishly we assumed (and we knew what happens when we assume) that it would be a relatively small place and that once we finished up there we would move along to a second hiking spot. 

HAH!  Six miles later we dragged our weary butts to the car, giggling at our foolishness all the way.  It was a terrific hike in a beautiful new place that had well marked trails, bathrooms (!!) and decent parking.  Hard to ask for more than that.

Here are some photos that show some of the highlights:

First of all, thanks to the time change (and I wont' rant about how much I hate it) it was a little, oh, I hesitate to say dark so instead I will say, not very light, how's that?  But it was a pretty place that started out with a trail that circumnavigated a pond.

As the skies grew progressively lighter, we began to see birds:

The worst part of this preserve was it's location which was kind of trapped between two highways.  It was awhile before we stopped hearing the drone of traffic. On the other hand, there were plenty of distractions like beautiful botannicals:

But the thing I was most impressed with were the trees.  I am a big fan of trees, pretty much all trees, but there was something very special about this place with areas of pine trees that stretched back as far as we could see.  It felt a little like something out of a child's Fairy Tale. I kept expecting to see Hansel and Gretel skipping through the forest.

As always there are some rando's for you. My most favourite category:

So there you have it, the Day After Her Birthday Hike wherein, we celebrated the birthday of the living person I've known the longest, my hiking partner, my sister and my friend.  She is an avid baker of cupcakes, a brilliant sewer of quilts,  the owner of giant cats and a master photographer.  I was delighted to share another photo safari with her.

Happy Birthday Jo!

​

We celebrated spring here this weekend!  Yeah, I know it's a little early according to the calendar and some places are still battling winter, but here's it's absolutely gorgeous.  Cool mornings and evenings and lovely warm days of blue skies, sunshine and Flowers!

Sunday Tim and I went North to Felt's Preserve. Well we actually just went for a drive - a no place in particular, absolutely no destination in mind, we went for a wander and somehow ended up at Felt's.  We haven't visited it in a very long time and honestly I wasn't prepared for a real hike.  I was wearing white pants (not good in a forest unless you want them to be dirty) and sandals (terrible hiking footwear).  So we vowed to just walk a little bit and only on well tended, clean trails.  Luckily I pretty much always have my camera on hand.

And of course we ended up walking farther than we intended, got dirtier than expected and stayed longer than we probably should have.  And I have zero regrets.

Here is some of what we saw:

This is going to be like a first reader, mostly photos with very few words.  They do say that a picture is worth a thousand words so if that's true you can count the imaginary words that might have accompanied each photo.

There wasn't a huge variety of birds but I got a variety of photos of the few birds that we saw.  (does that make any sense?)

​Blue Jays:

Cardinals:

Indigo Bunting:

Mourning Doves:

So that was it for birds.  There were loads of birds, but of a limited variety.  And that's perfectly fine!  There was more variety in the flowers and other botanicals:

Lizards too. This is three different lizards and most of them were hanging around a sign about bees which was kind of funny.  False advertising?

The insect variety was impressive !  And these are just the ones I actually managed to get photos of!  There were loads more:

We were tickled to find some turtles basking in the sun by the pond and a few scampering squirrels that held still long enough to get a shot:

So I guess that's it, at least for now.  We will continue to enjoy our beautiful springy weather, which I confess is a tiny bit sneezy and a whole lot pollen-ish.  Whatever you have going on, weather-wise, enjoy!  This too shall pass.

​Hugs all 'round

Guest Hostess!  Wow!  That sounds fancy doesn't it?  Well in truth, it kind of was :)

Awhile back, my friend Debbie asked me if I would do a favour for her.  Of course I would.  The favour turned out to be helping out at the annual Venice Area Garden Club's annual garden tour. At first I hesitated...what exactly does "helping out' entail?    Hostessing is all they wanted of me and I suppose I could do that.  Probably. 

So of course I said Yes with the following caveat., "And I hope I don't embarrass myself or you"  I was assured that I would be fine.  As the date approached, I started to get nervous.  I didn't want to do a poor job of it. I'm not a member of the club y'see and I don't know much about Florida gardening.  What if someone asks me a question?  Yikes!  I am the sort of person who, especially if doing a favour for someone, always wants to do the Best Job Possible.  My Dad always said to do every job as if you were signing your name to it, no matter if you are taking out the garbage or scrubbing the bathroom floor, do it in such a way that you are proud of the results.  

I have always tried to live by that rule.   I seriously work hard at never (or at least rarely) half-assing anything.  I really and truly make every attempt at being my best self and doing the best job possible at everything I do.  And since I knew nothing about my role, very little about the garden club and absolutely nothing about the home to which I was assigned, I guess I can be excused if I say I was a little nervous.  Debbie reassured me that I would be fine.  And I am grateful for her faith in me.

The woman in charge, Linda, reached out to me and the others working at the event via email and kept us apprised of the goings on .  She was amazing with her level of informational detail and I was very grateful.  But it's still not the same as actually being there and having done the job.  The great unknown y'know?  

Since I am not a member and therefore do not own the official uniform which member are required to wear, I was told to wear black pants and a white top which to me always looks like waitstaff.  But sure, I can cobble that together.  Actually the memo said black pants, shorts or skirt and white top.  So I perused my closet.  I do own one pair of black shorts.  They are old, have at least one bleach stain and the hem is getting a little raggedy so, nope, I wouldn't be wearing those!   So I looked at my black skirts. I have two but they are both very "business" looking which makes sense because they are leftover from my working days. And quite honestly, one of them is now a wee big snug.  I can get it on and zipped but I'm not positive that breathing would be an option. Soooo long pants it is!

I knew I would be slathering myself with sunscreen of course, and wearing a hat so I fiddled around with hair-friendly hair styles for awhile.  On an average day, when I am just doing housey and yard stuff or hiking with Joy I don't much care how I look.  And that's exactly how I appear - as if I don't much care.  On this occasion, I would be representing an organization - one I honestly don't know much about - so I absolutely wanted to represent myself and them well.  Therefore, I made much more of an effort than usual.

Next up was walking over to the address to which I had been assigned to find out how long it takes to get there.  I knew that parking would be an issue so one less car is a good plan.  So I timed myself there and back, averaged the two and then added a few extra minutes just in case.  In case of what I don't know, but as we were instructed to be there no later than 9:30, I left at 9:00 exactly.  30 minutes is more than enough time.

Finally the big day arrived.  I was as ready as I would ever be.

I showed up with a nervous smile exactly as planned, a tiny bit early and the place was already buzzing with activity.  I attempted to jump in and "help" wherever I could.  Eventually things were very nearly in place and the boss, Linda, took us on our own private tour of the garden before assigning us to our places.  I was on ticket desk. The desk was actually a card table but ticket table doesn't sound quite right.

The instant we were officially "open' (actually before we opened - there was already a crowd by opening bell) an absolute torrent of people showed up.  It was like Niagra Falls.  They just kept coming!   I kept wondering where do all of these people come from?  There were no breaks, there was no pause, it was just a steady flow of humanity.  Most of them quite pleasant.

To my relief, and surprise, I picked up on what I was supposed to say and do rather quickly.  I sold tickets, answered questions, directed people and kept track of the things I was supposed to keep track of.  I smiled and greeted and tried to be as charming a hostess as possible. The time flew by.

Later that evening, I got a lovely e-card from the boss thanking me (and everyone else of course) for our efforts.   I was so impressed that, as tired as she must  have been by the end of that day, she still took the time to send those ecards.  Very sweet.  I am also sure that everyone involved in this yearly event was glad it was over and absolutely exhausted!

If I understand correctly and I think I do, the money raised by the Garden Club goes to a scholarship program.  A Very Worthy Cause!

So that is the tale of Sam the Hostess!  Kudo's to the VAGC!  Awesome job ladies!  I look forward to finding out how much money was raised this year.  (It'll be in our local newspaper soon - which is one of the things I love about a local paper)

​Hope all of you had a spectacular Weekend too!

This will be a super quick post as I am about to run out the door in just a couple of minutes here.  Today I am acting as Hostess at a Garden Tour, which is something I've never done before!  I'm sure I will be writing about it next week.  

But in the meantime, the Kittyboys and I wish you all a wonderful weekend and hope you have some fun!  The Brysco and Wyatt are Experts on fun and available for consulting. As long as your idea of fun is fighting over a toy mousie, playing with a ball with a bell in it, watching birds or other basic kitty shenanigans.

​I leave you with a few photos and my very best wishes!

We are smack dab in the middle of our busiest time of year here in Florida.  While we do have visitors, guests and tourists year 'round, March seems to be the most touristy of all months.  And us locals know this. We adapt to it. We are prepared for it. And mostly, very honestly, for the most part we not only don't mind, we welcome it.

And in the way of gracious hosts (and that really is what we are) we are, mostly, patient and forgiving and helpful.  We either avoid going to restaurants altogether or we go in off-hours.  When stores are super crowded, we patiently wait in the long lines.  We give endless recommendations and directions to bewildered strangers.  We offer to take their photos. over and over again and again. And we do it without complaint.  Most of the time.

It's important for us to be considerate and empathetic to our tourists because, we've been tourists too!  We have been the ones who clog up the smooth flow of traffic and create long wait times.  We have been those camera wielding tourists who gaze around ourselves in wide eyed and sometimes open mouthed wonder at our surroundings.  We get lost, we drag our suitcases behind us and we ask for restaurant ideas.  We have been those folks who collapse into bed in exhaustion at our hotel at the end of an over-excursioned day and then bounce back full of energy and excitement the next morning.  Yup, that was us.

Tourist destination places like ours know how to cater to guests, it is the area's lifeblood. Visitors are partly what keep our shops and eateries open.  Some of what continues to fund  beautiful parks and beaches and flower bedecked sidewalks is the money that Tourism bring in.  There are always a ton of events planned for tourist season too and we local residents enjoy those events just as much as the visitors.  So you see, it really is a sort of symbiotic relationship.  And we all know it.  After all, part of the reason why so many tourists want to visit us is the same reason the rest of us moved here.  Venice is Wonderful!

But, and here's the big but, there are ways to be a welcome visitor and there are ways to be a miserable visitor who makes locals dread tourist season.  We see both.  We vastly prefer the former.

Being a good tourist is largely about courtesy.  Those of us who live here full time, greatly appreciate a courteous tourist.  Occasionally we get a tourist who is rude, insulting and nasty tempered.  While I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, (maybe they are having a really bad day?)  I am far more likely to help out a tourist who is polite and appreciative than one who just yelled at me.  Seriously, we have all had moments with visitors that are so bad my first thought is just "go home. you aren't happy here so just go home."

Here are a few of the not so good tourist examples: 

Tourists,  are you aware that the rules of the road are not suspended just because you are on vacation?   Just in the past week we have witnessed far too many people turning right from the left lane (or left from the right lane), blowing through stop signs AND red lights without so much as a tap of the brakes and nearly mowing over pedestrians crossing the street,  Another big one is when someone just stops their car in the middle of the road to take a photo, just to "run into the store quickly" or they are waiting for a parking spot.  Literally stopping their car in the middle of the road thus backing up traffic for blocks!!!! 

Another "bad tourist, very bad" moment that we see far too often, is people dumping their garbage on the side of the road, or on the beach, or in our parks and preserves.  Nature is not your garbage can!  I cannot even count the number of times I've seen stuff just tossed out of car windows as the side of the road.  Geez People!  Of course we end up picking it up because we don't want to live in a place with garbage lining our roads and in our yards.  We shouldn't have to.

Speaking of yards, tourists, please recognize that a lot of folks live here. These are our homes, our actual real homes.  This is not Disney Imagineering.  Please stay out of our yards and if your doggie plants one on our property, please please clean it up.  I know you are on vacation but there are some chores you still have to do. That's one of them.

One of the most surprising exchanges that I ever had with a tourist was at the museum.  He came in and was greeted as all of our guests are, with a smile and a sincere welcome and a bit of information.  He grunted at me and walked away before I finished talking and that's fine. Rude, but fine.  He cycled through the entire museum in record time. When he was in front of me again, I asked, as I do most guests, if he had any questions.  He said, "Yeah, is there anything fun to do here?"  I responded that there were a lot of things to do in the area and rattled off a few.  He cut me off and said, "No I mean something fun"  I asked what sort of things he had in mind and he couldn't really tell me what he thought might be fun, he just knew that none of my suggestions were correct.  He then went on to tell me that I was an idiot, the museum was boring and he hated Venice and would never return.  He slammed his way back out the door as I thought to myself,  " Please be a man of your word. Dont' come back"

Along that same line, some tourists seem to think that they should get preferential treatment over locals and the reason they always give is because, "We are bringing money into your town"  Well guess what, the people who live here full time(or even part time) also bring money into this town so....not impressed.  I have witnessed far too many blantantly rude, unkind, attitudey, superior and downright snotty moments from tourists and while I don't' suppose any of us are going to challenge you to a duel over it, it's really so unnecessary.  We are all happy that you are here and hope you have a wonderful time,  but don't expect us to kiss your butt!

So you see, it's really mostly just a matter of courtesy and consideration.    Be a Good Tourist, have great adventures, get out there and see the world!  Have a GREAT time.  But please remember while you are out there to be your best self.  I promise to do the same when I visit you.

That's Joy in profile on the left  and me from the back on the right and, quite obviously, we were out tramping through the forest with our cameras again.  Clearly, therefore, this is yet another Photo Safari Report.  I'm calling this one the Really Short Hike, because, due to time constraints, it was indeed really short.  I suppose other folks might have chosen to just not go at all but we really miss it when we have an off week so we made it work.  Joy wore a watch and checked it often and  gave ourselves a hard stop time then headed for the trails.

This was very nearly called the bluejay hike because we saw nearly so many BlueJays! It was as if they had taken over the world!  They are easy to spot because of their colour and size and they tend to be a little chatty.  Hard to hide when you are that loud!

Also saw quite a number of woodpeckers.  I know they are one of the birds I frequently post  here but this time it was two woodpeckers together!  And that part was unusual so I happy snapped them over and over.  Generally I just take one shot and or maybe two to be certain that the first one was good and then move along, but this time, they just kept looking cuter and cuter and well, I couldn't stop! So this is the same two woodpeckers, just multiple photos of them. I couldn't choose one favourite! 

Let's see, in our brief hike we also saw a hawk. In fact we saw him three or four different times but I only captured him once. He kept moving because he was being harassed by other small annoying birds. Poor thing :

And there was a very cute little grey bird whose name I've forgotten so let's call her, Agnes.  She looks like an Agnes to me.

Flowers are just starting to bloom  which is evident by the thick layers of pollen EVERYWHERE and of course the ACHOO! But that means I did get a couple of flowers.  Some old ones, which I think are still beautiful even in their dried state, and some new. Those yellow trumpet looking ones were EVERYWHERE!

And never fear, I do have Randos today!  Huzzah!  Even a short hike will provide a few uncategorizable shots:

For such a Really Short Hike, I was shockingly filthy when I got home.  But that's fixable.  It was a great photo Safari, if brief and I think we got some decent photos.  We definitely had a good time.  

Now get out there and have an excellent Weekend!  See ya'll next week

Hey!  Welcome to today's Blogpost!     Tim and I did something really different over the weekend, and it was so awesome!  It was a Minock Day first of all, which is always one of the very best days. We met up with our friends in a town none of us had ever visited, Safety Harbor.  Strange name, yes I know.   I looked up the name (of course I did) and it turns out that back in the 1800's when piracy was a serious problem on the high seas and even in the Florida Gulf, once ships managed to arrive in this particular harbor, they were "safe" from pirates - Safety Harbor!  Interesting!

I also learned that evidence of stone age have been found there! Whoa!  But while Spanish Explorers such as Hernando de Soto, visted the area, it was first homesteaded in 1823 by a French gentleman by name of Odette Phillippe.  It was Monsieur Phillippe who introduced grapefruit to Florida!  Nowadays it is an absolutely charming small seaside town that we all fell in love with immediately.

We went there specifically to visit the Art and  Music Center and a place called Whimzeyland.  How could anyone resist checking out a place called Whimzeyland?

The Art and Music Center was incredible.  It was decorated from floor to ceiling (no exaggeration) with unique art installations.  There was so much going on in every direction that it was almost sensory overload.  It took forever to walk through because with each step there was more and more AND MORE to look at, marvel over, wonder about and sometimes chuckle a bit.   I was particularly taken with the ceilings.  Here are a few:

Every single room, including the bathrooms by the way, had us  wide-eyed, craning our necks and twisting in contortions to get photographs.  It was Wild and Wonderful.  The gift shop alone could have kept us entertained for hours.

The walls were as fascinating as the ceilings of course.  Here is a very small sampling (you might catch an unintentional selfie in one of these photos)

When we could finally tear ourselves away from the Art and Music Center, we walked over the Whimzeyland.  It turns out that Whimzeyland is actually the homes of the people who created the Art and Music Center.    The public is welcome to walk their property and admire how terribly clever and artistic they are.  Most  of the art is upcycled objects which impresses me to no end.   It was easy to know when we had arrived.  I suspect that even without the "Whimzey" sign, everyone would know which houses they are.

There was a little bit of everything as we walked along:  A mosaic tiled sidewalk and pathway:

Chandeliers galore:  (one just to get a taste):

Statuary:

Some things were relatively simple:

Others were a wee bit more complicated:

Wow!  That was really something else!  

Once our creativity itch was scratched and our sense of wonder satiated, we wandered off to find food!  We found ourselves, arbitrarily, at a place called The Whistlestop which was, appropriately enough, right beside a traintrack and had a terrific meal.  We ate outside in a covered area and enjoyed the gorgeous day.

Afterwards we walked through the cutest dang little town to the waterfront, where, as it turns out, there was an art and seafood festival going on!  Well of course we had to check that out as well.

And by then, we had managed to spend the entire day out and about, discovering this new to us town and enjoying each other's company so it was time to head in our respective directions (them north and us south)

What A Great  Adventure!  And while I may not need to ever visit Whimzeyland again (probably) I think Tim and I will return to Safety Harbor some day, probably soon.

Bonus Post this week!  Woohoo!

And this time is actually IS a Photo Safari Report!  I am calling this one the Twenty-one Bird Hike because (and you've probably already guessed this) I actually counted and I took  photographs of 21 different kinds of birds!  Wow!  We actually saw a lot more but these are just the ones I got pictures of!  Holy Cats! That's a lot of birds!

It was only 40 degrees when we set out...brisk!  So we were well bundled but as the morning rolling along, we began peeling those layers off.  It's like a truly ridiculous strip tease :)  When we arrived there weren't many other folks around but by the time we left, it was downright crowded.  This is peak tourist season right now so it does make sense.  And honestly I love to see so many people out taking proper advantage of our beautiful parks and preserves. BUT it's not my favourite kind of hiking.  Oh well, it's not my own private preserve after all (dang it!)

We chose our first trail arbitrarily and it turned out to be a GREAT decision because ....the Eagles Are Back!  Woohoo!  First Eagle photo of 2024:

It was kind of one bird after another from there.  Sometimes we just stood in one spot, snapping away at various birds surrounding us. Very Cool.  I won't inundate you with 21 actual bird photos.  That would just be too much.  And honestly, just because I took a photo doesn't mean it was a good one.  I always sort them through carefully and only share the ones that I'm not too embarrassed by.

​Here's a cross section of Birdie photos.  I'll do it in two sets of seven:

Although they are beautiful creatures, enough with the birds already!  Yeah I can hear you thinking.  How about we move along to botanicals?

We aren't deep enough into spring yet to get a lot of flowers, but I'll show you what we did find:

We did get a wee bit frustrated at times because the trails kept being blocked off.  All for very good reason, mind you, but still, we did a lot of backtracking!

Let's see,  we also saw a very cute turtle:

Bubble blowing fish - Really!

And then there was the coolest thing we saw the entire hike:  a baby 'gator lounging in the sun on Mama's snout!  I'm not making that up.  The pictures aren't perfect  but I think you can make it out:

There you have it, a bonus post this week, the Twenty-One Bird Hike!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!  Have fun and be safe :)