A Full-time Life

Category: Boats

Happy to be here

Happy to be back from an unintended vacation from blogging. We have been busy and well — the time away was caused by computer failure. My poor PC gave up the ghost! After several trips to the "not-quite-as-Best-as-it-used-to-be" store, my new machine is finally here. And installed and ready to go, thanks to the in-house computer person (the one in our household who is not me).

And now all I have to do is remember how to use it. I'm thankful to be back and to have new pictures to share. And very grateful that my old ones were safely restored.

Ruddy Turnstone

Except for the memory collage a little way below, the pictures in today's post were taken on Captiva Island last week. It was our first real boating excursion in over two seasons.

We stayed two nights (aboard our boat) at the historic Tween Waters Inn. It is located on Captiva Island be'tween' Pine Island Sound and the Gulf of Mexico. Click on the sign to read some of its history.

It was kind of a bitter-sweet time because we went with good friends who have sold their winter home on the Canal and will not be back next season. They are the ones who really helped us get to know the good places to boat here in SW Florida.

Brown Pelican

We have had so much fun together, boating and ashore, during our twelve seasons here. We will miss them.

This collage is not from last week, but is just a few memories from past boat trips with these (and other) friends.

We didn't let the bitter over-rule the sweet on this trip and we had fun together. By this time in our lives, we all know that change happens.

Ospreys on historic Tween Waters cottage

Here's to happy times: Past, present, and to come!

More Sunset from Tween Waters Beach, Captiva Island (Pine Island Sound)

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts:

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

May 1, 2022
OUTSIDE AGAIN — on land and water



Morning at the Caloosahatchie Nature Preserve.

This County Park is next door to the snowbird resort where we live here in Florida. This majestic Live Oak tree marks the start of a walking path through the Preserve. Live Oaks are fairly common in this part of the country – its acorns are great food for wildlife.

I have read a little recently about "Forest Bathing", the concept of immersing yourself in quiet natural surroundings. I agree that a walk in nature brings calm and joy. It's a different kind of forest here in SW Florida — foliage is low and except for the few Live Oaks on the edge of this preserve, the trees are thin and sparse compared to the forests of the Pacific Northwest. But it is green and quiet. (And certainly warmer here this time of year.) So it works for me.

Mocking Bird

Although this mockingbird posed beautifully along the path, on this walk I heard many more songbirds than I saw — and certainly more than I could photograph. Some I didn't even try to take pictures of were the dozens and dozens of robins I saw and heard in a clearing. Robins are extremely common where we're from in Oregon, but those were the first ones I'd seen here in Fort Myers. It's migration time — I guess they were headed back "up North."

Even though I've walked the paths in this preserve many times, there is always something new to see. Like those robins or these interesting fungi growing on a fallen tree along the pathway. In past seasons, I walked here more often because the park could be accessed from the back of our resort via a short path. This year, apparently for security reasons, the gateway to the path has been locked off. This makes it pretty far to walk to the park from home and would mean a walk along the busy street in front of the resort. So now we have to drive to the visitor parking area like everybody else, which is kind of a bummer after years of feeling like the Preserve was part of our own backyard. But it is still close enough to do often.

On another day last week, we took part in the Boat Club's February outing and lunch. It was nice to get out on the River again.

The picture above is our Canal, taken from the back of our boat just as we got out into the Caloosahatchie. Our Boat hasn't gotten a whole lot of use yet this season — either because of stormy weather, projects keeping the Captain busy, or being sick. Or all of the above. It was a lovely day for this event and nice to get back outside.

The next day was stormy again — heavy wind and some rain. We were lucky that Thursday, the scheduled date for the boating event, was such a good one! It's nice weather again this weekend. We are thankful for that and looking forward to more playing outside — on land or water — in the weeks to come.

Linking this week to the following sharing opportunities:

Thank you to all of the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

February 23, 2020
TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS

Four couples of us towed our boats to Everglades City last week for our Spring overnight boating excursion. We docked our boats and then used two of them to explore the waters. (EC is only a little over an hour away by road, but it would have been at least one overnight stop before we arrived at our destination if we had traveled all the way by boat.)

Everglades City is at the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands, a chain of mangrove islets off the SW Florida coast. And exploring at least part of this area was the goal for this trip. We were grateful for good GPS and charts. There are so many islets and they look so much alike it would be very easy to get turned around.

I am pretty sure I’m right this time about these being terns. (Again, thank you to all who corrected my bad-pun mistake last week when I mis-named a laughing gull.) I think these are Royal Terns, and I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong. This is a highly cropped picture of a sandbar islet we passed.

There were Ospreys on most of the markers we passed. Many with babies at various stages. This part of the Ten Thousand Islands is part of Everglades National Park.

We beached our boat on this small sandbar. It was the first time we’ve anchored our boat. (But we couldn’t get off because none of us wanted to jump off the front. The water in back (where our boarding platform is) was about 7 feet deep — we didn’t want to swim or wade either!)

The largest of the Islands is Chokoloskee, which is connected to Everglades City by a causeway. It is the only one that is currently inhabited (by about 400 hardy souls). We had an early dinner one day at the Havana Cafe there. Tables on the screened porch were surrounded by orchids and other tropical plants.

We stayed at an RV Resort that has dock space available for boaters. The picture on the top left is our boat and one of the others from our group taken from the restaurant across the channel and the other picture is vice-versa (the restaurant taken from our dock.) We walked to this restaurant on one day of our stay.

Companionable friends, birds, good food, and beautiful scenery (some that we could only see from the water) … the recipe for another good boating excursion.

LINKING this week to the following: Thank you to the hosts. (Last week the new INLinx tool did not work for me for the first couple of days. On Wednesday when I tried for the fourth time, it suddenly worked again. Fingers crossed that it decides this week to let me in from the first of the week!)

NATURE NOTES; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; MOSAIC MONDAY; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; SAY CHEESE; WILD BIRD Wednesday; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B’ BIRDING

March 31, 2019
NEW YEARS AT THE BEACH

We've been retired for about a hundred years and I've almost forgotten that let-down feeling of "after the holidays" because every day is sort of a vacation, especially here in Florida. But this year we got back to a few little snags at the Canal Cottage — each one fixable, each one time-consuming — especially for the other person in this small household. I just kind of wait around to help on an as-needed basis. But it feels like back to work after a couple of lovely Holiday getaways. I'm grateful we had the time off together and with friends and I'm especially grateful that we don't have to call for repair-persons to fix said snags. I'm also glad to have taken lots of pictures on our outings because home repairs don't make for good blogging material.

Pink Shell Beach December 31

The last sunset of 2018. It would be a better post if I'd gotten up early enough the next morning to see the first sunrise of the New Year. But the gently rocking boat is conducive to sleeping late. That and we did actually stay up to welcome in the New Year. There were fireworks on Fort Myers Beach at midnight! I did not take pictures of those either.

Great Egret

The birds on the beach at nearby Bowdich Point were the usual suspects, but that doesn't make them less interesting to watch.

Snowy Egret

Is he investigating this beach-goers belongings? Or maybe he just wishes they weren't there in his way to wherever he's going. (The beach was surprisingly uncrowded and there were acres of empty sand. So I think he was just curious.)

Snowy Egrets are also known as 'Yellow Slippers' and this one is apparently shaking the sand off of his.

Little Blue Heron

This heron was actually sharing space with us at the Pink Shell Boat dock. We saw him every morning patrolling the shallows opposite from where we were tied up.

Sandy scenes from a walk along the beach and some more of that fabulous sunset. I always enjoy seeing the Florida version of a snowman (sand-man?). I thought the beach grass hair was a cute touch.

How we got to Pink Shell Resort for our New Year getaway.

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities. With thanks to the hosts.

NATURE NOTES; ALL SEASONS; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; MOSAIC MONDAY; GOOD RANDOM FUN; THROUGH MY LENS;  WILD BIRD Wednesday; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B' BIRDING

January 6, 2019
TWEEN WATERS

Last week we traveled by boat to Tween Waters Marina Resort on beautiful Captiva Island. There were four boats and one couple who traveled by car and met us at the resort. It was another great middle-of-the-week long weekend.

We arrived at the Marina on Tuesday and had a little bit of rain and wind on that day — but the rest of the "weekend" the weather was blue sky beautiful, although a little cooler than usual for April here. (Our friend took this picture as we left the Marina going home on Thursday.)

Bill and I didn't mind the slightly cooler weather at all because we don't yet have an air conditioner on our boat. The weather was perfect for us … we slept well with the light wave action rocking us to sleep both nights. (Bill said he had to get up in the middle of the first night to re-tie the lines because the boat was bouncing. I barely noticed!)



Tween Waters is a lovely resort — marina, hotel, cottages, three different restaurants, a large swimming pool — and as seen above, beautiful landscaping. The sign is a little wobbly though — and that's the way it looks, not the fault of the photographer.



Great white Egret

This was not specifically a birding trip — but we saw a lot of lovely ones anyway. I always try to take advantage of every accidental birding opportunity.

A couple pictures of the Marina dock and the 'crow's nest' which is a great place to sit with morning coffee or evening wine and look over the Bay.

Great Blue Heron

Another frequent visitor to the marina area.

The whole group at lunch at the Green Flash Restaurant. This is not one of the restaurants at the resort, but about a mile and a half down the road. The couple who drove ferried us to and from (a couple of trips each way) because the road between the two is narrow and busy — definitely not walkable. (Thanks to our waiter and our friend on whose phone he took the picture.)



Brown Pelicans

The beach at Tween Waters.

Beach-combing by day, sunset watching by evening, eating in between, and all with great company!

Life is good.



Osprey with prey

I think we actually saw the Green Flash — (or at least my camera did)!!

Linking this week to OUR WORLD on Tuesday; ALL SEASONS; MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; FLORAL BLISS; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY; WEDNESDAY AROUND THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FLORAL FRIDAY FOTOS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B'BIRDING.

Thank you to all the hosts.

April 15, 2018
AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD



Almost in real time for a change, today's pictures are from a couple of days out and about last week — right here in SW Florida.

The beautiful evening skies along the river were an unexpected bonus when we went for a boat ride one day last week.   It was meant to be an afternoon trip to enjoy the O!Zone and late lunch at this river-front tiki bar … but service was really slow. ('Tis the height of the snowbird season.) We got fed before I starved to death though and sunset on the way home was super.

On another morning we drove to Six Mile Cypress Slough where the sky view was a little different. We were glad to visit one of our favorite nature walks for the first time this season. This park sustained some damages from Hurricane Irma and was closed for a couple of months after. It looks just great now, thanks to the Park District and volunteers.

Red-bellied woodpecker before, during, and after lunch.



It was a little cool that morning and the song birds were flitting around like crazy — not many photo ops. But sometimes it's good just to see the old familiars. At the viewing platform, we heard a lady exclaim about the beautiful big bird with the huge feet. She meant the Great Blue Heron.

And we realized that our old familiars are exotic and wonderful and different for some visitors … and that we are fortunate to see these beauties often … and shouldn't take them for granted.

Happy to see cypress knees again too. This group looks like a little swamp family.

Thank you to the hosts of each of the following sharing opportunities … and hello and thank you to the lovely lady who spoke to us just before we stepped on to the board walk. She and her husband are snowbirds from Germany …. she reads the blog and somehow recognized us! We talked a little bit about Costa Rica (the last FT-Life blog post at the time) and about how lucky we all were to be here in beautiful (and warm) SW Florida. They were, I think, returning from their walk while we were just starting and we didn't see them again,  but wow … I was completely flabbergasted to be recognized — and pleased to know they enjoyed the blog.

LINKING this week to: ALL SEASONS; MOSAIC MONDAY; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY; Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B'BIRDING.

February 4, 2018
PARADISE AT OUR FEET



  Three couples of us from Upriver boated to Pink Shell Resort at Fort Myers Beach.

It was a great place to spend the New Year's Eve Weekend.

In case there is any doubt, the sign on the right tells us that '"You are here — in Paradise."    The two pictures on the left are the resort Marina. Us and a few other boats — maybe you can guess which one is ours. (Keep in mind that our dock at home is only 30 feet long. Some of these boats would take up our whole canal.)

Pink Shell is a beautiful resort hotel, with a couple of places to eat, swimming pools, spas and the whole usual resort amenities. It is on the trolley line, so it was easy to go to the town of Fort Myers Beach, which we did one afternoon and evening.

We had fun visiting with our friends, eating, drinking, walking, and watching the fireworks display at midnight New Year's Eve. But my favorite pictures are of the quiet times at the beautiful beach.

I think this is a Black Bellied Plover in winter plumage.

New Year's morning walk. A good start for the year.

Ring-billed Gull

Sunset at the beach.

Good advice (at a driveway in the resort complex.)

Thank you to the generous hosts of each of these sharing opportunities: ALL SEASONS (Jesh) ; MOSAIC MONDAY (Maggie) ; NATURE NOTES (Michelle) ; OUR WORLD on Tuesday (Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy, Arija, and Gattina); WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY (Stewart); WATERY WEDNESDAY (Gemma) ; SIGNS SIGNS (Leslie); SKYWATCH FRIDAY (Yogi, Sandy, Sylvia); SCENIC WEEKENDS (Gemma); SATURDAY CRITTERS (Eileen); and RATHER B' BIRDING (Annie).

January 8, 2017
BOATING AND CAMPING

Linking to : SKYWATCH FRIDAY; SCENIC WEEKENDS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; RATHER B'BIRDING; ALL SEASONS; MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY; SIGNS SIGNS and WATERY WEDNESDAY.

Thank you to all of the hosts and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!



Several decorated boats from our resort took a short evening cruise up the river the week before Christmas .

My after-dark pictures of the lights decorating the boats didn't turn out well, but the light from the setting sun earlier in the evening made up for it. (Taking pictures from a moving boat is always a little bit difficult, even in the daytime, so  I'm happy to have these sunset picture.)

The next few pictures are from a "land cruise". We camped at Collier-Seminole State Park.

This great Egret posed in all its feathery glory at Fakahatchee Strand State Park, in the Everglades (and near where we camped).

Red-shouldered hawks (I think) near our campsite.

We saw our first alligators of the season at Fakahatchee Strand. Now we know we're really in Florida. We might possibly see egrets and hawks in Oregon. But never these guys. This one was sleeping in the parking lot at the visitor center … very near our car.

We had lunch in a little town (Goodland) near our campground before we checked in.   This was our first "chickee hut" restaurant for this season …. another thing that we don't see until we get to Florida. We didn't see any "catfish" but the gulls would have been happy with our leftovers (except there weren't any from our table.)

And back home again, another sky scene at the end of Upriver Canal.

December 29, 2016
THE PROOF …

We are celebrating December in Florida — the proof is in the pictures.

December Lunch Cruise Destination

It's all about the blue skies, the birds, the boats, and the bare feet.

(Or at least no heavy socks and boots)

Boat Club lunch cruise, December

It is a joy to have an operating boat right from the start of our season here. We had problems with a prior repair person last year, but we found a good one this time. Boats do need a lot of attention.

Harn's Marsh, Lehigh Acres

On another day last week, we went for a walk at Harn's Marsh, a new birding spot for us.

Hooded Merganser pair

The female merganser was quite unimpressed as her mate worked hard to come up with only a bill full of water.

Snowy Egret

Just two of many species of birds we saw on this warm December morning.

We'll definitely go back to this spot again.

Night-time views from our deck — across our Canal.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All.

LINKING this post to: ALL SEASONS; NATURE NOTES; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY; WEDNESDAY WATERS; SIGNS SIGNS; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; SATURDAY CRITTERS; RATHER B'BIRDING; and SCENIC WEEKENDS. Thank you to all of the hosts.

December 18, 2016
AFTERNOON ON THE BEACH

The Beach was calling our name. And so was Oh!Zone. (Our boat, which has been sadly under-used this season.) So last Tuesday we boated down the River to Estero Bay, where we stayed at Snook Bight Marina. The pictures in this post were taken on the first afternoon of our stay. It was an easy walk to the beautiful beach at Newton Park, a public facility belonging to the City of Fort Myers Beach.

The Black-bellied Plover was a lifer for me (first sighting ever)! Hooray.

During the winter season, the sand would undoubtedly have been almost covered with beach blankets, picnics, lounge chairs, umbrellas, radios, and oh, you know, the people who go with all of that. There are still guests in some of the many condos and vacation rentals on Fort Myers Beach, but cusp season (between winter and summer visitors) is a great time for those of us who prefer less excitement.

The crowds this time of year are a different species.

Ruddy Turnstone. Not a first-ever, but the first time I've seen one in non-winter plumage.

A beautiful day on the Beach — time to head down the street to our home-away-from home on the water!

LINKING TO: SEASONS (thanks to Jesh); NATURE NOTES (thank you Michelle); OUR WORLD on Tuesday (thank you to Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy, Gattina, Arija, and Jenn); WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY (thank you Stewart); and WEDNESDAY WATERS (thank you Gemma).

May 15, 2016