A Full-time Life

Category: Florida exploring

GETTING AROUND at the Canal Cottage … and elsewhere

This one is elsewhere — seen on one of the Colorado backroads we recently explored with our kids:

I can get lost in a large closet, so I love my GPS. But I would know better than to use it on a backroad. And better yet, I know smart people who do have a good sense of direction who are happy to take me along when they drive them!

Here are a couple of places where even I don't need a GPS:

Morning on the Canal

Rise and Shine

Both the above pictures were taken across the Canal from the Cottage on my morning walk. I've taken similar pictures for years, but this great start to the day never gets old.

And below, a little further away from home, are pictures from Franklin Locks Park where I walked one day last week. This park is just a bit past our current favorite Farmer's Market, so the car pretty much knows the way all by itself!

Ibis along the edge of the river, taken from the pedestrian bridge at the Lock. And below is my Bird of the Week, the Northern Shrike, perched on a fence at the edge of the Park:

At least that's what I hope it is as it seems to match the description in my books. Even if I'm wrong he is still my bird of the week just because he posed so politely for me.

Grateful for ordinary days!

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

December 5, 2021
FLOR-ORADO – two favorite places

Here's the nature walk of the week here in Florida. These pictures are from Ann Olesky Park on Lake Trafford, in the Northeast corner of Collier County. We had some rain last week, but on this day, the sky was blue and it was shirt-sleeve weather.

Lake Trafford

Lake Trafford is about a 45 minute drive from home and we had to drive about half that distance in order to return a couple of packages. When we got to the UPS facility, we found that the Internet in that part of Fort Myers was down and we were unable to make our returns that day. So we did some accidental birding — something that's not at all hard to do around here. Little Blue Herons and Ibis are both fairly ordinary birds here, but these are the first ones of the season. Actually of two seasons, since we weren't here last year and neither of these guys hang out in the Pacific Northwest.

Like its title, this post is a mashup of two of our favorite scenic states. The following pictures are from last month's visit to Colorado.

Aspen trees make wonderful photo ops, whether a picture is a golden stand in the distance or a close-up showing the thin white outer bark, so different from other deciduous trees. And they are a fascinating tree. "One aspen tree is actually only a small part of a larger organism.   A stand or group of aspen trees is considered a singular organism with the main life force underground in the extensive root system." This Source article is well worth reading : National Forest Service Tree Profile.

Debbie's Meadow and Chimney Rock

We went along for Max's walk at Debbie's Meadow one day. We had a good view of Chimney Rock. Scenes from the original "True Grit'" movie were filmed here. And although I'm not much of a John Wayne fan, of course now I want to watch the movie again because I don't remember any of this.



On another day Geoff drove us over a Jeep trail to the ski resort city of Telluride. It was a beautiful drive and not anywhere near as scary as the sign makes it sound. We trusted our driver! It was on this drive where I took many of the scenic pictures from the past couple of posts. We enjoyed a good lunch and a walk around Telluride, which wasn't too busy during this off-season time of the year. (I don't imagine we would have been driving that back road if it had been ski season.)

It was almost impossible to stop taking pictures of Colorado gold! We were so lucky to be there at just the right time. But November is a pretty nice time to be in Florida and we're glad to be home. The picture below was taken a couple nights ago from our back porch. It's not the best moon shot ever, not even the best one I've ever taken. But like the birds in the top photo, it's the first one of the season. And we don't have good moon views from our porch in Oregon.



We are grateful.

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

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

November 21, 2021
WILD MEMORIES

Sticking close to home this week doing some fun stuff that I don't document well with photographs. You know, like cooking, eating, reading, walking, visiting with local family. Of course I do take pictures sometimes when I do the latter two things, but photo-worthy nature subjects are hard to find around here on hot, dry August days. I might have to teach myself to take decent pictures of food and people at least during the height of summer.

We are also hopefully planning some not-too-distant travel (and I think everyone knows by now what I mean by "we" in this context.) I am grateful to the Travel Planner. I am also glad our weather here in Oregon seems to be cooling down some and I look forward to a few more good photo walks here. Meanwhile, while the other half of us is planning for the future, I'm collecting memories from the past. Obviously, I've also been trying to sort through a million or so digital photos.

I do better making family portraits of birds and animals than I do of human ones. Here are a few:

Top row: hungry baby Great Blue Heron and mom – Wakodahatchee Nature Center Florida; Pie-Billed Grebe family, Fern Ridge Lake Oregon; Swan Family, Germany River Cruise

Middle: Sandhill crane family, Upriver RV Resort Florida; Wood stork with baby in nest, Wakodahatchee; Whistling Ducks, Florida.

Bottom row: Burrowing Owl family, Cape Coral Florida; Stork Family, Wakodahatchee; Ospreys, Florida Keys

Pronghorn Antelope, Hart Mountain Refuge Oregon

The above is not my best or favorite animal picture by far but it is from the one and only place I didn't post about after our July trip to Eastern Oregon so it gets a separate picture. Below are some pictures that really are candidates for favorite animals — and favorite places visited.

Elk, Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado; Bison, British Columbia; Brown Bears, Alaska;

Moose, Rocky Mountain NP; Mountain Sheep, Colorado; Musk Ox, Prudhoe Bay Alaska

Mother and Baby Moose, Cook Inlet Alaska; Stone Sheep, British Columbia; Caribou, Alaska

Virtual nature viewing is almost as much fun as the real thing! I love the way digital cameras make it possible to capture all these memories. Here's a fly-in memory shot from another trip:

Happy September everyone.

Don't forget to say Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit on Wednesday.

Addendum from Wikipedia: "Rabbit rabbit rabbit" is a superstition found in Britain and North America wherein a person says or repeats the words "rabbit", "rabbits" and/or "white rabbits" aloud upon waking on the first day of a month, to ensure good luck for the rest of it. The origin of the superstition is unknown.

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

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; WANDERING CAMERA; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS;

August 29, 2021
SMILES — REARRANGED

Nothing much new under the sun this week. Or actually under the rain and gray clouds. Rain is definitely needed, so I'm not feeling sad about it at all. And besides there are photo-worthy skies in the archives. Here are a few I re-arranged:

These six pictures are from four of our favorite states. Can you guess which? There's a hint (and an answer) at the end of this post.

No hint at the end about the above plant, but information from any experts is always welcome. It's fascinating that it has green flowers! There's a whole bed of them in a neighborhood garden I walked past last week.

Random soft color from a neighborhood walk before it started to rain.

When I said nothing much new happened last week, I meant in a blog-worthy way — the camera didn't get much of a workout. But things happened. We read, we walked, we ordered groceries, we cooked, "we" worked on getting our tiny trailer ready for some future trips …

And, as usual these days, we got a delivery or two. Now honestly, does every photo-blogger have a mental list of things they wish they'd snapped a picture of? My long list now includes the new mattress FedEx delivered last week. It arrived vacuum packed and rolled in a box light enough for the two of us to carry from the porch. Then we watched it magically inflate to a lovely 14"- thick queen-size as soon as the tight wrapping was removed. I wish I'd taken a picture of that! It's kind of amazing — sure beats the old way when a mattress purchase took two furniture store delivery persons . (Of course this time we had to move the old one ourselves — that was the harder part.)

One of these "wildflowers" is not like the other. Can you find it? Oh wow it's another puzzle. Every open space along the walking path is covered with these little jewels, in about the same proportion seen here. All so spring-like and pretty. I refuse to call them weeds.

This collection may help with the sky photo locations. These animals and birds are from the same four states as in the sky photo — re-arranged in the same order. (* see below link ups)

Thankful this week for the rain (but also kind of glad the sun has peeked through occasionally); for the new mattress that feels almost like it was custom-made for us; and for travel — both memories and future trips now in the early planning stages.

Linking this week to the following: Thank you to the hosts.

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

Top row L-R: Colorado, Florida, Oregon. Bottom row: Oregon, Colorado, Washington.

April 25, 2021
CHRISTMAS (and a New Year)

It is going to be a different Christmas this year and not only because it will be wet and gray here in Oregon. But there will be rainbows.

Cyndi's photo

Christmas Health Love and Cheer be in your hearts throughout the year

(Picture and Message from our daughter — taken and sent to us last week)

And there will be birds to watch — and maybe photograph if I'm lucky.

Seen on a walk to the river last Friday.

And there will be Christmas memories. Below are some of the most recent.

St Augustine, December 2019

Thank you to all who visit this blog and especially to those who leave comments. And thank you all for writing your own blogs. They are a year-long gift. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

LINKING TO the following with extra gratitude to the hosts of all of these sharing opportunities:

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TUESDAY TREASURES; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD ; WILD BIRD Wednesday ; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B' BIRDING

December 20, 2020
TARPON BAY and LOCAL EAGLES

Drove to Sanibel Island one day this week — battling heavy in-season traffic all the way! Everybody wants to go to the beach. We forget that fact at least once a year. This time, we also forgot that the wildlife drive in Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge is closed on Friday. (We go to the Island to see birds, not to lie around on the beach).

Royal Tern

So our outing plans took a small "tern" and we hopped on one of the Refuge's pontoon boats for a Tarpon Bay nature cruise.

The Tarpon Bay Estuary is also part of the Wildlife Refuge — we boated past several Rookery Islands (where the birds looked like white flowers from the distance — that's all the closer the boat got, for the safety of the boat and even more important for the welfare of the birds.) The Mangrove trees are important for so many reasons. They provide habitat for wildlife and a natural barrier against wind and storms for animals and people on land.

Brown Pelican

While the Royal Tern claimed Mile Marker 15, Post #21 belonged to this napping Brown Pelican. We saw other terns, gulls, cormorants, egrets, ospreys, and pelicans on posts and on the edges of the water — it was a windy day though and with the motion of the boat (and shaky hands on the photographer) , pictures were hard to come by.

I took the above picture on the causeway as we headed off the Island toward home. Note the blowing palm tree at the bottom … it was a a good day for the wind-surfers!

We're fortunate to have a variety of natural places that are easy to get to for day trips. Some are even closer — on another day at home last week, I stopped at the Eagle Pasture on the way to do errands:

I saw at least 50 Cattle Egrets, plenty of small birds, and several very pretty horses. And only a tiny glimpse of an Eagle's head peeking out of the nest. (The nest tree is the skinny slash pine in the center picture (center of the center picture). No Eagle pictures this time, but as always, it is a nice little nature stop on a day otherwise dedicated to mundane activities. The pasture is right across the street from a supermarket shopping center and on the way to just about every other place we have to go to routinely.

The pictures below are from the archives. Two years ago I had much better photographer's luck with these neighbors.

Our Eagle nest — 2018

And our pair of Eagles had better luck also that year, successfully raising a pair of Eaglets. The lower three pictures are that year's "babies" — just ready to fledge and (in the center) actually flying away for the first time.

This year, sadly, only one of the pair's eggs hatched and that baby died from what was later discovered to be from ingesting rat poison. Adult Bald Eagles will take both living and dead prey — fish, birds, small mammals). Now, at about the time their nestlings would usually be fledging, the pair are incubating a second hatch — two more eggs. This is very late for this climate, so it remains to be seen what happens. There is a very active webcam site for this pair, so you can watch the progress from wherever you live! There are a lot of ads on the site, but the camera angles are good and there are links to several informative sites. Just google Southwest Florida Eagle cam. It's a good and easy way to learn about these iconic birds.

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; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday;  SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B' BIRDING

March 8, 2020
HARNS MARSH

Little Blue Heron

We went to Harns Marsh Nature Preserve one day last week. It's a good place to walk but definitely not to do the"Forest Bathing" that I mentioned in last week's post. Harns is flat land that the County has reclaimed for flood control. It is marshy during the rainy season, but here in SW Florida, that is during the summer. Trails this time of year are easily accessible.

A Snowy Egret (Yellow Slippers) waited patiently for a fish to show up. The middle picture is the same Little Blue as above, not zoomed or cropped. And showing the odd place it perched — nowhere near the water. The bird is perched on some of the flood control equipment.

Great Egret

A Great Egret amidst blooming Bidens Alba. We didn't see as many birds at Harns as we have on previous visits. Last time, we watched Limpkins eating their meals of apple snails (pretty much their entire diet). The pictures below are from that visit.

Limpkins

All we saw this time was empty snail shells (like in the middle picture). So we know the Limpkins had been there, but on this day they were somewhere else.

Bald Eagles

These two are also from our last visit to the Marsh — these are not the ones that live down the street from us who have their own webcam. It's been a bit sad at that nest this year and so I haven't stopped by to take pictures. (Update in a future post I hope.)

It was a pretty day for a walk even if we didn't see a great many birds. I definitely think the concept of "Forest Bathing" should be re-titled to something that includes Marshes, Sloughs, River Banks, and Deserts. The important thing is to get outside and enjoy nature.

I'm grateful to be able to do exactly that wherever we are.

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

MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B' BIRDING

March 1, 2020
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
THE JOY OF ORDINARY DAYS

Skies are blue, the sun is shining, and my cold is gone!

Sky view from our front yard Sunday morning.

A bit of "off" time is a good reminder to be grateful for the joys of every-day life.

Lots of Vitamin C at the local Farm Market. No wonder I feel better! All of these crops are growing here right now. Hard to remember sometimes that it is still Winter.

Bill's about a week behind me in getting over that summer Winter cold, so we didn't go far from home at all last week. I stopped by Butterfly Garden on my way to the Farm Market. Lots of butterflies, but it was too late in the day (too warm) to get good photographs. They were too flitty — you have to go before it warms up to get them when they're sitting still.

All of these flowers are good food for the butterflies. Most are native plants for this area.

Dune Sunflower

The demonstration garden is meant to encourage people to plant to provide habitat for butterflies and bees. It's a part of Manatee Park on the Orange River. Manatees gather here when the weather is cooler, because the river water here is warmed by output from the nearby power plant.

Blanket Flower

This time of year, the Manatees are out in the Rivers at least during the day. The water there is warm enough for them now.

Blue Mist Flower

I try to learn the names of wildflowers, but I have a long ways to go.

Orange River at Manatee Park

Our River water is coffee or tea colored. This is from the mangroves, which are an important part of the ecological system.

February's snow moon — certainly mis-named for this part of the country. The pictures are from our porch. I was still under-the-weather the week the moon was full and that was about as far as I got. I was happy to have the view and the warmth then, but am even more grateful to be well for it!

Linking this week to the following:

THANK YOU to all of the hosts!!

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

February 16, 2020
OUR DECEMBER IN FLORIDA

This is a collection of our December activities, not including the un-photographed ones involved in getting the Canal Cottage livable again (we arrived here on the 5th of the month) and not necessarily in order.

Anastasia State Park, St Augustine

The beach was lovely, but chilly — that warning flag was blowing like crazy.

Ollie's Pond, Port Charlotte

It looked like the Black-bellied whistling ducks were admiring the beautiful pink spoonbill who had somehow appeared in their midst. The whole walk around the pond, we saw only the one Roseate Spoonbill. And dozens of the ducks.

Holiday sparkle in St Augustine. The whole city was beautifully decorated, but all in sparkly white lights which didn't photograph too well (by me at least). The colored ornaments were in a restaurant…. the palmettos outside the window added a definite Florida touch!

Peace River Wildlife Center

We visited the Wildlife Rehab Center in Punta Gorda on our way back from Port Charlotte, but the Great Egret was wild and could have been photographed anywhere. It makes me smile when we see wild birds in rehabilitation places. I always wonder if they are there to visit friends.

Ollie's Pond

A few more of the whistling ducks, a ground dove, white ibis — and I think the bird hiding in the reeds is a common gallinule. We dashed up the freeway to Port Charlotte early in the month because the kind of sunglasses I needed were on sale there. Somehow, I lost mine between Oregon and here (unless they are still on the table in our Oregon apartment … it was zero dark thirty when we left there!!)

We had a lot to do at home at that point, so I was surprised and more than happy when Bill (the person who did not lose his sunglasses) suggested a couple of bird-y stops on our way home — and I'm happy to have good sunglasses too, needless to say.

Upriver Sky

We've had some rain and cool-ish days, but there is sun in between — and warmth. (And even cool-ish isn't really very).

New Year's Eve Sparkle, downtown Fort Myers

With our good boating buddies from the resort, we spent three nights at the Fort Myers Yacht Basin (the city marina). A good time was had by all.

December is always a busy month for us — as it is for just about everybody. Nowadays, it's a different kind of busy than it was over half-a-century ago when we played Santa — or even thirty years ago more or less when we hosted Santa-believing grandchildren (and their parents, and aunts and uncles) for part of their holidays. We're thankful for all of those good memories, but also more than grateful to be here to enjoy this stage of life.

Happy New Year!

Linking this week to the following sharing opportunities, with thanks to the hosts:

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

January 5, 2020