A Full-time Life

Category: Florida

MORE FROM MT DORA

Here are some non-Christmasy scenes from our December trip to Mt Dora in Central Florida. (Mt Dora Christmas post is here.)

We had a great Holiday brunch at Lakeside Inn. Built in 1883, it is the oldest continuously operating hotel in the State of Florida. The grounds extend to Lake Dora and it is easy to imagine yourself back in that year strolling under the live oak trees, dripping with moss.

There is documented history of a number of well-known people who stayed at the Hotel over the years, mostly coming for the fishing and also (I'm guessing) for the winter sunshine. Rumor also has it that Al Capone was staying here incognito on the day of the Valentine's Day Massacre. I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that there are other places who lay claim to this dubious honor.

Great Egret

In Florida there are always opportunities for casual birding. We found these birds at the dock while we waited to board either the boat or the tram for our Christmas lights tour.

Common Gallinule (Moor Hen)

We did a little downtown window shopping one morning on our way to find some breakfast. And all I brought back was the photo souvenir below.

I'm sure our "climb" will impress family and friends from the mountainous states of Colorado and Oregon. Sadly, I neglected to get a picture of the view from the top.

OK, you can stop laughing. The "Mount" referred to in the town's name actually came from the fact that the town is built on a plateau 184 feet about sea level. Florida is really a flat state.

Comical birds in Mt Dora. The black vultures on the rooftop were not at all intimidated by the fake owl placed there to deter them. And the Great Egret, who really doesn't belong downtown, was pretty funny as he seemed to look both ways before crossing this street as if he owned it.

Ending with another beautiful sunset on the Lake.

We had a good time visiting Mt Dora. We went because the travel planner (Bill) had read about the Christmas light display and it really was amazing. And in addition to glorious holiday displays, it really was a great little town with lots to do and see – I'm sure it would be charming in any season.

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

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

January 13, 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
HAPPY NEW YEAR

Time for some Holiday sparkle!

Christmas Lights reflected on Lake Dora, Florida

Time to reflect on the past year ….

… and ring in the new one.

Mt. Dora City Park

Time to imagine lifting a lighted glass in a champagne toast to the New Year.

(and perhaps to enjoy a real glass or two!)

Sunset on Lake Dora

Time to appreciate nature's beautiful light — variations of which are available every day of the year,

even after all the Holiday sparkle is gone.

And (I can't resist) time to say a last goodbye to the Christmas Season

(Dancing Christmas Tree in Mt Dora town square.)

***

Thank you to these linky hosts:

ALL SEASONS; GOOD RANDOM FUN; MACRO MONDAY, OUR WORLD on Tuesday; TUESDAY TREASURES ; THROUGH MY LENS; SAY CHEESE; Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and FRIDAY BLISS

December 29, 2018
SEASONS GREETINGS

Wishing you a Joyful Holiday Season …

… And light even when the days are dark.

Celebrate the Season, wherever you may be…

… and be grateful at the end of each beautiful day.

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THANK YOU to the hosts of the following sharing opportunities where I'm linking this week: NATURE NOTES; ALL SEASONS; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and FRIDAY BLISS

December 23, 2018
FLYING CREATURES

We joined the flying people at the Eugene Airport this year, so we've been in Florida for almost two weeks now. Our flight day was loooong …. and crowded. I wish I could say we had as much fun as these people in our airport's iconic photo montage panels. We didn't — but we're here and although we're still in the process of getting re-oriented and re-organized, we're getting there. We even had time last week for a short nature hike.

Roseate Spoonbill

We are more than happy to be grounded for awhile, but it was good to see some of of our favorite Florida creatures for whom flight comes more easily.

It was already quite dry at Wild Turkey Strand Preserve. (Winter is the dry seasons in Florida.) So several species of birds were congregated around the little bit of water remaining. They were quite far away and the wind was blowing which made photography difficult. But it was great to be out walking.

Meanwhile, back at the Canal Cottage … while we're getting the house into shape for the season, we have had some entertainment outside our door.

This Marine Company has been repairing seawall damage caused by Hurricane Irma (yeah, the one that happened a year ago last September — we call it Florida time). The project started before we left last season and was only completed last week. So the company could finally move their equipment somewhere else and one morning this tugboat pulled the work barge loaded with heavy equipment right past our house. It's not the usual Canal sighting.

The men obviously knew what they were doing and mostly stayed in the middle. But the canal isn't real wide and I was glad we hadn't put our boat in the water yet. The man on the barge had to use his pole a couple of times, to push out away from some of them that were docked.

So the Canal is back to normal now and we are glad to be living on it for the season. We look forward to more beautiful days here in the land of Winter sunshine.

LINKING THIS WEEK to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to all of the hosts.

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

December 16, 2018
A MAN A PLAN …. and time for another plan

Just one more picture from the beginning of our Winter-Spring Season in the sub-tropics:

"A Man A Plan A Canal Panama."

This is the planner on the deck of our stateroom as we began our crossing. He planned that anniversary-celebration cruise…just as he has planned all our travel adventures (near and far) for over 60 years. I'm always happy to go along for the ride! (Or the cruise. Or the flight.)

And now that this snowbird season is over, we are looking forward to another journey back to our Oregon home. And (no surprise) "The Planner" has included some extra stops along the way.

(Taken from our screened lanai. The Houses are our cross-canal neighbors.)

It would have been nice to have just one more beautiful picture of Florida birds or skies or sunsets to share in this last post of the 2017-2018 season – but let us just say that Tropical Storm Alberto has made it a good week to stay indoors. That is OK though, because there is much to do and it's best not to be tempted to go outside and play. (It's not a dangerous storm for us here — just a lot of rain.)

But we do hope for dry weather before next week, when we'll be off to gather more pictures from more places. (I'll probably have time to visit blogs, but don't plan to write any new posts until after we are home and re-adjusted.)

LINKING this week to: OUR WORLD on Tuesday.

May 27, 2018
REVIEWING THE SEASON



Our Florida season is drawing toward the end. Although we still have over two weeks before we actually close things up here, we've been busy with all those end-of-the-year home projects that seem to add up … and besides that we've had thunder and lightning storms almost every day this past week (the rainy season has arrived early in SW Florida). So there are no new adventures to blog about. But I have pictures that somehow didn't get used in previous posts, especially from the super-busy first part of the season – and this seems like a good time to use them.

I took (and posted) a million pictures of our November cruise, but most of my posts were about our ports-of-call. We often saw these frigate birds from our room deck but their pictures didn't make it into any of those posts. (Here's a link to the cruise posts, just in case you missed them earlier.)

In December, on our first Florida exploration of the season, we traveled to Homosassa and Crystal River. This owl got overshadowed by all of the colorful flamingos and wood ducks and didn't make it into earlier posts about this trip. But he deserves to be remembered!

We saw the New Year in with boat club friends at Salty Sam's Marina on Fort Myers Beach. And later in January we caught up with other good friends and favorite places … and counted our blessings under beautiful skies.

We were happy to play hosts to our brother and sister-in-law from Spokane, who visited us in February – (I'm pretty sure you can tell from the pictures whose brother our visitor is as he poses with Bill.) We enjoyed seeing our area through the eyes of these first-time Florida visitors. These are some pictures that didn't get into the previous post on their trip — they were taken at Fort Myers Beach (pictures 1, 2, 3), Six Mile Cypress, and after an airboat ride in the Everglades.

We saw damaged boats like this every time we took our own boat out on the water — a reminder of the hurricane that visited our part of Florida during the summer (when we were in Oregon). We were fortunate not to have significant damage to our neighborhood (or any of our boats).

We enjoyed boat club activities every month of the season –boating, beach-combing, exploring, and eating. Being out on the water makes everybody hungry!

Lizards like this one were everywhere on our March car-trip to the Redlands area.    And I took the picture of the little sparrow below on that trip too — while we were stopped by the side of the road to look at maps. You would think that with all the pretty palm trees and other greenery, the poor thing could find somewhere to perch besides a barbed-wire fence.

Things slowed down a little in April and I don't think I omitted any pictures over the past couple of months (and this post is plenty long enough anyway) …..

It has been another great season in Florida and, as always, we are grateful to be able to enjoy nature and friends here in the winter sunshine.

Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting. And special thanks to the hosts of these sharing opportunities:

NATURE NOTES; ALL SEASONS; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; THROUGH MY LENS; WILD BIRD Wednesday ; Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH Friday; Saturday CRITTERS;   RATHER B' BIRDING; and MOSAIC MONDAY



May 20, 2018
LIVE ACTION AT HARNS MARSH

  We stopped at Harns Marsh in Lehigh Acres on our way to the Everglades Canals last week.

We were watching a few Limpkins who were looking for — and finding — apple snails. These snails are pretty much the only thing these birds eat. The shallow water made for easy pickings. Then Bill pointed out a couple of white heads across the pond from where the Limpkins were feeding.

This bad picture is here on purpose to show how far away we were from the birds. I'm grateful for binoculars and zoom lenses – you witness all kinds of wildlife adventures with them.

(This is not the same pair of eagles in the nest near where we live — we were in a different area.)

The Eagles were taking turns eating their prey and standing guard. And then suddenly they seemed to go into high alert. I scanned my camera in the direction they had turned…

… and saw this pair of rascals that looked as if they were planning something nefarious. And I was right. In another minute they sidled over toward the eagle's prey.

And then this happened.

The lower panel shows one of the Black Vultures flying away after snagging a small piece of the prey. The Eagles made a lot of noise and almost seemed to stomp their feet as they hopped and flew chasing away the intruders.

The two vultures flew back to a grassy area where there was a whole family gathering. Maybe to report that it was slim pickings out there.

And the two Eagles went back to their meal. It's kind of odd that we think of Bald Eagles as majestic and Vultures as vaguely creepy. They are both birds of prey. But the Eagle, besides eating 'road kill' will actually catch and kill live prey, while the Vulture eats only things that are already dead. (Benjamin Franklin wasn't happy that the Eagle was chosen as our national symbol — he thought they had a  “bad moral character”.) I think both the Eagle and the Vulture are just doing what they're supposed to be doing — and both are interesting to watch.

And meanwhile, not too far away from all the action, this guy was just basking in the sun. (Zoom lens, remember.) Unlike most of us, alligators don't need to eat every day. He had probably already had a meal earlier that week and wasn't hungry yet.

LINKING this week to: NATURE NOTES; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; WILD BIRD Wednesday; Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD; THANKFUL Thursday; Saturday CRITTERS; and RATHER B'BIRDING.

Thank you to all of the hosts.

May 13, 2018
BIRDING IN THE CYPRESS FOREST

Yesterday (May 5) we drove out to a couple of our favorite places to see birds, along the Everglades canals. It was one of those Florida Spring days where the weather varies between tropical downpours and bright sunshine (sometimes within the same 20 minutes). Along Turner River Road, in the Big Cypress Preserve, we saw hundreds of Great White Egrets, Wood Storks, and Ibis. The birds were extremely active probably due to the stormy weather. The Egrets and Ibis in particular almost never settled down in one place for more than thirty seconds.

Below are some of the birds that did settle. We had good luck with the weather — and were able to get out and walk some in between 'showers'. And of course in between is when the birds sit for a while to catch their breath.

Black-crowned night heron

This loop drive through part of the preserve was the second part of our day-trip. I'll show the earlier part in another post. It was a fabulous day for seeing birds.

Great Egret

(The only one that was tired enough to land for awhile.)

Roseate Spoonbill

We kept seeing one spot of bright pink among the huge flocks of white flyers. And of course we knew it had to be a spoonbill. Finally we saw it land in a Cypress tree. We never saw any other spoonbills among the storks, egrets, and ibis. I guess this one just wanted to stand out in the crowd of white!

Wood Stork

Cypress are quite delicate-looking trees. It always surprises me when these decidedly indelicate-looking storks choose to balance on top of them.

We celebrated the end of our birding day by enjoying Mexican Food at a favorite restaurant — it was Cinco De Mayo after all. And we watched the preliminaries of the Kentucky Derby, because it was also the first Saturday in May. When we got home, I read that (without even knowing it) we had also celebrated Global Big Day for Birding. Even if we'd known about it first, we aren't into rushing from place to place counting the number of species we see — and indeed we didn't see any rare or unusual birds at all. But we loved every one of the usual suspect sightings …. and I don't think we've ever seen as many at one time as we did here.

It was a great day for birding — we're fortunate to live near so many good destinations — and we are always grateful for sunshine between storms.

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



Thank you to each one of the hosts.

May 6, 2018
SPRING — IN FLORIDA and in OREGON



This is a morning sky shot taken from our back porch. It's beautiful and very quiet on the Canal now. Most snowbirds have left Florida for their summer homes.

We are snowbirds too, but we usually come a little later and stay a little longer than most of our friends. In the sunshine areas that snowbirds frequent, the six-month season is usually defined as October through April, with the busiest months being January, February and March. We usually don't arrive until December.

So during the month of May we like to pretend we're full-time Floridians. Just like the people who really are, we talk about how thankful we are to get around Fort Myers now that there are fewer cars and fewer people. (And it really is wonderful.) The weather is beautiful here now, but I do start to miss Oregon Springtime a little bit by the end of April.

So I was delighted when our daughter texted a bunch of photos of their yard. All of the flowers in the mosaic below are blooming in their Oregon backyard right now:



The up-side of staying in Florida during May is that we miss the worst month of the Oregon hay-fever season. The down-side is that we miss typical Spring flowers almost completely (it's too hot here for most of them). So I loved the reminder of Oregon springs. (I've showed the beautiful big Black Walnut Tree in the center picture often, because we hang out under it a lot during the summer and fall. But isn't it beautiful in the Spring? (I had almost forgotten myself.)

Now back to Florida for some Spring birds:

Woodpeckers are our morning alarm clock these days. They are fun to see and (usually) to hear. And they are part of the reason why we know it's Spring. The temperatures don't seem much different now, but the birds know what season it is and we start to see Spring migrants here, just the same as everywhere else in the Spring.

Ospreys are everywhere … we ate at the waterfront restaurant on the top left last week — a farewell dinner with friends on one of their last days here. When we came out this guy was sitting on a telephone pole directly above where our car was parked. Every living creature has to eat!

This is a view of Fort Myers from the dock of a different waterfront restaurant. We've been eating out with friends quite a lot lately as people finish up their season. Making more Florida memories to take home until next season rolls around.



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

THANK YOU to all of the wonderful hosts and to everyone who visits!

April 29, 2018