A Full-time Life

Category: Florida

  • NOT MUCH BLOGGING THIS WEEKEND

    We are a one-computer family right now and Bill has been having all kinds of fun on it for reasons that have to do with the suddenly looming deadline of April 15!  Awww, some people have all the fun.  I got lots of reading done yesterday, as I hung around just in case I could locate a needed file.   My reading wasn't interrupted very often! 

    Yesterday morning, I did have time to add a really cool link called "Search Within" to the top of the second column.   It provides a handy way to search through our site.  A great help because it is such an easy way to see what we've posted to various memes or to find a certain post — or see what we've put in about lizaards (for example).  I like this addition Typepad has provided.

    Speaking of lizards (she segued neatly)  I made another quick addition to  THIS POST .  Check it out to read  some information provided recently by our grandson Ryan.  He wrote to let us know what kind of lizard our frequent visitors are.  For those commenters on that post who worried,  that shot is enlarged.  These little guys are only about four to six inches long.  Still a bit surprising to us non-natives, but no more frightening really than a ladybug. 

    I also added a link to Geoff's new work website — close to the top of the second column — which might be interesting if you own a pickup, but also is interesting because I learned something new about how Google works.  Some kind of magic I think. 

  • BLUE SKIES SMILING ….

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    … Nothin' but blue skies did we see.  (Last week … on our first boat outing for this delayed season.)  We looked up to see this beautiful sun-bow.  

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    Below Bill is bringing the boat down our canal after putting it in the water for the first time this season.  We're happy to have it home.

    009

    Slow down for Manatees or the Pelican Policeman may come get you!

    THS053

    ****THANKS TO THE HOSTS OF  SKYWATCH FRIDAY.  WHERE YOU CAN CLICK TO ADMIRE SKY SHOTS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD.


     

  • Drawbridge Bonus

    Just a little drawbridge bonus post.

    Our son Geoff  e-mailed this picture.  Apparently this actually happened to someone in Wisconsin last year.  Oh my gosh, I'm glad I stopped at ours!  There's a link to an article below the picture.

    Car-stuck-on-bridge 
     

    drawbridge article

  • STOP FOR THIS SIGNAL!

    Water under the bridges — on the Caloosahatchie River.   For more water pictures:  WATERY WEDNESDAY

       STOP FOR THIS SIGNAL. 

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    NO.  REALLY REALLY STOP!!!

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     005 

    This drawbridge, just up the river from us, is on the highway we take whenever we go to the grocery store — and we've been under it a bunch of times on the boat too.  But this was the first time I've been the first car in line when the signal came on –  sure glad I was paying attention. 

    001 

    It takes a big boat for the bridge to be raised.  Most can just can go right under.  (Picture from the car window.)

    Here we were waiting to go under a different bridge.  This one is a railroad draw bridge downstream from us and it is almost always open.  Except when it's not.

     

    RR Bridge 07
    Swingb ridge 11 

     

     

      

  • IN THE WOODS

    Here's part of our World right now.  For other's THAT'S MY WORLD POSTS CLICK ON THE BLUE.

    Thoreau_crop

     Sunbathers 014
    THIS grasshopper02 THIS palmetto 12

    Boardwalk reflections

     

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    SOMETHING ALWAYS HAPPENS … BUT IT ISN'T ALWAYS A WILDLY EXCITING SOMETHING.

    SOMETIMES WE CAN'T WAIT QUITE AS LONG IN THE WOODS AS THOREAU COULD! 

     

     

  • QUARTERED TO DEATH

    Qrtr When we first got married, Bill's grandfather told us to buy quality or "you'll be nickled and dimed to death."  Allowing for inflation, this is how we feel right now.     

    But it's not because we're buying cheap stuff.    These are real, not metaphorical, quarters!  We don't have a washer and dryer (yet ) in our canal cottage — we do in our RV that's back in Oregon. (I know that seems backwards.)   So, I don't know if we're extra clean or extra dirty, but those twenty-five cent pieces flow pretty quickly through the laundry machines here in the resort.

    002 And last week, we trailered the boat to the DIY-carwash a few blocks down the street and I think we spent about forty bucks from the coin machine to wash the green and black slime off of it! 

    This is Bill doing the hard part of the do-it-yourself.  I took a photo break from my part (dropping the quarters into the slot).  

    So here's what I learned  through this  –  it hurt more to spend those quarters five dollars at a time than it would have if we'd written a check for twice that amount to have somebody else do the dirty job.  Not logical at all, but there's something about those quarters clinking, clinking……..

    001 So I'm thinking maybe I'll change all my cash into quarters and use them when I go grocery buying — that'll make me think twice about those impulse purchases.  (Sure!)

    The good news is that the boat is now docked where it belongs  — on the canal in front of our cottage.  There were a few other things besides dirt that had to be fixed, but all-in-all, it seemed to come through its long period of dry-land storage quite well. 

    We're looking forward to using it often.

  • REFLECTIONS AND SHADOWS IN OUR WILDERNESS

    Reflections off the Boardwalk, Six-Mile Cypress Slough.   WEEKEND REFLECTIONS TO SEE OTHER REFLECTIVE POSTS. 

     Live oak in the Caloosahatchie Nature area right next door to Upriver.   Hey Harriet's  SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY for more shadowy posts. 

    Cypress slough boardwalk

    THIS live oak w sun12

  • SIX-MIILE CYPRESS SLOUGH REVISITED

    We love visiting this beautiful preserve here in Fort Myers.  Link to our post from last year .

    There's a little bit of water in the second picture and the whole slough area is, of course, wettish.  Go to
    WATERY WEDNESDAY for more posts featuring more water! 

    Bird in tree


    Egret and curlews009

    Two birds

  • REPAIRS AND RENOVATIONS

    Click THAT'S MY WORLD and then on any of the links that bloggers from all over the world have added to this interesting meme.  

    THIS 009 It would be nice if we could say that our world last week had involved boating on the beautiful River or exploring some of Florida that we haven't seen yet — or even sitting on our deck looking at our canal.  But they say that maturity means being able to defer pleasure and we are nothing if not mature.  (Very very mature.)

    So instead, our week mostly involved removing a large tree stump from our yard, pouring a new concrete slab between our house and our next-door neighbors, and repairing some of the patio on the dock-side of our house.     

     Or, to be more exact, supervising those jobs.   

    SUP017 The tree stump was leftover from a carrot tree that used to grow here — that's an invasive species in Florida, so it is good that it is completely gone. 

    Also,  because of the untypical cold winter (before we got here), all of the plantings around our little house were dead as could be when we finally got here last month.   

    That made us feel less guilty about doing something we'd planned to do anyway!

    AUDIENCE014 It doesn't take much to gather a crowd in a community like this.  We had lots of neighbors to help us supervise.

    We are so happy to have this job done.  After ten years of living in an RV, we have no desire to pull weeds or plant flowers.  We did a lot of yard work when we owned our two stick houses — and it was wonderful to have big yards when we were raising kids. 

    But I can't say that either of us was super-talented at gardening.   It was an easy job to give up.  

    Now, we garden the RV way, which in our case means admiring other people's hard work.  Next season maybe I'll  buy a couple of hanging baskets — that will satisfy any latent green-thumb urgings. 

    Here's the Upriver Canal, which we'll now be able to enjoy from our newly-renovated deck. (Our cottage is down the canal at the far end.)

    Upriver canal 27

  • AN UPRIVER NEIGHBOR

    EDITED ON APRIL 9 TO ADD INFORMATION FROM OUR GRANDSON RYAN who sent us this information in a comment.

    THIS IS A KNIGHT ANOLE LIZARD.  The Texas lizards that Ryan has (click here) at his home in San Antonio are green anoles (the bottom left photo on that post is one).

    I love learning new things about nature — especially from our family expert! Thank you Ryan.

    GEKKO 36_crop

    Just one of our neighbors at Upriver Resort.   He drops by pretty much every day. 

     For  SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY hosted by Tracy at her blog called "Hey Harriet."