In our real (full-time) life we're back again at the Florida Canal Cottage. And back in blogland after too long an unexplained absence. I've always hated it when bloggers I follow disappear without a trace and I really wish I hadn't done the same exact thing. This post is my attempt to catch up a little bit. All pictures the are from the current season here in Florida. But not all the words.
I've missed blogging, but it has been hard to get started again. We've been busy since the last time I posted at the end of October, but honestly the real reason I haven't posted has more to do with the disastrous result of November's election. I've always thought of the blog as my "happy place" -- where good memories are stored. Although I don't dwell on the state of the world every moment while we're living our lives, whenever I thought about putting a post together for the blog, it somehow seemed shallow to be chronicling only happy times when our whole country honestly seems to be falling apart.

Black-Crowned Night Heron at Ding Darling
He looks cranky, but I think its just because of the photographer and not because of the state of the world
I hate the feeling that there's really not much we can do. But wallowing in depression certainly isn't good for me or for anybody else, so I am back to chronicle the good memories and to share them with anybody who happens by. Even though I'm afraid the nation's problems aren't going away anytime soon, further posts will, I hope, be more about our personal life and less about worry.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Looking up -- at Six Mile Cypress Slough in Florida
We stayed at home in Oregon longer than usual this time, enjoying lots of happy times with our Oregon families including two of our "kids"* , our grown grandchildren, the five great-grands who live in Oregon, and even our grand-family of three from Europe who visited for almost a month while we were also in town. A big bonus was spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas with family, for the first time in quite a while.
Loop Road, Big Cypress
Another happy, but harder, kind of busy happened because we moved our Oregon "home-base" to a newly-opened independent senior community. We enjoyed our shiny new "lock and leave" home along with the amenities the community provides and look forward to taking even more advantage of those when we return this summer.

Roseate Spoonbills, White Pelicans and Night Heron at Ding Darling. Little Blue Heron at Six-Mile Cypress
Although feeling barely settled in our new Oregon digs, in early January we made our semi-annual cross-country migration. We spent the majority of that month opening the Canal Cottage and happily getting re-adjusted to the subtropical winter here in southwest Florida.

Green Heron, Big Cypress Refuge
We had a joyful week in February, when we had a visit from all three of our sons. They came from Colorado, Texas, and Oregon for a brothers' reunion and to see the old folks (and for two of them to visit us here in Florida for the first time.) We loved showing them around some of our favorite places. We missed our Oregon daughter and son-in-law and our daughters-in-law, but it was a delight to see our boys* all together. Almost all of the family pictures I took, both here and from Oregon are on my phone and somehow those don't seem to want to upload easily to the blog.
*All four of our children are old enough to be eligible for residence in our senior communities, although none of them are remotely interested in such a thing just yet. But it's sure a reminder of our own advanced age!

Great Egret in front of everybody's favorite (?) Florida icon in the background , at Big Cypress
It always seems to happen that we see several of one certain species whenever we go to one of our 'nature places.' The Black- Crowned Night Heron is that one so far this season, as we've seen at least one on every outing. Below is just one more picture of this pretty heron.

Black-Crowned Night Heron. Big Cypress
It's good to be back to blogging again . Thanks to everyone who reads, visits, comments, and hosts.
SATURDAY CRITTERS; NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; ; WILD BIRD Wednesday; THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY