A Full-time Life

BRIGHT NEW VIEW

The OUR WORLD TUESDAY meme has this great logo, which I've been lazy about adding to this blog.  But it's especially appropriate this week .....

 

 

.... because I'll be getting the view from my own blue eyes brightened up by means of cataract surgery this Tuesday and next.  It's a routine operation nowdays, but I won't feel much like using the computer for a little while, especially in the week between left and right eyes.    

It's just another little bridge to cross and we have lots more Florida adventures to look forward to this season --   

And I'll also be looking forward to catching up with all your posts soon;

-- And all with new eyes!

IMPERIAL RIVER

FOR NATURE FOOTSTEPS:  WATERS.  (Disclaimer:  NOT my pictures -- I made this collage from images found on Flikr.)  I'm including the post because of a personal goal to do a blog post about every one of the natural areas around us that we visit. 

 

Last week, we went kayaking on the Imperial River near Bonita Beach.  (It's about 20 miles south of us, an easy little drive.)  

Just as I suspected might be the case, I was not able to manage kayak, paddle AND camera.  This was our first time in single kayaks. On our previous kayaking excurisons, we'd used tandems -- each of us with either our son and daughter-in-law  (a couple of times) or our grandson and granddaugher-in-law -- all four of them experts.  On this trip, Bill was very good with his kayak -- I should have given him the camera.  I need a lot more practice, but it is going to be fun working on this skill.

We didn't see any birds or wildlife, but we kayaked a lovely peaceful stretch of this beautiful river.  Someday, I hope to replace these borrowed pictures with ones of our own!  

MORNING REWARD

FOR SKYWATCH FRIDAY  -- go, click the links.  Smiles are guaranteed.  Thank you to the hosts

This was the reward for getting up a little early one day last week:   

 

It was breezy and a little cool by later in the morning, but it didn't matter, because before it even really began, we'd already had a perfect day!

 

SPIRIT OF PUNTA GORDA

THIS POST IS SHARED WITH SIGNS SIGNS.  Thanks as always to Lesley for hosting!  And  SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY II. The new Shadowy hosts are Magical Mystery Teacher, Rose (Chubskulit) and Gemma Wiseman.  Thank you lovely bloggers!    All four of these hosts have great blogs of their own besides hosting these great memes!

Here's what the bronze sign in front of this sculpture says:

 "Dedicated to the spirit of the people of Punta Gorda in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley

August 13, 2004.

The bent tree symbolizes the wind, which stopped our downtown clock at 4:29 pm.

Like the upright tree, the people stood tall."

Below is another picture of the sundial portion of the sculpture.  The artist has used darker colored tile to create a permanent shadow-line at 4:29.  (But we were there earlier in the day and you can see a real shadow too.)

Punta Gorda is 20 miles north-west of where we live in North Fort Myers.  The sculpture is along Harbor Walk in a lovely park/harbor area which has all been rebuilt since the Hurricane.  Charley happened before we started coming to this area and no serious storms have hit the area since then.  

BIRDS OF THE WEEK

FOR WORLD BIRD WEDNESDAY.  Thank you Springman!

It was an ordinary week at the Canal Cottage.  We had some fun time with friends and some routine days.  No big nature excursions, no purposeful bird watching.   But we don't have to look very hard around here to find birds that still seem exotic to us. 

 

 We spied this whole flock of Ibis from our boat -- just busy eating in an ordinary yard we passed by.  They acted sort of like a flock of chickens.  

Ibis are almost an urban bird here and we see them quite often, but never this many in one place.  Don't know what was so special about this lawn (there weren't any birds at all in the neighboring yards).  

On a short stop later in the week we spotted this handsome fellow:

The yellow-crowned night heron, was taking a boardwalk stroll with his shadow (in broad daylight obviously).  

This isn't a crop, I just got up close enough to get a better picture of his pretty face (and not much else).

On the same day, we saw this not-so- handsome fellow:

 

Step lively down below -- this vulture is looking for dinner... if you don't move, it might be you!

CRUISING TO LUNCH

Linking with other water lovers at  NATURE FOOTSTEPS:  WATERS.  

 

Our first Upriver Boat Club Lunch Cruise of the season was downriver to Cape Coral.  It was a post-card pretty day along the river.  At home, the morning started out a little breezy, but by the time we got underway it was a perfect day for boating.     After lunch, one friend who drove to the Cape (you can get there by car, if you must*) took pictures of all of us as we passed.  That's me in back of our boat taking pictures of Tom taking pictures of us......

... and below right, Tom taking pictures of  .... well, you can figure it out!    

On the bottom left are our friends Don and Patty, whose boat is almost exactly like ours, with our friends Connie and Dave in the back.  With us is our friend Jerry.    We had a flotilla of five boats and several people who drove***.  

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*** (Which is much faster but much less scenic.)   Thanks to Tom for most of the pictures.

BLOOMING WHERE THEY'RE PLANTED

FOR FRIDAY FLOWERS  (Note:  It's really called Floral Friday, but I'd already put in the link -- I'll get it right next time!)  and   RUBY TUESDAY**

We saw this flowery fence in Arizona on our Fall roadtrip.  It was in front of a small park-model RV out in the middle of the desert someplace where we stayed overnight.      You know that the person who planted these really loves flowers.  Because  It takes work to grow them in that arid climate.

 

**Thank you to Nick who hosts Friday Flowers.   

And thank you to Magical Mystery Teacher and Gemma Wiseman, the (fairly) new hosts of Ruby Tuesday.  

As always click the links on the highlighted pages and visit great photoblog sites from the world over.

GOLDEN GLOBE IN A BRIGHT BLUE SKY

 SKYWATCH FRIDAY   Visit our hosts and the  wonderful blogs and click the links on Skywatch for a tour of the world's skies.

 

The other day we saw a golden globe glowing against a backdrop of  bright blue sky.

 

 

 In fact, we saw several:

 

 

  (Just somebody's backyard grapefruit tree on another beautiful winter day in North Fort Myers.)

WETLANDS

FOR NATURE NOTES and SIGNS SIGNS.   Mosaic and pictures from our archives, taken at various area wetlands and swamps.  Explanatory signs are at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

 The history of wetlands in our part of Florida is well documented by explanatory signs along the Boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp and Audubon Center.

(I think that the first sentence in the sign on the left is probably supposed to say "I take a dim view.....)  

It's the 21st Century now, but some people are still as afraid of swamps as this early explorer was in the 1700s.

 

 

 

 

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Not so very long ago, most of us still thought of wetlands as wasted space. Draining so that they could be used for farmland or development was encouraged nationally.

     

 

 

 

 

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But now, most of us have at least reached the third stage:  Understanding how important the swamps and wetlands are.                     
      

 But we can't take things for granted... in Florida or anywhere else.  The fourth stage would be to take the action necessary to continue to protect and preserve what remains of these vital ... and beautiful ... areas.

              

WINTER AS IT IS IN FLORIDA

FOR OUR WORLD

It was cold last week in Our World.  OK, OK cold for this part of Florida, not for Winter where many of you are.     It really did reach freezing temperatures on a few nights.  But the local farm where we buy strawberries didn't lose any of their crop, so we are still enjoying fresh berries in mid-winter.    And we bought delicious local citrus last week too.    

During our "cold spell", we were happy just to hang around home because (as many of you guessed) we were a little tired after our busy time with company the weekend before last. (We were so happy that the weather was beautiful while they were here... THAT was perfect timing!

We're rested up now and ready for the warm and sunny winter weather that is supposed to be on its way again.  And we're looking forward to getting out there again to enjoy more of our area's beautiful outdoors.  

JUST WATER PLEASE

This collage of local waters is linked to NATURE FOOTSTEPS: WATER and  MOSAIC MONDAY.  Thank you to the hosts of both these memes.

 

  

We love living and traveling near the water, as everybody probably already knows since so many of our posts are about it! 

Most of last week's posts featured the Estero River.  Here are six more of our favorite watery places, also located very short distances away from our "cottage" on the canal.

It's no wonder we are happy to be here!

 

Top row:  Upriver Canal (the one we live on); Charlotte Harbor from Matlachea; Orange River

Bottom row:  San Carlo Bay (walking across Ft. Myers Beach bridge); Caloosahatchie River; Orange River (manatee viewing area).

 

RIVER SIGHTING

 

 

For WEEKEND REFLECTIONS and CAMERA CRITTERS.  

 These guys were sort of hidden among the birds in this mosaic of our kayak excursion on the Estero River.  I think they deserve to shine on their own!

SKYWATCHING FROM THE BACK OF THE BOAT

FOR SKYWATCH FRIDAY.  Thank you to the hosts!

Random sky shots from our first boat trip of the season .... along the Caloosahatchie River.

I did a little picasa-play with the moon (oh what power we mere mortals have these days) but the other three shots are straight-out-of-the-camera.

REMEMBERING HIGH ALTITUDE

For SIGNS SIGNS at Lesley's. 

We usually visit Colorado a couple of times a year.  (Our son and daughter-in-law live there.)   Sadly we didn't get to visit on our most recent roadtrip. 

So this is a look-back to another year and another road trip when our son drove us to the top of Mt Evans.  (Link here to read the old post.) 

When you read the sign (click the picture to enlarge) you will see why we two lowlanders felt fortunate to make it all the way up -- even by car -- and even more fortunate that we were  able to walk around when we got there.

Another contrast to where we live:  these pictures were taken in June....when, of course, here in Florida it is very hot and humid! 

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MANATEE PARK BUTTERFLIES JANUARY 2012

THIS POST IS LINKED TO NATURE NOTES hosted by Michelle at Rambling Woods. Also posting to FLORAL FRIDAY, which I just learned about.  Thank you  MIchelle and Nick.     My butterfly identification skills are nil -- but there is something so special about seeing all these beauties (especially in the middle of winter), that I thought they were worth sharing. 

We went to Manatee Park last weekend so that our company could see the manatees which congregate in the warm water there.  And we saw quite a few.  But we all enjoyed the butterfly garden in the park as well.  

   

 And, my butterfly pictures turned out much better because the manatees stay mostly underwater and definitely don't pose as nicely.

 

Manatee Park is very close and we'll visit often this season.  Goal for another Nature Notes:  show and tell about the manatees.  (Goal two:  get a butterfly book!) 

ESTERO RIVER

FOR WORLD BIRD WEDNESDAY and WATERY WEDNESDAY.

 We went kayaking on the Estero River last weekend -- during a visit from our grandkids.  Andy and Denae are expert kayakers, and they took the back seats in the tandems we rented. 

 Because of that I managed to get some pictures, but even so quite a few of my shots have water drops on the lenses.  It will be awhile before I learn to manage paddles and camera all at once!

Our area of Florida is full of wonderful spots for kayaking though -- we saw great wildlife.  Here are a few of the less water-spotted pictures:

 

 

 

FAMILY TIME

Last week we were lucky to have an opportunity to show off this little corner of OUR WORLD* to a couple of our grandkids -- Andy and his wife Denae.  They embark this week on their next travel-adventure trip and, happily for us, were able to arrange a stop-over in Fort Myers.     

 . 

 We packed a lot of activities into the long weekend.  Or at least it was a lot for the (much)-older generation. 

 It was wonderful to see them and fun to show off our world to these world travelers. 

Everybody had a great time!

 

* Thank you to the hosts of Our World.  Visit the links for more world-wide adventure.

HAPPY SKY YEAR

FOR SKYWATCH FRIDAY.  Thank you blog-hosts!!!

Out with the old --    Sunclipse, December: 

 And in with the new -- Sunsight, January 1:

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

More on Sunsight, sunclipse here on an earlier post.  

PEACE SIGN

Each side of this pillar at Manatee Park states its message in a different language. 

And in any and every language in the world, the messsage is our wish for the New Year as well!

 The Peace Pillar is on one of the walking paths at Manatee Park in Fort Myers.  VISIT LESLEY'S GREAT MEME FOR MORE SIGNS SIGNS.

URBAN BIRDING - LAKES PARK

FOR WORLD BIRD WEDNESDAY.      

 Lakes Park in Fort Myers is one of those great easily accessible urban parks with many natural acres.  There is something quite magical about going birding right in the middle of the city.

Here are some we saw there last Thursday:

 

I know that there are other sites to help with bird identification, but I hope that the kind and helpful  experts on this meme won't mind if I post some we are unsure of.  We are thinking some type of Night Herons here, but the pictures above don't seem to exactly match either of our bird books. 

My guess here is a tri-colored heron. 

 

Happy New Year and thanks to all for the great year of virtual birding. 

May  you gaze on peaceful waters and blue skies and find many beautiful birds.

  (And don't forget your camera!)

 

OUR WATER WORLD, last year

We live as much of our life as possible on the water -- this look-back to 2011 is shared with water lovers everywhere and linked with NATURE FOOTSTEPS-WATER and OUR WORLD.  Happy watery New Year!

WINTER:  in Florida Winter means car trips to water places and boat trips on the water, with friends and visiting family.

LATE WINTER/EARLY SPRING:  Boat club trips including one across Lake Okechobee to the other side of the state.   We successfully navigated many locks.

SPRING:  We stayed near the water as often as we could when we traveled acros the country East to West. We even saw pelicans -- and kayaks -- in Colorado.

SUMMER:  Oregon.   Sweet Creek Falls and Fern Ridge Lake.

FALL:  Washington

FALL and EARLY WINTER:  More watery places on our road trip west to East -- and back in Florida looking forward to another year on the water!