A Full-time Life

THE WEEK THAT WAS

In the middle of another "cottage improvement" project, so we stayed close to home  this week.   The weather was perfect -- sunshine and warm (but not too warm).    We are grateful.  

 

Another week, another owl ....

because Saturday errands are fun when they include a stop to look at Burrowing Owls.

 

Willets (maybe); Pelicans, and Roseate Spoonbills

On Easter Sunday we enjoyed dinner with friends followed by a drive  through Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge.    Above are some of the birds we spotted.    Too bright and sunny for good pictures, but never too sunny for good memories.   I hadn't realized before that Roseate Spoonbills sometimes stand on just one leg -- like the flamingos some people mistake them for.   

 

Deep Lagoon Restaurant, Fort Myers

The  biggest shrimp in the world garnished our Easter cocktails.    (A fact that pleased some of us more than others!).  We all loved the food that followed and the water view as well as the lovely drive after dinner.

 

 

This Sunday morning we stayed even closer to home.    Squirrels and Red-bellied Woodpeckers were feasting on acorns under the live oak trees at Caloosahatchie Creeks Preserve next door.  The white flower is Bidens Alba, more commonly known as beggar tick or butterfly needles.  It's blooming all over this time of year.  We think of it as a weed, but it is edible and thought to have healing properties.  Here's part of what Wiki tells us:  

Bidens means two- toothed, describing the two projections found at the top of the seeds, and alba refers to the white ray florets.^[2] This plant is found in tropical and subtropical regions of North America, Asia, South America, and Africa,^[3] situated in gardens, road sides, farm fields and disturbed sites.^[4] B. alba is an annual or short-lived perennial, which is considered a weed in the United States.[2] However, B. alba leaves are edible and can be used as medicinal remedies.^[1]

Just think of the errands we wouldn't have to run if only we could skip the trip to the drugstore and just boil up a mess of leaves from the park next door.  (But that sounds like a lot of work ... and besides that,  those errands give us such a good excuse to stop by the owl burrows again.) 

 

LINKING THIS WEEK to the following sharing opportunities:

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

Thank you to all of the hosts!! 

 

 

 

EASTER WEEK near home

 

Frangipani

Happy Easter  from Southwest Florida ....

 

Thursday morning and Thursday night -- from the Screen Porch

 

.... where it feels more like a warm and sunny Fourth of July.

 

Friday from the Screen Porch 

... unless it's pouring down rain.

 

Actually even when it is raining, it feels more like a (very) wet Fourth of July than mid-April.    The hard wind and heavy rain came the day after Thursday's perfect day.     We're used to rain in Oregon, but this was a downpour with lightning and thunder!   Our language needs more words for rain.    

It could have been  much worse, but our portion of Florida was spared this time from the worst of that storm.  North of here -- from Central Florida and up  -- many people were not so fortunate.      

 

Eastern Bluebird

The sun is out again now -- on Saturday morning -- and it is another beautiful warm Summer  Spring Day in SW Florida.    I saw the bluebird of happiness on a morning walk earlier in the week, and I hope she is an omen for the rest of our season here.   

 And from an errand-running day (last Wednesday) a "detour" (the complete opposite of a short-cut),  this dose of super- cute :
 

Burrowing Owls

Using the car as a blind, we took these pictures at two of Cape Coral's famous and protected owl burrows.  This is my favorite owl by far, because these guys keep the same kind of hours we do.  (Unlike most owls, they are not nocturnal).    No baby pictures this time -- these adults were guarding the family homesteads while the little ones stayed below.  ... Maybe another errand day will take us on another "short-cut" at a time when the kids come out to play.  

 

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

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

A WALK AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD

 

 

Here's the sun  rising over East Drive  (taken from our street across the Canal  just as I started a morning walk this week.)  Sunrise was at 7:02 a.m., so at least on this day, I did meet my hot-weather goal of getting up and about earlier in the morning. 

 

 

A friend who lives on another block in the Resort grows these orchids.  She has left for the season, but the orchids will live and probably thrive on their own all summer, which is the rainy season here.  

 

 

Quite a few of our fellow snow-birds will buy outdoor potted plants for their yards while they are here during the season.  They're not usually able to take them back "up North" with them, so these neighbors who live here all year will be happy to give them a good home!   

 

 

 

 

The street where the orchids and the sign are ends at a nature trail that leads to the County Nature Preserve next door to the resort.   This sign at the Park's entrance reminds hikers and walkers that the summer season has begun.  (We've had a few good rainstorms already, but the trails are fine -- at least the ones where I walked.)

 

Top left:  Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Center:  Pileated Wooodpecker;  the other three are Red-headed Woodpeckers.

I'm always hunting woodpeckers when I walk this time of year.   I've said before (too many times) that here in SW Florida we don't notice much seasonal change between late Winter and early Spring.   It's hot and the usual Spring flowers don't grow here.   But the birds know.  There are more birds  in the neighborhood and lots of the usual Spring bird activity going on.    

 

 

Here's one more sunrise picture from a few minutes later than the first one.   Just trying to remind myself to get up early more often.  That sun was bright and hot by ten in the morning.  But it's raining (and flooding) in the Pacific Northwest and we're grateful to be here where the rainstorms never last all day and the sunshine almost always does.   

 

 

 

 

LINKING this week to the following:  Thank you to all of the hosts.   

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

 

 

 

 

MANATEE PARK 2019

 

Spring flowers, Southwest Florida

 

Close to home nature this week.   We've been busy with end-of-the-season activities here in the RV resort.  (We will be here until the end of May, but most of our snowbird friends will be gone by mid-April. )  I walked Saturday at Manatee Park which is about a 10 minute drive from home.   

 

 

The flowers, the butterfly, and the ground dove below were in the Butterfly Garden at the Park.  The plants are all native to this area.

 

 Ground Dove

 

Manatee 

 

Yes, I was at   Manatee Park, but I actually didn't expect to see any at this time of year. This one was a surprise.   Because the water at this park is warmed by a nearby power plant, these big gentle creatures hang out here in the "cold" weather.    December and January are the best months to see them.  By this time of year, the water in the Caloosahatchie River is warmer and the manatees have mostly disbursed out in the wider waters  (we even glimpse them in our canal occasionally).  There's not much for them to eat in the water at this park, so they usually just stay there until the river warms up.

Manatees are aquatic mammals whose closest relative is the elephant.  They are vegetarians, subsisting on water plants.  It's really hard to get a good picture of them, because they don't emerge from the water much.  Just occasionally to take a quick breath (and to eat green stuff where there is any).  

 

 

The Peace Pillar was erected to honor  Manatee Park volunteers .   I like the message so much and always walk this path when I'm here.  This is a collage I lifted from a previous year's post.  

 

 

There weren't many people at the Park (in the Winter, it gets really busy) but there was another kind of noise (and another interesting thing to observe).  A crew was replacing the  roof on the Chickee Hut, a well-recognized  feature of the park.  It's a replica of the kind of huts the Seminole Indians used.  It has a a raised floor, open sides and a thatched roof made from palm fronds.   One of the workers told me that the roof needed to be re-thatched every six or seven years.  This year they are also repairing the inside and the wooden part of the structure.

 

 

 

 This picture (also copied from a previous post) shows what the hut looks like in its finished state.  I don't know why I did it in black and white back then (and I couldn't find the original.)

 

 

I drove a few miles down the road to Hickey Creek Park to walk a little more.   I was the only person walking the trails here and I enjoyed the peace and the blue skies.  I'd gotten too late a start though and the heat and humidity kept it to a short walk (and there were no birds or animals about at all -- they were too smart to be out in the mid-day sun).   I need to start getting around earlier this time of year.

 

 

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

 

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