A Full-time Life

Wonder Gardens

Last week we went with neighbor-friends to visit the Everglades Wonder Gardens. 

It's a combination Zoological Park/Botanical Gardens in the center of the town of Bonita Springs, less than an hour from us.  A local attraction, but one we'd never visited. 

 

We had a lovely day out.  But sadly I somehow managed to delete all but the first few pictures I took while we were there.   I wonder how I did that?

 The Wonder Gardens began in 1936 as a Florida roadside attraction and it featured the requisite local reptiles and some exotics.   Over the years, it fell into disrepair and  the City was poised to purchase the property and turn it into a parking lot.   Citizens raised an alarm and in 2013 the property was purchased by a local photographer/conservationist with an eye to saving and improving the historical attraction.   It is now run in combination with the City as a non-profit. 

 

 

We spent quite a while  watching the flamingos -- and those were almost the only pictures not to disappear into outer space.  They were my favorites, but I am sorry not to have photo memories of the other birds and the beautiful landscaping.   We saw many beautiful places before we even owned a digital camera and we haven't forgotten those.  So I am trying to remember that these memories will also be enough.  (I'm still mad at myself though.)

 

 

 One of the volunteer guides told us that the flamingos are "geriatric birds" which seems appropriate for Florida.  There are a lot of us geriatrics here.  They may be traced back to the original iteration of the Wonder Gardens.

 

 

All of the birds and animals at this park are here because for one reason or another they are not able to be released back into the wild.  There were tortoises like the ones I showed a couple of weeks ago at that other old Florida roadside attraction and many parrots and lorikeets -- pets that could no longer be cared for.  There was a sign suggesting it might be best not to buy these  but to visit them here or at similar facilities. 

Here are some sky scenes from even closer to home:

Mornings on the Canal

Thankful for the memories we are creating.  With or without pictures.

One more thing to mention about the Wonder Gardens.    Bonita Springs was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ian back in September.  A volunteer told us how the animals and birds were taken care of  during the storm (some at the homes of staff and volunteers).    Also notable is what a wonderful job they have done in restoring the gardens and plantings.   Having seen some of the aftermath of the storm, it is easy for us to imagine the state that this park  was in.

 

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

MOSAIC MONDAY;   NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  and  SATURDAY CRITTERS    

 

Felts Audubon Preserve, Palmetto

We spent a few days last week grown-up camping in  the Palmetto-Bradenton area.  (We slept in our own bed in the Road-trek camper van and let other people cook dinner for us. )

Felts Audubon Preserve is in Palmetto.   Other Audubon Preserves we've visited have an Information Center and well-marked trails, boardwalks and so forth.  And they always have great birding opportunities.   This one definitely had the birds, but it was also less developed.  That was OK though because it was also far less crowded than we've come to expect during the "high season" in Florida.

 

 

Bill looking for the lost trail

We started off on a dirt trail along a creek where we saw a few nice turtles and some butterflies, but then the trail suddenly ended.  It had been a long time since we'd enjoyed bushwhacking our way on a hike.   (I'm not kidding about enjoying -- we did used to like that when we were younger,  but un-improved areas in the Pacific Northwest are quite different from here in Florida.)  

 

 

This vine was entangled in overgrowth all along that non-trail .  I don't know my wildflower IDs at all, but I can tell you that this one smelled wonderful.      In the interest of complete honesty and to show that we're not completely crazy, we did turn around shortly after I took that bushwhacking picture and retraced our way along the turtle trail.  

Back in civilization, we spotted female and male cardinals.  Always favorites  --  these guys don't live in the Pacific Northwest, so we never saw them until we traveled south in our RV years.   They aren't exactly common for me yet, in that we don't see them around where we live here in SW Florida, but we do most times we go to a birding spot.  I never get tired of seeing them.

Then we found the trail to the birding blind which we'd read that Felts Preserve had. And I was a happy birder:

 

Painted Bunting

 

 I am grateful to the Audubon people here at Felts for keeping the bird feeders filled so that we could see and photograph these gorgeous birds.  It would be fun to spot a painted bunting on its own without the help of feeders, but we've never been in the right place at the right time.   Seeing them here was great enough!  

 

 

It's a good thing we were there when we were because according to the Audubon Society's website, painted buntings  start to migrate North again in March.   

 

Here's a closer view of the little blue bird that was sharing the feeder bounty.  I would have thought it was a female bunting, but all my books  show her as a greenish bird.  There was nobody else at the bird blind but  us -- which was good in most ways, except I could have used an expert volunteer.  

 

SunRise on the Canal

 This is a closer-to-home picture -- but it is from February a year ago.  We're looking EAST early in the morning, standing at the dock at the end of our block.   That dock was destroyed during Ian, but the park is in the process of rebuilding it.  (You can still stand at the end of the street and look across the Canal, but to watch the sun rise you have to get up earlier than I've been doing this year.  Not the Hurricane's fault!)

 

Thank you to the hosts of  these sharing opportunities

MOSAIC MONDAY;   NATURE NOTES;   THROUGH MY LENS;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   SATURDAY CRITTERS   and RATHER B' BIRDING 

Day Trip of the Week

 

 

Starting out with the return portion of our week-day drive last week.   It's big sugar country east of us and coming home we drove past miles of cane fields.  They look pretty at this stage, blowing in the light breeze.  Sometimes in that area (and even at the Canal Cottage), you can smell sugar in the air --they still burn off the leaves before cutting the cane.

 

 

You can't always go to the Keys or the Beach to admire the beautiful Florida sunset -- but  it's a pretty good show even driving along the freeway at the right time of the evening.

 Now I'll share some pictures from the "Old Florida" attraction we visited earlier in the day.

 

Sulcata Tortoise

 Sulcata Tortoises are unique looking, smart and friendly and for this reason people often think they would make good pets.   But they can weigh up to 200 pounds, they poop a lot, and they can dig through practically anything.    The rescue portion of the facility  gets a lot of "adopt my pet" requests from people who can't manage them any more.

 

 

 Peacock

These exotic birds need a lot of room  and can be very destructive and noisy.   They roamed freely around the facility -- and this one made quite a commotion when it flew right over our heads into the trees..

 

 

Galapagos Tortoise

Galapagos tortoises are one of the longest-lived land animals, living an average of 100 years. 

I have been secretive so far about the name of the place we visited for a reason.    Seems like many readers really, really don't like alligators --   and I wanted everybody to have some pictures to look at before the very name of the place scared them off.      Yes, we went to Gatorama in Palmdale  --  a place we hadn't visited for years.   Here is a link to that post which tells more about this old Florida roadside attraction.  (It was here before Disney World in other words.)   I didn't actually take too many pictures of the animals in question, because we see them pretty often in the wild.  

 

 

The place has evolved from a kind of cheesy reptile roadside attraction to a facility that actually cares for animals although there are still elements of the former.    It's  a rescue facility, an alligator farm (raising animals for meat),  and a kind of reptile zoo.      They also educate the public about the reptiles that are housed here and about co-existing with alligators which live everywhere in this State.   Kind of a mixture of the good, the beautiful, and the ugly actually.

 

 

Grandpa is the oldest alligator in captivity.  Brought here in the late 1950s, he was already a full-grown mature bull alligator and has sired many  generations.  He's a favorite of everybody who works with him and who sees him.   The sign goes on:

"This species, scientists say, is more than 150 million years old, managing to avoid extinction 65 million years ago when their prehistoric contemporaries the dinosaurs died off."   

That sentence explains pretty well why I think these animals are fascinating rather than repulsive.  They trigger my imagination!   Thankful to be alive now and standing near animals that easily could have been alive in prehistoric times.  (But not too near of course!)   

 

LINKING to the following sharing opportunities, with thanks to the hosts:

MOSAIC MONDAY;  NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  and  SATURDAY CRITTERS    

 

 

 

Good days in the neighborhood

 Mornings are beautiful here in the neighborhood.  Here's a look at one recent  walk around our (RV) Park:  

 

 

The sky changes rapidly most mornings.  The pictures above are all from the walk of less than an hour.  Sunrise is around 7 a.m.  

 

 

Good news last week was the re-opening of Caloosahatchee Creeks Preserve, the preserve next door to our resort.  It had been closed for removal of fallen trees and limbs and other hazards caused by Hurricane Ian.     This was the last of the Conservation 20/20 Preserves to re-open in this county.   The picture above is along the nature trail that leads from here to the entrance to the Preserve.

 

 

The trail itself is kind of a no-man's land between here and the preserve; I'm not sure whose responsibility it is -- of course there wasn't much reason to keep it maintained when the park itself was closed.  The grass-covered trail was quite damp on the misty morning I walked it and besides it was time for breakfast, so I turned around when I reached the Preserve (lower left picture above).  I'm really happy to know this neighborhood walk option is again available for future mornings.   

 Ugly picture below but it announces more post-Ian news:

 

 Yes, here at the Canal Cottage, we have all our ducts in a row.  (And we're an equal-opportunity family in the bad dad-joke department.)   Bill has been spending his days lately in the crawl space under the house   (with occasional breaks for meals).  He's replacing ducts destroyed by the hurricane.  And while he is at it, improving the lay-out so that everything will work better.   (We're not quite an equal-opportunity family when it comes to doing the actual work.  My only contribution was to stomp on the boxes for the recycling bin.)

Installers will be here tomorrow (Monday) to spray new foam insulation .   We're working our way back to normal!

Below is a picture of some real ducks in a row (now I wonder what made me think of this  picture from last year):

 

 Wetlands in our park (not a very good row)

"To get your ducks in a row" is an idiomatic (and somewhat cliched) phrase meaning  to ensure all of the small details or elements are accounted for and in their proper positions before embarking on a new project.   So it is actually quite appropriate for the project Bill just completed, since it had to be perfect before the next steps could happen.     I was curious about the origin of the phrase and learned that there are a whole bunch of different versions.  Here's one link (of many).   

Below are some pictures from an evening walk step out onto porch.   We have had some beautiful evenings lately and I'm happy that the days are starting to get a little longer.

 

(Almost) Full Snow Moon, Saturday February 4

Because of it's current position in its orbit, February's full moon will appear as the smallest one of the year.  It's called a "micro moon,"  the opposite of a Super Moon.  

Morning, noon, and night, we are thankful to be here.

 

Linking to the following sharing opportunities with thanks to the hosts:

MOSAIC MONDAY;  THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and SATURDAY CRITTERS