A Full-time Life

Ordinary weeks on the Canal

Nature walks have   taken a back-seat the last couple of weeks as we work on the Canal Cottage.   We now have air-conditioning, a new washer/dryer and a rebuilt laundry area.  All wonderful additions to the good life here on the Canal.   I'm thankful for ordinary days.    

 

 

The bird of the week is this cranky-looking Burrowing Owl.  It was an errand day for us in Cape Coral, with a little owl-hunting thrown in as long as we were over there.   The Cape (as we locals call our neighboring City)  is home to quite a few colonies of these diurnal owls.    It was a windy day, not exactly pleasant outside,  and we didn't see many birds.    I imagined that this adult owl just needed to step outside for some fresh air.  The babies have hatched and it might be a little crowded and noisy in that underground burrow.  

 

Sunrise is the color of the week. 

 I snapped a bunch of morning walk pictures with my brand-new IPhone.    The camera feature now is so much better than on the phone I had to replace.       But for years, we have been downloading all our photos to Picasa, which is now an   out-dated editing program.  It   didn't  work at all well with the new phone.    Oh no, I think I'm going to have to learn something new.     And I'm sure it will be better.    And probably someday I will be glad that I learned it.  Probably.

 The  background for the collage above is cropped from one of those sunrise pictures -- the color itself is NOT edited.    

(Older photos -- not this year)

How much do I love that morning color?    Enough to paint the Canal Cottage walls  in shades of it.   (And apparently enough to wear sometimes while I'm living here.)  I think the paint cans called our colors "apricot" or "peach" or something like that, but to me it's definitely "Florida Sunrise."     

My friend Kathy texted the picture below.  It's from a couple of weeks ago when the four of us visited Bonita Wonder Gardens.  Afterwards, we enjoyed an early dinner at Coconut Jack's, an old favorite water-front restaurant.

 

   

The restaurant had only recently reopened after completing hurricane repairs.   The signs behind us show the high-water marks reached during 2017's Hurricane Irma,  and -- way above our heads -- where it reached during Ian last September.   The restaurant looked about the same as we remembered from previous years -- they did an amazing restoration job.  And our table view  of the now calm water was as lovely as ever.   

It's so good that things are getting back to normal at home and in the area.  Grateful is the word of the week (and of the season, really).

Thank you to the hosts of these sharing opportunities where I will try to link this post.  (We are on the way to a camping trip destination for a few days of rest and relaxation.)

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

 

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    

ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN A PANDEMIC

Last morning walk of the season in Florida

We traveled 3,359 miles pulling a 13-foot travel trailer to get home to Oregon this month.  We did it in 12 nights -- the fastest we've ever driven across country.   It could have been a risky thing to do, but we thought it was our safest bet during this pandemic (and ultimately our decision turned out well.)

Getting from one place to another as quickly as possible is really not our thing -- we'd rather take time to smell the roses.  But taking our time was not an option this year. Fortunately we both like road trips, even just the 'on-the-road' part of them.  And this time, the trip itself at least gave us some challenges and new things to talk about during this time of isolation.      

 

(click to enlarge)

 

We drove from North Fort Myers Florida with these overnight stops: 

Ocala Florida, Elko Georgia, Jasper Alabama, Jonesboro Arkansas, Harrisonville Missouri, York Nebraska, Sidney Nebraska, Rawlins Wyoming, Declo Idaho, Burns Oregon, Blue River Oregon, and  then HOME!   

"We" didn't drive long days (Bill did all the driving) -- The longest driving day was 426 miles (going from Wyoming to Idaho).  The shortest was  the last -- 54 miles just because we didn't want to arrive home tired after a long day,  (The trailer had food in it!   And dirty clothes!  We had to unload it as soon as we got home.) 

  Here are some of the places where we stayed overnight:                                    .

 I don't usually take pictures of the RV Parks where we stay, but some days, especially toward the beginning of the trip, we didn't really  see anything else that was picture-worthy.   We had almost no problem finding open RV Parks and mostly saw nobody else while we were parked.  (This is unusual for RVers who are a friendly bunch as a rule.  We were glad it was different this time.)   Most of the parks handled registration  completely over the telephone.     

 

 

We didn't do any sightseeing, other than what we saw from the car window.  And we were on major highways all the time on this trip.  (In a normal travel year, we like to go off freeway as much as possible  --   the trip might take longer, but you see more.)   Some of the time it was just us and the truckers on the road!  Lots of trucks.  We are grateful that they are out doing their job  -- it is certainly an essential one now as always.

We did see interesting things through the windows sometimes though -- and occasionally I was even able to get a quick picture.   

 

Car window picture somewhere in Wyoming.

Wyoming was hard on both of us because we usually drive through it on our way to or from visiting our son and daughter-in-law in Colorado.   That was not to be this year, since at that time none of us knew for sure if we were virus-free.   We did appreciate the blue skies -- and that the roads were clear of ice and snow (we were lucky in our weather) -- and were glad that we were getting closer to home.

 

 

We were back in Oregon before I was able to get my 'first-mountain-of-the-season' picture.  Taking that picture is an annual tradition when we return to the West from the flatlands of Florida.   (In most years, that picture has  been taken in Colorado.)  On this trip, we began to see nice elevation on the horizon well before we hit the Oregon border, but this lonely road between Burns and Bend Oregon was the first good opportunity for a decent picture.   I don't think about missing mountains while we're in Florida -- but as soon as I see them when we come back I realize that I did!

The Mountains are always there whenever we return, but Spring flowers are usually gone by the time we get here.  So seeing them is one good thing about this year: 

 

All these lovely flowering trees and bushes were in the little RV Park where we stayed on the last night of the trip --- Blue River Oregon.  

And here's the first picture I took after we got home:

 

One of the gardens in Cyndi and Jeff's yard 

 

We'd already unloaded everything out of the trailer at home and then driven it out to the country to stash it on our gracious kids' property.    We talked to them at the prescribed safe distance and of course haven't yet been back as we're just ending our first week of self-isolating at home.     So we're communicating electronically just as if we were over 3,000 miles away instead of 20!    But at least we can do that. 

It's good to be home.

 

Linking this week to the following -- thank you to the hosts:

 

MOSAIC MONDAY;   ALL SEASONS;  THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;  SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and FRIDAY  BLISS;   

SAME BUT ALWAYS SOMETHING DIFFERENT

 It's quiet around home these days as nearly all of our fellow snowbird neighbors have flown North.   It's a good time to get things done.  With friends gone and activities over for the season, there aren't as many tempting interruptions.   And traffic outside of the resort where we live is so much lighter it's faster to get places and faster to accomplish whatever it was that you wanted to do.   The standard joke in this area, where much of the winter population are 'senior citizens,' is that the lines at the pharmacy counter are much shorter when the winter season ends.    

 

Our "street corner" ... the Canal going out to the Caloosahatchie River

We are snowbirds too of course, but our season is slightly different from most others.   This time of year, we pretend we live here year-round.   At my dental checkup the other day, the hygienist said how nice it was "now that they're gone" she has cut 20 minutes off of her commute time.  I just smiled.

 

 

I snapped these flowers and the panorama shot above with my I-phone.  I'm trying to become more familiar with what my smart phone can do.

 

Red-Bellied Woodpecker (top three and lower center).    Northern Flicker, lower left and right.

I don't think I'll ever be able to take pictures of birds with the phone though.   I have enough trouble with the small camera I almost always carry.   This collage shows the Red-bellied Woodpecker that I saw on the ground under a live-oak tree (top three pictures and center bottom)  and two pictures of a Northern (red-shafted) Flicker that I took on the same day.  

I am used to  the red-bellied on trees or poles;  this season for the first time I've seen several foraging on the ground.  I often see Flickers on the ground.  At first glance, their markings are a little bit alike, but it's easy to see the difference when you compare the two.  The Flicker is a larger bird also.  

 

Hibiscis

 

Warning:  The snake phobic may wish to avert eyes while scrolling past the next collage.

 

 

Across the streets from the Canal, homes in our resort back on to wetlands areas that are tropical- jungle-like.   An RVer who stayed awhile had either a whimsical or an evil sense of humor.   They transformed a strangler fig behind  their space into a pretty good replica of a Burmese Python.    It will be interesting to see whether the resort management leaves their artistic endeavors for another season.  That space is for temporary visitors; someone else might not appreciate the view!   

Further warning:  One of these pictures  is not like the others.   The one in the lower left picture is a real (but no longer living) Burmese Python.  Someone had rather unkindly laid it out on a railing at a wildlife viewing spot near the Everglades. (That picture is from last February).    It was a good thing that somebody killed it because these snakes are  invasive and create serious problems in this part of Florida.  I just wished I hadn't almost put my hand on it.

Back to the pretty stuff:

 

 

Skies this week have been interesting.   It continues to rain hard at least for a short while almost every day (usually with lightning).   But  there are also always times when we can go outside.    It never rains all day long.    

The  picture below is from way earlier in the season.  It was forgotten on my phone and found when my practice photo at the top of this post (and about a million others I threw away) were downloaded.   

 

Pink Shell  Beach,  January 2019

An oldie but a goodie!

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

 

NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;    MOSAIC MONDAY;  MACRO 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  

 

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  

 

 

 

 

ALIVE AND WELL

Back in the day, when I was under the mistaken impression that I was indispensable, a  head cold would barely slow  me down.   I'd throw down the cough syrup and go on with life.

Now that I am retired and know better,  I took full advantage of the first "sick days" I've had in quite a while.    I was so busy languishing last week that I couldn't even blog.    I can't imagine how I ever went to work and took care of our family under those sniffly circumstances.   

 

Sunrise  -- taken from our screen porch 
 

It might have something to do with the fact that I was younger back then, do you think?  I'll tell you what, though,  that languishing stuff got old pretty fast!   Glad to be back among the non-sneezy, and almost-non-coughing, living.  And even more grateful than ever for generally good health and beautiful weather.      Sometimes it takes a reminder.  

 

Mid-day on the  River. 

 

I stayed in the house for over a week!  Unheard of for me.    But by this past  Thursday I was well enough to go to the monthly lunch with the boat club.

March Full Moon.  Also from our screen porch. 

We've had beautiful weather ... morning, noon, and night ... and sick or well  we are thankful for it!   The rest of the pictures are from the archives, because that one short boat ride is the only place we've been other than the screen porch lately!  

 

"Tern"  right at Marker #19

(But it’s not a tern, it’s a Laughing Gull.  Thanks to those who let me know.  Even if it ruined my pun )). 

 

 

A stop at the Farm Market a week ago last Monday, just before I got sick.   Fresh food was good medicine.

 

Something to think about from Kissimmee Prairie

 

 

Cattle egrets in breeding plumage and White Pelican (oddly nowhere near the water) at Taylor Creek, a roadside stop on the way to Kissimmee Prairie.  

 

LINKING THIS WEEK to the following:  Thank you to the hosts.

 NATURE NOTES;   ALL SEASONS;  THROUGH MY LENS;  MOSAIC MONDAY;  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  

 

 

WARMTH AND SUNSHINE CLOSE TO HOME

We stayed close to home this week, working on home improvement projects and planning future trips.  (To be honest, that was pretty much the other half of the 'we'.)  I was happy to be here 'just in case of need'  and  even without that excuse, sometimes it's good just to stay home.   It was definitely a good week to be in SW Florida.   Our Oregon families were braving the 'snowmageddon' -- (you may have seen or read about the Amtrak train that was stuck in the unexpected Oregon snow.  That happened near a small town in Lane County where we live  -- east of Eugene and  in the Mountains.)  But even on the valley floor, where most of our family lives, there was  a snow accumulation almost unheard of in that part of the State.  And our Colorado family, although more used to the snow, did get home from their visit here  to more snow and icy conditions.    And here we are in the sunshine.    

So our weather alone is a lot to be grateful for, but, as the ad slogan goes  "wait, there's more!"  Here in this area, there  is so much beauty around us every day, even without venturing far from home.

  

 

We don't have the usual early Spring flowers here (because it's too hot) but we have air plants.   I snapped these beauties on Monday morning in the backyard of my yoga teacher's home.  (She has a studio there.)  I used the view of that tree through the studio window  as my balance focus.  After class, I walked outside and took some pictures.  (It was actually a good way to transition before driving.  The last thing this and every Yoga class does is a few minutes of total relaxation and sometimes it takes me a few moments to come back to the real world.)   

 

 

 I  did go out of our resort a couple of other times for routine errands and  grocery shopping.   And almost directly across from the supermarket is our now world-famous SW Florida Eagle Nest.   Here's the pasture on a beautiful blue sky afternoon.   (This was on  the same day, by the way, that we'd received several text pictures of backyards in Oregon that we know and love showing the over seven inches of snow that they all woke up to that morning.)  I almost felt guilty.  Almost.  

 

 

 

 This picture is from a different day  when I stopped by.  It was fairly early  and the light was terrible that morning.   But the eaglets were active and fun to watch.  It's getting  close to the time when they'll leave home ... one of them has already flown to the branches above the nest but on this day they were just busy hopping on the edge of the nest and exercising their wings.

 

 

This is the same day as the first sky picture above -- it was afternoon, the light was great, but the 'twins' were just sitting there probably waiting for mom or dad to bring home their dinner.  (About the only action was a couple of plaintive cries.)   I would have liked to see the parent fly in with food, but my real purpose for being in the neighborhood that day was to get to the people food across the street at the supermarket.    I didn't want to be making plaintive hunger cries myself.  

 

 

 This one's not my picture, but it was posted on our resort's community Facebook page with an invitation to 'feel free to steal'.  I saw these Sandhill Cranes on the edge of the park while I was driving out one day, but couldn't stop at the time.   It is probably the same pair that we've seen here every Spring.  But particularly notable this season, because the golf course area where they've always hung out before is completely torn up this year.   (The resort's owner is adding more sites and there is really only a very small lawn area left, plus lots of construction equipment and noise.)  I assume the Sandhill pair was surprised to find that out and hope that they'll find a better place, but it was fun to see them.

 

Meanwhile, back at the Eagle pasture, these horses couldn't have cared less about the birds or the people on their way to grocery shop .  They were busy eating their own dinner.

#

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities.  Thank you to the hosts and to visitors, especially all who leave a comment.  

 

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