Bike Ride

Rick and Adri were both off on Monday so we went bike riding. We left early enough that we did not die from the heat! We saw 14 baby gators in one pool and of course the mother was nearby. This is the same pool that we saw baby gators in before and wondered if we had seen them all. We had not! We still don't know if more were hanging around somewhere. There were several close to where we were standing onshore and a few scattered on the other sides of the pool. The water is very low now and we saw dead fish floating in it. Some of the other pools are practically dry. Adri is holding a baby tortoise she spotted riding by. The pond picture that just looks like a bunch of goo has frogs in it. How many do you see? (numbers are for the baby gators. The other goo picture is the frog one.)

Iggabelle Update

It has been a full 4 months since Iggabelle lost her tail. About 2 weeks ago we stopped putting a bandage on it as it was basically sealed over. What a long road of weekly visits to the vet! Now that it isn't in a bandage I have let her out of her cage a couple of times to soak in a tub of water and to get some natural sun. She tolerates me splashing her with water until I get it on her head and then she decides she has had enough. She tried climbing the baby pool screen to perch on it like she used to and scared us both. With out the tail she went right over, I grabbed her quickly and have the clutch marks to prove it! The biggest news is that the tip of the tail is beginning to grow. Just 5 days ago it was an odd colored bunch of skin.

Today it is actually starting to poke out.

Thanks to all of you who have been there for me on this long journey. I know many of you find it hard to imagine one could feel so strongly for a dinosaur, and still you asked about her. I appreciate it.

A thrip, some frogs and a dragonfly

It is way too hot here to do anything! (Sarah- I did some pages!!) A little while ago the computer temp icon was showing red 101! Not sure it is really that hot but it is very miserable. Rick helped me get a picture of a thrip. It moves very fast once cornered but you can see how little it is compared to his finger. Yes I pulled Rick from replanting-hence the dirt all over him.

We were photographing some plumerias when Rick pointed out these frogs.

Some of you may remember my happy dragonfly from last year. Well, I have been hoping to get one with the new Canon and I finally did! It is not a happy dragonfly. It looks more like a very mean drill sergeant to me.

Gladiola Collage

In this pic you can see 8 different gladiola colors. I also have a magenta one but it is not very pretty. I am hoping to get one that is prettier. The problem is the glads have developed thrips. I have bought and used a pyrethrin on them and hope that it will take care of the problem for the new unopened flowers. The "yellow" glad on the right is really not yellow. It has a hint of green to it. It is different. I did not save the bags the bulbs came in but I am not sure I got all the colors that were listed and might have colors that were not. I thought I had some white with a pink blush but none have opened. Oh well the ones that have are pretty and I enjoy going out and looking at them. I just wish Basil hadn't trampled through them! I think I lost at least 1/4 to him.
I added a link on the right, it is for Rick's blog site. He has pics of his plumeria there. Since you can click on it I probably won't be adding any to this site. He has a good crop of them this year! Enjoy!

Response for "California Wonders"

A little lesson in geography. East coast has the Atlantic Ocean. West coast has the Pacific Ocean. Florida has an east and west coast that has the Atlantic Ocean(east) and Gulf of Mexico (west). The Atlantic coast has what a true Californian can only describe as "piddly waves". Now Floridians on the other hand think they are GREAT! Californians can politely laugh inside themselves or rudely guffaw at their ridiculousnous. (We might be able to equate the difference between the Atlantic and the Pacific to how Hawaiins feel when they gofrom their side of the Pacific coast to Huntington Beach.) Venice is on the Gulf coast. There are NO waves in the gulf (mommies with little ones beware-it is very deceptive).
It is amazing how turbulent the gulf waters can be when there are no waves! It crashes and can knock you down. On this gorgeous sunny day (it is sunny Florida after all! Be happy you are in Calif roght now, it has been in the high 90's!!) the water was very rough, as you can see in the pictures, with tiny swells that literally knocked you off your feet.
Geography only explains part of it, I think we need a scientist to explain why one coast has good waves and the other does not. I wonder if it will change with global warming.

Dolphin

We went to Venice again today. I thought it was slim pickin's before but boy was I mistaken! This was the slimmest ever and I would have to find no teeth for it to be even slimmer than today! The water was odd today. Real churny and it looked like white sand mixed in for about 15 feet. Not clear at all so you couldn't even walk and grab one ebbing by. However I was able to sit and sift and find some (last time there were none that way). This is what I look like when I am sifting thru the on shore debris (Notice Sue I am wearing a hat! I listen occassionally!). And this is how I look when Rick continues to take pictures after I have told him to stop! Did I mention it was really windy too?

With the water so weird Rick was not able to fish. An exciting moment was when 3 dolpins went by. It was a mama, baby and 1 more. Now the pic is not good but you can at least tell there is a dolphin in it.

Since it was not a great "on the beach day" we decided to explore around Venice. We drove to the jetty and caught up with some more dolphin. I actually think the three we saw were in the pod that was there.

There were some cute dive bomber birds too. They are way too fast for the camera!

On the way home we stopped at Choktaw Willys for some ribs. Mmmm mmmm mmmm good!

The yard

This past Sunday afternoon Rick, Michael and I spent a wee bit of time digging the grass out from under the palm tree to extend the flower bed from in front of the family room to go around the palm tree. Monday I planted it. I went out to take a pic to show Sarah and I am so happy with this picture I decided to stick it on the blog. It really makes the house and yard look good! We have been trying to whip it into shape and it looks like it is paying off.

My gladiolas (planted in the bed around the pool screen) are blooming in batches of color. Started with the yellow/purple and has since gone to purple with white, deep purple, orange, peach, orange and yellow (upstarts from last year), red and a hint that a pink one is coming. This is one of my favorites. I will do a collage after all the colors have emerged.

Gatorland Photos

The gator walking back to the manmade watering ring is the unlucky gator that was used to demonstrate gator wrestling. He was the biggest in the show (6 foot, 180 lbs), really not very big compared to what they have at the park. In the wild here the gators are left alone as long as they don't bother people. If they become a nuisance and are over 5 feet they will be captured and released elsewhere. They had a gator that had been terrorizing a neighborhood in Tampa that looked to be at least 14 feet. The dogs were disappearing. They did not release him. He is in quarantine and once given a clean bill of health will be released into the general population at Gatorland.
The Eastern diamondback rattler is in the up close encounters show. This is a better picture than the one I put in yahoo 360. The funny head in the water is a Florida softshell turtle. Rick was feeding the flamingoes and it mosied over. The flamingoes would not even attempt to get the food near the turtle.
The other interesting thing we found out is that we have been under estimating how big our wild gator friends are! We have one we call Humpy that we thought was maybe 6 feet long but now that we have seen mobs of Gators we realize that with his head size he has to be much bigger. When you just see one in a pool it is harder to judge. They had the smaller gators in areas that had things we could use as size markers-like blocks for walls-the wild just doesn't provide those! The pics on the yahoo 360 are still worth checking out-I have different ones posted there.

Gatorland-Go Digital!

Hello all you die hard film lovers, it is time to go digital! I held out for a long time but I hear people saying it just isn't the same and they are dragging their feet to the new fangled digital. Well I am here to say it is wonderful!! We went to Gatorland for Mothers Day (yes it was my choice) and are you ready for this?.... 292 pictures! Ok, so what on earth does one do with so many pics? You download then search for your top picks. Could be 5, 50 or even all. Put them on a disc so you have them preserved and print your favorites to add to your scrapbook. It is so easy and takes away all the guess work. No wondering if you got a good shot or not-just check before moving on. I am sure in transition mode you will have to tote 2 cameras to get some on film to be sure but after a very short time you will wonder why it took so long! Well, I toted 2 cameras any way but they were both digital. Have to have the right one for that shot!
We had a good time at Gatorland. We watched their 3 shows and took the train ride around the park. It is bird nesting season and we saw lots of babies. It's always a good day when you see babies....even if they aren't human. We found out that the birds like to nest over gator infested waters to protect their young from natural predators. Of course if a fledgling falls he will be gator bait! I added photos to my yahoo 360 photo album. Click on My Yahoo 360 on the right and go to photos, Gatorland. This blog site is not letting me upload pics right now so the best bet is to go there. I will try again later.

The Haircuts

Adri and I had our hair cut the other day. She went first. As I walked to the chair I told the stylist I was not going that short. She was like "ok, thats out on the table". Mine is no biggie, the same only shorter.
Adri however has not had her hair shoulder length since she was 4 and it is taking her a bit of time to get used to it. I like it. This last picture Adri took of herself. She said I would think she's silly (well maybe one or two of the others were a bit silly) but I really like this one!

Charlie (pronounced Chawlie)

Last week end I had the pleasure of watching Charlie. He is a fun little poodle! Some may wonder how well my little terror Red got along with him. She loves him. They walk every morning together and next to squirrel hunting it is the best. It has been a long time since I had a poodle and I enjoyed fluffing him up and making him all poodlish.
He loves to play fetch....endlessly.
Sometimes he'll drop the ball and other times he makes you work for it. notice how Adri has her fingers real tight. Well he doesn't always distinguish between fingers and toy. In fact he seemed to think my fingers were chew toys!
Red would try and get him to play with her but he is a human's dog and she would give up and go back to squirrel hunting. Towards the end of his stay she did entice him with this toy.
He would perch like a princely poodle watching his subjects in their silly past times.
It is lonely now with just 2 dogs. Luckily we get to see him each morning on our daily jaunt.

Magic Kingdom

JoeAdri

My mom
Ok I don't want any complaints about these photos. I am sure those pictured are having cows but I LiKE Them and that is what matters! The last day Joe and my mom were here we went to Magic Kingdom to see the Philharmagic show. It is a really cute show and if you are at Disney Florida a must see. The visit was a little less busy than a normal visit. We went to Adri's graduation and apparently picked up a bug along the way. My mom, Adri and I were all hit! Stomach problems. Joe and Adri did go to Islands of Adventure for the fast rides and my mom and I went to EPCOT. They are having their Flower and Garden show so everywhere is blooming with color. I especially like their topiaries. They have a week end where they display more than average and I hope to make it to see them. The visit was not long enough but it was great to see them. Next time we will be healthy!

Venice 5-6

Saturday we went to Venice. Again it was a beautiful day. We bought a smaller, easy for me to use, "Florida snow shovel". This is a mesh scoop for scooping up the sand to find the shark teeth. I talked with an older guy that said the shoreline changed after the hurricanes last year and it is harder to get the teeth. Have to dig a little more and go in the water more. I used to sit on shore in a bunch of shells and find the best! It is also fun to use the scoop, though the biggest ones were all from just watching the water and seeing them float in with the waves. You have to grab quickly or it rushes back to sea! Rick bought a casting net and played with it. He was able to get Lots of bait fish with it. The older folks felt he needed help and offered their advice. I asked him later if he wished they had left him alone but he said no, he thought it nice (and somewhat amusing too) that they wanted to offer up their sage wisdom. He had a lot of bait but no luck fishing. It just doesn't matter. It is so peaceful to be at the beach. What did we see?
Leaving our neighborhood we followed a Prowler out. Haven't seen many of those on the road.
A wedding.
There was a wedding at Venice just up the beach from us. People that didn't even know the couple turned their chairs so they had a better view and all clapped when they kissed. It was a gorgeous day for a wedding.

The great Blue Heron did not visit but a few Snowy Egret were interested in Rick's bait. He fed them some as he had more than plenty. An added benefit of course is how clean the sand gets your feet. I definitely need to walk on the beach every night!

Graduation collage

Here are some more pics. Tom Brokaw was the guest speaker-he was pretty good (Adri was not impressed). Top left is Adri and her oldest brother Joe. Next to them is Adri and her Grandma Gene (my mom). The older man is Dr Clark, one of her professors. The group of friends are Jenna, Emily, Adri, Lydia and Jamie.