Happy Valentine's Day

It must be almost spring. This is a gorgeous day and the cherry tree has begun to blossom.

 

 

February days in Cedar Key have been rainy, blustery, cold, cold, cold. Between raindrops we hiked with Jake, went on a ranger-led walk to identify winter trees at the Lower Suwannee Wildlife Refuge, had a great chili and corn bread dinner with friends, and participated in a town hall meeting on water issues led by Cynthia Barnett, Cedar Key resident and author of "Mirage."

A Wildlife Bonanza on the LaChua Trail

Our friends Arnold and Ismini are visiting. We hiked in Paynes Prairie, here in Gainesville, along the LaChua Trail. Among the abundance of wildlife, we saw alligators, herons, ibises, wild bison, wild hoses, sand hill cranes, white pelicans, savannah sparrows. See how many gators you can count in the second photo. They were equally thick all along the trail.

A Lucky Warm Day

Gainesville has had 12 straight days now with temperatures below freezing. The 145 grapefruits that we harvested before the freeze from our 3 trees may well be our last ever harvest. The trees look very, very stressed and may not survive. Several neighbors have had pipes freeze and burst--so far two of them were fortunate enough to have the breaks outside their houses but the third is at this moment pulling out and discarding her carpeting because her break was inside the wall of her family room.

A few days ago we left this north Florida cold and went to the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge near West Palm Beach. We visited with Richard and Nancy and spent two days at a meeting of the Florida Friends of the Wildlife Refuges. One of those days was warm enough for an airboat ride at the refuge...and that means warm. Those boats are cold even in summer.

New Year's Eve with Jake and Friends

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain for New Year's Day 2010. A day to hunker down indoors, warm and dry. But New Year's Eve 2009 was a day of dramatic skies for walking the beach in St. Augustine with Jake and friends. And the evening was warm and breezy--just right for going to dinner in the Old City with ole friends, and new!

Another Early Christmas and Then, Christmas in Cedar Key

I spent last weekend with my brother Pat and his family in North
Carolina. It was wonderful, even though Mary Jo had to work most of the time and missed the photo op.

Then Russ and I took off for Cedar Key for the main event. Jake loved the tree and the walk we took near the water. Russ and I loved the paella dinner.The house is decorated and the new yard art looks great.

We worked on the cheese book project while we were there. The book is coming soon. Get ready!

Early Christmas Celebration

We spent last weekend in Virginia celebrating a happy, healthy year.

A December Storm in Cedar Key

Today was the Interagency Luncheon at the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Key National Wildlife Refuge. We were there as members of the Friends of the Refuge. We arrived in Cedar Key yesterday afternoon about 3:00 with dire warnings on the weather radio about a storm approaching. Pretending to be the Weather Channel staff, instead of heading back to Gainesville, we went down to the Marina, City Park, and the Faraway Inn to take pictures.

As is so often the case, the storm fizzled after a few hours of bluster. The sun shone on today's outdoor luncheon at the Refuge.

A Cedar Key Thanksgiving

We went to Cedar Key this year to celebrate all we have to be thankful for.