Spoonbills and Sushi Socks

I spotted this manatee on my early-morning walk yesterday. I love how someone has managed to give it lipstick and mascara.

BUT...I actually also spotted real manatees on my walk, along with a bunch of other interesting wildlife. Spoonbills! I've only seen roseate spoonbills in the wild a handful of times, and yet there they were, in a ditch behind some trailers, with an egret and some ibis.

And of course I decided not to bring my big camera on this trip, so all I had was my phone to record these momentous events. But it's better than nothing.

Here's a special FloriVideo™ Wildlife Edition to show you the morning's critters:
-- We start with a flock of Nanday Parakeets, flying away. I mainly wanted to record how noisy they are.
-- Then we see three Nanday Parakeets on a bird feeder, with a stork hanging out beneath them. The stork ambles away as I approach, but the parakeets stay put and squawk loudly.
-- There's an osprey, sitting in the top of a tree and piping loudly.
-- That's followed by the spoonbills and the other birds as seen in the photo above, with a noisy fly-by from the parakeets.
-- And then, manatees! They's just dark blobs in the water, but you can see their noses emerge as they breathe. We could hear them exhaling and inhaling as we stood on the shore.
-- There's another view of the spoonbills, egret and ibis from the other side of the ditch.
-- And finally, a cormorant surfaces with a big flopping fish in its beak. We didn't think it would be able to swallow it, but it did, to the disappointment of a waiting osprey. (You'll hear a woman's voice, along with me and Dave -- just another curious onlooker!)

Dave and I had lunch yesterday with my friends Jay and Charlie, who I used to work with at the Sarasota newspaper back in the day, and their partners. It was great to see them again. We ate on the patio of a restaurant at University Town Center, a glam new shopping area east of town -- it seemed like a good idea at first, but by the end of the meal I was wilting like a hothouse flower. The sun was brutal! That area was all farmland when I lived here back in the '90s. Progress, I suppose.

And yesterday evening we had our lasagna Christmas dinner. We gave Dave's dad his jar of pennies, as well as some other gifts. I got this great set of socks from Dave's sister Dawn:

Don't you love those?! I hate to even try to wear them, they're rolled so precisely. I may just enjoy them in the box for a while!

The Steak Seduction

I just ordered my morning coffee at Starbucks and it came in a paper cup, contained within a second paper cup, contained within one of those little cardboard rings that's supposed to protect my fingers from heat. And with a plastic lid. Seems like a lot of material for one cup of coffee.

Although Dave's parents' trailer has WiFi, it doesn't have a very good coffee machine. So I still find it easier to drive the short distance to Starbucks in order to blog.

So yes, they own a mobile home here, but they don't live in it. At least not anymore. Dave's mom and dad have both had health issues that necessitated their moving to an assisted living center, where they eat and sleep and spend most of their time. That's why we're staying in the mobile home, which frankly I love, because it's in one of these little sun-blasted waterfront retirement parks with hyper-neat landscaping and plastic flamingos and palm trees. We've joked about moving here ourselves. At least, I think it's a joke.

When I took my morning walk yesterday I found this sphinx moth (I think?) resting on the paved street. It was covered with dewdrops and looked like it had been there a while, but I didn't want it to get squashed, so I picked it up and moved it to a planter in front of someone's house. It was surprisingly hard to move. Those little feet can really cling. Hopefully when it warmed up and dried off it was able to move around a little more easily.

We ran errands yesterday morning, mostly preparing for today's Christmas dinner. There were originally plans for a roast and potatoes and all that stuff, but at some point it was decided that lasagna was the way to go -- easier to make and store, and using only one dish! So we bought lasagna supplies and also some new shrubs for the mobile home, where the landscaping suffered in Hurricanes Helene and Milton last year. We bought three Hibiscus, a Lantana, a ti plant, an Ixora and something I don't remember ever seeing before called a Clusia. I think the latter might actually become a tree someday, so we have to be careful where we put it.

Dave and I will be planting them today and tomorrow, and his sister will care for them, since she's staying for the next several weeks.

This insanity was parked outside a restaurant at the shopping center. I'm sure it's not road-worthy. It's just for display. There's a whole nativity scene inside the van.

Last night, Dave's parents came over (they still drive) and we ordered pizza and had a leisurely evening full of mobile home park gossip. For example, we heard about the female neighbor who solicits men in the park with offers of meat ("I have steaks and my husband isn't here; would you like to come over?"). Grace Metalious, eat your heart out!

After dark I took my nighttime walk. Today Dave and I have lunch with some friends from my years living in Sarasota (1994-2000) and then it's lasagna time!

Turtle Killers Go To Hell

Well, I'm in Bradenton now, staying at the mobile home on Sarasota Bay owned by Dave's parents. But I don't have any pictures of Bradenton yet because yesterday we were sorting out practical matters like trying to figure out the mysterious internet connection at their retirement home. They have institutional WiFi, but they also have their own WiFi for their unit, plus a router that we can't sign into at all. That third router -- why it's there and who's paying for it -- is the real mystery.

Anyway, all these pictures were taken yesterday morning before we left Lutz. I got in the habit of taking a long-ish morning walk near my stepmother's house, which got me some exercise after the daily self-harm I committed by eating a Boston kreme donut at Dunkin'.

The good news is, I should have better internet access here in Bradenton, so I'm hoping I'll be able to catch up somewhat in blogland! I know I'm way behind!

Dave and I drove down yesterday over the Sunshine Skyway, the very high bridge over the mouth of Tampa Bay. The day was sunny and we got spectacular views. I was prepared for hellish traffic, since it was a weekday, but of course no one was going to work on the Friday after Christmas so it was smooth sailing the whole way.

We met Dave's sister at the Cortez Cafe, our favorite diner in Bradenton, where I had the multicultural combo of a Greek omelette and grits. Then we went to see his parents at the retirement center, and stayed with them all afternoon. I only popped out for a Starbucks and to run a rather bizarre errand -- Dave's mom wants to give his dad a jar full of pennies for Christmas, because he's apparently a coin enthusiast and she thought he'd enjoy sorting them all. Getting hold of enough mixed pennies to fill a quart jar turns out to be a bit of a challenge. The first bank we went to gave us four rolls, but they're all fresh pennies from the mint -- so of no use for sorting. The second was a jackpot -- I got 20 rolls of pennies rolled by customers, which was above the teller's usual maximum but she said she was loaded down with them so was happy to sell them on. Problem is, that only fills half the jar.

That may have to suffice. We can get more later, if Dave's dad takes to this gift at all.

Last night we went to the Anna Maria Oyster Bar for dinner -- a cobia sandwich for me, along with two weak martinis. Which is just as well because I was driving.

Doesn't this look like one of those "ugliest dog contest" photos? This is Pinky, my stepmother's lone surviving chihuahua, who is mostly blind these days and also has no teeth. Remember how insane she and her erstwhile companion, Manny, were ten years ago? Manny is no longer with us but Pinky, of indeterminate age, is hanging in there. Fortunately her fierceness has diminished along with her vision.

Picnic Island

I have always been fascinated by this building. It stands all alone in its marble magnificence, completely different from the modest houses that surround it. When I was younger it was called the Commerce Building, I believe, and as I remember it was vacant. Apparently it was saved from demolition in the mid-'90s and became a library in 1998.

Dave and I passed it on Wednesday morning when we took a drive out to Picnic Island, a public park on Tampa Bay at the southern tip of the Tampa peninsula. I used to ride my bike out to Picnic Island when I lived in Tampa and I have fond memories of that area.

There are always lots of horseshoe crab shells out there. I'm glad the crabs haven't all been harvested for their blue blood. You can see downtown St. Petersburg across the bay on the distant horizon, directly above the crab.

We walked around the park a bit, watching the tiny fiddler crabs emerge from their holes in the mud flats around the mangroves, and checking out the scenery along the beach. Here's a FloriVideo™ featuring the scenery and something that sounds a lot like a seagull but isn't:

We had a busy Christmas yesterday. Dave and I went to the hospital in the morning to visit my stepmother, who seems to be doing OK. She complained of pain so she got some medication and we left after a short time to let her sleep. My stepsister who went to see her later said she didn't even remember we'd been there! Oh well. I think she's going to be in the hospital for several more days at least. She's still due to have some more tests and another procedure.

We had Christmas dinner at my stepsister's house, with her, her husband and some of their friends. Dave was in charge of the roast beast, which he actually cooked in the oven in our guesthouse, which as far as we could tell had never been used. It's right next door to my stepsister's so we walked it over when it was done.

Today we're off to Bradenton to spend the rest of our trip with Dave's side of the family. They've been very patient while we deal with my stepmother and her unexpected illness. This trip has been so surreal.

Merry Christmas!

This is a snapshot of my grandmother's Christmas tree, taken approximately 42 years ago. Every year from the time I was about 10 until I graduated from college, my mom, my brother and I drove north during Christmas break to visit her in Hyattsville, Md., near Washington D.C. We piled into my mom's Ford Escort and drove for two days on what seemed an exciting and exotic voyage, staying at a motel somewhere in the middle, usually some little town in South Carolina like Orangeburg or Santee or Manning.

I have such great memories of those trips. In the early years we'd drive US-301 up through Georgia and South Carolina, where I think I-95 wasn't entirely finished yet. We then joined I-95 through North Carolina and Virginia. Once the interstate was built, we switched to it along with everyone else, and forever after I lamented that we no longer drove through little burgs like Allendale, S.C. or Claxton, Ga. -- where we went right past the fruitcake factory! Part of the fun of the trip was seeing those familiar places over and over.

I loved the giant welcome signs at every state line, and crossing them felt like a triumph. Even though a state line is a political abstraction, we could almost feel the air change. I loved crossing the same rivers, eating in the same restaurants and staying in the same motels. The first few years we stayed in a motel in Orangeburg that was right out of the 1950s, with a restaurant in the forecourt.

Anyway, once we got to Grandmother's, one of the first things we'd do is break out her Christmas tree and decorate it. I can't quite remember where she stored it, but I have visions of it hanging upside down from the rafters in her basement or garage, covered with a plastic or cloth shroud. I may be making that up. (If so my brother will let me know.) She always waited until we arrived to break out any Christmas decorations.

She herself laughed at her little tree, saying it was rather pathetic compared to the invariably large and elaborately decorated one at my uncle's in northern Virginia (where we spent actual Christmas day, surrounded by our cousins). But we loved it.

Here's a (blurry) closeup of the vintage nativity scene we always put out with the tree.

I have no idea what happened to any of this stuff when she died in 1988. Maybe my cousins inherited some of the decorations. But finding these old pictures among my negatives brought back great memories. Voila! Time travel!

May all of you have a great day, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, and may you enjoy whatever memories the day may carry for you. Here in Florida my stepmother remains in the hospital, so we'll be going to see her as well as having dinner with family and friends in the evening.

Wildlife Sightings and Venusian Trivia

I was taking an early-morning walk yesterday when I encountered a guy standing in the road in his bathrobe, holding a cup of coffee, waiting for his dog to do its business. I saw these stately, dramatic Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansia) plants growing in a nearby yard, and stopped to take a picture of them. "If you break a piece of that off and stick it in the ground, it will grow for you," he said. Which I suppose was an offer for me to do so, because then he went into the house behind the plants, but obviously I can't very well smuggle Brugmansia into the UK so I passed.

(Besides, Dave and I tried to grow a Brugmansia in a pot many years ago and it didn't go well. We had an invasion of red spider mites, as I recall.)

I had a pretty good walk, actually, and saw several other interesting things. I made a quick FloriVideo™ to share them with you:

We begin with a flock of ibis at sunrise, followed by a nonchalant peacock, some wary deer and some very loud black-headed parrots. (I think they're Nanday Parakeets, which are apparently known to have large feral colonies in the Tampa area.) I didn't bring my big camera and zoom lens on this trip so I couldn't get a better shot of them, sadly.

Thanks for all your good wishes about my stepmother. She seems to be doing much better. We spent time with her yesterday morning and again in the evening. She has some issues that have affected her kidneys, so she got both a blood transfusion and dialysis yesterday to help correct her blood chemistry before they do a procedure today to hopefully fix the problems. "I never thought I'd be having dialysis," she said, and I must admit it was a surprise to all of us too. I don't think she'll be home for Christmas, but we'll see.

In the afternoon Dave and I went to see blogger E, who is an old college friend of mine. We both worked on the student newspaper at the University of South Florida back in the day and became friends that way. I haven't seen her in a while so it was nice to meet up and sit by the pool in her condo complex for a chat on a pleasant, sunny day.

Here's a large colony of mother-in-law's-tongue growing around a tree at her condos. Florida is the place where houseplants run wild!

Last night I went out to play in a trivia contest with my stepsister and her husband. We didn't win, but it was an interesting contest -- the host asked a question, and then played a song that is somehow associated with the answer. A word in the answer may be in the name of the song, for example, or in the artist's name. Sometimes it's a tenuous association -- "Ventura Highway" was associated with the planet Venus, for example. Speaking of which, if someone asked you to name the hottest planet, what would you say? I said Mercury, but apparently Venus is hotter, at least according to our trivia host. I guess the atmosphere must trap heat, while Mercury is mostly barren rock. Who knew?

FlorAqua in Six Minutes

Before I get going with my post today, I want to say to all my commenters that I am reading every single one of your comments, and I apologize for not responding or acknowledging them individually. It's just too busy around here and I don't have internet unless I'm at Dunkin' Donuts! (Which, as Catalyst pointed out the other day, is now called just Dunkin'.) But by all means keep them coming, because they provide a little morsel of normalcy in this bizarre holiday season. (More on that in a moment.)

Yesterday my brother wanted to take his daughters to The Florida Aquarium, a somewhat exotic outing for them since they live in Jacksonville and don't get to visit it regularly. I'm not sure Jacksonville has anything comparable. And although I've been to the aquarium it's been at least a decade, if not two, so it sounded exotic to me too. Dave and I decided to tag along.

Here's my speedy (yet hopefully peaceful) six-minute version of our visit:

It's a little like a screen saver, isn't it? I don't know the names of all the fish, or didn't make note of them, but we start with an alligator snapping turtle from beneath, followed by a tank of long-nosed Florida gar, an alligator, an otter and a couple of roseate spoonbills. (The sound effects are from Apple, by the way -- I had to put new sound over the video or you'd just hear the racket of dozens of people talking. I used jungle sounds for the first segment, which covers birds and creatures of fresh-water wetlands, and then ocean waves for the rest.)

Other notable creatures include one of the luckiest spiny Florida lobsters in the world at 1:55; a couple of scorpionfish at 2:08; a tank of red-saddled anthias at 2:27, with a spotted garden eel watching cautiously from the sand; a big hogfish at 2:49; paddlefish at 3:42; archerfish at 3:59; and lionfish casting dramatic shadows at 4:52.

So it was a fun visit, and my brother heads back to Jacksonville with his family today.

Meanwhile, Dave agreed to cook last night for my stepsister, her husband and my stepmother. We stopped at Publix ("where shopping is a pleasure" -- really!) and picked up some ingredients for beef bourguignon, which he put together last night. It was delicious.

Unfortunately -- and this is where things get bizarre -- my 81-year-old stepmother has been showing signs of some health issues for the past several days. Last night it became apparent that she needed to see a doctor, and sooner rather than later. So right after dinner we popped her in the car and took her to the emergency room. She has been admitted to the hospital for some tests and treatments, so that has cast a bit of a pall over our remaining family togetherness. I got about four hours of sleep, I think -- partly owing to continuing jet-lag -- and my poor stepsister and her husband probably got even less.

I also heard that my New York photography pal Allan Ludwig has died, which I'm sorry about. He and I were part of a Flickr group that used to photograph graffiti and street art in New York City. My Flickr account is still full of pictures from that time, if you go back to its earliest years. Here's a photo from 2007 of some of our Flickr group, with Allan and me in the front row. I didn't know until I read his obituary that he'd written a Pulitzer-nominated book! Hidden talents are all around us.