Florida

My first alligator in the wild. Definitely taken with the telephoto lens.

Not so wild alligator held by "Dad Dundee."  Advice given by #1 son, "now you need to get him a real knife." Name that movie.

This is how I spent one day. I have the peeling sunburn to prove it.

The requisite photo of me in the Gulf of Mexico. I say requisite because every time we visit a new place, whatever body of water happens to be closest, I get a photo of my tootsies in the water. I have photos of me soaking my toes in the Mediterrean Sea and the Tagus River, to name a few.

BTW-the water is incredibly warm! Being used to the freezing Pacific waves (or not-I hardly venture in farther than my ankles), I was absolutely amazed. The sandy beaches are white, white, white. It is gorgeous.

Up close and personal, with the Everglades!

In our personal airboat. FUN! The guides on these airboats are native born Evergladians (is that a word) and they are CRAZY.

If you see a floating log on a river, it's probably an alligator....

More wildlife. This is a panther. There are signs all over the highways that say, "panther crossing." There are signs on the water that say "manatee crossing."  It seems there is plenty of wildlife crossing everywhere. One more reason I don't want to live in Florida.

For Jessica-this was one event we attended at a wildlife zoo with GINORMOUS tents and delicious food.

We were so lonely for our kids, we adopted a cute couple from California.  We were out in the Everglades again. (ghastly picture of "mom & dad"!)

This was a TOTAL blast. I want one! It was really scary getting used to it at first because you use your weight to start and stop, but once we got the hang of it, I didn't want to get off. We cruised the streets of Naples on these.

And so I'll end my post with a nice Florida sunset.....

Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.
We have plenty of golf courses, retirement homes, snowbirds, palm trees, sunshine and beautiful sunsets here.
Minus the humidity......

Tap, tap, tap, are you in there? or How we Celebrated the Royal Wedding

Yup, I've been absent. I've been SUPER busy doing things, you know, like picking my sunburn and scratching my Florida bug bites. Important things like that. you know.

So I thought I would return by sharing EXACTLY what I did during the Royal Wedding last week.

Snuggling with grandbaby #11!!! Not sure if his parents want his name revealed on line but he arrived safe and sound, all 8 pounds even of him!

Actually I watched the royal wedding live, as I was fretting and waiting for the phone call to come to the hospital. We had gotten the call the night before that mama was in labor, so I was ready and waiting, but didn't get the call until early the next morning that the event was imminent.

Therefore, I watched the regal event live, with half closed eyeballs, knowing that I was recording it for my posterity to be watched at a more reasonable hour.

After we gooed and snuggled and I dashed home, which seemed to be filled with 500 children, including the siblings of sweet baby, not really 500.  The doorbell rang and to my amazement this person was at my door...

Ready and prepped to watch the big event. Under no circumstances was I allowed to reveal any details of the wedding, INCLUDING, the Dress.

My Anglophile child arrived, prepared and ready for "tea" in her borrowed antique Mini Cooper. She was dressed appropriately for the occasion, including the required hat.

So I'll end my silence with a couple more photos of sweet baby boy, taken yesterday.

He's so squishy and snuggly and lovely!

And I think he loves his Grandma!!

Edit-After re-reading this post, I realize it sounds slightly incoherent and disjointed. I'm blaming my middle aged brain.

Headed East

So in a couple of days, TL & I are headed off to the beach, except we're not going west this time, we're going east, as in Florida gulf coast east.

I've never been there. Even though we don't live in a cold climate, I'm looking forward to a little R&R on the beach-with my new book-and the extra humidity that my desert-parched dry skin will soak up.

There may be posts, sans photos, since my portable electronic devices won't do that (or at least I don't know how to add them)

Bon voyage......

Transitions

We have been transitioning the garden this past few weeks. Around here, I grow cool season veggies in the fall/winter/early spring. That means that my little pea-pickers here had their last harvest.

Conference weekend.

The plants are starting to turn brown so I've spent some time yanking them out and I'm waiting for the big guns (hubby) to dig up the soil and plant me some watermelons and cantaloupes.

Oh happy day-the seeds have sprouted!   Squash....

I see a little roma peeking out!

My daily battle with seedlings-it's me or the birds!  The green beans are under their protective cages.

The cukes! I'm anticipating a good harvest for my green smoothies! (this is a never ending hope-I've never had much success with cucumbers-only the crazy long Armenian ones. Trying a new variety this year-cross yer fingers!)

Good luck all you northerners in your upcoming garden endeavors! We had a taste of summer last week-our first 100 degrees....so the rest isn't far behind.....ug

Some transitions I'm not looking forward to......

Just do the Best You Can

This is gut-busting, laugh-out-loud funny. My interpretation of this for me is to Just do the Best you Can! Have a great day!

Peas Please

I picked a HUGE bowl of peas a couple of days ago. To the tune of 5 pounds +.

And here's a wide shot of the rest of them that are languishing in the refrigerator.

Peas porridge hot,

Peas porridge cold,

Peas porridge in the pot,

Nine days old....

(a childhood memory)

It's time to freeze peas!
I feel really sorry for my grandmothers who had to slave and slave to preserve the fruits of their labors so that they could eat all winter. If we had to eat exclusively out of our garden, we would probably starve!

But I learned a few tricks to keep the harvest coming. This works with peas and beans too.
The secret:  You have to pick them regularly.
I don't know if it tricks the plant into producing more flowers, a botanist I am not.
But I usually pick about every other day, and they keep coming!
The little suckers are sneaky though, they are hard to see sometimes and I can miss one and go back a few days later and it's a little "overripe."

So pardon me while I crank up the steamer-
And preserve me a little peas.......

This is NO Joke!

Looks like milk!

Rich and creamy like whole milk!

Makes a milk mustache like milk!

But it's cashew milk!
I've wanted to try this for awhile and because I had a willing guinea pig, we whipped some up.
The verdict:  It's really good, it doesn't taste like cow's milk, but it's very rich tasting and yummy.
My next experiment is to make some yogurt with it-totally dairy free.

If you are off dairy, give it a try, it's super easy.  Here's the link to watch a video on how to make it.
The Spunky Coconut