Heading home

After 3 great months in Florida we had to pack up and head North.
Linda, our wonderful neighbor, did not want us to go and let us know it.
Have a great summer Linda and Harry - we'll be back!

Happy Easter!

To everyone back home - have a great Easter. Looking forward to seeing y'all soon!

Canada vs. U.S.A.

When we heard that our friends Kay, Chris, Nancy and Carol won first place in this year's TGO bowling league Del thought it was a good idea to challenge them to a game.
What was he thinking??? Del and Olivier hadn't played in over 30 years, I never played 10 pin and Kathy's team finished somewhere near last place.
Kay and Chris decided to turn the evening into a Canada vs. US event (even though Kathy on our team is from Maryland) and their fans showed up all wearing red white and blue and waving US flags. We were grateful when our friends Peter and Mary showed up to cheer for our team (even though Peter left early after I accidentally almost hit him with my ball- honestly Peter - it just slipped!!).
Needless to say we came in a solid second in both our games but a good time was had by all and we agreed to a re-match next year.

The Wetlands

This is our 3rd year staying at The Great Outdoors and we never realized until a few days ago that just a few yards away from our place is the entrance to The Wetlands, a beautiful nature trail with all kinds of animals living in their natural habitat.
Maybe the fact that the water treatment facility is closeby was a deterent ( a little smelly at times!) but the wind was blowing in the right direction today so we decided to chance it.

Leftovers

As we are preparing to close up here and head North we are trying to use up and give away the leftover food. Getting rid of the leftover bread was easy enough though. We try to feed the Sandcrane family everyday now and look how the twins are growing!

Preparing for Easter

It's getting close to Easter and everything that doesn't move around here is getting decorated for the occasion including these rocks!
Happy Easter Everyone!

The view from our backyard

Last night an Atlas V rocket was launched at 8:31 pm. Now in orbit, it will it will improve the communications capability for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now that's a noble mission!

Happy Birthday

Another TGO pork BBQ was the perfect way for us to celebrate the birthday of our friend Therese. Paul invited us back to their place for cake but after everthing they have been through, Ron and Maureen seemed happier to celebrate with Irish Cream!
And not to forget the people back home- all of us here wish Tina a very Happy Birthday today!

Out of Focus!

When Ron and Maureen said they would stop by on there way home to Kitchner we thought it was a great idea and were certainly looking forward to it. However, when a car literally came flying at them from the other side of the median we knew that fate had other ideas!
Thankfully they were not hurt but they are left out of Focus - Ford Focus that is. They still managed to come for dinner after their car was towed to Titusville and we have been eating well ever since!
Their plans are still unknown - all in the hands of an insurance adjustor who hasn't shown up yet. But as I am writing this Olivier (the shrewd negotiator) is with Ron at the Ford dealership.
They told us things being the way they are down here, they are practically giving the cars away- yeah, right!

Boom Boom and she's back!

We heard the sonic boom and knew we had exactly 3 minutes to get the camera pointed up to try a catch Discovery's return.
We were lucky to get these 2 shots - she comes in really fast!
Welcome home Discovery

Twins

We were happy to see that another family of sand cranes moved into our area with twin chicks.
We were also happy to notice this turtle on the side of the water which looks like the same burned turtle Olivier 'rescued' a few days ago - what do you think?

Fun Fair and Merry Christmas

Yesterday was the TGO's annual Fun Fair - yeah that's right- bringing out the county's bomb squad, kids holding boa constrictors and men cuddling gator's is the TGO's idea of 'fun'.
Actually, I'm kidding- there was a lot of other stuff going on but we were having so much fun doing that stuff I forgot to take pictures!
Later we went to the next town over from Titusville called Christmas for their annual Bluegrass Festival and BBQ- that was fun too - and delicious!

Mating season

I know I have a lot of gator pictures on this Blog but it is mating season now and they are everywhere.
The two little guys in the first picture keeping getting closer to each other everytime we pass by but this big guy with his teeth showing is apparently still searching for his soulmate (we were told that a gator's mouth open like that is a mating call - who knows). I'll drive by later and let you know how he made out (no pun intended!).

Lazy hazy days of...........March!

It seems the heat and lack of rain is getting to everyone around here!

Rubber duckies!

Olivier just reminded me there is actually some wildlife around here I like- somebody with a pretty good sense of humour placed these duck decoys in the lake at the front of the TGO and then someone else with a better sense of humour added the rubber duckies. These days that water is actually warm enough to bathe in!!!!

Now what!

Okay, so I'm getting used to the aligators, and maybe even the geckos, but now look what Olivier found on the road near our house. We were 'happy' to learn from the guys collecting the trash that not only was he not poisonous, he was 'probably' dead.

Finally!

After months of problems and delays, the shuttle finally was launched last night. For us it was a 3rd chance to see this spectacular sight. Last year we were lucky enough to experience a daytime launch of Atlantis, then a month later a nighttime launch of Endeavour and then last night a launch at dusk of Discovery(7:43 pm).
Godspeed Discovery and we will see you in 11 days!
P.S. to Sylvain - it only took us 1 1/2 hours to get home - Del found another shortcut!!

Geico (or gecko)

Obviously I love being in Florida for the winter months but one of the things I can live without is these darn little geckos which are everywhere in this scorching heat.
This one seems to have made a home in our screened in porch and won't leave. Olivier thinks if we buy some insurance from him he might go away! I think he's been watching too many TV commercials but I'm willing to give it a try.

A few updates

Just wanted to update everyone on a couple of things.
As you can see, even though we haven't had any rain the underbrush seems to be growing back already- I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
We found this poor little turtle on the trail and even though he looks severely burned and injured he is definitely alive and moving around. Olivier helped ease him into the water a few minutes after we took this picture.
Our baby sandcrane is doing well. Check out my Feb 25 post and you can see how much s(he)'s grown!

Just for Guy!

See Guy - Joanne didn't forget you!

Good news, bad news

The good news is that it has been sunny and very hot for the past 2 weeks, the bad news is that it has been sunny and very hot for the last 2 weeks!
That is bad news because as a result of this extremely hot, dry weather brush fires have been breaking out all over central Florida. This picture shows the smoke 3 days after a fire that destroyed over 250 acres about 10 to 15 miles from here. No rain in the forecast for the next 5 days either.
Another sad, but unrelated bit of news-tonight's scheduled launch of Discovery has been scrubbed because of some kind of leak. Hopefully they will try again tomorrow.

Shopping in Cocoa Beach

Cocoa Beach has some great shopping with lots of quaint little artisan shops.
Joanne and I will be pleased to model the jewellery we bought ( for ourselves!) when we get home.