"Winter" 2015 in Florida

As has been so for most of the Eastern US we have been experiencing record high temperatures almost since we arrived in mid-November. We don't associate temperatures in the 80's and 90's as high in general for FL, but in November and December it is unusual with records being set almost daily.

We are pretty much settled in again and are just enjoying the easy life. Our "garden" was in shambles when we arrived and we had a note from maintenance tucked inside the door handle that we needed weed whacking done to control the overgrowth of weeds and wild stuff!  Some of our plants did not survive our absence or were growing out of control. Our neighbor who lives and who has an extensive, head-turning display across the way offered to help with weeding and to look after the plants next year when we go back to PA. We accepted!

We remain in reasonably good health and so far have not had to visit the ER!

I have taken a few pictures, some of old subjects, and some of new ones.  I hope you will enjoy them.

First are a couple of our Hibiscus blossoms. They only last a day and we have many buds so our fertilizing and watering are beginning to show results.

And below is one of the plants from a gift Cathy got from the New Jersey Girls last year. We brought it with us and tended them until they got too big for indoors. We put them outside with mixed results. This is one of the successes!

Below is the neighbor's striking red Bougainvilla and one of her pink Hibiscus.

Our old friends the Sandhill Cranes are here too. Not sure if they are some of the babies we saw last year in the Spring.

Google won't allow me to turn this picture properly, so just use your imagination or turn your head!

Sandhill Cranes sharing a pond with a duck.

Our resident Gopher Tortoise whose burrow is at the rear corner of our lot seems larger this year.

Below is an up close and personal picture one of these ancient beings who thrive in this climate and not much anywhere else.

Cathy got a new Trike as we left her old one in Hershey so now she and Dixie are regulars on the myriad roads within this Preserve. This is a larger, Schwinn, model with 16-inch wheels. She says  it pedals easier than the smaller Kent model and she gets going with less effort.

And we had a pretty sunset a couple of nights ago  I thought you might enjoy it too!

That is all for this time. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my devoted followers. Thanks and all the best to you.

End of Summer 2015 at Hershey

As usual, I have been lax in keeping this blog up to date, but better late than never, here is an update of our comings and goings and a few recent pictures.
We are beginning to try and get organized for the trip to Florida for which we leave on October 25.  Our medical checkups went well in general but we did have a couple of unexpected surprises.

Cathy had another tumble, but this time from her trike about a month ago and felt a little sore, but thought it would pass. But it didn't. She awoke at 1:00 am about 3 weeks ago with intense pain in her side. So she had a ride in the ambulance to Hershey Medical Center where it was determined she had 5 cracked ribs this time!  So she has been on a regimen of pain killers and rest and is just now getting back to near normal.  To avoid a group of bikers coming toward her, she drove into a ditch that she did not see and that caused the tricycle to topple and dump her on her side. She has a followup appointment tomorrow with the Trauma Team.

We have both now met our new primary care doctor and we both like him so far.  He made some suggestions to Cathy to quit using extra vitamins and supplements she has been taking for years. His reasoning is the Centrum Silver we take has all the needed vitamins and in the proper dosages. The extras only create "expensive urine". She does continue with Calcium and Vitamin D3 as a consequence of her osteopenia.

Larry has been having pains in his left shoulder such that he was unable to sleep in bed but only in the recliner which allowed his arm to be elevated.  Dr. Riley ordered an x-ray which revealed good old ArthurItis! He scheduled an ultrasound guided steroid injection which was done last Thursday. The pain is greatly reduced and he is sleeping in the bed again!

We are watching the progress of the flood waters in South Carolina as our planned route takes us through Columbia with an overnight stop there. Hopefully the Interstates will not be affected too long and we can proceed as planned.

We are waiting for the RV Techs to come and set this Fifth Wheel Camper on concrete blocks to reduce the shake and wobble we get when walking around. It results because the unit is resting on the tires so blocking it off the tires should stop the rock and roll.

So on to the pictures. We had a nice day to take our annual "Family" pictures and so I will post those first.

Here we have the happy senior citizens standing

just in back of their summer digs.

The children, Laura, Kendalyn and Randy. 

Hydro is well behaved and got in the photo.

Laura and Kendalyn who is in the 7th grade this year. 

Below is her First Day in 7th Grade Photo.

Randy and Hydro

Dixie loves to look out the window toward the lake

And at the end of a hard day of vigilance, this is her favorite pose!

We took a day trip to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area about 20 miles from us. It is famous for its over wintering flocks of Snow Geese and other migratory birds. In recent years as many as 100,000 snow geese, 10,00 tundra swans, 10,000 Canada geese, and a wide variety of ducks have stopped at Middle Creek en route to their breeding grounds to the north.  But in late summer there are only a handful of resident birds.

Above is an Egret hunting the shallows for lunch and below is a Great Blue Heron doing much the same.

Closer to home we have been enjoying smaller birds at our feeders. By now the Hummingbirds have departed, but the finches, chickadees and tufted titmouse and  nuthatches are still greedily eating all we put out. 

The Downy Woodpecker is a frequent visitor too and seems to think the dead branch I erected as a perch for photos is a good source of bugs!

The Downy also digs for sunflower seeds in the feeder.

The American Goldfinch is always stunning to see in the sunlight.

A local House Spider constructed this web on our awning supports and I was able to get this amazing picture! And below is the constructor in chief. We had to put the awning up in a recent storm and so this is all gone now.

Well that is about all I have for now. Probably the next post I make will be after we get settled in in Orlando early next month.  Thanks for looking!

For the Birds - Hershey July 2015

Backyard Birds at our feeders have given us many hours of enjoyment. Here are a few pictures for you followers.

We also were visited by Randy's friends Sean and Annie Huff and their son Jordan on July 12. I have included a couple pictures of them too.

The Killdeer pair attended their nest and 4 eggs from June 3 to June 29 - 30 when they hatched. Two hatched each day.  Above you can see two newborns and the adult. One baby is just at the adult's tail and the other is slightly below the weed clump in the lower right corner.

And here is a young one exploring later in the day. By July 1, they were all gone!

Whass up? Female Goldfinch and House Finch share lunch.

Male Goldfinch color is so vivid in the afternoon sun.

Female Goldfinch

Lots of House sparrows visit.

I think this is a juvenile Red-bellied Woodpecker. That elongated hole in the tree must  have something tasty and this bird spent a lot of time leaning in.

Five baby Mallards and their Mom came by to gather up seeds that had fallen from the feeder. Another Mallard was in the area and threatened these little ones, so they stayed put while Mom fought off the interloper!

Another local native also comes to clean up the scraps.

Cathy's Mother's Day hanging basket continues to flower here and below.

Randy and Sean have been friends since their College Days at Shippensburg University. Sean and Annie live in New Cumberland PA, so they are able to get together regularly. The boys go fishing for a week in New York near the St. Lawrence River every year.

Cathy had made some activities for Jordan, but he had missed his nap and had a very short attention span. Dixie can't understand why she is not the center of attention.

The Huffs are expecting their second child in September or October, so Cathy has more knitting projects to plan!

They walked over to the play area where Jordan got to ride the Chipmunk. 

Later that evening we got a call from Randy who said that Jordan was sound asleep before they got to US 322, about 1 mile from the entrance to Thousand Trails!

That is all for this time.  Thanks for looking.

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PS.

What are you lookin' at?

These are for our loyal follower in in Owings Mills MD in lieu of pictures of Dixie. Above, in a not too flattering pose, and below, more formally, is our Marmalade who was with us for about 21 years and went to her greater reward a few months before we started our travels.

Meow!

Killdeer News from Hershey PA

Killdeer Nest Just Outside our Door

Toward the end of May, we noticed a pair of Killdeers spending a lot of time in the vacant site next to ours. By June 3 it was clear the pair had mated and a crude nest with two well camouflaged eggs was present.

Then, 3 days later we saw two additional eggs in the nest and the watch was on!

And the adults began attending to their duties which at first was simply sitting on the eggs to hatch them. I did a little reading online and learned they normally lay 2 to 4 eggs and it will take 21 to 28 days for them to hatch.

They have been called upon to ward off any and all who would dare come close to the nest.  Here, both parents enter the fray to discourage a squirrel that has ventured too close! The "nest" is that small clutch of tan weeds just over the tail of the bird near the top of the photo.

The classic ploy of feigning an injured wing was employed to lure intruders away.

We have seen them fuss when humans venture too close or when the lawn mowers enter the site. We watched them fend off a family of Canada Geese which were attracted to the fallout from the bird feeder. And they will rush at any other dove or grackle they sense as a danger.

It has been an interesting couple of weeks and we still have about the same time to wait until the chicks are hatched.

A Snapping Turtle emerged from the lake and scuffed the soil behind our site. I assume it, too, was preparing a nest and laying her eggs. The young should hatch 80 to 90 days to hatch according to the DEP website.  I found this tidbit interesting, "Snapping turtles have temperature-dependent sex determination. Eggs maintained at 68°F produce only females; eggs maintained at 70-72°F produce both male and female turtles; and those incubated at 73-75°F produce only males."

Here is a closeup of this pre-historic looking creature.

Then there is this creature who spends a lot of her days in positions similar to these!  Dixie is lots of fun and is popular in the park because of her twice daily jaunts leading Cathy on her tricycle. They both get to meet just about everybody!

Dixie's favorite position to play with a squeak toy is on her back.

Just resting, but fully aware!

Zonked out! This is a favorite position for sleeping.

That is all for this time. Keep watching for updates on fledgling Killdeer and other interesting sights we encounter.