Happy Easter

Resurrection Sunday....new life abounds. Everywhere you look there are signs of new life, whether it be flowers,

or baby birds.

The other day, Pam and ran an errand together. On our way home I asked her if she wanted to see the owl tree, and as anyone with good sense would answer, and believe me, she has good sense, she said yes. We were treated to a little ghost sighting. Doesn't it look like one? We also found this:

I'm not quite sure how this would have saved the owlet from falling out of the tree, but who am I to complain? The experience of watching what I have is one I will always cherish. My sources, via facebook, tell me the little ghost popped upstairs the other day! Here's hoping it will make it!

As we left, I marveled at how the algae is nearly covering Lake Greenwood, and then too, in keeping with our theme of new life, look at all this Spring green??

There is actually water under all the green, believe it, or not. I remember learning that although it looks pretty dire, the algae makes good food for Tilapia. You would think that the fish must eat a lot, or there are lots of them to eat all that algae! This world of ours is so filled with fascinating sights and ideas, that I am continually amazed at just how much I DON"T know about nature. As a young person I paid more attention to music and film stars, which no longer hold even the slightest bit of interest to me. Now I want to know more about how the world works, and I bet my science teacher friends are laughing at me as I've often told them how much I hate science!

No one can get enough of the yellow Tabebuia trees, or at least I can't. Sadly, the blooming season is nearly over.

The glowing yellow carpet of blooms looks wonderful on grass, and nearly as wonderful on brick.

In another week it will all be a memory of the spring of 2017.

Friday morning Bruce's Global Entry interview was scheduled for 8:15 in the morning, whereas mine was scheduled for 1:30 in the afternoon. Gathering our paperwork and passports we went together hoping they would do take care of both of us at the same time. The Global Entry program is intended to make the customs process much easier when crossing country borders at the airport as well as on land.

The agent agreed to do us both and the meeting turned somewhat interesting when I asked the agent how long he had been working with for the government. He went on a rant, his description, about all the negative changes he'd seen over his 30 year career. It seemed that I opened a can of worms just trying to be friendly! In any case, we were both approved so one more little task completed. :)

I don't know about you but I'm always seeing things on facebook that I've not thought, or heard about, before, one of which is the $10 lifetime National Park's pass for seniors. Why the heck not? As such, we drove to one of the only three National Parks in Florida, Canaveral National Seashore, late Saturday morning. Baxter came along to see how he would manage car travel as he'd never been in the car for more than 15 miles.

Along the way we learned a few things, like it would have been so much better had we thought to bring a water receptacle for him to drink from. All in all, he did just fine after Bruce cut off most of a water bottle leaving just the bottom for him to drink his water. Many parks do not allow pets, including Canaveral. Well, he could go on the boardwalk but not the beach.

All of last year I never once drove over to the beach, I'm almost ashamed to admit, so when I saw the gorgeous water I was absolutely thrilled. It was crazy windy with super rough waves and a shoreline full of seaweed.

Nonetheless, there were loads of folks enjoying the cool breezes and chilly blue green water. We merely gazed in wonderment..

We bought the pass at the gate and now we are set for our trip and any parks we come across. One that is very intriguing to me is the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado.  Who can imagine sand dunes 750 feet tall with snowy mountains in the background? I, for one, can't. Kings Canyon National Park looks very exciting as well. Then again, I hope I don't become too scared in those high mountains, being a Florida girl and all. !!!

We stopped by the visitor's center on the way home, mostly to see if they had any paper cups that we might use for Baxter. Affirmative on the cups as well as a little walk for me where I saw this turtle, an reptile that my sister Lisa is crazy about. See how I just threw that scientific term in there? I'm learning! Actually I thought they were amphibians but Google corrected me on that.

Titusville, the gateway to Canaveral, is a pretty depressing area these days but they do have some pretty cool motel signs, a symbol of their glorious past in the space industry.

Turns out that this place,

is a full on drive in where we ate lunch in our car, much to Baxter's chagrin.

In no time, following our return it was time to head to Lake Eola for the AIS walk. I asked B to take my photo in front of the ginormous tree for two reasons. One, because the tree trunk is massive and two because this is the dress I made a while ago out of the 1967 pattern that was missing a few pieces. I improvised the best I could but the fit is not so great. On the other hand, the weather was warm and it was so cool so there's that.

And why, pray tell, am I carrying a purse you ask? My camera and lens. Can't go anywhere without it! How else would I be able to take this shot during the walk?

We found our organizer who was manning the area with the AIDS quilts, part of this larger movement. So, before their were Pulse quilts, there were AIDS quilts.

A side note--this was the first time Bruce had been to Lake Eola since I quit selling photography there in August of 2015. It was kind of weird thinking about setting up there week after week for eight years. Never once, even when he had eight projects going, including six in California and two in Florida, did he ever complain about helping me on Sunday. Angela used to call time periods like that, seasons of life, and I think she had a point.

On the way home we stopped at the pet store just up the street from us to look into buying a travel bag for Baxter. We did not come home with anything except this photo of a cute little bunny which seems only fitting for Easter.

Adventures today that will have to wait for a few days to be blogged but a highlight was singing, Christ the Lord is Risen Today during the service. Imagine, it was written in 1739 and is still beloved in 2017!

yours truly,

Gail