An Easter to Remember

I put on a nice dress this morning to watch church on YouTube, but I stopped short of putting on makeup. Instead of our usual seats for watching television, me in one of the "thrones" and Bruce on the couch, we sat side by side as if we were in church. Bruce chuckled as I sang along and recited the Lord's prayer, however, I wanted as authentic of an experience as I could have. Previously they've been doing a live stream which worked some of the time leading me to mostly skip it. This time, however, it went off mostly without a hitch. Not the same as being there, but definitely better than nothing, as so many people worldwide are discovering. Interestingly enough, our pastor mentioned that there have been more views online than people who actually attend in person. Hard to know where all this will lead us in the future, that is for sure.

Another otherworldly experience is happening as I type. Our son Matthew spent time while at FSU, more than twenty years ago, as a disc jockey on the college radio station. As I recall it was a number of years, beginning with the very, very, late night shift. In a sign of the times, there was a need to keep the radio station going so V.89 alumni are filling in. Well, Matt pre-recorded his three hour segment, Legacies, last week in London, and I'm listening to it now. Here. Surreal, as is most of what is happening in March/April 2020.

What better way to celebrate and acknowledge the message of Easter than new life?

Yesterday morning Bruce went fishing on the big lake while I took a long walk at Lake Davis where the sight of a large swan family brought me joy. Perhaps you remember the drama of last summer when there was a big fight between the male swans from Lake Davis and Lake Cherokee? Then, in the Fall, a swan was hit by a car leaving only one in Lake Davis. Well, I'm unclear where the new one came from, but they found each other and there are five cygnets that will be fun to watch grow up.

Amazingly, there were no ducklings in spite of loads and loads of ducks. What is so shocking about that is that we have not one, not two, but three sets on our lake! Naturally I cannot stop myself from photographing them every single day.

Rest assured, the other six were resting nearby. You can stand right next to them and they are oblivious, or maybe just realize we are not threat.

Do you see them on the shore? While all of the news is Covid-19 related, another big story here is the drought we are experiencing. Normally the water goes all the way to the grass line. So way down.
However, the low water level is even more dramatic at Lake Davis....oh my!

All of this is normally underwater! So, I saw no ducklings, but I did see an Ibis without a foot!

Poor thing, it was hopping around. This is not the first time I've seen a large bird missing a foot, once it was a Sand Hill crane. You have to wonder what happens to them to lose a foot, don't you? Ah, the mysteries of life, one of which is this virus that has done so much damage to so many. In Florida, so far, we have not experienced the large number of deaths as has occurred in some of the other states. Currently we are ranked 9th with 446 deaths, although that number may go up, for now it is not nearly as dire as predicted in our area. Time will tell, as it always does.

A few weeks ago I promised Fallon I would make a Lemon Blueberry cake for her, so after finally getting enough blueberries, I set to work, making a somewhat complicated version rather than my normal recipe. All ready to put into the greased springform pan. So far, so good, except, wait a minute.....this is not a 9" pan, it is 12"! In fact, I don't even own that pan size, so now what? A square pan was the solution. What a mess I'd made!

Nevertheless, these are times for improvising; all was well, that ended well.

I've also spent time this past week working on a jigsaw puzzle, finally finishing, and realizing one of the pieces was missing. Drat!

I circled the area on the paper that comes with it, mentioning the piece was missing so the next person doesn't go crazy looking for it!

Several weeks ago I received my quarterly check from my publisher and it has been sitting on my desk, so we finally took it to the bank, using the ATM. Located on Orange Avenue, we went about 10 in the morning and as might be expected, the road was very empty.

There is a mobile sign on the left side of the image with quarantine information on it in flashing lights. The sign reminded folks that there is to be no one out after 11PM. From there we made our way over to Cypress Grove Park for a walk, and there were loads of folks, social distancing of course, doing the same, although the park is so large we were never close to anyone. In another sign of the times,

placed in front of the playground which was all wrapped up.

Adding insult to injury, as my late Mother would say, this is the time of the year when our weather is the best, so getting out now is ideal. In other parts of the world they are just beginning to see a glimmer of hope that warmer weather is coming. We, on the other hand, are dreading the same.

Visiting this park always brings back fond memories of Baxter who loved coming here, fairly jumping out of the car when I opened the door. If you remember how small he was, that was not a good thing!

After two times walking around Lake Davis, I headed to Lake Cherokee, wondering about the bird population there. One swan and one Great Blue Heron is all I saw, but on my way back to Lake Davis I did notice that one of the most beautiful homes in Orlando is for sale in case you are feeling very flush.

In spite of walking by this very same tree countless times, it was the first time I noticed how unusual it is. Imagine two trunks from the same tree, joining about ten feet above ground. The wonder and beauty of nature is what keeps me sane.

I did not know what to make of this when I came across these folks, although they are respecting the distance rule, hmmm.....lots more down the sidewalk taking a class.

That said, it is hard to know how to interpret all of the new rules. That said, if you completely stay home there is nothing to confuse a person, right?

The fragrance queen of flowers, Gardenias are in bloom in many parts of the landscape here, including this bunch that I picked beside our building. It's a shame to think that they will just fall to the ground with no one even seeing them.

Seeing the sky during a recent dusk made me think of being bruised. From there I thought we all feel a little beat up right now, don't we? Or is that too far of a stretch? Probably. I'm far better at documenting than I am philosophizing. Agreed?

People have said, Happy Easter, and I'm guilty of the same, but has this been a Happy Easter? I'd say yes, different, but just like the Ibis pictured above, we adapt and make the best of the situation.

So that is my wish for you....

your friend,

Gail