Lesser Summer

Everyone feels the excitement in the air, or a better way to describe it might be, drier air because my friends, we have finally reached the date of what I like to call "lesser summer". Yup, in most parts of the country,  when late September arrives, it is called Autumn or Fall depending on where you come from, but around here when the weather app on your phone shows high 80's for the next ten days, well we know that lesser summer has arrived.  And not a moment too soon as far as I'm concerned! 

Having said that, after spending the better part of summer indoors, I should be the last person to complain. But with the changing seasons, I, too, have been changing. If you know me well, you know that I love watches, specifically the Skagen brand, and after not being comfortable with anything on my wrist for nearly six months, I've begun wearing my watches again, making me very happy indeed. As well, I've been getting out more such as Tuesday morning when I hopped in the MINI early to photograph the cows on Judge Road. Exciting stuff, eh? 

For me, I just like to document Orlando before it is completely covered in concrete. As you take this shortcut to the Beachline or airport, there is a large undeveloped piece of land on the North side of the road where cattle usually run free. Instead, the normal area is now for sale, and they seemed to have been moved to a new pasture.

Seemingly not for long though as this is also happening on that stretch of road.

Following that up with a stop in another pasture area on Conway Road where I came across two donkeys,

along with a small horse of some kind.

It was a little smaller than the donkeys, with a mane completely covering his face.  Any ideas?

Filing under the category of everything having a silver lining,  rain poured on the night of the Harvest Moon, however, with the big tree now gone, I saw it before dawn from the front porch.

Not that we like the tree being gone, but looking for the good in everything sure helps keep a person on the right track mentally.

Speaking of looking for good, there is nothing good to say about Neil dying from Covid last Friday.  While it is true vaccinated people are getting Covid, the chance of serious illness seems to be small as was the case with David who is now perfectly fine. Amazingly, Michelle remained virus free. Talking to Patti the other day I said, imagine this: "You and I are having a conversation on our front porch and you are perfectly healthy but unvaccinated. (she is) Three weeks later, after suffering horribly, you are dead." That was Neil in a nutshell. His family now joins 53,000 other Florida families mourning the loss of a loved one to Covid. For now the cases are going down, thank God, for how long is anyone's guess.

Not only am I now wearing a watch again, I am sewing as well. Because my left hand still is not perfect, some motions are difficult but, by now, we all remember the mantra...motion is lotion!

The dress making went smoothly enough, however my attempt at making a little pouch went awry. Quite a number of years ago, I came across an estate sale, while on my bicycle one day, that was a sewist dream come true. Especially if said sewist loves vintage anything. By golly, here is the post from 2014 detailing that find.  Remembering that I'd purchased a bunch of zippers, I found the perfect match for the estate sale Lily Pulitzer fabric. Woo hoo. The peacock blue zipper was far too long so I cut it to size. All going well so far, until, like a dummy, I unzipped it to make the other side of the pouch, pulling it right off the tape because I forgot there was no stop any longer!!!

For anyone who has a curious mind, here's a bit of history on the zipper, specifically Talon zippers, the above which was from 1970. Imagine, it was packaged for 51 years and then I went and ruined it!! Try as he might, Bruce could not get the tab back on. Boo hoo! Fortunately, thanks to the woman who collected more sewing supplies than anyone could ever use,  there are more zippers where that came from. 

Bruce has continued helping Mary this week, putting in shelves and hanging her beloved stained glass panels in her kitchen window that required him to scrape the popcorn ceiling off, followed by installing a piece of wood to screw into. How exciting that the existing window seat cushion matches them beautifully.

Yesterday morning Bruce and I went to Demetree Park where I feel very comfortable walking on the wide sidewalks that ring the small lake. In a nod to the changing season, the Cypress trees are beginning to change color.

It is a very quiet park with the lake one of the ones that the city of Orlando stocks with fish, thus, while I walked, Bruce tried his hand at a little fishing.

While standing on the dock I could see him waving me over and wondering what he wanted I moved as quickly as possible. Good call Mr. Peck.

In one backyard that abuts the park property, they have chickens and a very loud rooster.

As we were returning from a visit to the other small lake adjoining the property, we found more ducklings in standing water amongst the Cypress trees.

I had to wonder what that mother duck thinks of her lone yellow duckling. Isn't it a cutie? Of all things, returning to the car, I heard a bird noise, looked up and there was Pileated Woodpecker doing what woodpeckers do, this time on a telephone pole. 

Eventually it moved around the pole and I was able to witness how they hang on with pretty darn big feet and claws.

Because the weather was fine (!), we drove over to nearby Lake Underhill park, another stocked lake near Bill and Fallon's house. 

As young people we used to swim in this lake on hot summer days before air conditioning, not to mention the addition of a highway running right through it! Standing on one of the two docks, I saw some young Gallinules with their parents swimming in, what to our eye looked to be icky water. Darn folks for throwing trash in the lakes! This little one came across the floating bottle nosing it forward before swimming around it.

From there it was but a short drive to Joe Kittinger Park on Crystal Lake, a small park we've driven by countless times without visiting. 

In the shadows of the 408 highway, the park is a tribute to Viet Nam war veterans with this fighter plane having been used and piloted in Viet Nam by Colonel Joe Kittinger. As is so often the case, every place we visit has something new and unexpected, in this case loads and loads of dragonflies. Just as we were nearing the car to leave, several were perched in the bare trees. 

I've seen blue, pink and green dragonflies before, but never one like this. Thank you Google because now I know this one is called a Red Saddleback Dragonfly. Super neat, right? 

In other news, I've returned to pickleball wearing my old shoes that served me well before I bought the new pair that, well, we all know what happened while wearing them. David urged me to throw them in the dumpster right away, although since they are new I thought about donating them to Goodwill. Aghast, he said, "do you want to give someone else bad karma?" Perhaps he has a good point. 

This morning I played with these ladies who are graciously putting up with my new learning curve!

your friend,

Gail