Amusing Myself, or Really, Just Getting Out of the House!

The week began without Bruce, and the week continues without Bruce. What's a girl to do?

Late last week, I considered going to one of my favorite places, the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne. It's actually not in what I call Melbourne because it is only 56 miles away, instead of 70+, but they call it Melbourne, so I will too. Looking on their website, I discovered that on Tuesdays in September the admission is just $3.00, rather than the typical $16.95 for adults. Now that the kids are back in school it can't be too busy on Tuesday or so I thought. I soon discovered I was being seriously naive.

Before leaving I needed gas---lo and behold, check out the price!

Can you imagine? Before I go further, I wanted to mention that the big flag display I showed you from 9/11 last week, was completely removed by Sunday afternoon, surprising me as I thought they would keep it going until it looked crummy?

Anyway, attempting to connect the blue tooth in the car to my phone for music, I discovered I'd left my phone at home. Thankfully I was still within a mile, so no big deal. WELL, pulling up in my driveway, I noticed a fellow out front with this!

Hmmmm....never one to shy away from asking questions, I did just that. He told me he was using the drone to take aerial photos of Nadav and Crystal's house because they were putting it on the market!!!! Well that's just plain disappointing....

Once I arrived at the zoo, the parking lot was pure madness with people parking any place they could squeeze into. Lucky for me, someone was leaving, and I parked in the first row! So, a good start to my trip. As you can imagine, I took a whole lot of photographs which I've tried to edit judiciously. On my last visit, the zebras were shy guys, however, they seem to have adjusted to their environment and are easy to see.

The dark chocolate brown is just beautiful on this Grevy's Zebra. Adjacent to this area is the ever popular giraffe section. Seriously, are they magnificent creatures, or what?

I learned from one of the handy volunteers that in the spring two baby calves were born, one of whom now resides at the pathetic zoo in our area. I've mentioned before that there are five acres in which the five giraffes have to roam, along with impalas, whom are pretty beautiful themselves.

If you can believe it, and I was hard pressed to, the weather was not too hot, with a slight breeze which felt shocking after months of weather related misery. A high wooden platform allows you to walk out among the animals in the Africa area, as well as allowing you a good view of Lemur island. At first I could not see the Ring-Tailed Lemurs, however, after close inspection, I found them in the trees.

Before I go further, and excuse me if it is jarring, but I'll forget if I don't link to this here and now. A very brief, albeit incredible, video of a humpback whale and a couple in a kayak. Don't miss it!

Having been to the zoo multiple times I felt like I'd seen most of the animals before, however, this little guy stole my heart yesterday. I feel fairly confidant I'd not seen a Klipspringer before. 

Can we just all say...awww? 

No visit is complete without a photograph of the West African Crowned Cranes...gorgeous birds.

Onward to Australia to see the kangaroo and joey, except they were hiding, so I continued on until I came to the aviary. Happy to do so, I might add. The breeze I was so eager to share with you was not without a purpose....it began raining and I don't mean sprinkling. Fortunately I'd arrived in the aviary before the heavens opened because there was a little roof there to keep about twenty five of us sort of dry. 

It rained and rained..the cockateels were flying everywhere, the ducks were making a racket, as were the children, who, by the way, surprised me with their presence as I thought they would be in school. Perhaps they were being homeschooled? After a bit, the rain lessened, and I became restless, so I went into the next section; much to my great surprise, this bird, from the Turaco family, held quite still for a photograph. 

Talk about a beauty!! Under those violet wings there are red feathers which look downright amazing when they fly. Showing you what I mean, I'll include this very blurry shot. 

According to the Wikipedia article, linked above, the crimson feathers are highly prized by the Swazi and Zulu royal families. 

The rain continued, albeit softly, as I made my way into the Lorikeet feeding area, generally chock full of people, but hardly a soul during my visit. They are darn cute birds as well.

Soaking wet is what they were! As were the emus:

Taking a wrong turn on my way to see the Jaguars, I soon regretted it because once again the heavens opened, soaking yours truly to the skin before finding shelter! I'd been scurrying by most everything else because of the rain threat; finally, after it slowed down, I did the same, eventually finding what I was looking for. Absolutely worth the trip! More often than not it is hard to spot the big cats, but not this time. In fact, they were almost too close!

Yup, right up against the wall with the big glass for viewing. One cub stayed snuggled up with Mom, while another was but a few feet away. I suspect they were happier out of the rain, as was I. Lots of oohing and aahing by everyone who saw this sweet sight!

Finally, and I suspect you are having photo fatigue at this point, one last shot of one of my favorite birds, a Sandhill Crane. I've always loved the heart shape on their head....

Having just about all I could take of the rain, I decided it was time to make my leave. Generally I hate driving during massive storms so I was delighted that during the drive home it was, what is the opposite of massive?? Tolerable, that works.

Some big headaches for Bruce, along with some victories.....he is hanging in there, but he did tell me he was tired of eating out. I feel the same after a few days, don't you?

Keeping the home fires burning,

Gail

Home Alone

A little melodrama, re: the title, to get us started. Really, it is not so bad, but I sure do miss Bruce, especially when he decided to remain in DC until Saturday!! Much to his chagrin, there have been far too many unforeseen problems needing his attention. It is not the first time, although with any luck, it will be the last, primarily because his next job is here in Orlando! Just five and a half miles from home, no less.

So, I'm pretty much sick of summer. Same old, same old.

Most everyone feels the same when September rolls around because it is still hot/humid as the dickens and we don't want it to be. Humidity--big time! Why, some days, my glass doors do not lose their condensation until after 10 in the morning. We've not had a drop of rain, however, since Sunday afternoon, although the sky is cloudy now, just when Bill needs nothing of the sort as he is having some concrete poured around 2:00. Not only is he having a sidewalk poured alongside the house, he's having some planters filled that once were inside the pool screen enclosure, and of late, have housed only weeds.

The early week adventures have come to a halt, however, my dear friends have really helped me out by having me over for dinner two nights this week. Thank you, thank you.

Wednesday, David and I met with our accountant to discuss next year's tax burden and it could be worse. I invited Dave because he's our money manager, or at least the invested portion; then too, he can follow along better than I can. Long story short, it's going to be interesting.

Because I was in Winter Park, Trader Joe's was on my agenda. One thing they have for very reasonable prices are fresh flowers, and that day was no exception. I came home with some super fly orange Gerbera daisies. 10 stems for $5.00.

Aren't they super? Speaking of the grocery store, the other day I boiled some eggs for egg salad and once they were all peeled nicely, I lined them up to check the sizing. You know how when a recipe calls for a large egg and that is what you use. But seriously, as demonstrated below, not all large eggs are created equally.

See what I mean? I wonder how much difference it really makes when baking...

Clemons hooked me up with some multi-colored radishes!!

This is a first in my life....I take my excitement any way I can of late. :)

Here is a wonderful story for all my teacher friends. Simply amazing what an impact a teacher can make on a young student's life. I bet everyone reading this has one of those in their life, or so I hope. Susan Thigpen was mine, back when I was in the ninth grade at Howard. I wonder what happened to her.

My friend Sue is having her kitchen redone, and unlike us, she's getting all new cabinets, flooring, and a wall taken down. In other words, the works. Riding over the other morning for a status update, we talked out front and I could not help admire all of her blooming orchids, and there were a bunch.

The day I visited the cabinets still had not arrived, however, that has now been rectified, and things are moving along nicely.

Cheryle sent me a link to an article last week about purslane and how you can eat the stuff. The reason she did so is because last year, when I had it growing like a weed, she took some cuttings and now has plenty of her own. For the life of me, I find it difficult to imagine frying the stuff.

Or eating the flowers for that matter. I think I will content myself with enjoying the cute flowers and foliage in the garden.

Bruce is encouraging me to do a better job taking care of my camera equipment which is probably only fair. Finding this cute little bag from Jon and Alissa in my desk drawer, I'm going to do my best to use it for storing lenses. Time will tell now, won't it?

By the way, it is now pouring. Perhaps it will stop before two? I sure hope so!

Yesterday morning I finally took Baxter for a walk in Cypress Grove Park, the only place he really likes to do so. As I mentioned before, with all of the recent rains, everything is green, green, green.

Surprising me, he was a pretty good walker, at least until he got a little tired. Most of the time I forget he's getting older like we are. Twelve years old already. I ended up carrying him in order for him to catch his breath, however, once we reached the big open field I put him down because, generally he loves to run. And run he would have except the grass was nearly as tall as he is!

He's taking a little breather in the high grass which was also wet from the morning dew. I know my shoes got soaked, as did his little legs. Once home, for some reason I took ahold of a bowl I've kept on my kitchen window sill, rummaging through the contents. Was I ever delighted to discover two items that I thought I'd never find. Duh, I look at the bowl every single day! Anyway, one item was a watch, and the other was a replacement button for a blouse I purchaed in Brighton, England. The blouse is darn cute with bird cages and never fails to garner compliments. Unfortunately, one of the lower covered buttons fell off a few months ago. My plan was to remove the one at the collar to replace it with, however, now I don't have too!! Button sewn on this morning. Woo hoo!

My luck did not hold out with the watch, however. Figuring it was merely a dead battery, I took it, along with a couple other dead watches over to the clock guy I've seen more of than I would like. No problem, three new batteries, and I am off. This morning though, I put the lost/found watch on before going on my ride,  only to look down thirty minutes later, and notice that the time was as he set it the day before. I seriously loved that watch, so much so, that I drove over once again to see what was up. Here's what was up--the circuit board is dead. I asked him to throw it away for me because it was too painful to do so on my end. :(

Finally, and this will interest only a few of you, so you've been warned. Anyway, a few weeks ago while at the nail salon, Tina talked me into letting her paint my nails which is something I ordinarily shy away from. Not because I don't like it, but because what I don't like are nails with chipped polish. Well, lo and behold, that polish stayed looking pretty good for about five days. I discovered I kind of liked being a painted lady. While flipping through a Vogue magazine recently, I saw an ad for Essie top coat which promised to behave like gel nails. So, I went in search of it, finding a little combo pack of both the top coat and a bottle of polish named "Sunday Funday." Perfect! Except, it is not. Or to date it has not proven to be so. First day and I had a serious chip. Second day--more. Hmmm.....let's try this again now that I am confidant enough to polish my nails. Pretty much the same result. In other words, not the miracle cure I was hoping for. Still not ready to give up, I wondered if it were the Essie polish, and would another brand work better? Seriously, a science project going on around here. The other day I decided to try it with some Revlon polish I had in my little nail bag. Let's just say that painting with dark polish is quite the challenge for me. Here I am holding up a little piece of sea glass I keep in shell jar.

By golly, I'm several days in, and my nails, although too dark, are still looking mighty good. Stay tuned.....

Won't be long now,

Gail