Yet Another Camera

As if I don't have enough of them on my table right now! Bruce was looking for something in his old work bag and found a point and shoot Panasonic camera, one made in Japan before all of the manufacturing went to China.  Just like the original camera he gave me for Christmas back in 2006! Actually not just like it because we knew it was newer than that, just how new was the question. 

Looks like it is brand new, right? It was hard to know because, try as he might, he could not find the battery charger, however, with the magic that is Amazon, I was able to order a suitable battery charger. About four days later it arrived, and it was time to see what we could see.

For starters, it was made in 2011, so despite its advanced age, because Mr. Peck is far more careful with his gear than his wife is, you would never know that it is 11 years old. Secondly, post-full charge, we were treated to some fun photos from a long time ago, beginning with ones Bruce took of his Yardhouse project in South Beach. There was a photo of our living room when the thrones were new. If you are new to this space, the thrones are the brown and white chairs that I just had re-done.

Gosh I wonder what I did with that rug I loved so much! Along with the above photo was one of the sunroom where Bruce had his desk. Looking back at it now, I can't believe that he let me paint it that color scheme. Seriously, not one of my best ideas.

The shed that Bruce built without plans, just an idea in his head. He and Bill beat up a concrete driveway in the front yard leading to the adjacent gate and turned it into a floor.

So many, many projects over the years that we did to make that house our home. On occasion, I miss the yard, but then I remember just how much work it all was. The pool too! The giant palms were always dropping seed pods that ended up in the pool cleaner.

Bruce is still at it, working on Bill's house. Talk about so many projects! The latest of which is the new fence that he and Bill worked on together. It is 96' feet of board-on-board and way more work than it looks. Over the years of working together on his house, Bill has learned a lot from his Dad, one thing of which is when to let Dad take over as he is here, making cuts in the fence to house landscape lighting. I will say that Bill did a whole bunch by himself, including all of the painting beforehand. He used his birthday money to buy the paint. Have you seen how much paint costs these days? As with everything else, the price is shocking.

The hours Bruce has spent working on that house are likely more than he had time to do on ours because he was always working, working, working. More often than not, that meant 80-90 hours of week, much of it out of town, getting up crazy early for flights all over the country. Thus, retirement is sweet for Bruce. Finally he gets to pick and choose what projects he works on! Hurray!

That said, his work life has made our retired life comfortable, so neither of us have any complaints. A crazy thing happened recently involving a letter that came in the mail. Said letter was cryptic to our eyes, but after a phone call he learned that we have nearly $40,000 for health care costs, including our Medicare Part B, that we knew nothing about. Now that was the very definition of a surprise. 

So, back to the baby camera....it works beautifully! Super convenient to carry around in my purse just as I did with my original camera. I took it the courts the other morning and was delighted with the results. A few weeks ago a new friend, Shirley, gave me the History of Pickleball to read. Wait, I've already told you that, but I did not show you what the cover looks like.

The paddles were originally made of plywood in a garage, whereas now paddles can cost over $300! For the record ours are not that expensive, but you get the idea. In a crazy happening, one of the women pictured in the above book has begun playing with us while she is in Orlando. She knew the founders and played on the original court in Bainbridge Island, Washington. 

Trying out my newest/old camera. Technically it is Bruce's old work camera, but what is mine is his, and the other way around!

I took it down to the lakeside pool to check out the absence of a huge oak that was taken down last week, adjacent to the fountain.

I am mourning the loss of that oak tree which provided a bit of shade during parts of the day. Once a large limb fell down, it was determined that the tree was not safe, and when you live in a community you just have to accept that things will happen that you don't like.

It also came along when we went to Lake Davis to check on the cygnets. We were not disappointed, although it is somewhat surprising that there are only two, albeit a very cute two.

Here's a close up of their cute faces.  (not taken with the baby)

On the other hand, this one of these ducklings was taken with the baby camera.

The moral of the story is the best camera is the one you have with you, something I learned a long time ago that most people have now discovered with the advances in mobile phone cameras. 

From there we drove over to the nearby wetlands park looking for more ducklings. We came up empty in that department, but we did see something very curious. From afar I thought the heart was carved into the tree, 

however, on closer inspection, 

but of course, it is a cat burial site! Not something one comes across everyday in a public park.

Usually once a week Bruce meets our friend Keith for lunch at Johnny's Otherside near the house, located on the corner of Michigan and Ferncreek. It's been a while since I was there; Friday I joined them  and was surprised at how much they had updated the place with new paint colors on the outside,

and on the inside. It's a popular local restaurant that is nothing fancy, just comfortable with decent food.

This would be Keith who is listening intently to one of my dear husband's stories.

Have I told you that Cynthia is roping me into helping her with the church flowers once a month? She and her current partner made Sunday's beautiful arrangement.

Cynthia has more faith in me than I do, but with her partner spending the summer months in Maine, she had to ask somebody for help!

Every Sunday Bruce wants to go out to lunch as has been well documented in this space. I know it sounds silly, but I am not as enthusiastic as he is in this department because, more often than not, I am disappointed for one reason or another. Unfortunately, when we tried going to Dubsdred it was full, so we ventured down Edgewater to find something else. Well we found something else, but I'm hesitant to recommend it. Called Thai Farm Kitchen, it has been open for a few months. The patio was very attractive,

drenched in bright red paint, done very well, I might add. The owner was super friendly, there was a singer, and there were very few customers. Our server was very, very attentive.

One thing, and I hardly know how to describe this, but the table, pictured above, had a finish that caused everything to stick to it, including glasses and flatware. Eventually I asked for additional cloth napkins and we used them as placemats. Maybe the food was too authentic? We won't go back.

While on the subject of food, another photo on the camera was this one of our kitchen following the massive paint job we did on the cabinets.

Paint job? It was far more than that , and I have a blog  post to confirm that! Actually there were many blog posts as it took us three weeks to transform those knotty pine cabinets into something more modern. While I am perfectly content in my present kitchen, there are a few things that I really miss, one of which is a real exhaust fan. Secondly drawers, I had a lot of drawers! Plus, Bruce had added lots of pull out drawers, say for my cooking pans, in the cabinets under the stove. Lest I forget, I very much miss my wall oven. 

I suppose though, life is full of trade offs, don't you think? It is how you adapt that counts, or so it seems to me. Seeing the pictures of our former home, I am feeling very nostalgic, however, shoot, if we had stayed there, we might not have ever learned to play pickleball! 

your friend,

Gail

The Middle of May

We now know where we will be living in Vancouver. It's an area of town called Yaletown, and from what I hear and read, it was once a warehouse district that is now trendy. So there you go. The condo is absolutely lovely, but I will admit there is little funkiness to be found, and for me that will be a little hard to live with. Remedying that situation, I'm making another scrappy quilt for the patio/balcony which I suspect will be more than a little chilly for this Florida girl. As well, it is a way of taking my fabric with me as I intend to leave the drawers as they are until we return.

You begin by cutting loads of different fabrics into 2 x 3.5 rectangles. To mix them all up, I read somewhere about putting them all into the dryer, and it worked pretty well.

Ha ha...new meaning for tumble dry! Actually, when I opened the door, they indeed, just tumbled out! Putting them all into a bag, I then made my way to the sewing room where I began pairing them, the uglier the match the better.

In all there will be 720 pieces in the quilt, so it takes quite a few pairs to make that happen.

The above is what you call chain piecing because you just keep on sewing those pairs together, pretty much continuing, until either your bobbin thread runs out, or your piles do. Next you join those with other pairs, eventually making a small block with eight strips, again the uglier the better.

I wasn't kidding right? For some folks it makes their head spin looking at a quilt like this, but in the end, it mostly is a riot of color that I hope will add that touch of funk the condo is missing, So far I have five rows together, and about three more waiting to join ,so by this time next week it should be a done deal. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of sewing, but with my darling husband gone all week, I've got plenty of time on my hands.

Here's a shot of my computer screen that says a lot, if you know what to look for.

That little notice in the upper right hand corner? A reminder from facebook that it is Bruce's birthday-- as if I needed reminding! He was not here to celebrate, but it wouldn't be the first time. Then too, there are loads of "screen shots" that I've taken for the guys at Apple, and I mean that literally. Will called yesterday morning a little after 8, and after all this time, he realized he didn't have what it took to make the photo moving process succeed. I am now hooked up with Adam in Austin, and we are making some progress, although as soon as I finish this post, he's the first person I will be calling.

Does my family know how to send great cards, or what?

The card from Matt and Tom, inexplicably, took two weeks to arrive from London. So strange.

I've also had loads of time for birding, and some super good things have come my way, beginning with a few days ago, when I rode up to Nell's house before 7, and found this!!

Mom and the kids together in a very low tree!! I was literally jumping off of my bicycle when I saw this, leaving it beside the curb.

For this shot I'm standing in front of Victor's house, looking up at the Swallowtail who is still hanging around. (those are stray feathers falling in case you are wondering.)

While I was standing under the Kite, I began hearing the squawking of a Blue Jay which could mean only one thing....Papa must be around as well. Guess what? He was in the tree above my bicycle! In my excitement at seeing Mom and the kids, I never thought to look up. I watched in fascination as the BJ kept knocking into Papa who merely flinched, although after about the tenth hit, he had finally had enough. Taken before he flew higher:

The other members of the owl family remained low in the tree allowing me to get pretty darn close.

No sound came out of this big mouth,

Now one thing I've learned is that owls have three membranes on their eyes, and I think we are going to see all three in the next couple of photos. The juvenile facing the sun was pretty lively compared to the other one. When he stretched out his wing, I was thrilled as I've never gotten a photo like this in good lighting.

Those legs are getting pretty long aren't they? Here is another shot of all three,

Aren't those eyes something? After a time, Mom and the lively one flew across the street, leaving the quiet one behind. Eventually though, she rewarded my patience.

Believe you me, I never take these moments for granted because sometimes you just get lucky, and they may never happen again. I invited my new photographer friend Candy to meet me yesterday morning early, and although the Swallowtail was around, no kids could be found. Candy just kept gazing up at the Swallowtail, exclaiming over and over again, "isn't she beautiful?"

Asking her if she'd like to see the bee hive, she was more than happy to walk over there, having never seen one before. She was just as awed as we are, or at least I think you guys are impressed. Walking back over, hoping the kids would be around now, that was not the case, however, Victor's sprinklers were running, and Mama was having it both ways when we returned.

During our walk she told me about a few new birds in town so, as you can imagine, I just had to go out in the baby car this morning to see what I could see. I've got lots to both say, and show you, but I know you may already be on photo overload by now, so just a few until another day.

Mama Swan and her little brood at Lake Davis:

It took me quite a bit of sleuthing, but I think I've identified the bird below as a Green Heron; I'm thinking this is another first sighting for me.

For those readers who don't live in Florida, and I'm thinking there are a few of you, what the bird is perched on are Cypress tree knees which jut out of the water along the shoreline.

So much more to relate, but if I ever hope to finish up this computer project, for now I will say goodbye. I hope you enjoyed this post and the interesting birds found within.

yours truly,

Gail

Who Doesn't Love Spring?

Seriously, is there anyone of sound mind that doesn't love Spring? What with all of the beautiful flowering trees and plants, not to mention the darling little babies being born, what's not to like? Of course, you aren't as obsessed with the bird thing like myself, or, maybe you are.

I know I'm not the only one as each time I head over to Greenwood I meet new folks, both male and female, who can't get enough of the owls, or the eagles. I might venture to guess, some of those same folks are even more obsessed than I am, going there daily, rather than every couple of days, as is my practice.

Of course, that was before this happened yesterday morning.

So, here's the scoop....

After Bruce left for his Dallas flight early yesterday morning, I thought to myself, "it's been a few days since you were last at Greenwood, why not go now?  Why not indeed? Parking the MINI around sunrise, I was hoping I would see both of our bird families, and I was not disappointed in the least.

Do you see what I see in the upper branches of the lone Pine tree?

You may remember me talking about the "golden hour" and here's quite the example of that.

From talking with other enthusiasts, who are more knowledgeable than I, this is probably the male eagle, watching the nest from afar. I had the place all to myself, or so I thought until I walked closer to the nest,  seeing the eaglets testing their wings.

It was there that I ran into Jack Rogers, my former Historical Geology professor from Valencia, who had driven over before school. We talked about the owls, and he told me he'd seen the owlets already.

Say what?? Oh my gosh.

Walking over to the trees, we spotted both parents, the Mama was perched behind the nest amidst the Spanish Moss, while the male was in his usual location in the adjacent tree. After a bit, she popped on top of the crevice and there she was as pictured above.

I was pretty much freaking out at the action before my eyes! The cuteness of this was making me crazy! Plus, I felt so blessed to witness nature in action.

Down she went...

and the action began, with her feeding the owlets a rat. Curious, every now and again, they would look out into the wider world.  Glancing at my watch every so often, I had to take my leave because I actually had something important to do. I left Jack with his tripod...

Once home, I made a mad dash to get ready for Days for Girls, finishing one of the quilting lines before packing the sewing machine, as the quilt was still under the needle. We had a real treat during our time together. Make that more like huge inspiration from Helen, our partner, who actually distributes the kits to the girls in Malawi. Look at that beautiful smile!

She absolutely radiated goodness! Her descriptions of the dire conditions facing the people of Malawi brought tears to my eyes. Passing around a scad of photographs of the young woman who actually receive our kits was enough to get all of us inspired anew. She claims, and I don't think she is exaggerating one bit, that we are changing girl's lives with our work. On her last trip she distributed nearly 800 kits from our group, which may not sound like a lot to you, and I'll grant you it is a drop in the bucket of  the needs, however, each kit takes so many steps to make, I think it is miraculous! Should you care to know more about the mission of Days for Girls, please click on this link.

Pictured below are the two dynamos that make it all happen, Sharleen, in the foreground, and Helen in the back.

When I got home, I set up my machine to keep working on the liners, although Baxter sure seems to have other ideas about me using my chair!

Actually, I pushed him closer to the back and sat down anyway, sewing about ten more liners together before the pull of my bird obsession proved to be too strong. Back I went to Greenwood in the late afternoon, and naturally, I ran into others that I know. John,  is the one who originally told me about the owls. The middle woman is Kim, and Sally in the mustard pants, is one of our Hill's Happy Hour group. Having told her about the eagles and owls, a few weeks ago, she is completely hooked as well. That said, we only saw the eaglets hopping around in their nest.

Good grief, I went back again this morning!! Forgive me for showing yet another photo but in spite of the hundreds I've taken of owls in the past few years, it is only just now that I am loving those marks on her inside tail feathers. Very retro actually. (apologies for the poor lighting)

Aren't they cute? This morning there was not a repeat of yesterday's action, however, I met a woman named Candy who was not only a lovely person, she was also a fount of information. Go to Lake Eola and see the baby swans was her advice.

You might be surprised to learn that once I quit doing the market, I don't think I've been back to Lake Eola ever since. Weird, isn't it? Throughout my years there,  I would always see the swans hatching, well, because I saw them every week. Heeding her advice, I drove the few miles over, and began walking around the lake. I came across this display which is very important to our son David who will be attending over weekend. My sweet twins will be celebrating their 38th (!) birthday on Saturday. Because of Dave's plans, our plans with them will probably have to wait until the following weekend.

If you've been to Lake Eola, you know the swans are plentiful, which means you have probably seen many images of them on Camera Crazy before. That aside, I could not resist another of this graceful bird.

Lo and behold, as I made my way past the Wrestlemania sign, look what I saw...

Holy Cow they were cute as can be!

I suspect, just a few months ago, the lake would have filled the area where they were sunning themselves, however, because we are now considered to be in a mild drought, the lake is very low.

So, I kept walking and YIKES, more cuteness!

Let it be known that choosing what photos to put into this post was extremely difficult. As in excruciating, because there are so many cute subjects. 😀

On we go over to the area adjacent to the swan boats..and, here they are!

While standing there, a darling young woman from Ohio stopped to take photographs, and we oohed and aahed over them together. How could you not?  Eventually, they went for a swim as swans are wont to do.

This may or may not have been the right move, going to Lake Eola, because that was a bunch of cuteness all in one place;  clearly, I have enough obsessions at the moment.

Seriously, how can I help it when Spring provides such a bounty of photographic opportunities?

Tearing myself away, I stopped to buy more thread, as I've used up an entire spool on the quilt, and there is still a half to go, as well as picked up our taxes in Winter Park, gladly paying our bill.

And now, my friends, it is time to get back to work on the quilting, that is, until the arthritis in my hand forces me to stop. A camera doesn't hurt it one bit.

yours truly,

Gail