Nostalgia, for One Thing

 Pennies from Heaven is the name of this old post that if you never read any of the provided links, in this case you should make an exception. As is so often the case, while searching my blog for one thing, I come across another that brings me joy.  Pennies from Heaven is one such post. I swear it will bring a smile to your face.

With that out of the way, let's talk last week. You won't be surprised to learn that it was mostly about birds and pickleball, the later subject of which has been a relative newcomer to this space. Generally I do my best not to bore you with it too much, however, with an inaugural tournament at Dover Shores this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, well there's a lot to say about it! And no, we did not play! Although I am slightly improving, I am most definitely not ready for primetime!!

But let's start with bird stuff, shall we?

In what seemed almost magical, looking out the window a few days ago, just before sunrise, I saw white across the lake. Probably an Egret I thought, but satisfying my curiosity, I went out to investigate. And what to my wondering eyes should appear? 

Sadly, before long it was gone, came back that evening, and has not returned since. Having not seen it for probably a month or so, it was a welcome sight.

Speaking of swans, on one of the few days when I did not play pickleball in the morning, I went over to Lake Davis to check on the cygnets, pictured in my last post. Should you have missed it, clicking on the link will take you there. I left sad because one of them has disappeared.  Anyway now there is one which looks almost double in size since last I visited.

It wasn't all bad though because I came across a Wood duck and her clan.

For unknown reasons, this has not been a good year for ducklings, as I've seen very few. How do I know that? Pure speculation really, but generally we have several batches on our lake and to date, I've seen only one duckling! 

That same day I saw another shorebird that I'm thinking is a juvenile Little Blue Heron, along with a soft-shelled turtle, a creature oftentimes responsible for missing ducklings. All part of the great big food chain.

Earlier I had gone not once, but twice, searching for the owls, with one of the trips yielding results.

Nearly giving up, there they were, albeit mostly obscured by new Cypress needles. Talk about bringing me joy!

Patty texted that she'd spotted a Roseate Spoonbill in the drainage ditch that runs along nearby Raeford Road. Basically on the other side of our lake.  Talk about a find!! Holy Cow, I am on my way! Not only was there a Spoonbill, but there was a Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, Wood ducks, and a Wood Stork.  Absolutely amazing!

The above picture is just for fun, the one below is for scale, as well as showing off the wonderful color of this elusive bird.

How water remains in the ditch is beyond me as we are parched around these parts, having had no measurable rain in ages! Thus, it is plenty HOT!

As you know, I've been watching the Heron's nest across the lake and after hearing some chattering in the early morning, I knew we had an hatchling. My zoom is only so good, but I think you can just about see the little one.

Susan was recently telling me about a man who apparently loves to take photographs in Cocoa Beach where she is now the happy owner of a condo. Listening to her description of the fine work he does, I mentioned to her that so often it is about familiarity. Visiting a place you only scratch the surface, living someplace, the opportunities to take photographs are endless. Although you've seen me post photos of our beautiful Wood ducks before, there's always something new to capture because they are so close. 

Having a bath she's shared her water droplets which have landed on his back. One bird that is out behind us and is getting no love from the neighbors is the Limpkin who is driving Connie crazy with his nighttime screeching! 

Although I've been searching for little Limpkins, it has been futile!

Having exhausted the subject of birds, let's talk pickleball! Friday morning the LPV clan came out to support Leslie and Dunrey as they played women's doubles.

How Peg can wear jeans in this heat is mind boggling to me, but that's beside the point isn't it? She likes them Gail! Note the very big man about midway down. In a neat coincidence, he and his wife have been playing with us at DS which made him interested in the tournament. Well, by golly, to his right is Dennis who he'd not seen in ages and ages. Turns out Dennis was his old boss and in their wedding. Pickleball is all about bringing old and new friends together. 

 Dunrey (l) and Leslie with the rest of our crowd outside the fence.

Leslie, in the foreground is the one who really started this whole thing, having been the first one to play the sport over in Daytona Beach Shores. Her first date, with her now husband Greg, was playing pickleball! The two of them are responsible for sharing the joy with our community. On Sunday they won a Silver Medal in mixed doubles. Yup there were a bunch of us taking their photograph!

Saturday Ryan and Greg played men's doubles.

As did Denny and his partner Dave.

You have to hand it to Denny because although he mostly does not act his age, he is older than we are and he played both days under the relentless sun which is enough to wear anyone down. 

Sunday he and Yvette played mixed doubles. Meaning they played four teams, having to win two out of three in each match. Yvette looks fresh as a daisy in the shot below.

By the fourth match she was cramping, Denny was near a heat stroke, but with sheer determination they came out winners!

So if you were wondering where we were all weekend, now you now! I am so proud of all of them, but mostly the ladies, all of whom have never before played in a tournament. Allegedly you should never say never, but in my case, I'm pretty sure I will never play in a tournament.  But then again, last year  at this time I was still in my cast wondering if I would play again, so you just never know what the future holds. Ha ha, when I wrote that post, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined what was next to happen to me!

your friend,

Gail

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

20 Seconds of Fame

Thanks to Jonathan, we will have this memory for as long as this blog remains. I wish that this brief moment highlighted something that I'm actually good doing, however, beggars cannot be choosers, so me playing pickleball with Bruce on the evening news is our shot at brief fame. Actually Barbara filmed it off her television, shared it to our Dover Shores group, and somehow Jonathan turned it into this.  If we are friends on Facebook you've already seen it, but there are a few out there that might find it interesting. Shot on Wednesday, while we were at the courts for the ribbon cutting ceremony with Mayor Dyer and the city commissioner of that district doing the honors. What does that look like you ask? Well, it takes far more than the mayor, as there were loads of people from the city, as well as several television station film crews. A bunch of players came out to witness the historic moment.

Using a podium, there was a brief speech, followed by...

Indeed, they actually use scissors. Mr. Peck is behind the mayor on the left,

which, to tell you the truth, I did not even notice until I looked at my photographs! While there were all those cameramen around, filming when playing resumed, it was quite the surprise to wake up the next morning and see the video. While the video seems to indicate that I can play well, don't be fooled, I'm still mediocre!

Come to think of it, this is actually not the first time we've had some television fame. I found this post from 2016 that tells the story of our last brush with fame filming a tiny segment for a show called Zombie House Flippers. Almost six years later, we still get texts from folks saying they just saw the episode, something at the time, I never imagined! Mostly it is Bruce in the show and I'm his sidekick!

Well, it's been hot although I think something had to be slightly amiss on this reading from the Subaru yesterday afternoon when we were heading to practice with Bill.

It must have been the heat build up which caused some incredible lightening last night. Wow was it ever spectacular.

Fortunately it was last night and not Saturday when I was trying to get a good shot of the rising Pink Moon. I got a shot that, while not great, documents the beautiful occasion.

Rising out of the trees, it was a seriously glorious sight. That pine tree on the left is where the Great Blue Heron's nest is located at the very tip-top. Impossible to see the nest, but if you have a serious zoom on your camera like I do, a treat awaits. 

When zoomed out that far, the photo quality diminishes greatly, but I'm just going with it because I've never seen a heron eating a fish that big before. The other parent is flying off,  presumably for his own meal. Conjecture on my part is all that is. 

A few days ago, while thinking about this post, I realized something that I hadn't thought of before. Everyone gets a kick out of me stopping play to watch a bird, but the truth is, once you are a bird enthusiast, you have to look. It is that simple. Unlike some passions that people can turn on and off, if a bird person is outdoors they are going to be noticing all of the birds they encounter. Once you start looking, they are everywhere. You would think that once you've seen one Wood Duck you've seen them all, but it just doesn't work that way for me, and I suspect, others as well. Each bird is unique. There is no other Wood duck that looks exactly like this one.

All the colors of the rainbow in one bird! Astonishing really. With that in mind, expect to continue seeing birds in this space.

I think it was Tuesday that we took a walk around Lake Davis to see if the swan's eggs had hatched. Indeed they have with two cygnets still on the nest. I've since heard from Candy that she has now seen them out on the lake, so I'll be going over soon, hoping to see them for myself. Speaking of Candy, she tells me that the ducklings we were hoping to see at Lake Como were rescued by someone after the parents were hit by a car!! 

"Let's go to Lake Eola and check on the nests there honey!!"

 "Must we?" 

"Yes please!!"

There are a lot of swans at Lake Eola. Gobs of them in fact, and not all the same. Five different types actually, which we learned from some new information panels. What we also saw was very interesting, at least to me. A fellow on a motorized cart drove past with three buckets in his cargo area. 

Apparently the swans know what is up when he arrives. Donning some rubber waders he was there to fill the feeders.

Still only eight, but once he was in the water, they came from far and wide!

So that was fun to witness. Continuing the circular route, we were next treated to a turtle convention!

It was crazy how many turtles there were! At one point we counted over twenty, the most I have ever seen in one place!

The next treat was the pictured island which the Anhingas and Egrets use as a nesting spot. It gets loud the closer you get. The Amphitheater is looking mighty fine with a new coat of paint.

Once around we began talking about lunch. Where to? Deciding to see what had taken over a spot that has been occupied by many different restaurants over the years, we turned onto Central and something caught my eye. Can you guess what it was from the picture below?

Turns out the space is now called F&D Cantina or something like that. A Mexican  restaurant owned by the same folks that have an Italian version using the same F&D in the name. Quite the changes have been made to the decor, it also has a cozy outdoor covered seating area as well.

We'll have to keep this place in mind for when our London family returns as there were several vegan options to choose from. The same goes for Lazy Moon Pizza, a place we visited two weeks ago. Now that is a place where you most definitely get your money's worth. This is ONE slice of pizza.

We did not share the same enthusiasm for our lunch following church yesterday. Mostly it had to do with it not being what we expected. While technically this is a slice of quiche with broccoli and grape tomatoes,

well, you get the idea. We learned the new chef is from BITHLO and his roots show in the menu offerings with a heavy emphasis on field greens and the like. 

That said, while that was a disappointment the Easter service was glorious with the choir in fine form and in robes which made me happy. Having worn a uniform during my working life, I can't help but be a fan.

One of the traditions of this congregation is a flower cross near the entrance which is used for Easter memories. Naturally we had our picture made too.

The white shoes may have been a stretch, but they do nearly match the dove pin on my dress that I have committed to wearing until the madness in Ukraine ends. The horrors continue unabated. I'm pretty sure the pin came from Bruce's Mom and is meant to be a Christmas pin, however, promoting peace is welcome anytime of the year. I am even wearing it on my pickleball tops and it is somewhat surprising to me how few people have asked why in the heck I am wearing a pin on my tops?

We've finished a series on Amazon recommended by our friends Keith and Patty. Set in England, while it was very slow to grab me, once it did, well, it is totally worth watching.  Called The Village, if you can think of something that humans can do wrong, it's there. Adultery, infidelity, murder and madness....sounds like fun, right? To temper that binge, we are now watching Great Canal Journeys which is a balm to our souls after all the grittiness of the previous series!

We would probably watch more series, however, we do spend a ridiculous amount of time watching pro pickleball. We know the whole cast of characters, so when one showed up today at the courts, I was freaking out. Meet Catherine Parenteau who was gracious enough to let me photograph her.

Honestly it was so shocking that she would come to the courts (she does not live here), but come she did with a coach and watching them hit the ball so hard and fast was a treat.

A few days ago I had to run back into the house for a camera. Bruce asked, "what do you need that for?" Answering, "you just never know" and today was an excellent example of that.

Closing this post, what a blessing it was for this perfect rainbow to appear on Good Friday, late in the afternoon.

Remember how I said every bird is different? The same holds true for rainbows, some more brilliant than others and as is the case with the one above, some much lower to the horizon.

Aside from man's inhumanity to man, it is a beautiful world out there.

your friend,

Gail