The Birds and the Bees and the Flowers, Too

You know you have a wonderful friend when you come home and all the trees have been trimmed in your yard. That's what happened to me this week. Next comes the task of dragging all the limbs down to the road for the trash man to carry away. I look at this task in a positive way. First the branches won't knock the shingles off my roof in bad weather, the yard looks one hundred percent better and I get exercise and sunshine.







This is Mr. and Mrs. Limpkin. They live in my backyard and eat mussels and apple snails all year long. They also make a lot of noise, but I love to watch them gliding through the water in search of dinner.

While working down by the water this morning I scared two babies out of the grass. Immediately their parents called them out on the water. Later in the afternoon, I discovered that there were not two, but four little fluff balls. Momma called and they all came running. There was one little straggler that was half the size of the other three and he just could keep up. He was still swimming while the others were hurrying away.



I hope that this little family is safe and the babies decide to stay and make my backyard their home, too.
Thank goodness for the sunshine today. It's the first day without rain in almost two weeks. Evidence of the rain is the size of the grapes from one week to the next. They will be ready to pick before long if the birds don't eat them first. The recent rain has made everything grow and bloom.

Rainy Weather

It has not stopped raining in "sunny" Florida for ten days. Over sixteen inches have fallen at my last count. The lakes are up and the flowers are loving it. The grapes on the vine are just beginning to grow and the welcome rain will help to make them plump and juicy this year. With only one vine, most of my grapes are food for the birds. My grape vine grows on the abandoned basketball goal of my son's youth. At the end of my driveway, it makes a perfect backdrop when coming home.

I have had a lazy weekend. I had lunch with some friends on Saturday and breakfast with others Sunday morning. Other than that, I have enjoyed the sound of the rain. It has been a weekend for enjoying good books, cooking, and creating. I read "The Notebook" by Nicholas Sparks today. What a beautiful love story. If only we could all be loved like that what a wonderful world this would be. My friend Janice gave me three books today for a late birthday present and a zany stuffed "Z" that suits me perfectly. I started on one of the books this afternoon. It is "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides. She assures me I will find it fascinating.


My friend, Janice was one of the first women clowns for Ringling Brothers Circus back in the early seventies. Therefore she has influenced me in my creativity this week with my first clown doll. Janice gave me a pamphlet explaining the different types of clown makeup and I think this one will be a "white face". He is my first doll to have arms that are not permanently attached. They will be attached with buttons and will move. I haven't come up with a color scheme yet, but I am leaning towards green, my favorite color.


I am always working on Halloween, my favorite holiday, so I also made some evil little jack-o'-lantern pins. They were fun to make. They were going to be my surprize for the Trick or Treat give a way, but I can't find anyone who wants to participate. If anyone is interested you can read the rules on my earlier post.