The Weather and other things

I am Canadian, eh!  And what do Canadians talk about - the weather of course.  

And sometimes the weather in Florida is pretty boring - sunny and warm, sunny and hot; but the past week or two we have had something to talk about.   

Cold weather - then the very next day - hot weather. 

Some more cold weather - but at least it is sunny -that cold north wind from the north reminds me of Canada.  

We had a thunder storm and there must have been one close lightning strike because the whole park shook, it was the talk of the last gathering.  

But enough of the weather and on to other things.  

One day I was looking out my window at the lake and I called Alf to come and look.

 
"Is that a snake in the water, if it is it is a big one"  

He thought it was as well.  So I got my camera and went out on the deck and used the telephoto lens to take a pic.  (in case any of you are worried, I wasn't about to get to close)  The first pic - yep it still look like a snake, and it was undulating as well.  

But my second pic a few seconds later showed it for what it really was - a reed - phew that was a close one.  If it had of been a snake Alf would have wanted to move - he hates snakes.  

A week ago Saturday we had a meet and greet at our park 

- everyone was invited to come out and enjoy a fun day.  At 11 o'clock they had signups for all the activities in the park - at noon, a free hot dog/salad luncheon.  Following we had shuffleboard, ladder toss ( a game where you toss two golf balls attached to each end of a cord at a ladder type goal)  and bean bag toss.  (this game is a lot harder than it looks and is a lot of fun)  

The finale was the first annual golf cart rodeo.  What fun - both for the participants and the spectators.  

Each cart had a driver and a navigator - the driver was blindfolded. (We ran the course twice and switched places)  

Ken is the navigator here, and he is giving his starting instructions to Connie.  

and the navigator had to direct the cart through a series of obstacles - 
going both forward and backward.   












You have to give very clear directions and you have to listen very carefully.  

Ken and Connie are demonstrating.  

Body language was used - but it really didn't work.  

It was so much fun to watch -  
these two women were the most entertaining. 
And they heartily welcomed all comments from the spectators.  









But then it was our turn and I didn't think it was going to be so much fun.  
Alf was the driver and I managed to navigate him through the course in a decent time - not the worst - that went to the two above - and not the best - that was Ken and Connie - they had a great first run.  Of course I used body language - and once I even grabbed the wheel.  The hardest part for me was trying to remember to put the cart into reverse for Alf.  I kept forgetting, it ate up valuable seconds of our time.  

Then it was my turn to be the driver - I don't think I am ready for this!  

And no I couldn't see through the blindfold.  Darn! 


Alf jokingly said "Where are the seatbelts?" so they tied him in as well.  






As Alf discovered that you have to remember to put the cart in reverse.  "Back, back" he said - but I didn't go because I couldn't hear the beep of reverse.  "Oh yeah, I have to change it"  he said. 








There that is better.  


Going backward was the hardest - you have no idea how fast you are going - or even if you are moving at all.  

I also had a handicap - I can't reach the pedals unless I sit for on the seat - they need to install adjustable seats on the carts.  LOL

Our second time was a few seconds better than our first.  The question is 

Was I a better driver (and thus - listener) or did Alf give better instructions.  

The amazing thing was we won the first annual DLV Golf Cart rodeo. 

It will go down in the history books.  

Yesterday, was another cold day - it only got up the mid 50's 

So what did we decide to do - go to some yardsales.   BRRRRRRRRR.  There was a very chilly north wind, that made it feel much colder than it was.  ( I know, I know, all you northern birds are saying "you wimps"  but remember we have Florida blood running through our veins now.)

We went down to Bartow - they have a farmer's market on the third Saturday of every month plus they were having the Annual Yard Sale day.   (I think it was too cold for many folks, there were not that many sales)   

But there are some really nice older homes in downtown Bartow, and churches 

Here is a selection - but it was told cold to walk around and take more.  

Last night we had some frost on the pumpkins, but it supposed to be in the mid 60's today - so hopefully no cold north wind to cool things down.  

Christmas in Dell Lake Village

Happy first day of winter!  
What does the first day of winter look like at your home?  

Here in Florida we have lights in our palms trees, and no snow, no ice, no sleet, occasional rain, and lots of sunshine.  

We can go to yard sales on the Saturday before Christmas, (although not a lot this year) and go for warm evening walks to see the lights.  

Here is what our place looks like at night.  

Look - no snow!  

And to answer your question, 
cause I no you are wanting to ask -
"no, we don't miss the snow and the cold" 

 


My son thought that Alf the Elf was having all the fun, well I can join in now - I have my own special t-shirt.  

But Alf the Elf is still photo-bombing.  
(I had to crop the pic for decency's sake, naughty Elf - but it says 
"I'm not short I'm Elf sized" 


So 4 more days till Christmas - 
we are still doing some shopping for the little gifts we give each other - 
(stocking-stuffers only)



Games night tonight; we are going to play Sequence with our friends, shuffleboard tomorrow afternoon, bowling on Monday and a Christmas Day potluck dinner with all our friends here in the park.  Couldn't be better.  

Merry Christmas Everyone 


 

Today we went golfing with our friends, Ken and Connie, at Stoneybrook West Golf Course, in Winter Garden. 

Here is Ken and Alf, contemplating that first shot. 






I had gotten vouchers for this course from Groupgolfer.com and we golfed 18 holes with cart for $20 each.  This is a full length challenging course - did I say challenging - I meant extremely challenging.  There is water that comes into play on 13 of the 18 holes.  And I have never seen so many bunkers in my life.  There was one hole where the bunkers went right up the fairway - one to the left, then one to the right and then another one to the left, and another to the right.  All in all there must have been 8 bunkers in front of us, before we even got to our approach shot.  And when I say bunkers I mean like really big holes - like a shower of meteorites had streamed down from heaven leaving bunkers with 6 foot banks in front and 3 foot banks to the side, and up to 40 feet wide.  These were bunkers from #$%%^^&&****.

Pretty much all the holes had bunkers protecting the greens.  By the time we got to the second nine we decided to play free lifts from the bunkers - we needed to speed things up a bit.  We let three groups play through - it took us 5 and 1/2 hours to play - by the time we let others go ahead.  We certainly got our moneys worth from that baby.  But we had fun - 

right Alf ?








right Ken ? 








right Connie?


We did have fun, I think.  





Always fun when you are out with friends.  
 

 But boy are we tired.  We stopped for dinner on our way home and now it is time to settle down in front of the TV for a little snooze before bedtime.  

Oh, Alf was there, but I didn't spot the Elf.  He must have stayed home.    

Oh and there was wildlife -  this eagle landed right in front of

us and scooped up a baby duck (not the wine) for lunch.  Not very pretty but amazing just the same.   
        




That's all for now - the recliner is calling me. 

Making Room for Blogging

I was asked, very nicely, if I could please update my blog.  Due to our busy lifestyle, and some laziness, I had been just posting some short updates to Facebook, but not all of our friends are on Facebook (or have quit it - can you believe it?) and so I am now "making room for blogging" as part of my retirement.  

Usually my blogs are related to pics I have taken, so I am going back through my pic file to see what we have been up to.  

The first few weeks of November we were busy doing some more updates to our home here in Dundee.  The urge to feather my nest was strong - I mean the ducks were all busy raising a new brood of ducklings and being so very domestic, so why not me. 



These ducklings we just little balls of fluff (see above) when we arrived and look at them now - almost as big as mama.  She is leading the way, I think that is poppa closest to the camera.  But I didn't ask him, so I don't know for sure.  


 







So step one was to paint the sunroom.  It had very faded pinkish coloured panelling with birds and it was time for it to go - so off to Lowe's to get some paint.  And I found it, one of my favourite colours -  Lowe's called it Green Tea.  As I was putting it on the walls, I was oooing and ahhing - I love this colour - then it dawned on me - I was a very similar colour when  I painted the kitchen cupboards at the manse in Port Rowan.  It was a fav colour of mine back then and still is - so the next thing I am doing is painting the kitchen.  
 

The back splash became the same colour as the sunroom.  But of course one thing leads to another and it was time to paint the walls and then the cupboards themselves.  







 
Here is a pic of what it looked like last year when we moved in.  

The dark brown on the lower cupboards worked out even better than I had hoped so I decided to paint the main bath vanity as well.  














About three weeks later I said "that is enough for now, I have had enough painting".  There is still the living room and master bath to do, but there is always tomorrow - or maybe next month - or next year.  

 

Now just in case you think Alf was sloughing while I was working he had his tasks to do.  He tackled the palm tree.  Alf won the challenge - the tree lost a few limbs. 

But enough work - it was time for fun.  




We have been keeping busy with bowling on Mondays (now that is an up and down experience)  I can bowl very well in one game and lousy in the next - and then there is last week - when I bowled really bad all three  games.  At least I was consistent - don't want my average getting too high you know.  


We golf in little leagues on Tuesday , men go to one course and the women to another, and then on Wednesday we golf in a mixed league.  Next Thursday we are going with friends to a new course.  I bought vouchers early this year for this course - looked at the course layout on-line and we better make sure we have lots and lots of balls with us, because just about every hole has some challenging water to contend with.  Did I tell you that my driver cover is a frog - when he sees water he just has to go swimming.  

 




 Yesterday was the Dundee Christmas parade and Alf and I decided to walk the route with the contingent from our park.  There were at least a dozen decorated golf carts driving along having fun. And Alf and I handed out candy to the kiddies.  We had a blast.  And got some exercise to boot.  
No pics - no camera - too busy doing our job.  (and I forgot to take it) 


Oh, Alf is having fun.  He has an elf hat that he likes to wear and he seems to be popping up in pics all over the place.  
No holding back Alf the Elf.  

Here he is, sitting on a shelf in our bedroom.  

And hiding behind a Christmas tree. 
 

He went to the park's Christmas dance and loved sticking his head into all the photo ops.  

And hiding out in the strangest places.  

And then next thing you know he is ready for a swim.













And of course Alf the Elf didn't want to be left behind when it was time to go golfing. 












 But just to let you know Alf does have a serious side -

today I found him reading.  That lasted for about 10 minutes and then it was time to gather at the shuffleboard courts with our friends.  
 
 

And just to prove that I actually am here in Florida, having fun, Alf picked up the camera and took a few action shots.  That's me, incognito, in the big hat and sunglasses.  

A rather interesting paint job on the home behind us - I am not sure what has gotten in to some of the residents - they seem to be painting their homes in the favourite football team's colours.  We have a yellow and purple one too.  
 


And a weather report, just in case you are interested:  
Florida has been having an above average warm month of December.  It has been mid 80's just about every day.  But it has cooled down a bit - today was only about mid 70's -  and we had a torrential downpour this morning that lasted about 10 minutes.  We were in the car on our way to church and we had to pull over till it cleared a bit.  But then the sun came out for a while - but mostly cloudy today.  And it is getting quite cool tonight -  around 60 or so.  Oh, poor us!  

P.S. if you only work in Centigrade sorry, they report everything in F down here.  

So time to sign off - hope you are having a good December, and enjoying all that snow I have heard the North is getting.  





 
















 

Year Two of the Snowbird lifestyle has arrived.  

September and early October found us basking in some delightful Ontario weather.  We golfed 17 times, enjoyed the sunshine and visiting family and friends.  But then it turned cold and nasty and it really starting getting us in the mood for heading south.  

October 28th found us on the road.  The day before we loaded up the car.  (No fifth wheel, we bought a home down there last year, remember)  Alf did a fantastic job of stuffing everything in.  (Although a few things got left behind, - inadvertently and some just forgotten and for some things there was just no room)  
 




 The next morning we arose early and left home just after 6 in the morning.   After a quick stop at my son's house in Napannee, we crossed the border.  

No problems crossing - only questions were
how long are we staying ?  
booze? - (we brought a couple of bottles with us)  
fruits or veggies?  no
And we were on our way.  


 
 Hey did you know that New York State now has Text Stops - they put up signs that there is a place up ahead where drivers can pull off and do their texting - great idea.  No text is that important that you should risk your life and the lives of those around them.  







We had three beautiful days of driving - sunny and mild.  Last year when we drove down it was cloudy with some rain.  We had left early to get ahead of Hurricane Sandy.  We fought the wind all the way down.  This year was a piece of cake.

The second day of driving found us on our on of the most scenic parts of the trip.  A little valley road we take to get from I 81 to I 95.   It is designated a historic scenic drive.  It was early morning and we watched the sun come up over the mountains, and then as we descended into the valley the sun went down behind the mountains and then we got to watch the sunrise again as we emerged.





These pics are blurry as I shot them out the side window but they give you just a taste of the beauty of the countryside 


Rolling hills, ponds 


 


beautiful old stone homes 

 Wood fences and long driveways speak of horse farms and money.  













Wednesday morning we arose early and arrived at our Florida home shortly after noon.  

Everything looked fine outside, grass was greener than we had ever seen it, (they had a lot of rain in the last month) and there was gecko poop on the porch - but that is normal.  So we held our breath and opened the door to our home - and voila - everything was just fine, not even an accumulation of dust - no bugs, mice and smells.  Yay!  

This year we are hoping to do a few more updates to our home - we did a lot last year but after awhile we decided to take it easy and enjoy the life.  


The wildlife is still in our backyard - and these little guys came running to great us.  They were happy we were here.  









 These little guys are just too cute! 

And the cactus garden Alf planted last year in our backyard is flourishing.  










So stay tuned for more updates as the year progresses.  It is good to be back and looking forwarding to keeping everyone up to date.  

Have good winter everyone and stay warm!   (I know we will!)