Wall to Wall Sunshine

Cat images are everywhere
& Halloween is big business

Yes, Halloween is the end of this week and that actually is the forecast for the last weekend in October: wall-to-wall sunshine.  More kites are flying today (one self-flying with a bag of sand on the end of its string), so mini me has concluded the kite "driver" must have a job as an "official kite tester."

The right kite in this picture has a tail that revolves in the wind and looks fantastic.  Microlight fliers have been buzzing by too -- looks fun but noisy!  The chattering sea gulls, hoping to snatch some tasty morsels, dive bomb the pelicans who are fishing in the surf.

The weather has definitely turned and with the sun rising later (spectacular sunrises in the morning as shown in 3 October post), mini me wears a sweater whilst sitting on our balcony.  Monday morning an intrepid 5 year old jogger  & beach comber appeared on our patch of sand urging his Dad to hurry along and washing his 'finds' in the sea.

The itchy poison ivy is becoming unbearable and life-sized me has now used enough calamine lotion to drown mini me. So much calamine results in  pink arms from the lotion with red blotches from the poison ivy.  Last time we clean the dunes!

Local news includes:

- Fly by of International Space Station (ISS) supposedly visible from Tampa (but we saw nothing).

Yup actual headline!

-Governor's race (election is 2 November) has incumbent running against the past governor, Crist.  Crist when in office was Republican but is now a Democrat with Clinton (but not Obama) on the campaign stump for him.  Both are very negative campaigns and each has refused to disclose key information.  A real mess and no good choice for voters.

- Massive auto recall announced, but there is no fix for the airbags which explode unexpectedly spewing metal shrapnel.  This in a nation very dependent on cars and poor to non-existent public transport.

This recall comes just as we have more wrong way drivers on the freeways (ie motorway); it seems this usually is at night and involves alcohol, but you would be surprised how many miles they drive before being stopped. 11 lives lost in Tampa to this alone so far this year.


- The Tampa Bay Rays (baseball team from St Petersburg) may move to Montreal - outrage!

- Quiet so far on the hurricane front, but we still have the month of November to go.

-Lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific, are invading the Bay - not good for local species.  Fishing for kingfish (30 lbs or more), Spanish mackerel, cobia and tripletail is good as these fish migrate South with the cooling of the sea waters (defined as upper 70s!) and schools of fish are 'frothing at the surface.'

Blue Sky and Sun glare

PS.  New dining room table arrived today and flooring should be fixed next week.  Hurrah!

What can you Find on a Beach?

Smelly Sponge!

Mini me is constantly amazed by what she sees and finds on the beach.

Sea Fan,, Turkey Wing, Pen Shell

Here's a selection of recent finds and sights.

Ones on the right were found by sis on her visit here.

All are very smelly, so were only saved by way of a photograph - such a shame as I have a big jar to display all my beach finds!

And life size me found some dune plants that haven't exactly agreed with her -- so much for the good deed of picking trash out of  the dunes on Beach Clean-Up Saturday! However that didn't stop her from going on to volunteer for the 9 November Chowder Challenge.

Red, itchy and angry!

In addition to the 'natural' finds on the beach, human behaviour continues to amuse . . . unfortunately could not capture the over-wing small black plane that flew by just above the water along the coast - a mystery.

And the umbrella is for ????

This man must own a kite store based on the number he flies

The umbrella person is back . . . not certain but think this is a beach scavenger with a metal detector.

Umbrella man or woman?

Another beautiful sunset - sigh

Sunday Times, but I am
in Paradise, so no need

The 'Attic Rat' has fixed our Ethernet, we have some more furniture (ie dresser drawers so our clothes have finally left the suitcase!!!!!), loss adjuster coming for damaged goods Monday, and a dining table to be delivered on Tuesday.  Plus we have done a little decorating - WoHoo!!

OK, with such good news, of course we have a little UK dilemma - this time a water bill 4 times normal and we aren't even there!  A suspected meter problem and no help from the water company, although our neighbours in Kent have been great!

The weather is cooling off to a high of 82 F and low in 60s (28 and 18 C respectively) and 'not a cloud to be seen all weekend' says the weatherman; no wonder mini me's ice cream craving is abating.

And finally we had a partial solar eclipse (with sunspots or flares) on Thursday the 23 October at sunset.  Must confess the 'afterglow' was better than the actual eclipse.  This after two blood moons this year!

Very partial (look to 2 o'clock) eclipse of the sun around 5:49 pm

And the more northerly view in Chicago - thanks sis

Never Done? Christmas Coming?

Honestly it is a very small condo, but it seems harder to fix up than a McMansion House!

Yup Christmas decorations
already out at local shops!

Well here we are in mid-October and life-sized me and hubby were reduced to tears this morning after an email 10 minutes (yes really 10 minutes) before our final inspection cancelling the appointment.  The email came from our general contractor who needs to be present but instead has gone out of state!  The final inspection is done by the city on the building work on our condo.  So another sidelined day, with plans thrown off track in terms of unpacking, decorating and making forward commitments.

This followed on from discovering our two-line Internet phone and our high speed Internet Ethernet didn't work.  One was due to not wiring it up correctly, so easily fixed. But the other is down to a pinched wire that has broken the connection.  To get the connection where we need it, it was wired from the entry point of the cable to the other of the room under the carpet.  So up came the newly laid living room carpet (which the Ethernet man claimed was not laid correctly - amazing how each trade denigrates the others).  He cannot fix it and is coming back in 10 days time . . . so delay the delivery of the new glass work table which is so heavy that once it is in it will be almost impossible to move -- and it will sit right in front of the Ethernet connection.

Well, the semi-good news - our 2nd bath toilet is straighter and no longer hovering above the floor as

it has been grouted in (never seen this before - live and learn?) and boxed in to the wall. The claim is it cannot be tight against the wall because of the rear-flush pipework which protrudes as "the wall isn't thick enough!!" Never mind the toilet tank itself stands 3.5 inches proud of the wall!  At least in some lights the toilet appears to match the bath.

Personally life sized me is finding this all a bit strange (and more than a bit wearing on mind, body and soul).  Nothing catastrophic, just a slow grinding down of the dream we had for a lovely condo on the beach and a more relaxed lifestyle.  But this is Florida . . .  and it just is how it is!

At long out comes that new sewing machine as a bit of distraction. Mini me even got it out onto the balcony the other day.


So off to the craft group I have started at the church.  Six of us for our first meeting which, as I am new, isn't bad.  We made necklaces and then each did a spot of our own thing (needlepoint candy kiss holders, Christmas candy tree, paper bows).  Hope to find some kindred quilters as am very much missing London and my QQ friends!

Just to round things off - our external walkways are being deep power cleaned, so we have been told to take out all our screens to protect them - without bug protection this blocks what is otherwise a lovely Gulf breeze just as

No it isn't raining - it is cleaning

the humidity has dropped to a tolerable level. Cleaning has now been going on for over a week and they aren't even 1/3 done (and hence not anywhere near my windows yet).  One day this condo will actually be mine to live in as I please and I might get my life back instead of chasing tradesmen (note they are all men)!  Just which year, I am not sure. :-)

Only one thing for it ---- back to the beach!!  Thanks for listening.

PS Just received a Sunday Times in the mail - will be great to catch up on all the UK news (but amazing how much it costs to post!).

Imagine pedal kayak with these pelicans overhead

doesn't quite fit with this Christmas image at 80 degrees F!!

Pelican Chase & Almost Done?

It does look like an old movie shot
and no nothing but H2O in shot!

Mini me had read that you can take a photo through binoculars - granted this was for an ipad, and it was before life sized me got one for her birthday - I did get one shot actually through the binocular lens - but of nothing on the water - LOL.  Really must get that Canon Powershot sx50 CB is praising.

Continuing to observe the beach, the other morning sea foam appeared near the high tide line . . . and just as quickly disappeared.

WonderWorks; kids' place

In Orlando recently we saw this upside down building.








And in a Bradenton casual dining restaurant on the Manatee River, you can eat sitting around the fire pit - not sure if it is for roasting one's dinner or roasting one!  And here I was eating more ice cream than we ever did in the UK!





We continue settling into our condo. Step by step to completion -- we hope to have the final inspection on Friday, then just the finishing off bits, the kitchen floor in just over 3 weeks and the hurricane shutters will be left to go!

Dinner on its way . . .

Back on the beach the autumn breeze has brought out the kite fliers and the diving pelicans.

You can't see it here, but birds actually chased a trio (of humans) out of the water!

Our first craft night in Mad Beach is this Thursday - life sized me is the 'convener' hoping a regular group of like-minded quilters, crocheters, etc will form.  Halloween seems to have become a bigger thing in American -with adult costume parties too - but let's hope we don't have to make one of these!

Loggerhead skeleton seems scary enough for Halloween

Proposals Anyone?

Never expected to see a
cherry picker on the beach

Well today (11th) is life-sized me's birthday and she started the day on her new mini ipad using Facetime to speak with her Quirky Quilting Group in south London.  Lots of laughter all round, a 3,000 mile away cake (one way to lose weight) and fun pressies. Many thanks for the cards, e-mails and calls today making my day special!

As sis was here last weekend, we have spread out the celebrations
and mini me has no complaints.  This mobile police "station" (more like a hut) was one of many sights in our visit to Bradenton, situated just south of us between Tampa and Sarasota.  We went to the 'under-advertised' South Florida Museum which in addition to natural history has an aquarium and planetarium.

Loggerhead Turtle Skelton

Our visit included mealtime with Snooty, the oldest living manatee, and other marine sights. I especially enjoyed the turtle skeleton and the starfish.






Looking out to sea over lunch (British cheese and USA ice cream - well it is my birthday and hubby did sneak in apple slices!) we saw a fun new 'toy' on the water. Mini me is keen to have a go on the pedal kayak, although her legs might be a bit short.

"TASHA WILL YOU MARRY ME?"

This was followed by a congregation of seabirds anxiously awaiting the outcome of the bi-plane fly past proposal!

Congregation awaiting the proposal response

Then on to searching through the boxes yet to be unpacked to find some UK tax info
- it's not for lack of desire that they are yet to be unpacked . . .

Our goods in the sea crates

 but for lack of furniture, which of course awaits the carpet and vinyl laying in the spare room!

example 

Completed the day with a beach walk - and having left my camera behind - much to my surprise a beautiful pet deep aquamarine and gold parrot was sitting on a perch at high tide line on the beach whilst his owners fish.  Thought he might proposition us, but no -- he was silent but fidgety.

Never know what you will find on the beach . . .

We missed the recent blood moon (see post of 16 April) because of clouds, but the night before (6 Oct) we had a lovely sight.  Tuesday, our weather presenter thought we had "all four seasons in one day" - most of us don't think Florida has four seasons, but hey . . . Good Night!